Friday
Jun042010
Gaza Flotilla LiveBlog (4 June): "One Passenger Shot Every Minute"
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 13:30
2010 GMT: Gaza Under Siege reports that the MV Rachel Corrie is 80 miles from the coast.
1745 GMT: Information or Desperation? Israel Defense Forces have released an extract from claimed communication between the Israeli navy and the Freedom Flotilla. Flotilla passengers allegedly respond to calls to observe the blockade, "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz" and "We're helping Arabs go against the US. Don't forget 9-11, guys."
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxY7Q7CvQPQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
1740 GMT: An Israeli Move to Avoid Confrontation? Israel's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement about the sailing of the MV Rachel Corrie for Gaza, "We have no desire for a confrontation. We have no desire to board the ship. If the ship decides to sail the port of Ashdod, then we will ensure its safe arrival and will not board it.
"Israel is prepared to receive the ship and to offload its contents. After an inspection to ensure that no weapons and war materials are on board, we are prepared to deliver all of the goods to Gaza. Representative of the people on board and relevant NGOs are welcome to accompany the goods to the crossings."
1720 GMT: The Committee to Protect Journalists has denounced Israel's editing and distribution of footage confiscated from foreign journalists aboard the Flotilla in support of West Jerusalem's public-relations effort.
Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator, Mohamed Abdel Dayem, said: "Israel has confiscated journalistic material and then manipulated it to serve its interests. It must cease this practice without delay, and return all property seized from journalists who were covering this legitimate news event."
1716 GMT: Witness Testimony. Ismail Patel of Britain,a passenger on the Mavi Marmara has claimed Israeli commandos had a "shoot to kill" policy: "We now can calculate that they shot one person every minute. One person was shot every minute. There were nine fatalities, over 48 people with gunshot wounds, six are unaccounted for."
Patel, echoing other accounts, said the initial assault was mounted from the water, with sound bombs, tear gas and stun grenades fired against the Mavi Marmara, but people on the vessel threw items overboard to repel the attack. Then an Israeli helicopter appeared overhead "and started using immediately live ammunition" without any warning being issued. After the first victim fell the white flag was raised,but Israeli forces continued firing and soldiers rappelled to the deck on ropes.
Patel said he used the ship's public address system, "I spoke in English very calmly and said 'we are only civilians, we surrender' and requested my colleagues to sit down in their chairs, put their hands and legs on the tables and not to make any movement....Despite our repeated calls the firing continued."."
1230 GMT: Israel Keeps Pressing Its Line. The latest spin from the Israeli military is that a "navy investigation" has found "some passengers tried to take captive three commandos who lost consciousness as a result of the activists' blows".
The Israelis may have to maintain their effort --- even CNN, far from hostile to West Jerusalem's publicity, is now featuring the story that the nine slain passengers were shot, five of them in the head, by Israeli commandos.
1225 GMT: The Free Gaza Movement writes that the MV Rachel Corrie is 150 miles from the coast and should arrive Saturday morning. Passengers include Nobel Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, former UN Assistant Secretary-General Denis Halliday, barrister Matthias Chang Wen Chieh, and Malaysian MP Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria. There is also a three-member camera crew from Malaysia TV3.
1215 GMT: Turkey has repeated its warning that it may reduce economic and defence ties with Israel. Deputy PM Bulent Arinc said Ankara was "assessing deals" with West Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, an interesting article in The Washington Post on (Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), the Turkish group that financed the Flotilla.
0615 GMT: As the furuor and politics over Monday's attack on the Freedom Flotilla continues, a second act may loom. After stopping in Crete to upgrade video and satellite equipment, the merchant vessel MV Rachel Corrie is heading for Gaza. The ship, which was unable to join the main flotilla earlier this week, has aid and 11 prominent activists, including former Assistant UN Secretary-General Denis Halliday.
Halliday declared, "We have not stopped and have no intention of stopping. We will only stop when Israelis force us to do so."
1745 GMT: Information or Desperation? Israel Defense Forces have released an extract from claimed communication between the Israeli navy and the Freedom Flotilla. Flotilla passengers allegedly respond to calls to observe the blockade, "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz" and "We're helping Arabs go against the US. Don't forget 9-11, guys."
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxY7Q7CvQPQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
NEW Gaza Flotilla: Haaretz’s Gideon Levy “Netanyahu Was Right”
Turkey Inside Line: Parliament, President, and People Condemn Israel
Gaza Flotilla Analysis: US Official Position “My Israel, Right or Wrong” (Yenidunya)
Gaza Flotilla Video: Netanyahu’s Speech “Iran’s Master Plan and the Hate Boat” (2 June)
Gaza Flotilla Video: Member of Israel Parliament Accused of Supporting “Terrorists”
Gaza Flotilla LiveBlog (3 June): Pressure on Israel Grows
1740 GMT: An Israeli Move to Avoid Confrontation? Israel's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement about the sailing of the MV Rachel Corrie for Gaza, "We have no desire for a confrontation. We have no desire to board the ship. If the ship decides to sail the port of Ashdod, then we will ensure its safe arrival and will not board it.
