The Witchhunt Against Arab-Israeli Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi

“Israel’s ‘house of democracy’ is turning into a house of racism and incitement”

MK Zoabi 7 June 2010

When one reads of the lynch-mob atmosphere in the Israeli Knesset directed at its 10 Arab Members, and in particular Haneen Zoabi MK for Balad, one can but recall the anti-Jewish pogromists in Eastern Europe.

Haneen Zoabi MK committed the 'crime' of having been an activist on the Mavi Marmara, the ship that Israel attacked and 9 of whose activists it murdered, which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. On a personal level one's heart can but go out to Haneen, But what we are seeing is not merely a personal vendetta but a deliberate and concerted attempt to humiliate, intimidate and persecute political representatives of Israel's Arab citizens, who comprise 20% of the population.

First the Internal Security Service, Shin Bet, conducted a vendetta against Arab MK Asmi Bishara, forcing him to flee Israel. Now the same is happening to another Arab MK Haneen Zoabi. Internationally Israel is still portrayed as a democracy by a diminishing number of the more gullible of fools.

And Israeli propaganda milks the fact that Arabs in Israel can vote and elect fellow Arabs to the Knesset. The reality is somewhat different though. The fact that Arabs have the vote in Israel and even elect Arabs as members of the Knesset is irrelevant. Pre-war Poland also had permanent Jewish minority representatives in the Sejm (Parliament). But does anyone seriously suggest that Poland was a democracy or not anti-Semitic?

But in an example of their complete hypocrisy, despite the continued attacks upon and discrimination against Israel's Arab citizens, the very fact that they are able to vote and elect MKs is held up as an example of why Israel is 'the Middle East's only democracy'.

What they don’t say how there are repeated attempts to bar Arab parties from even participating in the elections and how, when they do participate, their representatives are subject to a frenzy of vitriol, hatred and physical abuse. And this by fellow MKs.
Things have got to such a state that the Knesset has been forced to hire private security to protect Haneen Zoabi from fellow MKs.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beteinu Party has called for the execution of Israeli Arabs who have the temerity to keep in contact with Arabs outside Israel.
At a time when this far-right settler government, which includes the Labour Party of course, has murdered at least 9 human rights activists on an aid ship.

Only last week an American student Emily Henochowicz and peace activist lost an eye when a tear gas grenade was fired straight at her. The Israeli Government is currently targeting NGOs and seeking to cut off their funding and prevent them operating. The attack on Zoabi is an attack on Israeli Palestinians and is part of the process of transfer which itself now forms part of the national concensus. It is incumbent upon us to raise the attack on Haneen Zoabi and see it for what it is.

Below is also an article from Ha'aretz on the overt racism within Israel today, with 56% of Israeli high-school children wanting to prevent Arabs standing for the Knesset, a figure that rises to 82% among the naturally more backward Orthodox Jewish youth.

Tony Greenstein

Knesset House Committee voted to revoke the parliamentary rights of MK Haneen Zoabi

On Monday, 7 June 2010, the Knesset House Committee voted by a seven-to-one majority to revoke the parliamentary rights of (MK) Haneen Zoabi.. The vote came in the wake of her participation in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” which aimed to break the siege on the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel since 2007. The Committee decision still needs to be approved by the Knesset plenum. Arab parties collectively decided to boycott the Committee session in protest of the attack and the escalating levels of incitement that MK Zoabi and Arab MKs in general have faced.

In addition to demands for her to be brought to account as a “terrorist” and for her party, the National Democratic Assembly (Balad), to be outlawed, the incitement against MK Zoabi sank even lower than the depths it reached in the Knesset session held last Wednesday. During today’s session a female MK resorted to abusive language so obscene that the chair of session Yaron Levin demanded that it be deleted from the official record. The incitement also descended into personal attacks against Zoabi and targeted her as a woman.

The committee recommended that Zoabi should be stripped of three rights usually enjoyed by members of the Israeli Knesset. First, she should be prevented from travelling in case she is on her way “to commit an offence”. Second, her diplomatic passport should be revoked, and, third, she should no longer be entitled to legal expenses from the Knesset in case she is put on trial.

The session was held in the Knesset and headed by Yariv Levin (Likud). He quoted statements made by MK Zoabi about the Freedom Flotilla and what she described as the “oppressive siege on the Gaza Strip”. He also raised remarks she had made about Israel’s nuclear capabilities, referring to her statement that Israel must not be allowed to remain the sole nuclear power in the Middle East. Levin also described political positions adopted by Zoabi that he claimed posed a threat to the State of Israel: he showed clips from her interviews with journalists and with Arab satellite channels in which she rejected the Jewish nature of the state, called for a state of all its citizens, demanded an end to the occupation, and called for Israeli war crimes to be exposed and for those responsible to be held to account. These political positions, granted by freedom of speech in a normal democractic environment, let alone to an MK, were viewed by head of the committee and the majority of its members as crimes that justifiy stripping Zoabi of her rights as an MK.

Yoel Hasson of Kadima said that “Haneen Zoabi has crossed the line. The goal of Haneen Zoabi was to tarnish Israel’s image in the international community.” Nissim Cohen railed against Zoabi, stating that in a war there are those who support it and that “there were terrorists aboard the ship and Zoabi must be held accountable as a terrorist.”

Following the session, MK Haneen Zoabi stated that “Israel still denies its responsibility towards the killing of civilians on the Mavi Marmara, its responsibility for the starvation of the people of Gaza, and the international outrage caused by its actions. Unable to deal with this, it chose to regard me as a scape goat”. She added that “the session occurred within an atmosphere of violent incitement in which the MKs have incited the Israeli public to use violence” against her.

MK Zoabi stated that

“Israel, following the international reaction to its bloody attack on humanitarian flotilla, is embarrassed and confused. Unable to deal with the shock and anger of the international community, I have become their punching bag.”

