ISRAELI TERRORISM - Romantic!

ISRAELI TERRORISM - Romantic!

New York Times reporter calls Zionist terrorism .romantic.

By Daniel Tencer
Saturday, June 26th, 2010 -- 8:40 pm

tzipilivni New York Times reporter calls Zionist terrorism romantic

A little-noticed comment in a New York Times interview with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has critics arguing that it shows the media has a "double standard" when it comes to terrorism.

In an interview published Tuesday, Livni, the leader of Israel's centrist Kadima party, boasted that her parents, both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel.

"Both of them were in the Irgun," Livni said. "They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons."

To which New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon responded: "It was a more romantic era."

"I've met interviewer Deborah Solomon -- smart lady," writes Philip Weiss, who brought attention to the comment on his blog. "I wonder whether she was inoculated, as I was, by Zionism, and to what degree. This is typically one-sided."

Weiss points out that Irgun, which was fighting for the creation of a Jewish state, was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946. That attack killed 91 people, including US and British nationals, and is believed to remain to this day as the most deadly militant attack in the history of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors.

Irgun's membership was absorbed into the Israeli Defence Force after the creation of Israel. Its political arm is a predecessor to today's Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister of Israel.

Matt Duss at ThinkProgress goes even further than Weiss in his criticism of the Times' portrayal of Irgun.

"What.s amazing here is not only does Solomon neglect to challenge Livni.s characterization of her parents. membership in a terrorist group as 'freedom fight[ing],' Solomon herself volunteers further assistance in the whitewash," he opines.

Duss points out that, at the time of Irgun's attacks, the Times itself referred to the group's activities as "terrorism."

"Can you imagine any mainstream American journalist performing this service in regard to Hamas terrorism? I doubt it," Duss writes.

USA backyard US militarism CHALLENGED11

South-North Encuentro Against US Militarism Held in Venezuela!
In what Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, defined as "a historic moment" that we have dreamed of for many years, 50 representatives from 19 countries of the Americas are right now gathered in Sanare, Lara, Venezuela, to join efforts in resisting militarization and promoting a culture of peace.


Watch this short video message from Maya Rodriguez and Father Roy Bourgeois recorded yesterday in Venezuela.

The Encuentro started on Tuesday, June 22. In a moving opening ritual, the group shared life stories, pictures of people that inspired them in the struggle, and a bit of soil that each of them brought from their countries.

The soil, as a symbol of life and fertility, is closely related to the flag of this Encuentro: corn growing out of a military helmet. Each day of the Encuentro is connected to the process of building this symbol. On Wednesday, we "prepared the helmet," sharing the analyses that each representative had prepared.

The most moving moment of this day dealt with the presentation of the Honduran situation. Ninoska Benitez from the Commission of Family members of the Dissappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), and members of the Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), Jimena Paz and Alejandro Ramirez talked about the situation in their country, as we approach the first anniversary of the Honduran coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya on June 28th, 2009.



Ms. Benitez talked about the militarization of police forces, which has been increasingly intensified in the past year. Victims of the coup such as Isis Obed Murillo, Walter Trochez and Wendy Avila were remembered and Encuentro participants took a moment of silence in their memory. Ms. Benitez added her concerns about the military bases of Palmerola and Caratasca Lake serving as points for U.S. military intervention both in Honduras and in the rest of Latin America, in particular Ecuador. She also mentioned the military operations camp of San Antonio de los Llanos, in southwestern Honduras, where Canadian and U.S. military are being trained.

The resistance movement in Honduras is preparing for big demonstrations throughout their country this Monday. In solidarity with them, we continue building a network to further resistance to militarization and create a culture of peace.



Jimena Paz and Alejandro Ramirez, two young members of the Honduran Resistance who are also interning this summer with SOA Watch at its Latin American office in Lara, Venezuela, will participate in local activities commemorating the coup. Meanwhile, the Encuentro continues with a day of "fertilizing the soil" and on Friday we will be "planting the seed" of this struggle.


Visit www.SOAW.org in the next few days for more videos and updates from the SOA Watch South North Encuentro.





The last 100 years saw the use of these companies as a means to economic dominance. ITT was used in South America for installing and removing dictators

    "… ITT papers published by Jack Anderson in March 1972, and in the hearings on these papers conducted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a year later. This material establishes that offers of financial aid aimed at stopping Allende were made by ITT president Harold S. Geneen to the CIA in July 1970 and to Henry Kissinger's office in September" (Foreign Affairs; January 1974).

Had Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger not responded to International Telephone & Telegraph and Pepsi-Cola by overthrowing Salvador Allende, Chile "would have found a less violent, more constitutional way out of its conundrum." writes Stephen Kinzer in his book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq.

To gain control of the Panama Canal Company, the operator of the Panama Canal, US engineered the secession of Panama from Colombia. With a puppet Government in place, The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty allowed the U.S. to build the Panama Canal. Subsequent interventions to advance Western oil interests in Colombia and the Canal interests in Panama have reduced Governmental authority in these countries.

GERMAN JEWS to break GAZA blockade

GERMAN JEWS to break GAZA blockade

Jewish flotilla to break Gaza siege

German Jewish group prepares flotilla to protest Israel's blockade on Gaza. 'Activists frightened, but not by Hamas,' member of organization says

Aviel Magnezi Published: 06.06.10, 20:33 / Israel News

The German-Jewish organization Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East is preparing a Jewish flotilla to the Gaza Strip. "We intend to leave around July," a member of the organization, Kate Leitrer, said to Ynet. "We have one small craft so far, in which there will be between 12 and 16 people, mostly Jews."

Leitrer, herself Jewish, said there was great interest in joining. "Getting another boat means more expenses, and we're discussing this possibility," she said. "Because of limited space, there will be school equipment, candy, and mainly musical equipment, and there'll be musicians aboard who'll teach the children of Gaza. They need to see that Jews are not what how they are drawn in their eyes."

Leitrer also claimed that Israel acted criminally in its lethal raid on the Gaza flotilla last Monday.

"The head of UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) appealed to the world to send ships due to the shortage of important supplies in Gaza," she said. "By stopping the flotilla, Israel acted criminally. Israel must not act like pirates."

The activists are frightened, she said, but not by Hamas.

"Jews have been to Gaza in the past, and they were treated in a friendly manner," Leitrer continued. "We have also talked with them recently, and they are very keen for us to come. We are frightened by what happened on the Marmara, but if you are committed to do good things, you have to act. People were also killed in the fight against fascism."

She rejected Israel's fears that weapons would be smuggled into Gaza on the aid boats.

"We haven't heard there were weapons on the last flotilla, and people were shot and killed there," she said. "We have contacted Israel figures and told them they are welcome to carry out searches on the boats, but we ask to be allowed to continue to Gaza. These are Gazan waters, and Israel must not control them."

'Open a window to Gaza'

Edith Lutz, a German Jewish member of the organization, said to Ynet the vessel is already anchored in Mediterranean waters, and that the organization had received many requests from Jews and non-Jews to take part in the flotilla.

"We began in Germany," she said, "but many have called us from England, Sweden and the US. There may also be another boat accompanying us, mainly carrying reporters."

Lutz explained that the Jewish flotilla aims to convey a message: Lift the siege.

"Our vessel can open a window between Israel and Gaza residents," she said. "Two years ago I took part in the Free Gaza flotilla and wore a Magen David (Star of David), and the kids said, 'Look, she's Jewish,' and they all accepted me very well. When we met (Hamas leader) Ismail Haniyeh and they told him about me, he turned to me and said they have nothing against Jews or Israel, only against the occupation."

MOSSAD passport insight...

interesting how israeli murderers get hold of passports!!

Dubai says won.t request Mossad agent Brodsky's extradition

Police chief Tamim says man suspected of aiding Mabhouh assassination by issuing fake German passport to hit squad member should be prosecuted in Germany, 'where crime was committed'

Roee Nahmias
Published: 06.13.10, 17:16 / Israel News

Dubai will not request the extradition of an Israeli national suspected of aiding the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January, Dubai.s police chief, Lt.-Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on Sunday.

A spokesman for the German federal prosecutor.s office told the Associated Press that the man, using the name Uri Brodsky, is suspected of working for the Mossad in Germany and helping to issue a fake German passport to a member of the hit squad that allegedly killed Mabhouh in Dubai.

Hamas Operative's Family
Mabhouh family lauds 'Mossad man's arrest' / Roee Nahmias
Family of assassinated Hamas man issues announcement in wake of Israeli national's detainment in Poland
Full Story

Tamim told The National newspaper, which is published in the United Arab Emirates, that authorities in Dubai would not seek the extradition of the suspect from Germany, where the crime is said to have happened.

.This person has committed the crime in Germany and therefore it is only normal that he will be prosecuted there," he said. "For us, what is important that he will receive his punishment."

.The fact that German investigators could develop their own investigations is a clear indication of the strength of the information provided by us and that the pictures and other data collected are accurate,. Tamim was quoted as saying.

.The cooperation of the different Interpol members is leading the development of investigations. We will continue to cooperate with the different concerned authorities in the case," he said.

'No promises or guarantees'

Brodsky was arrested in Poland at Germany's behest with an international arrest warrant, which was issued by Berlin after the government learned that at least one German passport was used during the Dubai assassination plot five months ago.

Der Spiegel said he Brodsky was arrested a month ago upon landing at Warsaw's international airport.

The German investigation was said to have lasted a few months, during which it was discovered that the passport was issued to a man named Michael Bodenheimer in 2008.

Bodenheimer was said to have requested the passport on the basis of his residency in Germany and a wedding certificate belonging to his parents, who he claimed were persecuted there by the Nazis.

In February Der Spiegel reported that the German passport used in Dubai was real, but that the actual Michael Bodenheimer was an Orthodox Jew residing in Bnei Brak and that his identity had been stolen.

His wife told Ynet that the family had never visited Germany, and that no official authority had contacted Bodenheimer on the matter.

Earlier Sunday, Mabhouh's brother Hussein said Brodsky's arrest was just another embarrassment for the Mossad.

The brother said he and the rest of the family had not received any official updates on the ongoing affair, and were mainly using the media to update themselves.

"We hope the man who was arrested will be extradited to Dubai so the authorities there can question him, but we have received no promises or guarantees that this will happen," he said.

==============

Mossad's Licence to Kill

The killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh bears the hallmarks of the ruthless Israeli intelligence service. One of the leading chroniclers of the agency gives a unique insight into its methods.

By Gordon Thomas

February 19, 2010 "The Telegraph" -- The Mossad assassins could have felt only satisfaction when the news broke that they had succeeded in killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas military commander, in Dubai last month.

The Israeli government's refusal to comment on the death has once more gained worldwide publicity for Mossad, its feared intelligence service. Its ruthless assassinations were made famous by the film Munich, which detailed Mossad's attacks on the terrorists who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Long ago, the agency had established that silence is the most effective way to spread terror among its Arab enemies.

In the past year, al-Mabhouh had moved to the top of Mossad's list of targets, each of which must be legally approved under guidelines laid down over half a century ago by Meir Amit, the most innovative and ruthless director-general of the service. Born in Tiberius, King Herod's favourite city, Amit had established the rules for assassination.

