Land theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlers
Some are separated from their families, their lives in limbo, after being kicked out of the West Bank. Israel says it has 'repatriated' about 80 Gazans because they did not have residency permits ... Israel's deportation policy has forced thousands of West Bank residents who have previous Gaza addresses on their IDs to live in fear, avoiding checkpoints and public places where they might encounter Israeli soldiers, Bashi said.
An Israeli settler reportedly turned himself in, telling police he fired shots into the air near Hebron's Aroub refugee camp on Thursday; shots that hit two high school boys witnesses said. The office of Prim Minister Salam Fayyad released witness testimonies on Friday morning, naming citizens who said they saw the unidentified settler shoot at a group of highschoolers returning home after completing an end-of year exam. Moataz Moussa Omran Banat, 16, was seriously injured in the abdomen and thigh, and Ibrahim Mohammed, also 16, was shot in the chest ... Medics at the Al-Ahali Hospital told Ma'an that Moataz remains in the ICU but has been stabilized, and Ibrahim is set to have a second surgery on Friday, and has remained in stable condition since admission to the facility ... A second witness, identified as Jameel Jawabra, said that the "students were left bleeding in the street until a local resident took them to the hospital in his car."
Qadumim settlers east of Qalqiliya burnt lands in the Far'ata village Wednesday evening, officials said. Firefighters in Qalqiliya said crews rushed to the scene but settlers barred them from reaching the area until police intervened. [End]
Palestinians marched toward Israel's imposed buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, beginning east of Ash-Shuja'iyeh near the Karni crossing toward the borders ... The rallies, which protest the confiscation of an estimated 20 percent of arable land in Gaza, are often dispersed with live fire by Israeli forces. Additionally, individuals approaching the exclusion zone are often fired at, which the Palestinian human rights group Al-Mezan said have been on the increase, causing a number of injuries.
Thousands of leftists rally in Tel Aviv to mark '43 years of occupation,' condemn lethal takeover of Gaza-bound ship; protestors hold up signs reading 'government sinking all of us'
Palestinian National Initiative Secretary-General Mustafa Barghouthi called the West Bank-wide dedication of protest rallies to the Mavi Marmara dead an indication of national unity when he addressed a protest Friday. "All of the weekly rallies that are carried in all of the villages; Bil'in, Ni'lin, Al-Ma'sara, Jurat Ash-Sham'ah, Iraq Burin and along road 443 were dedicated to the denunciation of the Israeli massacre aboard the ships of the Freedom Flotilla," Barghouthi told protesters in Bil'in.
Week-long ban is initiated by Swedish Port Workers Union, who says act is reaction to the 'unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy.'
(dpa) More than 5000 demonstrators wave banners saying, 'Palestinians have the right to exist,' and 'Israel kills civilians' in Duisburg ... A similar protest, with 1,000 people, both Palestinians and Turks, taking part, was held in the nearby city of Dusseldorf.
Hanoi officials ask president to reschedule next week's planned visit following worldwide criticism against Israel over deadly takeover of Gaza-bound flotilla
Israeli-Swedish peace activist and artist Dror Feiler will file suit against Israel, following its fatal attack of a civilian aid boat intercepted in international waters, for assault and false imprisonment, he said Saturday.
The "Rachel Corrie" affair will figure prominently in tonight's Tel Aviv peace march. The boat takeover is a hollow victory. Protesters will call for an end to the Gaza siege and the 43-year old occupation. In the midst of a noisy campaign of praise for the naval commandos who "fought like lions" our deep respect goes to the small group of peace activists on board the "Rachel Corrie", who went on sailing, unarmed and undaunted, and who now find themselves in captivity for the crime of sailing aid to the people of Gaza" says Adam Keller, spokesperson for Gush Shalom, one of the groups organizing this evening's Tel Aviv march. [Keller is an outspoken advocate of nonviolence, but this statement plays into Israeli propaganda that the Turks were 'Islamists' who had planned violent resistance]
Concert producer 'troubled' by the groups' decision to cancel despite numerous attempts to convince them to still come.
Israeli forces arrested the chairwoman of the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla at Friday's demonstration in Bil'in, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, supporters said. Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian- American from Michigan, is a human rights activist who was on board the aid flotilla that came under attack Monday, in a raid that left nine dead. Activists said two anti-wall protesters were also detained, one Palestinian and one Israeli. An Israeli police spokesman said three foreign nationals were detained at the rally.
