Rights and Accountability 1 July 2015
According to the organizers of the flotilla, 14 of the 18 civilian passengers and crew remain in Israeli custody more than two days after they were violently abducted in international waters to prevent them breaking the Israeli-imposed siege on Gaza.
Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of the Israeli parliament Basel Ghattas, former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, Spanish European Parliament member Ana Miranda and Israeli journalist Ohad Hemo have been released.
The other passengers remain in detention at Givon prison in present-day Israel.
Violent attack
The video shows Ghattas addressing officers on an Israeli naval ship through a megaphone.
Ghattas says that he is not in command of the Marianne but is speaking with the captain’s permission. He offers the Israelis that they send one unarmed person onto the Marianne to talk to the captain.
The Israeli officer asks, “You’re suggesting that one of us come aboard unarmed?”Ghattas responds: “Unarmed, he boards the ship and we talk to him.”
The offer appears to have been rejected as the video – first released by Israeli media – then shows the Israeli commandos announcing their intention to forcibly seize the boat.
The Israeli officer also lectures the passengers that they are on their way to “support a regime that has the same ideology as those who committed act of terror on your coast” – an apparent reference to the massacre of tourists on a Tunisian beach which has no connection whatsoever to Gaza or the people or groups in it.
Not only that, but Islamic State, the group that claimed the Tunisia attack, recently threatened all-out war against the Palestinian resistance group Hamas which runs the interior of Gaza.
One of the passengers then replies, “Why this bullshit? We are not supporting any regime.”
The video then apparently shows Israeli commandos attacking a screaming passenger with a Taser – an electrical stun gun. Someone is heard to shout, “Stop, stop what you’re doing!”
The video then also shows the invaders speaking again with Ghattas, addressing him as a member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
Ghattas tells them: “you are now attacking a ship on international waters.”
An Israeli continues to make violent threats, saying “we don’t want to hurt you.”
The faces of the Israeli attackers are obscured, something likely done to protect them from possible prosecution over what flotilla organizers have previously termed an act of piracy.
Comments
These people cannot be trusted or believed
Permalink Frank A3 replied on
These people cannot be trusted or believed about anything. They are pathological liars of the highest rank.
Peaceful interception
Permalink Bryan replied on
Disgracefully the Wikipedia page on the Gaza Flotilla III says that "the flotilla was peacefully intercepted by the Israeli navy.... The army plan was to welcome the flotilla participants". Next time I'm kidnapped by masked pirates I shall be grateful that they are not wielding blood-stained cutlasses.
wiki
Permalink Andy replied on
Wikipedia is edited by its users. It can be re-edited if someone thinks there's an inaccuracy. Why not join?
Wiki inaccuracy
Permalink Eric Gordon replied on
I went in and edited to remove the value-laden tern "peacefully" from the wiki article. However, the article is under an edit restriction, and it warns that my edit may be reverted. It also warns that I can be suspended for making such an edit, though I think that under wikipedia's guidelines the edit is entirely warranted. Wiki articles are not supposed to take any point of view.
The video...
Permalink D. replied on
This video made wiki author out to be a liar...at least it can be used in court. I hope they win.
Wikipedia Watch
Permalink Eric replied on
Hasbara has many agents -- paid, unpaid and cyber.
Wikipedia should be regarded
Permalink Kim replied on
Wikipedia should be regarded with utmost skepticism for any information based in humanities or current events -- especially Zionism.
They give education in Israel
Permalink Vakavanha replied on
They give education in Israel and pay people 1000+ dollars (IIRC) a month to "edit" wikipedia and other social media..Very sophisticated operations, I believe.
Go and edit the Wikipedia
Permalink alison replied on
Go and edit the Wikipedia page ... you have as much right as anyone to post on there.
PIRACY
Permalink tom hall replied on
A Swedish registered vessel was high-jacked in international waters, its passengers and crew abducted, thereafter incarcerated and subjected to demands for confessions in exchange for release. If this action had been carried out off the coast of Somalia by local renegades, the government of Sweden would be calling for immediate action. But the Foreign Ministry's silence in this affair has been deafening. Perhaps it's too much to ask of a government whose prosecutor has refused to interview Julian Assange anywhere except under lock and key in a Swedish jail, but I do think the people of that country are entitled to an explanation of this shabby display of indifference.
Incidentally, the Israelis are trying to coerce confessions from their captives, acknowledging the offense of attempting to enter Israel illegally. Yes, that's right- Israel! Apart from the fact that they were seized on the high seas, a flagrant crime, and that violence was employed in the commission (which itself was an act of violence), it seems that Netanyahu is now claiming direct sovereignty over the Marianne's destination, Gaza.
It's time to assemble a gigantic flotilla, comprised of hundreds, even thousands of vessels sailing for Gaza together. This blockade must be broken.
Boarding the Marianne.
Permalink Peter L. Gordon replied on
It is obvious, to anyone without a strong bias in favour of Israel, that this boarding was botched. It was botched only because the video of the brutal behaviour of the boarders is shown. Most of the time the brute behaviour is not shown be it from Israel or Gaza. In this case they were from Israel and they do the usual thing after the fact which is to lie.....then lie again ......then lie some more in hopes the media, and outlets like Wikimedia, will fasten onto the lies and print them as true.
Piracy
Permalink D. replied on
Right on Tom Hall. AND FOR THE RECORD...The 'pirates' off the coast of Somalia were intercepted and targeted by US Navy, but for some 'odd', 'hypocritical', 'strange' reason they ignored this very public endeavor as if their top surveillance gatherers had somehow been on vacation. Israel might be laughing at the moment...but the tides (and may they be great) will and are turning against them. I'M ALL IN ON THE GIGANTIC FLOTILLA!!! JUST GIVE ME A MEGAPHONE AND A ROCK.