"There will be no killing of political leaders, however extreme they are. They must be dealt with politically. There will be no killing of a terrorist's family unless they are also directly implicated in terrorism. Each execution must be sanctioned by the incumbent prime minister. Any execution is therefore state-sponsored, the ultimate judicial sanction of the law. The executioner is no different from the state-appointed hangman or any other lawfully-appointed executioner."

I first met Amit in 2001 and through him, I talked to the spies of Mossad, the katsas, and finally, to the assassins, the kidon, who take their name from the Hebrew word for bayonet. They helped me write the only book approved by Mossad, Gideon's Spies. Amit said the book "tells like it was . and like it is".

Amit showed me a copy of those rules at our first meeting. After two years of training in the Mossad academy at Herzlia near Tel Aviv, each recruit to the kidon is given a copy.

The killing in Dubai is a classic example of how Mossad goes about its work. Al-Mabhouh's 11 assassins had been chosen from the 48 current kidon, six of whom are women.

It has yet to be established how al-Mabhouh was killed, but kidon's preference is strangling with wire, a well-placed car bomb, an electric shock or one of the poisons created by Mossad scientists at their headquarters in a Tel Aviv suburb.

The plan to assassinate Mahmoud al-Mabhouh had been finalised in a small conference room next to the office of Meir Dagan, who has run Mossad for the past eight years. The 10th director-general, Dagan has a reputation as a man who would not hesitate to walk into a nameless Arab alley with no more than a handgun in his pocket.

Only he knows how many times he has asked a prime minister for legal permission to kill a terrorist who could not be brought to trial in an Israeli court, along with the kidon to whom he shows the legally stamped document, the licence to kill.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's name had been on such a document, which would have been signed by Benyamin Netanyahu. That, like every aspect of a kidon operation, would be firmly denied by a government spokesman, were he to be asked. This has not stopped Dubai's police chief, Lt-General Tamin, from fulminating against the Israeli prime minister.

Two years ago this week, Dagan sent a team of kidon to Damascus to assassinate Imad Mughniyeh. His Mossad file included details of organising the kidnapping of Terry Waite and the bombing of the US Marine base near Beirut airport, killing 241 people. The United States had placed a £12.5 million bounty on his head. Dagan just wanted him dead.

Mossad psychiatrists, psychologists, behavioural scientists, psychoanalysts and profilers . collectively known as the "specialists" . were told to decide the best way to kill Mughniyeh.

They concluded that he would be among the guests of honour at the Iranian Cultural Centre celebrations in 2008 for the celebration of the Khomeini Revolution. The team rigged a car-bomb in the headrest of the Mitsubishi Pajero they discovered Mughniyeh had rented, to be detonated by a mobile phone. As Mughniyeh arrived outside the Culture Centre at precisely 7pm on February 12, the blast blew his head off.

At Mughniyeh's funeral in Beirut, his mother, Um-Imad, sat among a sea of black chadors, a sombre old woman, who wailed that her son had planned to visit her on the day after he died. She cried out she had no photograph to remember him by. Two days later she received a packet. Inside was his photograph. It had been posted in Haifa.

The list of kidon assassinations is long and stretches far beyond the Arab world. In their base deep in the Negev Desert . the sand broken only by a distant view of Israel's nuclear facility at Dimona . the kidon practise with a variety of handguns, learn how to conceal bombs, administer a lethal injection in a crowd and make a killing look accidental.

They review famous assassinations . the shooting of John F Kennedy, for example . and study the faces and habits of potential targets whose details are stored on their highly restricted computers. There, too, are thousands of constantly updated street plans downloaded from Google Earth.

Mossad is one of the world's smallest intelligence services. But it has a back-up system no other outfit can match. The system is known as sayanim, a derivative of the Hebrew word lesayeah, meaning to help.

There are tens of thousands of these "helpers". Each has been carefully recruited, sometimes by katsas, Mossad's field agents. Others have been asked to become helpers by other members of the secret group.

Created by Meir Amit, the role of the sayanim is a striking example of the cohesiveness of the world Jewish community. In practical terms, a sayan who runs a car rental agency will provide a kidon with a vehicle on a no-questions basis. An estate agent sayan will provide a building for surveillance. A bank manager sayan will provide funds at any time of day or night, and a sayan doctor provides medical assistance.

Any of these helpers could have been involved in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mossad has recently expanded its network of sayanim into Arab countries.

A sayan doctor in the West Bank provided details of the homoeopathic concoction Yasser Arafat used to drink. When he died in 2004, his personal physician, Dr al-Kurdi, said "poisoning is a strong possibility in this case".There have been reports that more than a dozen terrorists have died from poisoning in the past five years,.

Within the global intelligence community, respect for Mossad grew following the kidon assassination of Dr Gerald Bull, the Canadian scientist who was probably the world's greatest expert on gun-barrel ballistics. Israel had made several attempts to buy his expertise. Each time, Bull had made clear his dislike for the Jewish state.

Instead he had offered his services to Saddam Hussein, to build a super-gun capable of launching shells containing nuclear, chemical or biological warheads directly from Iraq into Israel. Saddam had ordered three of the weapons at a cost of $20 million. Bull was retained as a consultant for a fee of $1 million.

On the afternoon of March 20, 1990, the sanction to kill Bull was given by the then prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir. Nahum Admoni, the head of Mossad, sent a three-man team to Brussels, where Bull lived in a luxury apartment block. Each kidon carried a handgun in a holster under his jacket.

When the 61-year-old Bull answered the doorbell of his home, he was shot five times in the head and the neck, each kidon firing their 7.65 pistol in turn, leaving Bull dead on his doorstep. An hour later they were out of the country on a flight to Tel Aviv.

Within hours, Mossad's own department of psychological warfare had arranged with sayanim in the European media to leak stories that Bull had been shot by Saddam's hit squad because he had planned to renege on their deal.

The same tactics had been placed on stand-by on October 24, 1995, for the assassination of Fathi Shkaki who, like Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, had reached the top of Mossad's target list as a result of his terrorist attacks.

Two kidon . code-named Gil and Ran . had left Tel Aviv on separate flights. Ran flew to Athens, Gil to Rome. At each airport they collected new British passports from a local sayan. The two men arrived in Malta on a late-afternoon flight and checked into the Diplomat Hotel overlooking Valetta harbour.

That evening, a sayan delivered a motorcycle to Ran. He told hotel staff that he planned to use it to tour the island. At the same time, a freighter that had sailed the previous day from Haifa bound for Italy radioed to the Maltese harbour authorities that it had developed engine trouble. While it was fixed, it would drop anchor off the island. On board the boat was a small team of Mossad communications technicians. They established a link with a radio in Gil's suitcase.

Shkaki had arrived by ferry from Tripoli, Libya, where he had been discussing with Colonel Gadaffi what Mossad was convinced was a terrorist attack. The two kidon waited for him to stroll along the waterfront. Ran and Gil drove up on the motorcycle and Gil shot Fathi Shkaki six times in the head. It had become a kidon signature.

When the police came to search Shkaki's bedroom they found a "Do not disturb" sign on his door . a signature that was repeated in last month's Dubai killing.

Gordon Thomas is the author of 'Gideon's Spies'.

GAZA FLOTILLA - LEARNED HOPELESSNESS

The Flotilla Massacre: Why?
Pervez Hoodbhoy June 9, 2010
Tags: Israel , Palestine , middle-east
By attacking civilian ships bound for besieged Gaza, Israel has repeated an earlier message: foreign nationals and peace activists will be treated just as violently as the inmates of the "world's largest open-air prison camp". The Israeli bulldozer that crushed Rachel Corrie, the 23-year old American-Jewish
pro-Palestinian activist, stands ever-ready to crush challenges to absolute Israeli supremacy. That the peace flotilla was attacked in international waters, and that a Hamas leader was murdered by the Mossad in Dubai, send identical messages: Israel knows no boundaries.

With such a bloody-minded adversary, surely none of the 700+ persons on the six peace boats had illusions of a pleasure cruise. Nevertheless, they probably felt reasonably secure. After all, the world was watching . on board was a Holocaust survivor, white-as-lilies members of parliament from European countries, and even a six-month baby of unknown color and descent. So, even discounting those from Muslim countries, including three from Pakistan, the constellation of those calling for an end to Gaza's blockade was impressive. The hope of a violence-free ending was reasonable. But that did not happen.

Why did Israel choose to murder nine peace-seeking foreigners in broad daylight? Although it claims otherwise, this had little to do with "restoring Israel's deterrence" or capping the peashooters in Gaza. Instead, one must listen to Moshe Yaalon, then chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, who said in 2002 that "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people". By massacring the Mavi Marmara's activists Israel wants Gazans to know that even the international community cannot save them.

In refusing to condemn the Israeli atrocity, the United States lost an opportunity to rescue its tarnished international image. Else, a vital US interest in Pakistan . that of fighting Al-Qaeda and religious terrorism . could have been immensely strengthened. This one act may have bought more security for the US than increasing its defense budget by 100 billion dollars. It could have made the world feel better about America.

But why has the US been willing to set aside its own security, and that of its allies, to pursue the interests of another state? Is it because of shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives? John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, two leading American academics, whose book caused a storm, argue that neither is true. Unqualified US support for Israel, they say, is unnatural and unnecessary. Far from being a loyal ally, Israel regularly spies on its principal patron. Moreover, Israel is racist while the US is democratic. Unlike the US, where people enjoy equal legal rights irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity, Israel was explicitly founded as a Jewish state where citizenship is based on the principle of blood kinship. Indeed, even Pakistan's America-hating ulema still send their children to the US and pray for their Green Cards.

So, why the uncritical support? The explanation, say Mearsheimer and Walt, lies in the unmatched power of the Israel lobby. AIPAC was ranked second behind the American Association of Retired People, but ahead of the AFL-CIO and the National Rifle Association. Thus, during the bombardment of Lebanon in the summer of 2006, the House of Representatives passed a resolution of total solidarity with Israel by 410 votes to eight. The Israeli tail wags the American dog.

Noam Chomsky, my guru and friend, who was turned away from entering the West Bank some weeks ago, has long argued that Israel's time is running out. Decades ago he wrote that "Israel is deliberately turning itself into perhaps the most hated country in the world, and is also losing the allegiance of the population of the West, including younger American Jews, who are unlikely to tolerate its persistent shocking crimes for long."

Is Chomsky right? Maybe. America's formerly unqualified support for Israel is now qualified. Polls show that Democrat voters are unwilling to give Israel a blank check anymore. And, a glance at the Israeli press shows that while President Obama refused to condemn the massacre, his clear disapproval has made him Israel's enemy number-one.

But one must ask a deeper question: why are the Palestinians losing so badly when others have won against larger, more powerful, enemies? Vietnam lost a million people but won; Timor finally achieved independence from Indonesia; Cuba has withstood siege for 50 years; and Venezuela under Chavez is resisting America.