Five teenage Palestinians were detained in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Isawiya for allegedly throwing stones at cars in the nearby settlement of French Hill, witness said, while small protests broke out around the city. Muslim men under 40 who are not residents in Israel were barred from prayer at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, Israeli police announced, in a move apparently to reduce the likelihood of protests following prayer.
The An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades released a statement Friday morning laying claim to a series of projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel. The militant unit, affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees, said they fired two projectiles Thursday night. Police told Israeli media that there were no injuries, noting the projectiles landed in areas outside Ashkalon.
Palestinian medical sources reported Friday that an infant died at a hospital in Gaza after Israel refused to allow his family to transfer him to an Israeli hospital to receive specialized medical treatment. The infant was identified as Mohammad Khader, 7 months. His death brings the toll of patients who died due to the siege up to 374.
Israeli crossings officials announced the closure of the Gaza crossing points on Friday, indicating the continuation of a siege-policy of closing the goods terminals at least two days a week. Little effort appears to have been made to follow up on calls by the international community to lift the siege on Gaza, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the press in the wake of the armed takeover of aid ships bringing supplies to the coastal enclave that "any goods, any humanitarian aid to Gaza, can enter. What we want to prevent is their ability to bring in war materiel."
Even with the aid that was confiscated from the overpowered vessels from the Freedom Flotilla - some 10,000 tons according to organizers - Israeli officials made a single attempt to deliver 20 truckloads of the goods, that Hamas officials in the area said were broken with parts missing. Officials refused to receive what they called the pirated supplies, particularly when the volunteers who carried it to the eastern Mediterranean remained in Israeli prisons at the time.
JERUSALEM, June 3 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed easing Israel's blockade of Gaza by means of an international force that could monitor the territory's ports, an Israeli television station said on Thursday. Government officials had no immediate comment on the report on Channel 2 television that he had raised the idea in talks with international Middle East envoy Tony Blair. Netanyahu was to meet his senior cabinet ministers later on Thursday.
...Every day, a long line of Palestinians queues outside the USAID distribution center in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City. Thursday was the turn of families with nine or more children; they have been issued with the relevant papers, allowing them to collect 3 kg of salt, 12 kg of sugar, 12 kg of beans, 16 L of olive oil and four 50-kg sacks of wheat flour. After 40 days, they will return for more. "The proportion of the population dependent on aid has risen to 80%, the number of the poorest of the poor has risen from 100,000 to 300,000 in the past year alone, and unemployment has reached 44%," says Chris Gunness, spokesman for UNRWA, the U.N. body that has been assisting Palestinian refugees since 1949. "How can anyone say there isn't a humanitarian crisis?"
Gaza's business and commercial sectors are not allowed to act legitimately as a result of Israel's siege on the coastal enclave, the The Quartet's Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, reportedly said Saturday.
[with two Israeli videos] The Gaza-bound aid ship "Rachel Corrie" arrived Saturday at the Israeli port city of Ashdod after Israel Defense Forces soldiers boarded the ship peacefully and escorted it into Israeli territory. The move came after warnings that Israel would not allow the vessel to reach Gaza, which is under blockade by Israel ... The Cambodian-flagged Rachel Corrie - named for an American college student who was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in 2003 while protesting Israeli house demolitions in Gaza - was carrying hundreds of tons of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and cement ... Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli military to avoid harming the passengers on board the Irish boat, a participant at Thursday night's Cabinet meeting said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
The Corrie carried 11 passengers and 9 crew from 5 different countires, mostly Ireland and Malaysia. The passengers included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, Parit Member of the Malaysian Parliament Mohd Nizar Zakaria, and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday ... The 1200-ton cargo ship was purchased through a special fund set up by former Malaysian Prime Minister and Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad... The attack on the Rachel Corrie may spell trouble for Israel's relationship with Ireland. The Irish government had formally requested Israel allow the ship to reach Gaza. On 1 June, the Irish parliament also passed an all-party motion condemning Israel's use of military force against civilian aid ships, and demanding "an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza."
