Today morning comandos commited a crime in the liberty ship and killed 19 innocent people and injured 26 one whom only their guilt is to help poor palestinians and give them food and try to elivate the blockage .
- Israeli soldiers whom are criminals and with no heart and dont fear God killed those people with the support of their country and now the whole world knows that they are lying about withdrawing from Gaza and still they are starving kids and killd sick people. Please if any one who has a least morals , can anyone accept this terrorist act.
- I dont know how those soldiers considered those as enemies and killed them by live amnument and i heard the voice of the captain whom tell the activists to sit as they cant protect them selves and say that the comondos are using fire and they killed those innocnet people.
- shame and shame on israeli terror country and all whom support the terror country and help them , they are also killers of innocent people and one day God will punish those criminals and that what only give me releive as i know for sure that God would never sleep and watching those criminals to be punished and the justice would for sure come. God help us and retaliate from those criminals Ameen .
It was an act of piracy. The real shame is with those countries who support this criminal state. Luckily the veil is dropping and only the most gullible now fail to see them for what they are.
I wonder if exactly that is Israel’s aim, Big C. They don’t care if the veil is dropping. I should think the veil has already dropped, and the people who still talk the only-democracy-in-the-Middle-East-stuff will go on doing so, whatever happens.
The Israelis could have stopped the boats with far less violence if they had wanted just to stop them. This brutality was on purpose, to intimidate all human rights activists. It’s the only explanation I can imagine. I don’t believe it was blunder.
Abdulksaida, a little correction: The Israeli navy attacked not only one ship of the flotilla, they attacked all of them. In the case of the other 5 ships they managed to cut off all communication at once, that’s why we know even less about what happened there.
Another scandal is that they still haven’t published the names of the victims. There are hundreds of families worrying. Obviously the Israeli government wants to increase their suffering.
You may be right there Momo. It's a pretty stupid game if it is. It closes off all options for their surreptitious allies in the Arab world like Jordan and Egypt. Turkey, already jarred by the Gaza atrocities, looks like it's about to cut off all ties. I wonder what effect this will have inside the US and Europe.
yes Momo and big C, really israel dont care after many western and US administration support them and dont enforce them only to implement the resolution and always they are uttering about human rights.
Just now i came from a demonistration which i reach late as i have duty , but i catch some ot it and really here in my country i was proud that there was 17 kuwiati women and men on those ships and many people gathered and they are waiting for their sons and daughters and those kuwaiti went to help palestinians as others from all over the world.
It is a piracy as big C said and no execuse for them to kill those activitis in an internationl sea .
A very odd event, but one that seems as badly handled by the Israelis as ever. Conflicting accounts of the event abound.
Considering the prejudice against the Israelis, I am not surprised to hear you assume all the fault lies with them.
Running a blockade is not a safe option.
It's an illegal blockade Zen. Israel claims that it no longer occupies Gaza. It therefore has no say whatsoever in the comings and goings through it's coastal waters. In any case, it was in international waters so qualifies as piracy.
Anyone who believes Israel's version of these events after it's lies about Gaza is taking gullibility to levels not seen since PG Wodehouse told us that the Nazis were awfully nice chaps.
Ilegal, quite possibly so. But what choice have they? Allow in weapons and fighters to carry on the rocket attacks of Israel?
Anyone who thinks the likes of Hamas are saints, is not a fool, since that cannot be supported by even moderately rational minds. Rather they are lying, trying to mask their real prejudice, or utterly dellusional.
"But what choice have they?"
Well, Israel could have let the one off flotilla through the blockade - indeed, they have done so in the past under Ehud Olmert's leadership, Israel did not fall into the Red Sea because of it.
Nor do you have to be a card carrying member of Hamas to know that Israel has gifted it's enemies and opponents a huge propaganda coup. Yes, the flotilla was an old-school trap, like a red rag to a bull, and the Israelis fell for it. Israeli military 'intelligence' is fast becoming an oxymoron. The fact that Netanyahu has had to cancel his trip to see Obama (paymaster general) underlines how serious these events are.
