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.
Attack in the Knesset on Palestinian MP who was on the flotilla
EDITOR: An Israeli MK, Henin Zuabi, who was one of the activists of the flotilla, is now under arrest, for unspecified chargers. Before her arrest, and immediately after her release from the initial detention after she was kidnapped by the IOF commandos, she was trying to speak at the Knesset, the Psrliament of the only Jewish pirartical democracy in the Middle East, about the horrific crime by Israel. The attack on her was so severe, that for ten minutes she was not allowed to say a word. You do not need to understand a word of hebrew in order to enjoy and be horrified by Israeli democracy, always balanced between Keystone Cops and some fascist regime assembly. It is frightening to watch, even though no one gets shot (this time, anyway…)
New Gaza-bound aid ship may agree to dock and unload in Ashdod: Haaretz
Humanitarian aid vessel, the Rachel Corrie, delayed due to technical problems; Passengers include a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former UN deputy secretary-general.
A diplomatic solution seems imminent to allow the humanitarian aid vessel the Rachel Corrie to dock without incident at the Ashdod Port. According to European diplomats and senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem, quiet messages have been exchanged over the past few days between Israel and the group operating the ship, to allow it to dock.
The ship is expected to arrive by the weekend.
The Rachel Corrie’s trip to Gaza is sponsored by two non-governmental organizations, from Ireland and Malaysia. On board is Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former United Nations deputy secretary-general Denis Halliday. Also on board are Malaysians from a group sponsored by the former prime minister of Malaysia.
The ship was to have been part of the flotilla that was stopped at sea early Monday morning, but was delayed due to technical problems. Its cargo includes cement and medical equipment such as a tomograph (CT ), as well as toys and printing paper.
The European diplomats and senior Foreign Ministry officials said Israel had been communicating with the organizers of the ship through the Irish government. The Irish Foreign Ministry also conveyed messages from Halliday, one of the organizers, to the Foreign Ministry.
The most recent messages from Halliday were said to be particularly encouraging. Halliday said the ship intended to reach Gaza, but the 15 passengers aboard pledged that if the Israel Navy stopped them, they would not use violence and would obey instructions. In addition, senior Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said that talks between the parties have been good, and that the ship might sail directly to Ashdod to off load its humanitarian cargo, which would be sent directly to the Gaza Strip.
Kid gloves in Dublin
The ship does not belong to the Irish government, and therefore Dublin has been handling the issue with kid gloves. However, in addition to conveying messages between Israel and the ship’s organizers, Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin told the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Zion Evroni, that Ireland would take diplomatic steps if Israel took over the ship.
Senior Irish Foreign Ministry officials told the Israeli envoy that government policy was that the ship be allowed to reach Gaza, because Ireland opposes the blockade of the Strip. Evroni told the Irish that Israel does not seek a conflict with the passengers on the Rachel Corrie; however, Israel asked that they sail to Ashdod and off load there for security inspection before the cargo is sent to Gaza.
Evroni was harshly criticized yesterday by members of the Irish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee after he canceled a scheduled appearence before the committee. The Irish media reported that Evroni was to have appeared before the committee today, but had suddenly announced that due to unforeseen circumstances he would not be able to attend.
Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael Woods called Evroni’s last-minute cancellation “almost without precedent” and “most disappointing.”
Gaza flotilla: Activists freed but not flown all the way home: The Guardian
Families angry at lack of information on whereabouts of loved ones
Gaza aid flotilla activists arrive after being deported from Israel to the King Hussein bridge, Jordan Photograph: Salah Malkawi/Getty Images
Family and friends of the 37 British nationals who were due to be deported from Israel after the naval assault on the Gaza aid flotilla, voiced growing frustration tonight at new delays to the return of their loved ones.
Hasan Norawah, a Free Gaza activist, was greeted by his family at Glasgow airport when he became the first Briton to arrive home today . But there was anger elsewhere at Israel’s decision to send others only as far as Turkey and at a lack of information from the Israeli authorities.
