Unbelievable though it is, Israel's armed forces opened fire on unarmed crew members and protesters on board the Mavi Marmara and possibly other ships. 16 are reported dead with possibly 50 wounded. The attack took place in international waters against ships whose only purpose was a humanitarian mission. It will be interesting to see how western leaders attempt to justify the latest murderous activities of their pampered watchdog. How they will explain this away as 'anti-terrorism'. Already the Israeli government has described the Gaza mission as a "provocation intended to delegitimise Israel". It is an indication of the sick mentality of Zionism's defenders that a mission to break a starvation blockade 'deligitimises Israel' but if that is what they feel, then it proves that Israel is indeed an illegitimate state.
We shall see how those who weep crocodile tears when it comes to the Iranian government's murder of protesters react to the murderous attack by Israel's navy on an unarmed convoy of ships.
And to those who questioned the Goldstone Report's conclusion, this is the proof that Israel's military are murderous bastards and war criminals.
Tony Greenstein
Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet
Al Jazeera's report on board the Mavi Marmara before communications were cut
Israeli forces have attacked a flotilla of aid-carrying ships aiming to break the country's siege on Gaza.
More than 10 people were killed and dozens injured when troops intercepted the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, the Israeli military said.
The Israeli Army Radio had earlier said that up to 16 people had been killed.
Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead.
Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, on board the Mavi Marmara, said Israeli troops had used live ammunition during the operation.
The Israeli military said four soldiers had been wounded, two of them moderately, and claimed troops opened fire after "demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs".
Free Gaza Movement, the organisers of the flotilla, however, said the troops opened fire as soon as they stormed the ships.
They also said the ships were now being towed to the Israeli town of Haifa, instead of Ashdod to avoid waiting journalists.
Israeli intervention
Earlier, the Israeli navy had contacted the captain of the Mavi Marmara, asking him to identify himself and say where the ship was headed.
Shortly after, two Israeli naval vessels had flanked the flotilla on either side, but at a distance.
Organisers of the flotilla carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid then diverted their ships and slowed down to avoid a confrontation during the night.
They also issued all passengers life jackets and asked them to remain below deck.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Jerusalem, said the Israeli action was surprising.
"All the images being shown from the activists on board those ships show clearly that they were civilians and peaceful in nature, with medical supplies on board. So it will surprise many in the international community to learn what could have possibly led to this type of confrontation," he said.Meanwhile, Israeli police have been put on a heightened state of alert across the country to prevent any civil disturbances.
Protests
Condemnation has been quick to pour in after the Israeli action.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, officially declared a three-day state of mourning over Monday's deaths.
Thousands of Turkish protesters tried to storm the Israeli consulate in Istanbul soon after the news of the operation broke. The protesters shouted "Damn Israel" as police blocked them.
Turkey is also reported to have summoned the Israeli ambassador to lodge a protest.
"(The interception on the convoy) is unacceptable ... Israel will have to endure the consequences of this behaviour," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, has also dubbed the Israeli action as "barbaric".
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, including a Nobel laureate and several European legislators, were with the flotilla, aiming to reach Gaza in defiance of an Israeli embargo.
But Israel had said it would not allow the flotilla to reach the Gaza Strip and vowed to stop the six ships from reaching the coastal Palestinian territory.
The flotilla had set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday and aimed to reach Gaza by Monday morning.
Israel said the boats were embarking on "an act of provocation" against the Israeli military, rather than providing aid, and that it had issued warrants to prohibit their entrance to Gaza.
It asserted that the flotilla would be breaking international law by landing in Gaza, a claim the organisers rejected.
Israel will pay a price in blood for this act.
ReplyDeleteWe see in this latest barbarity Israeli and Western hypocrisy at its height. If China had done this then it would have been condemned. Somalis who hijack boats are condemned when they rarely kill anyone. Israel had the highest tech boats, helicopters etc.
ReplyDeleteTo even pretend that this was justified is an abomination. If you do this, as the BBC is trying to do, then it reveals the depths of one's bias
I dont understand you, really.
