Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet

[dennis tooth]

People, Berlin wall fall,

aparthide brushed aside all in the blink of an eye,

the time it takes for the eye to pass the thought to the mind,

it's time to realise, time to be alive,

to believe the eyes,the wide eyes that go by,

a shift in the tide is nigh

carries Rachel Corrie,

and she aint saying sorry

buried by steel

and carried by steel,

mere mortals at the wheel,

so tell me how it feels free

to see,

as we and her float towards history,

Sabotaged her once, twice and here she comes for the best of three

one in the chest

and Four to the head

But it can't kill Rachel at peace, in her bed

Asleep in hearts unburdened by blood and flesh

Flittering through minds, panicking the IDF

Shoot for as long as it takes to regret

Shoot yourselves in the shin I'll bet

Shoot the critics and come from the top

but grassshoots from beneath

and tickles your souls of feet

Down to your knees, in chaos theories

While we are the butterfly chasing for peace

Tornadoes come when this wing beats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editor’s Note: A complication from Israel’s attack on six boats trying to take relief supplies to Gaza is the fact that the killing of nine activists occurred on a Turkish-flagged ship, the Mavi Marmara, and Turkey is a NATO member with the same right to claim collective defense as the United States did after the 9/11 attacks.

 

In this guest essay, former British Ambassador Craig Murray, a Law of the Sea expert, recounts what he’s hearing from other diplomats at NATO headquarters:

 

NATO HQ in Brussels is a very unhappy place. There is a strong understanding among the various national militaries that an attack by Israel on a NATO member flagged ship in international waters is an event to which NATO is obliged - legally obliged, as a matter of treaty - to react.Share this article

 

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I must be plain - nobody wants or expects military action against Israel. But there is an uneasy recognition that in theory that ought to be on the table, and that NATO is obliged to do something robust to defend Turkey.

 

Mutual military support of each other is the entire raison d'etre of NATO. You must also remember that to the NATO military the freedom of the high seas guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is a vital alliance interest which officers have been conditioned to uphold their whole career.

 

That is why Turkey was extremely shrewd in reacting immediately to the Israeli attack by calling an emergency NATO meeting. It is why, after the appalling U.S. reaction to the attack with its refusal to name Israel, President Barack Obama has now made a point of phoning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to condole.

 

But the unhappiness in NATO HQ runs much deeper than that, I spoke separately to two friends there, from two different nations. One of them said NATO HQ was "a very unhappy place." The other described the situation as "tense - much more strained than at the invasion of Iraq."

 

Why? There is a tendency of outsiders to regard the senior workings of governments and international organizations as monolithic. In fact there are plenty of highly intelligent - and competitive - people and diverse interests involved.

 

There are already deep misgivings, especially amongst the military, over the Afghan mission. There is no sign of a diminution in Afghan resistance attacks and no evidence of a clear game plan. The military are not stupid and they can see that the Karzai government is deeply corrupt and the Afghan "national" army comprised almost exclusively of tribal enemies of the Pashtuns.

 

You might be surprised by just how high in NATO skepticism runs at the line that in some way occupying Afghanistan helps protect the west, as opposed to stoking dangerous Islamic anger worldwide.

 

So this is what is causing frost and stress inside NATO. The organization is tied up in a massive, expensive and ill-defined mission in Afghanistan that many whisper is counter-productive in terms of the alliance aim of mutual defense.

 

Every European military is facing financial problems as a public deficit financing crisis sweeps the continent. The only glue holding the Afghan mission together is loyalty to and support for the United States.

 

But what kind of mutual support organization is NATO when members must make decades-long commitments, at huge expense and some loss of life, to support the United States, but cannot make even a gesture to support Turkey when Turkey is attacked by a non-member?

 

Even the Eastern Europeans have not been backing the U.S. line on the Israeli attack. The atmosphere in NATO on the issue has been very much the U.S. against the rest, with the U.S. attitude inside NATO described to me by a senior NATO officer as "amazingly arrogant - they don't seem to think it matters what anybody else thinks."

 

Therefore, what is troubling the hearts and souls of non-Americans in NATO HQ is this fundamental question: Is NATO genuinely a mutual defense organization, or is it just an instrument to carry out U..S foreign policy?

 

With its unthinking defense of Israel and military occupation of Afghanistan, is U.S. foreign policy really defending Europe, or is it making the world less safe by causing Islamic militancy?

 

I leave the last word to one of the senior NATO officers - who incidentally is not British:

 

"Nobody but the Americans doubts the U.S. position on the Gaza attack is wrong and insensitive. But everyone already quietly thought the same about wider American policy. This incident has allowed people to start saying that now privately to each other."

[Guest The Chimp]

Is NATO genuinely a mutual defense organization, or is it just an instrument to carry out U..S foreign policy?

 

I've thought that for a while now to be honest.

