Shame on Greece, Shame on USA for doing Israel’s Dirty work!
EDITOR: Pirates in the Med: The War Criminals strike again
The second Flotilla to Gaza is unable to move, as the crimes of Israel are exacerbated by Greek and American criminal behaviour. The US threatens to jail the participants, while Greece is plainly an agent of Israeli crimes, by detaining the boats and allowing Israel to sabotage them at will. It is no better in Turkey, where the Irish boat Saoirse was sabotaged by the Israelis. It seems that no law whatsoever is being applied to Israeli crimes, while the whole might of the west seems to be turned against the protesters. If this happened in Libya, we would fight it with force…
The Greek criminal towards the protesters on the flotilla boats is but an echo of the brutality shown this week during the police pogrom in Athens, where the centre of the city experienced unprecedented violence by the forces of Unlaw and Disorder, soaking the capital in gas, attacking protesters and passersby alike, and displaying the true face of European capitalism in crisis. The same aggression and illegality is now turned against the flotilla members.
Israel Attempts to Discredit Flotilla 2 & More From Max Blumenthal: YouTube
SABOTAGE OF M.V. SAOIRSE IN TURKEY ‘AN ACT OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM’: UStoGaza
IRISH SHIP TO GAZA CAMPAIGN – June 30, 2011
The Irish-owned ship, the MV Saoirse, that was meant to take part in Freedom Flotilla 2 has been sabotaged in a dangerous manner in the Turkish coastal town of Göcek, where it had been at berth for the past few weeks. Visual evidence of the undership sabotage, which was carried out by divers, will be presented today at a press conference in Dublin at 11am in Buswell’s Hotel. Photographs and video footage of the damage are available from the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign.
Concerns for the boat first emerged on Monday evening following a short trip near the Göcek marina and an inspection was carried out by divers and by skipper Shane Dillon on Tuesday morning. Evidence was found that the shaft of the starboard propeller has been interfered with and it was decided to take the boat out of the water for a further visual inspection. On Wednesday, the boat was put on land at a local shipyard and the extent of the sabotage was immediately visible.
The propeller shaft had been weakened by saboteurs who cut, gouged or filed a piece off the shaft. This had weakened the integrity of the shaft, causing it to bend badly when put in use. The damage was very similar to that caused to the Juliano, another flotilla ship, in Greece. The consequent damage would have happened gradually as the ship was sailing and would have culminated in a breach of the hull.
The Irish Ship to Gaza campaign believes that Israel has questions to answer and must be viewed as the chief suspect in this professional and very calculating act of sabotage.
Commenting on the attack from Göcek in Turkey, Dr Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza, who own the vessel, said: “This is an appalling attack and should be condemned by all right-thinking people. It is an act of violence against Irish citizens and could have caused death and injury. If we had not spotted the damage as a result of a short trip in the bay, we would have gone to sea with a dangerously damaged propeller shaft and the boat would have sunk if the hull had been breached. Imagine the scene if this had happened at nighttime.”
“Israel is the only party likely to have carried out this reckless action and it is important that the Irish government and the executive in Northern Ireland insist that those who ordered this act of international terrorism be brought to justice. This was carried out in a Turkish town and shows no respect for Turkish sovereignty and international law.”
He continued: “One of the most shocking aspects is the delayed nature of the sabotage. It wasn’t designed to stop the ship from leaving its berth; instead, it was intended that the fatal damage to the ship would occur while she was at sea and this could have resulted in the deaths of several of those on board. This was a potentially murderous act.”
Dr Lane, who was on board Challenger 1 in last year’s flotilla, said: “The Freedom Flotilla is a non-violent act of practical and humanitarian solidarity with the people of Gaza, yet Israel continues to use threats and violence to delay its sailing. They attacked us in international waters last year; now they are attacking us in Turkish and Greek ports. There is no line that Israel won’t cross.”
“We will not be intimidated by attacks like this – it simply highlights the aggression that the Palestinian people of Gaza have to put up with on a daily basis. It strengthens our determination to continue until this illegal and immoral blockade is lifted.”
Calling on the government and northern executive to demand safe passage for Freedom Flotilla 2, Dr Lane said: “The Irish government needs to publicly condemn this dangerous act of sabotage but it also should insist on the flotilla being allowed to make it to Gaza unhindered. Israel has no right to interdict the flotilla and even less right to carry out attacks against vessels in Greek and Turkish ports.”