ReplyDeleteSay t-h-n-a-n-k that we didnt sink your boats.
Tell me, HOW can boats enter to our territory without premission? its impossible. other countries would sink you boats.
WE TOLD you to come with us to check the boats, you didnt respond - that why? if its a bomb-boat? think about it.
Another think, believe me, our country give all of this time assistance. your terrorists just want to hit and hit and.. agaian, hit. they behave like animals. serious.
Excellent stuff TG.
ReplyDeleteJust a reminder that members of the Scottish PSC are still paying the price for publicly protesting against the British Government foreign policy support of Israel.
Mick Napier of the Scottish PSC, I believe, is still paying off legal fees incurred when the British state refused to qualify him for legal aid after amending their charge against him to a more sever one of 'aggravated racism' when he protested against the Jerusalem Quartet performance at the Edininbugh International Festival in 2008 -
De-Criminalising Solidarity: 2Racism case thrown out
Scottish PSC
01 May 2010
That is one form of state censorship of people of conscience -
- anothor is committing acts of international piracy and terrorism and executing peace protestors involved in humanitarian activities in aid of defenceless destitute starving humanity trapped inside racist hell-holes.
Our British government is complicit in this mass-murder and has given every signal it can, in recent years, to their Israeli pals that it is ok to go after members of Palestinian solidarity.
take care
all the best TG
Interesting but for balance it should also be pointed out that the isrealis were subjected to quite awful and what looks like premeditatedviolence on the turkish boat when they landed
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYjkLUcbJWo
According to Israel we should thank the murderers for not killing more people and sinking the boats! I guess given their Nazi mentality he is right!
ReplyDeleteNotice how the fool describes international waters, as well as Gaza of course, as 'our' territory.
But as is typical of a settler it is the Palestinians and those aboard the ships who are 'animals'.
Quite right. The Nazis too described Jews as sub-human so Israel is standing in a fine tradition.
I've seen the video and there was some resistance but for the paratroopers to open fire with live ammunition is outright murder. I've seen demonstrations of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem throwing stones and using violence. The Police have never used live ammunition against them or of course the settlers.
It is only the untermenschen who deserve bullets.
By all accords the takeover is tragic.
ReplyDeleteNo one should have died there.
The IDF had enough time to prepare for any situation, including the use of knives and metal sticks against those forces.
Still, the truth is not as described in the article.
Those killings were not intentional at all, but a tragic consequence of wrong tactical operation.
Were they experienced police or border patrol forces, instead of commandos, the event would probably end with some wounds, but no loss of life.
commandos are trained to kill, not to restrain civillians. small forces tend to pull the trigger more than large forces. If one could claim that this was intentional it doesn't make sence. The damage Israel suffers because of the killings is, by far, greater than any advantage.
all the others ships were taken over by Israeli commandos, with passive resistance, and no violence at all.
the active violent resistance at the Marmara suprised the commandoes, who and a solider thrown 10 meters down to the lower deck, 2 pistols were taken and used. It seems the protesters open live fire first
Secondly - the flotilla is a political provocation. maybe "delegitimizing" Israel is an exaggeration, but Israel allowed the ships to deliver all aid, after inspection at Ashdod, or even at El-Arish in Egypt. IF Free Gaza leaders were only interested in the welfare of the people of Gaza, Egypt and Israel would let the aid in.
It seems to be that all that happen is a wrong. As Israel's armed forces opened fire on unarmed crew members.
ReplyDeleteWorried Israeli says that it is all tragic but it is basically a fuck-up rather than deliberate and malevolent. I disagree.
ReplyDeleteIf you put a poisonous snake in the cradle of a child then you can't pretend that you meant no harm, even though you weren't the one who gave the fatal bite. Likewise with Israel.