The brutal attack of the aid flotilla was foolish in it's extremes - it was the actions of a pariah state. According to the FT, Israeli soldiers don't travel to Europe on holiday as much as they used to - I suppose we'll be seeing even less them now.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/analysis-israel-has-forgotten-the-lessons-of-the-exodus-1.293391
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/befd8334-6c9d-11df-91c8-00144feab49a.html
I was following on FB for 2 weeks before they arrived. I watched the attack until it went down on live streem. I want all of you to know it is getting better in US. I am in California and do most on FB andI have had a flood of requests since the Flotilla. I look at the profile and many are new to the war Palestine judging by their pages.
We are out here and we care so much. EVERY day. I have done so much ressearch, All the wars? Israel was the attacker every time. ONe of them was a land grab between three of the countries.
I follow all ME news I can find. I have some of the top sorces like Robert Fisk. I also watch the Israel Lobby. Tonifght I go to National Iranian -American Counsil and thereit is the same , same story. About 15 short essays and letters. The damn Lobby is ..it's a MAFIA. I see the letters all the time. I look at a wiki page and I see immediatly if they wrote it. When I refr to "the lobby", I ;m not simply refering to AIPAC. Oh, no. I mean every single person they involve on their racist war against Arab-American students , scholars, journalists. Now Iranians. I happened to read many notices how those greedy criminals have stolen billions from the holocaust survivors and are getting caught. Some old survivoes who live in Isral are almost starving. They get 470.00 per month to live on. They payed to have the strong and skilled with capital to Paledtin before the camps started. they also brought 1000's of the mean ones from Russia and payed for
"the state of Israel" They are exploiting their precious people. They keep them in a constant state of terror. They are PIGS. I know alot about them. These guys are fron that nazi school.
Normon Finkelstein.com
Nice website you will get brief validation how evil they are. Someone will likely find this post by tomorrow. They care about MONEY AND POWER and so many are in our government. Who do you think would come 1st? US interests or Israel? The neocons.Anti-semitism!@!!! they defame my Arab friends in armies!
Wow, Zen, are you not prejudiced against piracy? Can you perhaps explain why the fault lies with the victims of piracy, and not with the pirates?
I don’t call it a “blockade”, by the way. I call it an open-air-prison whose inmates are only just not starving.
Its a blockade, but whether its the right strategy is another matter.
This particular event does show a failure of intelligence gathering and processing by the Israelis.
Attacking a boarding party is not a sensible act by the passengers, they should have been restrained by members of the crew. An unarmed civilian ship has no power to resist that does'nt risk its crew and passengers, they should have held their tempers and let the Turkish Embassy deal with the event.
By allowing such behaviour the Captain and crew where undermining the mission.
Israeli forces used there would be professionals operating under strict ROEs. If they open fire its because the behaviour of the passengers left them little course.
Now try not to let your sympathy for the suffering of the people of Gaza obscure what happend here. Its not as if the Israelis where going to let that flottila reach Gaza without a search.
"Attacking a boarding party is not a sensible act by the passengers, they should have been restrained by members of the crew. An unarmed civilian ship has no power to resist that does'nt risk its crew and passengers, they should have held their tempers and let the Turkish Embassy deal with the event."
There is no evidence whatsoever that the passengers attacked the boarding party.
There is the Israeli side of the story for a start, which like I said contradicts your statement.
And supposedly there is this footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU12KW-XyZE&feature=player_embedded
Zen,
careful with htis footage. It's the 60 seconds the IDF want us to see, but we don't know what happened before or afterwards. One can't see much anyway, the helicopter was too high. How very convenient that the IDF tells us in the text what to see. In short, it doesn't say much.
BigC, if you look at the Al Jazeera footage, you see activists hitting and throwing things. That much is un-controversial I think.
It is indeed just a very short clip, rather like those which show distressed passengers but not whats happening to the Israelis. A lot of the media footage of this event is being cut to show a prefered story by each side.
We certainly see someone running with a pole at someone, and a person in dark clothing rushed by someone and then crowded around by others while on the deck.
Thus I say theres a lot of prejudice in peoples assumptions in this.
Big C do you have no shame in making statements so obviously untrue?