“It is important that everybody make their voices heard in solidarity with the people of Gaza and in support of the flotilla. The Israeli embassy should become a focal point for street demonstrations. These saboteurs came very close to killing Irish citizens.”
Also speaking from Göcek, the skipper of the MV Saoirse, Shane Dillon, said: “The damage sighted and inspected on the starboard propeller shaft on the MV Saoirse had the potential to cause loss of life to a large number of those aboard. The nature of the attack and malicious damage was such that under normal circumstances the vessel would most likely have sunk at sea. If the ship was operating at high engine revs, the damage done by the saboteurs would have caused the shaft to shear and the most likely outcome would be the rupturing of the hull and the vessel foundering. If, as was intended, the vessel had proceeded to Gaza at reduced revs, the stern tube would have been forced off line and a large and rapid ingress of water would have resulted, sinking the vessel.”
Mr Dillon continued: “The shaft was filmed and photographed when the vessel was lifted from the water on Wednesday afternoon in a shipyard in the Turkish coastal village ofGöcek. A local marine engineer inspected the shaft and his opinion was that the interference was the work of professional saboteurs intent on disabling the Saoirse. However, the most shocking aspect of the attack was that its intention was to cause failure of the shaft when the vessel was offshore and this shows a total disregard for human life.”
He ended: “It is also worth noting that the damage inflicted on the Saoirse was identical to that that caused to the Greek/Swedish ship, the Juliano, which was sabotaged in the Greek port of Piraeus a few days ago.”
Pat Fitzgerald, a Sinn Fein member of Waterford County Council and chief engineer on the Saoirse, commented: “We were very lucky to discover this act of sabotage when we did. We felt vibrations from the shaft as we were returning to the berth on Monday evening following a short trip in the bay for refuelling purposes. Close inspection by divers on Tuesday and then on land on Wednesday revealed a large man-made gouge on one side of the propeller shaft. The integrity of the shaft had been compromised and a very serious bend had developed. This could have caused fatalities had we set to sea and almost certainly would have sunk the boat when the engine revs were increased. It was an act of sheer lunacy and endangered the lives of all on board.”
The sabotage has been reported to the harbour master in Göcek and Irish Ship to Gaza are asking for a full investigation by the Turkish police.
The repairs have yet to be fully costed but could be more than E15,000 and they will take some time, meaning that the Saoirse cannot participate in Freedom Flotilla 2.
However, six of the 20 crew and passengers aboard the Saoirse will transfer to another ship in the flotilla. The six Irish who will join the Italian/Dutch ship are Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza and a member of the Free Gaza Movement; Trevor Hogan, former Ireland and Leinster rugby player; Paul Murphy, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin; Zoe Lawlor of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Hussein Hamed, a Libyan-born Irish citizen; and Gerry MacLochlainn, a Sinn Fein member of Derry City Council.
The MV Saoirse will be repaired and used in future flotillas to Gaza if they are needed.
Getting on board with peace in Israel: LA Times
An Israeli American explains why she will be among many boat passengers trying to break through Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
By Hagit Borer
June 26, 2011
Israeli right wing activist holds a sign reading ‘No to 67 borders, Yes to Israel’s security’ during a counter demonstration against thousands of peace activists. (Oliver Weiken / EPA)
Later this month an American ship, the Audacity of Hope, will leave Greece on a journey to the Gaza Strip to attempt to break Israel’s blockade. It will join an expected nine other ships flying numerous flags and carrying hundreds of passengers from around the world. I will be one of those passengers.
I am an Israeli Jewish American. I was born in Israel, and I grew up in a very different Jerusalem from the one today. The Jerusalem of my childhood was a smallish city of white-stone neighborhoods nestled in the elbows of hills. Near the center, next to the central post office, the road swerved sharply to the left because straight ahead stood a big wall, and on the other side of it was “them.”
And then, on June 9, 1967, the wall came down. Elsewhere, Israeli troops were still fighting what came to be known as the Six-Day War, but on June 9, as a small crowd stood and watched, demolition crews brought down the barrier wall, and after it, all other buildings that had stood between my Jerusalem and the walls of the Old City, their Jerusalem. A few weeks later a wide road would lead from my Jerusalem to theirs, bearing the victors’ name: Paratroopers Way.