They have grown intoxicated on the effects of their own hubris and propaganda. Instead of owning up to the multiple war crimes and abuses in Gaza 17 months ago, they brazened it out and instead attacked the messenger, Richard Goldstone, instead. According to the more stupid and idiotic ranters in the government (i.e. most of them) Goldstone was an anti-semite, self-hater etc. etc. The fact that he was chosen because he was a liberal Zionist spoke volumes. Israel didn't want to hear the truth.
And what the massacre on the Mavi Marmara demonstrates is that Goldstone was, if anything, understated.
These were Israel's finest, their navy seals. You don't send such people in, with live ammunition and machine guns, unless you are prepared to use them. And by all accounts the Mavi Marmara was a lake of blood by the end.
What the operation demonstrates is that Israeli military personnel have been taught to fire at the merest hint of opposition or trouble. It is literally a shoot to kill policy. And this is being generous - assuming that it wasn't intentional or part of some master plan to eliminate particular activists as is being alleged.
We are told that 2 pistols were taken and used and that 'It seems' that the protesters opened live fire first. Interesting. I haven't heard of any Israeli casualties of live fire. Maybe they'll rectify that and shoot themselves to 'prove' that this was the case. If not, then I can only presume that the injuries were the result of the firing itself i.e. trigger finger injuries etc.
Were they experienced police or border patrol forces, instead of commandos, the event would probably end with some wounds, but no loss of life.
The most potent point is that Israel has suffered more damage than any advantage. But it did so in Lebanon and the Gaza attack 16 months ago. And yet it persisted in doing what it did. The only difference is that the ruling coalition today is even more right-wing than those in the past. And stupid far-right Zionists believe in the use of force above all and are therefore unlikely to see the political damage that is occasioned, unlike the more urbane western Zionist leaders it used to have (Teddy Kollek, Abba Eban).
Yes the other ships were taken over without as much violence (due to Israel's keeping the humanitarian workers incommunicado we cannot be sure what happened on them) but then the Mavi Marmara consisted mostly of Turkish humanitarians and it is clear Israel had them in their sights.
But, and this shows how 'worried israeli' operates within the political framework of Netanyahu and Lieberman, the flotilla was a 'political provocation'. No doubt the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was also a political provocation. Israel has imposed a starvation siege on Gaza for 3 years, because it didn't like the result of the Palestinian electons. Many hundres of old and sick people have died as a result of lack of nutrition etc. The people are unable to rebuild the homes that Israel demolished in their last cowardly attack on a defenceless people, and we are told that a humanitarian ship is a 'political provocation'.
This is where the 'liberal Zionist' ends. As a sycophantic echo chamber for Zionism's advocates of transfer and genocide.
But our worried Israeli is right about one thing. Israel and Egypt were partners in crime. This of course is the regime of Hosni Mubarak, one of the worlds most vicious dictatorships. It is a friendship that Israel deserves.
Telling just parts of the truth, and combining it with lies is quite easy for you to do.
ReplyDeleteA technique best used by antisemites.
first - some documentaries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LulDJh4fWI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZlSSaPT_OU&feature=channel
and you still call this ship humanitarian ????
and compare it to a "baby in the cradle" ???
are you Seine ?
indeed, the majority of the passengers over the Marmara may have had a humanitarian agenda, but those on footage (at least 30) had a violent agenda, and they prepared well for it.
this does not take any responsibility off Israel - the stronger power has more responsibility over the outcome - public, moral, strategic, tactic - all sorts, but it does show that the IDF has fallen, stupidly, to a violent political trap.
No BABIES IN A CRADLE OR SIMPLE HUMBLE HUMANITARIANS
the fact that no solider was heart from pistols doesn't show they weren't used against the IDF.
one solider was heart with a knife in his guts - how humanitarian is that ?
the same IDF unit took over all the other ships peacefully - and that reasonably denounces the claim of intention.
9 lives were taken (not 10-20), by pistols (no machine guns - another lie)
while IDF soldiers were under serious danger to their lives.
we do not yet know for sure, but it seems reasonable that those 9 were fighting against the soldiers
and playing a stupid and dangerous violent political game, not helping the people of Gaza.