[lostinspace1970]

There was a tongue in cheek debate about the issue of the involvement of Irish activists on radio earlier. Someone suggested that we should declare war on the Israelis to protect our citizens. But we only have about 50 tanks, no nukes and a tiny army relative to the Israelis. They have more tanks than we have soldiers. What do we have that would scare them ?

 

I texted in that every house in Ireland has an oven. It didn't get read out. Bloody liberal media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

no offence, dudes

[dennis tooth]

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Professor Noam Chomsky, the foreign policy analyst and author of Hegemony and Survival, has rejected Israel's justification for it's attack on humanitarian aid boats headed for Gaza.

 

"Hijacking boats in international waters and killing passengers is, of course, a serious crime," he told Al-Ahram.

 

"It is worth bearing in mind that the crime is nothing new. For decades, Israel has been hijacking boats in international waters between Cyprus and Lebanon, killing or kidnapping passengers, sometimes bringing them to prisons in Israel including secret prison/torture chambers, sometimes holding them as hostages for many years. Israel assumes that it can carry out such crimes with impunity because the US tolerates them and Europe generally follows the US lead.

 

"Much the same is true of Israel's pretext for its latest crime: that the Freedom Flotilla was bringing materials that could be used for bunkers for rockets. Putting aside the absurdity, if Israel were interested in stopping Hamas rockets it knows exactly how to proceed: accept Hamas offers for a cease-fire.

 

"In June 2008, Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement. The Israeli government formally acknowledges that until Israel broke the agreeement on November 4, invading Gaza and killing half a dozen Hamas activists, Hamas did not fire a single rocket. Hamas offered to renew the cease-fire. The Israeli cabinet considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to launch its murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead on December 27. Evidently, there is no justification for the use of force "in self-defense" unless peaceful means have been exhausted. In this case they were not even tried, although—or perhaps because—there was every reason to suppose that they would succeed. Operation Cast Lead is therefore sheer criminal aggression, with no credible pretext, and the same is true of Israel's current resort to force.

 

"The siege of Gaza itself does not have the slightest credible pretext. It was imposed by the US and Israel in January 2006 to punish Palestinians because they voted "the wrong way" in a free election, and it was sharply intensified in July 2007 when Hamas blocked a US-Israeli attempt to overthrow the elected government in a military coup, installing Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan. The siege is savage and cruel, designed to keep the caged animals barely alive so as to fend off international protest, but hardly more than that. It is the latest stage of long-standing Israeli plans, backed by the US, to separate Gaza from the West Bank.

 

"These are only the bare outlines of very ugly policies, in which Egypt is complicit as well."

[dennis tooth]

Just Torpedo The Next Flotilla

Submitted by Jonathan Mark on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 11:13

 

The beauty of the almost unanimous international condemnation of Israel for attempting to stop the terrorist flotilla like gentlemen -- using paint guns? -- instead of using serious military force, should send a message to Jews: You can't win by being polite to terrorists who have a schoolyard bully mentality. Weakness brings out even more outrageous behavior in bullies.

 

Next flotilla -- just sink it. Torpedo it. See how many more flotillas follow. The condemnation won't be any different. But you'll stop seeing cowardly western leftists signing up to sail with the terrorists, and you may even dent the number of terrorists who'll want to sail, and you'll see less ship owners willing to lose their boats. Better that than even one more Jew being injured while boarding these floating Jenins.

 

Few events in recent decades have illuminated the complete hypocrisy of the world. There is nothing that Israel can do or could have done that would stop the next diplomatic ambush. So start acting tough. Call off all peace talks and "proximilty" talks, just like the Palestinians do or threaten to do for "provocations" far less grievous than the Arab-orchestrated gang-up of the past week. If the Palestinians demand a freeze on settlements and construction in Jerusalem before any talks, Israel should demand an end to incitement and nonsense like these fake humanitarian stunts. Throw Obama's go-between, George Mitchell, out of the country. Start building again in the settlements and Jerusalem. Obama treats enemies better than friends, so don't be afraid of him, especially with midterm elections coming. And sink the next flotilla -- and the one after that.

 

If the peace process is so important to the United States, Obama will have to start figuring out a way to make Israel feel less isolated and demonized.

 

By Israel fighting as if their lives actually depended on it -- which it does -- Israel will, in fact, be taken more seriously by the international scholyard bullies. Bring back the "fear factor." It is the reason why in 1980 Iran released the hostages when Reagan became president, and not during Carter's presidency, because Carter was rightly seen by the Iranians as a wim and Reagan was feared as a trigger-happy cowboy.

 

We are no longer in the general Euopean anti-Semitism mode but deeper into the run-up (in the Arab mind) to the Final Solution -- the extermination of Israel -- in which a Jew sitting on an Aryan park bench is as much of a criminal as a Jew who robs a bank. We might as well rob the bank. We might as well take out Iran as take out the flotilla.

