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TechnoratiFree Gaza Activists Still in Custody in Israel
JERUSALEM -- Most members of a group of foreign peace activists seized at sea by the Israeli navy remained in custody Friday, three days after their failed attempt to run Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, relatives and supporters said.
![['Spirit of Humanity' sails for Gaza]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/freegaza.jpg "freegaza.jpg")
In the latest attempt by activists to break a crippling two-year blockade of Gaza, a group called the Free Gaza Movement sent the ship loaded with humanitarian supplies and 21 activists and crew from Cyprus.
The Israeli navy intercepted the ship Tuesday after it ignored repeated messages saying it would not be allowed to enter Gaza waters and ordering it to turn back.
Among those still being held Friday were former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, said Sandra Law, mother of detained British activist Alex Harrison.
Law, speaking to The Associated Press from her London home, said her daughter was being held together with other women from the group at Ramle jail, near Ben-Gurion airport. She said she spoke briefly to her daughter on Friday.
"The conditions (in the jail) aren't great, but they're certainly not as bad as they could be," Law said. "They're in good spirits. ... Alex is very upbeat."
She said the planned deportation of the activists may have been delayed by their refusal to sign legal documents in Hebrew, which they do not understand.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that those who signed an undertaking to return home voluntarily could be released immediately and repatriated on the first available flight.
He said the law demanded that those who refused that option must be held for 72 hours before being served a compulsory deportation order.
He said if they choose not to fight that order in local courts they could be deported Saturday night or Sunday. He did not know exactly how many group members remained jailed Friday.
The Free Gaza Movement said several Bahrainis among the group were released after the intervention of that country's ruler, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
Others on the passenger list included a Jordanian correspondent for Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera and his Yemeni cameraman as well as a Palestinian human rights activist. There were also activists from the United States, Britain, Ireland and Denmark.
A military statement issued on Tuesday said Israeli naval personnel boarded their small vessel without any shots being fired. It was ordered to the Israeli port of Ashdod and impounded.
The Free Gaza Movement has organized five boat trips to Gaza since August 2008, defying a blockade imposed by Israel when the militant group Hamas seized control of the territory from its Palestinian rivals in June 2007.
Two other attempts were stopped by Israeli warships during Israel's three-week war in the territory in December and January. Nobody on board was harmed.
An Israeli news site reported Friday that the Defense Ministry had recommended a slight easing of the Gaza blockade as a goodwill gesture toward the Palestinians to spur talks to free a captive soldier.
Israel has linked the opening of its border with Gaza to the release of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, held by Hamas militants for three years. Hamas has been pushing for a deal to trade him for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
An unsourced report on YNet, the Web site of the Yediot Ahronot daily, said that under the draft proposal Israel would increase supplies of meat, fish, coffee, tea, soups and canned goods into Gaza ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins in August, to promote a deal for Schalit.
Israel would also renew shipments of fuel, clothing, kitchenware and hens as part of the package.
YNet said the proposal, drafted by defense officials, awaits the approval of Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The Defense Ministry would not comment on the report.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Palestinians demanded a complete end to the blockade.
"The siege must be lifted and all the crossings have to be open and life to get back to normal in the Gaza Strip," he told reporters outside a Gaza mosque after Friday prayers.
37 Comments so far
Show AllThis isn't about Jews. It's about the hot air blowing fascist police state of Israel, which Orthodox Jews including rabbis oppose all out. The Jews aren't Israel, and I'm damn thankful Israel isn't the Jews. The Jews are fine people, and they lived in peaceful harmony with the Arabs until the Zionist big wigs came in with their BS ideology of taking the land away from the Arabs and having it exclusively for Jews. Orthodox Jews including rabbis opposed this, and these Zionist ideological fanatics had one rabbi opposing them bumped off. How about that for being self hating Jews, you Zionist ideologues and fanatics. Oh, and Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and other prominent US Jews called Menachem Begin and his party "fascists and terrorists" back in the early 1950s, what would that make these genocidal jack asses currently running the Israeli government who are to the right of Begin?