I'm as capable of being mistaken as anyone else. It is now a matter of record that the passengers attempted to board protect themselves from the boarding party so I have been corrected.
This makes me think about terrorist profiling. We argue so much about who did what and how they did it, that it seems like lines are starting to be crossed when it comes to profiling as well. I point back to an article on the site from 2008 talking about the impossibility of terrorist profiling. It's true because a terrorist is too impossible to define: http://www.opendemocracy.net/terrorism/silver/article/racial_profiling_MI5_UK
" But what choice have they? Allow in weapons and fighters to carry on the rocket attacks of Israel?"
And no evidence of this either. Are you really going to spend this debate repeating the claims of the Israeli government as if they are objective facts? Please!
And you are repeating the claims of the other side.
What folly is this? We both know some groups are capable of trying to smuggle such materials via 'aid' to Gaza, and there certainly is a flow of weaponry to the area.
So the Israelis are going to search such shipments, and one should assume that at the planning stage of any aid delivery.
"So the Israelis are going to search such shipments, and one should assume that at the planning stage of any aid delivery"
Zen, the Israelis weren't interested in searching the ships. Why should they? They knew Turkish and Greek authorities can search just as well, and they knew there were no weapons.
No Momo, ships at sea can do all sorts of things, and smuggling goes on all over the place despite the best efforts of authorities. So a check before a ship leaves and a check when it arrives is just good sense.
"And you are repeating the claims of the other side."
No I am not. I have not repeated one single claim from anyone.
If you do wish to compare the versions of differnt actors in this however it worth pointing out that, in the Gaza invasion, most of the claims of international aid agencies were borne out by the Goldstone Inquiry and most Israeli claims were shown to be bare faced lies.
Zen,
I agree that the violence from the activists undermined their mission. Non-violent action needs an awful lot of preparation and training, and this has probably not been taken seriously.
I’m not sure if you are fully in the picture with the timeline. The first contact between IDF and flotilla was last night at about 11 GMT. The navy ships behaved very intimidating, and all people on board the Marmara put on their life-jackets and sent the message that boarding was probably imminent. Then the communication was cut off. About an hour later they were on again and said they were okay.
Apparently they were under this stress most of the night. It’s extremely difficult to maintain the determination not to use violence under these circumstances. It’s difficult in any case, but over this long time even more so.
I hope you watched the videos closely enough to see that first the soldiers shot at the activists, and only later these grasped what they could use as a club or throw at the soldiers. Understandable, but very unwise behaviour, and nothing the captain or anyone else could have done anything against.
These ships were searched by Turkish and Greek authorities before they sailed, and there were no weapons on board. The organisers had offered Israeli authorities to join this search.
Momo
If this was seriously an aid convoy, all its members should have been fully briefed on what could happen if things go wrong and why it was imperative they stay calm and not try to exacerbate the inevitble search that would come.
The idea Israelis are going to be friendly is utter madness, tolerence was the best that could be expected and some hostility the more likely. IDF vessels would indeed be aggressive in their behaviour, but that is posture, as they if they wanted to sink the ships they could with ease.
Now you reach for the 'their fired first' ploy, we have contradictory reports of that issue, and the film I've linked to is clearly cut to shorten it, so who knows whats missing. But I know Israeli forces used here are not conscripted civilians who've never done this sort of thing before. They are professionals and will not shoot unless they feel the need and their ROEs permit it.
My information for example talks of an attempt to bring down the helicopter by passengers, tying the rope to an ariel on the ship. It also talks of the boarding force only armed with pistols and paint ball guns, because they expected a less dangerous responce. A failure of intelligence to grasp the behaviour of the people onboard those ships.
What is clear is the passengers are not kept away from the boarding force.
Its all a right mess, and a PR nightmare for the Israelis who've handled this badly as they should have know what could go wrong here. Its also a failure for the aid convoy, at least for the suffering people of Gaza. The winner is Hamas, which considering the alternatives was the most likely self proclaimed winner no matter what.
But my suspicions reach to AK Party in Turkey, its all very convenient for them.
Zen, you can’t have 600 passengers—press, members of parliament, former ambassadors etc included—and hope to take over some rockets at the high seas without being found out. There was no smuggling of weapons.