The police said passengers of the Rachel Corrie ship will be allowed to return onboard after its cargo is unloaded, and will be escorted by Navy ships outside of Israel's territorial waters. Police noted the activists' status was different than that of those on board the Marmara ship, because they did not resist IDF actions and reached an understanding with the forces.
The activists detained on board the Rachel Corrie ship will be interrogated and later taken to an Immigration Authority facility in Holon, near Tel Aviv. (End)
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign slams military takeover of aid ship en route to Gaza, says passengers were 'hijacked' by IDF
As Navy takes over Gaza-bound Rachel Corrie vessel, boats and kayaks take to waters in show of solidarity with Navy. 'Israel won't be the world's punching bag,' one of organizers clarifies
[includes 2003 video interview with Rachel] Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American from Olympia, Wash., who was crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer March 16, 2003. Corrie was in the Gaza Strip, working with the International Solidarity Movement, which opposes Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and living among Palestinians whose homes were being demolished. She was kneeling [NO, standing] in front of a home, acting as a human shield, when she was bulldozed.
Exclusive: 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.
The prize-winning writer and creator of Wallander was among those on board the Gaza flotilla. Here he shares his private diary of the events leading to his capture. ...It takes exactly an hour for the speeding black rubber dinghies with the masked soldiers to reach us and start to board. We gather, up on the bridge. The soldiers are impatient and want us down on deck. Someone who is going too slowly immediately gets a stun device fired into his arm. He falls. Another man who is not moving fast enough is shot with a rubber bullet. I think: I am seeing this happen right beside me. It is an absolute reality. People who have done nothing being driven like animals, being punished for their slowness.
PORTLAND, Maine – A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza ... In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Hamann said troops that landed on the boat he was on fired high-powered paintball guns and threw a "stun grenade" that hit him on the foot before exploding behind him. People aboard the flotilla expected a confrontation, but not a deadly one, he said. As soon as we heard the real guns going off, that's when we knew things were different than what we thought they'd be," he said.
They have been shot at, imprisoned, deported and threatened – what makes somebody prepared to risk their lives to go into the occupied territories? ... [Ewa Jasiewicz] saw Israeli soldiers mount a raid on the Mavi Marmara, killing at least nine activists and wounding many more, before soldiers came after her boat. "Our engines failed and we stopped," she says. "[The Israeli soldiers] were incredibly aggressive. They were saying 'fuck you, fucking bitch, I'll kill you'."
BEIRUT: Arab responses to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre have been more disappointing than the Western reactions, according to Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. During Friday prayers, the senior Shiite cleric said that "while we weren't surprised by the Western complicity with [Israel], we are more disappointed by the tepid response by Arab states, and the Arab League, which has come to resemble the League of Arab Contradictions."
The Economist slammed Israel for its raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza, saying the state's government propagates a "siege mentality" in an article to be printed Sunday.
http://www.ynetnews .com/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3899167,00. html
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Nasrallah on Friday stressed unity of Arabs and Muslims to stand by Egypt and Turkey to prevent Israel and the US from pressuring them. His eminence called for more participation in the Freedom flotilla 2 which he said will be the door to end the siege of Gaza.
Turkish PM may visit Gaza, ask Turkish Navy to accompany another aid flotilla, according to Lebanese newspaper; Turkish military opposes cutting security ties with Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi are the prime suspects in an investigation initiated by the Istanbul Bakirkoy Prosecutor's Office into Monday's IDF raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which nine people, all Turkish citizens, were killed, the Turkish newspaper Zaman reported on Saturday.
Turkey appears to be involved in criminal activities in respect to Gaza flotilla -- The so-called "peace flotilla" episode raises many questions, and most of them have to do with the role of Turkey. After all Israel behaved from beginning to end with the utmost transparency. But nobody knows exactly what went on in Turkey – how the operation was planned and what part the Turkish government played in its implementation.
...A de facto ministry representative said the Palestinian Authority must "lift its siege on passports." Palestinian passports are issued in Ramallah, and require PA ministry approval before their approval. However, since Hamas took over the coastal enclave in 2007, as well as the blockade imposed on Gaza which affects the postal service, Palestinian passports have been slow in arriving to their owners, and remain reportedly stalled in bureaucratic red tape.
