Day: June 3, 2010
Flotilla attack – Sarah Colborne gives eyewitness account
3 June, 2010 — www.palestinecampaign.org
Message From Sarah Colborne
The last 72 hours have been the most harrowing in my life. Even for an experienced campaigner like myself, nothing prepared me for the barbaric onslaught by the Israeli Army on a boat of unarmed peace activists with a cargo of humanitarian aid.
There are images from Mondays bloody attack that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Yet for all the horrors of the last few days, for all the deaths and injuries, there is one thing that helped me through – knowing that back here in London PSC would be vociferously campaigning on behalf of all the hostages illegally held by the Israelis.
I will be writing tomorrow at greater length about my experiences, but I wanted every PSC member and supporter to know that your outstanding campaign over the last week is appreciated and I hope to see as many of you as can make it to the demo in central London on Saturday.
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Israeli forces’ attack on Freedom Flotilla: Update 2
3 June, 2010 — Jewish Peace News
The Free Gaza Movement’s aim of bringing the legitimacy of the Israeli government’s blockade on Gaza into question appears to be increasingly successful. Nicholas Kristof in today’s New York Times himself referring to an opinion piece in Haaretz and yesterday’s NYT editorial as well as Amos Oz’s op-ed from yesterday all question not only the justice of the raid on the flotilla but also the justice of the blockade itself. By contrast, the only opinion pieces in the Times defending Israeli government actions are from Israeli officials and apologists.
As the Israeli government returns the detained flotilla members, eyewitness accounts are beginning to emerge into the media. Again Democracy Now is on the forefront of publicizing these. Today’s show has interviews with (among others) Huwaida Arraf, Chair of the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) and Ann Wright, a Retired Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat. Both of them were on the Challenger 1 ship, which was alongside the ship that suffered casualties; and both claim that Israeli commandos attacked with sound bombs, tear gas and gunfire before boarding the ship. Arraf maintains that the volunteers had agreed to engage only in passive, non-violent resistance; but, given the treatment she and others received on the Challenger 1 she said it would be understandable if others had decided in the heat of the moment to defend themselves.
The Gaza Siege: A Fact Sheet By Yousef Munayyer
3 June 2010 — Palestine Center Brief No. 203 (This originally appeared as an article in Foreignpolicy.com.)
Policy Brief
In recent days, coverage of the attack on the aid flotilla headed to Gaza has danced around the many pressing issues of the siege, and has limited its focus to merely the lack of availability of certain humanitarian goods. This fact sheet is a brief reference for informed discussion of the siege and its effect on the population of Gaza.
Electricity – The siege has led to a significant lack of power in the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Israel carried out an attack on Gaza’s only power plant and never permitted the rebuilding to its pre-attack capacity (down to producing 80 megawatts maximum1 from 140 megawatts), forcing Gaza into total dependence on outside power supply. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), the daily electricity deficit has increased since January of 2010 with the plant only able to operate one turbine producing only 30 megawatts compared to its previous average of 60-65 megawatts in 2009.2,3 This effectively gives Israel control over Gaza’s “light-switch,” meaning they can turn off the lights whenever they see fit. The lack of electricity has led to reliance on generators, many of which have exploded from overwork, killing and maiming civilians. Oxfam reported that “[in 2009], a total of 75 Palestinians died from carbon monoxide gas poisoning or fires from generators, and 15 died and 27 people were injured in the first two months of this year.”4
Water – Amnesty International reports 90-95 percent5 of the drinking water in Gaza is contaminated and unfit for consumption. The lack of sufficient sufficient power for desalination and sewage facilities results in significant amounts of sewage seeping into Gaza’s coastal aquifer – the main source of water for the people of Gaza. In October of 2009, Amnesty International reported, “Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.”
To continue reading this article, click here to view online Foreignpolicy.com.
Hurricane Season: The Oil is Headed Up the East Coast
31 May, 2010 — Gulf Tribunal
“Larry Crowder, a professor of marine biology at Duke University, said if the spill continues for a couple more months, then oil almost certainly would get into the Loop Current that flows clockwise around the Gulf. It then would be a week to 10 days before it got to the Florida Keys, and a couple of weeks more before the Gulf Stream carried it to North Carolina.”
“Any hurricane and its accompanying storm surge also could drive oil onto land, even into the rice and sugarcane fields that aren’t far from the coast in Louisiana, said James H. Cowan Jr., a biological oceanographer at Louisiana State University.”
The Gaza Siege: A Fact Sheet By Yousef Munayyer
3 June 2010 — Palestine Center Brief No. 203 (This originally appeared as an article in Foreignpolicy.com.)
Policy Brief
In recent days, coverage of the attack on the aid flotilla headed to Gaza has danced around the many pressing issues of the siege, and has limited its focus to merely the lack of availability of certain humanitarian goods. This fact sheet is a brief reference for informed discussion of the siege and its effect on the population of Gaza.
Electricity – The siege has led to a significant lack of power in the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Israel carried out an attack on Gaza’s only power plant and never permitted the rebuilding to its pre-attack capacity (down to producing 80 megawatts maximum1 from 140 megawatts), forcing Gaza into total dependence on outside power supply. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), the daily electricity deficit has increased since January of 2010 with the plant only able to operate one turbine producing only 30 megawatts compared to its previous average of 60-65 megawatts in 2009.2,3 This effectively gives Israel control over Gaza’s “light-switch,” meaning they can turn off the lights whenever they see fit. The lack of electricity has led to reliance on generators, many of which have exploded from overwork, killing and maiming civilians. Oxfam reported that “[in 2009], a total of 75 Palestinians died from carbon monoxide gas poisoning or fires from generators, and 15 died and 27 people were injured in the first two months of this year.”4
Water – Amnesty International reports 90-95 percent5 of the drinking water in Gaza is contaminated and unfit for consumption. The lack of sufficient sufficient power for desalination and sewage facilities results in significant amounts of sewage seeping into Gaza’s coastal aquifer – the main source of water for the people of Gaza. In October of 2009, Amnesty International reported, “Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.”
To continue reading this article, click here to view online Foreignpolicy.com.
Craig Murray, “The Legal Position on the Israeli Attack”
31 May, 2010 — MRZine-Monthly Review
A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is rather an act of illegal warfare.
Craig Murray at a rally in London, 31 May 2010
Because the incident took place on the high seas does not mean however that international law is the only applicable law. The Law of the Sea is quite plain that, when an incident takes place on a ship on the high seas (outside anybody’s territorial waters), the applicable law is that of the flag state of the ship on which the incident occurred. In legal terms, the Turkish ship was Turkish territory.
There are therefore two clear legal possibilities.
Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls under international jurisdiction as a war crime.
Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorised Israeli military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under Turkish law.
In brief, if Israel and Turkey are not at war, then it is Turkish law which is applicable to what happened on the ship. It is for Turkey, not Israel, to carry out any inquiry or investigation into events and to initiate any prosecutions. Israel is obliged to hand over indicted personnel for prosecution.
Craig Murray is a human rights activist, writer, former British Ambassador, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law. The text above is an excerpt from the 31 May 2010 entry in his blog; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. See, also, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, ‘The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and International Law’; and Daniel Machover, ‘Who Will Bring Israel to Book over Flotilla Attack?’
US secretly paid media to spin news against Cuban Five
3 June, 2010 — RT Top Stories
Five Cuban men convicted on charges of espionage over ten years ago and put in prison may have been the victims of a smear campaign by the US government.
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five claim to have evidence that proves the US paid tens of thousands of dollars to Miami journalists to spin stories against the five men to convince the jury to convict them.
The five men, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González were arrested in 1998. They said they were conducting a service to the Cuban government by monitoring terrorist groups in Miami and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was aware of their presence and task. The men are serving sentences varying from 15 years to two life terms.
The apparent new evidence highlights this case again and also brings up the topic of US-Cuba relations generally.
The evidence the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five has found was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made 18 months ago.
‘Fourteen names came back of journalists who it turns out were receiving covertly monies from the US government,’ said Gloria La Riva, the coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.
In the United States, it is illegal for government agencies to transmit propaganda within US borders. This in a sense is what paying supposedly independent journalists did.
‘We have begun a campaign today calling on [US Attorney General] Eric Holder to immediately move to remedy the situation and the only remedy can be the freeing of the Cuban Five and allowing them to go home,’ said La Riva.
Riva stated that the mission of the Cuban Five was to save lives, yet they sit in prison while known terrorists and terror groups walk free in Miami.
‘Unfortunately, President Obama administration is allowing this to continue,’ said La Riva.
Various organizations, including the UN Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty international found the original Cuban Five trial unfair.
‘The US government violates and flaunts international law. It will have to be the court of millions of people in the world who know about the case of the Cuban Five, the Cuban people first and those of us in the US and other countries who know that the men are truly heroes and should be free,’ said La Riva.
Flotilla attack a war crime – Craig Corrie
3 June, 2010 — RT Top Stories
The MV Rachel Corrie, a cargo ship named for the American activist who was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003, is one of the ships continuing to carry humanitarian aid toward Gaza in a challenge to the Israeli blockade.
Israel has already stopped ships carrying aid on their way to Gaza by using military force and boarding ships in international waters.
Rachel Corrie traveled to Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement in 2003 and was attempting to stop Israeli defense forces from demolishing Palestinian homes when she was killed by an Israeli bulldozer.
Craig Corrie, the father of Rachel Corrie, said he is shocked at what has occurred thus far.
‘It seems like a war crime to me. We need to find the facts out. We need to find the facts not from the Israeli government, but from the people who were on that ship,’ said Corrie.
The MV Rachel Corrie has not yet reached the area where the previous ships were engaged by Israeli forces. Corrie is hopeful the ship will make it to Gaza, but said there is still ‘more to come.’
The United States has blocked a resolution by Turkey before the UN and remains firm in its support of Israel.
‘I think you have to condemn the actions of the Israelis when they board with gunfire a ship we know is in international water. That seems like a crime to me, and incarcerating those people, killing people – that’s a crime. I’m shocked that the United States seems to pretend that Israel can do an investigation of itself,’ said Corrie.
Citing the failure of the Israeli government to investigate the death of Rachel Corrie in the past, despite promising a thorough, transparent and open investigation, Corrie said he does not understand why the US government thinks Israel is capable of investigating its own actions.
Corrie said he believes an independent and unbiased international investigation is possible through the UN and that it has to be done and that further attention needs to be given to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The US has expressed concern over ending the Israeli blockade of Gaza because of fear of an expanded arms trade in the Middle East.
‘I think the United States ought to, with its own ships, take humanitarian aid into Gaza and end this siege and they can guarantee that there will be no weapons there going in with their ships,’ said Corrie.
Corrie continued, ‘The weapons that are now going to the Middle East are coming from the United States to Israel and they obviously now are being used on unarmed civilians in ways that are contrary to United States law. I think our administration has to look at that law and see whether in fact we can continue to send arms to Israel because it is in contradiction to several United States laws.
As protests rage across the US, Corrie hopes the US government will soon be unable to ignore the flotilla attack and the situation in Gaza.
Israel continues to maintain that it reacted only after being provoked and threatened by those onboard the flotilla. The individuals onboard said they were attacked without cause by the Israeli military.
‘I can find no evidence of them [Israel] being provoked. This was at high seas. They have no right to go aboard a ship at high seas. Their siege of Gaza is both ill-conceived and illegal. So, there’s not a provocation in that sense. They have with our daughter’s case they tried to paint that as somehow self defense and in this case they are trying top paint it as self defense. We need to hear from the people that were onboard those ships,’ said Corrie.
“No question” Israel was aggressor in flotilla attack
3 June, 2010 — RT Top Stories
The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted for an independent investigation of the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla. The debate continues to rage on over who caused the confrontation.
Huwaida Arraf was a passenger on The Challenger ship in the aid flotilla. She described what it was like onboard the night of the raid.
‘During the night when we were traveling, at around midnight, we were contacted by Israeli naval forces and they were asking us questions to which we responded. Then they started issuing warnings against us and demanding that we turn back and that if we did not turn back that they would use all necessary means to enforce their blockade of Gaza. To this we responded that the blockade was illegal, we’re only carrying humanitarian aid, we’re unarmed civilians and there’s no reason to use force against us and we kept repeating this and we told them we have journalists and members of parliament on board and people from all different countries and we are unarmed. A few hours later, at approximately 4:00 a.m., while it was still dark, we saw their naval vessels approaching us. We all went outside the boat because we had planned to try and defend our boat as much as possible in terms of using our bodies to try to keep the soldiers from getting on. At this point, I was able to see the beginnings of the attack on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship which is also the largest passenger vessel carrying approximately 560 people. What I saw consisted of Zodiacs from the Israeli navy that had commandos on it. I heard explosions like concussion grenades that we call sound bombs and then also opening of fire. I know that we did not have any weapons on any of our ships,’ said Arraf.
Arraf was arrested onboard, her hands bound and her head covered. She said the Israeli forces began firing on the ships before they even landed, utilized concussion grenades and tasers, and that there could be ‘no question’ that Israel was the aggressor.
The activists onboard were seeking to take aid to the people of Gaza. They were protesting the collective punishment against the Palestinian people and are not apologists of Hamas or other terror groups, said Arraf.
The United States has continued to back Israel and called for an Israeli investigation into the matter. Arraf said that there is no way Israel can independently carry out an investigation and that an independent investigation is needed.
‘It is a shame that the United States has to follow last. As an American citizen, I would like to see my country leading the rest of the world in defending human rights and unfortunately when it comes to Israel they are not, they are doing just the opposite. Israel has instituted collective punishment against the Palestinian people. This is a war crime, it has to be stopped. If the United States wants to stand on the wrong side of history, than as international civil society we will do what needs to be done, said Arraf.
“Israel committing an act of state terrorism” Omar Barghoutti
3 June, 2010 — RT Top Stories
The Gaza aid flotilla was designed to provoke Israel, claims the ‘Stand With Us’ organization, while a Palestinian activist group call Israelis actions ‘an act of state terrorism.’
‘There were six boats trying to provocatively break the blockade, their aim was to provoke,’ claims Michael Dickson from the Stand With Us group, putting forth Israelis’ view of events. ‘Israel made constant warnings to them to come and take the humanitarian aid on shore where it will be distributed to Gazans like it is distributed every day.’
‘Five ships where boarded successfully and peacefully, the final one had violent intentions. On board there were protesters linked to a radical Islamist organization. They were armed with machetes, sticks and batons. No peaceful protesters act this way. And that’s why it happened,’ Dickson outlined his view of Monday’s developments.
But Omar Barghoutti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel argues that ‘Israel committed an act of state terrorism against a civilian ship on the high seas – international waters.’
‘There is absolutely no legal or moral justification. Israel is simply ignoring international law and acting as a pariah,’ Omar Barghoutti said.”
Opening Soviet Archives Providing New Insight Into Stalin’s Mind By Sherwood Ross
3 June, 2010 — Atlantic Free Press – Hard Truths for Hard Times
Historians today are only coming to understand the complex and sophisticated individual that was Joseph Stalin, who ruled Russia for nearly thirty years until his death in 1953. Much of the information shedding light on the character of the dictator is being unearthed from the archives of the Soviet Union, opened in the 1990s after the collapse of Communism, and which is the source material for a series of some 25 books titled The Annals of Communism, published by Yale University Press. Now Jonathan Brent, former editorial director of the Press, has written a companion ‘Inside The Stalin Archives’ to help get at what he terms is ‘a true understanding of one of the giant phenomena of the 20th century’ that was Soviet Communism.
Israel deports Gaza ship activists after raid
3 June, 2010 — The Real News Network
Ch 4 interviews members of Gaza aid boat as pressure on Israel to lift blockade builds
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Israeli forces’ attack on Freedom Flotilla (update)
2 June, 2010 — Jewish Peace News
The Israeli government is still refusing to release most of the members of the flotilla, so not much new information has emerged. But there have been a number of important reactions and comments summarized in the MERIP article below (‘Outlaws of the Mediterranean’ www.merip.org/mero/mero060110.html) and on Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org/2010/6/1). Most of the reaction—both official and unofficial—have been highly critical of Israel; but with the conspicuous exception of the United States, which officially ‘regrets’ the incident and seeks to ascertain the facts. The US has already managed to scupper a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel and calling for an independent investigation.
Yesterday’s Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org/2010/6/1/global_condemnation_of_israeli_armed_attack) features interviews with Adam Shapiro, founder of the International Solidarity Movement (whose wife was on the Flotilla), Amira Hass (the only Israeli journalist based in the Occupied Territories), Ali Abunimah (founder of Electronic Intifada) and Richard Falk (an international lawyer and UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestine Territories).
Hass talks about a number of protests in the West Bank (including one at which an American student and ISM volunteer was attacked by Israeli forces with tear gas canisters and lost her left eye as a result) that have called, among other things, for the PA to cease dealing with the Israeli government in either negotiations or any form of security cooperation.
Hostages on the Way Home – But How Many?
3 June, 2010 — PSC
The latest news on those peace activists who have been illegally held by the Israeli Government is encouraging. We understand that the majority of those being held have been released and are heading back to their homes, via Istanbul. However, we have been told that not all the hostages have been released, with certain activists being singled out for longer detention.
PSC will continue with its campaign to bring pressure on the Israeli Government to release all those who where taken from the flotillas immediately, including a number of Palestinian Israelis who may face criminal charges.
From the reports we have received from those who have been freed, many have witnessed the shootings that took place on board the boat, and with one PSC volunteer cradling a victim of shootings as he died.
We hope to bring you a detailed account from the eyewitnesses who were on board the Mavi Marama.
Information Clearing House Newsletter 2 June, 2010: The Black Art Of 'Master Illusions'
Israeli-Palestinian MP tells of her terror on aid ship By Jonathan Cook
2 June, 2010 — The National
Nazareth, Israel // An Arab member of the Israeli parliament who was on board the international flotilla that was attacked on Monday as it tried to take humanitarian aid to Gaza accused Israel yesterday of intending to kill peace activists as a way to deter future convoys.
Haneen Zoubi said Israeli naval vessels had surrounded the flotilla’s flagship, the Mavi Marmara, and fired on it a few minutes before commandos abseiled from a helicopter directly above them.
Terrified passengers had been forced off the deck when water was sprayed at them. She said she was not aware of any provocation or resistance by the passengers, who were all unarmed.
She added that within minutes of the raid beginning, three bodies had been brought to the main room on the upper deck in which she and most other passengers were confined. Two had gunshot wounds to the head, in what she suggested had been executions.
More updates re: “the Ashkelon 4”
2 June 2010 — ADALAH PRESS RELEASE
Magistrates’ Court Orders One Week Remand of Arab Political Leaders who Took Part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Legal defense team: “The court’s decision to detain the Arab political leaders who took part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla is discriminatory and constitutes selective prosecution. They are not being detained because of their Israeli citizenship but because they are Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Instead, the Israeli military, which attacked the ship and its passengers, should be investigated for violations of international law.”
(Haifa, Israel) Last night, 1 June 2010, Judge Dina Cohen of the Magistrates’ Court in Ashkelon, after a nine-hour hearing before a packed courtroom, decided to extend the detention of Arab political leaders — Mr. Muhammed Zeidan, the Chairman of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel; Sheikh Raed Salah, the Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel (northern branch); and Sheikh Hamad Abu Daabes, the Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel (southern branch) — and Ms. Lubna Masarwa of the Free Gaza Movement and Al Quds University for one week, until 8 June 2010.
MK Regev tells MK Zoabi: Go to Gaza, traitor!
2 June, 2010
Rightist lawmaker Moshe Mutz Matalon (Yisrael Beitenu) told Zoabi, “Nice work. In one day you’ve managed to accomplish what the treacherous people around you have been trying to do for years. Unfortunately, the (commando) fighters (who raided the aid flotilla) acted with too much restraint. They left only nine floating voters.” — YNet News
Fight breaks out in Knesset as members turn violent towards Arab MK who took part in Gaza flotilla Amnon Meranda
Knesset members on Wednesday slammed MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), who took part in the flotilla to Gaza raided by the IDF on Monday. Fears of violence against her by other MKs have led the Knesset to grant her personal security guards.
MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) chased Zoabi in an attempt to keep her from speaking, and a fight broke out at the podium. Other MKs tried to separate between the two women, and eventually Michaeli was removed from the hall.
Each MK was allotted one minute to speak, but Zoabi took longer because of the many disruptions by other MKs present. When Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin asked her to descend from the podium she refused, and also had to be physically removed.
The New Dark Age 
