Israel massacres unarmed peace activists

By now you will have heard about Israel’s assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in the course of which, according to current estimates, at least 10 and as many as 20 peace activists were killed, and dozens injured. The flotilla  was carrying hundreds of activists, including a Nobel Peace Laureate, along with thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to distribute to the besieged population of Gaza.

The narrative from Israel has been almost comically predictable, as has the extent to which that narrative has been accepted by news organisations. In the week leading up to the mission Israeli officials repeatedly threatened the ships, with the Foreign Minister going so far as to label the unarmed humanitarian voyage a "violent" threat. The flotilla was smeared as "pro-Hamas" and condemned for refusing to deliver a letter to Cpl. Shalit from his father (a claim that, while repeated uncritically in the purportedly ‘liberal’ Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, is a "a blatant lie"), and its attempts to dock in Gaza were declared an "an infringement of Israel’s sovereignty". Needless to say, this last accusation does not sit well with Israel’s claim that it does not occupy and has no intention to annex Gaza (the Israeli human rights NGO Gisha notes, in this vein, that the assault on the Freedom Flotilla "is proof that despite claims to the contrary, Israel never ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip but rather continues to control its borders – land, air and sea").

The Israeli navy began harassing the convoy when it was still well over 100 miles from Gaza, deep into international waters. As the ships drew closer the Israeli military attempted to disrupt their communications (journalists were reporting from on-board and a live video feed was streaming online) and began issuing threats. Finally, Israeli forces attacked, with soldiers descending from helicopters to board the ships. Initially Israel claimed that no activists were killed. It then performed an abrupt reversal, familiar to veterans of its clumsy rhetorical acrobatics during the Gaza massacre, reporting that at least 10 people were killed, but claiming that it was the peace activists who "attacked" first (as one commentator observed: "[p]eculiar how Israel is always violently attacked but it's only the ‘attackers’ who die"). Thus news organisations reported that "[f]ighting broke out between" the activists and the soldiers, as if unarmed peace activists could ever meaningfully "fight" highly-trained, heavily armed members of one of the most sophisticated militaries on the planet. The BBC went even further, intoning, over footage of what was clearly a direct attack on unarmed civilians, that the Israeli soldiers were attempting to "control passengers". Eyewitness reports, by contrast, described how Israeli forces started shooting "the moment their feet hit the deck. They shot civilians asleep". "This was not a confrontation", they report, "[t]his was a massacre". An al-Jazeera journalist aboard the ship reported that "despite the white flag being raised, the Israeli Army is still shooting, still firing live munitions".

Why would Israel attack the flotilla? It’s worth recalling what the activists were trying to do. Since 1991 Israel has kept the Gaza Strip under siege, the intensity of which has varied over time but never to the extent of allowing the residents of Gaza to live something approaching decent, dignified lives. Following Hamas’s 2006 election victory and its takeover of Gaza in 2007, undertaken in response to a US/Israeli-backed coup attempt, the closure was sharply intensified, provoking what human rights organisations described as a "humanitarian implosion" of "unprecedented" scale. The objectives, which also motivated the Dec ‘08-Jan ‘09 Gaza massacre, were clear: to punish Palestinians for voting the ‘wrong’ way in the 2006 elections; to entrench the separation between Gaza and the West Bank; to isolate Hamas diplomatically and thereby thwart its threatened ‘peace offensive’ (yesterday, in a further blow to Israeli rejectionism, alleged ‘hardliner’ Khalid Meshal again affirmed that Hamas is prepared to end violence once Israel "returns to the ‘67 borders"); to undermine the ‘moderates’ within Hamas at the expense of the ‘hardliners’; and to turn the population of Gaza into a "humanitarian" as opposed to a "political" problem. To these ends, Israel, the US and the EU have systematically reduced the 1.5 million residents of Gaza – most of whom are children - to poverty, unemployment and aid dependency. They have, as one senior official explained, "put the Palestinians on a diet".