Pro-Palestinian activists hacked into Yisrael Beiteinu's website, and implanted messages in condemnation of Israel, according to a party spokesperson. Several attempts to hack into Israeli governmental websites were recorded in the past few days, probably in response to the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla at the beginning of the week.
Minister of Minority Affairs says Israel has the most unequal society amongst western nations.
...The special committee was established in December 1968 by the UN General Assembly to examine the human rights situation across the occupied territories. These include the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Since its establishment, the government of Israel has failed to accommodate requests by the committee to visit the occupied territories. As a result, the committee conducts an annual visit to the neighboring countries of Egypt and Jordan in order to gather information from witnesses with first-hand experience of the human rights situation in the occupied territories.
Recently an intelligence official actually called the absence of Palestinian terror a 'propaganda problem.' -- It's impossible to understand or explain Israel's passive-aggressive responses to the "flotilla crisis" without reference to the ground from which its current leaders emerged. Both the prime minister and the defense minister are dyed-in-the- wool "creatures of military operations." Both were steeped in the instant-heroism mentality and the commando spirit − the ethos in which a military force shows up at the height of a crisis like a deus ex machina and in a single stroke slices through the Gordian knot.
No one could have predicted the fallout from this week's flotilla fiasco -- Israel's ill-fated boarding operation of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara has become a nightmare for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, but a dream come true for the leaders of Hamas ... Israeli efforts to wear down the group, through large-scale bombardment a year-and-a-half ago, through a virtual siege the past three years and through the imprisonment of thousands of Hamas members, have failed. Now, with the events of this week, the Islamic Resistance Movement (its full name) appears stronger than ever. Israel's hopes of isolating Gaza from the West Bank Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas have also been dashed, as Palestinians throughout the West Bank embrace Gaza once again.
The "Exodus" affair was repeated, but with a change of roles. Now we are the British ... This is Chapter 2 of "Cast Lead". Then we aroused most countries in the world against us, shocked our few friends and gladdened our enemies. Now we have done it again, and perhaps with even greater success. World public opinion is turning against us. This is a slow process. It resembles the accumulation of water behind a dam. The water rises slowly, quietly, and the change is hardly noticeable. But when it reaches a critical level, the dam bursts and the disaster is upon us. We are steadily approaching this point.
Bible stories retold: Israel defends intensity of military force after autopsy results reveal total of 30 bullets in bodies of nine protesters
If, as expected, the U.N. Security Council remains politically impotent and refuses to penalize Israel for the killings of nine pro-Palestinian civilians on a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, what is the next course of action? A global civil society campaign to delegitimize Israel? Formal or informal sanctions by individual states? Worldwide arrest warrants? All of these — and more — are in the realm of possibility, say two leading constitutional experts, Professor Richard Falk, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Michael Ratner, president of the New York- based Center for Constitutional Rights.
...Since the Hamas victory in the 2006 elections, and more so since it took over Gaza in 2007, Israel's policy insists on shunning the group. We argue that its rule is illegitimate, we're angry at anyone who talks to it, and we confront anyone who suggests a different approach. Yet is this necessarily the proper policy?
...Yesterday, US officials set a deadline of June 21 for Security Council action on a new sanctions resolution. Of course, it's not up to the US to unilaterally set deadlines for Security Council action, but this deadline gives Turkey and Brazil an opening. Suppose Turkish and Brazilian diplomats were now to say: we demand effective Security Council action to end the siege on Gaza by June 20. Do you think U.S. diplomats would get the message? I think they would. Now, of course this begs the question of whether Turkey and Brazil have the capacity to back up this implied threat: can Turkey and Brazil delay a sanctions resolution?
An unusual moment on NPR tonight that I read hopefully, as a sign of perestroika ... Siegel had on two Muslim writers to talk about Obama's Cairo speech a year ago, Reza Aslan of the Daily Beast and Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Suweif. Both of them said nothing had happened in a year. Both went off on Obama's Israel/Palestine policy, Aslan said that Obama was behaving like George Bush, and Suweif said that the United States had to break the special relationship with Israel. It was a wonderful thing that NPR had two Muslims on to trash Obama about Israel/Palestine. It was as if NPR recognizes how unbalanced its coverage is. Though Suweif had said that "for some reason" Obama was unable to deliver on his Cairo promises. NPR knows why, Siegel knows why. When will they say?