A soldier helped me sneak into the Old City. Snipers were still at large and the city was closed to Israeli civilians. By the Western Wall, a myth to me until then, the Israeli army was already evicting Palestinian residents in the dead of night and demolishing all houses within 1,000 feet. Eventually, the area would turn into the huge open paved space it is today, a place where only last month, on Jerusalem Day, masses of Israeli youths chanted “Muhammad is dead” and “May your villages burn.”
It is a different Jerusalem now. It is not their Jerusalem, for it has been taken from them. Every day the Palestinians of Jerusalem are further strangled by more incursions, by more “housing developments” to cut them off from other Palestinians. In Sheik Jarrah, a neighborhood built by Jordan in the 1950s to house refugees, Palestinian families recently have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint based on court-sanctioned documents purporting to show Jewish land ownership in the area dating back some 100 years. But no Palestinian proof of ownership within West Jerusalem has ever prevailed in Israeli courts. Talbieh, Katamon, Baca, until 1948 affluent Palestinian neighborhoods, are today almost exclusively Jewish, with no legal recourse for the Palestinians who recently raised families and lived their lives there.
In his speech on Jerusalem Day, Yitzhak Pindrus, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, assured a cheering crowd of the ongoing commitment to expanding the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik, as Sheik Jarrah has been renamed.
This is not my Jerusalem. The tens of thousands of jeering youths that swarmed through its streets on Jerusalem Day have taken the city from me as well. That they speak my native tongue is almost impossible for me to believe, for there is nothing about them or about the society that gave birth to them that I recognize.
Did we know in 1967, in 1948, that it would come to this? Some did. Some knew even then that a society built on conquest and dispossession would have to dehumanize the conquered in order to continue to dispossess and oppress them. A 1948 letter to the New York Times signed by Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt, among others, foretells much of the future. Martin Buber did not spare David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, his perspective on the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948-49.
But too many others, including members of the U.S. Congress who recently cheered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are determined to not hold the Israeli government responsible or the Israeli-Jewish society culpable.
Let us note that some Israeli Jews do stand up and protest. There are soldiers who refuse to serve, journalists who highlight injustice, and human rights organizations, activist groups, information centers. In a sense, all of us seeking justice have been on a virtual boat to Gaza all these decades. We have been trying to break through the Israeli blockade, in its many incarnations. We wish to say to the Palestinians that, yes, there are people in Israel who know that any viable future for the Middle East must be based on a just peace — not the forced imposition spelled out by Netanyahu to Congress — or else we are all doomed. We want it known that the soldier is not the only face of Israeli Jews. There are those who say to the government of Israel, “You do not represent us.” We say to the people of the United States in general and to American Jews in particular that yes, you do have an alternative. You can support peace. A true peace.
Hagit Borer moved from Israel to the United States to study in 1977. She became an American citizen in 1992 and is currently a professor of linguistics at USC.
Hamas slams Greece for blocking departure of Gaza-bound flotilla: Haaretz
AFP quotes Hamas accusing Greece of playing into Israel’s hands, after Greek government issues statement prohibiting departure of all ships bound for maritime area of Gaza.
Hamas criticized Greece on Friday for blocking the departure of the flotilla set to sail to Gaza, accusing Greece of playing into Israel’s hands, AFP reported.
AFP quotes Hamas as saying Greece’s action is “inhumane” and “contrary to international regulations and norms.”
“Barring this aid from reaching the Gaza Strip is done as a result of pressure imposed by the Zionist occupiers,” the statement also said.
The Greek government issued a statement on Friday, saying that the departure of ships with Greek and foreign flags from Greek ports to the maritime area of Gaza has been prohibited. The statement explained that this is in a bid to prevent a breach of Israel’s naval blockade.
The Greek government stressed that local Hellenic Coast Guard Authorities must take all appropriate measures to implement the decision. It also warned that the broader maritime area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea will be continuously monitored by electronic means for tracking the movement of ships trying to participate in the flotilla.
Naval authorities have already implemented the order, blocking both an American and Canadian ship planning to participate in the pro-Palestinian Gaza flotilla set to take place next week.
However, in light of Greece’s decision to block all ships heading to the strip, the flotilla has been delayed further.