 

The Other Side is fearless now. If someone is going to fear anyone, make the bad guys fear Israel. Right now, too many Jews fear the world. Turn the tables. Make the bad guys think that Israel is craziest S.O.B. in the room. Make everyone wonder what the Jews will do. The world will be furious? Imagine that. Imagine winning. All that Jews have done lately far is imagine losing. That has to end.

 

This is a war. Either win it or surrender now, before any one else gets hurt.

[torahboy]

If this shit was written by a Muslim journalist he would now be in custody. And people wonder why Zionists aren't popular.

[Anubis]

“Gun control? We need paint pellet control! I think every paint pellet should cost $5,000. Because if a paint pellet cost $5,000, we wouldn't have any more innocent bystanders.”

[The Special One]

Just Torpedo The Next Flotilla

Submitted by Jonathan Mark on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 11:13

 

The beauty of the almost unanimous international condemnation of Israel for attempting to stop the terrorist flotilla like gentlemen -- using paint guns? -- instead of using serious military force, should send a message to Jews: You can't win by being polite to terrorists who have a schoolyard bully mentality. Weakness brings out even more outrageous behavior in bullies.

 

Next flotilla -- just sink it. Torpedo it. See how many more flotillas follow. The condemnation won't be any different. But you'll stop seeing cowardly western leftists signing up to sail with the terrorists, and you may even dent the number of terrorists who'll want to sail, and you'll see less ship owners willing to lose their boats. Better that than even one more Jew being injured while boarding these floating Jenins.

 

Few events in recent decades have illuminated the complete hypocrisy of the world. There is nothing that Israel can do or could have done that would stop the next diplomatic ambush. So start acting tough. Call off all peace talks and "proximilty" talks, just like the Palestinians do or threaten to do for "provocations" far less grievous than the Arab-orchestrated gang-up of the past week. If the Palestinians demand a freeze on settlements and construction in Jerusalem before any talks, Israel should demand an end to incitement and nonsense like these fake humanitarian stunts. Throw Obama's go-between, George Mitchell, out of the country. Start building again in the settlements and Jerusalem. Obama treats enemies better than friends, so don't be afraid of him, especially with midterm elections coming. And sink the next flotilla -- and the one after that.

 

If the peace process is so important to the United States, Obama will have to start figuring out a way to make Israel feel less isolated and demonized.

 

By Israel fighting as if their lives actually depended on it -- which it does -- Israel will, in fact, be taken more seriously by the international scholyard bullies. Bring back the "fear factor." It is the reason why in 1980 Iran released the hostages when Reagan became president, and not during Carter's presidency, because Carter was rightly seen by the Iranians as a wim and Reagan was feared as a trigger-happy cowboy.

 

We are no longer in the general Euopean anti-Semitism mode but deeper into the run-up (in the Arab mind) to the Final Solution -- the extermination of Israel -- in which a Jew sitting on an Aryan park bench is as much of a criminal as a Jew who robs a bank. We might as well rob the bank. We might as well take out Iran as take out the flotilla.

 

The Other Side is fearless now. If someone is going to fear anyone, make the bad guys fear Israel. Right now, too many Jews fear the world. Turn the tables. Make the bad guys think that Israel is craziest S.O.B. in the room. Make everyone wonder what the Jews will do. The world will be furious? Imagine that. Imagine winning. All that Jews have done lately far is imagine losing. That has to end.

 

This is a war. Either win it or surrender now, before any one else gets hurt.

 

Priceless.

[L19red]

here we go again

 

BBC News - Gaza aid ship Rachel Corrie 'defies Israeli orders'

 

An Irish-owned aid ship attempting to break the blockade of Gaza has defied Israeli orders to change course, Israel's military says.

 

The MV Rachel Corrie was instructed to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod but has not complied, Israel says.

 

Israeli naval vessels are shadowing the ship but troops have not boarded.

 

It comes days after Israeli commandos stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Clashes on board left nine people dead.

 

That raid brought strong condemnation of Israel, especially from Turkey, from where most of the victims came.

 

The Rachel Corrie is believed to be in international waters, about 35 miles (56km) off the Israeli coast.

 

"We indicated several times to the organisers aboard the ship that they should head to the port of Ashdod as there is a blockade in force on the Gaza Strip, but they ignored our appeals and are continuing to head towards Gaza," a military spokeswoman said, AFP news agency reported.

 

The activists had earlier said they would not resist any Israeli attempts to stop the ship.

 

The Rachel Corrie is named after a US college student who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she protested over house demolitions in Gaza in 2003.

 

Condemnation

Israel has said if the ship docks at Ashdod, the aid will be delivered to Gaza by road after the cargo has been inspected for banned items.

 

Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory.

 

Activists say there are 20 people, including five Irish nationals, six Malaysians and nine crew members, on board the Rachel Corrie.

 

It had been a part of the previous flotilla, but was delayed by technical problems.

 

Israel has faced a storm of international criticism after its troops shot dead nine people during a violent confrontation on the Turkish Mavi Marmara in the early hours of Monday.

