CNN interview with Gaza Freedom Flotilla leader Huwaida Arraf.
Activism
I was a passenger on the first effort to break the Gaza blockade. Our mission was to show that normal people cared.
A legal analysis of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla by the London-based Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR).
US citizen Emily Henochowicz was shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister as she non-violently demonstrated against the Flotilla massacre.
Has Israel lost it? Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday’s killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel’s rule? Don’t hold your breath.
“The operation started immediately with firing. First it was warning shots, but when the Mavi Marmara wouldn’t stop these warnings turned into an attack”… “We continuously told them we did not have weapons, we came here to bring humanitarian help and not to fight”… “We were in international waters. The Israelis acted like pirates… They took us hostage, pointing guns at our heads; they descended from helicopters and fired tear gas and bullets. There was absolutely nothing we could do… Those who tried to resist forming a human ring on the bridge were given electric shocks.”
June 5, 2010 marks 43 years since the Six-Day War and the beginning of the occupation. Three and a half million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation which denies their most basic freedoms. Gaza is hungry and under siege, no one is allowed in or out. Families are expelled from their homes; menacing walls keep apart families and friends, and separate farmers from their lands. Freedom to travel is denied to thousands who are forced daily to undergo humiliation and harassment at the checkpoints.
An example of a so-called “pro-Israel” organization participating in Israel’s official propaganda campaign designed to whitewash its international law violations, and crimes, related to the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Arab Knesset member who participated in Gaza aid flotilla holds press conference says, ‘It was clear from size of force that boarded ship that purpose was not to stop sail, but to cause largest number of fatalities to prevent future initiatives.’ “There was not a single passenger who raised a club. We put on our life vests. From where I was standing, I didn’t see any clubs or anything of the sort. There were gunshots, I don’t know if they were live bullets or not. There were gunshots fired from the ships in our direction.
“Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden,” said Dagan, speaking before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
IOA Editor: A similar assessment was made by Prof. Rashid Khalidi in a May 2010 interview with the IOA
. Separately, of course, there’s no discussion on the legality of sabotaging the engines of ships docked in foreign harbors.
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee declared a general strike in Israel’s Arab sector yesterday to protest the flotilla clash… In addition, the committee also announced that protest marches and rallies would be held in Arab communities, and called on the international community to investigate the circumstances behind the flotilla’s interception.
Israel embarked yesterday on a mini Operation Cast Lead. Like its larger, losing predecessor, this operation had it all: the usual false claim that is was they who had started it – and not the landing of commandos from helicopters on a ship in open sea, away from Israeli territorial waters. There was the claim that the first act of violence came not from the soldiers, but the rioting activists on Mavi Marmara; that the blockade on Gaza is legal and that the flotilla to its shores is against the law – God knows which law.
Tariq Ali speaking outside Downing Street after the attack on the aid flotilla to Gaza
Norman Finkelstein on Gaza Flotilla Attack (TV)
Israel’s regional allies froze military ties as angry protests erupted over the storming Monday of aid ships bound for Gaza, while Muslim leaders demanded swift U.N. action to punish the “criminal” assault. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “shocked” by the navy assault on a convoy carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, lawmakers and journalists through international waters toward besieged Gaza.
The Palestinian Human Rights Council condemns the unlawful assault by the Israeli navy on a flotilla of international ships bringing aid to Gaza early this morning. The assault is unprecedented and illegal under international law.
Demonstrations are being organized in Washington DC, New York, and Boston. Please join in where you can or organize your own. It is time to end the blockade of Gaza and the Israeli occupation of Palestine by ending US support for Israeli slaughter.
ALL EVENTS TODAY – 31 May 2010
New York – 3pm, Times Square
Washington, DC – 3pm, Israeli Embassy, 3514 International Drive NW (Van Ness metro) – Moving on to the White House at 5pm
Boston – 4pm, Park Street Station
Seattle (JVP): 1:00 pm – 5th Avenue and Broad St, Seattle Center, near the Experience Music Project
Miami (JVP): 5pm-7pm – Torch of Friendship (Downtown)
The Alternative Information Center (AIC) places complete responsibility with the Israeli government and we request that the international, legal, political and humanitarian bodies move immediately to condemn this crime and to hold Israel accountable for its harsh actions. We also request the immediate lifting of the siege on Gaza so supplies can enter without any conditions.
The Israeli navy this morning massacred at least 10 peaceful, unarmed citizens from many different countries sailing to Gaza with humanitarian aid. The massacre took place in international waters, 65 km off the coast of Gaza. Over 700 other participants have been abducted to Israel by the Israeli military.
READ MORE FOR DETAILS ABOUT DEMONSTRATIONS AND POLITICAL ACTIONS IN SCOTTLAND
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon:
“I want to report this morning that the armada of hate and violence in support of the Hamas terror organization was a premeditated and outrageous provocation. The organizers are well known for their ties with global Jihad, Al-Qaeda and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror. On board the ship we found weapons – prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizers’ intent was violent, their method was violent, and the results were unfortunately violent.”