The usual excuses can be trotted out: grand conspiracies, disunity, and lack of firepower. But surely it's time to get the real reasons before us. The first is that of poor tactics: the weak cannot behave as the strong do. The leadership made disastrous decisions in Lebanon in 1982, then Lebanon again in 2006 (Hasan Nasrallah admitted his mistake), and Gaza in 2009. In arguing Palestine's case before the world, Palestinian leaders and diplomats have performed pathetically. American Zionists readily shot holes into them but they viewed men like Edward Said and Eqbal Ahmad with great alarm because, with passion and reasoned humanism, these stalwarts could refute Israeli propaganda in a secular idiom. Alas, these friends of Palestine are gone.

Human history is a long story of injustice and cruelty. In our times, nothing stands out more vividly than Palestine. But, tragically, this struggle for justice has been turned into a religious cause. This is a principal reason for why Israel continues to win, and the Palestinians continue to lose. When the secular PLO led the Palestinians, it commanded power and respect. After the 1982 debacle in Beirut, Hamas took over. Sending suicide bombers on Israeli civilian targets decimated international support, heightened Israeli repression, and led to The Wall.

The sad loss of life notwithstanding, the flotilla episode is a huge moral victory for Palestine and a defeat for Israel. Israel was shown up to be paranoid, dominated by fundamentalist nuclear-armed crazies, and trigger happy. The moral high ground has again turned out to be the Palestinian's principal weapon. It must not be wasted by firing off a few toy rockets from Gaza. Israelis love war and fear peace. This is why the non-violent struggle for Palestine must go on.

Finally there is a question which we Pakistanis need to ask of ourselves and answer in all sincerity: why are we so hyped-up about what Israel does, but remain blind to the suffering inflicted by some of our nationals both upon Pakistanis as well as the people of neighboring countries? Why were there so many demonstrations protesting the flotilla attack, but bombing of mosques, markets, and hotels draws so little protest?

Let.s face the truth: Israeli crimes are extremely serious but they pale in front of those committed almost daily by religious extremists in Pakistan. Yes, Israel murdered nine peace activists of the Mavi Marmara. But just hours before that jihadists had killed over ninety Ahmadis peacefully praying on a Friday in Lahore. Israel starves Gaza, but the Taliban have imposed an even more brutal blockade of Shias in Parachinar and Kurram. Israel does not amputate the limbs of its enemies or decapitate them, but the Taliban do. Israel has destroyed quite a few schools in Gaza, but the Taliban have blown up nearly a thousand schools.

Of course, it is not just the religious extremists that have been guilty of atrocities in the past. Israeli forces have never been accused of mass rape, but the Bengalis have never forgiven the Pakistani army for its shameful acts of 1971. Israel is definitely responsible for abductions and disappearances, but does anyone have an estimate for the number of .disappeared persons. in Baluchistan? One could go on. So, instead of riding the moral high horse and using different yardsticks here and there, it is time for us Pakistanis to also reflect upon the crimes of those from within us . and stop more wrongs from happening.
A condensed form of this article was published in Dawn on 9 June 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

Learned helplessness, as a technical term in animal psychology and related human psychology, means a condition of a human being or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.

Seligman and Maier

The American psychologist Martin Seligman's foundational experiments and theory of learned helplessness began at University of Pennsylvania in 1967, as an extension of his interest in depression. Quite by accident, Seligman and colleagues discovered that the conditioning of dogs led to outcomes that opposed the predictions of B.F. Skinner's behaviorism, then a leading psychological theory.[2][3]

In part one of Seligman and Steve Maier's experiment, three groups of dogs were placed in harnesses. Group One dogs were simply put in the harnesses for a period of time and later released. Groups Two and Three consisted of "yoked pairs." A dog in Group 2 would be intentionally subjected to pain by being given electric shocks, which the dog could end by pressing a lever. A Group 3 dog was wired in parallel with a Group 2 dog, receiving shocks of identical intensity and duration, but his lever didn't stop the electric shocks. To a dog in Group 3, it seemed that the shock ended at random, because it was his paired dog in Group 2 that was causing it to stop. For Group 3 dogs, the shock was apparently "inescapable." Group 1 and Group 2 dogs quickly recovered from the experience, but Group 3 dogs learned to be helpless, and exhibited symptoms similar to chronic clinical depression.

In part two of the Seligman and Maier experiment, these three groups of dogs were tested in a shuttle-box apparatus, in which the dogs could escape electric shocks by jumping over a low partition. For the most part, the Group 3 dogs, who had previously "learned" that nothing they did had any effect on the shocks, simply lay down passively and whined. Even though they could have easily escaped the shocks, the dogs didn't try.

In a second experiment later that year, Overmier and Seligman ruled out the possibility that the Group 3 dogs learned some behavior in part one of the experiment, while they were struggling in the harnesses against the "inescapable shocks," that somehow interfered with what would have been their normal, successful behavior of escaping from the shocks in part two. The Group 3 dogs were immobilized with a paralyzing drug (Curare), and underwent a procedure similar to that in part one of the Seligman and Maier experiment. A similar part two in the shuttle-box was also undertaken in this experiment, and the Group 3 dogs exhibited the same "helpless" response.

However, not all of the dogs in Seligman's experiments became helpless. Of the roughly 150 dogs in experiments in the latter half of the 1960s, about one-third did not become helpless, but instead managed to find a way out of the unpleasant situation despite their past experience with it. The corresponding characteristic in humans has been found to correlate highly with optimism: an explanatory style that views the situation as other than personal, pervasive, or permanent. This distinction between people who adapt and those who break down under long-term psychological pressure was also studied in the 1950s in the context of brainwashing.

The American sociologist Harrison White has suggested in his book Identity and Control that the notion of learned helplessness can be extended beyond psychology into the realm of social action. When a culture or political identity fails to achieve desired goals, perceptions of collective ability suffer.

ladies in their vaginas

Jon Stewart had a few words and a history
lesson for Helen Thomas, the longtime White
House scribe who is retiring after remarking
that Jews should "get the hell out of
Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland.

"Why did the Jews ever leave Germany and
Poland?" Stewart sarcastically asked before
pointing out Thomas's age:

"If anyone knows why the Jews left it,
it's 'Mother Time.' Seriously, Helen, what
the f--k? You were like 20 when it happened."

The whole ordeal left Stewart feeling down,
flabbergasted that an adorable elderly woman
could have such a "gap between cuteness of
face and content of rhetoric." Not to worry.
It's nothing South Carolina can't fix, as
Stewart cheered himself up by ripping into
his favorite state.

He took the mikey out of a homosexual
official who claimed to have slept with
a woman state governour.

Quote:

"We stayed out past midnight, and anyone who
stays out past midnight knows that's when sex
happens -- sex with ladies in their vaginas"

my opinion? Helen was speaking for many.
Illegal and criminal since 1948, never mind that.
But a fundaMENTAList state that violates UN rules
habitually needs to get at least a milder version
of the treatment that zimbabwe or north korea
are getting. Instead, it is bailed out, like the
banks. As if Israelis weren't able to co-exist
if they'd put there minds to it.

As if weapons, killing and oppression were the
only means available to thinking human beings.

If you want to see what turn-around governments
can make, look to Nicaragua. The only requirement:

The USA needs to get out.

what happened to the 6 missing GAZA SHIP protestors??

here is a report about what happened to the 6 missing protestors

Activist Idris Simsek, who was on board one of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla during the Israeli attack, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea.

The Israeli troops also put immense psychological pressure on the activists of the Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish daily Today's Zaman quoted Simsek as saying in an article published on Saturday.

Simsek said they expected some harassment from the Israeli forces but did not expect an armed attack.

He went on to say that he witnessed that the person who waived the white flag to surrender was shot by the Israeli troops.

Erol Demir, another activist who was on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, said there is film footage of the chaos and the carnage on the ship and stated that the footage will show the real face of the Israeli military to the entire world.

.They even shot those who surrendered. Many of our friends saw this. They told me that there were handcuffed people who were shot,. he added.

Hakan Albayrak, a journalist from the Turkish daily Yeni Safak who was also on the ship, said, .It was an outright massacre what Israel did out there. They attacked us in international waters. We had no weapons. I think we lost more people..

The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea early on May 31, killing nine Turkish citizens on board the six ships and injuring about 50 other people.

The fate of three other Freedom Flotilla activists is still unknown.

Press TV - 2010-06-05 IRAN
(which is no worse than fox, new york times or CNN/BBC

The death toll of nine is likely to rise, because some activists remain missing;
(The Guardian UK)

Missing Scot had warned of bloody outcome

* 9326591

* Haq Ghani, whose son Hassan was on board ship stormed by Israeli commandos, speaks in George Square. Picture: Lenny Warren

BACKGROUND: Alison Campsie
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1 Jun 2010

The last message left by Hassan Ghani from on board a ship that formed part of the Gaza aid flotilla contained a clear warning of the threat he was facing: .Israeli ships sighted on radar. Approaching..

Glasgow-born Ghani, 25, has not been heard from since. The update was posted on his Facebook page from the Mavi Marmara passenger ship on Sunday night, shortly before Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter on to the deck, later opening fire on those on board.

The Stirling University graduate, now a London-based journalist for Iranian TV station PressTV, had been covering the Gaza aid attempt for the past week. His reports warned of a potential bloody confrontation should Israeli forces intercept it.

Now an information blackout has left Ghani.s family juggling conflicting reports about his safety. No Facebook updates have been made and mobile phones remain dead.

His father, Haq Ghani, yesterday drove 600 miles from England to Glasgow to be with his family as they desperately awaited official word on his son.s whereabouts.

Mr Ghani, 60, said: .I have been told that no British passengers are among those who have been murdered, but it has not been confirmed. I have tried contracting the Foreign Office, but they have no power or status in Israel..

Ghani.s sister Khadija added: .There have been so many rumours, saying one minute that he.s dead and another that someone has heard he.s fine. We.re all over the place at the moment..

The aid flotilla was one of the biggest ever to flout the blockade placed on Gaza, which has prevented all exports and confined imports to a limited supply of humanitarian goods.

The blockade has been in place since 2007 and aims to weaken the influence of Hamas, which seized power that year. The end result has been appalling living conditions for Gaza.s 1.5 million residents.

The UN has said that 60% of households are short of food, with the same proportion of residents having no daily access to water.

The Mavi Marmara was carrying 100 tonnes of cargo including concrete, medicines and children.s toys, some of which had been collected from the Scottish public. Ali El-Awaisi, 22, an estate agent from Dundee, but Palestine-born, was also on board the Mavi Marmara, chartered by Turkish humanitarian group Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), when it was attacked.

He was planning to deliver 13 palettes of goods collected in the city in just a fortnight, a load with an estimated value of £30,000. It was also a personal mission for El-Awaisi, who has never met his seven aunts who live in Gaza.

His brother, Dr Khalid El-Awaisi, said they were both due to travel on the convoy but he let Ali take the only available space on board.

The Dundee University history and politics lecturer, who last spoke to his brother on Friday, said: .I was hoping to go along with him but then we heard that only one person could go. Now I wish I was there with him, just to make sure he is all right.