 

Accounts as to what happened when Israeli soldiers rappelled from helicopters on to the Mavi Marmara differ.

 

Israel says its commandos were attacked with weapons, including knives, and opened fire in self-defence. Pro-Palestinian activists on board say troops shot at them without provocation.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

here we go again

 

BBC News - Gaza aid ship Rachel Corrie 'defies Israeli orders'

 

An Irish-owned aid ship attempting to break the blockade of Gaza has defied Israeli orders to change course, Israel's military says.

 

The MV Rachel Corrie was instructed to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod but has not complied, Israel says.

 

Israeli naval vessels are shadowing the ship but troops have not boarded.

 

It comes days after Israeli commandos stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Clashes on board left nine people dead.

 

That raid brought strong condemnation of Israel, especially from Turkey, from where most of the victims came.

 

The Rachel Corrie is believed to be in international waters, about 35 miles (56km) off the Israeli coast.

 

"We indicated several times to the organisers aboard the ship that they should head to the port of Ashdod as there is a blockade in force on the Gaza Strip, but they ignored our appeals and are continuing to head towards Gaza," a military spokeswoman said, AFP news agency reported.

 

The activists had earlier said they would not resist any Israeli attempts to stop the ship.

 

The Rachel Corrie is named after a US college student who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she protested over house demolitions in Gaza in 2003.

 

Condemnation

Israel has said if the ship docks at Ashdod, the aid will be delivered to Gaza by road after the cargo has been inspected for banned items.

 

Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory.

 

Activists say there are 20 people, including five Irish nationals, six Malaysians and nine crew members, on board the Rachel Corrie.

 

It had been a part of the previous flotilla, but was delayed by technical problems.

 

Israel has faced a storm of international criticism after its troops shot dead nine people during a violent confrontation on the Turkish Mavi Marmara in the early hours of Monday.

 

Accounts as to what happened when Israeli soldiers rappelled from helicopters on to the Mavi Marmara differ.

 

Israel says its commandos were attacked with weapons, including knives, and opened fire in self-defence. Pro-Palestinian activists on board say troops shot at them without provocation.

 

Just torpedo the bunch of Nobel Peace price winning terrorist bastards.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Holy fucksickle

 

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.

 

The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Also worth reading

 

Gaza flotilla attack: Autopsies reveal intensity of Israeli military force | World news | The Guardian

[Anubis]

Quality that the Irish have named their ship the Rachel Corrie. If anything sums up the US attitude to Israel, then it's non-response to the murder by the IDF of one of it's own citizens should tell you everything.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

BBC News - Israeli troops 'board Rachel Corrie Gaza aid ship'

 

They've boarded the other ship.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

BBC News - Israeli troops 'board Rachel Corrie Gaza aid ship'

 

They've boarded the other ship.

[BatChainPuller]

Sabotaging Peace

The Real Motive Behind the Gaza Flotilla Attack

 

By RANNIE AMIRI

Rannie Amiri: The Real Motive Behind the Gaza Flotilla Attack

Worldwide outrage and condemnation of Israel’s brazen, unprovoked attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which killed at least nine activists and injured dozens, was predictable and justified. Many remained puzzled, though, as to why Israel thought it necessary to send in elite, rappelling commandos to confront an unarmed civilian flotilla carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the beleaguered territory. The six-ship convoy was co-sponsored by a Turkish humanitarian organization and sailed under Turkey’s flag when it was raided in international waters.

 

The consensus was that Israel was “sending a message.” Anyone who dared challenge its naval blockade and siege of Gaza would meet a similar fate.

 

This is a correct yet superficial analysis. The real motive behind the Israeli assault is far more sinister: to deliberately undermine (if not entirely abort) consequential, substantive peace talks with the Palestinians and Syrians, and repay the Turks for negotiating a nuclear fuel-swap deal with Iran (which significantly set back Israel’s case for military intervention).

 

In essence, it was done to sabotage peace.

 

“We have to set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion,” David Ben Gurion famously stated. And peace, stability and diplomacy are obstacles to Zionism’s tenets of land acquisition and subjugation of indigenous peoples.

 

There have been recent calls to advance the indirect, United States-mediated proximity talks taking place between the Israeli government and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. This now seems unlikely.

 

The opening sentence of a May 31 Associated Press report inferred similarly:

 

“Israel's bloody, bungled takeover of a Gaza-bound Turkish aid vessel is complicating U.S.-led Mideast peace efforts, deepening Israel's international isolation ...”

 

That was exactly the intent. Israel can easily wither “international isolation” to the degree the U.S. protects it from meaningful sanction. Israel actually covets isolation; it permits it to operate in “nothing to lose” mode. Expropriation of Palestinian land accelerates and reckless behavior goes unchecked.

 

Additionally, the attack effectively severs relations with Turkey. Israel wants no part of a non-military solution to the Iranian nuclear issue like the one just brokered by Turkey and Brazil. Turkey’s role in mediating between Syria and Israel, for all the perfunctory plaudits the latter gave it, was actually unwelcome and is now off the table as well.