Turkish activists complained that Israel was continuing to detain a handful of their colleagues, delaying the departure of three passenger jets from Ben Gurion airport, which were due to fly more than 300 passengers, including British citizens, to Istanbul.
Israel also announced it would repatriate to Turkey the bodies of the nine activists killed on board the Mavi Marmara without completing autopsy legal requirements.
“The Turkish government has claimed them, although we don’t know for sure that they are Turkish,” said a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry.
“The bodies had insufficient papers on them for identification,” he added.
Only four of the nine victims have been confirmed as Turkish.
In a statement to the Commons at 4pm, William Hague, the foreign secretary, said British activists would be flown out on Turkish planes if they agree to be deported. “We understand that four more British nationals agreed to be deported this morning and that the remaining British nationals are likely to be transferred to the airport soon,” he said.
“Those who remain unwilling to leave will be allowed to stay for 72 hours in detention, which is the time limit allowed for them to appeal against deportation.
“Our understanding is that after that they will be deported.”
Sandra Law, mother of Alex Harrison, a 32-year-old British citizen who was with the Free Gaza group, said she was angry that the activists are not being sent all the way back to the UK.
“We have just been told they are going to dump them in Turkey,” she said. “The foreign office doesn’t know which groups are going when and the Israelis have not given them the names.
The Israelis do not seem to be giving the information to the British embassy.”
Israel said it would deport 682 activists from more than 35 countries. Turkey is understood to have sent six planes, three of which were delayed taking off last night.
“They are waiting for three or four people who are not being released,” said Oguzsan Ulas, an organiser at the IHH in Turkey which controlled the Mavi Marmara ship which had 28 Britons on board.
The charity had been planning a grand “heroes welcome” for the activists in Istanbul’s Taksim Square tomorrow night, but that was in doubt if the planes did not take off in time, Ulas added.
By midday about 200 activists of all nationalities had been transferred from a holding centre to Ben Gurion airport in preparation for deportation.
They arrived in fleets of buses after more than two days of incarceration. Some displayed messages on their hands at the windows which read “Free all prisoners” and “Free Gaza”.
Around 125 others from countries including Kuwait, Algeria, Lebanon, Malaysia and Indonesia, which do not have diplomatic representation in Israel, were deported across the Allenby Bridge into neighbouring Jordan at 7.30am. Forty-five people left Israel via Ben Gurion of their own accord, Israeli police said.
Lawyers for four leading Arab-Israeli pro-Palestinian campaigners who were on board the flotilla also announced that the authorities had agreed to release them at 10am tomorrow.
They are: Muhammed Zeidan, the chairman of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel; Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel; Sheikh Hamad Abu Daabes, the head of the same organisation’s southern branch; and Lubna Masarwa of the Free Gaza Movement and Al Quds University. The four had been remanded in custody for another week following a court hearing.
The police told the lawyers at the Adalah legal centre for Arab-Israelis that 17 people were being treated at a police medical facility.
The health ministry said that 24 others are in various hospitals across the country, while the medical condition of 23 other injured activists could leave the country.
Adalah complained that the Israeli authorities have still not provided a list of names or locations of the injured, no official numbers or list of the deceased, and that there is still no official count of the numbers of detainees or their locations.
EDITOR: Which government is protecting freedom and its citizens?
The only governments to protect its citizens from the barbarities of Israel seem to those of Turkey and Ireland. The British Foreign Office man in Israel was telling the media sweet stories about the treatment of UK citizens, which were patently fictitious, as there was clearly much mistreatment of all the kidnapped activists. The Irish government has warned Israel sternly against an attack on the Rachel Corrie, now on its way to Gaza, and the Turkish government has done more than any to free all the arrested activists. The Turkish government was also mentioned by Israel as receiving the bodies of the nine murdered activists, whose names have not yet been published by the Israelis or anyone else. Why have they kept those names secret. Only four of the nine were Turkish citizens. Why are the other five not returned to their own countries? If Israel hopes that this will kill the campign, they are wrong. This inhuman behaviour only reinforces people’s revulsion towards the apartheid regime.