Zoabi added that “there is no democracy in Israel, we are operating within the margins of democracy, and even this narrow margin Israel is trying to eliminate. Israel is trying to portray this as ‘Arabs versus Jews’; however I don’t represent only Arabs, I also represent Jewish groups, however marginal, who are against blockade on Gaza; and in particular I represent international consensus on this issue.” She added that “Israel’s true image has been revealed -- they are confused and embarrassed and want to retaliate. I have become their easy prey.”

She stated that the Knesset committee has taken decisions in retaliation against her, and virtually every Knesset Member is calling for more extreme measures, including calls for her dismissal from the Knesset, to revoke her citizenship, to expel her from the country, and imprisonment. Thus, these MKs consider the committee’s decisions to be just a first step of more punitive measures to come. “Our response will be to defy them. We will continue on our path of upholding human values and human rights, calling for equality, justice and the end of occupation and racism despite all their incitement and threats.”

for details, you can Call 050 7904334 or email: zshada@gmail.com

Press Release
The National Democratic Assembly
MK Haneen Zoabi – Parliamentary Office

Israel demands peace from Palestinians as its own racism spreads

The government's 'incitement index' is a dishonest tool to whitewash Israel as a pure, peace-loving nation.

By Zvi Bar'el, 14.03.2010.

The Strategic Affairs Ministry never ceases to bring us peace of mind. How nice to know that someone in Israel is monitoring Palestinian incitement, ensuring they "create an environment of peace" and striving "to push them toward a culture of peace". After all, what do we care about construction in Jerusalem, Efrat or Ramat Shlomo, or about checkpoints, arrests, home demolitions, the army's "neighbor policy," bone breaking, land appropriation or the blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza?

All of these are minor issues compared with naming a square near Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian woman who took part in a bloody terror attack three decades ago, calling for confronting the occupation or referring to suicide bombers as martyrs. These are the real threats to peace. After all, according to the road map, the Palestinians are responsible for ending incitement. After we have meticulously fulfilled everything the road map required of us and completely frozen settlement construction, it's now their turn.

Yossi Kuperwasser, the deputy director of the Strategic Affairs Ministry and a generally bright man who once headed the Military Intelligence research department, explains that there are several categories of incitement. These include encouraging others to commit terrorist acts, demonizing Israel and creating an atmosphere of hostility toward it. The fact that the occupation persists in the Palestinian territories, and that any nation under occupation will do virtually anything to rid itself of this arrangement, is apparently missing from his consciousness.

In his view, when Palestinians get up in the morning they begin cursing Israel and plotting its erasure from the map and school textbooks through the noble acts of their martyrs. The members of the team tasked with monitoring incitement disingenuously assert that there is no difference between scrutinizing this kind of incitement and monitoring anti-Israel rhetoric emanating from Europe or the United States. The difference, however, is profound: Israel hasn't occupied France or Cleveland, or destroyed a single home there.

Incitement is an elusive affair. How, for example, would the monitoring team classify the following remarks: "The political statement made by [Scandar] Copti turned 'Ajami' from a movie into another link in the fight waged by the Palestinians in Israel against the state of which they are citizens. That makes it just like disrespecting the memory of the Olei Hagardom [pre-state Zionist militants executed by British authorities in the Mandate period] or accusing Israel of being an apartheid state even though the Israeli Palestinians' rights as citizens here exceed those of any Arab country (and include supernumerary rights, such as exemption from mandatory military service) .... Among those contributing to hatred of Israel are, in addition to filmmakers, Israeli intellectuals and artists from other disciplines - and for exactly the same reasons that the filmmakers are so eager to make their self-flagellating films."

Did the writer of these words in these pages (Israel Harel, March 11) intend to incite against Arab citizens of Israel or against Israeli intellectuals? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to examine instances of incitement in Israel before sticking our nose into the affairs of an occupied nation?

Here is a good place for the monitoring team to start: a poll conducted by the Maagar Mochot research institution and presented recently at a Tel Aviv University conference shows that 56 percent of Israeli high school students believe that the country's Arab citizens should be prohibited from being elected to the Knesset. That figure rises to 82 percent among religious youths. Around half the respondents say Israeli Arabs should not receive the same rights as Israeli Jews. In the words of Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal of the Tel Aviv University School of Education: "The worldview of religious youth melds fundamentalism, nationalism and racism."

If using the criteria of the monitoring team, Bar-Tal's remarks could be considered incitement against religious youth, or even Israeli youth in general. Before we file an indictment against Bar-Tal, however, we should return to Kuperwasser's comment that the purpose of the incitement index is to convince the Palestinians to create a "culture of peace." With whom exactly are they expected to build such a culture? With Israel's young generation, which sees Israeli Arabs as a dangerous foe from whom democratic rights should be withheld? With inciters who see an Arab film director, or the Jewish intellectuals who support him, as enemies of the state?

The incitement index is not intended to actually gauge the measure of hatred Palestinians feel toward Israel, or to create the vaunted culture of peace. It is simply another dishonest tool being used to present Israel as a pure, righteous and peace-loving nation, all of whose citizens love Arabs. This is a veil intended to conceal the fact that, while a culture of peace is being demanded of the Palestinians, the Israeli side is witnessing an unimpeded spread of a culture of racism

Israel’s Crude Forgery of Tape Backfires

‘Go Back to Auschwitz’ added to tape

Have a listen to what is very evidently a doctored tape. It is a mark of Netanyahu's desperation. Leaving aside that Israel had already issued a previous tape of such exchanges without the Auschwitz remark, they now add a ‘go back to Auschwitz’ in a European voice.

There is no background noise similarity or indeed anything to connect this disconnected voice with the Mavi Marmara. Zionism's hapless propagandists also broadcast the voice of a Palestinian woman, Huwaida Arraf, saying that they had permission to enter Gaza port. Which has been confirmed except she was not on the Mavi Marmara but the Challenger 1.