 

It would not be the first time Israel deliberately provoked a crisis at the expense of civilian lives to further its expansionist agenda, justify war, or use as a campaign issue:

 

* Six weeks before Israel’s 1996 elections, Prime Minister Shimon Peres launched operation “Grapes of Wrath,” a two-week military blitz in Lebanon conducted in the midst of a two-decade occupation of the south. During it, the Israelis massacred 106 civilians that had sought shelter at a United Nations compound in Qana.

 

* In September 2000, four months before his election, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (accompanied by 1,000 riot police), paraded through the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, which includes al-Aqsa mosque—the third holiest site in Islam—leading to the Second Intifada.

 

The United Nations Human Rights Commission, in a resolution titled “Grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel,” condemned “the provocative visit to Al-Haram al-Sharif on 28 September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians.”

 

Sharon then campaigned on putting down the intifada he instigated.

 

* 1,500 Lebanese were killed, one million displaced, and the country’s civil infrastructure decimated during Israel’s failed bid to destroy Hezbollah in the July 2006 war. The conflict started after two Israeli commandos were caught snooping around the Lebanese border town of Aitaa al-Chaab. After years of repeated, illegal violations of Lebanese airspace failed to provoke a response, the soldiers’ capture was the pretense needed to initiate the disproportionate Israeli onslaught.

 

* The flimsy rationale upon which the 2008-2009 Gaza invasion was based was previously discussed.

 

The latest Israeli operation against 700 activists delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza is only the latest in a series of criminal endeavors meant to quash any hope for peace, negotiation or conflict resolution between Israel, its neighbors and the Palestinians.

 

Mission accomplished.

Rannie Amiri is an independent Middle East commentator. He may be reached at: rbamiri [at] yahoo [dot] com.

[dennis tooth]

Makes a lot more sense now, why they had the list, the Turks, the way the media seemed to report against Isreal for the first time in a long time, something was amiss.

[Pope]

Why is there so much war nowadays? Im probably the least argumentative person on earth, i never get bothered by aggression, i love people.

 

people need my mentality, we need to be more passive for the human race to progress

[dennis tooth]

Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to update my blog. The events of the past few days have been hectic to say the least, and I am still trying to come to grips with many of the things that have happened.

 

It was this time last week that I was on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara, and first spotted Israeli warships at a distance, as they approached the humanitarian flotilla. Little did I know how deadly and bloody the events that soon unfolded would be.

 

What I will write in this entry is fact, every letter of it, none of it is opinion, none of it is analysis, I will leave that to you, the reader.

 

After spotting the warships at a distance, (at roughly 11pm) the organisers called for passengers to wear their life vests and remain indoors as they monitored the situation. The naval warships together with helicopters remained at a distance for several hours.

 

At 2am local time the organisers informed me that they had re-routed the ship, as far away from Israel as possible, as deep into international waters as they could. They did not want a confrontation with the Israeli military, at least not by night.

 

Just after 4am local time, the Israeli military attacked the ship, in international waters. It was an unprovoked attack. Tear gas was used, sound grenades were launched, and rubber coated steel bullets were fired from almost every direction.

 

Dozens of speed boats carrying about 15-20 masked Israeli soldiers, armed to the teeth surrounded the Mavi Marmara which was carrying 600 or so unarmed civilians. Two helicopters at a time hovered above the vessel. Commandos on board the choppers joined the firing, using live ammunition, before any of the soldiers had descended onto the ship.

 

Two unarmed civilians were killed just metres away from me. Dozens of unarmed civilians were injured right before my eyes.

 

One Israeli soldier, armed with a large automatic gun and a side pistol, was overpowered by several passengers. They disarmed him. They did not use his weapons or fire them; instead they threw his weapons over board and into the sea.

 

After what seemed at the time as roughly 30 minutes, passengers on board the ship raised a white flag. The Israeli army continued to fire live ammunition. The ships organisers made a loud speaker announcement saying they have surrendered the ship. The Israeli army continued to fire live ammunition.

 

I was the last person to leave the top deck.

 

Below, inside the sleeping quarters, all the passengers had gathered. There was shock, anger, fear, hurt, chaos.

 

Doctors ran in all directions trying to treat the wounded, blood was on the floor, tears ran down people’s faces, cries of pain and mourning could be heard everywhere. Death was in the air.

 

Three critically injured civilians were being treated on the ground in the reception area of the ship. Their clothes soaked in blood. Passengers stood by watching in shock, some read out verses of the Qur’an to calm them, doctors worked desperately to save them.

 

Several announcements were made on the load speakers in Hebrew, Arabic and English - "This is a message to the Israeli army, we have surrendered. We are unarmed. We have critically injured people. Please come and take them. We will not attack."

 

There was no response.

