Subject: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Mon May 31, 2010 3:11 am
"These savages are killing people here, please help," a Turkish television reporter said.
The al-Jazeera broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, "Everybody shut up!"
There were no details on the identities of the casualties, or on the conditions of some of the more prominent people on board, including a Nobel peace laureate and an elderly Holocaust survivor.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli raid and said it was summoning the Israeli ambassador for an "urgent explanation." It says Israel violated international law and will suffer consequences.
The reports came just after daybreak, with the flotilla still well away from the Gaza shore. Israel had declared it would not allow the ships to reach Gaza.
The violent takeover threatened to deal yet another blow to Israel's international image, already tarnished by war crimes accusations in Gaza and its three-year-old blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Tue Jun 01, 2010 7:32 am
'Next time we'll use more force'
Israel will use more aggressive force in the future to prevent ships from breaking the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, a top Navy commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
"We boarded the ship and were attacked as if it was a war," the officer said. "That will mean that we will have to come prepared in the future as if it was a war."
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:27 am
Rogue State Israhell rejects independent probe calls
Israel on Tuesday night rejected international calls to end its naval blockade of Gaza and to launch an “independent” investigation into the death of at least nine activists during an IDF raid of the Mavi Marmara passenger ship, which was part of a flotilla that aimed to break that closure.
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:52 am
Freed journos tell of Israeli commandos like 'hyenas hunting'
Two Herald journalists captured by Israeli commandos and deported after being caught up in this week's deadly Gaza flotilla attack spoke today of their ordeal.
The Sydney Morning Herald's chief correspondent Paul McGeough told of being aboard one of the Gaza aid flotilla vessels and seeing shadows of the Israeli navy's Zodiac boats circling.
He said it felt like "hyenas hunting an animal in the night".
A few days before Paul McGeough and Kate Geraghty were detained in Israel, they produced this account of the "freedom flotilla" protesting Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
When the commandos attacked the flotilla, it resulted in nine dead.
With photographer Kate Geraghty, McGeough arrived in Istanbul today on a Turkish military flight after being held in an Israeli prison since Monday.
Speaking by phone for the first time after touching down in Istanbul, McGeough told smh.com.au that he and Geraghty were "in good shape" although "Kate and I got pushed around".
He said that tension had been rising "for some hours" in the lead-up to the early morning confrontation with the flotilla.
He said the Israelis then "moved in suddenly from both sides".
A phone was snatched from his hand.
"One of the activists ... had a gun pulled on her," McGeough said.
He said that it was a "scary and frightening" time but that paint pellets, not live ammunition, had been used on the boat he was on, Challenger One.
The incident was "very ugly" and "testosterone-driven", McGeough said, and commandos had stood over some activists in a "bullying" way.
Israel has rejected calls for a commission of inquiry into the events surrounding Monday's confrontation.
But it has faced international condemnation after it raided the convoy of activists and aid workers on their way to Gaza to break an Israeli blockade on the strip.
Nine people were killed in the confrontation but Israel maintains that its commandos were attacked by the protesters.
Geraghty believes she was hit by a stun gun fired by Israeli commandos after they boarded her ship.
She suffered bruises, minor burns and nausea.
Geraghty said today that she was safe and "very happy" to have been released from detention.
While she had been "frightened" during the confrontation, she said her injuries were "minor" compared with what happened to others on board the boats.
It was early morning in Istanbul and both journalists were waiting at the airport to access equipment, including cameras, that were confiscated by the Israelis.
His deportation was "an absolute disrespect by Israel" for democracy and the fundamental rights of journalists, McGeough said.
The first mate on the Challenger One, Shane Dillon, called the Israeli raid "an act of piracy".
"It was an attack on a flotilla of peace boats in international waters. It was an act of piracy. The force used was excessive and unwarranted," Mr Dillon told Fairfax after arriving home in Dublin.
Mr Dillon said the mostly female activists on his boat were treated badly -- pushed and hit with rifles, shot in the face with paintball weapons at close range and beaten.
‘‘[Kate Geraghty] was leaning over the side of the boat to take a photograph down of one of the boats approaching us and they blasted her with a Taser,’’ Mr Dillon said.
She had earlier photographed the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara being boarded by Israeli forces and the Challenger One had attempted to outrun the Israeli zodiacs to give Ms Geraghty time to transmit her photographs.
Inside a cell at Ben Gurion Mr Dillon said he was later told by other protestors that when other boats had reached the shore at Ashdod ‘‘they picked out some of the activists and beat them up in public’’.