Charges against activists abandoned after Turkey delivers ultimatum: The Independent
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Israel bowed to heavy diplomatic pressure to deport hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists yesterday, after what Turkey said was an ultimatum that threatened Jerusalem with severe political consequences if it kept its citizens in custody.
In an apparent climbdown, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government began releasing and deporting more than 600 pro-Palestinian activists, including some accused of attacking Israeli commandos in the lethal operation to halt their flotilla. “We have clearly stated that we would review our ties with Israel if all Turks are not released by the end of the day,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said yesterday. “No one has the right to try people who were kidnapped in international waters.”
Israeli officials had previously suggested that criminal charges would be pursued against a minority of the activists. Yehuda Weinstein, Israel’s attorney general, admitted that the decision to release the passengers was taken by Israel’s political leadership despite the fact that some were “suspected of having carried out criminal acts”. The move was based on “clear diplomatic interests touching on the state of Israel’s foreign relations and national security,” she said.
Israel is still facing widespread international condemnation for the raid on the flotilla, in which commandos boarded the Turkish Mavi Marmara in international waters on Monday and which resulted in the deaths of nine people, including four Turks. It was dealt another blow yesterday as the same body that set up the Goldstone report into the 2008-9 Israeli military offensive in Gaza decided to send a committee to Israel to investigate.
Four prominent Israeli-Arab activists who joined the flotilla, including Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic League are now expected to be released from Beersheeva jail today. The Arab Knesset member Talab el-Sana had demanded their release yesterday, saying: “If the detainees are being deported, there is no justification for holding representatives of the public.”
Their continued detention would have been hard to defend given that the deportees include 40 activists said by the Israeli military as having been on board the Mavi Marmara without identification papers and “equipped with bullet-proof vests, night-vision goggles, and weapons”. The original link to the military’s statement on the Israel Defence website identified the men as “Al-Qa’ida mercenaries” but the reference to Al-Qa’ida was removed from the site last night.
There were angry scenes in the Knesset yesterday when Hanin Zoabi, a woman Arab MP who had taken part in the flotilla, clashed with other right-wing members including Anastassia Michael, who was evicted from the chamber after physically trying to prevent Ms Zoabi from speaking. Another, Miri Regev, shouted at her: “Go to Gaza, traitor.” Ms Zoabi was removed from the podium when her speech overran after repeated interruptions.
Around 400 of the deportees – who include more than 30 Britons – were held up yesterday at Ben Gurion airport as several individuals challenged the deportations in Israel’s Supreme Court on the grounds that some should face criminal charges.
Israel maintains its troops opened fire after coming under attack from passengers on the Mavi Marmara.
With Turkey’s ambassador to Tel Aviv recalled, and Israel’s relations with easily its most important Muslim ally having plunged to a new low as a result of the operation to halt the flotilla, Ankara has said that full links can only be restored if Israel lifts its three-year blockade of Gaza. “The future of ties with Israel will depend on the attitude of Israel,” Mr Davutoglu said yesterday.
After demonstrations against Israel in the aftermath of the raid, Turkey has stepped up security to protect the Jewish community. “Our Jewish citizens are not foreigners here,” Mr Davutoglu said. “We have lived together for centuries, and we will continue to do so.”
In Britain, David Cameron told the House of Commons that the raid was “completely unacceptable”. He added it was for friends of Israel like himself to tell Israel that “the blockade actually strengthens Hamas’s grip on the economy and on Gaza”.
But in his first televised address since the raid, Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, accused international critics of “hypocrisy” and declared: “The flotilla was trying to break the naval blockade on Gaza, not bring humanitarian aid. Ships like these are capable of smuggling large amounts of weapons.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation’s director in the region, Tony Laurance, said it was “impossible to maintain a safe and effective healthcare system” in Gaza under siege conditions. “It is not enough to simply ensure supplies like drugs and consumables,” he said. “Medical equipment and spare parts must be available and be properly maintained.”