 

One of the passengers, a member of the Israeli Parliament, wrote a sign in Hebrew, reading the exact same thing; she held it together with a white flag and approached the windows where the Israeli soldiers were standing outside. They pointed their laser guided guns to her head, ordering her to go away.

 

A British citizen tried the same sign - this time holding a British Flag and taking the sign to a different set of windows and different set of soldiers. They responded in the same manner.

 

Three hours later, all three of the injured were pronounced dead. The Israeli soldiers who refused to allow them treatment succeeded where their colleagues had earlier failed when they targeted these three men with bullets.

 

At around 8am the Israeli army entered the sleeping quarters. They handcuffed the passengers. I was thrown onto the ground, my hands tied behind my back, I couldn’t move an inch.

 

I was taken to the top deck where the other passengers were, forced to sit on my knees under the burning sun.

 

One passenger had his hands tied so tight his wrists were all sorts of colours. When he requested that the cuffs be loosened, an Israeli soldier tightened them even more. He let out a scream that sent chills down my body.

 

I requested to go to the bathroom, I was prevented. Instead the Israeli soldier told me to urinate where I was and in my own clothes. Three or four hours later I was allowed to go.

 

I was then marched, together with the other passengers, back to the sleeping quarters. The place was ransacked, its image like that of the aftermath of an earthquake.

 

I remained on the ship, seated, without any food or drink, barring three sips of water, for more than 24 hours. Throughout this time, Israeli soldiers had their guns pointed at us. Their hands on the trigger. For more than 24 hours.

 

I was then taken off the ship at Ashdod where I was asked to sign a deportation orde. It claimed that I had entered Israel illegally and agreed to be deported. I told the officer that I, in fact, had not entered Israel but that the Israeli army had kidnapped me from international waters and brought me to Israel against my will; therefore I could not sign this document.

 

My passport was taken from me. I was told that I would go to jail.

 

Only then were my hands freed, I spent more than 24 hours with my hands cuffed behind my back, with nothing to eat, and barely anything to drink.

 

Upon arrival at the prison I was put in a cell with three other passengers. The cell was roughly 12ft by 9ft.

 

I spent more than 24 hours in jail. I was not allowed to make a single phone call.

 

The British consulate did not come and see me. I did not see a lawyer.

 

There was no hot water for a shower.

 

The only meal was frozen bread and some potatoes.

 

The only reason I believe I was released was because the Turkish prisoners refused to leave until and unless the other nationalities (those whose consulates had not come and released them) were set free.

 

I was taken to Ben Gurion airport. When I asked for my passport, the Israeli official presented me with a piece of paper and said "congratulations this is your new passport". I replied "you must be joking, you have my passport". The Israeli official's response: "sue me".

 

There I was asked again to sign a deportation order. Again I refused.

 

I was put on a plane headed to Istanbul.

 

Masked Israeli soldiers and commandos took me from international waters.

 

Uniformed Israeli officials locked me behind bars.

 

The British government did not lift a finger to help me, till this day I have not seen or heard from a British official.

 

The Israeli government stole my passport.

 

The Israeli government stole my lap top, two cameras, 3 phones, $1500 and all my possessions.

 

My government, the British government has not even acknowledged my existence.

 

I was kidnapped by Israel. I was forsaken by my country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fresh eyewitness accounts have emerged from those on board the ship since then.

 

An Australian man shot in the leg during the incident said he was "left to bleed" by Israeli troops.

 

"Many of the soldiers that came up, picked up my passport because it was a different colour, looked at it, chucked it on the ground next to me and said, 'Ah, you're Australian," Ahmed Luqman told Australia's national broadcaster ABC, from his hospital bed in Istanbul.

[Stu Monty]

Really fucked up stuff.

 

It's so depressing.

[dennis tooth]

An Italian journalist who was detained by the Israel Defense Forces following the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla says his credit card was used to purchase items after it was confiscated by the Israeli authorities.

Manolo Luppichini was aboard the Sfintoni-8000, one of the smaller boats in the flotilla, when the naval commandos took it over. "Nobody was killed on our boat," Luppichini said in a telephone call from Italy. "We tried a little passive resistance around the boat's bridge. The soldiers fired paint balls and two people were hurt by stun [taser] guns."

 

After the Israel Navy took over the boat, he said, the soldiers searched every passenger and confiscated everything they found. "They took two cameras, microphones, a stand and other equipment from me and my photographer. They took one of the cameras as I was taking photographs," says Luppichini, who was working for Italy's RAI-3 television and an Italian-Swiss television channel when he was detained.

 

"Afterward they took my wallet, passport, bag and all personal effects on the boat," he says.

 

Luppichini was taken to Ashdod port and then transferred to a Be'er Sheva prison compound, where he says he received a form saying his passport had been impounded.

 

On June 2 he was taken to an Immigration Authority compound and on the following day was deported. Although he showed the document proving Israel had confiscated his passport, he says he was deported without receiving any of his property or identification papers back.

