Author Henning Mankell aboard Gaza flotilla stormed by Israeli troops: The Guardian
Fears for safety of bestselling Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell after surprise attack results in at least 10 deaths
The Swedish author Henning Mankell, who was due to appear at the Hay festival by satellite link. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for guardian.co.uk
The bestselling Swedish author Henning Mankell was on board a convoy of Gaza-bound aid boats stormed by Israeli forces today, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 activists and injuries to dozens of others. With the ships out of communication since the attack early this morning, it is not yet known whether he is among the injured.
Mankell had decided to join the aid-delivering flotilla – also believed to include Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire – in a gesture of solidarity towards Palestinians currently living under the Israeli blockade. The Free Gaza Movement and a coalition of activist groups have been attempting to circumvent import restrictions imposed by the country since 2008.
A spokesperson for Ship to Gaza-Sweden said he had last spoken to someone on board Mankell’s ship just before 5am Swedish time (4am BST). “They were telling us then about the Israeli soldiers climbing into the neighbouring ship, and they heard shooting aboard it. I was not speaking to Henning but to one of his friends. The Swedish ship was attacked a bit later, 10-15 minutes later. The whole attack was done between 4-5 o’clock Swedish time,” said Mikael Löfgren.
“We don’t know what’s happened since. When the ships were attacked, the Israelis cut off all communications and we haven’t heard from them since. As we speak, I can see the ships coming into the harbour of Ashdod [on television] so I presume that’s them,” Löfgren said. “We don’t know if they’re all right. The numbers of the killed and wounded are rising all the time. The latest information is talking about 19 deaths. It’s a really awful thing.”
Mankell, creator of the Wallander detective series, was scheduled to speak at the Guardian Hay festival this weekend but was forced to pull out after the flotilla was delayed as it negotiated entry into Israeli waters. He was set to be beamed in live from the boat for an evening appearance on Saturday evening with Ahdaf Soueif, the Egyptian novelist, and interviewer Jon Snow, but the link didn’t work; festival organisers called him numerous times but failed to connect.
At Hay today, barrister and author Michael Mansfield told the Guardian: “The main thing is that it was done in international waters, which is illegal. And it was not a convoy carrying military personnel … Israel does exactly what it wants and nobody lifts a finger. It’s absolutely outrageous.”
Mansfield pointed to an article in the Guardian in December by Nick Clegg in which he said that the international community has got to do something about it if Israel doesn’t end the blockade. “I’m afraid he’s got to be put on the spot when Philippe Sands interviews him [at Hay]. Never mind the Iraq war – this is far more serious.”
Clegg is scheduled to speak at Hay this weekend, while Israeli ambassador in London Ron Prosor is set to appear at the festival tomorrow evening to discuss “events and the state of Anglo-Israeli relations”; festival organisers said this afternoon that the event was going ahead as planned.
Last week, Mankell told Swedish radio that he decided to take part in the aid convoy to show his solidarity towards the Palestinians. “I think that when one talks about solidarity, one must always know that actions are what proves destiny,” he said. It is with actions that we prove we are ready to support something we believe is important.”
EDITOR: The Myth is being made!
Stand Up and Be Counted!
By Haim Bresheeth
Jews all over the world will be thinking long and hard about the massacre on the Flotilla ships, carried out by an ‘elite unit’ of the Israeli army. So they should. Many are used to defend the brutalities and extremes of the Jewish state through something resembling a Pavlovian knee-jerk reaction: “if Israel has done it, they it had very good reason for doing so.” The justification is the normative ‘security’ narrative projected globally by the Israeli propaganda machine, and it is accepted unquestioningly and willingly by Jewish communities everywhere. In the wake of the latest atrocity, itself a result of an international action against an even greater atrocity – the blockading – illegally and immorally, and as it happens, also uselessly, of almost two million Palestinians in Gaza, for four years, by Israel, with no real reaction from the international community.
Now speak to any Jews who support Israel through the various iniquities, and they will immediately tell you that all Israel wants is peace. All Israel ever does is directed towards achieving this aim, and the real culprits are on the other side, of course. Israeli propaganda is now working overtime, trying desperately to prove that the real violence leading to the piracy and murders on the high seas, came from the Flotilla members, who were, as Minister Danny Ayalon put it: “connected to Al Qaida”. It does not matter that even the people who write such tosh do not believe in it, as such rubbish will find the people who peddle it. Many are the apologists for Zionism, and most of them even try to believe in the hackneyed message they are peddling.
The picture, painted since the beginning of the 20th century, is not new:
– Jews in Palestine have come to revive the country, which was;
a. empty and waiting for them
b. full of murderous Arabs intent on throwing them into the sea
c. a useless desert
There follows a search for peace which lasts decades…
The Israelis love peace more than anything. That is why they attacked Egypt in 1956, in concert with France and the UK. Unfortunately that did not produce peace, so they continued to attack various Palestinian villages throughout the 1950s and 1960s. This also did not bring peace, so they attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967, and occupied the whole of Sinai, Palestine and the Golan Heights. Unfortunately that also did not bring peace, so they spent the four decades since doing all they could to bring peace – they killed Palestinians and denied their rights, destroyed Beirut a few times, devastated the South of Lebanon, bombed Syria and Iraq, and then destroyed Gaza a few times, killing a few thousand civilians and built hundreds of checkpoints. But peace still eluded them. A difficult thing, peace. The more you try to get it, the more it slips away, a bit like the horizon, really.
