June 3, 2010

Steve Bell in the Guardian, June 2 2010

EDITOR: Meanwhile, on the farm…

Yes, while we all watched the flotilla, daily oppression and brutality continues, as it has done for years. Read below about one of hundreds of the incidents which took place during the buildup to the massacre on Mavi Marmara. Being American does not protect you from Israel’s barbarity.

Amidst Furor Over Gaza, Israel Shoots Out the Eye of Protester: The Only Democracy?

June 1st, 2010 | by Jesse Bacon | Add a Comment
From the International Solidarity Movement
US citizen Emily Henochowicz was shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister as she non-violently demonstrated against the Flotilla massacre
31 May 2010: An 21-year old American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel’s murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.
Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.
“They clearly saw us,” said Sören Johanssen, a Swedish ISM volunteer standing with Henochowicz. “They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”
Henochowicz is an art student at the prestigious Cooper Union, located in East Village, Manhattan.
The demonstration was one of many that took place across the West Bank today in outrage over the Israeli military’s attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla and blatant violation of international law. Demonstrations also took place in inside Israel, Gaza and Jerusalem, with clashes occuring in East Jerusalem and Palestinian shopkeepers in the occupied Old City closing their businesses for the day in protest.

Tear gas canisters are commonly used against demonstrators in the occupied West Bank. In May 2009, the Israeli State Attorney’s Office ordered Israeli Police to review its guidelines for dispersing demonstrators, following the death of a demonstrator, Bassem Abu Rahmah from Bil’in village, caused by a high velocity tear-gas projectile. Tear-gas canisters are meant to be used as a means of crowd dispersal, to be shot indirectly at demonstrators and from a distance. However, Israeli forces frequently shoot canisters directly at protesters and are not bound by a particular distance from which they can shoot.

EDITOR: No Need to Worry, Uncle O’Bummer Will Come in to Protect You…

So afetr all the anger rage and shock, Obama comes in like a messenger from hell, making sure the murderers ‘inquire’ into their own brutality. Justice the American Zionist way. Wait for no more from this supporter of murder and piracy. The good news – Israel will not even accept this arrangement…

Obama: Let Israel probe Gaza flotilla raid with U.S. observer: Haaretz

Political sources: Netanyahu in no rush to accept U.S. proposal, in part because Defense Minister Ehud Barak is opposed to it.
The United States has proposed a possible way for Israel to avoid an international probe of the events surrounding the Gaza flotilla, but at this point Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaning against it, in part because Defense Minister Ehud Barak is opposed to it.

The Americans have proposed that Netanyahu announce that an independent Israeli commission of inquiry will look into the events of the flotilla clashes and accept the participation of an American observer.
On Monday and Tuesday, advisers of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Yitzhak Molcho and Uzi Arad, traveled to Washington. On Tuesday they were at the White House with Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, and met National Security Adviser James Jones, and President Barack Obama’s adviser on the Middle East, Denis Ross, as well as Dan Shapiro, who holds the Middle East portfolio at the National Security Council.

One of the main issues discussed was the American demand that Israel investigate the events surrounding the handling of the flotilla.
A senior U.S. official delivered an American proposal to the two senior Israeli advisers, which would both assuage the international community and also would not be too hard a blow for Israel’s wish to undertake its own investigation without massive foreign involvement.

The American proposal, which calls for an independent commission of inquiry here, with an American representative as an observer, is believed to offer the idea of bolstering international confidence in the probe’s conclusions.
Molcho returned to Israel Wednesday and met with the prime minister to update him on the details of the American proposal.

Political sources in Israel say that Netanyahu is in no rush, at this stage, to accept the American offer. The possibility was not discussed at length during the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Sources in the prime minister’s bureau said it was still too early to talk of a committee of inquiry.
However, several ministers from the “group of seven” who meet to discuss the most sensitive political-military issues and others from the security-political cabinet, said there is urgency for such a probe.

“If we do not do this now at our own initiative, it will be forced upon us by the world,” one of the ministers said.
Another minister added that “we must make a decision on this quickly.”