As Israel, unsurprisingly, rejects the idea of an independent inquiry it is forced to go to further lengths to defend the indefensible murder of Turkish citizens and an American. And as evidence mounts that the murder of activists on the Mavi Marmara was premeditated, with Israel deliberately attacking the ship in such a way as to produce panic and therefore resistance, Israel is forced to issue the kind of crude tapes that even Goebbels would have thought twice about.

Indeed so bad is the situation of Israeli PR at the moment that their own naval reserve officers (see below) are calling for an independent inquiry. But of course Netanyahu cannot possibly accept, after Goldstone, another inquiry that might get too near the truth.

Meanwhile we need to ask a few questions such as what has happened to the confiscated phones and cameras of those on board the ships. Were they merely stolen or are they still being held in order to prevent the truth coming out?

This comes after the Israel military was forced to admit it has nothing to substantiate its wild allegations that those on board the MM were Al Quada terrorists.

And even more importantly. Why is the BBC continuing to use Israeli propaganda video without demanding the whole of the tapes from which they have been selected? Why do they willingly allow themselves to be used as a propaganda outfit, without even warning people as to the bona fides of the tape?

Tony Greenstein

Israel accused of fabricating flotilla video
Published Saturday 05/06/2010 (updated) 06/06/2010 21:35

By Mya Guarnieri

Correction appended

Tel Aviv - Ma'an - The Israeli army released video footage Monday of the navy radioing the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara prior to the raid that took place in international waters and left at least nine activists dead.

But on Friday, it released a new version of the same footage — one that it says proves its claims that many aboard were religious extremists — but that some say has been very obviously tampered with.

In the first video released in the immediate aftermath of the violent raid, a soldier says, "Mavi Marmara, you are approaching an area of hostility which is under a naval blockade." There is no recorded response.

The soldier continues, “The Gaza area, coastal region, and Gaza harbor are closed to all maritime traffic.” Again, no response.

The soldier radios once more, saying, “The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and invites you to enter the Ashdod port …”

But an updated version, released five days later, includes three alleged responses from passengers who, according to the video, were supposedly on board the Mavi Marmara. This new clip shows only a still of the soldier who appears in the first footage.

The soldier, who is not named, does not address the Mavi Marmara as he did in the video released Monday. Instead, he says, “This is the Israeli navy; you are approaching an area which is under a naval blockade.”

A man with an odd, indistinct accent responds, “Shut up. Go back to Aushwitz.”

Then the voice of a woman follows. She states, “We have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to enter.”

The third response, which seems entirely disconnected from the events, comes from a man with a heavy Southern accent. “We're helping Arabs go against the US. Don't forget 9/11 guys.”

Ali Abuminah, founder of the website Electronic Intifada, reported on his blog that the woman's voice is that of Huwaida Arraf.

Arraf, a Palestinian-American who chairs the Free Gaza Movement, confirmed that it was her voice. But she emphasized that she was on the Challenger 1 boat, not the Mavi Marmara.

“I was by the radio the whole time there was any communication," Arraf told Ma'an. "Mine was the only boat in which I answered and not the captain and they all answered in a very professional manner.”

Arraf told Ma'an that while she is certain that she had spoken about permission from the Gaza Port Authority on a previous attempt to break the blockade, she could not be sure that she said it again on Monday morning.

“When they radioed us, we were still 100 miles away,” she said. “There's no doubt that this whole thing they put out is fabricated.”

Asked about claims that army video had been faked, an Israeli army spokesperson remarked, “There is no basis for the allegations.”

But to many, the recordings are just the latest move in the Israeli army's aggressive campaign to sway public opinion.

Israel seized all recording devices from journalists and activists who were on the flotilla. The army has released its own footage for use in its still-raging war of information being fought on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and media outlets.

Among several heavily edited clips, the army has released a short video that shows soldiers dropping down onto the Mavi Marmara from helicopters after which a few of them are violently assaulted.

Eyewitnesses, Arraf included, say the army shot at the Marmara and fired stun grenades before boarding. But the clip released by the army includes no footage of the moments prior to the soldiers' boarding.

Nevertheless, as hundreds of deportees begin to reach their home countries, some in possession of footage smuggled off the boats are filling in the gaps.

A journalist with Al-Jazeera managed to broadcast footage indicating that the Israeli army began shooting at the passengers of the Mavi Marmara before the soldiers boarded, suggesting that passengers who were armed with sticks and chairs were acting in self-defense.

Many journalists are concerned that other footage is being held by Israeli authorities. The Foreign Press Association alleges that the army has used some of this footage as its own.

The association is demanding that the military identify the sources of videos it has released and to stop selectively editing content to back up the army's version of events.

*** In a previous version of this article Arraf was quoted as saying she was “certain” that she did not say she had permission to dock in Gaza from the Port Authority there, but later clarified that “Listening to the new version released by the Israelis, I have no reason to doubt that I did say it on this voyage also.” The article has been modified to reflect that clarification.



Ha’aretz

Published 20:04 06.06.10

Israel Navy reserves officers: Allow external Gaza flotilla probe

Officers denounce operation as 'military and diplomatic failure', slam government for placing blame on the activists.

By Anshel Pfeffer

A group of top Israel Navy reserves officers on Sunday publicly called on Israel to allow an external probe into its commando raid of a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla last week, which left nine people dead and several more wounded.

In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the Navy officers denounced the commando raid as having “ended in tragedy both at the military and diplomatic levels.”

“We disagree with the widespread claims that this was the result of an intelligence rift,” said the officers. “In addition, we do not accept claims that this was a ‘public relations failure’ and we think that the plan was doomed to failure from the beginning.”

“First and foremost, we protest the fact that responsibility for the tragic results was immediately thrust onto the organizers of the flotilla,” wrote the officers. “This demonstrates contempt for the responsibility that belongs principally to the hierarchy of commanders and those who approved the mission. This shows contempt for the values of professionalism, the purity of weapons and for human lives.”

The Navy officers' letter came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was convening his top ministers to deliberate a United Nations proposal to create a joint international committee alongside Turkey and the United States to investigate the circumstances of the deadly raid.