The Arab armies attack on Israeli positions in 1973, and two Palestinian Intifadas have just serves to intensify Israeli commitment to peace. They built hundreds of settlements, confiscated Land, destroyed hundreds of thousands of olive trees. Still, peace has refused to come. In one last effort, they made Gaza into the largest ghetto ever built, and constructed the apartheid wall to help the peace along. At that point, with Gaza choking, they almost achieved their goal, but then came the Freedom Flotilla and deprived them of the elusive prize. Hard-boiled Al Qaida opeartives, masquerading as international activists, have set up a trap for the brave soldiers who came to give them flowers. How nasty can the enemies of peace be?
For those who wince at the lines above, can I suggest the following item from Israel’s most-read daily, Yediot Ahronot: “A Brutal Ambush at sea”, by Ron Ben Yisahi, the paper’s senior defence correspondent. Sure, there was a brutal ambush at sea, but not the one we all read about today. The boot is on the other foot:
“Our Navy commandoes fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members. A few minutes before the takeover attempt aboard the Marmara got underway, the operation commander was told that 20 people were waiting on the deck where a helicopter was to deploy the first team of the elite Flotilla 13 unit.”
Reading on, you then find out that the brave soldiers got away with their life by sheer miracle, and obviously, their own moral code. They were brutally attacked by the activists, and only had paintball guns to protect themselves. It goes on in the same vein, and is not the only one – the Israel press and media is full of this Creative Writing 101 narrative.
Jews (and others) reading this in Britain and elsewhere, and wishing to continue supporting Israel, may find in those lines all they need. Israel was again attacked by the forces of darkness, and survived to tell the tale. A famous French Philosopher, Bernard Henri-Levy, was shocked this morning to see the pictures of the massacre, but his words were the words of a tired apologist, at the meeting in the French Embassy in Tel Aviv:
“I saw the IDF in action several times in my life. It is a unique army in its ideal of purity of arms. Until proven otherwise, I believe there were other ways of preventing them from entering Israeli territory, there were other ways of preventing what was clearly a provocation.”
Speaking of the Israeli army, the same which killed over 1400 civilians in Gaza, this is what Henri-Levy had to say:
“I have never seen such a democratic army, which asks itself so many moral questions. There is something unusually vital about Israeli democracy.” Those lines were removed from the website of Haaretz after the facts on the flotilla massacre have started coming out…
For such adherents to the Zionist myth and propaganda, the facts are not of much use, of course. For the rest of us, to accept the mythology and reject the reality is of grave danger. For Jews outside Israel, this is hardly the time to support the most extreme and racist government Israel has known; Such support can only lead to the growth of anti-semitism, of course; if Moslems and other continue to witness this incredible effort to deny not just the rights of the Palestinians, but the fabric of reality itself, then they will be justified in believing that Jewish communities outside Israel have themselves bought into the racism and inhumanity which lies behind Israel’s actions.
Nor will such a denial of reality help the Middle East conflict to be resolved. On the contrary, the absence of criticism will spur Israel forward, to wards the next war, be it in Iran or Lebanon. Both those wars are now being prepared, and openly discussed in the Hebrew press, seemingly without the slightest touch of irony. Such continued denial will only feed the irrationality that causes Israel, time and again, to buck against the slightest ‘danger’ of peace. If the Jewish communities are to playa constructive role towards the resolution of the Middle East conflict, this is their chance to stand up and be counted; to stand up clearly and say: “Not in my name!”. To stand up with Moslems against those continued atrocities, and for the immediate end of the Gaza Blockade; To stand for the Human and political rights of Palestinians; To stand against the illegal and immoral settlements, and to boycott their product. In short, to take a moral stand, but also a political one, which might lead to peace.
Is it not right to expect such a stand from Jewish communities?
Now, if you don’t believe me, read below, the two pieces of fiction published today in Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot. Enjoy.
A brutal ambush at sea: YNet
Ron Ben Yishai recounts bloody clash aboard Gaza-bound vessel: The lacking crowd-dispersal means, the brutal violence of ‘peace activists,’ and the attempt to bring down an IDF helicopter
Ron Ben-Yishai
Published: 05.31.10, 15:44 / Israel News
Our Navy commandoes fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members. A few minutes before the takeover attempt aboard the Marmara got underway, the operation commander was told that 20 people were waiting on the deck where a helicopter was to deploy the first team of the elite Flotilla 13 unit. The original plan was to disembark on the top deck, and from there rush to the vessel’s bridge and order the Marmara’s captain to stop.
(Video) Defense minister, IDF chief of staff and Navy commander explain Israeli considerations following takeover of aid ships sailing to Gaza, which left at least 10 pro-Palestinian activists dead. ‘We regret the casualties, but soldiers were in danger’
Full story
Officials estimated that passengers will show slight resistance, and possibly minor violence; for that reason, the operation’s commander decided to bring the helicopter directly above the top deck. The first rope that soldiers used in order to descend down to the ship was wrested away by activists, most of them Turks, and tied to an antenna with the hopes of bringing the chopper down. However, Flotilla 13 fighters decided to carry on.
Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.
However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.
One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other “don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” even though they sustained numerous blows.
‘I saw the tip of a rifle’
The Navy commandoes were prepared to mostly encounter political activists seeking to hold a protest, rather than trained street fighters. The soldiers were told they were to verbally convince activists who offer resistance to give up, and only then use paintballs. They were permitted to use their handguns only under extreme circumstances.