.Everyone was in high spirits, everyone was happy, positive that they were trying to get the aid into Gaza. The worst [thing] for us now is being completely cut off from what is going on. We are completely distressed about what has happened to our brother..

Post officer worker Theresa McDermott, 43, from Edinburgh, was sailing on a smaller passenger boat that was part of the flotilla.

She left for Crete two weeks ago to train up new recruits to the aid mission.

McDermott was detained last year in Ramleh Prison by Israeli forces who intercepted the Lebanese cargo ship on which she was travelling on another aid mission. She made a second voyage on another ship, Dignity, and was aboard when it was rammed by the authorities, Carl Abernethy, who co-founded Free Gaza Scotland with McDermott, said he strongly rejected reports from the Israeli Government that those on board the Mavi Marmara were armed when the forces landed on the ship.

.This voyage was about ending the siege of Gaza and if this huge operation was successful in doing this, then the idea was to do it every month,. Abernethy said. .It wouldn.t be in anyone.s interests to sabotage this one..

Abernethy said goods taken to Ireland by McDermott before she joined the flotilla in Crete had been checked for weapons by port authorities there and by representatives of the Free Gaza movement.

Abernethy added: .Theresa was excited but she was worried that if she was arrested and not back in Edinburgh on time her job might be on the line.

.Our concerns now are not only the plight of the people of Gaza, but also the families of those on board who have been murdered..

The shootings follow a number of failed attempts to get aid to Gaza. Last year, the Spirit of Humanity was surrounded by Israeli Navy gunboats and ordered to turn around and return to Larnaca in Cyprus.

Last June, the same ship was apprehended and taken into custody in Israel. Cargo and the vessel were confiscated and the crew and passengers arrested and deported.

An editorial in the Palestine Telegraph last month argued that the Free Gaza organisation was pushing the limits and putting volunteers in danger by going ahead with the latest voyage at a time when the Israel Navy was in training to deal with the flotilla.

Also on the board the flotilla stormed yesterday were 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, of Northern Ireland, crime author Henning Mankell and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85.

Delivering aid: the reporter, estate agent, postal worker and IT specialist

Hassan Ghani

A 25-year-old Stirling University graduate, from Glasgow, who was reporting from the aid ship when it was attacked. Ghani was with PressTV, an Iranian cable channel. His father Haq, who lives in Partick, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in the city last night.

Ali El Awaisi

The 22-year-old Dundee estate agent was on the ship to deliver supplies collected in the city, including a large consignment of concrete. A Palestinian by birth, he moved to Scotland just over 20 years ago and is a former history and politics student at Dundee University.

Theresa McDermott

A postal worker from Edinburgh and a veteran campaigner for human rights in Palestine was imprisoned in Israel last year after the navy intercepted a cargo of aid. The 43-year-old was on a smaller vessel in the flotilla and had gone to Cyprus to train new recruits on the aid mission.

Hasan Nowarah

A father-of-three and a Glasgow-based campaigner who had collected medicines.

The IT professional, 45, was born in Palestine but moved to Scotland 20 years ago. He was known to be travelling with the flotilla, but it is not clear if his boat was attacked by Israeli forces.

Also missing is Ali Awaisi, 21. Last night, Ali.s brother, Khalid, said his family were .very anxious. over the safety of the estate agent from Dundee. .We have been calling but the Israelis have clearly blocked all the numbers,. he said. It is his first aid mission to Gaza.

Sakir Yildirim and Cliff Hanley, both members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign from Bristol, were also on the boats and nothing has been heard from them since the violence.

While the convoy was anchored on Sunday, Mr Yildirim said: .In the past, Israel has been ruthless and unlawful with boats heading for Gaza. They.ve threatened to fire on them, rammed or boarded them, and imprisoned everyone on board. So obviously everyone is a bit tense right now..

Scottish journalist and film-maker, Hassan Ghani, 24, was on board the Turkish vessel broadcasting for the satellite station PressTV as the commandos took control.

In footage posted on YouTube, he said: .We.ve had several injuries here, one is critical. He has been injured in the head and we think he may die if he doesn.t receive medical treatment urgently..

He added: .Another person being passed in front of me right now has been seriously injured..

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Interior Ministry said that the Britons were among 16 passengers detained at Ashdod Port after the first ship, Challenger 1, was towed to shore. Despite being given the option of immediate deportation, 15 chose to stay and face prison, including both UK nationals.

Denis Healey, 55, skippered the Challenger 1, which was flying the American flag. The marine engineer, who originated from Portsmouth but lives in Cyprus, captained the yacht which carried three German MPs, a Swedish MP, and a US former colonel, along with three Irish campaigners named as Dr Fintan Lane, Fiachra O. Luain and Shane Dillon. It is believed that one of the Irish passengers is injured.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was unable to confirm how many British citizens were aboard the flotilla, or whether they were among the dead.

Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, the Northern Irish Nobel peace laureate, was on board the Irish ship MV Rachel. She had previously been arrested and detained in 2009 after attempting to sail aid to Gaza.

Four Scottish passengers are missing, including Hassan Ghani, a 24-year old reporter for the Iranian Government.s news channel, Press TV.

Mr Ghani.s father Haq Ghani, 60, from Glasgow, said he was .fraught. with worry, and condemned the Israeli military.s .disproportionate and aggressive. actions.

He said he had not heard from his son for six or seven days, but that last message posted on his Facebook site mentioned that Israeli ships had been spotted on radar.

Mr Ghani, an activist with the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, added: .He like all of them on board was an innocent bystander. These were not mischievous people; they were in international waters over which the Israelis have no jurisdiction.

.The Government has a duty to see that this entity they created does not go about hijacking people like pirates on the high seas without compunction..

The other Scots have been named as Ali El-Awaisi, 21, from Dundee, and Hassan Nowarah, a Palestinian who has lived in Glasgow for up to 20 years. A fourth, Theresa McDermott, 43, from Edinburgh, is an activist with the Free Gaza campaign group. The Glasgow MSP, Sandra White, said she had received a text message sent on behalf of Ms McDermott at 5am this morning saying .Flotilla attacked, 10 dead.. Ms White said she had desperately tried to get hold of Ms McDermott without success.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that it had not heard from three volunteers sent out from Britain, two of them British citizens. Sarah Colborne, the group.s director of campaigns and operations, was on board the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara. Cliff Hanley, an artist from Bristol was also missing last night. He had flown out to Turkey this week with Sakir Yildrim, who lives in Southville but is originally from the Black Sea. They joined the flotilla as part of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

A pizza shop owner, Gehad Sukkur, from Altrincham, Cheshire, was orginally from Gaza but had lived in the UK for ten years. Shop worker Adel Lamine said that Mr Sukkur, who has a wife and children, had joined the flotilla to visit family, as well as deliver aid. .We know he was in Crete before going to Cyprus because he was seen on television there on Al Jazeera,. he said. .I don.t know what boat he was on. None of his friends have heard from him yet, we are really worried..

Kevin Ovenden, a prominent member of the Socialist Workers Party on board the flotilla representing British-based charity Viva Palestina is also still missing.

On Sunday, he wrote a blog post describing the atmosphere on board the Mavri Marmara as .calm and determined . thanks in large part to the drive and discipline of the Turkish delegation..

He added: .In fact, the bellicosity coming from Israel is more likely to lead some of those who continue to support it to fall out of love with it..

GAZA SHIPS executions victim mix up (head shot the wrong one)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Raed_Salah

MANKELL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT:
http://u2r2h.blogspot.com/2010/06/gaza-ships-eyewitness-fanous-writer.html

The Irish Times - Saturday, June 5, 2010

Victims shot 30 times, five in head at close range

ROBERT BOOTH in London MICHAEL JANSEN in Jerusalem and LORNA SIGGINS in Galway

ISRAEL WAS last night under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after post mortem results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian newspaper, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

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, which carried out the post mortems for the Turkish ministry of justice yesterday.

The results revealed that Ibrahim Bilgen (60) was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. Fulkan Dogan (19), who also had 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, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

Meanwhile, the Irish-owned aid ship MV Rachel Corrie was 80 miles off the Gaza coast last night and was expecting to reach the 20-mile exclusion zone by 10am Irish time if it was not halted and hauled to the port of Ashdod by the Israeli navy.

Former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday said yesterday the 1,200-tonne ship would refuse to dock voluntarily at any port other than Gaza.s small harbour.

In response to an Israeli offer to allow international inspectors to search the ship in Ashdod or at an Egyptian port, Mr Halliday said: "We welcome a UN inspection to examine our cargo, which is solely construction and educational materials and medical supplies, but we believe this can be done at sea or in Gaza." The cargo holds were inspected and sealed before the ship left Dundalk.

Mr Halliday continued: "If the Israeli authorities wish to negotiate, they will have to contact the ship directly. We are very much in command on this. We feel we have the authority to continue, and we are more determined than ever to deliver this cargo."

Also on board are Nobel peace laureate Mairéad Maguire, Derek and Jenny Graham from Ballina, Co Mayo, and Dundalk film-maker, Fiona Thompson. Because the Malaysian Perdana Leadership Foundation . headed by former premier Mahathir Mohamed . purchased the vessel, Malaysian MP Muhammad Nizar bin Zakaria and barrister and author Matthias Chang Wen Chieh are also taking part in the voyage. On Thursday, the Free Gaza Movement, which launched the ill-fated flotilla, asked the Rachel Corrie to head for Cyprus or Crete to pick up other activists and journalists. They also requested that fresh insurance coverage be arranged to replace a euro 25,000 policy, which was withdrawn, reportedly due to Israeli pressure on the issuing firm.

As it is illegal to ply in international waters without insurance, Greta Berlin, co-founder of the FGM, dubbed this move "another kind of sabotage".

It is believed the hydraulic steering equipment of two Irish-owned yachts was tampered with before they were due to set off with the flotilla for Gaza.

But the activists have refused to disrupt the journey, already dogged by false starts and delays. Mr Halliday said: "If we berth in any other port, or turn back for Cyprus or Crete, we know we won.t be able to leave. And we will have no way of ensuring that our cargo reaches the people of Gaza."

http://download.guardian.co.uk/audio/kip/standalone/world/1275651572576/3899/Mankell.mp3

Henning Mankell: 'That kind of stupidity I will never understand'

Swedish author and creator of Wallander gives a dramatic account of his experience as part of the Gaza aid flotilla attacked by Israel

* guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 June 2010 14.13 BST

MANKELL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT:
http://u2r2h.blogspot.com/2010/06/gaza-ships-eyewitness-fanous-writer.html

Flotilla activists 'shot 30 times'

Al Jazeera speaks to some of the injured activists, who are recovering in Ankara Hospital

Autopsies on bodies of activists killed in Israel's attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla five days ago have revealed that the victims were shot multiple times at close range.

Britain's Guardian newspaper quoted Yalcin Buyuk, the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, as saying that the nine men were shot a total of 30 times.

Two men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, Buyuk told the newspaper.

Ibrahim Bilgen, a 60-year-old activist, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back, the autopsy revealed.