The “Tahrir”, a Canadian boat also planning to participate in the flotilla, remained docked on Friday after port authority officials boarded the ship demanding its license. Activists handed over the documentation; however they claimed that the ship fulfills all the necessary criteria needed to set sail.
David Hick, head of the steering committee for the flotilla and a linguistics professor from Canada told Haaretz that port authorities gave no grounds for taking away the Tahrir’s license, only saying that this was a directive from the Greek president’s office not to allow ships to embark from Greek ports.
The Audacity of Hope and the Tahrir are two of the boats planning to take part in a flotilla aimed at challenging Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. A spokeswoman announced Friday that it will set sail next week, in spite of repeated delays that activists blame on Israeli sabotage.
“Israel is doing its very, very best to make sure we don’t get out of port,” spokeswoman Greta Berlin said, speaking by telephone from Greece where some of the ships are moored.
“We want to move the boats by July 5 to get to our rendezvous point no later than July 6 or 7 … We will go with what we have,” she added.
The original plan was to have 15 ships set sail, however the current count stands at nine boats hoping to take part in the mission, Berlin said in her statement.
The flotilla is set to head toward Gaza a little over a year after Israeli marines stormed another pro-Palestinian flotilla that had approached the strip. Nine activists died in the on-board clashes, provoking an international outcry.
Gaza aid flotilla: Irish crew accuse Israel of sabotage: BBC
Irish activists planning to sail in a flotilla to Gaza have accused Israel of sabotaging their ship.
It is the second vessel due to participate that has had its propeller damaged while moored in a Mediterranean port this week.
The Israeli military is under orders to prevent an international convoy of ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid from reaching Gaza.
Organisers want to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the territory.
More than 300 protesters on 10 ships, from North America and Europe, are due to join the latest flotilla. American writer, Alice Walker, is among those due to set sail.
Last year, nine activists on a Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara, were killed in an Israeli raid on an aid flotilla. Each side blamed the other for the violence.
Following international outcry, Israel considerably eased its blockade of Gaza, allowing in more food and humanitarian goods.
Hoax revealed
Palestinian activists revealed the Israeli man’s hoax
The Irish Ship to Gaza (ISG) campaign noticed problems with the propeller of their vessel, the Saoirse, while berthed in the Turkish port of Gocek. The group claims it was attacked “by saboteurs who cut, gouged or filed a piece off the shaft.”
“Israel has questions to answer and must be viewed as the chief suspect,” the ISG said.
On Tuesday, similar allegations of sabotage were made by activists on the Swedish-owned Juliano, docked in Piraeus in Greece. Israel has not commented on the allegations.
The departure of the “Freedom Flotilla 2” has already been delayed by social unrest in Greece and problems with insurance. It is now expected to set sail early next week, taking several days to reach Gaza.
Meanwhile, an Israeli man who claimed to have been excluded from the flotilla because he was gay has been exposed as a hoax.
“Marc” – who posted a three-minute video on YouTube – was later revealed by Palestinian bloggers as Israeli actor Omer Gershon.
An intern working in the prime minister’s office publicised the clip on Twitter, and several Israeli government sites linked to the video before the hoax was revealed.
Israel on alert
As part of its preparations to stop the flotilla, the Israeli navy has been conducting extensive exercises and drills.
“We must be ready for all scenarios… the working assumption is that they could meet very violent resistance,” said Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
“This is not a sea cadet ride or a pleasure cruise,” he told Israeli Channel 2 television.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade on the coastal territory when the Islamist militant group Hamas came to power in 2007.
Israel said it was intended to stop militants in Gaza from obtaining rockets to fire at Israel.
The restrictions were widely described as collective punishment of the population of Gaza, resulting in a humanitarian crisis.
On Wednesday, a new report by the Israeli human rights group, Gisha, suggested that Gaza would benefit more from being able to increase its exports rather than being allowed to import and receive aid.
It says 83% of factories in Gaza have either shut down or are operating at less than half their capacity because of the Israeli blockade.
The report says Gaza does not really need more aid, and the Gaza flotilla would be better off taking exports out of Gaza.
Holocaust Survivor Sails to the Gaza Strip: UniversityCity
Hedy Epstein of St. Louis will be part of a group of boats sailing in protest of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Hedy Epstein, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, is having trouble packing her luggage. First, she packed too many clothes to fit in her suitcase, but then again she doesn’t know for how long she will leave. Epstein has traveled several times throughout her life, first from Germany, escaping Adolf Hitler, to England. Then to New York and eventually St. Louis. This time, she is trying to travel light, for a boat trip to the Gaza Strip.