The cabinet was also to discuss the creation of an internal committee to look into the incident. Netanyahu earlier Sunday rejected the idea of an international panel, and reiterated that Israel had the right to conduct its own investigation.

Netanyahu discussed the proposal for a multinational panel with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a telephone call on Saturday but told cabinet ministers fon Sunday that Israel was exploring other options, political sources said.

“I told [Ban] that the investigation of the facts must be carried out responsibly and objectively,” Netanyahu told ministers. “We need to consider the issue carefully and level-headedly, while maintaining Israel's national interests as well as those of the Israel Defense Forces.”

And you will note the weasel words - 'we need to consider the issue carefully and level-headedly, while maintaining Israel's national interests as well as those of the Israel Defense Forces."

It doesn't take an Einstein to translate this!

Mark Regev - Israel's Goebbels

One of the features of most right wing states and regimes is that they continually seek to put a PR gloss on their iniquities. Some like Israel are more successful than others. Or rather Israel used to be successful.

America had and has Hollywood to turn every crisis into a drama. Hence in John Wayne’s Green Berets and Rambo, the US wins the Vietnam War. Hitler during his day did even better.

Charlie Chaplin had to flee the USA as he was considered a subversive and his attempt to portrayh Hitler had to be turned into a film about a Ruritanian dictator instead.

Hitler had Leni Riefenstahl, the wold’s most famous and innovative director. And most of all Hitler also had Goebbels, his propaganda chief and Berlin Gauleiter, whose whole modus vivendi was based on the idea that the bigger the lie the more likely it was to be believed (although like so many sayings it was misattributed, coming from Hitler in Mein Kampf).

It is, therefore ironic, that the Goebbels technique has been adopted so heartily by Israel and no one is a better exponent of the big lie technique. The only problem is that people are starting to see these pathetic lies for what they are.

Below is an interview by Jon Snow with him. Notice he isn't good on specifics. And anything he finds difficult 'did you fire phosphorous bombs, fleschettes and fragmentation boms - 'we shall have to have an inquiry' is his standard response, as if Israel doesn't know what Israel is doing!

As Snow successfully gets under his skin he is left deranged and shouting at the end. I haven’t seen the latest Snow interview with him but my wife tells me it’s even better!

And what better big lie than the idea that a small unarmed boat, the Mavi Marmora was engaged in a ferocious attack on defenceless Israel’s Navy Seals, because they really wanted a fight!

As the captives make their way home, we went up to Heathrow this morning to welcome 2 of those returning, the true stories are starting to come out.

Below is one such description of the terrible attack on the poor defenceless pirates!
American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead

Furkan Dogan Was Shot Five Times, Including Four Times in Head

By ZOE MAGEE

June 3, 2010 "ABC News" -- A U.S. citizen who lived in Turkey is among the nine people killed when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship heading for the Gaza Strip, officials said today. The victim was identified as Furkan Dogan, 19, a Turkish-American. A forensic report said he was shot at close range, with four bullets in his head and one in his chest, according to the Anatolian news agency.

Dogan was a high school student studying social sciences in the town of Kayseri in central Turkey. He was born in the United States and moved to Turkey at the age of 2. He will be buried in his hometown tomorrow.

Dogan's body was returned to Turkey today along with eight others, all Turkish nationals, who were on board the Mavi Maramara.

The ship was sponsored by a Turkish charity, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) and was carrying aid to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade. The charity released the names of all nine dead. All are male and the ages range from 32 to 61.

The Mavi Marmara formed part of a flotilla that was organized by the Free Gaza movement and intended to break the three-year Israeli blockade on the embattled Palestinian enclave.

Israeli commandos rappelled onto the decks of the six ships Monday, but on the Mavi Marmara the passengers battled the soldiers with metal rods, wrested weapons from soldiers and, according to the Israeli military, fired on them. Nine people died and more than 30 were wounded, including several Israeli troops.

The activists on board the ship told a very different version of events from the one released by the Israeli military.

A Canadian on board, Farooq Burney, described watching an elderly man bleed to death. The head of a Turkish charity that organized the aid flotilla said an Indonesian doctor was shot in the stomach and a photographer was shot in the forehead.

Flotilla Passengers Dispute Israeli Version of Flotilla Raid

"They [Israeli commandos] were trying to land on the boat. So obviously there was this hand-to-hand combat and during that process the people on the boat were basically able to disarm some of the soldiers because they did have guns with them," Burney told Reuters. "So they basically took the guns away from them and took the cartridges out and threw them away."

Asked if anyone had used the guns against the Israeli commandos, Burney said, "No, not at all."

"Yes, we took their guns. It would be self defence even if we fired their guns," Bulent Yildirim, chairman of the IHH, said.

"We told our friends on board we will die, become martyrs, but never let us be shown... as the ones who used guns," he said, adding that people shouted that the weapons should not be used.

"By this decision, our friends accepted death, and we threw all the guns we took from them into the sea," Yildirim said.

Thousands of mourners flocked to the funeral held for the Turkish activists today in Istanbul. Coffins of most of those killed, draped in Turkish and Palestinian flags, were brought to Istanbul's Fatih Mosque for the service before the bodies were taken to their home towns for burial.

"Turkey will never forget such an attack on its ships and its people in international waters. Turkey's ties with Israel will never be the same again," Turkish President Abdullah Gul told a news conference.

"Israel made one of the greatest mistakes in its history. It will see in time what a huge mistake it made," he said.

Equally harsh words are being used by the Israelis.

The alliance is dead, a senior official in Jerusalem said Tuesday night, according to Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "The Turks are right about one thing: Irreversible harm has been caused to the relations. In the situation that has been created, Turkey will no longer be a strategic ally of Israel."

Israel and Turkey face many challenges in which both have strong mutual interests, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David said.

"Hopefully, we'll overcome the shadows that we see today," he told ABC News.

Israel's Next Test: the Rachel Corrie Due in the Area Friday

Meanwhile, Israel is preparing for a new ship to run the blockade, the Irish ship MV Rachel Corrie, due to arrive in the area Friday.