International pressure

While there is still uncertainty here about the need for an investigation, the international community is moving ahead. The United Nations Human Rights Council decided Wednesday to dispatch an international committee of inquiry to the region to look into the events of the Gaza flotilla. A total of 32 countries voted in favor of the committee of inquiry, nine abstained and three – the U.S., the Netherlands and Italy – voted against.

The decision is similar to the one that established the Goldstone Committee, which looked into Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip and whose published report accused Israel and Hamas of having committed war crimes.
The Arab states asked the council to condemn Israel for violating international law because it had taken over the flotilla’s ships in international waters.

The council’s resolution calls on Israel to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and to provide its residents with food, fuel and medicines.
The resolution’s final article states that the council will send an independent, international group to investigate the facts of the incident and any violations of international law as a result of “the Israeli attack against a convoy of ships carrying humanitarian aid.”

After Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu did not comment on the possibility of an Israeli inquiry, but accused the international community of hypocrisy and warned against what he said would lead to transforming the Gaza Strip into an Iranian missile base.

It was Israel’s obligation to prevent the import of weapons into the Strip that would be directed against Israel, the prime minister said.
“Iran continues to smuggle weapons to the Gaza Strip that are aimed at Israel,” Netanyahu said, and called for the blockade to stay in place.
If ships are allowed to enter Gaza port freely, “the implication would be that there would be an Iranian port in the Gaza Strip, close to Tel Aviv, and this is a genuine threat to Israel’s security. I say to you, and to the countries criticizing us, that an Iranian port in Gaza is also a threat to European states.”

Senior political sources told Haaretz they see no justification for an external probe. They said the Israel Defense Forces needs to evaluate itself and at most someone from outside the chain of command should be included in the process.

‘Self-flagellation’

Calls in Israel for a commission of inquiry were also described by government sources as “exaggerated responses,” and they warned against “self-flagellation.”

Sources in the political leadership and in the General Staff reject the idea that the operation against the flotilla was a failure and argue it achieved its aim because it stopped the ships from reaching the Gaza Strip.
Another aid ship, the Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie, named after the American peace activist killed by an army bulldozer, is also planning on reaching the Gaza Strip.

The ship is known to be carrying some 15, mostly European and Malaysian, peace activists. The assumption is there will be no violent resistance if the ship is boarded.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi plan to recommend that if necessary, violence be used to stop the ship but lessons learned from the incident Monday will be adopted to prevent bloodshed.
Meanwhile, Israel is trying to calm the tensions with Turkey, and all those arrested in the flotilla incident will be expelled.

In an unusual turn of events, six unidentified bodies of those killed in the incident Monday were sent to Turkey, along with three identified corpses. Usually, only the dead who have been identified are released.

Interview with Al Jazeera’s Jamal ElShayyal: One of the passengers on the Mavi Marmara

AlJazeeraEnglish — June 03, 2010 — Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal has been released by Israeli authorities following Monday’s deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship that was destined for Gaza.

Our producer, who reported from the ship as Israel launched the raid, was on the top deck when the ship was attacked.

Here, he tells his account of what happened.

part 1 of exclusive interview with Huwaida Arraf of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Live from The Only Democracy?:

June 2nd, 2010, by Jesse Bacon
By Jesse Bacon
I had the privilege of speaking with Huwaida Arraf of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla direct from Ramallah today. I will write up a transcript later of the talk, but for now here’s the interview audio, which takes a few seconds to begin in both clips.
I will speak to her again tomorrow and be asking her more about what happened on May 31 itself.

Huwaida Arraf Part 1

Huwaida Arraf Part 2

Huwaida Arraf is a pro-Palestinian activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The stated mission of the ISM is to “resist the Israeli occupation of the West Bank using nonviolent tactics”.
Arraf is the daughter of a Palestinian mother and father. Her father has Israeli citizenship. Arraf majored in Arabic and Judaic studies and political science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and studied Hebrew on a kibbutz.  Arraf later earned a J.D. at American University’s Washington College of Law. Her focus was on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, with a particular interest in war crimes prosecution.
Arraf was aboard the Challenger 1, the largest ship of a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza, when the flotilla was attacked by the Israeli military. She is the chairperson for the Free Gaza Movement, the organization behind the flotilla.

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