Israeli navy boards Gaza-bound boats

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Israeli navy boards Gaza-bound boats

He is desperate to visit Caza, BUT

Once upon a time he was considering sailing to the Gaza Strip as part of an aid flotilla backed by the Turkish Navy,

Israel warns Erdogan will be committing ‘diplomatic mistake’ if he visits Gaza Instead he visted Cairo, Libya and Tunis,

He threatened arrogant radical Jewish Prime Minister Benji Netanyahu that Turkish Navy will escort the future Turkish aid vessels to Gaza Strip.

Thanks to the Irish and Canadian boat's activists for exposing the stoge, and scaring State Department prostitue.

'Turkey's patience has run out'

"My sense of this was that, given the way this came together there was some element of surprise for both the Turkish government and our own government,"Victoria Nuland said.

She said the United States had sought clarification on news reports that Turkish warships might be accompanying the flotilla and were told "quite emphatically" by Turkey that this was not the case. "We've been clear to them that we think that would be an extremely bad idea and they've now reassured us that that is not what they are doing in this case," she said.

Read what Turkey did in this case: Flotilla Heads to Gaza Amid Turkish Obstruction and read how the Gardian reporting the Israeli act of piracy in international waters.

"After Friday prayers at a Gaza City mosque, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, said of the boat activists: "Your message has been delivered whether you make it or not … The siege is unjust and must end.""

I hope he got the message of his Turkish "brothers"

Israeli navy boards Gaza-bound boats

Military says two boats trying to break blockade were boarded peacefully and will be towed to Israeli port of Ashdod

guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 November 2011 15.57 GMT

Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israeli navy. Link to video

The Israeli navy has boarded two protest boats heading to Gaza to try to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

The military said forces moved after repeated calls for the boats to turn around were ignored. The boarding was carried out peacefully and nobody was hurt, it said.

The protest boats were the latest attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to draw attention to the five-year Gaza blockade, which critics say amounts to collective punishment.

Israel says the blockade is vital in preventing weapons from reaching violent groups such as Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.

The protest vessels were being towed to the port of Ashdod where activists will be questioned by police and immigration officials and sent home as soon as possible, Israeli police said. There were 27 activists from nine different countries on board.

Amjad Shawwa, an activist in Gaza, called for their release. He said he had spoken to some of those on the boats about an hour before they were boarded. Contact was severed when their satellite phones stopped working. It was not clear whether Israel was jamming them.

The Israeli military issued a short video showing a naval official calling on the ships to turn around. "The Gaza area and coastal region are closed to maritime traffic as part of a blockade imposed for security purposes," the unidentified officer said.

"Your attempt to enter the Gaza Strip by sea is a violation of international law. We remind you that humanitarian supplies can be delivered to the Gaza Strip by land, and you are welcome to enter Ashdod port and deliver supplies through land crossings."

Israel's navy has intercepted similar protest ships in the past. Israel sees the attempts to break the sea blockade as provocations and publicity stunts, and says the amount of aid in the small boats used by activists is insignificant, as Israel transfers aid to Gaza daily.

Last year, Israeli troops killed nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists when they resisted an Israeli operation to halt a similar flotilla. Each side blamed the other for the violence. Israel has said its troops fired live ammunition only after they were attacked by activists armed with knives, clubs and metal bars and they felt their lives were in danger. The activists say they were attacked first.

The incident forced Israel to ease its land blockade on Gaza, which was imposed in 2006 and tightened, with Egyptian co-operation, after Hamas seized control of the territory the following year.
Militants in Gaza have fired thousands of rockets into Israel in the past decade, and now have much of southern Israel in range. On Saturday militants fired dozens of rockets at residential areas in southern Israel, killing one Israeli and injuring several others.

After Friday prayers at a Gaza City mosque, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, said of the boat activists: "Your message has been delivered whether you make it or not … The siege is unjust and must end."

Irish MP: Israel Must Not be Allowed to Stop Gaza Boats
Local Editor

Irish Sinn Fein's shadow foreign minister Padraig Mac Lochloainn said Israel must not be allowed to prevent Irish and Canadian boats from delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“These two boats should be allowed safe travel and the Irish Government should be speaking to the Israeli authorities to ensure that they get it,” Mac Lochloainn said.

“I would further urge the Government to do all in its power to end the siege of Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinian people,” he also said in a statement obtained by IRNA.

Israeli warships were reportedly seen six miles from the Irish MV Saoirse boat and Canadian Tahrir after they successfully reached international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday night in the latest attempt to break the five year siege of Gaza.
Earlier this year, the propeller shaft of the MV Saoirse was sabotaged while docked in Turkey and prevented the ship from completing its aid mission as part of the defunct second freedom flotilla, but has since been repaired.

“The Irish Government must defend the right of Irish citizens joined by human rights activists from eight other countries to sail through international waters and deliver a message of hope to the beleaguered people of Gaza forced to live in an open air prison on horrendous circumstances,” the Sinn Fein MP said.

He praised the efforts of the crews of the two boats, which include Sinn Fein members, in the latest mission dubbed the 'Freedom Waves to Gaza Initiative.'

“I want to commend them and their colleagues for their heroism and courage in standing up for the rights of the people of Gaza to live free of oppression,” Mac Lochloainn said.

“The Freedom Waves to Gaza Initiative is a non-violent, civil society movement, the primary aim of which is to end the Israeli blockade of Gaza. They have responded to an urgent call for international solidarity from 46 civil society organizations in Gaza,” he added.

An emergency demonstration was being called by the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Dublin on Friday night in the support of the humanitarian initiative, which has raised over €140,000 via small donations in fund the MV Saoirse's mission.

“It is clear from the recent vote at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to accept the full membership of Palestine that the overwhelming weight of international opinion supports the right of the Palestinian people to statehood, dignity, justice and freedom,” Mac Lochloainn concluded.