AD
you know that is a damn lie! Jews were expelled from Arab countries before Israel! Jews are attacked all over the earth. It is easy to attact the innocent, weak or kind hearted. You are right wit the execption of Iran where Jews live peacefully! There u are correct. But otherwise it is not you are misinformed but lying! Stop lying!
it is not a lie... particularly in palestine, there was harmony between the three religions until the coming of the zionists, who interestingly mounted a false flag operation against the ancient iraqi jewish community to impel them to flee to israel. .. that it has been tough for jews no one will argue. but it has also been tough for others,. --native peoples in africa, america and asia and the middle east; the armenians, the kurds;..-the english broke the thumbs of the weavers in part of india so that india would have to buy cloth from manchester...and they won a war against the chinese to force them to buy opium from english controlled india, addicting the whole chinese nation!....something like ten million congolese died under king leopold and the belgians..and millions are still dying today as a result of the cia assasination of patrice lumumba..it was not only the jews whom the nazis slaughtered...
This isn't about Jews. It's about the hot air blowing fascist police state of Israel, which Orthodox Jews including rabbis oppose all out. The Jews aren't Israel, and I'm damn thankful Israel isn't the Jews. The Jews are fine people, and they lived in peaceful harmony with the Arabs until the Zionist big wigs came in with their BS ideology of taking the land away from the Arabs and having it exclusively for Jews. Orthodox Jews including rabbis opposed this, and these Zionist ideological fanatics had one rabbi opposing them bumped off. How about that for being self hating Jews, you Zionist ideologues and fanatics. Oh, and Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and other prominent US Jews called Menachem Begin and his party "fascists and terrorists" back in the early 1950s, what would that make these genocidal jack asses currently running the Israeli government who are to the right of Begin?
AD
Hamas is the legitimate political representative of the Palestinians. They clearly won the only democratic election in the Middle East. Unfortunately (even under Obama) democracy is only a good thing if respecting the will of the people is compatible with "higher interests" ...
Saying Hamas took "Gaza by force" is very misleading because it implies that Hamas' control of Gaza is illegitimate while in reality the Orwellian "Ministry of Truth" in Washington (and its branch in Israel) has again played its old game of "divide et impera":
"Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power."
[...] "David Wurmser accuses the Bush administration of “engaging in a dirty war in an effort to provide a corrupt dictatorship [led by Abbas] with victory.” He believes that Hamas had no intention of taking Gaza until Fatah forced its hand.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804
(By the way, Abbas is no longer the "President" (of what?): his term ended in January .. but Western media does not care and elections are not welcome under the circumstances ...)
Lies, dirty lies and USrael "managing perceptions"...
Someone in this forum called Israel "a country that is more perfect than any other" ... Are you suffering from autism or severe historical amnesia (induced by Zionist education)?
" [...) As Israel's most prominent military analyst, Zeev Schiff, summarized his remarks, "the Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously ..." [...] The effect, ... would be to allow Israel to implement, undisturbed, its programs of illegal expansion and harsh repression. Eban was commenting on a review of Labor government attacks against civilians by Prime Minister Begin, presenting a picture, Eban said, "of an Israel wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr.Begin nor I would dare to mention by name." (quoted by Noam Chomsky)
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22773.htm
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4715
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/excellent-analysis/
The Zionists constructed an artificial collective identity for a "Jewish nation" that never really existed: Judaism is a religion and a culture but there is no "Jewish" race ..
... and the bitter irony is, that the only thing that binds them together is "anti-semitism" (and the memory of Nazi terror) and - for the religious - a collection of ancient horror stories caled the Old Testament where a cruel and unforgiving god rewards absolute obedience with special favours...
The worst thing is that all these crimes in the last 60 yrs do not cause any feeling of remorse let alone guilt in the political leadership of Israel because they have been immunized against attacks of "bad consience" with 3 dogmas:
1) Jews are morally superior and Israel's crimes only exist in the eyes of "anti-semites"
2) Since Arabs (and all other Non-Jews) are not really human beings, why feel guilty?
3) Zionists Jews are only executing "God's Will": terrorizing Palestinians in Hebron? "Gas all Arabs?" (graffiti), poison their water wells and their sheep? No responsibility, no problem..)
