[E-rundbrief] Info 919 - Israeli Navy Storms Freedom-Flotilla to Gaza

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 919 - Mel  Frykberg (IPS): Israeli Navy Storms 
Humanitarian Flotilla, Kill 16.

Bad Ischl, 31.5.2010

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

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MIDEAST: Israeli Navy Storms Humanitarian Flotilla, Kill 16

Mel  Frykberg

RAMALLAH, May 31  (IPS)  - Israeli naval commandos shot dead 16 people
and wounded over 30 on Monday morning, as they attacked an unarmed
humanitarian and civilian flotilla - in international waters - trying to
bring desperately needed aid to Gaza.


Chaos, confusion and outrage surround the exact circumstances under
which the Free Gaza (FG) flotilla was stormed with live footage from a
Turkish TV channel showing masked and heavily armed Israeli soldiers
commandeering one of the six (FG) boats, the ‘Mavi Marmara'.

An Al Jazeera correspondent who was on board, reported that Israeli
troops used live ammunition during the operation. The Israeli Defence
Forces (IDF) countered that some of those on board attacked soldiers
with sharp objects, including knives.

The organisers disputed this, saying the IDF opened fire as soon as they
boarded the boats.

It is uncertain how the Turkish channel managed to air the live
footage. Israeli authorities had scrambled the boats' communications
system shortly before the commando raid in a bid to prevent the crews
from using navigational equipment and contacting the crews on the
other boats.

The interference in the vessels' communications systems was also a bid
to prevent journalists on board from broadcasting live and humanitarian
activists from using their mobile phones to update the media on
developing events.

Earlier, IPS spoke with Huwaida Arraf, the chairwoman of the FG
movement, on how the morale of the more than 700 people, including
children and elderly, on board from 40 different countries, including
journalists and 35 parliamentarians, was and how the trip was
progressing.

”We are feeling optimistic and we are determined to reach Gaza,” Arraf
told IPS. However, when IPS tried to contact her on Monday morning her
phone was not working.

The FG movement, an organisation aimed at breaking Israel's devastating
siege on Gaza following the takeover of the coastal territory by Hamas
in June 2007, had planned to deliver over 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian
aid to the impoverished strip.

Included in the aid on board were water purification kits, prefabricated
homes, wheelchairs as well as some reconstruction material.

Thousands of homes were destroyed and damaged during Israel's military
assault on Gaza, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, at the end of 2008 and
beginning of 2009. As part of the siege Israel has forbidden nearly all
reconstruction material from entering Gaza for rebuilding.

The FG movement has attempted numerous times over the last few years
to bring boats to Gaza with some success. Most times, however, the
Israeli navy intercepted the vessels, ramming several boats and
arresting those on board.

However, this latest attempt has overshadowed previous ones in ambition,
size and the scale of violence employed against it.

The clash at sea is the latest development in a publicity war between
Israel and the FG movement which has attempted to draw international
attention to the serious humanitarian conditions on the ground in Gaza.

As a violent, and possibly bloody, confrontation between the flotilla
and the Israeli security forces seemed increasingly inevitable, with
Israeli officials vowing to stop the vessels and the FG vowing to reach
Gaza, the Israeli foreign ministry and the IDF launched a massive
publicity campaign.

The Israeli daily ‘The Jerusalem Post' reported that the IDF ”has
established a joint taskforce together with the Israel police, the
foreign ministry and the Prisons Service to coordinate efforts to stop
the flotilla and manage the potential media fallout.”

The Israeli government's media campaign stresses that the supplies the
ships are carrying are unnecessary and that Israel û together with
various international organisations û already transfers these supplies
to Gaza via land crossings.

Despite Israel arguing that only items considered a ”security threat”
are banned from entering Gaza, coriander, pasta, fruit juice, toilet
paper, chocolate, cigarettes, seedlings, school books and uniforms
remain on a long list of goods that for the most part are banned.

Furthermore, the United Nations has released recently a report
contradicting the Israeli government, saying, ”Livelihoods and lives of
people living in the Gaza Strip have been devastated by over 1,000 days
of near complete blockade.”

The U.N. also stated on Sunday that, ”Most of the property and
infrastructure damaged in Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip is still
unrepaired 12 months later and aid efforts have been largely
ineffective.”

The World Health Organisation released a facts sheet at the beginning of
the year. ”The lack of building materials is affecting essential health
facilities: the new surgical wing in Gaza's main Shifa hospital has
remained unfinished since 2006. Hospitals and primary care facilities,
damaged during operation ‘Cast Lead', have not been rebuilt because
construction materials are not allowed into Gaza.”

”Israeli forces committed war crimes and other serious breaches of
international law in the Gaza Strip during a 22-day military offensive
which ended on Jan. 18, 2009,” says Amnesty International (AI) in its
latest annual report.

”Among other things, they carried out indiscriminate and
disproportionate attacks against civilians, targeted and killed medical
staff, used Palestinian civilians as ”human shields”, and
indiscriminately fired white phosphorus over densely populated
residential areas.

”Israeli forces continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement
of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories throughout 2009,
hampering access to essential services and land. The restrictions
included a military blockade of the Gaza Strip, which effectively
imprisoned the 1.5 million residents and resulted in a humanitarian
crisis,” added the AI report.

As news of the bloody assault on the humanitarian flotilla spreads
across the West Bank and Gaza more violence seems imminent.

Clashes with Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli security forces loom
as demonstrators gather in West Bank cities and towns and Gaza to vent
their fury.

Meanwhile, Israel's interception and attack on civilian vessels in
international waters has raised the question of the state deliberately
breaking international law.

(END/IPS/MM/WD/HD/PI/IP/PR/CS/CO/PG/RL/AC/MF/RDR/10)

nnnn


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federico nier-fischer
fnf-comunicaciones

- editor ips-columnists service (german desk);
- consultant/project management intercultural communications;
- academic lectures on "Kulturindustrie", alternative media, 
international news agencies,
the globalization of news and media, ...

fnf_comunicaciones at fastmail.fm


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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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