"Israel is prepared to receive the ship and to offload its contents. After an inspection to ensure that no weapons and war materials are on board, we are prepared to deliver all of the goods to Gaza. Representative of the people on board and relevant NGOs are welcome to accompany the goods to the crossings."
1720 GMT: The Committee to Protect Journalists has denounced Israel's editing and distribution of footage confiscated from foreign journalists aboard the Flotilla in support of West Jerusalem's public-relations effort.
Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator, Mohamed Abdel Dayem, said: "Israel has confiscated journalistic material and then manipulated it to serve its interests. It must cease this practice without delay, and return all property seized from journalists who were covering this legitimate news event."
1716 GMT: Witness Testimony. Ismail Patel of Britain,a passenger on the Mavi Marmara has claimed Israeli commandos had a "shoot to kill" policy: "We now can calculate that they shot one person every minute. One person was shot every minute. There were nine fatalities, over 48 people with gunshot wounds, six are unaccounted for."
Patel, echoing other accounts, said the initial assault was mounted from the water, with sound bombs, tear gas and stun grenades fired against the Mavi Marmara, but people on the vessel threw items overboard to repel the attack. Then an Israeli helicopter appeared overhead "and started using immediately live ammunition" without any warning being issued. After the first victim fell the white flag was raised,but Israeli forces continued firing and soldiers rappelled to the deck on ropes.
Patel said he used the ship's public address system, "I spoke in English very calmly and said 'we are only civilians, we surrender' and requested my colleagues to sit down in their chairs, put their hands and legs on the tables and not to make any movement....Despite our repeated calls the firing continued."."
1230 GMT: Israel Keeps Pressing Its Line. The latest spin from the Israeli military is that a "navy investigation" has found "some passengers tried to take captive three commandos who lost consciousness as a result of the activists' blows".
The Israelis may have to maintain their effort --- even CNN, far from hostile to West Jerusalem's publicity, is now featuring the story that the nine slain passengers were shot, five of them in the head, by Israeli commandos.
1225 GMT: The Free Gaza Movement writes that the MV Rachel Corrie is 150 miles from the coast and should arrive Saturday morning. Passengers include Nobel Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, former UN Assistant Secretary-General Denis Halliday, barrister Matthias Chang Wen Chieh, and Malaysian MP Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria. There is also a three-member camera crew from Malaysia TV3.
1215 GMT: Turkey has repeated its warning that it may reduce economic and defence ties with Israel. Deputy PM Bulent Arinc said Ankara was "assessing deals" with West Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, an interesting article in The Washington Post on (Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), the Turkish group that financed the Flotilla.
0615 GMT: As the furuor and politics over Monday's attack on the Freedom Flotilla continues, a second act may loom. After stopping in Crete to upgrade video and satellite equipment, the merchant vessel MV Rachel Corrie is heading for Gaza. The ship, which was unable to join the main flotilla earlier this week, has aid and 11 prominent activists, including former Assistant UN Secretary-General Denis Halliday.
Halliday declared, "We have not stopped and have no intention of stopping. We will only stop when Israelis force us to do so."
tagged Bulent Arinc, Committee to Protect Journalists, Denis Halliday, Freedom Flotilla, Gaza, Gaza Under Siege, Ismail Patel, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, MV Rachel Corrie, Mairead Maguire, Matthias Chang Wen Chieh, Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria, Palestine, Turkey in Middle East & Iran
Bulent Arinc, Committee to Protect Journalists, Denis Halliday, Freedom Flotilla, Gaza, Gaza Under Siege, Ismail Patel, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, MV Rachel Corrie, Mairead Maguire, Matthias Chang Wen Chieh, Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria, Palestine, Turkey in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (14)
Islamic Republic's help not accepted
Greta Berlin, 69, a co-founder of a group involved with the recent flotilla aimed at breaching the Israeli blockade of Gaza, works at her office in the southern coastal resort of Larnaca in the divided east Mediterranean island of Cyprus, Thursday, June 3, 2010. Berlin said her group, the Free Gaza Movement, has rejected donation offers from Iran, saying her group does not accept money from radical groups or states. http://features.rr.com/photo/05Bl8DP2Hy563?q=Berlin" rel="nofollow">http://features.rr.com/photo/05Bl8DP2Hy563?q=Be...
I might be wrong-but latest news I heard is that the ships navigation/telecommunications equipment has all be jammed-and that it is going into unknown port to sort this out and to take onboard more high profile clebs etc and also it may well be accompanied by another boat,,interesting to note mainstream media etc has not spotted this info;)
Re the high profile passengers, I've just been reading this:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jvnYTC6639s4qBrcEff62ju1233w" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/AL...
"Organisers had initially hoped to postpone the last leg of the voyage so the cargo ship could pick up high-profile personalities, including Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, and journalists.
But coordinators said they had been unable to relay the message to those on board in time.
"It's too far along now," said Mary Hughes Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza movement"
The sound on that new edited IDF tape is not smooth or natural sounding; it sounds like a composite.