The "diet" has been an extreme one:

• since the intensification of the siege in June 2007, "the formal economy in Gaza has collapsed".
• "61% of people in the Gaza Strip are ... food insecure", of which "65% are children under 18 years".
• since June 2007, "the number of Palestine refugees unable to access food and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic items, such as soap, school stationery and safe drinking water, has tripled".
• "in February 2009, the level of anemia in babies (9-12 months) was as high as 65.5%"
• "water resources in the Gaza Strip are critically insufficient"
• "the blockade has been a major obstacle to repairing the damage done by Israeli air attacks and destruction. Nearly none of the 3,425 homes destroyed during Cast Lead have been reconstructed, displacing around 20,000 people. Only 17.5% of the value of the damages to educational facilities has been repaired ... [T]he infrastructure which remains unrepaired is often that which is most essential to the basic needs and well-being of the Gaza population."

The siege of Gaza is explicitly directed against the civilian population. It has been condemned by nearly every government in the world, and according to UN agencies and human rights organisations it constitutes "collective punishment ... a flagrant violation of international law", possibly amounting to a "crime against humanity". In attempting to deliver aid to Gaza the Freedom Flotilla activists were not merely highlighting the brutality of the siege, they were challenging Israel’s basic right to dominate and control the occupied territories. Hence the hysteria from Israel, and hence the attack.

Even so, Israel’s cavalier disregard for its own, already battered PR image is surprising. To attack a convoy of unarmed peace activists in international waters, and then to claim that it was the peace activists who committed the aggression, is so manifestly absurd that one wonders whether Israel truly has, as Chomsky recently implied, entered the "irrational" phase. I would caution against this conclusion. In the run-up to the voyage Israeli officials showed a keen awareness of the difficult PR situation they were in. It’s not that the Israeli government doesn’t care about its international image – far from it. Rather, the most plausible explanation is that, after a cost-benefit analysis, it determined that it would be able to attack the peace activists on the flotilla, take the concomitant day or two of bad media coverage in its stride, muddy the waters as much as possible with PR spin, and then move on without suffering too much damage as a result. Yousef Munayyer recently observed that ‘Palestinian non-violence requires global non-silence’. Evidently, the Israeli government took the risk of attacking the flotilla on the presumption that the world would be muted in its response.

It is time to disabuse them of that notion. Protests have been planned outside Israeli embassies worldwide - including across the US and in Israel - and Stop the War has called an emergency demonstration outside Downing Street today at 2pm. Make it if you can.

Source linked by Roph.

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Here is a few videos about it. Sorry its in Turkish. Our ships were attacked.

I posted this last night as the flotilla was changing courses. It's a terrible thing what Israel is doing to Gaza but to be fair the flotilla, although doing a great humanitarian thing, is breaking a blockade to do so and Israel has the right to intercept. They break the NATO agreements, and the three mile out of range mark for the blockade range was expanded as far as that flotilla was trying to get away.

WWIII, here we come. Korea is cutting each other's throats, and now this.

Have a nice cup of rage 

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmgZMYzQBo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmgZMYzQBo</a>

I have a friend going to Israel very, very soon. Tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. This makes me nervous... Listen, guys, I don't care if you're friend or family, unless you're my wife or first born then this statement applies: If you live anywhere -near- what is considered a war zone? I'm not getting on a plane to see you. I'm not going to even CONSIDER visiting. You are RETARDED for not moving. What the beachball smacking sea lions is going through my friend's head that she can justify visiting Israel RIGHT FUCKING NOW? Gah...

The turmoil that the area is in all goes back to a careless mistake that the winning side made after WWI... nobody seemed to care about all of the bullshit that started happening when Anatolia and Israel were divided by the Allied Powers.

However, when it comes back to bite us in the ass (especially after the formation of NATO) and our reputation is damaged by associating ourselves with a government known for its favouritism toward a certain people, other problems start emerging.

They haven't yet taken root, but you know the negative stigma communist countries get? How about countries where the ethnic minorities can't even expect to survive the week? Especially when the government is gung-ho and takes tanks into residential areas?