"... an anonymous book of stories, fables,and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies... the stories ...drop to the level of the Arabian tales but without the merit of being entertaining....the character of Moses is the most horrid that can be imagined: he began and carried on wars on the score or under the pretense of religion.. and under that mask (or infatuation) committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be found in the history of any nation..."
(Thomas Paine, exposing "this pretended word of God", a book of "lies and contradictions", the bible, in The Age Of Reason, (written in 1893 but still highly relevant)
http://books.google.at/books?id=2PgRAAAAYAAJ&dq=The+Age+of+Reason&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=de&...
This forum is infested with trolls and their Hasbara talking points.
Cynthia McKinney just refused offer from custody yet complaining that she cannot be released. She is a stup bitch. I am sorry. There are many other things in the world like NK attacking Soeal! I bet if she were in NR she would take that chance as it came. Yet she is calling Israelis abusers but living it large talking to the press.
As I understand it, the deportation order offered to Cynthia required that she acknowledge in writing that she violated the Israeli blockade. If she refuses to accept the legitimacy of Israel's siege of Gaza, then I can understand why she refused to sign.
Cynthia McKinney is a rarity -- a politician who is actually willing to demonstrate the courage of her convictions, even at the risk of her very life. I applaud her sticking to her principles!
then let her go to north korea. There is no boldness to going to Israel. She knows that they will not kill or like other rogue nations would. She also knew the Israel would not let her go. So why try. Just to prove something. Come on whoever you are, you are smarter than that. She could get years in prison or endangering the lives of the Israelis. And if she refuses to sign then do not complain. Stupid women.
Ever consider minding your business. AIPAC says jump and little Glenn asks, "How High"?
I am not in Israel's business. I am responding to the complaints and the anti semetics. If you all love Gaza so much go there!
glenn doesn't know what he is saying; it reveals the psycho/spiritual pathology of self and other, around guilt. it has always been tough for jews, but worshiping the idol of the state-that-has-stolen-the-name- "israel", thinking that it is our salvation, we have become murderers.
Maybe if you mind your own business then their would not be any problem in the first place. People also call Israel trash and crimminals and so on. Yet, they have no fear of the country. Why is that because they know Israel will not do what most countries would. Kill and torture. What about North Korea. 7 years of hard labor! No one is going there to rescue those two. Why they fear the north and still say nothing about it. Be true to yourselves. YOu all help the countries that are evil and would do you in. Yet hate the country that is more perfect then any other. Israel has the power to do what people says it does. It has the power to destroy Britain and other countries and it should. It has bombs for a reason. It is being abused. I saw not one pro-Israeli comment yet. So before you reply back with hate and hypocritical sh.t please answer these question otherwise I will not read them.
Why not go after North Korea and its missiles, threats and capture of two American journalist.
Why has not the Congresswomen went out to help people in Africa. Those "Palestinians" have NOTHING to do with her. She is nether Arab or Israel. After all it is the Arabs that kill her people in Africa but says shit.
Why not care for the jew.
Why go there is the first place?
And another thing what should Barak help them? He has enough already to deal with. Notice, that they are allowed to talk with the media but in North Korea.............? Stop lying on Israel. You all call Israel cancer and other things. You just might get it.
For disclosure, how much Israel pay you for this post?
how much? the polio vaccine
that abstract entity, the state which hides itself behind the ( holy, to many jews ) name, "israel" is a bloodclot in the jewish heart.
abstract, like a modern trans-national corporation.... humans work for and live from the trans-national corporation, with its branded products... the thing calling itself "israel" brands itself with its flag, hatikvah, hava-nagila, and it kills and kills and kills. and humans, imagining themselves to be jews, live off it... and it lives off them!!!
I'm sure that the survivors and widows of the USS Liberty must be wondering when our government will start delivering broadsides to Tel Aviv instead of tribute.
It's high time that the American people throw off this AIPAC tyrany.
Meanwhile:
Former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney, who is in an Israeli jail for trying to take humanitarian aid to Gaza, says the White House has done nothing to secure her release.