Meanwhile, Iranian-backed Press TV said its British correspondent Hassan Ghani, who broadcast from the Mavi Marmora, was missing. British diplomats said they had no reason to believe he was among the dead.
Testimony: ‘We were attacked without warning’
Ahmed Brahimi, Algerian
“They humiliated us. We were not armed. We did not go there to fight. We were doing our morning prayers when the Israelis first tried to come on board the Marmara ship.
“We used sticks and all what we could find to defend ourselves to stop the assault. During the second assault, they succeeded in kidnapping the young son of the captain, and then we found ourselves obliged to give up.
“They seized our cell phones and did not allow us to use the lavatory. Our hands were tied up, and some of us were placed on our stomachs.
“They told us to sign a document written in Hebrew… We, the Algerians, refused to sign the document because we do not understand Hebrew and more importantly because we do not recognise Israel.”
Norazma Abdullah, Malaysian
“The Israelis just attacked us without warning after dawn prayers.
“They fired with some rubber bullets but after some time they used live ammunition. Five were dead on the spot and after that we surrendered.”
Abdullah said the Turkish-backed flotilla had been more than 68 miles off the Gaza coast when it was intercepted.
“Our original plan was to stop there and ask for Israeli permission before we entered and, if they refused, to stay at sea in protest… but they attacked us before we had a chance to do that.”
Abdul Rahman Failakawee, Kuwaiti
“The attack was totally barbaric. They used legitimate and maybe illegitimate weapons: rubber bullets, live ammunition, sound bombs and tear gas bombs. They also used batons as they landed to beat those on board and get control of the ship.”
Walid al-Tabtabai, Kuwaiti
“The Israelis roughed up and humiliated all of us – women, men and children. They were brutal and arrogant, but our message reached every corner of the world that the blockade on Gaza is unfair and should be lifted immediately.”
Hasan Nowarah
“They were shooting from their own helicopter before their soldiers even came down to the upper deck of the Marmara ship.
“They were attacking the people there before the people did anything. They were hiding and taking cover from the load of bullets and live ammunition. Three people died. We were sailing to Gaza to lift the blockade and provide them with medical aid.”
Archbishop Hilarian Capucci, Greek
“Our trip to Gaza was a trip of love, and God was with us. Israel by its actions had rightly drawn world outrage over its brutality against unarmed people carrying a message of love to an innocent occupied people under siege.”
Exit strategy: Lifting the Gaza blockade: Haaretz Editorial
Instead of insisting on continuing a failed policy , Netanyahu should pull himself together and minimize the damage of Israel’s flotilla raid.
Like a robot lacking in judgment, stuck on a predetermined path – that’s how the government is behaving in its handling of the aid flotillas to the Gaza Strip. The announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the security cabinet meeting Tuesday that the blockade of Gaza will continue and that Israel will keep on using force to prevent ships from entering Gaza’s port suggests that the foolishness continues and no lessons have been learned from this week’s incidents.
The Netanyahu-Ehud Barak government is oblivious to the impact of the failed takeover of the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara, which ended with the killing of nine passengers. It is oblivious to the international condemnation of this country’s actions – Israel once more finds itself isolated. Most serious of all, it is oblivious to the damage it is causing to Israel’s strategic interests.
The lethal operation is making it difficult for the U.S. administration to rally a majority in the UN Security Council for new sanctions against Iran and is eroding the international front against the Islamic Republic, which the United States has put together with great diplomatic effort. The naval operation challenges the negotiations with the Palestinians and weakens the bargaining ability of Netanyahu vis-a-vis U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The operation also ruins essential relations with Turkey and will cost Israel in lost tourists and export deals.
Instead of taking the initiative and developing a political exit strategy from the crisis, Netanyahu and Barak are digging themselves deeper into the quagmire. The government apparently believes its own public relations, according to which Israel was the victim of “Al-Qaida supporters.” If this is the case, it must immediately dismiss the heads of the security and intelligence services who failed to issue warnings in time and did not prepare accordingly to meet this new and dangerous enemy. How does Israel plan to deal with the Irish ship the Rachel Corrie, which is on its way to the Gaza Strip? Will it also argue that the Irish government, which has given this ship its backing, is a member of Al-Qaida?
