Israel has attacked Gaza Flotilla (dead and wounded)

[Helen Reyes]

It almost does look like intentional failure on Bibi's part.

If Egypt has opened up the Gaza border Iran can dock somewhere there presumably at whatever port exists on the Sinai, unload and take an overland route for aid deliveries.

I remember hearing Israel wasn't letting Gazans fish in Gazan waters a few years back. The natural gas fields sound like a real motive in all this, in Israel's attempt to claim Gazan waters as their own while pretending they've withdrawn from Gaza. To re-seal the Egyptian border Israel would have to invade and fight their way there, set up their line in the sand and keep it supplied. Maybe that's the plan, to push all the Gazans out to Egypt while there's a window to do so.

You could be right there.

Except Israel fouled the nest with depleted uranium during Cast Lead. The real estate values of Gaza waterfront property will have suffered tremendously. Looks more like a scorched earth.

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, serious stuff indeed. Not the best decision by Ahmadinejad either. He was playing it well until this. It would be better if Turkey went alone or with other more neutral nations.

Serious stuff this. Silence is the usual way the UK Foreign Office deals with things Palestinian, but even William Hague has commented on it.

From Debka File again:

An Iranian sea convoy will back up the Turkish campaign to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured Turkish leaders whom he met in Istanbul Tuesday, Jan. 8 that the vessels due to enter the disputed waters within days will not shrink from a head-on clash with Israel's Navy and Air Force exclusion forces. "We'll breach the Gaza blockade," the Iranian president vowed. The Iranian Red Crescent vessels will carry "volunteer marines" of the Revolutionary Guards "who will teach the Israelis a lesson."
Tehran's "humanitarian convoy" for Gaza will consist of three Iranian vessels flying Red Crescent flags.
debkafile's intelligence sources report that he promised Turkish leaders to attach Iranian warships and submarines to the Red Crescent ships for their voyage through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. For some months, one or two Iranian submarines have been deployed in the Mediterranean using Syrian naval port facilities.
The showdown between Turkey and Israel, said Ahmadinejad, "will change many issues in the world and mark the final countdown for Israel's existence. It shows that it has no room in the region and no one is ready to live alongside it."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Iran’s plan to send aid boats to Gaza, warning that the move would deliberately aggravate an already tense situation. “It is not helpful, and probably it is not designed to be helpful, he said.
Russian Prime Pinister Vladimir Putin, for his part, promised to join Ankara in bringing the Israeli attack on the Turkish flotilla before the United Nations.
The Iranian and Turkish leaders meeting in Istanbul Monday and Tuesday finalized a plan to synchronize the flotilla's approach to Gaza's shores with the UN Security Council vote on sanctions against Iran, whereupon Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon, who are SC members, will halt the procedure and turn the session around to the unfolding sea battle between Iran and Israel. The sanctions vote will be buried by the sounds of war.

[Peter Lemkin]

Israel Doctored the Evidence: The Gaza Freedom Flotilla and Al Qaeda
Israeli Propaganda Exposed

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=19572 [for photos and links]
The attack and murder of international humanitarian activists, aid workers and a journalist by the Israeli military on the Mavi Maramara on May 31, 2010 in international waters is an unjustifiable act of aggression. It can be interpreted as either an act of piracy or as an act of war. Nor is this type of behaviour on the part of Israel new.

Israel could never justify forcefully stopping an international convoy of ships going to the Gaza Strip to help relieve the Palestinian people. This is why Tel Aviv deliberately instigated fighting with unarmed civilians on board the Mavi Maramara, fabricated evidence, and has hereto tried its best to portray the international group of civilians or some of its members as violent extremists.

False Israeli claims about Weapons on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Tel Aviv has turned reality on its head and tried to portray itself as the victim of the unarmed civilian group of international humanitarians, aid workers, and activists as the aggressors. Israeli officials have released pictures of standard ship equipment and kitchen knives collected from the Mavi Maramara. They claim that these were weapons being carried or smuggled by violent extremists. Even vests with clear Red Crescent symbols used by doctors, medics, and humanitarian workers of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent were presented by Israeli officials as proof that the members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were violent extremists.