 

A few days ago Luppichini discovered that while he was confined in Be'er Sheva and after he was back in Italy - a day after his deportation - purchases were made with his credit card, which the Israeli authorities had confiscated.

 

One purchase was from a vending machine in Tel Aviv for about NIS 10 on June 2, he says. Another purchase, for NIS 240, was made in Gedera's Village Market - while Luppichini himself was in Bologna, Italy.

 

"The sums were not large," he says, "among other things because it's a rechargeable credit card that had only 80 euros on it. But in principle it's theft, for all intents and purposes." Luppichini has written a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, the foreign and defense ministers and to Israel's ambassador and consuls in Italy on the matter.

 

Luppichini says he wants to know who used his credit card, along with why and how. He is also demanding that all of his equipment be returned to him immediately.

 

The IDF spokesman released a statement saying that the flotilla passengers' personal belongings had been loaded onto the Turkish planes on which they were flown out of the country. All the magnetic media was confiscated for security reasons and the IDF is considering whether these items will be returned. If a Foreign Ministry and police inquiry leads to the suspicion that anyone has stolen Luppichini's credit card, the matter will be dealt with severely.

[dennis tooth]

 

Eyewitness to the Israeli Assault on the Mavi Marmara

 

By DAVE LINDORFF

 

Kevin Neish of Victoria, British Columbia, didn’t know he was a celebrity until he was about to board a flight from Istanbul to Ottawa. “This Arab woman wearing a beautiful outfit suddenly ran up to me crying, ‘It’s you! From Arab TV! You’re famous!’” he recalls with a laugh. “I didn’t know what she was talking about, but she told me, ‘I saw you flipping through the Israeli commando’s book! It’s being aired over and over!’”

 

A soft-spoken teacher and former civilian engineer with the Canadian Department of Defense, Neish realized then that a video taken by an Arab TV cameraman in the midst of the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza of him flipping through a booklet had been transmitted before the Israelis blocked all electronic signals from the flotilla. The booklet had pictures and profiles of all the passengers, and he'd found it in the backpack of an Israeli Defense Force commando.

 

Neish, 53, was on the second deck of the flotilla’s lead ship, the Turkish Mavi Marmara, with a good view of the stern, when the IDF, in the early morning darkness of May 31, began its assault with percussion grenades, tear gas and a hail of bullets. He then moved to the fourth deck in an enclosed stairwell, from which he watched took photographs as casualties were carried down past him to a makeshift medical station. Several IDF commandos, captured by the passengers and crew, were also brought past him.

 

“I saw them carrying this one IDF guy down,” he recalls. “He looked terrified, like he thought he was going to be killed. But when a big Turkish guy, who had seen seriously injured passengers who had been shot by the IDF, charged over and tried to hit the commando, the Turkish aid workers pushed him off and pinned him to the wall. They protected this Israeli soldier.”

 

That was when he found the backpack which the soldier had dropped. “I figured I’d look inside and see what he was carrying,” Neish says. “And inside was this kind of flip-book. It was full of photos and names in English and Hebrew of who was on all the ships. The booklet also had a detailed diagram of the decks of the Mavi Marmara.”

 

Meanwhile, he says, more and more people were being carried down the stairs from the mayhem above—people who'd been shot, and people who were dying or people already dead. “I took detailed photos of the dead and wounded with my camera,” he says, adding, “There were several guys who had two neat bullet holes side by side on the side of their head--clearly they were executed.”

 

Neish smuggled his photos out of Israel to Turkey despite his arrest on the ship and imprisonment in Israel for several days. “I pulled out the memory card, tossed my camera and anything I had on me that had anything to do with electronics, and then kept moving the chip around so it wouldn’t be found,” he says. “The Israelis took all the cameras and computers. They were smashing some and keeping others. I put the chip in my mouth under my tongue, between my butt cheeks, in my sock, everywhere, to keep them from finding it,” he says. He finally handed it to a Turk who was leaving for a flight home on a Turkish airline. He says the card ended up in the hands of an organization called Free Gaza, and he has seen some of his pictures published, so he knows they made it out successfully.

 

Neish says that claims that the Israeli commandos were just armed with paint guns and 9 mm pistols are “Bullshit--at one point when I was in the stairwell, a commando opened a hatch above, stuck in a machine gun, and started firing. Bullets were bouncing all over the place. If the guy had gotten to look in and see where he was shooting, I’d have been dead, but two Turkish guys in the stairwell, who had short lengths of chain with them that they had taken from the access points to the lifeboats, stood to the side of the hatch and whipped them up at the barrell. I don’t know if they were trying to hit the commando or to use them to snatch away the gun, but the Israeli backed off, and they slammed and locked the hatch.”

 

“I never saw a single paint gun, or a sign of a fired paint ball!” he says.