Nineteen-year-old Furkan Dogan, a US citizen of Turkish descent, was shot five times from less that 45cm in the face, the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back.
IN DEPTH

Nine people were killed in Monday's pre-dawn raid on the Freedom Flotilla, a convoy of ships carrying humanitarian aid, that was heading to Gaza in a bid to break Israel's blockade of the territory.

Israeli military said the marines, who boarded the ship in international waters, fired in self-defence after activists attacked them.

Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, when asked why a 60-year-old and 19-year-old, amongst others, were shot multiple times at close range, told Al Jazeera: "We learnt the hard way that terrorists can be of a variety of ages or backgrounds."

"They had one goal, they chose to confront us with knives and metal rods," she said.

'Shot from helicopter'

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, who was travelling in the flotilla and witnessed the Israeli raid, confirmed that some passengers took apart some of the ship's railings to defend themselves as they saw the Israeli soldiers approaching.

He said that he witnessed some of the killings, and confirmed that at least "one person was shot through the top of the head from [the helicopter] above."

ACTIVISTS KILLED

Turkish victims
Ibrahim Bilgen
Ali Haydar Bengi
Cevdet Kiliçlar
Çetin Topçuoglu
Necdet Yildirim
Fahri Yaldiz
Cengiz Songür
Cengiz Akyüz

US victim
Furkan Dogan

"After the shooting and the first deaths, people put up white flags and signs in English and Hebrew," he said.

"An Israeli activist [on the ship] asked the soldiers to take away the injured, but they did not and the injured died on the ship."

The deaths, which all took place on the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, continue to draw widespread condemnation.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, speaking during a televised speech said: "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'."

Talking about Hamas, he said: "[They] are resistance fighters fighting for their land. They are Palestinians.

"They won an election and now they are in Israel's prisons. I told this to the Americans, that I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist group."

Turkey threat

Namik Tan, Turkey's ambassador to Washington, also warned on Friday that his country could break all relations with Israel unless it apologises for the raid against Mavi Marmara, which carried a Turkish flag.

Tan also said that Turkey wanted a credible independent investigation into the events and for Israel to end its blockade of Gaza.

Three Turkish activists wounded in the raid arrived back home on a medical plane on Friday. Another two volunteers who were seriously wounded remain in an Israeli hospital, with a Turkish plane on stand-by to repatriate them, Recep Akdag, Turkey's health minister said.

The US said that it would investigate the death of Dogan, the youngest killed in the attack, who had joint Turkish-US citizenship.

"We will look into the circumstances of the death of an American citizen, as we would do anywhere in the world at all times," Philip Crowley, a state department spokesman, said.

ANKARA - THREE of the four Turks killed in an Israeli raid on aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip were devout Muslims who wanted to be 'martyrs,' relatives and friends were quoted as saying on Wednesday.

The names of the victims have not been officially released, but the media identified them on Wednesday as four men, all involved in Islamic movements or charities.

One of them, Ali Haydar Bengi was described as a 39-year-old father of four who studied at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, a prominent centre of Islamic learning, and ran a telephone repair shop in Diyarbakir, in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east. Bengi 'was helping the poor and the oppressed. For years, he wanted to go to Palestine. And he constantly prayed to become a martyr,' Bengi's wife, Saniye, told the Vatan daily. 'Before embarking on the journey, he said he desired to become a martyr. He wanted to be a martyr very much,' Bengi's friend, Sabir Ceylan, told the Milliyet newspaper.

Another victim, Ali Ekber Yaratilmis, 55, was described as an Ankara-based retired worker and father of five, who was a volunteer for the Foundation of Humanitarian Relief (IHH), the Turkish Islamist charity that spearheaded the campaign to break the blockade of Gaza. 'He devoted his life to charity work... That's why he boarded the ship. He always wanted to be a martyr,' the Sabah daily quoted a friend, Mehmet Faruk Cevher, as saying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0brahim_Bilgen

The third victim, retired engineer Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, was a father of six and a supporter of the Islamist Felicity Party in the south-eastern city of Siirt, Anatolia news agency reported. 'He was an exemplary man, an exemplary philanthropist. That's why martyrdom suited him very much. Allah gave him a death he desired,' Bilgen's brother-in-law, Nuri Mergen, told Anatolia.

Vatan identified the forth victim as IHH volunteer Muharrem Kocak. Most of Monday's bloodshed occurred on a Turkish-flagged ship, the Mavi Marmara, carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists from about 30 countries

===============

Raed Salah, Arabic: ???? ?????, is the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. First known among Arab citizens of Israel as a poet and father of eight children, Salah also served as the mayor of Umm al-Fahm - an Israeli-Arab city bordering the Green Line - in the 1990s.[1] His popularity increased after his arrest by Israeli authorities in 2003 on allegations of funding Hamas.[1]

Restrictions on movement and surveillance prior to his arrest

For eighteen months prior to his arrest in 2003, Salah was barred from leaving Israel.[2] The newspaper produced by the northern branch of the Islamic Movement was shut down and charities he had founded were closed.[2] Since the election of Ariel Sharon, the Shin Bet had been monitoring and taping phone calls made by Salah and his officials, and intercepting e-mails as well.[2] It was rumored that over 200,000 recordings were awaiting translation from Arabic to Hebrew to prepare for his trial.[2]
Arrest and two-year imprisonment

Arrested and jailed on suspicion of raising millions of dollars for Hamas in May 2003,[3] human rights non-governmental organizations stated that he had been "unfairly denied bail despite his status and community ties."[3] He was released two years later under a deal that barred him from traveling abroad and required him to check in with an officer every month.[1] Salah said the charges against him were a "mockery".[1]

While Salah and four other party leaders stood trial on serious charges of aiding and abetting a "terror organization", the Israeli police said the accusations revolved primarily around money laundering.[2]
Reaction

Jonathan Cook, author of Blood and Religion, has submitted that "The purpose of this persecution [of Salah and others] has to been to neuter all manifestations of Palestinian consciousness among the minority - to transform it into a docile and anonymous grouping the state likes to call the 'Israeli Arabs'."[2]

This viewpoint was also echoed by Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, who told Ha'aretz newspaper in September 2004 that the arrest of Salah was "a stupid and oppressive step taken by the Israeli authorities, mainly to intimidate the Arab leadership especially the Islamic Movement."[4]
Activities against Israeli excavation near the Temple Mount

On February 28, 2007, Israeli police prevented Christian and Muslim leaders from holding a meeting and press conference organized by Salah in East Jerusalem to put forward their opposition to Israeli excavation work being carried out near the Haram al-Sharif or Temple Mount complex.[5] Police claimed that the organization behind the event, the al-Aqsa Foundation, was affiliated with Hamas.[5] When the event was moved to another hotel after receiving a cancellation order, Israeli police moved in and broke up the meeting.[5] Salah told the Guardian newspaper that this "childish behavior" on the part of Israeli security forces ".does not protect security. It actually makes the security situation explosive."[5]
Western Wall comments

Salah has made several sermons, available on the Islamic Movement website, claiming that Jews have fabricated their connection to the Western Wall, which he refers to as the Al-Buraq wall. Ynetnews quotes him as saying "[The Western Wall] is part of Al-Aqsa's western tower, which the Israeli establishment fallaciously and sneakily calls the 'Wailing Wall'. The wall is part of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque," and "He who says that the Jews or the Israeli establishment has any right to al-Aqsa, even to just one stone - this is an abominable attack, a falsehood, completely baseless." [6]
Involvement with 2010 Gaza flotilla
Main article: Gaza flotilla clash

Early Palestinian news reports indicated that Salah was critically injured by a gunshot wound to the head when Israeli commandoes raided a flotilla of six boats carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip. However, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the reports as "rumors" and claimed that Salah was not seriously hurt, but suffered minor injuries.[7] After being removed from the ship and taken to Ashdod, Salah along with the head of the Islamic Movement's southern branch, Hamad Abu Daa'bas, will be relocted to the Ela Prison in Beersheba to await a court hearing in Ashkelon on their involvment with the flotilla.[8]

I.brahim Bilgen
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I.brahim Bilgen (2 March 1949 . 31 May 2010) was a Turkish politician, engineer and activist. He died during the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid.

Bilgen's family migrated to Turkey from Mosul, Iraq. Born in Batman, Turkey he was a graduate of F?rat University electrical engineering department, a member of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey[1] and held a doctorate in psychoanalysis. He had been a resident of Siirt, a south-eastern city of Turkey, since 1980. He was married and had six children.[2][3]
Political career

Bilgen was one of the founders of Virtue Party.[4] After the Virtue Party was banned by the Constitutional Court of Turkey in 2001, he joined the newly formed Felicity Party. He was a candidate for Member of Turkish Parliament in 2007 for that party, but he was not elected receiving 0.96% of votes.[5][6] In Turkish local elections, 2009, he was a candidate for mayor of Siirt, but he was again not elected.[7][8] In a press interview during his 2009 campaign, he said: "I was born a Felicity man, I will die a Felicity man. Because Felicity is the only national party of Turkey. This party has neither come under the yoke of America, nor of any other country."[9] Since then, he had been serving as a city investigator for the Felicity Party.
Business career

After working as an electrical engineer in various companies, I.brahim Bilgen founded Bilgen Mühendislik, an electrical engineering company, in 2004.[10] In addition, he founded the local television channel SELAM TV, the first television channel to be founded in Siirt.[11]
Death

As a volunteer for IHH in Siirt,[12] Bilgen joined the Gaza flotilla of May 2010 on board the MV Mavi Marmara, which set sail from Istanbul for the Gaza strip on May 23, 2010. He died on May 31, 2010, during the Gaza flotilla raid. The 60 year old was shot 4 times in the chest, head, hip and back.[13]
Reactions to his death

* Afif Demirk?ran, Member of Parliament for the AK Party from Siirt, said: "May Allah accept the martyrdom of I.brahim Bilgen."[14]
* A press statement by the Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey stated: "We condemn the attack of Israel in which one of our members was killed."[15]
* Photographs of I.brahim Bilgen were hung in the streets in Siirt.[16]
* American Author and Journalist Ali Abunimah alleged that Bilgen may have been deliberately targeted for execution by Israeli forces who mistook him for Sheikh Raed Salah[17]

Cause of death

According to an autopsy Bilgen died from four gunshot wounds to temple, chest, hip and back.[18]

MANKELL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT:
http://u2r2h.blogspot.com/2010/06/gaza-ships-eyewitness-fanous-writer.html

PHOTOS OF GAZA CHILDREN (murdered)
http://tangibleinfo.blogspot.com/2010/06/photos-of-gaza-children.html

Former Assistant U.N. Secretary-General Denis Halliday aboard the MV Rachel Corrie

MV Rachel Corrie is a 499 GT coaster owned and operated by the Irish arm of the Free Gaza Movement.[1] The ship is named in honour of Rachel Corrie, a former member of the International Solidarity Movement. It was originally called Carsten and has also carried the names Norasia Attika and Manya.

