[E-rundbrief] Info - 1767 - FreedomFlotilla to Gaza - participants arrested in Israel

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief-Info 1767 - FreedomFlotilla to Gaza - Israeli Occupation 
Forces IOF Violently Boards and Attacks boat 'Al Awda' and 
Participants in international waters - participants arrested in 
Ashdod, Israel - international protests organized.

Bad Ischl, 1.8.2018

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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IOF Violently Boards and Attacks Al Awda and Participants

July 31, 2018 3490

https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/news/iof-violently-boards-and-attacks-al-awda-and-participants


The statement made by the Israeli authorities that the Freedom 
Flotilla Coalition’s Al Awda boat was intercepted, boarded and 
redirected from Gaza, Palestine to Ashdod, Israel on 29 July without 
incident is false. According to first hand evidence that we have been 
given, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violently attacked our 
Norwegian flagged boat ‘Al Awda’ (The Return) as she was in 
international waters.

Prior to all of our electronic communications being cut to and from 
our boat, at least four warships had appeared. Following some unlawful 
radio directives to our captain and our insistence that we had a right 
of innocent passage in international waters, armed, masked soldiers 
boarded ‘Al Awda’ without permission. They assaulted several unarmed 
participants by hitting them and using tasers as some of our 
participants lawfully endeavoured to resist this attempted hijacking, 
drawing upon two days of non-violence training in Palermo. Other 
participants were also hit by soldiers in this anything but peaceful 
exercise by the IOF, for what may have been a range of ‘reasons’.

Three of the many people that Israeli soldiers assaulted were: Captain 
Herman Reksten, Mike Treen and Dr Swee Ang. All of these assaults, 
including the hitting of an unarmed slightly built, 69 year old female 
surgeon crosses a line which must be investigated and the criminals 
must be held accountable. We continue to try and gain evidence and 
will seek to ensure that justice prevails.

Two Israeli citizens (Yonatan Shapira and Zohar Chamberlain Regev) and 
two international Al Jazeera journalists have been released, but 18 of 
the participants have now spent their second night unlawfully detained 
in Givon Prison, Israel. To protest Israel’s illegal actions and their 
ongoing treatment, two participants have commenced a hunger strike.

We urge the Norwegian Government, along with the national governments 
of all of those who were subjected to these multiple breaches of 
international law to intervene and to demand the immediate, 
unconditional release of Al Awda and everything that was on board, 
including all of the participants and the medical aid that we were 
carrying to MyCare in Gaza for distribution.

We demand that the IOF does not engage in any similarly  unlawful and 
violent acts towards the yacht ‘Freedom’, the next of the Flotilla 
boats as she commences her approach to Gaza, Palestine via 
international waters.

#SOSjustfuture4Palestine


-- 

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
     Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
     Wolfgangerstr. 26, 4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
     fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
     Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at