EDIT: But as to the flotilla attack;
-Israel can inspect the vessel if they know it is entering their waters.
-Israel can open fire if the vessel is hostile (which it was, as those "peace activists" wasted no time in attacking the SEALS with knives and firebombs)
-And lastly, people see this as a "breach of human rights" even though the SEALS were patient with the "peace activists" and didn't open fire until shit hit the fan (i.e. until multiple SEALS were injured)

If I were an IDF SEAL, I would have blown some brains out the moment they pulled out their metal rods and firebombs. It is one thing to place a siege on unarmed civilians and terrorists, but it is another thing entirely to call yourself an "aid organisation member" and then start attacking people (yes, soldiers and sailors are people, too) for no God-damned reason.

I posted this last night as the flotilla was changing courses. It's a terrible thing what Israel is doing to Gaza but to be fair the flotilla, although doing a great humanitarian thing, is breaking a blockade to do so and Israel has the right to intercept. They break the NATO agreements, and the three mile out of range mark for the blockade range was expanded as far as that flotilla was trying to get away.

WWIII, here we come. Korea is cutting each other's throats, and now this.

Are you honestly trying to justify the slaughtering of UNARMED humanitarian activists?

relevant: http://witnessgaza.com/

I posted this last night as the flotilla was changing courses. It's a terrible thing what Israel is doing to Gaza but to be fair the flotilla, although doing a great humanitarian thing, is breaking a blockade to do so and Israel has the right to intercept. They break the NATO agreements, and the three mile out of range mark for the blockade range was expanded as far as that flotilla was trying to get away.

WWIII, here we come. Korea is cutting each other's throats, and now this.

Are you honestly trying to justify the slaughtering of UNARMED humanitarian activists?

relevant: http://witnessgaza.com/

They were armed. After the boat was inspected, they found that the food was expired and that contraband was being brought into Gaza.

Among other things, they threw firebombs at the SEALS, and they beat the shit out of them for half an hour before the Israelis opened fire with live ammunition! Are you trying to justify a calculated terrorist act against a military that's just doing its job?

Not only that, but Israel had every right to seize the boat and its cargo after the crew announced that they were heading into a blockaded zone and did not heed orders to dock in Ashdod. They were warned over a dozen times, and they did not heed the warnings.

Even when the Israelis boarded, they did not fire immediately, as they weren't expecting to be beaten by an anti-semite mob full of terrorists.

They were heard making hate chants against Jews.

Are you honestly trying to justify the slaughtering of UNARMED humanitarian activists?
relevant: http://witnessgaza.com/

They were armed. After the boat was inspected, they found that the food was expired and that contraband was being brought into Gaza.

Uh, no they fucking weren't. The IDF released photos of their so called "weapons" (link here: http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/01/photos-of-the-mavi-marmaras-equipment-and-weapons-1-jun-2010/ ), when in reality they're only regular every day Items you would typically find on a ship along with some random shit they pulled out of the cargo, the only real weapons they pulled out were some axe handles. Also where the fuck are these guns the IDF said were used to fire on them before they boarded?

Sticks, kitchen knifes, pots n pans, cameras etc… Well hot damn, well that sure justifies all those deaths.
Hell, I'd shoot a guy coming at me with a camera! You're fucking stupid.

Among other things, they threw firebombs at the SEALS, and they beat the shit out of them for half an hour before the Israelis opened fire with live ammunition! Are you trying to justify a calculated terrorist act against a military that's just doing its job?

More retarded bullshit. If you even read the fucking article, it says they opened fire before they were even on the fucking ship.

Even when the Israelis boarded, they did not fire immediately, as they weren't expecting to be beaten by an anti-semite mob full of terrorists.

They were heard making hate chants against Jews.

Oh, bullshit. Give me a fucking a source. It doesn't say that anywhere. They're humanitarians, you fucktard.

I have a friend going to Israel very, very soon. Tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. This makes me nervous... Listen, guys, I don't care if you're friend or family, unless you're my wife or first born then this statement applies: If you live anywhere -near- what is considered a war zone? I'm not getting on a plane to see you. I'm not going to even CONSIDER visiting. You are RETARDED for not moving. What the beachball smacking sea lions is going through my friend's head that she can justify visiting Israel RIGHT FUCKING NOW? Gah...