Instead of insisting on continuing a policy that has failed, Netanyahu should pull himself together and minimize the damage of the naval operation. He must appoint a commission of inquiry that will investigate what happened and lift the damaging and unnecessary blockade on the Gaza Strip, while developing a response to arms smuggling. Statesmanship is measured by the ability to distinguish between what is important and what is not. Netanyahu and Barak, who dragged Israel into a foolish struggle of prestige with Hamas and its supporters, erred by selecting a violent and damaging form of action. They failed in this week’s test of statesmanship.
Jonathan Cook: Israel’s ‘mad dog’ diplomacy doesn’t make it more secure: J Cook
Moshe Dayan, Israel’s most celebrated general, famously outlined the strategy that he believed would keep Israel’s enemies at bay: “Israel must be a like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.” But the Israeli commando attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla… proves that this is now a diplomatic strategy too. Israel is feeling cornered on every front it considers important – and like Dayan’s “mad dog”, it is likely to strike out in unpredictable ways.
By Jonathan Cook, The National – 2 June 2010
Moshe Dayan, Israel’s most celebrated general, famously outlined the strategy that he believed would keep Israel’s enemies at bay: “Israel must be a like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.”
Until now, most observers had assumed Dayan was referring to Israel’s military and possibly its nuclear strategy, explaining in his blunt fashion the country’s well-known doctrine of deterrence.
But the Israeli commando attack on Monday on the Gaza-bound flotilla, in which several crew members and international solidarity activists were killed and dozens wounded as they tried to break Israel’s blockade of the enclave, proves that this is now a diplomatic strategy too. Israel is feeling cornered on every front it considers important – and like Dayan’s “mad dog”, it is likely to strike out in unpredictable ways.
Domestically, Israeli human rights activists have regrouped after the Zionist left’s dissolution in the wake of the outbreak of the second intifada. Now they are presenting clear-eyed – and extremely ugly – assessments of the occupation that are grabbing headlines around the world. The leadership of Israel’s large Arab minority has started questioning the legitimacy of the Jewish state in ways that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.
Regionally, Hizbollah has progressively eroded Israel’s deterrence doctrine. It forced the Israeli army to exit south Lebanon in 2000 after a two-decade occupation; it stood firm in the face of both aerial bombardment and a ground invasion during the 2006 war; and now it is reported to have accumulated an even larger arsenal of rockets than it had four years ago.
And nearly 18 months on from its attack on Gaza, Israel’s standing is at an all-time low. Boycott campaigns are gaining traction, support for Israel from European governments has set them in opposition to the sentiment at home, and traditional allies such as Turkey cannot hide their anger.
In the US, Israel’s most resolute ally, young American Jews are starting to question their unthinking loyalty to the Jewish state. Blogs and new kinds of Jewish groups are bypassing their elders and the American media, widening the scope of debate about Israel.
Israel has responded to these “threats” by characterising them all as falling within its ever-expanding definition of “support for terrorism”.
It was therefore hardly surprising that the first reaction from the Israeli government to the fact that its commandos had opened fire on civilians in the flotilla of aid ships was to accuse the solidarity activists of being armed.
Similarly, Danny Ayalon, the deputy foreign minister, accused the organisers of having “connections to international terrorism”, including al Qaeda. Turkey, which assisted the flotilla, had already been widely accused in Israel of supporting Hamas and trying to topple the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Palestinians are familiar with such tactics. Gaza’s entire population of 1.5 million is now regularly presented in the Israeli media in collective terms, as supporters of terror – for having voted in Hamas – and therefore legitimate targets for Israeli “retaliation”. Even the largely docile Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has rapidly been tarred with the same brush for its belated campaign to boycott the settlements and their products.