The Perdana Global Peace Organisation in Malaysia raised much of the funds from the people of Malaysia for the purchase of this ship.[2]

Description

The ship was built as yard number 625 by J J Sietas, Germany. She was completed in May 1967. She is 68.43 metres (224 ft 6 in) long, with a beam of 10.52 metres (34 ft 6 in) and a depth of 6.25 metres (20 ft 6 in). The ship is powered by a Deutz diesel engine which can propel her at 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h).[3]

Early history

Originally named Carsten, she was sold in 1993 to P Buck, Antigua and renamed Norasia Attika. She was sold on 8 December that year to Ariadna Shipping Ltd, St Vincent. On 1 February 1994 she was placed under the management of H Möller KG, Germany. She was renamed Manya on 24 November 2000. On 23 February 2004 she was sold to Hanza Bunkering Ltd. She was renamed Linda on 24 November 2003. On 30 August 2005 she was sold to Lackner Ventures Ltd. On 28 November 2005, she was placed under the management of Eestinova.[3]

Linda was used by Guinness for exporting beer before being converted for use as a freighter.[4] Her port of registry was Phnom Penh.[5] The IMO Number 6715281 and MMSI Number 515886000 are allocated. Rachel Corrie uses the Callsign XUJW8.[6]

1999.2009

By 2009, the ship had been bringing timber into Dundalk from the Baltic for the previous 10 years.[7] At the end of July that year, the Cambodian-registered vessel and its crew were abandoned by its owners, Forestry Shipping, of Riga, a company which has gone out of business.[8][9] The crew were left with one day's food and were owed arrears of pay that totalled euro 42,000. With the assistance of the Irish union SIPTU, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), they were repatriated to their home countries in November 2009.
Free Gaza Movement
See also: Gaza flotilla raid

After being seized by the High Court on behalf of the ITF, the ship was sold at auction in Dundalk for euro 70,000 to the Free Gaza Movement on 30 March 2010. This enabled ITF Inspector Ken Fleming to pay the crew their arrears.

It was outfitted at Brown's Quay in Dundalk, Ireland, for use in a voyage to Gaza. While there, a significant amount of navigational equipment worth between euro 15,000 and euro 20,000 was stolen from the vessel.[4]

It was named in honour of Rachel Corrie, an American college student crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting house demolitions in Gaza.[10] The vessel was launched on 12 May 2010 from Dundalk.[11][12]

In May 2010, the merchant ship was part of a flotilla of ships whose intention was to bring both humanitarian aid to the Gazan population and public attention to the Egypt-Israel blockade of the Gaza region; a blockade criticised by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for imposing "abject poverty" on 350,000 Gazans. [13] [14] Former UN President and High Commisioner of Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has also criticised the "illegal blockade of 1.5 million people, half of whom are children."[15]

The MV Rachel Corrie was not part of the flotilla when it was raided and detained by the Israeli military on 30 May 2010. At this time, the vessel was docked in Malta due to mechanical difficulties and was unable to depart as planned with the original flotilla on the East Mediterranean leg of the journey.[16]

Former UN Assistent Secretary General, Denis Halliday, on-board the Rachel Corrie, has requested a final inspection of the cargo prior to the ship's last leg of it's journey: "We are calling on the UN to inspect the cargo and escort us into Gaza, and to send a UN representative to sail on board before they enter the exclusion zone.".[17] Trade unions and government officials have previously inspected the cargo, "so we are 100 percent confident that there is nothing that is offensive or dangerous," he told Israel's Channel 2 TV.[18]

The vessel is carrying cement, medical equipment (including a CT scanner) and educational supplies.[19]

Mr. Halliday has expressed concern that some of these humanitarian goods would be likely to be seized if the MV Rachel Corrie accepted "an offer of an escort to another port". The cargo, although it falls within the remit of humanitarian aid as defined by the United Nations, "would be confiscated by the Israelis, given that they do not define this as humanitarian goods . in breach of the UN definition of same". [20]

There are eleven passengers on board the ship: Nobel Peace laureate Maireád Corrigan-Maguire, former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, film maker Fiona Thompson, husband and wife Derek and Jenny Graham and six Malaysians: Member of the Parliament of Malaysia, for the Parit constituency, Nizar Zakaria; Perdana Global Peace Organisation representatives, Shamsul Akmar, Matthias Chang and Ahmad Faizal Azumu; TV3 reporter Halim Mohamed and TV3 cameraman Jufri Junid. [21] [22] The ship is captained by Eric Harcis, a UK citizen from Scotland.[23]

Irish Government demands

On 1 June 2010, the Irish Government issued a demand to the Israeli government to allow the vessel safe passage to Gaza. The Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD said "If any harm comes to any of our citizens, it will have the most serious consequences".[25] The demand for safe passage was reiterated by Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin TD on 2 June 2010. Mr Martin warned the Israelis he would take "appropriate diplomatic action" if the ship was not allowed through.[26]

On 5 June 2010, the Irish Government made clear that it believes that the MV Rachel Corrie should be allowed to proceed to Gaza and to unload its humanitarian cargo.

Those on board the vessel had previously indicated that they were ready to accept inspection of their cargo at sea, prior to docking in Gaza and had requested for a UN representative to accompany the ship. A proposal, put to them by the Irish Government, was declined "after careful consideration" whereby the ship would dock at the port of Ashdod and the vessel's cargo would be inspected under the supervision of both UN officials and the Irish Aid Division for the Department of Foreign Affairs. The proposal followed from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs reaching an understanding with the Israeli Government on Friday, through various contacts.[27]

As the MV Rachel Corrie continues on it's original course, Minister Martin has stated he "fully respects their right ... to continue their protest action by seeking sail to Gaza" and reiterated again, if the Israeli government intercepts the ship, "that it demonstrates every restraint" given that those on board the MV Rachel Corrie have "made clear their peaceful intentions". Again the Irish Government restated its "call on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza. Pending that, Israel should immediately facilitate the import into Gaza of all goods, other than weapons."[28]
Approach to East Mediterranean coast

As of late 4 June, it is reported that the ship is less than 100 miles from Gaza, and they are due to arrive at 0500 UT the following day. [29]

Passengers aboard the MV Rachel Corrie indicated on June 5 that the Israeli Navy had intercepted their vessel around 55 kilometers off the Gaza Strip, and have ordered them to divert to Ashdod.[30][31] They are being shadowed by two Israeli Navy ships and their radar is being jammed.[32]
References

1. ^ Peter Walker (2010-06-01). "Irish aid boat holds course towards Gaza despite Israel warning". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/01/irish-aid-boat-gaza-israel-warning. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
2. ^ "Perdana Leadership Organisation, Malaysia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdana_Leadership_Foundation.
3. ^ a b "Manya". Merchant Ships International. http://www.merchantships-international.at/MANYA_IMO6715281.pdf. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
4. ^ a b Ó Snodaigh, Aengus; Morgan, Arthur (13 May 2010). "Free Gaza Campaign launch ship". An Phoblacht. http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/39903.
5. ^ Verlo, Eric (5 May 2010). "Gaza Freedom Flotilla building steam". Not my tribe. http://notmytribe.com/2010/gaza-freedom-flotilla-is-building-steam-816465.html. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
6. ^ "Rachel Corrie (IMO: 6715281)". Vesseltracker. http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Ships/Linda-6715281.html. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
7. ^ Margaret Roddy, Port comes to aid of stranded crew, The Argus, 26 August 2009.
8. ^ Terry Conlon, Crew to stay aboard ship for 'as long as it takes to get paid', Irish Times, 22 August 2009.
9. ^ SIPTU, AUCTION OF SEIZED MV LINDA IN DUNDALK ON TUESDAY, 29 March 2010.
10. ^ Hadjicostis, Menelaos; Rising, David (June 4, 2010). "New aid ship heads to Gaza, Israel vows to stop it". Associated Press. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9G4F1M00.htm. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
11. ^ Elaine Keogh, euro 70,000 from auctioned ship to go to unpaid crew, Irish Times, 31 March 2010
12. ^ Isabel Hurley, Abandoned ship to set sail with Gaza aid, Irish Independent, 31 March 2010
13. ^ "United Nations Relief and Works Agency". http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=41.
14. ^ Tobias Buck (May 23 2010). "Gaza looks beyond the tunnel economy". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/587d04da-6686-11df-aeb1-00144feab49a.html. Retrieved June 04 2010.
15. ^ Patsy McGarry (02 June 2010). "The Irish Times".
16. ^ "Israel to deport activists detained after flotilla raids". 1 June 2010. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0601/breaking33.html. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
17. ^ Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign Press Release, 3rd June 2010
18. ^ Sarah El Deeb(Cairo), David Rising(Istanbul), Menelaos Hadjicostis(Nicosia), Ian Deitch(Jerusalem), Selcan Hacaoglu(Istanbul) and Burhan Ozbilici(Kayseri) (5 June 2010). "Israel vows to stop aid ship as it approaches Gaza". Associated Press. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9112529. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
19. ^ Michael Brennan, Frances Black (02 June 2010). "Irish ship sails into the eye of the storm". Irish Independent Newspapers. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-ship-sails-into-the-eye-of-the-storm-2203361.html. Retrieved 04 June 2010.
20. ^ Mark Weiss, Lorna Siggins, Mary Fitzgerald (04 June 2010). "Israel may ease Gaza blockade". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0604/breaking4.html. Retrieved 04 June 2010.
21. ^ "Israel to deport activists detained after flotilla raids". The Irish Times. 1 June 2010. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0601/breaking33.html. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
22. ^ "Update: The search for Malaysian journalists in Gaza flotilla raid continues". the malay mail. 31 May 2010. http://www.mmail.com.my/content/38168-update-search-malaysian-journalists-gaza-flotilla-raid-continues. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
23. ^ Pamela Newenham, Mary Fitzgerald (3 June 2010). "'Rachel Corrie Proceeding to Gaza". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0603/breaking60.html.
24. ^ Sokol, Samuel (22 April 2010). "Gaza Boat Organizers Endorse Terrorism". Five Towns Jewish Times. https://www.5tjt.com/international-news/6894-gaza-boat-organizers-endorse-terrorism.html. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
25. ^ "Taoiseach warns Israel of 'serious consequences'". Irish Times Newspaper. 2 June 2010. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0602/1224271676571.html. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
26. ^ "Irish ship sails into the eye of the storm". Irish Independent Newspaper. 2 June 2010. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-ship-sails-into-the-eye-of-the-storm-2203361.html. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
27. ^ Minister Micheál Martin (5 June 2010). "Statement by Minister Martin on the Rachel Corrie". Department Foreign Affairs, Irish Government. http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=83566. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
28. ^ Minister Micheál Martin (5 June 2010). "Statement by Minister Martin on the Rachel Corrie". Department Foreign Affairs, Irish Government. http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=83566. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
29. ^ "Irish ship the Rachel Corrie due to arrive in Gaza". BBC News. 4 June 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10240856.stm. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
30. ^ "'Rachel Corrie' intercepted off Gaza coast". The Jerusalem Post. 5 June 2010. http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=177526.
31. ^ "Israeli navy 'shadowing' Rachel Corrie Gaza aid ship". BBC News. 5 June 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10244301.stm.
32. ^ "'Rachel Corrie continues towards Gaza'". RTÉ. 5 June 2010. http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0605/mideast.html. Retrieved 5 June 2010.