The planned rush towards the vessel’s bridge became impossible, even when a second chopper was brought in with another crew of soldiers. “Throw stun grenades,” shouted Flotilla 13’s commander who monitored the operation. The Navy chief was not too far, on board a speedboat belonging to Flotilla 13, along with forces who attempted to climb into the back of the ship.
The forces hurled stun grenades, yet the rioters on the top deck, whose number swelled up to 30 by that time, kept on beating up about 30 commandoes who kept gliding their way one by one from the helicopter. At one point, the attackers nabbed one commando, wrested away his handgun, and threw him down from the top deck to the lower deck, 30 feet below. The soldier sustained a serious head wound and lost his consciousness.
Only after this injury did Flotilla 13 troops ask for permission to use live fire. The commander approved it: You can go ahead and fire. The soldiers pulled out their handguns and started shooting at the rioters’ legs, a move that ultimately neutralized them. Meanwhile, the rioters started to fire back at the commandoes.
“I saw the tip of a rifle sticking out of the stairwell,” one commando said. “He fired at us and we fired back. We didn’t see if we hit him. We looked for him later but couldn’t find him.” Two soldiers sustained gunshot wounds to their knee and stomach after rioters apparently fired at them using guns wrested away from troops.
2 errors
During the commotion, another commando was stabbed with a knife. In a later search aboard the Marmara, soldiers found caches of bats, clubs, knives, and slingshots used by the rioters ahead of the IDF takeover. It appeared the activists were well prepared for a fight.
Some passengers on the ship stood at the back and pounded the soldiers’ hands as they attempted to climb on board. Only after a 30-minute shootout and brutal assaults using clubs and knifes did commandoes manage to reach the bridge and take over the Marmara.
It appears that the error in planning the operation was the estimate that passengers were indeed political activists and members of humanitarian groups who seek a political provocation, but would not resort to brutal violence. The soldiers thought they will encounter Bilin-style violence; instead, they got Bangkok. The forces that disembarked from the helicopters were few; just dozens of troops – not enough to contend with the large group awaiting them.
The second error was that commanders did not address seriously enough the fact that a group of men were expecting the soldiers on the top deck. Had they addressed this more seriously, they may have hurled tear-gas grenades and smoke grenades from the helicopter to create a screen that would have enabled them to carry out their mission, without the fighters falling right into the hands of the rioters, who severely assaulted them.
Israeli commandos: Gaza flotilla crew tried to lynch us: Haaretz
Israel tows Gaza flotilla to Ashdod after at least 10 activists killed in clashes with navy; IDF says 2 commandos seriously wounded as troops tried to board.
At least 10 people were killed and several more wounded after the Israel Navy troops opened fire on the six-ship flotilla. Unofficial reports put the death toll at between 14 and 20.
The IDF confirmed that at least seven navy commandos had been wounded, at least two of them seriously, in a fight which apparently broke out after activists tried to seize their weapons.
The commandos, who intercepted the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara after it ignored orders to turn back, said they encountered violent resistance from activists armed with sticks and knives. According to the commandos, the activists threw one of the soldiers from the upper deck to the lower after they boarded.
An Israeli military spokesman said some of the commandos were equipped with paintball guns but the non-lethal weapons were not enough against activists who charged in with batons.
“They had pistols with live ammunition as back-up, to defend themselves,” he said. The IDF said it had confiscated two pistols from the boat.
One of the commandos told reporters he descended by rope from a helicopter onto one of the six ships in the convoy and was immediately attacked by a group of people waiting for them.
“They beat us with metal sticks and knives,” he said. “There was live fire at some point against us.”
A Reuters cameraman on the Israeli navy ship Kidon close to the six-vessel aid convoy said commanders monitoring the operation were surprised by the strong resistance put up by the pro-Palestinian activists.
One of the commandos said some of the soldiers were stripped of their helmets and equipment and a number were tossed from the top deck to a lower deck and had been forced to jump into the sea to escape.
A left-wing activist on board the Gaza flotilla holding a knife after Israel Navy commandos boarded their ship on May 31, 2010.
“They jumped me, hit me with clubs and bottles and stole my rifle,” one of the commandos said. “I pulled out my pistol and had no choice but to shoot.”
The soldiers said they were forced to open fire after the activists struck one of their comrades in the head and trampled on him. A senior IDF field commander ordered the soldiers then to respond with fire, a decision which the commandos said received full backing the military echelon.
The IDF said its rules of engagement allowed troops to open fire in what it called a “life-threatening situation”.
“Navy fighters took control of six ships that tried to violate the naval blockade [of the Gaza Strip],” said a statement from the IDF. “During the takeover, the soldiers encountered serious physical violence by the protesters, who attacked them with live fire.”
Elite troops from Shayetet 13, a naval commando unit, boarded the protest boats at around 4:00 A.M. Earlier Monday, Al Jazeera reported that the Gaza aid flotilla had changed course to avoid a confrontation with Israeli warships.
The Israeli naval vessels reportedly made contact earlier with the six-ship flotilla, which is carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza.
Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists were on the boats, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators.
The Israeli navy was operating under the assumption that the activists manning the boats would not heed their calls to turn around, and Israeli troops were prepared to board the ships and steer them away from the Gaza shores and toward the Israeli port city of Ashdod.