The Guardian (Connolly, 3 June 2010) in an interview with Henning Mankell, the Swedish writer, gives an account of how the Israelis were categorizing anything that they could as a weapon:

“The soldiers checked the boat and one soon returned saying they had found weapons, Mankell said. ‘I have 24 witnesses to this, he showed me my razor, a one-time use razor, and a box cutter he’d found in the kitchen,’ Mankell said.”

The passengers onboard the Mavi Maramara were defending themselves and not out to kill the so-called Israeli commandos. Picture evidence proves that the Israeli account is false. The passengers even gave medical aid to the Israeli commandos they captured. The pictures were on a chip hidden by a passenger so that the Israelis would not destroy the evidence.




False Israeli claims about Al-Qaeda links to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

The Israeli military has also overtly claimed that members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were linked to Al-Qaeda. Tel Aviv put out a press release on June 2, 2010 making such claims to the international media.



When asked by reporters Max Bluementhal (3 June 2010) and Lia Tarachansky what evidence the Israeli military had to support its Al-Qaeda claims, Israeli military officials replied that they had no evidence and that they were simply told by Benjamin Netanyahu’s advisors of Israel's National Security Council that the activists onboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla had ties to Al-Qaeda. Later this was retracted and taken off the webpage of the Israeli military.




Caught Red Handed: Israel Doctored the Audio Evidence

The Israeli military also released a doctored audio transmission in which unknown voices say “Shut up, go back to Auschwitz” and “We’re helping Arabs go against the U.S., don’t forget 9/11 guys.” Upon the release of the Israeli evidence, the organizers of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla strongly refuted the Israeli claim as doctored propaganda.

Firstly, the first release by Israel had no responses except a male voice saying “Negative. Negative.”

Secondly, in the second audio transmission the male individual(s) who made the comments never identified himself (themselves), but Israeli officials have confirmed that the response came from the Mavi Maramara.

Thirdly, from studies of these organizations, there is a standard radio response that humanitarian workers and activists have been systematically using when coming into contact with Israeli military vessels under which they identify themselves, state their intentions as humanitarians, and tell the Israelis they are peaceful and pose no threat. This standard response can be heard in the unedited Israeli version of the audio in which the speaker Huwaida Arraf also identifies herself as speaking for the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

In the recording Arraf clearly says:

“Israeli Navy, this is the Freedom Flotilla. We are comprised of six motor vessels carrying only passengers and humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip. We do not carry anything that constitutes a threat to your armed forces. Therefore, you are not justified in using any force against us. The blockade of Gaza is illegal under international law. We have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to enter. We repeat, we do not constitute a threat to your armed forces. You are not just..[radio interruption; the word she is using is “justified”] to threat unarmed civilians. Over.”


Following the well documented work of Huwaida Arraf and of these humanitarian organizations one would know that this has roughly been their standard response to the Israeli military. In the doctored Israeli releases almost all of this is cut out. All you hear in English is “Shut up, go back to Auschwitz”(unknown male voice), “We have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to enter” (Huwaida Arraf), and “We’re helping Arabs go against the U.S., don’t forget 9/11 guys” (unknown male voice) as an answer to the Israelis.

Fourthly, there is a big problem with the Israeli claim. Arraf was on the Challenger I and not onboard the Mavi Maramara. Many journalists caught on to this. Arraf makes things clear in an interview with Mya Guarnieri (6 June 2010):

“‘I was on the radio the whole time there was any communication,’ Arraf told Ma’an. ‘Mine was the only boat in which I answered and not the captain and they all answered in a very professional manner.’ Arraf told Ma’an that while she might have spoken of having permission from the Gaza Port Authority on a previous attempt to break the blockade, she is certain that she did not say it on Monday morning.”

The voice of Arraf was added from somewhere else. The audio is an extract from a past radio transmission. Under pressure, the Israeli military (5 June 2010) was forced to admit in an official press release that it had released an edited audio transmission to the international press and the world. In what amounted to little more than a failed coverup, the Israeli military (5 June 2010) press release states:

“This transmission had originally cited the Mavi Marmara ship as being the source of these remarks, however, due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified.”