External links

Gaza Ships Eyewitness - Fanous Writer Mankell -- News: MV Rachel Corrie

Henning Mankell (born 3 February 1948) is a renowned Swedish crime
writer, occasional children's author and dramatist, best known for a
series of mystery novels starring his most iconic creation, Inspector
Kurt Wallander.

GERMAN (and video) http://marx21.de/content/view/1099/32/

english (Google Machine translation)

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmarx21.de%2Fcontent%2Fview%2F1099%2F32%2F&sl=auto&tl=en

SHIP PHOTO LINK
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&p=corrie&fr=news-us-ss&type=photo

is being entered

MV Rachel Corrie, named after a after a human rights activist killed
by the Israel

===== BABELFISH machine translation =======
04.06.10: Henning Mankell reports

That was an act of the Sea Piratery

The Swedish author Henning Mankell reported with the prelude its
reader ice in Berlin of his Erlebissen with the Israeli attack on the
Free Gaza convoy. At a press conference it placed itself to the
questions of the journalists. Some attacked it as naive or useful
idiots. From view of the marx21-Redaktion a thorough misunderstanding
of the task of journalists. Our critical questions are directed
particularly toward dominant power structures. Therefore to document
and in order the statement Mankells completely to translate and
publish we decided to transliterate the complete press conference.

PHOTO: Calmly and patiently Henning Mankell described the events on
board the cargo ship "Sophia" (photo: January Maas)

I am not obligated to deliver this statement. But like the coincidence
it wants, is I today in Berlin and I wanted, if possible, some
journalists to meet. Because I had already seen the fact that much had
been published which however is perhaps not completely correct. I have
something that they do not have: There I was.

I was on board one of the ships, which were attacked in the middle at
the night. I saw it. I heard it. I saw it. I did not see everything.
There is much, about what I cannot talk, because I did not see it. But
of the things, which I seen, heard and experienced, I know
certification placing.

And I can promise them one: I will not tell them anything, what is not
true. I take part for nearly 40 years in the political discussion in
Sweden and the world. I never hung my heart to any lie. I do not
believe that the lie is a means of the democracy. Therefore I prefer
it to say: I white it, I cannot answer that or I have not the quietest
notion, before I give them a halftrue answer. I will not do that. We
do not have no more than one hour, because I intend this evening some
more. And I would like to eat some more. But I tell them briefly, what
happened on the Monday morning in the Mediterranean.

As they know all, the idea of the convoy from the war developed
against Gaza out, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip behind the
blockade as completely behind a wall isolated. Approximately one year
ago the desire developed to break this blockade against the
Palestinians in an act of the solidarity and the humanitarian
assistance in order to make clear that it is illegitimate and inhuman.
That could succeed only by the sea route. Therefore we called the
campaign" a ship after Gaza ".

The new marx21-Magazin: Now rehearse-read!

This article is a Vorabveröffentlichung from the new marx21-Magazin.
The booklet appears on 9 June. Cover & table of contents & Larsson
article (free Flash player must be installed)

Open publication - Free publishing - More triologie

Here you can order a free Probeabo. Here a Jahresabo for 20 euros in
the year plus book premium. Much fun during the reading!

I was on board a ship named" Sophia ". It was a cargo ship, a small
vehicle. I was not on the larger passenger liner, therefore I cannot
testify, what happened there. But of the small" Sophia "out we saw,
what happened there in approximately a kilometer distance. I was on
the" Sophia ", because it was a Swedish ship as it were. It was
financed with Swedish money. Many donated small sums, in order to make
that possible. It had loaded cement, building material and
prefabricated buildings.

We were about 25 persons on board. The crew consisted of Greeks, in
addition of me, a Swedish physician, a Swedish delegate of the Greens
and different. We were in international waters and were on the way to
break the blockade. We assumed however we had to drive on still about
two hours, before we would approach waters stressed by Israel.

At 4 o'clock I was waked in the morning by someone, which communicated
to me that the" Mavi Marmara "was attacked. We could see the
headlights of helicopters and hear rifle fires. We could not find out
however, what happened exactly, because communication was paralyzed.
We could not use our telephones and not inform us also otherwise. That
had procured the Israeli military. Only two days later, than I went on
board the Lufthansa airplane, I experienced that ten humans had been
killed. I did not know that before.

We stated thus that the Israeli military had decided itself to attack
the convoy in international waters. At 4.35 they attacked o'clock then
our cargo ship. We had decided to offer no resistance. We stood on the
bridge. Then the command soldiers the ship enterten. They carried
submachine guns and were masked all. I do not know, how many were it,
but were also women under it. They came highly on the bridge, were
very aggressive and called: " Must you here down! "

We had also older people among us, which were perhaps not so fast to
foot. One of them with a Elektroschocker into the arm was shot and he
went before pain to ground. Another man was met by a rubber projectile
and went likewise to ground. Then we were brought downward at deck and
had to put itself together. The soldiers scanned the ship.

After a certain time I cannot say, like much - they returned and one
said to English: " We found weapons on board! "We asked: " What for
weapons? There are no weapons on board this ship. "Then it showed us a
wet electric shaver. Mean electric shavers. Then it showed a small
cardboard measurer from the kitchen, which served the Egyptian cook to
open supply cardboards. " Will remain now here sitting you and we will
bring the ship to Israel. "

That happened in international waters and that is, that the soldiers
acted such as pirates. That was an act of the Seepiraterie. And in the
moment, when them the ship took over, we were practically kidnapped
after international law. We sat eleven hours long at the same place.
Without food supply, we had only water and dry bread in the sun. Then
we were taken somewhere, I white not yet, as the port is called.

When we were ashore brought, happened something, which I am never
forgotten. We were led one after the other one in a true
Spießrutenlauf into the intended prison. To both sides soldiers stood.
Everywhere cameras, but only from the military, were as far as I could
see. Everything illegaly. That I saw, which is with me happened.

In addition I can testify that the soldiers never proved themselves.
They filmed us the whole time, although those prescribes Geneva
convention that civilians may not be treated in such a way. And I can
testify that they stole everything, which I had. They stole my camera,
my telephone, my money, my credit card, my clothes, everything. And
they stole also the computers and telephones of the others.

A policeman spoke me on assumes anyhow I that it was one, it wore
civilian clothes: " Either we push it away or them come into the
prison. "I asked: Of" whose am I accused of? "He said: " You entered
illegaly to Israel. "I answered: " About which do they talk? I was
kidnapped and forced to come. "After it refused talking further with
me.

I was brought into a deportation prison. We were to eight in a very
small area. We got something to eat and something water. We were not
struck. We waited for being able to take up contact to our message. I
was with the Swedish delegate together, to who it finally succeeded to
manufacture contact to the message.

We remained one night in the prison and on the next day to the
Lufthansa flight were brought. I went without socks on board, because
they had stolen also my socks. , I must admit a very interesting
situation. In the business class was however a very nice lady, who
gave me a pair socks. At least I could leave Israel with socks at the
feet.

Which I now told them, is the truth. That happened with me. I am a
witness. We were attacked in international waters. We were kidnapped,
brought and pushed away to Israel.

If these people really stop us had want, they should have done it,
where the territorial waters of Israel and Palestine begin. And they
could have very easily done it, as they and propellers of the ship
damage rudders. Then we could have dragged nothing have done and them
us could, where they want. But they preferred it to send command
troops in order to attack us. That was the decision of Israel.

I cannot explain to you, what happened on the ship, on which ten
humans died. But I can say to you that the ten dead ones are not
Israelis. They are humans, who came with goods for the Palestinians
into Gaza. Now I receive gladly its questions.

Question: There is for the moment much criticism at Israel. Sometimes
this criticism already transforms into hate. What do they think of it?

PHOTO: Henning Mankell demonstrates the wet electric shaver, which
Israeli soldiers regarded as weapon

I do not believe in hate. I do not believe that hate is a good
political tool, in order to improve the world. In this situation I
think that the Israelis maneuvered themselves by the stupid and
dangerous decisions, which met them even into this corner. They should
themselves have decided differently. They could themselves have
decided differently.

We saw television pictures of the command soldiers, who roped
themselves and were beaten up on the large ship. Thus, the soldiers
say, had we to defend itself. The question is: Did the passengers try
to high-climb to the helicopters or the soldiers came down? In
international waters. The question answers itself: Who whom attacked?
And I say one to them: If I were attacked on my boat in international
waters, I would try at least to defend me.

They say, it give much hate. That is perhaps understandable, but
unfortunate. I do not believe in this hate. But perhaps it can force
the Israelis to terminate first of all this blockade and to begin
secondly a dialogue, in order to solve the problems, which we have.

Let it me equal say: I am very critical in relation to the actions of
the Hamas in Gaza. I am not an uncritical friend of the Hamas. But we
must speak with them. We must lead the dialogue, in order to terminate
this intolerable situation. I'm sorry that there is the hate, but I
think, the Israelis must before its own door turn. We did not begin
with the hate.

Question: Its writer colleague Leon de Winter said, the passengers on
the ships would have sung songs like" death to the Jews ", when they
ran out in Cyprus. Did you receive of it somewhat?

Hand on the heart: No. On the whole journey I heard no comparable
expressions. Never. I can speak for the ship, on which I was. And I
did not hear it also from the distance. If that had been sung, that
would have been dreadfully wrong. I would be very furious, if that
were true. Because would leave the common ground of our humanitarian
mission.

Question: How would they describe their political attitude opposite
Israel before these events? Would they call themselves against the
background their political Sozialisation as Antizionisten?

I was born in the same year, in which Israel was created: 1948. I
lived my whole life with this conflict. And I do not want to die
thereby. I hope that I experience still another solution for it. What
is the solution of this conflict? Completely honestly: We can say one
- the today's situation is intolerable, it is not the solution. Then
we must discuss thus whether them lie at all in two states or whether
we must look for a South African solution. I do not know it.

It is the task of the Israelis and the Palestinians to find it with
our support, in a dialogue, not in a war. I must believe that there is
a solution. I believe that we can find a solution for each problem in
the world by the democratic dialogue. Naturally I am not Antisemit,
even if some insult me in such a way. But I am against the today's
policy of Israel opposite the Palestinians. On the other hand am I,
because that is a kind of apartheid politics. I was against the
apartheid in South Africa and I am today against the apartheid.

Question: They said that they were far away from the outbreak of the
force. But in the meantime they must have seen nevertheless also the
video material of the deck of the" Marmara ", on which we see
activists Israeli soldiers attacking. What is their reaction to this
material? Would they say that it was naive to participate in the
action?

I can insure them that I am not naive. If one lives for 25, 30 years
in Africa, then that makes anyhow not naive for one. To the other
questions: I returned two days ago late in the night and since then
nearly day and night with your colleagues spoke. I saw not very much
video material. I saw a few minutes.