Huwaida Arraf, one of the flotilla organizers, said the six-ship flotilla began the journey from international waters off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday afternoon after two days of delays. According to organizers, the flotilla was expected to reach Gaza, about 400 kilometers away, on Monday afternoon, and two more ships would follow in a second wave.
The flotilla was fully prepared for the different scenarios that might arise, and organizers were hopeful that Israeli authorities would do what’s right and not stop the convoy, one of the organizers said.
Gaza flotilla docks in Ashdod hours after deadly raid: Haaretz
Israel detains at least 32 activists upon arrival, dozens hospitalized; Turkish-flagged ship stormed by Israel Navy last to arrive at port.
The Turkish-flagged ship carrying international activists bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza docked at the Ashdod port on Monday evening, nearly 16 hours after it was stormed by Israel Navy commandos in what turned into a deadly raid.
The Mavi Marmara was the last of the six-ship flotilla to be towed into the port, and its 600 passengers were kept on board while Israel Police sappers conducted a thorough examination of the vessel.
Nine activists aboard the ship were killed and several more wounded in the clashes that erupted with Israel Navy troops at 4 A.M. on Monday. Eight of the Israeli soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously.
The other ships were towed to port over the course of the afternoon, with dozens of the activists detained for refusing to sign Israel’s deportation orders. Only some 25 of the activists agreed to the order.
Israel Prisons Services incarcerated at least 32 of the activists who were aboard the Gaza aid flotilla, at least 16 of them for refusing to identify themselves.
At least two of the activists who were wounded on the ship were detained after refusing treatment at the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. Some 34 of the foreigners were treated hospitals across Israel for their wounds.
Israel has said it will deport the roughly 700 activists in the flotilla. But those who refuse to cooperate will be jailed.
Free Gaza Movement speaks out against ‘deadly’ Israel: The Linc
BY SHANE CROUCHER | PUBLISHED ON MAY 31, 2010 | IN NATIONAL
Huwaida Arraf is a Free Gaza Movement activist aboard the flotilla to Gaza which has been attacked by Israel. Photo: Freegaza.org
— Shane Croucher and Tom Farmery contributed to this report.
Once the Israeli forces finish murdering human rights activists aboard the Free Gaza flotilla, they can wash the blood from their hands in the international waters where this attrocity was committed.
The Free Gaza Movement (FGM), a group which aims to end the seige on Gaza, has sent boats containing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in a bid to break Israel’s illegal blockade on the area.
However, it appears that the Israel Defence Force has boarded their ships and killed activists, then escorting them to Israel.
Before this flotilla of six boats set sail, The Linc spoke to Huwaida Arraf, an American-Palestinian FGM activist who is currently on one of the boats.
“Our mission represents the will of international civil society that is tired of and deeply disappointed in the inaction of our governments. This is extremely significant. We are going to Gaza, bringing people and supplies that the people of Gaza need to rebuild their devastated infrastructure and society.
“We are going in defiance of Israel’s blockade, because this blockade is…inhuman and deadly. In other words, we are challenging the policies that leave Palestinians in need of humanitarian aid,” Arraf said.
The blockade on Gaza started in June 2007. This tight squeeze of the area prevents food, water, medical supplies, and even people from entering or leaving the Gaza strip. This is illegal in international law, says Arraf, who has taught human rights and humanitarian law at Jerusalem’s Al Quds University.
“Israel’s near hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Justice Richard Goldstone has stated that Israel’s policy seems to target the Palestinian population in Gaza as a whole, and that the ’series of acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed’.
“Yet, who is doing anything to stop or otherwise hold Israel accountable?”
Shortly before The Linc spoke to Arraf, she had been detained by Israeli forces, without food or water, and suffered physical and verbal abuse. How do events like this effect her motivation?
“Such experiences only strengthen my resolve to keep fighting for our basic human rights. I am under no illusion that just because we use nonviolent means of resistance to confront Israel’s colonial, apartheid policies, that it will be safe and/or easy. On the contrary, I believe that our form of resistance is more threatening to Israel because it presents an obstacle to Israel’s attempts to paint the Palestinian people as violent and their own policies as being about security. If we give in to Israel’s violent repression, it would be an admission that military might is stronger than right, and I don’t believe that.”
Arraf paints a bleak picture of the situation in Gaza: “If you’ve never been to Gaza or even in other areas of the occupied Palestinian territories, words are not going to be enough to describe not only the current conditions but the overall oppressiveness and insidiousness of the situation that has become people’s only reality. Gaza is like a maximum security prison. People can move around within the confines of the prison walls, but they can’t leave.
“Also, in many ways a prison affords people more rights because at least in many prisons around the world one is entitled to adequate food and health care. In Gaza, Israel severely limits what can enter the Gaza Strip and therefore the hospitals there do not have the equipment and medicines to provide many with the treatment that they need.
“When patients seek to leave Gaza to seek medical attention in other countries, they are put through a time-consuming process of applying to the Israeli authorities for permission. Many have been denied this permission and Gazans estimate that over 350 people have died over the past four years as a direct result of not being able to obtain the medicines and medical attention that they need.”
She says the unemployment rate in Gaza averages at around 40% and that 80% of the population is now food-aid dependent. Furthermore, according to World Health organisation standards, only between 5% and 10% of the water in Gaza is considered safe.