And the Marmara was flying the Turkish flag and sailing in international waters, 70 miles from the coast. The Israelis had no business to board her. It's piracy, plain and simple.
The Israelis are well aware of this, and they handled it like this because they wanted it. They acted on “the more intimidation the better”.
The Israeli government wanted to say clearly and unequivocally that they don’t want 2 states, the only chance for peace.
Momo
I assume nothing, and would search it regardless. But if it was so full of press, ambassadors etc... you would expect several things which seem not in evidence.
Starting with the press trying to stay objective, parliementary members and ambassadors having security who know when to act and when not to. All of which, along with the ships crew, should have acted to restrain themselves and other passengers when in the presence of Israeli forces.
Which is what I suspect the Israelis expected to find on arrival. They did'nt and frankly the idea Israel has been a winner from this is very doubtful.
What did this aid mission think would happen? Israel let them pass without search?
Did they expect that having attacked the Israeli boarding party, that if they succeeding in killing them or driving them off the ship, that would somehow be the end of things?
Frankly putting 600 people onboard a relief mission strikes me as putting up 'human shields', to deterr any search. If the mission was aid, it did'nt need that many people aboard.
Peace Momo? I truely doubt that for this particularly thorny problem. But that takes us rather far from the immediate matter.
Good question. I don’t know about the flags of the other ships, but there is a Turkish, a Greek and a US-American one. If they had become victims of other pirates, there would be an outrage. As it is, there is an outrage in Turkey, fury in Greece, and the White House issues a statement that they are sorry to hear that people died.
Somalis, are you listening? There is a country that doesn’t mind much.
Will this be too much for public opinion? I wonder. In Europe the number of people who are simply fed up with Israel’s policy is growing slowly, I think. I can’t say if this is true for the US too. Or how soon people will forget.
Gaza Aid Convoy Attack: Israel’s Murderous Sea Piracy a Horrendous Moment of Truth for US Policy http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19438
Additional footage of the same events, taken from another angle. I've seen thus far four vidoes of this event. Two are clearly IDF cameras and one from TV crews onboard. They all seem to show the same event from different angles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYjkLUcbJWo&feature=player_embedded
Raised chairs, bars, masked passengers (one with a gas mask) clearly waiting for the IDF forces to board the vessel. On boarding the IDF clearly make a hash of the event and the passengers grab one off the ropes. All in all if the passengers and crew had stay away from the boarding party as they came down the ropes and did not approach with raised chairs stick and bars. Then this would've gone far better.
They were defending themselves against an act of piracy, something they had every right to do. Israel cannot claim self defence when they were in the act of attacking an unarmed vessel in international waters.
Zen, all information we have is some footage that was taken on the Marmara during the first minutes of the attack plus what the IDF say. There were six ships. There were some people using violence when the IDF stormed the Marmara. I explained farther up why I understand that, although it didn’t help the mission.
You say the activists should have been “briefed”. They were. Non-violent action (have you any experience with it?) needs more than briefing. It needs careful training. Even then it is difficult, especially if the escalation is prolonged as it was in this case.
You haven’t heard both sides. All communications of the Marmara were cut after a few minutes, the communications of the other 5 ships were cut at once. We don’t even know who the dead are, who is injured, and we don’t know what the survivors will tell. Why are you so sure that the IDF version is true?
We have evidence that a few people out of the 600 hit the Israeli soldiers in a situation that was extremely straining to say the least. Somehow you seem to think that this violence was planned. What’s more you apparently condemn it more than the violence of the IDF.
Don’t forget: the ships were in international waters. They were even moving away from the coast, because they were ahead of their timetable and didn’t want the confrontation during the darkness. They wanted daylight, and they wanted publicity.
You condemn violence that would never have happened if the IDF hadn’t illegally boarded these ships. Both under international law and under Turkish law (and any other law) everybody on board was justified to use violence. Now the IDF complain that their commandos were attacked while they attacked a Turkish ship where they had no business to be. Err, it’s a bit muddling, who’s the attacker?