"The Rachel Corrie will not be allowed into Gaza," David said. "We are watching it and waiting to see what will happen. Hopefully, the people on board will direct to the port in Ashdod. "The naval blockade is still in effect and the ship will not be allowed to enter into the naval blockade area."

Former U.N. assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, who is on board the Rachel Corrie, told ABC News that they do not intend to stop their mission or head to the Israeli port of Ashdod instead.

"It's a totally unacceptable embargo. There's no justification for it, there's no legality for it, it's not endorsed by the U.N., it's not endorsed by anybody else. It's an Israeli military zone which is without legal status," he said in a phone interview from the ship today.

The Rachel Corrie expects to be boarded by the Israelis Friday when they are approximately 80 miles off coast.

"When they tell they are about to board we will cooperate because it's too dangerous not to do so, particularly as you say it may be at night which is the usual tactic. We're not fools, we're not about to throw away our lives."

"We're very upbeat and having seen the appalling consequences of Monday we're more determined than ever to try and make this work," Halliday said.

Reuters, ABC News' Simon McGregor-Wood and Sara Sorcher contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

Jerusalem, June 3, (Pal Telegraph) Head of the Islamist movement in the Palestinian occupied territories of 48, Sheikh Raed Salah, confirmed today that a soldier from the commandos unit tried to assassinate him during his presence on board of the fleet to break the siege on Gaza. He added in remarks to reporters in the Israeli court, "The Israeli soldier searched thoroughly for me in order to assassinate me, but then opened fire on another person that looks very much like me which shows his persistence on killing me, as that innocent person died immediately.”

The Hebrew mass media promoted the news that Sheikh Raed Salah is seriously injured and taken to a hospital a few hours after the massacre, which was denied by his wife and she assured that the injured is another man and not her husband.

He stressed that the piracy committed against the fleet of freedom was a crime, adding " Its our right to defend ourselves, and Its our duty to help the vulnerable", pointing out that the fleet was under the auspices of Turkey, and Turkey should support the people who were on board the fleet.

The Truth About Israel's Murder Spree on the High Seas Starts Coming Out

Israel's Lies about Murdering Armed Aid Workers on the Mavi Marmara Exposed

Ever since the murder of at least 9, almost certainly more, people on the Mavi Marmara, Israel has taken to the airwaves in a PR blitzkrieg. Far from being the murderous thugs and war criminals that they are, they were the victims of anti-Semitic terrorists!

Of course most people in the world don’t believe this utter fantasy (BBC excepted of course!). It is obvious that the 4^th strongest military power in the world, which surrounded 6 unarmed ships and shot up one of them, with numerous armed ships of their own, were anything but victims. If people resisted guns with sticks and even had a couple of plastic slings (echoes of David & Goliath!) then they were incredibly brave.

Israel of course confiscated all cameras and mobile phones precisely because they didn’t want the truth to get out. But the video below did emerge from Al Jazeera because of satellite transmissions. It clearly shows the terrible atmosphere of fear aboard the Mavi Marmara as bullets whizzed all around. It is clear that the ship was being shot up from the outside. In weeks to come we will no doubt learn whether the killers came with a specific list of people to take out. And until there is a count of all those missing we will also not know how many actually died on board and whether it was more than 20 and how many were injured.

If Iran or China or North Korea did this there would have been outrage. The United States would not have blocked a UN Security Council resolution which called for an independent inquiry. When North Korea sank a South Korean vessell recently there was a UN inquiry. Would the USA have been content with Kim Il Jung appointing the Inquiry? Or if Iran had not only seized people outside its waters but killed many of them with live fire? Would the West have been so complacent?

The video is compelling evidence.

Also I recommend people watch the video of the press conference given by Sara Colborne, Palestine Solidarity Campaign National Director, who was on the Mavi Marmara. Not surprisingly after what she has gone through she looked utterly exhausted and shocked, if not traumatised. Unfortunately it is too long to place here but it is compelling evidence.

Zionist Federation & fascist EDL Join Hands in Supporting Israel's Murder at Sea

Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation Defends Allowing Fascists to Take Part to Tonight I went to a demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in London. The couple of hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced a counter-demonstration. This was a demonstration which the EDL had announced in advance it would join. Despite knowing this the Zionist Federation and Jonathan Hoffman made no attempt whatsoever to prevent the fascist EDL from taking part.

So despite Jonathan Hoffman's hystrionics and abuse (see below) this was effectively a joint demonstration between Jonathan Hoffman’s Zionist Federation and the English Defence League.

At no point and at no time did the Zionist Federation or Jonathan Hoffman issue a warning to the EDL that they were not welcome and would be prevented from taking part in the demonstration and if they did manage to slip in would be removed. This in itself speaks volumes.

The fascist-supported Zionist Federation demonstration was about 300 strong. The reason for the relatively poor numbers among the pro-Palestinians was partly because Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop The War Coalition had both decided not to support the Palestinian demonstration in ‘order to avoid conflict’.

Cowardice rather than prudence might seem a better description for allowing a Zionist-Fascist demonstration to dictate our tactics and protest.

But we should not be surprised. Either at the PSC leadership's behaviour or indeed that of the moving right ex-SWP group led by John Rees, which controls the StWC.

What is surprising is that the Zionist Federation now feels so politically isolated that it is prepared to accept the support of the EDL. And tonight we had the spectacle of stewards of the Community Security Trust, ostensibly devoted to opposing anti-semitism, raising no objection to the anti-Semites of the EDL . Of course the EDL are not anti-Zionists and therefore that makes it acceptable. The obvious thing to do, Dave Rich's comments notwithstanding, would have been for the CST to say it would not steward an event where there was ANY presence of fascists or the EDL, but then they might have had to exclude their own Kahanists.