Optimistic that she would reach Gaza with this latest flotilla, that hope has now been crushed – but that won’t stop Arraf: “The important thing is, we won’t stop until the unlawful blockade is broken…until the occupation is defeated; and until freedom, human rights, and equal rights for all prevails.”
Associated Press report on the attack
Convoy to end Gaza siege: Al Jazeera
By Ismail Patel
About 700 pro-Gaza activists are undertaking the hazardous journey on the flotilla [Reuters]
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla has been months in the planning and now consists of nine boats which will set sail for Gaza and converge just off its shores.
Being part of the 700-strong civilian ‘crew’ was an easy decision to make. Individuals such as myself have been forced to take bold steps to challenge Israel. In order to bring about justice, we are forced to face this danger. Even as we make our plans, the Israeli navy, headed by none other than Ehud Barak, the defence minister, plans to block our efforts – at all costs.
The startling truth is that Israel has no authority over Gaza’s waters, and so its defence force should perhaps go back to monitoring Israel’s real border, although they may be hard pushed to figure out just where they lie.
Crippling siege
The siege on Gaza will enter its fourth year in June, although it has failed to materialise on newspaper headlines for much of this time. Many are aware of the facts, which include consistent obstruction by Israel in permitting adequate resources to enter Gaza such as fuel, gas, baby supplies, school materials, medicines and even basic foods.
The consequences of these obstacles have been catastrophic, and the images of this catastrophe are for the most part kept away from the world.
With Israel controlling all borders, the only lifelines available to Gazans has been a maze of underground tunnels along the border with Egypt. This forced black-market has claimed lives and is being continually challenged by Israeli bombings and Egyptian reinforcement of the border with an underground steel wall.
For the needs of Gaza’s 1.5 million people to be met, there needs to be 1,300 containers of merchandise and foods passing across the Karni Crossing every day. The supplies that do manage to pass fail to meet even 20 pert cent of the populations’ needs. The result has been 80 per cent poverty, dependency on aid for even their daily meals and hundreds of deaths from lack of medical equipment and supplies.
Governments around the world have taken a number of different positions where the Gaza siege is concerned. Many are indifferent, few challenge Israel and some are complicit, such as Egypt and the USA. The result has been an abysmal failure to confront the legality of such a blockade and a lack of accountability for the hundreds of Palestinians who have died as a result of it.
As planned by Israeli politicians, Gazans have been put on a grotesquely expressed lean ‘diet’ that is threatening the health of entire generations.This is the background to the Freedom Flotilla and all initiatives like it.
Challenging Israel
Since the siege on Gaza began, many around the world vowed to challenge and break it. This came in the form of convoys of hundreds of vehicles amassing on the Gaza/Egypt border; boats sailing into the Gaza seas; and millions of dollars in aid being sent for the people on the ground.
However, Israel has remained determined to ensure that Gazans are subject to nothing but misery in their daily lives in repayment for electing a Hamas government and so called retaliation to rockets.
Never mind the fact that the blockade has been accompanied by near constant attacks from the Israeli army and navy, which totally eclipse any home made rockets from Gaza. The death toll speaks for itself, with four civilian deaths on the Israeli side and over 2,000 on the Gaza side since June 2007.
This is not a just conflict between Israel and Gaza, it is an annihilation of one group of ill-equipped people by one of the mightiest armies in the world.
Our motives go beyond drawing attention to the crisis in Gaza. It is now about ensuring that ordinary people around the globe ask themselves why we are allowing the persecution of the Gazans to continue. An open air prison camp where people die from treatable illnesses and suffer malnutrition while living beside openly running sewage – this is Gaza’s reality, and it is man made, by Israel.
Gazans don’t need bags of flour and rice, they need the siege to end and we need to rise above donating money to massage our consciences and take action to end the siege. Our bold aim is to achieve justice for the people of Gaza, and this is an aim that we carry on our shoulders with millions of people around the world backing us.
The author is founder and Chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa, a UK based NGO. He is also the Director of IslamExpo and Youelect. He has published several books and his work on the Palestinian issue is published extensively in the English media.
Israel defending the indefensible: Al Jazeera
By Marwan Bishara in
The Israeli military attack on the ‘break the siege of Gaza’ flotilla in international waters, 65km off the shores of Gaza, has broken the barrier of silence over the Gaza siege.
The Israeli military’s justification that its soldiers were lynched and hence were defending themselves adds insult to death.
Israeli spokespeople and officials have used the same military strategy in the battle for public opinion: offence is the best defence. Israel had no other option, say the Israeli officials, but to attack!
However, regardless of exactly what happened on those solidarity ships, Israeli use of force will prove self-defeating. Attacking other nations’ citizens in international waters because they resisted arrest is not only illegal, but serves to demean international legal norms.
The UN Goldstone Commission report considered the siege of Gaza to be a possible “war crime”. Defending such an illegal and inhumane siege through an attack on a civilian international solidarity group, will make defending Israel’s actions ever more challenging for its allies.
Meanwhile, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, may cut his overseas trip short. And you can be sure that Barack Obama, the US president, would be relieved not to have to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Israeli premier at this time.
Europeans are no less embarrassed. Only a few days ago, they rooted for Israel’s membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
But will that lead to the lifting of the siege of Gaza or will it be more of the same empty indignation and paralysed condemnations?
What ‘international community’? Where are the Arabs?