They even claim that one of the passengers disarmed one of their elite troops and shot at him. Umm, I’ve always been intrigued by the word “elite”. And why? Mark Reged says the IDF were on a “policing mission”. Now I wonder, are they going to police all of Turkey? (Legally a Turkish ship is Turkish territory—probably you know that.) Or are they policing the high seas? Only the Mediterranean or where do they stop?
The mission was publicity of course. The humanitarian aid they carried was carefully chosen: crutches and wheelchairs (there are a lot of disabled people after last years attacks on Gaza). Exercise books and crayons. Jam. Do you have any issues with these items? Do you doubt it is humanitarian aid? Israel does. All these items are banned. And would you ever have taken an interest if there hadn’t been this flotilla? I doubt it. That’s why they needed this large flotilla.
Slowly the first names are published. Ambassador Edward Peck has been released and is on his way to New York. So far nobody has had an opportunity to interview him, but tomorrow we will hear his story I hope.
12 Brits are injured and detained. You can find their names on maannews.net, if you are interested. More news about the passengers here. And a full passenger list.
Your jumping to assumptions Momo. I don't know what the truth is, but I see that footage along with others both by the IDF and TV crews onboard the ship and it does not inspire confidence in the idea it was all innocent on one side.
You assume I only have an interest because of the flottila, you are wrong. I only have an interest because this has turned violent and so clearly became a mess that helps no one bar Hamas and what maybe some in AK party.
You assume I have a problem with supplies, and presume that there could never have been anything but those civilian supplies present.
Being boarded by a states armed forces is not a situation to start wielding chairs, stick and bars. The men comming down that rope are not able to provoke save by their act of boarding, they cannot wield weapons until down, violence is clearly meted out to them. What took place before or after is not clear, the next footage we get is of the cleared deck outside with three IDF forces now armed, who look VERY nervous.
The taking of a gun is not impossible considering the situation, but its not a wise move by the passenger concerned, and can only exacerbate the situation, which it likely did.
There are a lot of questions that need to be answered here and I doubt we'll get the full truth if ever.
Why indeed did the IDF do this at such a distance from the coast? They could have waited until within the legal limit.
Those neverous IDF guys do raise questions about who was sent and how well prepared for this sort of boarding they where. Cutting comms is quite an obvious move for the boarding, but paintball guns and pistols? The former might actualy have made things worse, tempting passengers to think the party was not armed.
Knowing this was a Turkish ship makes the Israeli actions all the more strange, it hands AK party just what they want and makes it harder for Israels dealings with Turkey. Its made them pariahs (as if they were'nt before) and caused such uproar.
Stateless or failed state pirates don't come down a rope from a military helicopter. A civilian one maybe, if they have particularly well financed. So from the moment you see a military helicopter and have been surrounded by military warships and boats of the IDF, the idea the boarding party is not from that military is simply not sustainable unless one has hard proof.
Knowing how the IDF can behave, clearly driven to the conclusion that IDF members are boarding your ship, then going to attack them is quite mad and possibly suicidal.
All,
Please be aware that international law specifically grants the right of boarding and search to armed naval ships of a sovereign state. This has a long history, going back hundreds of years to the laws of armed conflict in general and anti-piracy laws in particular. Thus Israeli naval personnel boarding civilian ships at sea for purposes of contraband search is perfectly legal. It is the same law that allows European naval ships to board and seize pirate dhows off the Horn of Africa or that allows the Coast Guard forces of European states to board and inspect merchant ships to make sure they aren't in violation of environmental laws. There is no inherent right to self-defense for the civilian ships being boarded in any of these cases.
So while the IDF may have totally bungled the operation, the boarding itself was perfectly legal. Indeed, if it is proven the protestors attacked the IDF personnel, then it is they who acted illegally.
Absolute rubbish. Israel would have needed to show that they had good reason to believe that this was an arms smuggling vessel or that it was involved in piracy. In the absence of any evidence of this then their attack was piracy and the victims had every right to defend themselves.
Its called a blockade, defined first I think at the Treaty of Paris?
before going to work , i surf quickly some answers, and Tim francis appear to justify the act by telling "if it is proven the protestors attacked the IDF personnel, then it is they who acted illegally"
really strange as usual we got accustomed that israeli lied and mr Tim tell me who is legal and illegal? is it legal to steal other countries land and put them in prison and you want no reaction in any way and you claim that activisits do illegal things.?