And why has the Zionist Federation’s very own Oliver Hardy been allowed to get them into another fine mess? Because the current lunatic campaign by Hoffman and friends tries attempts the impossible. No amount of spin or hasbara will convince people that an attack on humanitarian ships delivering aid, in international waters, by Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 naval squadron was a peaceable exercise and that it was only the resistance to these pirates which was violent. Why they’ve even displayed knives to prove that they are only telling the whole truth! Presumably they were trying to smuggle knives into Gaza. A new secret weapon In fact ships, like most homes, do possess knives – to eat with, to cut and prepare food and to cut ropes etc. Collecting them all together doesn’t make the mission a war-like one! Previous boats made the trip without any incidents of violence or indeed allegations to that effect by Israel. But the clincher is the 9-19 people who were killed by these peace loving Israelis.

Despite his denials, I have no hesitation, in view of his record of repeating every Israeli lie that is on offer, in believing that Jonathan Hoffman gave an interview to a woman reporter in which he openly defended demonstrating with the EDL as ‘there was no proof of any link with the BNP.’ That would also explain his refusal to give support to the Harrow counter-demonstration against the EDL (they were using the building of a local mosque as the pretext for their presence there) unless Muslims agreed to support Israel!

Presumably the fact that the EDL have repeatedly been photographed giving sieg heil salutes is not enough to make it clear they are not welcome? In fact there is copious evidence that the EDL and BNP members work hand in hand.

Tony Greenstein

Zionism's Racist 'Trade Union' Gives its Full Support to Netanyahu's Attack on Gaza Flotilla

Histadrut Statement Supports the Murder of Members of Gaza Freedom Flotilla

I have just received a statement dated 31st May 2010 from Histadrut, Zionism’s scab ‘trade union’. People may remember that Histadrut issued a statement in January 2009 supporting the bombing and attack on Gaza. Now they have gone one better. They have just issued a statement supporting the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

As is befitting the macabre, it starts with a joke, thus demonstrating that Zionists too have a sense of humour (of sorts):

‘The Histadrut , as part of its ideology and strategy to attain solidarity with the Palestinian employees, has vigorously strived to promote the relationship with the Palestinian people in general and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) in particular as well as the rights of the Palestinian employees.

Since this ‘solidarity’ consisted of barring membership for 40 years to Arabs, fighting to expel Arabs from working for Jewish employers (Jewish Labour) and up to this day stealing the wages of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories who work in Israel, one can only pay tribute to Histadrut ’s Chutzpah.

Histadrut makes it clear that ‘We are very much aware of the ongoing suffering of the inhabitants of Gaza’. But the reason for this is that the ‘residents of Gaza are held hostage by the terror regime of Hamas which violently took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.’ Yes that’s right. The very same Hamas that the people of Gaza voted for is now holding them hostage. But since Palestinians are considered sub-human or untermenschen by Israel, it is no surprise that they are stupid enough to vote for their own kidnappers! And if they had sense enough to appreciate their starvation diet, they might actually thank Israel for the help it is giving them!

And in case you wondered, ‘The Histadrut whose value of solidarity is its top priority, supports the humanitarian assistance for the residents of Gaza.’ But try as I might, I could not find any reference to the 3 year blockade by Israel of Gaza. That’s right. Not a word. Not a sausage. I can only assume therefore that it is the Hamas hostage takers and kidnappers who are refusing to allow food into the strip and which turns back Israel’s generous offers of aid.

And in case you wondered. The blame for the deaths on the flotilla, although Histadrut never refers to them as such, they are merely ‘the harsh events of the day’ belongs to the organisers of the flotilla. It was they who rejected Israel’s ‘generous offer’ to take the ships to Ashdod and then unload the various goods in order that they could deliver them to Gaza.

And because of the ‘conduct of the flotilla’s organizers’ we now have a situation ‘which now threatens to unravel the delicate diplomacy’ of recent weeks. The same 'delicate diplomacy' which has achieved precisely nothing in 43 years. You’ll notice there’s no direct reference to the murder of between 10 and 20 unarmed members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the attack on the boats by Israel’s finest. But then again we know that all this tragic bloodshed occurred only because the organizers wanted to make political points at the expense of the Gazan inhabitants.

So yet again, we have a situation where Histadrut , the so-called Israeli trade union, has come out in full support of the murderous actions of the Israeli State in its attacks on the Palestinians and the solidarity movement.

No one has any longer, if they ever did, the slightest excuse to support this racist scab organisation which calls itself a trade union.

It is only through the international trade union movement breaking off links with Histadrut that Israeli Jewish workers will be forced to face up to the choice between being complicit in the oppression of the Palestinians and solidarity with the oppressed. There is no other choice.

And Britain’s Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, which at its last AGM, effectively voted against breaking links with Histadrut, and whose trade union organiser, Bernard Regan, described Histadrut as a ‘changed organisation’ should now reverse its position. Histadrut is part and parcel of the oppression of the Palestinians. Solidarity with the Palestinians, as Palestinians have consistently argued, means breaking all links with Histadrut .

Last week the universities & college lecturers union UCU voted to break all links and boycott Histadrut. Absurdly this means that UCU is in advance of the main Palestine solidarity organisation in Britain. What is worse is that there is evidence that both Regan and Hugh Lanning, PSC's Chairperson have been actively opposing any attempts by members of trade unions to promote a boycott of Histadrut, which is completely unacceptable.

In particular we have evidence that Hugh Lanning, PSC's Chair, has actively been trying to prevent UCU adopting a position of boycott, even though this is supported by all Palestinian trade unions and PACBI. The above is a cryptic statement from Sally Hunt, UCU General Secretary, referring to correspondence from Lanning which makes it clear that he was unhappy with a conference called by UCU on Palestine where a resolution was adopted calling for the breaking of links with Histadrut.