[...] Early reports have no injuries, however the passengers aboard are reportedly under arrest. Enduring America is live blogging the encounter, check it out for more info. The MV Rachel Corrie was named for [...]
This blog is disgusting and full of nothing but lies and anti-Zionism, which according to the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is exactly the same as anti-Semitism.
REVOLTING! Shame on you guys!!! I bet you think the real Rachel Corrie was a saint, and not Saint Pancake as she is better known by those who realized her true agenda.
civis_americanus,
Thank you for your calm, measured reply.
S.
Pied Piper,
George Friedman has already written an interesting article on this subject:
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100531_flotillas_and_wars_public_opinion" rel="nofollow">http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100531_flotill...
Arshama
Yeah - that was a great movie. At that time the British were weak - the Israelis were strong and still are. That is because their existence depends on their strength. Nothing has really changed since 1948.
Barry
I don't react calmly to lies and anti-Semitism. And I don't have a measured response to a group of Brits who look so cynically at America's superpower status considering "the sun never set on the British Empire" for centuries and we had to fight a war to pry ourselves loose from the British grip on our land. Imperialism and colonialism were practiced avidly by the Brits until they could not afford it anymore. Winston Churchill was literally staking the results of WWII on America joining the war, as we did in WWI. I have lived in the UK, and the WWII generation has a much clearer view on American policy than the current establishment. Why don't you Brits clean up your own mess before worrying about America's? And the current problems in the Middle East owe much to the infamous Sykes-Picot agreement between France and Britain, who divided the ME between themselves and formed artificial borders guaranteeing internal unrest, thus making it more difficult for say, Iraq, to throw off colonial rule. Then there is India and Pakistan..... Etc, etc, etc.
Lol! Hasbara-central has totally lost its grip. Troll's a grade D-2 barcrawler at best, blog's in the A-3 zone or higher, tsk tsk how embarassing for them. Troll Upgrade! Troll Upgrade!
Civis_americanus,
I have been posting on this site for well over a year and I can say with a fair amount of certainty Scott nor EA is anti semitic. Yes some of the pieces offer opinion but I think to be fair to Scott and the Staff of EA you need to visit the site more often rather than judging based on one article. Once you do you will find the site has a centrist focus with a big emphasis on human rights. I don't always agree with it but the discourse on this site has always been civil, with no hint of racism, and most of all a heavy focus on getting to the bottom of the story. In fact Scott often incorporates readers findings into many of his posts!! Frankly he is one of the most objective journalists I have ever run across!
By the way Scott is from Alabama and sadly he loves stock car races!! :)
Thx
Bill
Thanks for the heads-up. I admit it is an emotional issue for me. I can't believe Scott here is a fellow Alabaman. I'm from Cullman County, AL and love NASCAR as well. You're very kind to post a thoughtful response and I will certainly return here to check out the every-day reporting.
civis_americanus,
No problem bud! Like everyone we all get emotional over certain subjects. I do at times myself and my posts sometimes reflect that. Like you this is an emotional issue because I defend Israel as well. For to long Israel is held to a double standard that their counterparts opposing them are often not(note Israel is not a saint either--they must realize regardless oppression does not work and they of all people should know that!) Many also forget the religious implications of this whole charade. Namely they do not realize that puritanically speaking Israel will always be at war with Islam because:
1) The land was once conqured by Islam and thus is an Islamic wafq in perpetuity only for Muslims. This is why many Islamists have maps that still show Spain, India, parts of Southern Italy, Greece, and the Balkans as green. Their scripture actual prescribes it must be retaken closely followed by the edict all must submit to Allah
2) Muhammad on his death bed declared the Arabian penisula was to have been ethnically cleansned of all non Muslims
Thus Israel is an affront to the Islamic world because it should not exist let alone smake dab in the middle of Dar al Islam(Land of Peace or Islam.) If folks took the time to read the charters of the Islamist groups in the area they would find all call for the complete destruction of Israel. Simply put Israel is most likely always going to be beseiged by some element of the Islamic world because it violates Islamic law for it to exist. Sadly it is why the Islamic world fixates on this issue and ignores such larger issues. A case in point is Darfur.
Darfur alone has claimed over 2 million lives since the early 90's compared to 50,000 for the Israeli Arab conflict since 1948. Yet despite this the Islamic world can come out in the millions to protest against Israel, foist hundereds of resolutions on the UN covering almost 60% of all resolutions, and ironically leave the hated infidel to pay for over 80% of the bills. Darfur on the other hand gets a collective "yawn" from the Islamic world. The OIC has only allowed 15 resolutions to get through regarding Darfur blocking many other claiming its an attack on Islam. The Islamic world as a whole has not once had a protest against Dafur. The coupe de grace was Turkeys PM Erdogan calling Israel "murders" yet also said their is no genocide in Darfur nor will he ever admit to the Armeniand genocide!!! Hypocrite!!!!
Hope you come back. You'll find views all over the place and for the most part it is quite an educational experience.
Thx
Bill