He also didn't see any guns in the hands of people who were on the ship. “In the whole time I was there on the ship, I never saw a single weapon in the hands of the crew or the aid workers,” he says. Indeed, Neish, who originally had been on a smaller 70-foot yacht called the Challenger II, had transferred to the Mavi Marmara after a stop in Cyprus, because his boat had been sabatoged by Israeli agents (a claim verified by the Israeli government), making it impossible to steer. “When we came aboard the big boat, I was frisked and my bag was inspected for weapons,” he says. “Being an engineer, I of course had a pocket knife, but they took that and tossed it into the ocean. Nobody was allowed to have any weapons on this voyage. They were very careful about that.”

 

What he did see during the IDF assault was severe bullet wounds. “In addition to several people I saw who were killed, I saw several dozen wounded people. There was one older guy who was just propped up against the wall with a huge hole in his chest. He died as I was taking his picture.”

 

Neish says he saw many of the 9 who were known to have been killed, and of the 40 who were wounded, and adds, “There were many more who were wounded, too, but less seriously. In the Israeli prison, I saw people with knife wounds and broken bones. Some were hiding their injuries so they wouldn’t be taken away from the others.” He also says, “Initially there were reports that 16 on the boat had been killed. The medical station said 16. There was a suspicion that some bodies may have been thrown overboard. But what people think now is that the the other seven who are missing, since we’re not hearing from families, may have been Israeli spies.”

 

Once the Israeli commandos had secured control of the Mavi Marmara, Neish says the ship’s passengers and crew were rounded up, with the men put in one area on deck, and the women put below in another area. The men were told to squat, and had their hands bound with plastic cuffs, which Neish says were pulled so tight that his wrists were cut and his hands swelled up and turned purple (he is still suffering nerve damage from the experience, which his doctor in Canada says he hopes will gradually repair on its own).

 

“They told us to be quiet,” he says. “But at one point this Turkish imam stood up and started singing a call to prayer. Everybody was dead quiet--even the Israelis. But after about ten seconds, this Israeli officer stomped over through the squatting people, pulled out his pistol and pointed at the guy’s head, yelling ‘Shut up!’ in English. The imam looked at him directly and just kept singing! I thought, Jesus Christ, he’s gonna kill him! Then I thought, well, this is what I’m here for, I guess, so I stood up. The officer wheeled around and pointed his gun at my head. The imam finished his song and sat down, and then I sat down.”

 

While the commandeered vessels were sailed to the Israeli port of Ashdot, the captives were left without food or water. “All we were given were some chocolate bars that the Israelis pilfered from the ship’s stores,” says Neish. “You had to grovel to get to go to the bathroom, and many people had to just go in their pants.”

 

Things didn’t get much better once the passengers were transferred to an Israeli prison. He and the other prisoners with him, who hadn’t eaten for more than half a day, were tossed a frozen block of bread and some cucumbers.

 

On the second day, someone from the Canadian embassy came around, calling out his name. “It turned out he’d been going to every cell looking for me,” says Neish. “My daughter had been frantically telling the Canadian government I was in the flotilla. Even though the Israelis had my name and knew where I was, they weren’t telling the Canadian embassy people. In fact the Canadians--and my daughter--thought I was dead, because people had said I’d been near the initial assault. The good thing is that as they went around calling out for me, they discovered two Arab-born Canadians that they hadn’t known were there.”

 

“Eventually they got to my cell and I answered them. The embassy official said, ‘You’re Kevin? You’re supposed to be dead.’”

 

After being held for a few days, there was a rush to move everyone to the Ben Gurion airport for a flight to Turkey. “It turned out that Israeli lawyers had brought our case to the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of our capture on international waters. There was a chance that the court would order the IDF to put us back on our ships and let us go, so the government wanted to get us out of Israel and moot the case. But two guys were hauled off, probably by Mossad (the Israeli intelligence agency). So we all said, ‘No. We don’t go unless you bring them back.’”

 

The two men were returned and were allowed to leave with the rest of the group.

 

“I honestly never thought the Israelis would board the ship,” says Neish. “I thought we’d get into Gaza. I mean, I went as part of the Free Gaza Movement, and they had made prior attempts, with some getting in, and some getting boarded or rammed, but this time it was a big flotilla. I figured we’d be stopped, and maybe searched. My boat, the Challenger II, only had dignitaries on board including three German MPs, and then Lt. Col. Ann Wright and myself.

 

At one point in the Israeli prison, all the violence finally got to this man who had witnessed more death and mayhem than many active duty US troops in Iraq or Afghanistan. “I broke down and started crying,” he admits. “This big Turkish guy came over and asked me, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘Sixteen people died.’”

 

“He said to me, ‘No, they died for a wonderful cause. They’re happy. You just go out and tell your story.’”

[Funkasy]

so what was that good cause they died for ?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

so what was that good cause they died for ?

 

I can answer that seriously, if it's a serious question? If not... well, then so's your mum.

[dennis tooth]

"The one thing we all adore,

Something worth dying for

Nothing but pain

Stuck in this game

Searching for fortune and fame."