Says the guy who wants to enlist in the airforce.

Spoiler for quotetower:

Are you honestly trying to justify the slaughtering of UNARMED humanitarian activists?
relevant: http://witnessgaza.com/

They were armed. After the boat was inspected, they found that the food was expired and that contraband was being brought into Gaza.

Uh, no they fucking weren't. The IDF released photos of their so called "weapons" (link here: http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/01/photos-of-the-mavi-marmaras-equipment-and-weapons-1-jun-2010/ ), when in reality they're only regular every day Items you would typically find on a ship along with some random shit they pulled out of the cargo, the only real weapons they pulled out were some axe handles. Also where the fuck are these guns the IDF said were used to fire on them before they boarded?

Sticks, kitchen knifes, pots n pans, cameras etc… Well hot damn, well that sure justifies all those deaths.
Hell, I'd shoot a guy coming at me with a camera! You're fucking stupid.

Among other things, they threw firebombs at the SEALS, and they beat the shit out of them for half an hour before the Israelis opened fire with live ammunition! Are you trying to justify a calculated terrorist act against a military that's just doing its job?

More retarded bullshit. If you even read the fucking article, it says they opened fire before they were even on the fucking ship.

Even when the Israelis boarded, they did not fire immediately, as they weren't expecting to be beaten by an anti-semite mob full of terrorists.

They were heard making hate chants against Jews.

Oh, bullshit. Give me a fucking a source. It doesn't say that anywhere. They're humanitarians, you fucktard.

I have a friend going to Israel very, very soon. Tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. This makes me nervous... Listen, guys, I don't care if you're friend or family, unless you're my wife or first born then this statement applies: If you live anywhere -near- what is considered a war zone? I'm not getting on a plane to see you. I'm not going to even CONSIDER visiting. You are RETARDED for not moving. What the beachball smacking sea lions is going through my friend's head that she can justify visiting Israel RIGHT FUCKING NOW? Gah...

Says the guy who wants to enlist in the airforce.

What's with the inflammatory remarks? You want proof? Try this:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ0drBX8Ru0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ0drBX8Ru0</a>

EDIT: And for the hate chant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfopiwKs7I

You really need to read before you make posts defending bigoted terrorists.
The Mavi Mara was the only boat that got seized, however, all of the other ships were bringing REAL aid to Gaza. The Mavi Mara should have been sunk.

ULTRAEDIT: But in the end, it doesn't matter what they were armed with, they were a hostile vessel bringing contraband into a blockaded area and shouldn't expect NOT to be fired upon. The United States Navy would have produced a larger number of casualties, so you should be grateful that half the boat wasn't wasted, despite them being a bunch of warmongerers.

I do not support the siege of Gaza, but I do not support piracy, either.
Ever heard of the Somali Pirates? They were poorly armed, too, but they started a lot of trouble.

ULTRAEDIT: But in the end, it doesn't matter what they were armed with, they were a hostile vessel bringing contraband into a blockaded area and shouldn't expect NOT to be fired upon. The United States Navy would have produced a larger number of casualties, so you should be grateful that half the boat wasn't wasted, despite them being a bunch of warmongerers.

fyi the activists, videos from on board and even an Israeli parliament member stated that the commandos fired prior to illegally boarding the vessel but, even if it is true, did they not have the right to defend themselves as armed men swooped down from helicopters on to the deck of their vessel – in, I stress, international waters?

Both of those videos are bullshit. I'd hit a fuckface with a wooden stick too if he started shooting at me before he was even on the fucking vessel.

imagine if swat, unwarranted, broke into a house, started tearing the place up, and pushing the inhabitants around and accusing them of possessing illegal goods, and then when they fought back to get swat out of the house, ended up shot dead.

and then later justified it with pictures of cutlery and furniture.

FURTHERMORE:

Israel faked the so called "weapon photos".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/israel-mfa/

Look at the photos, then click on "details" , and you'll see the date when the pictures were taken.

For example :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/israel-...in/photostream
Date and Time (Original): 2006:02:07 04:49:57 Date and Time (Digitized): 2006:02:07 04:49:57

The excuse being used is "the camera's clocks were not set".

Get fucked Israel.

Well, the videos aren't bullshit and they didn't fire until prokoved--- and you have no proof that they fired before boarding the vessel.

The "peace activists" aboard the Mavi Marmara even threw flashbangs as the IDF SEALS were descending.

Furthermore, here's a video of the communique that occured prior to the fighting:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKOmLP4yHb4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKOmLP4yHb4</a>

As for the "international waters" argument, the US Navy routinely runs "Interdiction" missions in which VBSS boards vessels that refuse to identify themselves. Often, these are a bunch of drug-runners who immediately attack and are shot up by the hundreds.

Furthermore, the IHH, which sponsored some of this "aid" are recognised as a terror organization by the EU, the UN, Turkey, and others.

In the late 1990s, Turkey actually got into a scuffle with the IHH.

EDIT: About the date discrepancy, the date on the pictures is a date before the cameras were released; about FOUR MONTHS, to be precise. Again, you fail to provide decent evidence.

There are cries in other pics' comments that the EXIF data doesn't match so it must be fake.

The images were taken with a D2Xs camera.

Here's a link to the press release on the nikon site http://www.nikon.com/about/news/2006/0601_01.htm about the

D2Xs being released in June 2006.
EXIF data shows images were taken before that.
Could it be that the camera's time and date were not set? Naah, Israel must have time travel ability.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304287.html

I posted this last night as the flotilla was changing courses. It's a terrible thing what Israel is doing to Gaza but to be fair the flotilla, although doing a great humanitarian thing, is breaking a blockade to do so and Israel has the right to intercept. They break the NATO agreements, and the three mile out of range mark for the blockade range was expanded as far as that flotilla was trying to get away.

WWIII, here we come. Korea is cutting each other's throats, and now this.

Are you honestly trying to justify the slaughtering of UNARMED humanitarian activists?

relevant: http://witnessgaza.com/

Yep, sure am. Unarmed, however still uninnocent.

This shit is going to repeat itself today or tomorrow, another aid ship is on its way and is refusing to change course away from Gaza. 

Turkey has also said that future aid ships will have military escorts, to try to prevent further attacks from Israel.

Why would they do it a second time? There was a link to story in that article Irock had posted saying they were offered to dock in Israel and the goods would be searched and transfered to Gaza. It's not exactly as if getting shot at and losing all of the goods is a better alternative.

Why would they do it a second time? There was a link to story in that article Irock had posted saying they were offered to dock in Israel and the goods would be searched and transfered to Gaza. It's not exactly as if getting shot at and losing all of the goods is a better alternative.

Well, it was a PR stunt, and it was successful. They want to do it again so that Israel could get into even more trouble (I stress, for no reason other than the EU and UN's ulterior motives) and to stop the blockade, which would result in a renewed frequency of Quassam rocket artillery attacks on Sderot.

I posted this last night as the flotilla was changing courses. It's a terrible thing what Israel is doing to Gaza but to be fair the flotilla, although doing a great humanitarian thing, is breaking a blockade to do so and Israel has the right to intercept. They break the NATO agreements, and the three mile out of range mark for the blockade range was expanded as far as that flotilla was trying to get away.

WWIII, here we come. Korea is cutting each other's throats, and now this.

Are you honestly trying to justify the slaughtering of UNARMED humanitarian activists?

relevant: http://witnessgaza.com/

Yep, sure am. Unarmed, however still uninnocent.

International waters. They had done nothing wrong yet.

International waters. They had done nothing wrong yet.

Actually, they signed their own death/arrest warrants the moment they announced that they wouldn't be changing course.

It's like if I were trying to pull a cart covered with a cloth beyond the gate to staff college; I'd be warned, and if I said I was going to make a "delivery" to the barracks and resisted any attempts at identification, they'd try to arrest me. If I resisted and injured too many MPs, I'd be shot at.

If I claimed that I was bringing "humanitarian aid to starving sailors", would that put me above the law?

They borded the ship that attempted to reach gaza today also, and are now forcing it to an Israeli dock.