While cutting out substantial and important points, the Israelis claimed that they edited and shortened the audio tape for listeners to understand. This is clearly false when the audio transmissions are studied.

In what amounts to a disgraceful bungle, the audio tapes were clearly doctored by the Israelis to frame the humanitarians onboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla as violent bigots. The Israeli serviceman talking on the radio does not even say the exact same things in the different versions of the so-called transmissions. Before he says: “This is the Israeli Navy.” Yet, in the so-called unedited version the Israeli serviceman says “This is Israeli Navy,” with the word “the” missing. Moreover, even though the Israelis now claim they used an open line, no one else on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla heard any of these comments.

(Consult the IDF Press Release at the end of this text and the audio files)


Concluding Remarks

In the words of Haaretz, one of Israel’s major newspapers:

“The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its hopeless frenzy. It has distributed menus from Gaza restaurants, along with false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations battle, which it might have been better off never starting. They want to maintain the ineffective, illegal and unethical siege on Gaza and not let the ‘peace flotilla’ dock off the Gaza coast? There is nothing to explain, certainly not to a world that will never buy the web of explanations, lies and tactics” (Levy, 30 May 2010).

The Israeli government is lying and, from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip, this has been proven time and time again. Tel Aviv deliberately invoked Al-Qaeda, the horrors of Auschwitz, and the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001 to demonize the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, but in so doing it has revealed its machinations and fabrications. If this is the behaviour of Tel Aviv when dealing with a few hundred international activists and humanitarians, one can only imagine the treatment millions of Palestinians face under Israeli occupation.

Israel is the aggressor. It was the party that attacked the international aid ships and their civilian passengers. The passengers that fought back did so to protect themselves. Also, Israeli servicemen systematically attacked journalists and confiscated all recording devices to prevent the people onboard the ships from exposing Israeli aggression against unarmed civilians in international waters.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is at a crossroad. What happened to the Mavi Maramara and the rest of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea is akin to the 1976 Soweto Riots that ended Apartheid in South Africa. A historic and very real opportunity is before us. The Gaza Strip and the Palestinians need urgent humanitarian aid. Not only do the Palestinians need to be saved from the brutal Israeli occupation, but the Israelis need to be saved from themselves too and the madness that is strangling their society. It is also from the example of the Palestinian people that the seeds of democracy will spread in the Middle East and in Arab countries.

Ordinary citizens across the globe will have to lead the way. Governments can not be depended on. It is time for the “Second Superpower,” which is the power of the people, to bring much needed change.

References:

Bluementhal, Max. June 3, 2010. “Under Scrutiny, IDF Retracts Claims about Flotilla’s Al Qaeda Links.” Accessed June 4, 2010:
<http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/under-scrutiny-idf-retracts-claims-about-flotillas-al-qaeda-links/>

Connolly, Kate. June 3, 2010. “Henning Mankell on Gaza flotilla attack: ‘I think they went out to murder.’” The Guardian. Accessed June 5, 2010:
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/gaza-flotilla-attack-henning-mankell>

Guarnieri, Mya. June 6, 2010. “‘Israel accused of fabricating flotilla video.” Ma’an News Agency. Accessed June 6, 2010:
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=289740>


Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), June 5, 2010. “Clarification/ Correction Regarding Audio Transmission Between Israeli Navy and Flotilla on 31 May 2010, Posted on 5 June 2010.” Accessed June 5, 2010:
<http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/05/clarificationcorrection-regarding-audio-transmission-between-israeli-navy-and-flotilla-on-31-may-2010-posted-on-5-june-2010/>

Levy, Gideon. May 30, 2010. “Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity.” Haaretz. Accessed June 5, 2010:
<http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/gaza-flotilla-drives-israel-into-a-sea-of-stupidity-1.292959>

[Peter Lemkin]

Today there is going to be the release of some video footage that the IDF did NOT confiscate and shows what REALLY happened.....the IDF lied and invented/sculpted those videos they showed....stay tuned!!!!! It will be released at a news conference at 4PM at the United Nations - and then made public via internet. Additionally, six or so passengers are missing and thought that they may have been Israeli spies on board. :ridinghorse: It seems they had pre-targeted persons for summary execution. Fuck you IDF!