Israel never objected to deliver the tons of aid sent by those ships. the blockade did not exist, even under Hamas rule. Israel withdrawn from Gaza from various interests, one of which, includes the opportunity to let the Gaza people decide freely about their own fate. the blockade only began after the violent revolution Hamas conducted.
Even during "cast-led" Hamas had time to murder more than 60 Fatah members in the gaza strip.
Hamas robs any kind of aid transferred to Gaza and deliver it according to non-humanitarian categories (mostly to Hamas supporters)
Cast-led was not a provocation from Israel. it was a military operation that responded to 8 years of rocket fire against civilians. the fact that the Palestinians are weaker doesn't make them more just.
Would innocent Palestinians pay with blood, because of their terrorists self-crowning rulers in Gaza ?
unfortunately Yes, because Israel would not sacrifice its own citizens for the sake of Gaza.
connecting peace with an end to all violence, terror and incitement is quite basic in my opinion.
The terrorist regime in Gaza is by far worse that the authoritarian rule in Egypt, and the collapsing democracy in Israel.
anti-semite, anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli provocation would not push it toward democracy or peace.
so what do you say, tony ?
Do you want to help the terrorists that swore to eradicate Israel completely ?
Do you intentionally aid the anti-semites and anti-christians jihadists with your half truths and huge amount of incitement ?
because if you do, keep up the good work
Being worried Israeli doesn't stop you from being an idiot.
ReplyDeleteThe videos you refer to are cut and paste jobs. They tell us nothing other than that there was resistance. We don't know the sequence or anything else such as what else happened, why the ship with the casualties was a 'lake of blood' according to one eyewitness.
We have reports of people being badly beaten up on other boats but then I don't believe the thugs who did this videoed it.
Fact is that Israel kept the demonstrators incommunicado for 3 days in order they could get their propaganda out first. Fat lot of good it did them.
You see you numbskull noone believes it when an elite naval boat squadron drops in on a ship, with guns and teh rest and kills 10+ people and we are expected to believe that they were the victims!
Tell that to the American student Emily Henochowicz who has just lost her eye thanks to the Zionist bastards who fired a tear gas cannister at her. But I hold scum like you more guilty for trying to provide a justification for the thugs.
You say that 'the fact that no solider was heart from pistols doesn't show they weren't used against the IDF.' No it doesn't but it's pretty good evidence that you scumbags lied, isnt it? You would expect some injury and yet, surprise, surprise, there is nothing.
You ask how how humanitarian is sticking a knife in a soldiers guts. It depends what the soldier was doing, after all the person who allegedly knifed him was probably attacked and in order to deliver aid to Gazas he had to defend himself against a Nazi Zionist. Right?
You say 'Maybe the same IDF unit took over all the other ships peacefully' but we don't know that they did. Unless not killing someone is a definition of 'peacefully' which to you Zionists it probably is.
Oh '9 lives were taken (not 10-20)'. How do u know? There could have been more since a no. of people have not been released nor details supplied, eg. of Arab journalists. But the marines were 'under serious danger to their lives.' So they just fired at random? We've heard this excuse last year when 1400 people died in Gaza, including 400 kids, whilst there were 10 Zionist dead.
ReplyDeletewe do not yet know for sure,
It is well known that there is a blockade on Gaza. So it is a lie that 'Israel never objected to deliver the tons of aid sent by those ships.'
Our idiot Zionist, who can only memorise the latest press release tells us that 'Israel withdrawn from Gaza from various interests, one of which, includes the opportunity to let the Gaza people decide freely about their own fate. the blockade only began after the violent revolution Hamas conducted.'
The people of Palestine voted for Hamas in democratic elections. Remember? Then the USA and Israel set about overturning that and it was as a result of a coup attempt by Fateh, backed by Egypt etc. that Hamas took power.
Don't know why you object to Hamas since Israel was its creator in the 1980's when it used Islam as a counterweight to secular Palestinian nationalism. They could write on Hamas, copyright Shin Bet.
