Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiIsrael Fears European Ship May Sail to Gaza to 'Break Siege'
GAZA - Israel is worried by reports that a group of left-wing activists from Europe plans to set sail for Gaza from Cyprus on August 5 under the slogan "breaking the siege."The activists will reportedly include three members of the European Parliament.
It is still not certain how serious the plans are. However, Israel fears that if the ship does sail, it will create a provocation that would at best cause public relations damage, and could even result in violence.
The ship is being organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the International Solidarity Movement. Many of the latter's members have been barred from entering Israel on security grounds.
The organizers have reportedly raised almost $300,000 to finance the operation and recruited 60 people to sail on the ship. These include activists from several countries as well as journalists.
According to the Free Gaza Movement's Web site, the activists will include a Holocaust survivor, a survivor of the Palestinian Nakba, as Palestinians call Israel's creation in 1948, and other members of the Palestinian diaspora, in addition to the European parliamentarians.
According to the Web site, the plan is for the boat to enter Gaza's territorial waters - and, more specifically, the "special security zone" that the Israel Navy has declared off-limits to all boats. The organizers thereby hope to provoke a clash with the navy that will end with them being forcibly arrested.
An Israeli government source said that Israel still has little information about the plan, and it is not clear whether it will ever come off. A year ago, he noted, Israel received reports of a similar plan, but due to logistical difficulties, that initiative never got off the ground.
In conversations with their Israeli counterparts, Cypriot officials have expressed concern about the boat departing from their shores, but say they can do nothing to prevent it. According to the information that has reached Israel, however, Cyprus is not the only point of departure under consideration; the ship might also sail from Turkey or from Alexandria in Egypt.
Israel is still trying to discover the ship's exact identity and more details about the organizers' intentions. It is also trying to decide how to respond. One option that has been raised in official discussions is to simply allow the ship to reach Gaza, thereby foiling the organizers' apparent desire for a clash.
© Copyright 2008 Haaretz
18 Comments so far
Show AllJesus, you know what truly disgusts me? John "jews to the concentration camps" Butterfield HAS A LINK TO CODE PINK ON HIS WEBSITE!!!!!
You leftyscum continue to sink to new depths. Code Pink was founded by a JEWISH WOMAN!
I sent them and other groups you linked to an email containing your post here. Fuck you, and fuck the rest of you who hide behind real organizations. You are RACISTS, plain and simple.
lisa, yes, of course they will not let the ship land, and the idiots doing this know this.
As usual, this is more clumsy pro-arab PR. It obviously fools you guys (much like the "gaza is starving" lie), but it certainly isn't going to fool me or the majority of the american public.
Try again, losers.
Butterfield: Yes, of course, jews should be sent to concentration camps. And I take it you are a progressive? A human rights supporter? You people are nothing but murderous anti-semites, hiding it under this talk of "human rights" only makes those words meaningless. Its nice to see some of you are honest though.
They will just board the vessel. Disable the motor. And tow it away.
But who knows; Israel even has a Submarine-maybe they will torpedo it.
Read the article by Kathy Kelly on Common Dreams today, Pictures from Summer Camp, for a detailed account of how Jewish West Bank Settlers beat and terrorize Children.
Masked Nazis.
DuraMater,
Yes, I admit to having made a jerky statement. My point is that turn-about is fair play. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Or if someone doesn't think so then maybe they shouldn't be doing what they are doing.
We should treat others as we would like to be treated.
No one should have their land stolen. People should not be put in concentration camps.
Israel needs to take a good look in the mirror and realize what it is doing is wrong and stop it.
Meanwhile the rest of the world should treat Israel the same way they treated apartheid South Africa.
Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live
I actually attended a talk in Berkeley, CA, by one of the three founders of the Free Gaza Movement. They are not looking for a provocation - they simply want to get medical supplies into an impoverished land. The reason this didn't happen last year is because Israel simply threatened every boat renter with the sinking of the boat. So this time the funds-raised have enabled an outright purchase of the boat.
I hope the intention succeeds in becoming action, and it all gets done amicably and without any loss of life or limb.
Butterfield, don't be such a jerk. That sort of talk - and the resultant violence - was the sort of thing that started Zionism in the first place. It's counterproductive; it's useless for solving problems. Besides being the way jerks think.
No, actually, the PR disaster that Israel rightly fears, is what will result from the IDF beating up a Holocaust survivor the same way they beat up an an-Nakba survivor, in the full sight of the world. (The European parliamentarians they aren't worried about - they've got an end-run around Europe.) Israel's trotted out the "Holocaust" excuse for everything they do so often, that when they treat Jews - Holocaust survivors - as viciously as they do Arabs, they'll shoot a hole in their credibility that'll be difficult to repair in a hurry.
In the meantime, the problem with Israel and Palestine isn't Jews and Jewishness - the problem is some people having near-absolute power over other people who don't have any power themselves, and that's a common problem that's existed for as long as humans have existed.
Galen,
On point, the Zionists will do a U.S.S. Liberty on it and blame it on Iran, this will give the little deserter an excuse to start his next failed war. It doesn't get any better than this.
USS Liberty.
Look it up to see what Israel did to a 'friend' and 'ally'.
Test
sl63 July 28th, 2008 2:27 pm
Unbelievable! They made a movie called "Exodus" about the creation of modern day Israel?
Bugger me running!
Fuck!
Test
And Abraham lifted his knife to slay his son.
This is what they believe, right? What's so great about that?
The UN and the nations of the world should create a Palestinian homeland. The nation of Israel could be renamed Palestine and all jews not living there in 1940 could be deported or sent to concentration camps.
Israelis are afraid of a ship sailing toward the shores of Palestine? Are they afraid it could be a PR stunt of the type they once carried out themselves? In fact the stunt was milked thrice, the actual event, the novel "read by more than 50 million" and "a terrific show" of a movie with an all star cast expected to win several Oscars, all eponymously named Exodus.
"Many of the [ISM] members have been barred from entering Israel on security grounds."
This must be a reference to the Brit shot in the head or the bulldozing of the American girl.
I would bar them from the country too on security grounds. It is too dangerous for them to get caught up in Israel's aggression towards the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine.