The Aid Flotilla

The Incident

Israeli commandos conduct a bloody raid on a humanitarian flotilla in international waters seizing crew, passengers and ships. Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine. The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back.

Turkish Response

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed it most forcefully in a televised speech last week: "You [Israel] killed 19-year-old Furkan Dogan brutally. Which faith, which holy book can be an excuse for killing him? I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. Did you not understand? I'll say again. I say in English, 'You shall not kill'. Did you still not understand? So I'll say to you in your own language. I say in Hebrew, 'Lo Tirtzakh'."

US Response

"We communicated with Israel through multiple channels many times regarding the flotilla. We emphasised caution and restraint, given the anticipated presence of civilians, including American citizens," a State Department spokesman said in a statement.

Israeli Response

The usual claim that Israel offers time and again in order to justify its vicious repression of the Palestinian people is that it has the right to defend itself. Few would argue that it doesn't. But it can only do it legally. For decades now Israel has been engaged in provocative actions on Palestinian territory - appropriating land that belongs to Palestinians, destroying century-old olive groves, diverting water to Jewish settlements, leaving an inadequate supply for Palestinian farmers, and on and on.. When people object, Israel goes into its "we are victims mode." Like the schoolyard bully who runs crying to the teacher when a classmate finally fights back.

From Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz: "Recently an intelligence official actually called the absence of Palestinian terror a 'propaganda problem.'"

Israeli Contempt

British consulate officials were treated contemptuously. One example: the British consulate official from Jerusalem tried to have a private conversation through a prison cell door--we weren't allowed to meet face to face--with two British citizens. The junior prison guard refused to move. When he was asked to move, he brought two other prison guards. When the diplomat explained that under all international treaties, protocol and the law, he's entitled to speak to his nationals privately, the junior guard said, "Go to your international tribunals, go to your law, we don't care."

In another incident, Ann Wright, ex US diplomat had been seen in a videotape of detainees being brought into Ashdod, an Israeli port. In an interview, she said she was held at a "brand new Israeli prison" in Barsheba, where she was treated well. But she said that law enforcement officials upon her departure, airport law enforcement officials were "laughing, giggling, commenting on (the) wounded and dead. It was a very pitiful, pitiful performance by law enforcement people."

Israeli Sarcasm

A video mocking the humanitarian activists was distributed officially by the Israeli government before being pulled back due to vehement protests of its blatant insensivity. Mark Regev, Israeli government spokesman, defends the attack which killed nine passengers on the Freedom Flotilla and commented on the video. "I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny, it's how Israelis feel" he said.

Prior to the storming of the Turkish ship, the Israeli GPO (Government Press Office) sent an e-mail to journalists sarcastically recommending that while covering "alleged humanitarian difficulties," journalists should dine at one of Gaza's few restaurants. "We have been told the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended," the e-mail said.

Humour or black comedy does not always side with Israel or its supporters. Jon Stewart on The Daily Show said Charles Krauthammer, columnist and fervent Israel supporter, made the stupidest @#$& thing anyone ever said about the Middle East. Krauthammer said that there was no need for the flotilla since there was no humanitarian crisis and no one was starving in Gaza. Stewart smirked and paused and said that whatever anyone thinks of the Israeli leadership or Hamas, or religious beliefs, if someone fails to see the suffering in Gaza that needs to be alleviated, then his heart is so dead that "tourists flock there to float their backs in it".

Obama's Meek Response

Here’s what we’ve got. You’ve got a situation in which Israel has legitimate security concerns when they’ve got missiles raining down on cities along the Israel-Gaza border. I’ve been to those towns and seen the holes that were made by missiles coming through people’s bedrooms. So Israel has a legitimate concern there. On the other hand, you’ve got a blockade up that is preventing people in Palestinian Gaza from having job opportunities and being able to create businesses and engage in trade and have opportunity for the future.

Robert Fisk's Observation

I wasn't personally at all surprised at the killings on the Turkish ship. In Lebanon, I've seen this indisciplined rabble of an army – as "elite" as the average rabble of Arab armies – shooting at civilians. I saw them watching the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinians on the morning of 18 September (the last day of the slaughter) by their vicious Lebanese militia allies. I was present at the Qana massacre by Israeli gunners in 1996 – "Arabushim" (the equivalent of the abusive term "Ayrab" in English), one of the gunners called the 106 dead civilians, more than half of them children, in the Israeli press. Then the Israeli government of Nobel laureate Shimon Peres said there were terrorists among the dead civilians – totally untrue, but who cares? – and then came the second Qana massacre in 2006 and then the 2008-09 Gaza slaughter of 1,300 Palestinians, most of them children, and then..

Apartheid 2010

The most likely outcome is that Greater Israel will become a full-fledged apartheid state. There are already separate laws, separate roads and separate housing in the occupied territories, and the Palestinians are essentially confined to impoverished enclaves. Indeed, two former Israeli prime ministers — Ehud Barak and Olmert — have made just this point. Olmert said that if the two-state solution collapses, Israel will face a "South African-style struggle." He went so far as to argue, "as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

It is already there. It is apartheid in its lowest and banal form.

(various news and media sources)