‘International community’ is a loaded term. And when it comes to Israel and Palestine it means a lot of talk and little or no action – hence 43 years of occupation.
The so-called ‘international community’ acts when Israel’s allies – the US and its Western allies – agree. So resolutions concerning Iraq or Iran, for example, are passed while those regarding Israel are blocked.
The emergence of a civic ‘international community’ committed to taking action to break the siege of Gaza comes as a result of the incapacity of the official ‘international community’ to do more than issue UN resolutions and condemnations.
Israel’s worst nightmare is becoming a reality. The civic ‘international community’ is organising much as it did against Apartheid South Africa.
Israel has referred to the international solidarity movement as Hamas’ “Jihadi friends”. But the diversity and plurality of the movement and the identity of the passengers on the attacked flotilla render any such claim transparently ridiculous.
Meanwhile, the weakest link in the ‘international community’ seems to be the official members of the Arab League who have reduced their role to that of mere spectators.
Security or arrogance?
The Israeli attack on and takeover of the solidarity flotilla – when Israel had been informed that the Turkish authorities had checked the ships in their ports – appears to be based less on security concerns than on a calculated effort to deter others from attempting more of the same.
A cold cost and benefit analysis of the Israeli operation shows no particular benefit – security or otherwise – but potential major losses.
Among other possible diplomatic fallouts, Turkish-Israeli relations – which have been deteriorating over the past couple of years – have been severely damaged by this attack and it is unclear now how Israel will be able to regain its strategic relationship with Turkey after killing Turkish civilians.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has already accused Israel of “knowing how to kill”. Turkey will now also be aware that Israel is capable of taking matters into its own hands, regardless of what anybody says.
Unlike most of the Arab states, Turkey is not under one man rule. Rather, Erdogan answers to a party and to vibrant public opinion that seems ever more irritated by Turkish-Israeli relations.
Israel’s motto has long been: ‘Israel does whatever it must, and the world (Goyim) can say all they want.’
International solidarity and the Freedom Flotilla massacre: The Electronic Intifada
Editorial, 31 May 2010
Early this morning under the cover of darkness Israeli soldiers stormed the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla aid convoy in international waters and killed and injured dozens of civilians aboard. All the ships were violently seized by Israeli forces, but hours after the attack fate of the passengers aboard the other ships remained unknown.
The Mavi Marmara was carrying around 600 activists when Israeli warships flanked it from all sides as soldiers descended from helicopters onto the ship’s deck. Reports from people on board the ship backed up by live video feeds broadcast on Turkish TV show that Israeli forces used live ammunition against the civilian passengers, some of whom resisted the attack with sticks and other items.
The Freedom Flotilla was organized by a coalition of groups that sought to break the Israeli-led siege on the Gaza Strip that began in 2007. Together, the flotilla carried 700 civilian activists from around 50 countries and over 10,000 tons of aid including food, medicines, medical equipment, reconstruction materials and equipment, as well as various other necessities arbitrarily banned by Israel.
As of 6:00pm Jerusalem time most media were still reporting that up to 20 people had been killed, and many more injured. However, Israel was still withholding the exact numbers and names of the dead and injured. Passengers aboard the ships who had been posting Twitter updates on the Flotilla’s progress had not been heard from since before the attack and efforts to contact passengers by satellite phone were unsuccessful. The Arabic- and English-language networks of Al-Jazeera lost contact with their half dozen staff traveling with the flotilla.
News of the massacre on board the Freedom Flotilla began to emerge around dawn in the eastern Mediterranean first on the live feed from the ship, social media, Turkish television, and Al-Jazeera. Israeli media were placed under strict military censorship, and reported primarily from foreign sources. However, by the morning the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli soldiers who boarded the flotilla in international waters were fired upon by passengers. Quoting anonymous military sources, the Jerusalem Post claimed that the flotilla passengers had set-up a “well planned lynch.” (“IDF: Soldiers were met by well-planned lynch in boat raid”)
The Israeli daily Haaretz also reported that the Israeli soldiers were “attacked” when trying to board the flotilla. (“At least 10 activists killed in Israel Navy clashes onboard Gaza aid flotilla”)
This narrative of passengers “attacking” the Israeli soldiers was quickly adopted by the Associated Press and carried across mainstream media sources in the United States, including the Washington Post. (“Israeli army: More than 10 killed on Gaza flotilla”)
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon stated in a Monday morning press conference that the Israeli military was acting in “self-defense.” He claimed that “At least two guns were found” and that the “incident” was still ongoing. Ayalon also claimed that the Flotilla organizers were “well-known” and were supported by and had connections to “international terrorist organizations.”
It is unclear how anyone could credibly adopt an Israeli narrative of “self-defense” when Israel had carried out an unprovoked armed assault on civilian ships in international waters. Surely any right of self-defense would belong to the passengers on the ship. Nevertheless, the Freedom Flotilla organizers had clearly and loudly proclaimed their ships to be unarmed civilian vessels on a humanitarian mission.
The Israeli media strategy appeared to be to maintain censorship of the facts such as the number of dead and injured, the names of the victims and on which ships the injuries occurred, while aggressively putting out its version of events which is based on a dual strategy of implausibly claiming “self-defense” while demonizing the Freedom Flotilla passengers and intimating that they deserved what they got.