IOA Editor: Those of us who follow the actions and behavior of Israeli Occupation Forces already know that blaming the victims is an old Israeli trick. However, as the statements by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon demonstrate, Israel is surpassing its own record of irrationality and criminal irresponsibility, and its propaganda machine has now reached well beyond its previous limits of the imagination.
The Elders group of past and present world leaders, including former South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on Monday condemned as “completely inexcusable” the deadly Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza.
Adam Shapiro: It is utterly absurd to think that we could face down a military with the strength and the kind of technology and weapons that Israel possesses. To even think for a second that we could use violence in any way that would be to our advantage, it’s utterly absurd. Israel has always tried to portray its victims, whether they be internationals like Rachel Corrie or Tom Hurndall or Palestinians, as — to present the victims as the perpetrators. And I think we’re seeing the response of the world today.
IOA Editor: Indeed. See our earlier comments on Israeli propaganda, past and present
LVMH-owned Sephora has been taken to court by the Palestinian rights organisation CAPJPO-EuroPalestine over the sale of cosmetics brand Ahava, according to press reports. Separately, the US women’s peace organisation, CodePink, organised a boycott of the products.
How can we rely on those Palestinians? For 43 years, they have been building the settlers’ homes with the sweat of their brows, paving roads for them and building their fences, and then suddenly, out of the blue, a boycott? Is that the way for partners to behave? Is that how they pay us back after we educated them for so many years to be our hewers of wood and drawers of water?
Adalah: “Trumped-up accusations made in indictments have become alarmingly common practice in security cases in Israel. They aim to justify the complete isolation and use of illegal methods of interrogation against detainees, and the imposition of gag orders on their cases.”
Today is the 21st day since the arrest of Ameer Makhoul at his home in Haifa, Israel, under the cover of darkness, by officers of the International Crimes Investigation Unit and General Security Service (GSS or Shabak). The arrest was conducted in a brutal and terrifying manner.
Citing the US and Israeli refusal of the Arab Peace Initiative since 1976 until this day, Chomsky countered the mainstream argument that it is Palestinian rejectionism that is blocking a settlement. “These facts are not part of general discourse because they lead to the wrong conclusion. The most crucial facts are invisible if they do not conform to the interests of power,” he said. “If the US changes its policy, Israel has no option but to go along – the parameters agreed upon at Taba would be a start.”
Makhoul’s brother, former MK Issam Makhoul… accused the Shin Bet of employing illegitimate means to “trump up” charges against his brother. The Shin Bet has denied allegations that it used torture to extract information from the suspects. “We will demand that an outside body headed by a judge investigate this matter,” Issam Makhoul said. “We will not hesitate to appeal to an international agency. There’s no doubt that we are about to see a trumped-up case manufactured by the Shin Bet, which operated in dark corners and backrooms to put this together. The results of their investigation should be viewed with doubt.”
Although photojournalist Imad Bornat from Bil’in was acquitted over a year ago on charges of assaulting an officer, police still regard his case as “open” and continue to bar him from entering Israel.
“I guess most Israelis would view me as a traitor… They would ask what right does someone who wasn’t born in Israel and who didn’t serve in the army have to criticize the state? But I came here out of great love, and I don’t intend to keep quiet just because I came from afar. I believe that there is no choice, that Israelis and Palestinians will live together. When I try to build connections between the two sides, I’m working for Israel’s good. The Bil’in people are very special… But they are not a rare species. There are many Palestinians like them.”
Sixty-five percent of Arab citizens believe in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to 90 percent seven years ago. Forty percent said they don’t believe in Israel’s judicial system, and a similar number said they support boycotting Knesset elections (compared to one in three in 2003).
Nawi’s conviction points to a relatively recent development regarding the restriction of resistance, to extremely passive modes of protest. And, in some cases, even these kinds of protests are prohibited, as in Sheikh Jarrah where activists are repeatedly arrested simply for demonstrating against the seizure of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli artist and writer, Shimon Tzabar, lived in London in a self imposed political exile, in protest against the Israeli occupation. Shimon died in 2007, but his legacy of supporting the Palestinians is still alive. Four limited edition prints will be sold to raise funds for Palestinian artists in Yibna refugee camp in Gaza. The prints prices range from £400-600.
Noam Chomsky interviewed by a raving Israeli Channel 2 News reporter.
Please consider adding your name to the protest of Israel’s barring Noam Chomsky from entering the West Bank in order to deliver a speech at Birzeit University.
[N]either Chomsky nor I are have any illusions about the limits of the aforementioned initiatives or their possible (if not probable) failure in the face of Israel’s hubris and the power disparity between the parties. But Chomsky also alluded to the lesson of a movement that succeeded, not by waiting for favorable political conditions to hand it the vision it sought, but by moving ahead with building its project and waiting for the right political conditions to incrementally achieve what it did.