Our worried Zionist tells us that the regime in Gaza 'is by far worse that the authoritarian rule in Egypt, and the collapsing democracy in Israel.' Really? Systematic torture is used in Egypt. That is not the case in Gaza, whose regime is weak. Hamas, for all its many faults, rests on a popular base unlike that of Mubarak. That is why I call you an idiot as you know nothing and pretend to know everything.
Our Zionist fool asks me 'Do you want to help the terrorists that swore to eradicate Israel completely?'
Israel is a Jewish state, i.e. a racist state where Jews have privileges. Certainly I want the state, not thepeople (socialists differentiate between a people and state) eradicated.
The idiot asks if I 'intentionally aid the anti-semites and anti-christians jihadists with your half truths and huge amount of incitement?' But it was Zionism historically and now today that aids anti-Semites. Or does our ignorant Zionist not know of the collaboration between Zionism and Nazism and the obstruction of rescue by the Zionist movement?
seems like I really got you mad now, didn't I ?
ReplyDeleteYour repulsive language would not cover for your lack of truth, and twisted views.
your personal attacks are no worthy of a response, but I'll take it as an invitation to relate to You personally, a bit more intelligently than you relate to me
let's face it - a wide number of pro-Palestinian sites warn against you for trying to maneuver Palestine support to other agendas of your own.
it seems like you don't care much for the Palestinians, but you do care a lot for every Zionist, or Israeli fault, twisting it by a large scale, and condemning the entire Zionist project as a basis and a conclusion of every claim.
not just being wrong, but also being boring.
while you do uncover a lot of serious faults, errors and even crimes - your criticism is from the a low moral kind.
your morality is admirable for intention, not for responsibility.
when you justify violence, directly or indirectly, you cannot hold the other end of the rope and wane about the wicker side getting heart more or demanding wounded or killed IDF forces as a proof - that's like claiming violence only exists when it succeeds. A moral stance would denounce violence from both sides.
While your so called, "socialists" mind separates state and people, The Hamas regime, which you give legitimation to, does not.
Do You know how hamas treats Palestinian socialists ? systematic torture would a prize for a free-speaking Palestinian socialist from Gaza.
While being correct about it being weak (yet), its intentions are worse by far than those of Mubarak's. if while being week it sends suicide bombers and adopts radical Islamic ideology - what would it do with as much power as Egypt ?
Is this where you want to go ?
since you shove in the Nazi regime all the time, no matter what context, hamas in 2007 is as much democratically elected as the Nazis in 1932/3.
would you at least keep your criticism from supporting terror ?
objecting all violence doesn't reduce the claims against Israel, it gives them more substance.
trying to corner Zionism with lies and support of far worse groups doesn't makes things better - it helps Jewish fascists to deepen their positions.
Now, me telling you how to behave could be annoying, but i take the liberty to do so,
because behaviour like yours helps fascists from both sides to gain power and put more and more lives in the middle east in danger, including my own, but not yours.
of course, You owe me nothing.
I don't expect you to adopt my views.
just remember that fascism usually takes power after grave mistakes done by people identifying themselves as socialists.
so, while you fight for your freedom of incitement, know that others try to shape a peaceful solution.
It seems that 'worried Israeli' ascribes his own motivation to myself with a list of hackneyed phrases and cliches to comfort himself with.
ReplyDeleteFascism doesn't come about because of mistakes by socialists but because of a deliberate strategy to support the counter-revolutionary forces by capital at particular times in history. Hitler was financed by the heavy industrialists of the Ruhr precisely for this reason.
What I haven't heard from Mr Worried is any condemnation of what happened. The firing on a defenceless vessel. The use of overwhelming firepower against humanitarian workers. The lies and deceit of Israel's propagandists who think that by confiscating cameras and mobiles they can prevent the truth slipping out.
Even the silkiest Mark Regev cannot turn lies into truth or water into gold. That Israel deceives itself that the message hasn't got through whereas we understand it only too clearly is something that Worried needs to take on board.