As news spread around the world, foreign governments began to react. Greece and Turkey, which had many citizens aboard the Flotilla, immediately recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv. Spain strongly condemned the attack. France’s foreign minister Bernard Kouchner expressed “profound shock.” The European Union’s foreign minister Catherine Ashton called for an “enquiry.”
What should be clear is this: no one can claim to be surprised by what the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights correctly termed a “hideous crime.” Israel had been openly threatening a violent attack on the Flotilla for days, but complacency, complicity and inaction, specifically from Western and Arab governments once more sent the message that Israel could act with total impunity.
There is no doubt that Israel’s massacre of 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Gaza in December 2008/January 2009 was a wake up call for international civil society to begin to adopt boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel similar to those applied to apartheid-era South Africa.
Yet governments largely have remained complacent and complicit in Israel’s ongoing violence and oppression against Palestinians and increasingly international humanitarian workers and solidarity activists, not only in Gaza, but throughout historic Palestine. We can only imagine that had former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni indeed been arrested for war crimes in Gaza when a judge in London issued a warrant for her arrest, had the international community begun to implement the recommendations of the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report, had there been a much firmer response to Israel’s assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai, it would not have dared to act with such brazenness.
As protest and solidarity actions begin in Palestine and across the world, this is the message they must carry: enough impunity, enough complicity, enough Israeli massacres and apartheid. Justice now.
ANALYSIS / Israel needs national inquiry into deadly Gaza flotilla clashes: Haaretz
There is no other fitting or proper way to clarify the circumstances of the incident, which began as an act of protest and ended with dead demonstrators and a grave international crisis.
By Aluf Benn
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must return immediately from North America and convene a national committee of inquiry into Israel’s interception of a Gaza aid convoy on Monday, during which at least nine activists were killed.
There is no other fitting or proper way to clarify the circumstances of the incident, which began as an act of protest and ended with dead demonstrators and a grave international crisis.
The government failed the test of results; blaming the organizers of the flotilla for causing the deaths by ignoring Israel’s orders to turn back is inadequate. Decisions taken by the responsible authorities must be probed.
Nor can Monday’s bloodshed be dismissed with claims that the demonstrators attacked IDF commandos with guns and other weapons. This type of excuse shifts responsibility from the political and military decision-makers to the soldiers, who acted in the heat of combat and for fear of their lives. It may be convenient to Netanyahu and his partners in government to present the battle as a local incident that escalated – but they cannot escape responsibility for the crisis.
This time, no one can put the debacle down to inexperience. Netanayhu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, and his defense minister, Amir Peretz – both military novices – came to grief in Lebanon in 2006 with that excuse.
The acting prime minister, Moshe Yaalon, and the defense minister, Ehud Barak, are both former chiefs of staff. Between them they have near matchless experience of military planning and combat.
Netanyahu may have been their junior during his service with the elite commando unit, Sayeret Matkal – but has a formidable record of handling intelligence and operations. They could, if pushed, have foreseen the consequences of Monday’s action.
A committee of inquiry would have to answer several salient questions:
Tactics. What prompted the decision to stop the flotilla by force – what course of action was presented to the politicians who made the decision and what analysis was made of the consequences of using live fire in any confrontation?
Were there any dissenting views, was there anyone how pointed to the inevitable damage to Israel from any operational failure? What steps were taken to forestall an escalation?
Alternatives. Was any effort made to stop the flotilla through diplomacy, or through negotiation and compromise with its organizers? Or did the government rush headlong into a confrontation, without any thought for the alternatives? Was there anyone who advocated letting the boats through to Gaza, rather than making them a test of Israel’s sovereignty and might?
Turkey. What has the government done in the past year to improve ties with a strategically crucial neighbor? How has the prime minister worked to redress the damage to relations with Ankara?
The siege of Gaza. What is the purpose of the siege? Is it just an automatic extension of the previous government’s policy, or does it have some practical aim? How much has the usefulness of the policy been discussed during the current government’s year in office?
It is clear that public opinion is broadly in favor of punishing Gaza for the continuing captivity of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit. But the government needs to think about what advantage effect this has on the national interest – and not just on its popularity in weekly opinion polls. Did any of this happen?
Israel’s Arab minority. Yisrael Beiteinu’s “loyalty” campaign, an attempt by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing party to enforce laws to stamp down expressions of nationalism by Israeli Arabs, has been followed by the arrest of Arab activists charged with spying for Hezbollah. What effect will this have had on the fierceness of Israel-Arab protest? Did the government consider deepening its ties with the Arab minority? Will it act now, after leading Israeli Arab took part in the flotilla and suspected injuries to the head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, Raed Salah, aboard one of the protest boats? Have representations been made to Arab community leaders in an effort to forestall internal conflict?
All are weighty issues that demand deep scrutiny by an independent body, which must lay its findings before the international community. Only a national committee of inquiry can meet this need and ameliorate the heavy criticism Israel will face for killing demonstrators.
PCHR Condemns Israeli Attack on Gaza Freedom Flotilla: PCHR
Monday, 31 May 2010 08:15
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the crime perpetrated by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) earlier this morning, 31 May 2010, when Israeli Naval Forces attacked the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” in international waters as it was sailing towards the Gaza Strip. IOF used excessive and lethal force in its attack on the ships, which left dozens of international civilian solidarity activists who were on board dead or injured.
Today’s crime is hideous, and it is a shame for the international community to remain silent while IOF commits systematic war crimes against civilians.