Context of the conference statement 1 The Palestine Solidarity Campaign Chair who was at the Conference has made clear in correspondence with UCU that while they felt the conference was a positive event “the statement was only introduced in the final session when many had gone home. It did not really reflect the breadth of discussion and contributions which had been good - rather the views of those left. On behalf of PSC and the unions present I indicated we would not be able to agree anything as it had no prior consideration, nor was the Conference thought of as a resolution-based event. My main comment is that it seeks to work independently, rather than through and with other organisations, such as PSC and the main trade unions active on Palestine.”

I am therefore openly asking Bernard Regan to admit that he was wrong and to accept that one of the goals of work in the trade unions now is to break the links between British trade unions and Histadrut, whose record when it comes to the oppression of the Palestinians is second to none. Histadrut knows where it stands. Let us hope that everyone in our movement also understands this.

Tony Greenstein

Robert Fisk on whether Israel has lost it

Zionists Demonstrate outside Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv in Support of Murder on the High Seas

An excellent article from Robert Fisk in the Independent. When I listen to the stupid Israeli attempts to justify their murder of up to 20 humanitarian activists, even claiming that it was all an act of self-defence, I also asked myself ‘has Israel lost it’.

In fact my first reaction to what happened was the old saying of Euripides – ‘Those who the gods seek to destroy they first drive mad.’ Israelis no longer get in in their ghetto state. They think they are impervious whereas their dependence on the support of the United States is absolute. If it wasn’t for the collaborationist regimes of the Arab world – the Sauds, the Mubaraks and Husseinis – then Israel would have been finished as a racist state many years ago.

Symptoms of this degeneration are the video below of Israelis actually celebrating the murder of activists on the high seas. Disgusting, sickening but above all evidence of the malign sickness of settler colonialism.

Tony Greenstein

Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives

It is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events

The Independent, June 1, 2010

Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives It is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events

Has Israel lost it? Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday's killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel's rule?

Don't hold your breath.

You only have to read the gutless White House statement - that the Obama administration was "working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy". Not a single word of condemnation. And that's it. Ten dead. Just another statistic to add to the Middle East's toll.

But it's not.

In 1948, our politicians - the Americans and the British - staged an airlift into Berlin. A starving population (our enemies only three years before) were surrounded by a brutal army, the Russians, who had erected a fence around the city. The Berlin airlift was one of the great moments in the Cold War. Our soldiers and our airmen risked and gave their lives for these starving Germans.

Incredible, isn't it? In those days, our politicians took decisions; our leaders took decisions to save lives. Messrs Attlee and Truman knew that Berlin was important in moral and human as well as political terms.

And today? It was people - ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors - yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis - who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them.

Where were our politicians yesterday? Well, we had the ridiculous Ban Ki-moon, the White House's pathetic statement, and dear Mr Blair's expression of "deep regret and shock at the tragic loss of life". Where was Mr Cameron? Where was Mr Clegg?

Back in 1948, they would have ignored the Palestinians, of course. It is, after all, a terrible irony that the Berlin airlift coincided with the destruction of Arab Palestine.

But it is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events. Our politicians are too spineless, too cowardly, to take decisions to save lives. Why is this? Why didn't we hear courageous words from Messrs Cameron and Clegg yesterday?

For it is a fact, is it not, that had Europeans (and yes, the Turks are Europeans, are they not?) been gunned down by any other Middle Eastern army (which the Israeli army is, is it not?) there would have been waves of outrage.

And what does this say about Israel? Isn't Turkey a close ally of Israel? Is this what the Turks can expect? Now Israel's only ally in the Muslim world is saying this is a massacre - and Israel doesn't seem to care.

But then Israel didn't care when London and Canberra expelled Israeli diplomats after British and Australian passports were forged and then provided to the assassins of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. It didn't care when it announced new Jewish settlements on occupied land in East Jerusalem while Joe Biden, the Vice-President of its erstwhile ally, the United States, was in town. Why should Israel care now?

How did we get to this point? Maybe because we all grew used to seeing the Israelis kill Arabs, maybe the Israelis grew used to killing Arabs. Now they kill Turks. Or Europeans. Something has changed in the Middle East these past 24 hours - and the Israelis (given their extraordinarily stupid political response to the slaughter) don't seem to have grasped what has happened. The world is tired of these outrages. Only the politicians are silent.

Diplomatic storms

*Goldstone report, November 2009

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 with the declared aim of halting rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the three-week conflict along with 13 Israelis. The South African jurist Richard Goldstone's report into the conflict found both Israel and the Hamas movement that controls the Strip guilty of war crimes, but focused more on Israel. Israel refused to co-operate with Goldstone and described his report as distorted and biased.

* The al-Mabhouh assassination, January-May 2010

Britain and Australia expelled Israeli diplomats after concluding that Israel had forged British and Australian passports used by assassins to kill a Hamas commander in Dubai. Israel has neither confirmed or denied a role in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in January. Britain said such misuse of British passports was "intolerable". Australia said it was not the behaviour of "a nation with whom we have had such a close, friendly and supportive relationship".

*Settlements row, March 2010

Israel announces plans, during visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden, to build 1,600 homes for Jews in an area of the West Bank annexed by Israel. The announcement triggers unusually harsh criticism from the United States. Washington said it damaged its efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the project was an insult. Netanyahu said he was blindsided by planning bureaucrats and apologised to Biden. Today's meeting with Barack Obama at the White House, called off by Mr Netanyahu so he could return home to deal with the flotilla crisis, was supposed to be another part of the fence-mending between the two allies.

*Nuclear secrecy, May 2010

Israel, widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has faced renewed calls to sign a global treaty barring the spread of atomic weapons. Signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) last week called for a conference in 2012 to discuss banning weapons of mass destruction throughout the Middle East. The declaration was adopted by all 189 parties to the NPT, including the US. It urged Israel to sign the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under UN safeguards.

Evidence that the Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was no Accident

United States student, Emily Henochowicz, Loses Eye as Soldier Fires Tear Gas Cannister at Her

Emily Henochowicz is a US student at a prestigious academic institution. She also has a conscience, which is why she joined protestors in Qualandiya to protest at Israel’s massacre on the high seas. She wasn’t carrying a weapon of course, nor a knife nor any of the other lurid Israeli accusations.