Mr Dillon said that as a crew member he was treated relatively well.
The Herald's editor, Peter Fray, said he was elated that he could speak to McGeough and Geraghty and relieved that they were out of prison.
He said he was angry at how they had been treated.
Mr Fray said the Herald would pursue all legal, moral, ethical and journalistic avenues to ensure his staff "are able to do their jobs as bona fide and excellent journalists".
McGeough said that he would fight his deportation from Israel in absentia.
Fairfax Media chief executive and managing director Brian McCarthy spoke to McGeough soon after he landed in Istanbul today.
"I am very proud of the courage and professionalism they have shown in covering this very important story under extremely difficult circumstances," he said.
"I look forward to reading their eyewitness account in tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald."
One Australian remains injured in an Israeli hospital and two other Australians were among last night's group of deportees.
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:54 am
Another kick in the teeth for Israel's friends
An act of folly on the high seas is a wake-up call for the West on Gaza.
Just what has Israel achieved in intercepting the Free Gaza Movement flotilla headed to Gaza? Will Hamas leaders now sue for peace on any terms? Will anti-Israeli recalcitrants in the region and beyond repent their misguided ways? Will hardliners in Iran make a blood oath to the world never to go down the nuclear weapons path?
We all know the answer.
This act of unbelievable stupidity is a gift to Israel's enemies. It is another kick in the teeth for Israel's diminishing number of friends.
It claims it wants to be a normal, respected member of the international community, but Israel, at least its current government under Benjamin Netanyahu, then behaves as a law unto itself.
The Free Gaza Movement may well be an irritant for Israel. That's precisely what it aims to be. The movement, and those with it, say their mission was humanitarian. This massaged the truth in a way that would do Israeli spin-doctors proud. The flotilla, like earlier ones that mostly made it to Gaza, was driven as much by the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as anything more high-minded.
But politics, of the free-for-all shouting style, is what Israel claims to do best. How many times have you read about tiny, embattled Israel holding high a shining light of vibrant democratic practice in a sea of Arab darkness?
Precisely what danger did the flotilla pose to Israel? Did a small posse of ships amount to an existential threat? What was in their cargo that demanded such action in international waters?
It seems that knives and metal poles now pose a clear and present danger to the Jewish state. A state, we might note, that receives extraordinary amounts of military succour from the United States. A state that is now among the world's leading arms exporters. A state that is the only country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons.
The footage on board the Mavi Marmara of pro-Palestinian activists' ill-advised efforts to thwart the Israeli boarding is now being cited ad nauseam by Israel and its acolytes as proof of evil intention.
The Israeli Defence Force claimed that activists even tried to ''kidnap'' a soldier. Eh? Just who was kidnapping whom? My comprehension of the English language must be slipping.
There are, of course, much bigger issues here than just a piece of madness on the high seas. What a joke it makes about any renewal of the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace process. True, the Israeli actions were aimed at Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, rather than the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank under its enfeebled President, Mahmoud Abbas. He shares with Israel a visceral dislike of Hamas. But to enter into meaningful discussion with Israel would show him up as the Israeli and American ''puppet'' that many Palestinians believe him to be.
But the biggest issue is the wake-up call that Israel, inadvertently, has given to the international community. This focuses on the Israeli ''blockade'' of Gaza. Israeli control of entry to and exit from Gaza, like the West Bank, is decades old. But Israel set out in 2006 to punish Gazans for having democratically elected a Hamas government.
The intensity of the blockade increased after the Israeli-Hamas war in late 2008 and early 2009. Make life difficult for ordinary Palestinians, so the theory went, and they will turn on Hamas. It didn't work and it won't. Not because Hamas is a pretty organisation with noble leaders, but because, given a choice between Israeli and Palestinian bastardry, Palestinians mostly will opt for the latter.
And where is the international - especially Western - community in all this? Generally providing cover for Israel, through its own determination to have nothing to do with Hamas. Despite the fact that Hamas, remarkably in the Arab world, came to power through a genuine electoral process, most Western governments, including Australia, decided that they liked the process much more than they liked the result. So they imposed conditions on Hamas that, in effect, asked it to commit political suicide. The conditions might sound reasonable - renounce violence, recognise Israel, accept previous agreements. But what then would have been left to negotiate, even if Hamas had come to the table?
Those who take umbrage at this line might reflect on the fact that Hamas is anything but monolithic. It has its share of hardliners and pragmatists. The latter have shown openness to a two-state solution. By all means, don't trust them - but don't pretend that Hamas can be wished out of existence by punishing the people of Gaza.
It's worth recalling here that Israel's intelligence services once provided support to Hamas, then seen as less inimical to Israel than the Palestinian Liberation Organisation under Yasser Arafat. Palestinians, today, are further from liberation than ever. They share the blame for this, along with Israel and the wider international community.
Perhaps a monumental act of Israeli folly on the high seas might prove to be a circuit breaker. Perhaps the Obama administration will finally summon the courage to administer long-overdue tough love to Israel. But don't hold your breath.
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:26 am
Another Gaza showdown is in the offing
The next showdown over Israel's naval blockade of Gaza could come as early as Friday as an Irish-owned ship filled with humanitarian aid steams into the region.
The Rachel Corrie, named for an American activist killed in Gaza several years ago, was expected to arrive late Friday or early Saturday off the coast of Gaza. The vessel left Ireland laden with 550 tons of cement, educational materials, toys and medical equipment -- the latest effort by peace activists to deliver humanitarian goods and break Israel's blockade, according to aid organizers.
Free Gaza Movement activist Derek Graham said that the plan was for the Rachel Corrie to be unloaded in Gaza and then return to Ireland.
The Irish government asked that Israel not interfere.
But an Israeli government official who spoke on background because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue told CNN "the Israeli government is offering to receive the ship's cargo, as it has offered other vessels if it docks at (Israel's) Ashdod port. The Israeli government will unload the cargo, screen it, and deliver it to Gaza."
Q&A: Israel's Gaza blockade
That was the same deal rejected by the flotilla of six ships before Israeli commandos attacked one of them Monday.
Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin told the lower house of the Irish Parliament, the Dail, that he had asked the Israeli ambassador to convey to his government his request that, "following the tragedy which has occurred, the Rachel Corrie be allowed to continue unimpeded, and to deliver its cargo to Gaza."
"We will be watching this situation very closely -- as indeed will the world -- and it is imperative that Israel avoid any action which leads to further bloodshed," the foreign minister said.
More such ships may be on the horizon. The European Campaign to End Siege on Gaza announced Wednesday it has enough money to fund three more ships in a new fleet to Gaza.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country's actions that led to the deaths Monday of nine activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish boat laden with humanitarian supplies for Gaza.
Netanyahu said the goal of the international flotilla had been to penetrate Israel's blockade of Gaza, which he said was needed to halt the shipment of weapons from Iran to militants in Gaza.
Speaking in a nationally televised address, Netanyahu said the state has the responsibility to stop every vessel bound for Gaza, including the flotilla that was targeted Monday.
How the world reacted to the raid
"That was not a love boat. That was a boat of hatred. It was not a peaceful flotilla. The soldiers who boarded the ships were attacked by clubs, batons and knives."
An attempt by Israel to deliver the goods from the flotilla was rejected, the IDF said Wednesday.
Palestinian sources confirmed that trucks that arrived from Israel at the Rafah terminal at the Israel-Gaza border were barred from delivering the aid.
Ra'ed Fatooh, in charge of the crossings, and Jamal Khudari, head of a committee against the Gaza blockade, laid out the following conditions for the aid to be accepted: Israel must release all flotilla detainees -- and representatives of the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the flotilla, must deliver it.
Israel had released all foreign flotilla detainees by Wednesday, but four Israeli Arabs remained in custody.
Three Turkish Airlines planes carrying 466 activists and nine bodies landed Thursday morning in Istanbul, an official said.
Their numbers included several wounded people, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told CNN.
Most of the passengers were Turks, who made up the majority of the activists in the flotilla.
The commando raid that led to the deaths continued to draw international condemnation Wednesday and sparked outrage in the streets of world capitals. Demonstrators also decried Israel's ongoing blockade of Gaza.
"For years, many in the international community have been complicit in a policy that aimed at isolating Gaza in the hope of weakening Hamas," said the International Crisis Group, a think tank that denounced the Israeli action.
"This policy is morally appalling and politically self-defeating. It has harmed the people of Gaza without loosening Hamas' control. Yet it has persisted regardless of evident failure."
Turkish officials were seething. The country's prime minister launched strong rhetoric against the Jewish state -- a onetime close ally -- and its ambassador has been yanked from Tel Aviv.
A U.S. official said Turkey will cancel a trilateral military exercise with the United States and Israel set for August in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Attorneys for a Muslim humanitarian group have filed a petition asking Turkish prosecutors to sue Israel for murder.
The Israeli state attorney general's office, in a response to the High Court on two petitions regarding the flotilla, defended the Israeli actions Wednesday. It said the "Hamas terrorist organization" controls Gaza and is intent on deliberately assaulting civilians.
As a result, Israel has worked to thwart the infiltration of weapons and ordnance from tunnels between Egypt and Gaza and has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza to stop the weapons smuggling.
As for the Rachel Corrie, the Free Gaza Movement said customs officials and a senator from the Irish Green Party inspected the vessel and found no weapons.
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:33 am
Gaza flotilla raid: 'We heard gunfire – then our ship turned into lake of blood'
Some formed human shields, others fought back with makeshift weapons, while a few of the most vulnerable hid below deck and prayed for the violence and killing to stop.
But what united every survivor who spoke out today about yesterday's pre-dawn assault by Israeli commandos on the pro-Palestinian aid flotilla to Gaza, was a sense of deep shock at the speed, aggression and lethal force of the Israeli response to what they reiterated was nothing more than a humanitarian aid effort.
Speaking on arrival back in Berlin, wrapped in an airline blanket from the Israeli national airline El Al, Norman Paech, a 72-year-old German pro-Palestinian activist described waking up to hear "striking explosions" as the assault began on the Mavi Marmara, the flotilla's informal flagship.
"I hurried up and dressed myself and colleagues said to me 'we're under attack, the Israelis are here'," he said. "The aggression came from the sky, from helicopters from which soldiers came down by ropes. We waited in the fore room and saw them carrying an Israeli soldier who looked to me like he'd had a breakdown. Then the second and third came, but after these three injured soldiers then I saw a lot – maybe 10 – passengers who were severely hurt, injured, covered in blood. They were treated in the salon next to me. One was so badly injured I am sure he must have died soon after. I didn't even consider going upstairs as it was just too dangerous."
One of the strongest condemnations of Israel's actions came from the Swedish novelist Henning Mankell who had been aboard the Swedish aid ship Sofia. Mankell, the author of the Wallander series called for global sanctions against Israel to put pressure on it to lift the blockade of Gaza. "I think we should use the experience of South Africa, where we know that the sanctions had a great impact. It took time, but they had an impact," Mankell said. He also denied there had been any weapons aboard the aid ships. "I can promise there was not a single weapon aboard the ships," he told a reporter who was returning to Sweden with him after the writer had been deported by Israel.
Nilufer Cetin, a Turkish activist, and her baby boy hid in a bathroom below deck as stun grenades, live ammunition and teargas exploded above them. Speaking on her return to Istanbul, she described how "the ship turned into a lake of blood".
"We stayed in our cabin and played games amid the sound of gunfire," she said. "I protected him by staying in my cabin, then went to the bathroom. I put a gas mask and lifejacket on my son. They used smoke bombs followed by gas canisters. They started to descend on to the ship with helicopters." She added the clashes were "extremely bad and brutal".
Iara Lee, a Brazilian filmmaker who was also on the Mavi Marmara, claimed the Israeli troops had invaded the ship after cutting all communications and "started shooting at people". She spoke to Brazil's TV Globo from the prison in southern Israel where an estimated 600 foreign activists, including around 40 Britons, were being held. Israeli officials said tonight that they would all be freed immediately.
Lee said: "[The attack] was a surprise, because it happened in the middle of the night, in the darkness, in international waters, because we knew there would be a confrontation but not in international waters. Their first tactic was to cut all of our satellite communications and then they attacked. All I witnessed first hand was the shooting. They came on board and started shooting at people."
She said the commandos then sent the women to a lower level of the ship.
"They said we were terrorists – it was absurd. They came into the part where the women were, lots and lots of them, dressed in black and with gigantic weapons as if they were in a war. They confiscated all of our telephones and all of our luggage and took everything out of the bags and put it on the floor."
"We expected them to shoot people in the legs, to shoot in the air, just to scare people, but they were direct," she said, in a separate interview with the Folha de São Paulo newspaper. "Some of them shot in the passengers' heads. Many people were murdered – it was unimaginable."
The released activists gave varying accounts of the level of resistance mounted by the passengers.
Annette Groth, a German politician, described at a press conference how she had seen Israeli soldiers outside her cabin, after they had stormed the ship.
"They were shooting without warning," she said. "It was like war … They had guns, Taser weapons, some type of teargas and other weaponry, compared to two-and-a-half wooden sticks we had between us. To talk of self-defence is ridiculous."
Footage of the assault shown on Turkish TV and images released by the Israeli military clearly showed some commandos being beaten with sticks by passengers.