Some weeks ago I was in the West Bank. During that visit I saw with my own eyes the fact that Israel does not want peace with Palestine ... During my visit I saw shoe factories and olive oil presses, I met Palestinian businessmen who, just like me, want to have a decent life for themselves and their families. I discovered that life under military occupation does not offer many opportunities for a decent life, however. From permission to import, export, travel, move and order goods, excessive inspections, increased tariffs for passage and documentation for official to even a hard time getting paid for products because the money was coming to Palestinians.
In Israel too, it is merely a matter of time until they reach me, and you as well. Just as German pastor Martin Niemoller said about the Nazi period ...After that they began to lash out at the country's Arabs and other minorities, saying they were a Trojan horse; that evil would come forth from their bellies and their wombs. It is an act of kindness to discriminate against them and their children for generations to come, and it is obligatory to make their equality conditional on an oath of allegiance. Until they swear allegiance and implore, they will be conditional citizens and whenever possible will be put to the test. Even the most faithful of the faithful will not return to their homes in Biram and Ikrit, as they had been promised. But I did not speak out because I was not an Arab and not a refugee.
Mario Vargas Llosa, the renowned Peruvian writer, is trying to sustain his love for Israel, no matter what -- ...What do you think about the IDF operation this week? "It was a terrible thing for the victims of course, but also for Israel's image. It's very surprising how Israel manages to help its enemies so systematically ... And the blockade of Gaza? "The blockade is the source of the problem. The invasion of Gaza was a mistake, too. Israel gained nothing from it.
"Any depictions of the prophet are considered blasphemous by Muslims," Aljazeera English recently reported. The statement is meant to fully summarize the reason behind the outrage that arises in Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world whenever some provocative 'artist' decides to express his freedom of expression and 'expose' Muslims as anti-democratic. Such a simplistic interpretation of such an intricate issue.
White House reporter Helen Thomas also slams Obama administration for not condemning 'deliberate Gaza flotilla massacre.' -- Israeli Jews should get out of Palestine and go back "home," to Germany and Poland, senior White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas was taped as saying earlier this week, bringing calls for her resignation by Jewish organization B'nai B'rith. In a recently uploaded Youtube video, Thomas can be heard saying that Israel "should get the hell out of Palestine," adding that the land was Palestinian, "not German, it's not Polish."
A year after Barack Obama's famous Cairo speech, failure to make headway in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a focal point for disappointment among Muslims. Sixty percent of Arabs say he's too weak to deliver a peace agreement.
http://www.csmonito r.com/World/ Middle-East/ 2010/0604/
Obama-s-stature- among-Muslims- slips-over- Israeli-Palestin ian-standoff
--www.TheHeadlines. org
Hamas officials given one month to leave Israel
Jerusalem police confiscated the Israeli identity cards of four Hamas legislators overnight on Thursday and gave them until July to leave the country. Mohammed Abu Tir, Mohammed Totach, Khaled Abu Arafa, and Ahmed Atoun are all Hamas legislators who refuse to give up their duties within the Hamas Legislative Council.
Jerusalem police confiscated the Israeli identity cards of four Hamas legislators overnight on Thursday and gave them until July to leave the country. Mohammed Abu Tir, Mohammed Totach, Khaled Abu Arafa, and Ahmed Atoun are all Hamas legislators who refuse to give up their duties within the Hamas Legislative Council.
http://www.haaretz. com/news/ national/ hamas-officials- given-one- month-to- leave-israel- 1.294215
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
Egypt (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people across Egypt protested against Israel's Gaza blockade on Friday, chanting pro-Hamas slogans in a sign of mounting rancour in the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state. About 20,000 protesters gathered in the port city of Alexandria, waving Egyptian, Turkish and Palestinian flags in response to Israel's raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza. The protest, organized by Egypt's most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, was unusual in a country where public demonstrations are often swiftly suppressed.
Largest demonstration took place in Alexandria, Egypt, where 15,000 people called for cutting ties with Israel, closing Israeli embassies across Arab world.
Six truckloads of medical equipment and food are en route to Gaza, donated by Jordan, Jordanian media reported. Prince Rashid bin Al-Hassan said medical supplies for the Jordanian Hospital in Gaza were included in the aid convoy, where major and minor surgeries are carried out, as well as the training of medical staff in the coastal enclave.