She was there and she was protesting. An Israeli soldier, who will never be held to account, shot a tear gas projectile straight at her face and she has now lost an eye.
Remember this when they talk about ‘the only democracy in the Middle East.’

We are at the beginning of the final phase of Israel’s short life. Whereas it was set up with almost unanimous world sympathy it has now lost the support of nearly all sectors of society bar the military-industrial. Even Jews have started to abandont the Jewish state. All that are left are the die-hard nutters of the Christian Zionist right. Tony Greenstein

Eva's Crime? She was protesting the deadly Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

US citizen Emily Henochowicz was shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister as she non-violently demonstrated against the Flotilla massacre

(JERUSALEM ISM) - An American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel’s murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.

21-year old Emily Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.

“They clearly saw us,” said Sören Johanssen, a Swedish ISM volunteer standing with Henochowicz. “They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”

Henochowicz is an art student at the prestigious Cooper Union, located in East Village, Manhattan.

Henochowicz lost her left eye after being shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister. Israeli soldiers are allowed to do this, even encouraged.

The demonstration was one of many that took place across the West Bank today in outrage over the Israeli military’s attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla and blatant violation of international law.

Demonstrations also took place in inside Israel, Gaza and Jerusalem, with clashes occurring in East Jerusalem and Palestinian shopkeepers in the occupied Old City closing their businesses for the day in protest.

Tear gas canisters are commonly used against demonstrators in the occupied West Bank. In May 2009, the Israeli State Attorney’s Office ordered Israeli Police to review its guidelines for dispersing demonstrators, following the death of a demonstrator, Bassem Abu Rahmah from Bil’in village, caused by a high velocity tear-gas projectile. Tear-gas canisters are meant to be used as a means of crowd dispersal, to be shot indirectly at demonstrators and from a distance. However, Israeli forces frequently shoot canisters directly at protesters and are not bound by a particular distance from which they can shoot.

Israeli occupation forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships on the Freedom Flotilla at 5 a.m. this morning, opening fire on the hundreds of unarmed civilians aboard. No-one aboard the ships were carrying weapons of any kind, including for defense against a feared Israeli attack in international waters. At least 9 aid workers aboard the ship have been confirmed dead, with dozens more injured. The assault took place 70 miles off the Gaza coast in international waters, after the flotilla was surrounded by three Israeli warships. The Freedom Flotilla, carrying 700 human rights activists from over 40 countries and 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, was headed for the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade on Gaza, combined with the illegal buffer zone, has put a stranglehold on the territory. 42% of Gazans are unemployed, and food insecurity hovers around 60% according to figures from the Palestine Centre for Human Rights.

The Politics of Zionist Madness

An interesting essay on the mindset of Israel's leaders and population today. Are they past the point of no return, irredeemably mad and bad? Certainly the closed society that is Israel, with fear built on irrational fear, is exactly the kind of atmosphere that ends up in murdering humanitarian workers delivering aid.

Tony Greenstein

Israel itself may be among the victims of its pathology
Eyad Sarraj
The National, June 1, 2001

Resorting to brute force is an expression of fear. Its deployment yesterday by the Israeli soldiers who raided and opened fire on the freedom flotilla en route to Gaza, killing at least 10 civilians and injuring dozens more, will not serve Israel or treat its existential anxiety.

As a psychiatrist and a resident of Gaza, I understand Israel’s reflexive use of force against civilians as a symptom of a structural pathology. Israel resorts to the use of maximum force as a form of intimidation. But this is the choice of the weak. It is quite possible that through Israel’s actions, it is tightening its own noose.

More than a decade ago the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a book defending Israel’s right to “a place under the sun”. But it is the racist desire to create “a nation above nations” that is the desire of Zionist extremists. In this context, peace is anathema; the siege and war on Gaza are legitimate and justified; Israel will use every possible means to avoid reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Indeed, Israel is marching rapidly towards becoming an apartheid state.

Due to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, the unemployment rate in the strip is near 50 per cent. The World Bank has stated that 90 per cent of water in Gaza is not suitable for human consumption, 80 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, and 70 per cent depend on charity for food supplies. Chronic malnutrition affects 15 per cent of Gaza’s children and its serious consequences for their cognition and growth will be felt for years to come.

The boats that the Israeli soldiers attacked were carrying food, medicines, and materials to build prefabricated homes for the people of Gaza. The freedom flotilla was a new attempt to break this Israeli blockade, condemned by the human rights community the world over.

The former US president Jimmy Carter has called the blockade an assault on civilisation. Justice Richard Goldstone has rightly called Israeli actions crimes against humanity. So many voices, including those of many Jews, have called upon Israel to end this draconian siege.

One and a half million Palestinians remain prisoners of the largest open-air jail on earth since Israel’s siege on Gaza began in December of 2008. Then, Israel’s army demolished 15,000 homes, destroyed factories and ministries, and chopped off the minarets from mosques. Even the American School in Gaza, a sprawling establishment, was completely destroyed and Israel bombed schools run by the United Nations. Israel used illegal weapons against the people of Gaza during this war, killing hundreds and wounding thousands of civilians including children.

The attack on the freedom flotilla is just the latest act of Israel’s violence. Now there is defiance in the streets of Gaza from people who demand that the world force Israel to respect them as human beings.

For the Palestinians, this is the time for us to be reunited. It is doubtful if Palestinian factions will rise to the occasion and end their internal strife as their political alliances dictate otherwise. It is also doubtful that many Arab regimes will heed the calls from the people of Gaza, as they are not independent from external political and economic pressure.

Yet the mass killing of those on board the freedom boats has drawn condemnation around the globe with critical statements from the United Nations and from European capitals. Israel’s action may reinforce calls to boycott its products. This could be a turning point in the struggle to end the siege and the Israeli occupation.

[Dr Eyad Sarraj is president of the Gaza Mental Health Programme and founder of the International Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza]