Israel Attacks International Convoy Bringing Aid to Gaza
by Tobias Buck and Delphine Strauss
Israeli navy commandos raided the international convoy of ships carrying
humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday,
killing at least ten pro-Palestinian activists on board.
The convoy of aid and foreign activists had launched in international waters
off Cyprus on Sunday in defiance of the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza. . . .
Three of the boats in the "Free Gaza" flotilla, the most ambitious attempt
yet to break Israel's blockade of the strip, were flying under the Turkish
flag. . . .
The assault took place in international waters, between the Mediterranean
island of Cyprus and the Gaza coast. According to several reports, the six
ships of the "Free Gaza" flotilla were boarded from the sea and from
helicopters.
Israeli soldiers quickly took control of the vessels with about 700
pro-Palestinian activists on board. It was unclear how and why the reported
shootings started, but the flotilla organisers have always stressed that the
passengers on the boats were unarmed.
Israel has made preparations to tow the ships into the port of Ashdod, where
special detention facilities have been erected for the flotilla activists.
The ships were carrying 10,000 tonnes of supplies for the embattled Gaza
Strip, including medical supplies and construction materials. . . .
[At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured when troops intercepted
the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, Israeli
radio reported.--"Israel attacks Gaza aid fleet,"
aljazeera.net, May 31, 2010]
[Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists were on board the flotilla, including
1976 Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland,
European legislators and an elderly Holocaust survivor.--"India Condemns
Israeli Attack on Pro-Palestinian Activists," outlookindia.com, May
31, 2010]
[With Monday's brazen act of piracy, Israel dealt a blow to the legitimacy
of its own struggle. . . . Outrageous as this behaviour was, the true
outrage is the illegal blockade of Gaza that it enforced.--"Israel
is lost at sea," Financial Times, May 31, 2010]
[Hamas is the democratically elected government and as such a necessary and
major player in any negotiations that would stand a chance to yield a
sustainable settlement of this conflict. . . .
The simple fact is that Israeli commandos violated international law. They
entered international, not Israeli, waters, swept down in a raid at 4 am and
encountered according to PM Netanyahu outrageous description "unexpected
resistance." What did the Israelis expect?--John L. Esposito, "White House Needs to Rethink Weak U.S. Response to
Israeli Attack," Huffington Post, June 1, 2010]
[The UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution by 32 votes to three
condemning "in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli
forces against the humanitarian flotilla of ships".--Daniel Dombey and
Tobias Buck, "UN council votes for flotilla deaths probe," Financial Times,
June 3, 2010]
[It is worth recalling that the embargo was initiated not as a response to
the rocket fire from groups in Gaza aimed at Israeli towns but in response
to Hamas's seizure of power in Gaza from a Fatah movement that had attempted
to block Hamas's popular mandate.--Editorial: "Israeli action against Gaza is counterproductive and
puts the country itself in more peril," Observer, June 6, 2010]
[George Galloway, the founder of Viva Palestina, announced in London that
two simultaneous convoys "one by land via Egypt and the other by sea" would
set out in September to break the Gaza blockade.--Ian Black, "Gaza blockade: Iran offers escort to next aid convoy,"
Guardian, June 6, 2010]
[What the Israeli commandos got is what any armed hijacker should expect who
tries to steal a car from a driver who keeps a tire iron under the front
seat.--Patrick J. Buchanan, "Lift the Siege of Gaza," creators.com, June 8, 2010]
[As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip
Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes
the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the
Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory.--Sheera
Frenkel, "Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn't about
security," mcclatchydc.com, June 9, 2010]
[The two commissions of inquiry, one appointed by Israel and the other to be
named by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, will seek answers to a
number of unresolved questions triggered by the attack which killed nine
Turkish nationals and sparked worldwide outrage and condemnation.--"Israeli Attack May Violate International,
Maritime Laws," Inter Press Service, June 16, 2010]
[Practically every day Turkish soldiers and civilians are being killed. The
killings are done ostensibly by the Kurd terrorists of PPK, but this is a
new step in Israel's warfare against Turkish independence. . . .
The Mavi Marmara attack was intended to be a short, sharp shock to the
increasingly independent Turks.--Israel Shamir, "Turkey is the
Key," israelshamir.net, June 25, 2010]
[When Israel launched its bloody attack on the Turkish Gaza aid vessel, the
Mavi Marmara, on May 31, 2010, the reason was not so much the ship's running
of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The brutality of the Israelis in shooting
unarmed Turks and one Turkish-American, some at point blank range, according
to a UN report, indicated that Israel was motivated by something else:
vengeance and retaliation for the Turkish government's crackdown on
Ergenekon, the purging of the Turkish military and intelligence senior ranks
of Donmeh, and reversing the anti-Muslim religious and cultural policies set
down by the Donmeh's favorite son, Ataturk, some ninety years before. In
effect, the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara was in retaliation for
Turkey's jailing of several top Turkish military officers, journalists, and
academics, all accused of being part of the Ergenekon plot to overthrow the
AKP government in 2003. Hidden in the Ergenekon coup plot is that the Donmeh
and Ergenekon are connected through their history of being Kemalists, ardent
secularists, pro-Israeli, and pro-Zionist.--Wayne Madsen, "The Donmeh: The Middle East's
Most Whispered Secret," strategic-culture.org, October 25, 2011]