Egyptian Legislator, Dr. Hazim Farouq, stated Friday that an Egyptian humanitarian convoy will be heading to the Gaza Strip this coming Monday carrying construction materials.
The present era in Israel is one in many members of the Jewish majority are expressing anti-Arab race-hate more openly and more frequently than ever before. But there are also courageous Israelis-- Jewish and Palestinian- - who try to counter this trend. See this film clip shot by Ashira Ramdan, who went with a group of Israeli leftists to mount a counter-protest against an extreme nationalist gathering in Ashdod [where the ships were being brought on Monday]. Ashira is amazing there: Calm, courageous, principled. Her assailants-- not so, at all.
Quebec's highest court will review the case of Palestinian villagers in the West Bank who are trying to sue two Canadian companies under advisement. That doesn't necessarily mean that it will actually hear the case. Palestinian residents of Bilin are seeking to sue the companies — Green Park International Inc. and Green Mountain International — for allegedly violating international law by building condominiums for Israeli settlers in the area.
http://www.cbc. ca/canada/ montreal/ story/2010/ 06/04/mtl- bilin-court- of-appeal. html
http://www.cbc. ca/canada/ montreal/ story/2010/ 06/04/mtl- bilin-court- of-appeal. html
Detentions
Retaliation
Siege / Blockade
Even with the aid that was confiscated from the overpowered vessels from the Freedom Flotilla - some 10,000 tons according to organizers - Israeli officials made a single attempt to deliver 20 truckloads of the goods, that Hamas officials in the area said were broken with parts missing. Officials refused to receive what they called the pirated supplies, particularly when the volunteers who carried it to the eastern Mediterranean remained in Israeli prisons at the time.
The MV Rachel Corrie
Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan, who is among the 11 passengers on the MV Rachel Corrie, the Gaza-bound Irish aid ship that Israel has vowed to block from breaching the blockade, told the AP today [Fri] that the group would not offer resistance if the Israeli military tried to take over the vessel. "We will sit down," Corrie said in a telephone interview with the AP. "They will probably arrest us ... But there will be no resistance." Corrigan also told the AP that she has faith that Israel will allow the boat through.
Palestinian organizations are raising funds to send a ship from Beirut to the Gaza Strip, in an effort to break the blockade. According to the organizations, the ship is slated to leave Lebanon next weekend, with European activists, journalists and humanitarian supply on board.
More ships coming
Press release, June 4, 2010 - In a harbour in the Mediterranean (we're not yet disclosing which one) a small vessel is waiting for a special mission. She will be sailing to Gaza. In order to avoid sabotage, the exact date and name of the port of departure will be announced only shortly before her launch.
Gaza Flotilla - Witness testimony and the propaganda war
In Memoriam
[with photos of each of the men killed] Humanitarian aid workers, a firefighter, a politician, a taekwondo champion, a photojournalist, a student who hoped to become a doctor -- nine Turkish men, mostly fathers who leave behind children and wives. Even while their deaths are at the center of an international crisis that is rocking the state of Israel, these individual lives lost have scarcely gained attention — firstly because the Israeli government resisted revealing any information about who died and in what circumstances, and then, while maintaining a stranglehold on the facts, Israel's propaganda machine has worked furiously to portray the victims as villains.
The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has backed down from the claim that forty activists in the Gaza flotilla, who had resisted the ship's interception by Israeli commandos in international waters on Monday, are "al Qaeda mercenaries. " Some participants in the Gaza convoy are members of ... IHH, a Turkish non-governmental organizaion (NGO) established in the early 1990s. Its mission is to provide humanitarian relief in regions of conflict or that have experienced natural disasters ... [In November 2001] Sharon came away [from the White House] not only with the inclusion of Israel in the frontline of the "war against terror," but the unprecedented American affirmation of Israel's right to act both defensively and proactively in dealing with terrorists-- a right that has gone almost unchallenged for nearly nine years. "Link to terror" became an elixir, believed to possess the almost magical property of being able to immunize Israeli policies from criticism.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu said following the peaceful takeover of the Gaza-bound Rachel Corrie, "Today we saw the difference between a sail of peace activists, with whom we don't agree but honor their right to express a different opinion, and a hate sail organized by terrorism-supportin g violent extremists." He clarified that "in both sails the State of Israel used the exact same procedure to enforce the marine blockade, to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas and to allow civilian goods to enter Gaza after being checked."