Epstein is one of 34 American passengers aboard the Audacity of Hope, as part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II that will be traveling to the Gaza Strip this week in protest of Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Last year, a similar attempt was made when the Gaza Freedom Flotilla I set sail from the Island of Cyprus to Gaza. Nine people where killed then, when Israeli commandos took over the boats, according to a New York times article. An investigation by several international organizations is still pending.
This, however, will not deter Epstein from going.
“It’s very easy and comfortable to sit here and say, ‘Isn’t that awful, what’s happening there. I wish someone would do something about it’,” Epstein said. “It’s not good enough. If I feel this way, I have to do something about it.”
Epstein has been an activist for a number of human rights and social justice causes throughout her life, recently as an advocate for human rights in the Middle East. Epstein said she has seen many injustices in her lifetime, starting when she fled Nazi Germany.
Surviving The Holocaust
Epstein was born in 1924 in the village of Kippenheim, Germany. In 1933, when she was eight years old, Hitler took power and Epstein’s parents decided they were going to try to leave the country.
“They very quickly realized that staying in Germany under Hitler and being Jewish maybe was not the best combination to raise a family,” Epstein said. “They were anxious to leave and became increasingly more desperate to get out anywhere in the world, didn’t matter where.”
In 1939, Epstein was one of 10,000 Jewish children from Germany who traveled to England before the beginning of World War II. Epstein’s parents could not go with her. They were eventually sent to concentration camps in Europe. While in England, Epstein received regular correspondence from her parents who never told her of their suffering.
On September 1942, Epstein received one last postcard.
“Traveling to the east … Sending you a final goodbye,” the postcard read.
Her parents had been sent to Auschwitz, and Epstein never again heard from them.
Wake-up call
Epstein came to New York to live with relatives in 1948, the same year Israel declared its independence. Epstein said at the time she had mixed feelings about Israel.
“On one hand I was glad there was a place for survivors of the Holocaust to go to, because they either couldn’t or chose not to go back to where they came from,” Epstein said. “But on the other hand, I was afraid that somewhere down the road, no good would come of it.”
Epstein said for many years she did not give much thought to Israel.
“I was new to the United States, had new things to learn and so Israel and Palestine were on the back burner of my interests and remained there for a long time,” Epstein said.
Over the years, Epstein worked in a variety of jobs. She was also an activist for different causes such as fair housing, abortion rights, and antiwar activities. In 1982, Epstein said she got a “wake up call,” about Israel when she read about a massacre in two Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
“As I learned more and understood more, I became increasingly disturbed about Israel’s policies and practices,” Epstein said. “I began to speak out against those policies and practices and speak out publicly.”
Her pro-Palestinian activism came with a price.
Persona non grata
With eight synagogues, a couple of schools and other community centers, University City has a strong Jewish community. Epstein said she knows she is not welcome among that community because of her political beliefs.
“I am not part of the Jewish community around here,” Epstein said. “To them, I am persona non grata because of my politics. They say I am a self-hating Jew, an anti-Semitic, a traitor.”
Epstein said in spite of this, she does not feel left out or alone.
“You can’t be friends with everybody,” Epstein said. “You can’t belong to every group.”
A dangerous sail
Dianne Lee, a professor at St. Louis Community College – Forest Park, who like Epstein is a member of the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition, worries about her friend’s safety.
“It’s certainly dangerous,” Lee said. “I think the people who are participating in the flotilla are very committed and very brave. I think they are going to be remember some day as being on the right side of this issue.”
Epstein said she will not take with her anything that will remotely resemble or could be used as a weapon. In her luggage she’ll carry a few nutrition bars, a toothbrush, a first-aid kit and a couple changes of clothes. In the boat, there will be letters of support for the Gaza Strip from people around the world .
“That will be our cargo,” Epstein said. “That will be our sole cargo.”
To track Epstein in her journey, you can follow her on Twitter.
Israel army uses fabrications to assert flotilla financial links to Hamas: The Electronic Intifafda
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Thu, 06/30/2011 – 14:14
The Israeli military claimed today that it had “uncovered financial links” between the Gaza-bound flotilla and the Palestinian movement Hamas. But their claims are based on unsubstantiated assertions and outright fabrications.