Whereupon I do not see persons the rope climbing highly to the
soldiers in the helicopters. I see soldiers with submachine guns, and
to humans, roping itself who attack her. Which I would also do, if I
were attacked on a ship in international waters. I did not see, what
for weapons her to use, but I do not have firearms seen.

And finally I know today that the ten dead ones are not Israelis.
Briefly before I am broken open to Berlin, one told me that Sweden,
which on board that ship were that it saw dead ones with shots in the
head into the forehead, what not happened, if a soldier fights for his
life. Then is not it any longer like that. We must be waiting, which
the witnesses tell about it. We do not know it yet.

Question: Do they think to sue Israel? Did the soldiers know, who they
are, when they brought them ashore? We reacted it?

I think, we should ask oneself whether it is not possible to bring at
least the Israeli military before the international Court of Justice
into the Hague. I think, which would be possible, because they have us
attacked, committed an act of piracy and kidnaps humans - in
international waters. For me it is too early, in order to say whether
that must be done. But it is possible and then should it be perhaps
also made.

As we at the night on the way were, there were sure we that the
Israelis knew exactly, where we were and who on board was. The Mossad
has a very good reputation as very skillful secret service. When they
brought me ashore, immediately a man of the Israeli State Department
came and did not yield any longer of my side. Naturally they knew, who
I am.

Question: Are it itself over it in clear ones that the IHH, which
admits of whole world Turkish organization, which equipped the"
Marmara ", in which as financier of the Islamic terrorism is? They
must have known that, before they ran out, because this ship stated
the Flotille. How can they say that they did not know, what on this
ship happened, if it were chartered by an organization, which admits
in Germany as financier of operations of terror is? Do they know Lenin
word of the useful idiots? Don't they think that the Hamas or a Lenin
read two sides?

I accept that they are very aggressive. If they that want. That is all
the same to me.

Answer: I am not aggressive, I ask only one question.

Questions can be also aggressive. But I will answer them, if they have
something patience. When the project was developed, was one of the
first bases that it should work exclusively with humanitarian means.
If its accusations should turn out as true, I can insure them that I
to be very furious and correspond will react.

When second I will answer a question, which they did not ask. Only in
order to make sure that they know, who I am. I am very critical
opposite the Hamas and what does her in the Gaza Strip. Before we
applied, I got questions like these posed: " Thinking it not that it
is naive, for believing that the Hamas does not strike capital from,
which they bring in the country? "I answered: " I cannot guarantee
natural that does not happen. "However I say one to them: If the house
burns, they must get water. From where the water comes, is a
subordinate question. Naturally I cannot guarantee that the Hamas
would not have done anything.

No, I do not believe that I am a useful idiot. If humans in the whole
world require now of Israel to immediately terminate the blockade of
Gaza I think: Wow, that is very good. That was anyhow one of the
goals, which we had. Times sees, what we to still create. No, I do not
believe that I am a useful idiot. I prefer it to be none from this
useful idiots to who sit around everywhere and maintain now cynical
that solidarity is not worth anything. To those I would not like to
belong rather. I am to some extent smart and I know also, how I can
use that.

Question: How do they interpret the fact that the attack took place
exactly one day, before Netanjahu Obama in the white house should
meet? Is there a connection between the two events? The goal of the
action was to terminate the blockade from Gaza to. But it will change
for nothing. Apart from the propaganda effect the things will remain,
as they are. Don't they mean?

To the first question: I do not have the quietest notion. From where
am I to know? But I did not experience a as strong and hard criticism
at Israel ever in my life as today. Everyone says that the blockade
must be terminated by Gaza. The problem solves. Begin to negotiate. In
this sense I believe that we are very about that Israel is forced to a
completion of the blockade. We will see. It is not terminated yet, but
we did not experience ever so a reaction in the world. And that is at
least a small step forward.

Question: What did you expect, what would happen? Did the force come
surprisingly for it?

I said already that I am not naive and no useful idiot. What am I
thus? I think, I am a materialist. I expected that the Israelis would
use the navy, in order to stop the convoy. I thought, her that would
do, where they have the right in addition. And I thought, they were
smartly enough to use no force against humans but against the ships.
They could have aimed to no more very easily at the rudder or the
propeller and the ships able would not have been to drive on. Then
they could have away-dragged the ships and finished. That would have
happened, if they had been somewhat smarter. Anyhow I would have done
that, if I were a naval officer in Israel. To attack but a peaceful
convoy to thus release and so deeply sink to commit murder… Anyhow I
think that it is that, which they did on this ship. We will still find
out. I do not understand, why they used so large force and in this
way. That was the stupidest, which they could do. I think, in whom
Israeli government now hard discussed, why it in such a way decide to
have. We will find that out in the next days. I do not understand, why
they decide in such a way have and had something else expected: Force,
but against the ships, not against humans.

Question: Do they know as intellectuals of solidarity of Israeli
intellectuals? What for support did they experience after the attack?

Perhaps I should mention that I was only one month ago in Israel and
Palestine. I traveled to a Palestinian Literaturfestival and Hebron
and Ramallah visited. I can insure them that I meet each mark, if I
come to Israel more and more activists, which tells me that the
situation is terrible and it thus cannot continue. They try to develop
solidarity in order to find a solution. I assume the fact that more
become daily because ever more humans sees that the situation is
intolerable. I with all to mean Jewish friends in Europe discussed,
who make themselves large concerns over it, what happen.

I tell you an anecdote, which would be nearly amusing, but in this
connection there is nothing amusing. When I was brought of board and
of this policeman or out was also always asked, with the man of the
State Department at my side, there I asked him: „I am accused of of
whose? "And he answered: " It accused of illegaly to Israel to have
entered. "I answered that was absurd. " You brought me, I did not want
here not to come. "Then it did not want to talk no more with me, but I
asked it for a further discussion.

Whereupon it said: " Leaving it us over something else to talk. I
know, who they are. I read its books and I like her. "" That is
beautiful ", said I. " Being supposed we about my books to talk? "" No
", he did not reject," that wants I. Perhaps, if I come times to
Europe. "On it I said: " Okay, I will give them my telephone number in
Sweden. Let they us about this incident with one another talk, if them
me rauslassen and they come next time to Sweden. "" Meaning it that
seriously? "he asked. " ", I answered. Then has I mean telephone
number noted and him given her. Afterwards I was then removed, in
order to be pushed away. I always strive for discussion, because I
believe in the reason of humans. That is also the reason, why there
must be a solution. And the Jewish people must play an important role
thereby.

Question: Would they be ready to try again a journey after Gaza? What
for reactions do they expect from the Israeli authorities?

As long as we have this government, it will not probably be permitted
me to enter to Israel there is rather safe I. I often tried to arrive
on the overland route after Gaza. But the Israelis let me never enter.
I do not know, why. Naturally I would try gladly again a journey after
Gaza. And naturally I would drive also gladly again to Israel. And it
tunes me sadly that me that will not probably be permitted. I will be
able not to visit the universities of Hebron and Ramallah, where I
have many friends among the students. They become me do not clean-let.
But that is perhaps the price, which one must pay. I hope anyhow that
I still experience that I can drive again.

Question: What will their next steps be in the fight for humans in
Gaza? Would they encourage intellectual ones in other countries to
boycott Israeli cultural and academic institutions? That is discussed
in Norway straight. Will they process their experiences in a book?

What will now happen? We do not know it. None knows that. But I think,
it much will pass. I think, the events for many humans the eyes
opened. I think that the discussion will return over a boycott. They
know as well as I that boycotts are not always successful. We have
experiences, where they folded well and where it not to have at all
folded. But we must speak about it. We must find urgently a solution
for the intolerable situation in the Gaza Strip. We must take part all
in it.

A thing makes however something concerns for me. If they to the ship
to Bosnia remember many years ago: At that time many different
intellectual ones took part. And today me the question was asked
whether still different writers were involved after Gaza in the ship.
Suddenly I had to state that I was an only writer on board. That was
only one hour ago, since I think about that lies. If they call me in
one week, I have perhaps an answer to this question.

I think, we must continue to work nevertheless on a solution. Like
that is even. Political changes are processes. One makes not an action
and goes then home to bed. It must continue. Whether my experiences in
a book will emerge, I do not know. Now I mourn the dead ones. And I am
furious over it how humans were beaten up.

Question: At least one journalist should thank them for their courage,
with which they tried to break the blockade. It is still a ship on the
way, in order to break the blockade, the Irish" Rachel Corrie ". Think
do they, the crew should because of the dangers break off? The
international Free Gaza campaign announced today to send in September
or October further ships. Will they participate in this journey?

They are right. Were six ships, which were attacked, but seven should
be. The" Rachel Corrie "had problems, it was at the time in Malta,
believes I. Now she is on the way and I thinks naturally that she will
continue the journey. I am rather sure that the Israelis will not
attack humans on this ship. Which will happen, I do not know also.
Perhaps they make that now, with which I had originally counted and to
go against the rudder and the propeller.

The question is interesting also in another connection. This mark were
we with six ships on the way. And we saw the Israeli reaction. What,
if we come in one year with 100 ships? What is to do Israel? The bomb
throw? Wouldn't it be a better idea to waive the blockade? We will
see.

Naturally I am ready to go to board. I do not have a fear around me.
If they need a place, I can organize them one.

Question: Would they like to say to the Israeli people somewhat?

I got many telephone calls in the last days. One particularly made me
happy. He came from the Israeli daily paper Haaretz. They wanted an
interview. Can they introduce themselves, I was how glad that even the
Israelis wanted an estimate of me? I hope that I can speak tomorrow
morning with its editor.

That is a symbolic answer. Naturally I want to speak with the Israelis
and I also gladly would sound myself, which they have to say to it. I
say again that I believe in the dialogue. The dialogue is the main
element, so that democracy can function at all. And it is the best
instrument, in order to solve the conflict. Let us rather thereby work
than with weapons. Then we get ahead. That I can say to them and its
friends. By the way thanks that they came.

Question: They said last year that the two-state solution for Israel
and Palestine is not a solution. What is to then happen with the
Jewish state? Are they against it?

That is not completely correctly shown. I said already that the
solution cannot come from the outside. We can recognize however two
different beginnings. Either the solution, which is now in the
discussion: two states. Or we find a way to a South African solution.
That is another way. All stated that South Africa would sink in a
civil war, as soon as the apartheid system would end. That did not
happen. They found a way out. I am thus not that, which brings the
solution, but the Jews and the Palestinians must find a way to live
together. That hope I. That is the correct solution that humans find a
way, to get along with one another. I say to them again: I am not
naive. I am a materialist. I know that will be very difficult. But
that is not the goal that humans get along with one another? Then we
must converse also about in which form that is possible. In a state or
in two? I confirm, what I said one year ago.

If I sound somewhat tired, that is because of the fact that I am it. I
will not fool to them that no fatiguing and hard day was. I saw much
force. I saw much aggression. And I saw much courage. I must say that
a reason for this press conference was that I believed after these
events still more strongly than ever before that it is possible to
show solidarity and improve the world. Thank you.