Knesset Member Ofir Akonis (Likud) said that the quiet takeover of the Irish-owned Rachel Corrie vessel sharpens the difference between "this sail and the Marmara's terror sail, and proves to the world that the terrorist passengers sought in an intentional clash."
Flotilla seizure in media
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel may have lost the initial PR battle over its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship [really? Not in the US - its version is all most Americans have seen/heard], but it is fighting back with a barrage of video clips in a bid to prove activists initiated the violence. Days after the botched attack which killed nine Turks, the fight over what exactly happened on board the ferry is still raging on YouTube, with both sides posting more and more clips on the video-sharing website to support their case.
Like patients contemplating the eponymous inkblot pictures, Israelis and nonIsraelis see the same images, but often perceive different things. "From an Israeli viewpoint, the image that is seared into Israeli minds is that of soldiers being beaten and attacked with knives. For a European, the central event is that nine people were killed," says Prof Wolfsfeld. "Both sides are building different stories based on their assumptions of who is the aggressor and who is the victim." ... The backdrop to the controversy is also important, particularly the differing views of Gaza, the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory. "One of the things that Israelis don't understand is the outrage in the entire world against the blockade of Gaza in general," says Prof Fuchs. "Here, Gaza is perceived as a terrorist state. Israelis feel they want to destroy the state of Israel. Therefore, whatever means are taken to get rid of Hamas are acceptable means."
The opening moves in the reaction to the Israeli interception of the first wave of the Gaza flotilla have now been made. Israel visibly underestimated the international response to its attack and the casualties it inflicted. Widespread condemnation ensued almost everywhere, many Americans became aware for the first time that something was seriously amiss in that part of the world, and attempts were made to bring both the UN and NATO into play. But Israel also understood clearly that no matter what it did to whom, or how the rest of the world reacted, its dominance of the mainstream media (MSM) in the US and its lock on the US Government (USG) assured that its view of the event would be the one most Americans received. More importantly, it could count on the USG to refrain from joining in the general condemnation
Army releases audio recording of exchange between Israel Navy ships and passengers on the Mavi Marmara, the central ship of a Gaza aid flotilla raided by Israel on Monday ... The release of the recording is another step taken by the Israel Defense Forces to solidify the claim that the passengers of the Mavi Marmara were determined to attack the soldiers who boarded the deck.
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 ... 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." ....
http://www.maannews .net/eng/ ViewDetails. aspx?ID=289740
http://www.maannews .net/eng/ ViewDetails. aspx?ID=289740
...the [Israeli] public, who no one bothered to tell that a demonstration by a few hundred Arabs in New York was a failure and certainly did not express the public sentiment in the United States, continued to be worn out. Television news presenters Yonit Levy and Yaakov Eilon, who were highly disturbed by the fact that their colleagues in New York and Washington were angry, broadcast the criticism time after time, because after all it is the public's "right to know." At the same time, not a word was said about the supportive attitude of TV stations that are viewed by tens of millions of Americans − true, they are not the majority on the campuses nor the majority of the readers of The New York Times − where the anchors and viewers actually love Israel, respect it for not bowing to terror and for constituting, even if not by choice, the front line of western civilization.
Not many atrocities can be less controversial than Israel's attack on the Turkish-based flotilla ... In any normal place, you would expect masses to take to the streets and protest. Indeed, precisely this happened all over the globe. Not in Israel. A few hundred people did demonstrate in Tel Aviv and in several other towns, but then again a few hundred gathered to throw eggs at the Turkish embassy. On the internal front, the Israeli government has nothing to worry about. How is this consensus achieved? How can you turn millions of fairly educated citizens into silent lambs, or worse, into supporters of their own state's terrorism? If we concentrate on the short term, leaving aside, for the sake of brevity, decades of indoctrination, one can spot a few themes in the Israeli propaganda, which emerged during the first hours after the incident.