Framing the Narrative: Israeli Commandos Seize Videotape and Equipment from Journalists After Deadly Raid *


After the Israeli military raided the Gaza aid flotilla and killed nine of the activists on board, they detained almost everyone else—700 activists and journalists—hauled them to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and kept them largely out of communication with family, press and lawyers for days. The Israeli government confiscated every recording and communication device it could find—devices containing almost all the recorded evidence of the raid. The Israelis selected, edited and released footage they wanted the world to see. We speak to two veteran reporters who were covering the Gaza Freedom Flotilla for Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/9/fra...dos_seizes

-----------------------------------------------------
Gaza Flotilla survivors recount tales of terror, brutality and fear for their lives



Please TAKE ACTION and DEMAND that the United Nations launch an independent investigation into the Israeli attack against unarmed relief ships in the Freedom Flotilla. DEMAND that the international community stop simply condemning Israel's brutal and illegal blockade of Gaza - and start doing something to end it!

CONTACT

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

The United Nations, New York NY 10017
tel: +1 212 963 5012
fax: +1 212 963 2155
email: sg@un.org

For three days as they were held in captivity last week and unable to speak on their own behalf, Israel presented the massacre against civilian passengers on the Mavi Marmara as self-defense against a “lynching.” Now that the passengers are returning to their home nations, the global community is hearing a much different story, not just regarding the May 31st attack but also new allegations of brutality in the treatment of several passengers afterwards once they were in custody inside Israel. Free Gaza is posting these survivor testimonies on our website, and we will continue to provide updates as more passengers share their experiences.

As the passenger accounts trickle in, survivors portray the Israeli military as using excessive and disproportionate force against activists not just on the Mavi Marmara but the other passenger ships as well. Use of tasers, electric shocks, rubber bullets and live ammunition (both on board and from the helicopter hovering above) are documented. Multiple passengers tell eyewitness accounts of soldiers refusing to allow medical treatment of injured passengers, specific and focused targeting of journalists on board and beatings of passengers after their arrival in Israel, causing at least two passengers to need hospitalization.

“Keeping passengers held in captivity so that they could not share their perspective was a deliberate attempt by Israel to cover up what really happened on the Mavi Marmara that fateful night,” notes Free Gaza co-founder Greta Berlin. “They knew what the passengers would be recounting, but they hoped that by delaying the release of their testimony until days after the immediate incident, media coverage would be buried as backpage follow-up stories or dismissed purely as old news.” She adds.



In her testimony, Annette Groth, a German Parliamentarian who was a passenger on Mavi Marmawa validates that assertion saying “The scandal is that we have to fight the Israeli images only with words. The Israelis confiscated all the activists' cameras, computers, and mobile phones.”



These accounts reveal an “alternative narrative” of the attack on the Freedom Flotilla that cannot be reconciled with the Israeli version. CONTACT Secretary General Ban Ki Moon today and DEMAND an independent investigation!

[Jan van den Baard]

Was surprised to read this at Brookings:


http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0...inger.aspx

[Peter Lemkin]

Was surprised to read this at Brookings:


http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0...inger.aspx

Yes, the US Authorities [or thugs] have every reason to be VERY angry at Israel for what happened to the Liberty...but have [obviously] 'compromised' in order to say nothing / do nothing......Israel holds more cards against the USA then visa-versa IMO. Democracy Now! had a great account by one victim [who survived] the Liberty [above on this thread].

[Keith Millea]

Here is a 22 second video of the killing(execution)of 19 year old Furkan Dogan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlElXOJV4...r_embedded

[Helen Reyes]

... Additionally, six or so passengers are missing and thought that they may have been Israeli spies on board. :hobbyhorse: It seems they had pre-targeted persons for summary execution. Fuck you IDF!...