In a press release, the Israeli military made the following sensational claim:
According to Israeli military intelligence, the terrorist organization Hamas and several organizations behind the 2011 Gaza flotilla have similar funding sources. Three Islamic charity funds from the Hamas-affiliated Charity Coalition directly fund Hamas and some of the organizations connected to the 2011 Gaza flotilla.
The press release focuses on the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG) and asserts:
ECESG, one of the flotilla’s leading organizers, is a UK-based umbrella organization of more than thirty Europe-based organizations; it openly supports Hamas. Most of its organizations – founded as Muslim Brotherhood branches in Europe – are participating in the 2011 Gaza flotilla. Israeli military sources found that some of these umbrella organizations are sponsors of Hamas terror activity in the Gaza Strip.
Arafat Madi Mahmoud Shukri
Israel’s military presented absolutely no evidence to back its laundry list of familiar accusations, except for supposedly one damning connection:
ECESG Chairman Dr. Arafat Madi Mahmoud Shukri also serves as chairman of the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC). Due to PRC’s flagrant links to Hamas, it was declared illegal in Israel.
However, this information is false. PRC’s General Director Majed al-Zeer told The Electronic Intifada that Shukri is not and has never been chairman of PRC. Moreover, the connection – even if it were true – does not amount to evidence of anything.
Yesterday’s fabrications are today’s “evidence”
In January, The Electronic Intifada reported on Israel’s efforts to slander, sabotage and attack PRC:
The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), a London-based advocacy organization, has become the latest target of defamation and attempted sabotage in Israel’s ongoing campaign against groups and individuals active in promoting the issue of Palestine and Palestinian human rights.
According to a 27 December 2010 statement by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, PRC “is involved in initiating and organizing radical and violent activity against Israel in Europe, while delegitimizing Israel’s status as a nation among the European community” (“European Hamas Affiliate Deemed Illegal by Minister of Defense,” 27 December 2010).
Israeli security agencies accused the PRC of being a “Hamas affiliate,” which was followed by a decree signed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak stating that the organization is “illegal” in Israel.
The attack on the PRC appears to be the latest installment in a campaign by supposed nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Israel, coordinated with the Israeli government, to accuse groups advocating for Palestinian rights in Europe, the US and elsewhere of “delegitimizing” Israel. Last month, two such organizations released reports accusing London, and the UK as a whole, of being hubs of “delegitimization.”
Israel never presented any evidence to support its lurid accusations against PRC either, and it continues to function as a legal organization doing normal educational and advocacy work as we reported.
Israel’s “evidence” of financial links between Hamas and the flotilla amounts to the alleged involvement of one person in an organization Israel baselessly defamed in the past, with another Palestine solidarity grouping that it is slandering now. In other words, Israel cites its own fabrications as “evidence.”
The Israeli military press release also claims – without presenting a shred of evidence – that two other European organizations “are openly and intimately involved in Hamas charity efforts as well as efforts to illegally break the lawfully enforced naval blockade on Gaza.”
If Israel had any actual evidence it would present it. Because it doesn’t it has to resort to this sort of laughable smear tactic backed only by its own fabrications.
Gaza flotilla: A humanitarian mission or PR?: Al Jazeera English
A look at the media war over the Gaza freedom flotilla; plus, how MEMRI shapes the view of the Arab world in the US.
Gaza Freedom Flotilla: a humanitarian mission or political PR? And MEMRI – the media source shaping the view of the Arab world in the US.
Even before the boats of Freedom Flotilla II set sail for Gaza, the PR and media machine was rumbling. The flotilla is as much a media effort as it is an aid mission. Pro-Palestinian activists have been using the second flotilla journey to bring Gaza back into the media spotlight.
When activists set out last year on the same journey, an Israeli military attack killed nine people on board one of the ships and Israel was internationally condemned. This time around, Israel has been trying to control the story even before the ships have set off. In our News Divide this week we look at how successful both camps have been in getting their stories covered in the media and Israel’s PR strategy in containing this story.