More reactions to the flotilla attack
http://www.dailysta r.com.lb/ article.asp? edition_id= 1&categ_id=1&article_id=115598# axzz0pvYonx20
UK: 'Israel went beyond what was warranted or proportionate'
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague addressed the House of Commons Friday afternoon and gave a strong statement on the issue of the Gaza flotilla. He has also stressed the need for the end of restrictions on Gaza to allow for the entry of humanitarian aid. In his address to the Commons the Foreign Secretary outlined his support for an independent inquiry into the incident stating that the UK would "stress to the Israeli Government the need for it to act with restraint and in line with its international obligations, given that its actions appear to have gone beyond what was warranted or proportionate. "We need to know whether more could have been done to minimise the risks or to reduce the number of deaths and injuries."http://www.ynetnews .com/articles/ 0,7340,L- 3899167,00. html
http://www.almanar. com.lb/NewsSite/ NewsDetails. aspx?id=140626&language=en
Turkish-Israeli relations
Turkey accused Israel on Friday of breaking biblical commandments against killing and said it could cut ties with its one-time ally to a minimum after nine Turkish activists died in a raid on a ship bound for Gaza. "I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says 'thou shalt not kill'. Did you not understand?" Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan said in his harshest words yet since Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara on Monday.
Other news
...The Daily Star spoke with renowned international law expert Marcelo Kohen to shed some light on the intricacies of the case. Kohen – both a professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute and a defense counsel regularly involved in cases at the International Court of Justice – is adamant Israel has flouted the law, but he is skeptical at the probability the state will be held to accountability by existing legal mechanisms.
http://www.dailysta r.com.lb/ article.asp? edition_id= 1&categ_id=1&article_id=115591# axzz0pvRmh0UB
http://www.dailysta r.com.lb/ article.asp? edition_id= 1&categ_id=1&article_id=115591# axzz0pvRmh0UB
Opinion / Analysis
The botched Israeli naval commando raid on the Gaza Freedom flotilla has a lot of people scratching their heads. How could Israel have made such an ill-advised decision to try to storm the ship the Mavi Marmara with 600 peace activists on board, which in the best of circumstances could only have ended in a public relations disaster? Once it did make that decision, why did members of the much vaunted Israel Defense Forces naval commandos Shayetet 13 conduct the assault itself in such an inept fashion virtually guaranteeing their humiliation and the loss of life? These questions are only puzzling because most of us have bought the myth that the Jewish state has an unbroken record of strategic brilliance and military success going back at least to 1948.
[American] progressives oppose Israeli policies that would almost inevitably lead to Israel's dissolution ... Netanyahu's choice of confrontation over negotiating the end of the occupation appears suicidal. But that is the policy supported by right-wingers like Beck. They don't admire Israel because of its intrinsic qualities but because they view it as fighting the good fight against the people they most despise: Arabs and Muslims. They will happily fight to the last Israeli in a struggle they view as part of the "War on Terror." If Israel is sacrificed in the name of that goal, so what? There are more important things to the right than the survival of one little Jewish country -- like fighting Islam.
Iraq, other Mideast
Excerpt: At least five Iraqis were killed and 12 more were wounded in prayer day violence. Also, a U.S. soldier died in Baghdad on Wednesday after an accident that is under investigation. In Mosul, two civilians were killed and four more were wounded in an I.E.D. blast.Two soldiers and an officer were wounded in a separate blast. A car bomb near police headquarters wounded three civilians... .
U.S., U.K., other world news
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague announced quick steps being taken by the new coalition government toward changing the law on universal jurisdiction, the official said Wednesday during the Queen's debate on 26 May. The current law, based on the 1988 Criminal Justice Act grants universal jurisdiction on war crimes cases to courts in England and Wales, but came under review following a near arrest of former Israeli Foreign Minister Tipzi Livni, who was in office during the country's 2008-9 winter war on Gaza. The government's move is an attempt to pre-emptively block any situation that might lead to the arrest of an Israeli government minister. "We cannot have a situation where Israeli politicians feel that they cannot enter this country", Hague said.
Since its creation more than six decades ago, the state of Israel has been at times a vexing ally to the United States. But it poses a special challenge for President Obama, whose foreign policy emphasizes the importance of international rules and organizations that successive Israeli governments have clashed with and often ignored.
http://www.csmonito r.com/World/ Middle-East/ 2010/0604/
Obama-s-stature- among-Muslims- slips-over- Israeli-Palestin ian-standoff
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