The leaders of Israel’s Palestinian citizens are being cast in the role of abettors of terror. The minority is still reeling from the latest assault: the arrest and torture of two community leaders charged with spying for Hizbollah. In its wake, new laws are being drafted to require that the Israeli Arabs prove their “loyalty” or have their citizenship revoked.
When false rumours briefly circulated on Monday that Sheikh Raed Salah, a leader of Israel’s Islamic Movement who was in the flotilla, had been gravely wounded, Israeli officials offered a depressingly predictable, and unfounded, response: commandoes had shot him after they came under fire from his cabin.
Israel’s Jewish human rights community is also under attack to a degree never before seen. Their leaders are now presented as traitors, and new legislation is designed to make their work much harder. The few brave souls in the Israeli media who try to hold the system to account have been given a warning shot as the investigative journalist for Haaretz, Uri Blau, is threatened with trial on espionage charges if he returns to Israel.
Israel’s treatment of those on-board the flotilla has demonstrated that the net against human rights activism is being cast much wider, to encompass the international community. Foreigners, even high-profile figures such as Noam Chomsky, are now refused entry to Israel and the occupied territories. Many foreign human rights workers face severe restrictions on their movement and efforts to deport them or ban their organisations.
The epitome of this process was Israel’s reception of the UN report last year into the attack on Gaza by Richard Goldstone. A respected judge and war crimes expert, he suggested that Israel had committed war crimes during its three-week operation. Justice Goldstone has faced savage personal attacks ever since.
But more significantly, Israel’s supporters have characterised the Goldstone report and the growing legal campaigns against Israel as examples of “lawfare”, implying that those who uphold international law are waging a new kind of war of attrition on behalf of terror groups like Hamas and Hizbollah.
These trends are likely only to deepen in the coming months and years. The mad dog is baring his teeth, and it is high time the international community decided how to deal with him.
Jonathan Cook is The National’s correspondent in Nazareth and the author of Disappearing Palestine
Netanyahu was right: Haaretz
All the prime minister’s predictions have come true. He always said the whole world was against us – now he is right.
By Gideon Levy
The time has come to take off our hats to the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu’s predictions have proved accurate, and his prophecies are coming true right before our eyes. Now we can proudly declare that our government is led by a man of vision, a statesman who has foretold the future. Even his greatest critics can’t deny it; the facts speak for themselves.
Netanyahu said the whole world is against us. Wasn’t he right? He also said we live under an existential threat. Isn’t it beginning to look like that? Give it another minute and Turkey will be at war with us too. Netanyahu said there’s no chance of reaching an agreement with the Arabs. Wasn’t that spot on? Our prime minister, who saw danger lurking in every alleyway and enemies waiting around every corner, who has always taught that there is no hope, who has drummed into us that we shall forever live by the sword (just as his father the historian taught him ), knew what he was talking about.
We haven’t had anyone like him since David Ben-Gurion. He’s a genuine prophet whose every prediction comes true, one after the other – someone who can really be proud of his accomplishments. Enough mockery, enough ridicule. For Netanyahu is not only a prophet; his leadership has swept up the entire country. There is no longer anyone who can stop him from realizing his vision, and soon the pundits will be writing that Netanyahu was right.
This country now has a blind captain in the cockpit, flying his blindfolded passengers with exemplary precision toward the destination he envisioned. If there had still been any object of his scaremongering that had not yet been attained before this week, along came the outrageous seizure of the flotilla, and that goal too was in the bag.
If anyone was still entertaining a glimmer of hope that our pilot wasn’t totally blind, that he had some special sight-enhancing gadget, along came his declaration that the blockade of Gaza would continue. Let the world and wisdom and Gaza all go to hell, and incidentally Israel too – and dash that glimmer of hope as well. After the saws and knives seized on the Marmara have been publicly exhibited, we will be able to convince ourselves once and for all that there is indeed a danger lurking in every alley, an Al-Qaida operative on every ship, weapons on every deck – and even that the Marmara was an existential threat, no less, just as our leader had foreseen.