In the News Bytes: Syrian authorities allow foreign journalists back into the country; six months after the fall of President Ben Ali, Tunisia has yet to deliver on its media reform promises; a Chinese investigative reporter has his jail sentence extended; and Google reveals that the US government asks for private user information more than any other country.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an organisation set up in the US that specialises in providing translations of Arabic-language broadcasts. It has become a useful tool for many a journalist covering the Middle East with a limited, or in many cases, zero understanding of Arabic. So in its purpose lies its problem.
MEMRI is a source for journalists that do not understand Arabic, but because they do not understand Arabic, they cannot validate the source. When you consider that the source is the brainchild of a former Israeli intelligence officer and has been caught selectively translating Arabic broadcasts that would reflect negatively on the Muslim world, the problem increases ten-fold.
Listening Post’s Meenakshi Ravi looks at an organisation that is out to influence how the Middle East is seen in the rest of the world’s media.
In an online world, fifteen minutes of fame is just an autotune and remix away. Case in point – a Jamaican relief worker named Clifton Brown. Brown was working to help people across a flooded river when he gave a TV interview. The interview was picked by Jamaica – based DJ Powa who then remixed it, auto-tuned it and stuck it on the web as ‘Nobody Canna Cross it’. Half a million hits later and Brown is negotiating an endorsement deal with a Jamaican mobile phone company. Click here to watch our Internet Video of the Week.
‘The Greek government has bowed to pressure’: Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera interviews Gaza flotilla activist Khalid Turaani about the Greek government’s decision to block the boats.
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The Greek government decided to prohibit the departure of a flotilla of ‘aid ships’ from Greek ports to the Gaza Strip. In a statement released on Friday, the Greeks explained that this was done in a bid to prevent a breach of Israel’s naval blockade against the Palestinian enclave.
Khalid Turaani is a 45-year old American-Palestinian activist and one of the driving forces behind the flotilla. His ship is lying in a port on the Greek island of Corfu, as nearby coast guard ships are making sure it does not move.
Al Jazeera spoke with Turaani about the situation.
Do you think the decision by the Greeks is final?
I don’t believe this decision was made haphazardly. They have taken it into careful consideration. I therefore think that it is irreversable. They just decided that they will pay the price of bad press for stopping the flotilla, which is not going to be too heavy given the state of their economy. So I believe, as far as this flotilla is concered, it is over.
Are you angry?
“I’m not angry. I’m disheartened by the Greek government’s decision to block our flotilla. I was following on Twitter what was going on with the US boat to Gaza as Greek comandos were storming that boat. For me, that brought back bad memories from when the Israeli forces stormed our boat last year during the first ‘Freedom Flotilla’. It is sad that the Greek government now is doing the bidding of the Israeli government.
It seems that the Greek government has bowed to the pressure by the United States and Israel and now they are parroting – in a dumb kind of way – the American and Israeli accusations that this Freedom Flotilla consists of a bunch of extremists. We do not have a death wish. We just believe in what the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote, that “on this land there is what’s worth living for”. We wanted to go and break the siege on Gaza peacefully, as people of conscience who are standing in solidarity with who are oppressed.
What will happen to the boat?
We worked really hard over the year to collect money, pennies and cents really, to buy this boat and put this flotilla together. But freedom is not counted in pennies and cents. These are only tools for us in order to bring light to the desperate conditions that the Palestinians are living under, particularly in Gaza.
But I believe that at least one aim is acchieved. We have brought the world’s attention to what is going on in Gaza.
What is next?
We’re going to have a meeting by the co-ordinating committee for the different nationalities on the boat, during which people will put forward their suggestions on what to do next. We want everybody to have their input.
This flotilla might be over, but our stuggle most certainly is not. It will not be over untill the Israeli occupation of on Palestinian land is over. I think this part of our stuggle for freedom is only beginning actually. We’re not going to just lie down and die. We are used to the Israelis pulling all kinds of tricks. Shooting nine activists on last years flotilla was one of them. Sabotaging our Irish boat in Turkey was another one, and sabotaging the Swedish-Greek boat in Athens yet another.
Ban Ki-moon [UN secretary general] was pressured into asking us to go through proper channels to fight the occupation. As if Mandela went through proper channels to defeat apartheid. As if the Tunisian people went through proper channels to oust [Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali. I wonder if this guy [Ban Ki-moon] actually reads newspapers.
Khalid Turaani is the executive director of INFORM (International Forum on the Middle East) based in Brussells