PCHR believes that Israel would not continue to commit crimes and attacks against civilians, including the crime committed today against the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” and those international solidarity activists aboard, if the international community did not remain silent, thereby failing to fulfill its obligations and duties to enforce international law and provide protection for civilians.
Today’s attack is characteristic of a long series of war crimes and grave violations carried out by IOF against civilians, including the latest Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip, in addition to the imposition of collective punishment measures against civilians through the ongoing siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Unfortunately and regrettably, the world has remained motionless and there has been no intervention to stop such crimes or prosecute the perpetrators.
Rather, attempts have been ongoing to foil the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict (i.e. the Goldstone Report), which provided for the first time practical mechanisms to prosecute Israeli war crimes; such attempts seek to undermine justice and preclude the prosecution of Israeli war criminals, thereby offering them impunity.
Members of the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, are required to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians and immediately intervene to stop crimes perpetrated against civilians.
The ongoing silence of the international community is effectively an open invitation for IOF to continue to challenge international law, to act as a state above the law, and to continue to commit crimes against civilians.
It is time now to put an end to offering impunity to those who commit crimes of the nature outlined above. The impunity with which these criminals operate results from a policy held by the influential member states of the United Nations of favoring political interests and considerations at the expense of international law and civilians, and it comes with the heavy price of sacrificing human rights, international law, and the rule of law.
Today’s crime reconfirms the duplicity of Israel’s claims regarding the end of its military control of the Gaza Strip, and further proves that the Gaza Strip will remain an occupied territory so long as the Israeli military control of the air, sea and land is ongoing.
EDITOR: Now even right-wing commentators call for Barak to resign….
Predictable Israeli fiasco: YNet
Avi Trengo calls for Barak’s dismissal over miserable handling of Gaza-bound flotilla
The Gaza-bound protestors would not dare behave that way vis-à-vis the Turkish, American, or even Italian Navy. Despite Israel’s immense power, the Jewish State repeatedly finds itself in situations where it refrains from using its force wisely.
In a previous article, I urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to weigh his steps carefully and utilize the Gaza flotilla in order to secure a diplomatic achievement: End what is mistakenly referred to as “the Israeli occupation of Gaza.” However, Barak was too arrogant. He thought he could have the cake and eat it too, thereby ordering the IDF to adopt an impossible policy: Stopping the flotilla using force, while doing it without using force. We see the result before us now.
So how would any other navy enforce a naval blockade? First, a clear warning in English: Turn back or we shall fire. Next, A shot across the bow – a last warning to show the seriousness of our intentions. Finally, firing at the vessel’s propeller, in a bid to paralyze the ship’s sailing and steering capabilities.
Only then, and only after allowing the ship to be tossed from side to side under the sun, the time would come for taking over the vessel using massive force: Clearing away the decks using water hoses, splashing oil on its windows, ramming into the vessel, and finally staging the takeover.
This is how any self-respecting Navy would conduct itself. However, there is only one problem here: The utilization of force and fire, which is precisely what Barak wanted to avoid. He feared the images, and therefore ordered the takeover to get underway at early morning hours, much before the ships crossed into Gaza’s territorial waters.
What did you expect, Barak?
The approach chosen by Barak is weak and conveys a sense of a weakness. This was the case in previous military clashes, for example, during the period of time ahead of Operation Cast Lead. Barak threatened to seal off the Gaza Crossings, but opened them a day later.
Israel needs a defense minister who can decide when to use force and when not to use it. Israel needs a defense minister who would order the army to use the kind of force that conveys deterrence. It makes no sense to send Navy commandoes to carry out such operation – this is not the mission they were trained for.
When Israel conveys a sense of weakness is it any wonder that a mob would charge at a commando and attempt to lynch him? What were you expecting, Barak? What kind of impossible mission did you send these troops to carry out?
In the face of this weakness, various organizations are daring to rise up against Israel at this time. The continuation of the Barak policy invites provocations on the part of Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and even Arab Israelis. What exactly will Barak do if the next aid mission to Gaza is accompanied by the Turkish Navy? Will Barak launch a war against Turkey? We already know the answer.
Recipe for regional disaster
The result of using force in the wrong case and to the wrong extent and the outcome of ordering soldiers to conduct themselves “sensitively” create the complete opposite – Israel loses its deterrent power, Israeli troops are perceived as weak, and when they encounter real distress the immediate response is the utilization of violence that makes us look very bad.
Yet what looks like Israeli brutality and stupidity has strategic implications: It creates a situation whereby Israel would not be able to use its force effectively. In the long run, it’s a recipe for regional disaster.
Yet Barak is not the only guilty party. We also have a confused Israeli government (thanks to Netanyahu) and the sense within the Arab world that the US is abandoning Israel (thanks to Obama.) Those who wish to fully grasp the implication of such dangerous combination can look at what happened at sea this morning. And this is merely the preview.
However, it’s not too late yet. Netanyahu can announce the immediate dismissal of Ehud Barak. He is at fault for the incident. Netanyahu can also announce a change in Barak’s policy of a Gaza blockade: A final and real disengagement from the Gaza Strip. If Egypt wishes to impose a siege on Gaza, it’s not Israel’s business.
Just like we do not impose a blockade on Syria or on Lebanon, we shall know where the limits of our power lie, and when we choose to use it, we won’t do it with one hand tied behind our back. Meanwhile, it would also be good to make President Obama aware of where his policy is leading to.