Of course, no one will demand to see the guns that the activists are alleged to have fired, or the video footage in which Israeli soldiers are seen firing, or the confiscated photographs taken by journalists. For us, the pictures of the severe beatings that the IDF Spokesman’s Office has released are enough.
Some 7 billion human beings (less about 5 million Israeli Jews ) are wrong. They haven’t got a leader like Netanyahu, and that’s why they go on thinking that seizing passenger ships in international waters is an act of piracy, no different from the deeds committed by the pirates of Somalia. They think (wrongly of course ) that Israel has no right to stop a fleet of boats; that the victims are the people of Gaza and the bleeding passengers, not the naval commandos who raided the ship and were beaten; and that the aggressors were the troops who were dropped onto the ship from a helicopter, killing nine civilians with live fire and wounding dozens.
The world is wrong and Netanyahu, with us in tow, is right. We will not lift the blockade. For four years it has yielded not an ounce of benefit, just damage, but what does that matter? Giddyup! Let’s fulfill Netanyahu’s vision. We’ll become an even more despised country and won’t have a single friend left in the world, not even the United States. True, it was Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who began this terrible landslide with Operation Cast Lead, after which the world became intolerant of all violent behavior by Israel, but Netanyahu is following in his path.
Despite it all, his vision has not yet been realized in full. He gave rise to one hope: an “economic peace” that would bring prosperity to Palestinians and Israelis. But as yet there has been no greater saboteur of Israeli exports than Netanyahu, and soon everything produced here will have to be sold no further afield than Petah Tikva. Even prophets are entitled to err on occasion, but he had better not give rise to any more hopes.
About half of Israelis want a commission of inquiry, according to a poll published yesterday. It can be assumed that this is only because our soldiers were beaten and humiliated. Why, what else is there to investigate? After all, we have a prophet-statesman whose predictions are coming true, one after the other, and the redeemer is (not ) coming to Zion.
Who will bring Israel to book over flotilla attack?: The Guardian CiF
This was almost certainly a breach of international law and Turkey has the right to take charge of a criminal investigation
Will the rule of law be applied to Israel this time? In principle, it is unlawful for a state to enforce a blockade against ships that are flying the flag of another state on the high seas. The only exceptions to this would be if the blockade were mandated by the UN security council acting under chapter VII of the UN charter. The basic principle under customary international law as regards ships in international waters was set out by the permanent court of international justice in the SS Lotus case (1927):
“… vessels on the high seas are subject to no authority except that of the state whose flag they fly. In virtue of the principle of the freedom of the seas, that is to say, the absence of any territorial sovereignty upon the high seas, no state may exercise any kind of jurisdiction over foreign vessels upon them.”
While international law does allow for exceptions to the above rule, entitling warships to interfere with ships flying the flag of another state while in international waters in limited circumstances, those exceptions do not apply to the events of 31 May. Indeed, a 1988 treaty (to which Israel is a party) criminalises the unlawful and intentional seizure or exercise of control over a ship by force, and all connected injuries or deaths.
If the Israeli boarding of the ship was illegal, then arguably the passengers were entitled to act in self-defence against the invading commandos. If so, they could use reasonable force to defend themselves, the amount of force permitted being determined by Turkish law.
And that is the point: it is clearly Turkish criminal law that can and should predominate from this point on. The Mavi Marmara is a Turkish-registered ship and was travelling peacefully in international waters when Israeli forces boarded it. At least one of the dead civilians is reportedly a Turkish citizen. The Turkish authorities have the absolute right to assert that their criminal justice system take sole charge of a criminal investigation.
Turkey is therefore perfectly entitled to demand that all evidence, including the identity of all Israeli naval and other forces, is handed over to its criminal justice authorities for a full investigation and that Israel allow Turkish law enforcement officials unimpeded access to the Israeli suspects. Israel is after all a party to the 1959 European convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters.
If Israel were to refuse, the UN security council, if concerned about a threat to international peace and security, could then back Turkish and international demands to this effect in a chapter VII resolution. The question therefore arises: will Turkey and the international community require Israel to comply with the rule of law on this occasion?