Is it legal to deprive children , women , men of healthy water, of medicine, of all basic simple life and cut all ways and communication to them?
can u tell me are u living in the 20 centurry or not? do u accept what is going on to those poor people who are 1 million and a half? do u accept it for your kids, wife, mother , father, relatives? if you accept your family to be treated as Gazain are treated by the stealer country , so you can speak then with legal and not legal >
Is it legal that israel since 60 years didnt implement any legal law from internationl world and now you want to convict those brave activits. Shame on you Mr Tim.
Abdul,
Do not assume anything about me. Do not accuse me by saying "appear to justify." Do not assume you know anything about what I think about Gaza, the Palestinians and Israel. Shame on you for leaping to unwarranted conclusions.
Boarding a ship in international waters is not illegal. If you and Momo et alia are going to cite international law then you must be consistent. That is all.
Tim
Momo
most of the humanitarians are turkish, but their are kuwaitis, lebanon, jordan, and british, sueden it is from more than 50 nationality whom are sympathized for those prisoned people and starving in Gaza.
Why are not any of you protesting the Egyptian blockade of Gaza?
This would all end if Egypt opened their borders, right?
Egypt's blockade is equally an outrage. I'm not sure what point you're making though. Egypt is one of the US's (and therefore indirectly Israel's) stooges.
The point I'm making is that none of this manufactured outrage - and clearly the flotilla is a manufactured event - is required or necessary if Egypt would lift the blockade of Gaza. All humanitarian aid could flow into the strip and there would be absolutely zero reason for anyone in Gaza to concern themselves at all with Israel -- they could simply ignore each other -- in the way that East and West Germany ignored each other for most of the Cold War. All the complaints about blockade and shortages would automatically go away. What makes it even more outrageous is that Egypt is imposing this blockade on fellow Muslims. Is that so hard to understand?
I'm not sure what "fellow Muslims" has to do with it. Are you suggesting that this is a conflict with Mulsims on one side and another religion on the other? It's not. In any case, Egypt has now lifted it's blockade. I'm sure it will be put back in place when the US orders it to do so and the US will do that when Israel orders it to do so.
Not that hard to understand. “Egypt” or more accurately the Egyptian government is not a free agent, though. If they don’t comply with Israel’s demands, they will lose US support. Most Egyptian citizens would open that border at once, but they aren’t asked what they want.
As to your comparison: the thought of the transit trains to West Berlin still gives me goose pimples, but it would be a possibility for travelling between West Bank and Gaza.
Have you forgotten that it would only been a matter of a few minutes, and there would have been neither East nor West Germany, but no Germany at all? “Ignoring each other” isn’t the best description of what we did with each other. And there is the flaw of your idea: you are trying to ignore between whom the conflict exists.
yes once also when egyptians close rafah border, i condemn and yesterday also people asked Mubarak to open rafah border, really it is ironic, we feel eyptian government surve israeli issues, you know why? becasue America give money to eyptian government to protect israel which all lay arab and muslims people know that act and you know that most of our governments are not represented their people as there is no democracy in our countries which America and israel likes our dectatorship. They are lyers of all their logos of human rights and becasue of that we cant beleive that they want to free us and especialy to free women.
Tim
when u only stated about that u consider those israeli to invade a humanitarian ship which all those people have no weapons and the comandos start to fire , so what u expect? Those people wants to give charity and help those palestinians people whom homes are demolished, whom beloved are killed, whom are disperate and wish to die . They have no hopes, no water, no permission even to cross border, even the government of eypt is guilty and no body agrees with her also.
You didnt mention in your post that even u sympathize with those palestinians to know about what you think. You only stated your opinion about the legality and forget the legality of occupying a country and discarding their natives and my parents are one of hem and let us refugee.
If at least give a balance clarification , i will not accuse you of justifiying their intervention and they didnt wait and treat those activits justly and kindly . they have weapons and of course those activits wants to protect themselves after using fires from comandos.