Yeah, they needed protestor infiltrators to stage the "lynching" footage after they secured the vessels. That still doesn't account for the bodies allegedly dumped overboard. Somewhere between 13 and 16 more dead, or perhaps more.

[Austin Kelley]

Scheduled to happen in less than five minutes:


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GAZA ACTIVISTS FACE 'TERRORISM' ARREST ON CAPITOL HILL TOMORROW

(Washington DC, 09 June) - Responding to recent congressional accusations that they are 'terrorists,' Gaza Flotilla activists with the Free Gaza Movement, Gaza Freedom March, Code Pink, and Freedom Flotilla will be voluntarily making themselves available for arrest in Rep. Brad Sherman's Capitol Hill offices on Thursday, June 10th at 2PM. In the event they are not arrested, they will be holding a memorial service for those killed aboard the Mavi Marmara in Rep. Sherman’s Rayburn HOB office.

Col. Ann Wright (ret.), a former U.S. diplomat, Gaza Freedom March organizer, and a passenger aboard the recent Freedom Flotilla, stated that: "Nine aid workers were murdered by Israeli commandos, and more than fifty were wounded. I want to look Brad Sherman in the eye and see if he has any sense for the gravity of this situation. If Sherman wants to have us arrested - we'll be there."

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) has publicly called for the arrest and prosecution of "any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla" under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Rep. Sherman serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and chairs the subcommittee on terrorism and nonproliferation.

According to Rep. Sherman: "[It's] absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete ...so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”

Rep. Sherman also stated that he was planning on working with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure all non-U.S. citizens aboard the Flotilla would be permanently barred from entering the U.S. This list includes Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, as well as a number of parliamentarians and government officials from Ireland, Britain, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, and Israel.

Ramzi Kysia, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, said that: "Rep. Sherman is welcome to arrest me and try to make his case to a jury of my peers. Delivering humanitarian aid to people in need is not 'terrorism.' Brad Sherman is a prime example of just how degenerate our political discourse has become on Capitol Hill."

Several other peace and justice advocates will also be making themselves available for arrest tomorrow, including Susan Kerin, a coordinator with both the Free Gaza Movement and Pax Christi, and Tighe Barry, a coordinator with Code Pink. Mr. Barry will be turning himself in to face the death penalty for building 3 playgrounds in Gaza for children, some of whom were born from parents in the Hamas government. [Emphasis added]

[Peter Presland]

There's a wee bit of rhetorical license in this piece on Anti-War.com but similar stuff from Debka file and Haaretz quoting the same guy. There is some serious stuff going on here - and Turkey a NATO member too.

Israel Threatens War if Turkish PM Tries to Deliver Gaza Aid

Israeli Official Warns of Casus Belli on Israeli Army Radio

by Jason Ditz, June 09, 2010


Israeli Army commander and top Likud member Uzi Dayan today warned on Israeli Army Radio that Israel would consider any attempt by the Turkish military to protect future aid ships from attack an “act of war.”
With Israeli protesters already condemning Erdogan, is war on the table?

Dayan then added that if Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan attempted to accompany the aid ships personally, as he has reportedly considered “we would not try to take over the ship he was on, but would sink it.” He added that Erdogan’s presence on a future aid ship would also be a casus belli for an Israeli war against Turkey.
Turkey has expressed outrage at last week’s Israeli attack on a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, an attack in which Israeli troops killed at least nine civilian aid workers. Israel has insisted that the aid ship was secretly in league with al-Qaeda and has since tried to spin Turkey as the villain for even allowing a ship to try to deliver aid to the besieged strip.
The Israeli killings have only increased the number of groups planning attempts to deliver aid, and Israeli officials have promised to stop all these attempts militarily as well.
The explicit threat of war against Turkey is something new, however. While Israel starts wars with a casualness rarely seen in other nations, an attack on Turkey, a key NATO member with an enormous military, would be something quite different from a monthlong attack on the Gaza Strip or blowing up metro Beirut with air strikes.