However, Paech said he saw no arms being used by the activists. "There were only two men with short sticks but no knives, iron rods, pistols or any real weapons," he said. "Throughout our planning of the mission we said: 'no arms, no explosives', we said we'd only resist politically, with normal means."
An Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, Hanin Zoabi, who was on board the Mavi Marmara, said "not a single passenger …raised a club".
At a press conference in Nazareth, she said: "A clear message was being sent to us, for us to know that our lives were in danger. We were not interested in a confrontation. What we saw was five bodies. There were only civilians and there were no weapons … Israel spoke of a provocation, but there was no provocation."
According to a spokeswoman for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), Avital Leibovich, its warships gave the activists several warnings before commandos were dropped from helicopters on to the deck of the Mavi Marmara.
"We found ourselves in the middle of a lynching," she told reporters in the Israeli port of Ashdod. About 10 activists had attacked commandos, taking their pistols, she said. "It was a massive attack. What happened was a last resort."
The violence was not confined to the Mavi Marmara. Speaking at Athens airport, Mihalis Grigoropoulos, crew on one of the other five vessels, said the Israelis came down from helicopters and threw ropes from inflatable boats, climbing aboard using teargas and live ammunition.
"We did not resist at all, we couldn't even if we had wanted to," he said. "What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard? The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired on with plastic bullets and stunned with electric devices."
Greek activist Dimitris Gielalis, aboard a third vessel, the Sfendoni, gave a similar account. "Suddenly from everywhere we saw inflatables coming at us, and within seconds fully equipped commandos came up on the boat. They came up and used plastic bullets, we had beatings, we had electric shocks, any method we can think of, they used," he said.
The tough treatment did not end after they were taken into custody in Israel, others said.
"During their interrogation, many of them were badly beaten in front of us," said Aris Papadokostopoulos.
"There was great mistreatment after our arrest," added Grigoropoulos.
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:02 am
US citizen shot in the head four times, and once more in the chest, in Raid on Gaza Aid Flotilla
An American citizen who'd been living in Turkey was among the nine people killed in Israel's raid on aid ships bound for Gaza. Forensic reports say the man, 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, was shot in the head four times, and once more in the chest, ABC News reports. The revelation comes on the heels of an Obama administration announcement that it had repeatedly warned Israel to use caution in dealing with the flotilla, and that there would likely be US citizens aboard.
“We communicated with Israel through multiple channels many times,” a State Department spokesman told the Washington Post. “We emphasized caution and restraint given the anticipated presence of civilians, including American citizens.” Last night Joe Biden also told Charlie Rose that the administration had “put as much pressure and as much cajoling on Israel as we can to allow” humanitarian aid to get through, though he defended Israel's right to inspect the ships.
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Sat Jun 05, 2010 12:16 am
Autopsy shows Gaza activists were hit 30 times: report
Nine Turkish activists killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship were shot a total of 30 times and five died of gunshot wounds to the head, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
Autopsy results showed the men were hit mostly with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range, the Guardian said, quoting Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine which carried out the autopsies on Friday.
Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of aid ships planning to break the Israeli sea blockade of Gaza on Monday. The deaths, which all took place on one ship, the Mavi Marmara, drew widespread condemnation.
Israel said the marines who rappelled onto the Mavi Marmara fired in self-defense after activists attacked them with clubs and knives as well as two pistols snatched from the commandos.
The autopsy results showed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back, the Guardian said.
A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has U.S. citizenship, was shot five times from less than 45 cm (18 inches) away, in the face, the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back, it said.
Two other men were shot four times. Five of those killed were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, the Guardian quoted Buyuk as saying.
In addition to those killed, 48 others suffered gunshot wounds and six activists were still missing, he added.
Israel said the multiple gunshot wounds did not mean the shots were fired other than in self defense.
Subject: Re: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla Sun Jun 06, 2010 3:35 am
UN chief moving ahead with probe of Israeli raid
JERUSALEM — Israel says U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is moving ahead with plans for an international commission to investigate Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
A Foreign Ministry official says Ban wants former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer to head the panel, which would include Israeli, Turkish and U.S. representatives. All nine people killed in last week's raid were Turks.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Ban has not officially announced his plans.
Israel has resisted an external investigation, but pressure is mounting because of outrage over the deaths.
On Saturday, Israel took over another aid ship without incident. The Interior Ministry says all 19 activists and crew will be deported Sunday.
Subject: Israhell Murders More Than 10 Leftist Activists in Gaza Flotilla 
Mon May 31, 2010 3:11 am