I hope u can say that it is illegal from first to steal other land and occupy them for 60 years and let 5 millions refugee which iam one of them
I hope u can say that it is illegal of that blockade for more than 1 million innocent people to be deprived of food, water, medicine , education while at the same time kids of israeli have all sorts of intertainment and good life as western people. That is the shame when punishing collectively all palestininas in Gaza as they use the first time in their lives the right of election. They are punished mr Tim as they try to be democratic and choose Hamas. That is the point only. Really shame on this bad world with no morals and i intent about USA administration and israel administrationn and any govenment whom dont support the rights of innocent people and be with justice. I think justice has no relegion, no colour , no sex , nothing. All of normal and good people knows the justice to all even if you dont like them.
Zen,
No, but these pirates did. They are still pirates.
For the third time: yes, it was very unwise to defend the ship by violent means. I object to the word “attack”, though: the IDF were the attackers.
Since the Israeli attack on the Marmara was illegal, I have no doubts at all that every resistance against this boarding was legal. And are you aware whose courts are the only ones that are entitled to decide on this question? Not Israel’s, only Turkey’s. The Marmara is a Turkish ship, and not even the Israelis try to dispute that she was in international waters.
And what is the “legal limit”?
Is Gaza occupied or not? If it is, Israel can control its borders, if not, they have no legitimacy to do so. Israel wants to have it both ways as we know.
But to answer your question: they wanted to make sure that all footage of their attack was under their control. No daylight, and no other boats near the flotilla.
Their aim was to spread as much terror as they can to prevent the next flotillas. Military thinking (that is, if that’s not an oxymoron). Now they have to cope with the political fallout, which they underrated.
Ah yes. There are 1.5 million people locked up in Gaza and you are interested in Hamas and the AKP. That attitude is why it was necessary to have 600 activists from all over the world on board.
Okay, the political implications then. European governments try to downplay this incident, and the US government even more so (letting down their citizens shamelessly). Israeli armed forces attacked Turkish territory. It’s an act of war, and a war crime. Turkey is a NATO member and demanded a NATO meeting on this as is their right. Now the NATO de facto was never meant to defend Turkey or any other of its members except the US, but this fact mustn’t become too obvious.
Turkey can—and will—demand a lot of pressure on Israel. Our governments will be forced to give Israel far less support. They will force Israel to lift much of the siege of Gaza. And this will harm Hamas. Their strength depends on pressure from Israel.
Tim,
International law specifically limits the right of boarding a ship in international waters very much. It’s only allowed if there is reasonable evidence of piracy and a few other serious crimes. None of this applies here. This boarding was clearly illegal.
500 activists were abducted by Israeli forces and are detained in the desert Negev. An outrage, and a crime. Most of them are kept from contacting their families, lawyers aren’t allowed to contact them either. We don’t even know who is alive and who is dead.
New information is coming.
Some of the activists have been released and returned to their countries. They tell how they have been treated.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2010/06/20106193546785656.html
http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6500JT.htm
5 of the 11 Germans are back, including the members of the Bundestag. The other 6 are denied contact to the embassy. Incredible. Matthias Jochheim of IPPNW says he has seen 4 dead people and about 50 injured with his own eyes. Most of them were shot.
One thing happened to all of them: their cameras were confiscated. There won’t be any pictures of the attack, only those the IDF took. I thought as much…
Except it was not an attack. It was "boarded" after refusing to allow its cargo to be inspected, a prudent measure given the history of smuggling weapons and explosives into Gaza.
Smuggling arms and explosives into Gaza is a serious crime worth preventing. I find it remarkable that you would not support all efforts to prevent violence by inhibiting the means to inflict death and destruction.
The video is explicitly clear that it was the boarding party that was attacked while attempting to defend Israel by preventing contraband from reaching Palestinian terrorists. It's unfortunate the "activists" chose to refuse inspection and violently resist the lawful boarding. Clearly deadly force was used against the boarding party and their defensive response with force certainly appears justified.
Hopefully the next ship of "activists" will comply with Israeli inspections and make boarding unnecessary. If they are truly delivering humanitarian suppliess, they should have nothing to fear by allowing their cargo to be inspected.
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