In fact Worried Israeli is demonstrating the normal narcicism of the Israeli 'left'. It is concerned about its own position, about how it has been compromised, where its state is going whilst at the same time heaping the blame on the Palestinians.
Evidence of this is the continual references to Hamas. In fact you would search this site without any praise for Hamas. I don't support it politically and only a week or so ago attacked it in a blog for tolerating the attempted destruction of a children's camp in Gaza because girls and boys would be mixing.
If you are in favour of peace in Israel then you have to abandon Jewish Apartheid i.e. Zionism. A Jewish State is an abomination and means nothing more than a Jewish racial state where Jews receive privileges over and above non-Jews.
It's no wonder that the 'demographic fear' is the common currency of Israel's strategists who talk of 'judaising' the Negev and Galilee. That was begun by Labour Zionism not Revisionism. the question is whether Worried is that worried after all or is it that what he really wants is the fruits of conquest but without the pain?
I condemn the killing at the marmara as i condemn all violence, a point which you have some difficulty with.
ReplyDelete"mixed boys and girls" ????
Is that what you have to say about Hamas ?
I'd expect that from a blind liberal, not from a socialist.
again, the issue is fanaticism and terror, not gender policy.
on the other hand, everyone starts somewhere.
You didn't get it
I'm not trying to comfort myself or anyone else.
Have no comfort, said Yosef Haim Brenner.
you seem to keep having trouble with stating facts.
no firing happened on a 'defenceless vessel'.
firing happened in an (avoidable) fight. I'd really like you being beat up like the IDF men were on the Marmara, and still calling those people 'defenceless'.
as for blaming the Palestinians:
a lot of what happened to them in the last 80 years or so, is to some extent their fault. the 2 biggest political factions sell them quite cheaply to fanatic or corrupt agendas. On the other hand, Fayad, though capitalist, shows a better amount of liability and commitment to constructive ideas. His moves, such as a infrastructure for a national state, and boycotting settlement goods, but not Israeli goods, are 2 good moves in the general direction, and seem to imitate ,more than a bit,the Zionist pre-state policy during the 30's. would he gain enough political power he might build a viable social infrastructure, that will enable a two-state solution.
If you want to denounce all national rights, its your own business. Us, Palestinians and Jews here, seems to want them very much. It is not racist to have a national state for Jews, as for any other people in the world. Palestinians, in Israel, and other countries, would have national rights in Palestine, when it becomes viable. Not in Israel, as Jews don't ask for national rights in any state but Israel (though there were impressive struggles for those in the past)
The struggle for cultural and civil equality in Israel, is much effected, but also not dependent on the efforts to establish a viable democratic Palestinian state.
Israel discriminates Arabs for being Arabs. its a fact, and a fault, but denying Jewish national rights is not the solution.
though discriminated, Arabs in Israel have a lot of freedoms they wouldn't get in any Arab state. it's not a comfort, it's a fact. would it be a Jew in Poland during the 30's, or an Israeli Arab today, I'd be an Arab.
I believe there is still a chance, in the long run, for equality, democracy and justice around here for Jews and Arabs.
I understand that getting there would take a lot of effort from everyone. Defeating Israel fascism, as democratization of the Arab world, without being taken by Muslim extremists, is not a simple process.
democracy in Europe took centuries to establish and there are no insurances for it to remain, other than strong and engulfing support of it by its peoples.
The 'fruits' of conquest, as you call them, are poisonous. the solution, unlike what you imply, is not measured by pain and is not advanced by pain, but by progress.
A withdrawal is necessary, but to defensible borders, and in a context of civil democratic rule in the territories, and not of armed gangs.
I have given up the hope that you might support this process in the middle east.
I just try to convince you not to sabotage it.
the boats were in international waters. israel broke international law. the soldiers who murdered the activists should be facing murder charges.
ReplyDeleteIsrael is the biggest terrorist threat in the world