Haaretz publisher: Self-censorship is greatest threat to press freedom: Haaretz
Amos Schocken tells conference sponsored by the French Embassy in Israel in cooperation with Haaretz that many journalists are concerned about alienating their readers.
By Shani Litman
Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken warned Monday that self-censorship in the Israeli media poses the greatest threat to the freedom of the press. Speaking during a panel debate on press freedom as part of the “Democracy and its Challenges” conference sponsored by the French Embassy in Israel in cooperation with Haaretz, Schocken said that many journalists are hesitant to be too controversial, for fear of alienating their readers.
Schocken cited his own experiences with Haaretz readers who were resentful of the coverage given to the Palestinians by reporters from his own newspaper.
“Let’s talk about a different kind of censorship,” he said. “Self-censorship that stems from the fact that the media does not want to upset its readership. I am referring to the responses that I get regarding Haaretz articles about the Palestinians’ situation.
“During periods of calm there are no responses, but in turbulent times people send emails to the newspaper, copying in all of their friends, that they are halting their subscription because they are unable to read Gideon Levy or Amira Hass anymore. And the newspaper must ask itself if it wants to absorb this.
“It is no coincidence that in a country such as ours there are two or three journalists who see the subject of the Palestinians as their central focus,” he continued. “There are even journalists in Israel for whom it is possible to expect the subject of the Palestinians to be as important as sports, celebrities or film, and who are involved with this. And each time I see how Israeli society finds it difficult to accept this.”
EDITOR: The script writers work overtime, but the plot thickens into a mess…
The 1001 nights department at the IOF propaganda offices has concocted some lovely stories – imagination is not lacking there – and thought they will get away with it. Of course, no sane person could believe those stories, but now even those script writers have been worried enough to retarct the story. But what does this matter now, to those who were murdered? Media all over the world has repeated the stories without checking, and now two yond journalists kill this myth with one blow.
Under Scrutiny, IDF Retracts Claims About Flotilla’s Al Qaeda Links: Max Blumenthal
When placed under journalistic scrutiny, the IDF is being forced to admit that its claims about the flotilla’s links to international terror are based on innuendo, not facts. On June 2, the IDF blasted out a press release to reporters and bloggers with the shocking headline: “Attackers of the IDF soldiers found to be Al Qaeda mercenaries.” The only supporting evidence offered in the release was a claim that the passengers “were equipped with bullet proof vests, night vision goggles, and weapons.” A screen capture of the press release is below:
When placed under journalistic scrutiny, the IDF is being forced to admit that its claims about the flotilla’s links to international terror are based on innuendo, not facts. On June 2, the IDF blasted out a press release to reporters and bloggers with the shocking headline: “Attackers of the IDF soldiers found to be Al Qaeda mercenaries.” The only supporting evidence offered in the release was a claim that the passengers “were equipped with bullet proof vests, night vision goggles, and weapons.” A screen capture of the press release is below:
The IDF distributed this press release on June 2. The following day, it changed the headline, essentially retracting its lurid accusation.
Not content to believe that night vision goggles signal membership in Al Qaeda, Israel-based freelance reporter Lia Tarachansky and I called the IDF press office to ask for more conclusive evidence. Tarachansky reached the IDF’s Israel desk, interviewing a spokesperson in Hebrew; I spoke with the North America desk, using English. We both received the same reply from Army spokespeople: “We don’t have any evidence. The press release was based on information from the [Israeli] National Security Council.” (The Israeli National Security Council is Netanyahu’s kitchen cabinet of advisors).
Today, the Israeli Army’s press office changed the headline of its press release (see below), basically retracting its claim about the flotilla’s Al Qaeda links. The new headline reads: “Attackers of the IDF Soldiers Found Without Identification Papers” (the top of the browser screen still contains the original headline about Al Qaeda). The more Israel’s claims about the flotilla’s terrorist links are challenged, the more they fall apart.