Speaking to Press TV from inside the Israeli jail, she said US taxpayers paid for Israel's 22-day war on the Gaza Strip.
“Operation Cast Lead was made possible by the US taxpayers' gift to the Israeli war machine in the form of F16s, helicopters gunship, white phosphorous, depleted uranium, cluster bombs and anything that kills,"
Humbaba "...wondering when our government will start delivering broadsides to Tel Aviv..."
Thank you for letting us know that you are not a progressive person, but an imperialist who support bombardment of innocent civilians.
Cynthia McKinney is not in jail for trying to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, she is in jail for illegally entering the territorial waters of Gaza which are under an Israeli blockade, whether you like it or not. She could have been released already just as easily as you can pay a fine for speed driving, but instead she chose to face the court, which will happen tomorrow. Most likely, if the court finds her guilty, she will be deported.
Meanwhile in Gaza, Gila'd Shalit who is held captive by Hamas does not have an opportunity to speak to anyone: not to the press, not to lawyers, not even to the red cross.
Who the hell gave Israel the right to block any vessels from entering Gaza? If the Somalis had just declared all the vessels they intercepted as being violators of a blockade, the US Navy wouldn't have killed some of the Somalis. I did call Representative Michaud's staff early Friday and asked that they request of President Obama that the US Navy in the Eastern Mediterranean intercept the Israeli pirate ship. Of course, nothing was done. Obama is only interested in shooting Somali pirates. I guess you know what the brothers call black people who screw their own.
All you zionist apologists should never forget that Iraelis kill far more Muslims as Muslims kill Iraelis. Somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty to one. I guess that kind of shoots the 'eye for an eye' theory in the ass.
I have the envelope of a letter my uncle sent my mother during WWII. It was from a country called PALESTINE. There was no Israel until France, England and the Good ol US of A took the land away from the Arabs and gave it to the Jews who survived the Holocaust. Since 1947, the Israelis, as they now call themselves, have doubled their land holdings at the expense of the indigenous people (Palestinians). From what I understand, the Israelis take the high ground and save a lot of money on avoiding construction of sewer systems by dumping their raw waste on the Palestinians allowed to live below.
I'm sick and tired of my country covering the backs of such cowards as the Israelis who condone such measures. Notice, I do not call ALL Israelis racist pigs. There are still some good Israeli people, just as there are a few good Americans left.
Wrong. There was never a COUNTRY called Palestine. In modern history the first time that the name Palestine was used to describe an administrative entity, it was given by the British rulers after WW1 when they took over control from the Ottomans. Before that the land was split into three administrative units of the ottoman empire. Under British rule, before the creation of the state of Israel, Jews used the term Palestine and referred to themselves as Palestinians just as much as the Arabs did.
In more ancient history, the name Palestina was given to the then Roman province by the emperor Hadrian, after the crushing of the second Jewish revolt over the Romans in 135 AD. Before that the Roman province was called Judaea (or Iudaea in the Roman spelling), and right before it was a Roman province it was a Jewish kingdom. Since then it was controlled by many other regional or foreign powers , including the Byzantines, the Muslim Arab empire, the crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the British. But the only times in which it was an independent political entity, it was Jewish.
Regarding the ratio of casualties, your numbers are completely off. There is no place for an 'eye to eye' view here, but to keep the records straight, during the second intifada more than a thousand Israelis were killed, most of them civilians. The number of palestinians killed was between 2100 and 2750, depending on the source.
Mahmed states: "... during the second intifada more than a thousand Israelis were killed, most of them civilians. The number of palestinians killed was between 2100 and 2750, depending on the source." What sources have you consulted? According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intifada_al-Aqsa, hardly a pro-Palestinian source, "The death toll, including both military and civilian, is estimated to be almost 5,500 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreign citizens."
For more heart-rending statistics, visit http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2009.html. Children killed "TOTALS SINCE SEPT 2000: Israelis: 123, Palestinians: 1435. TOTALS FOR 2009: Israelis: 0, Palestinians: 288."
I stand corrected. The numbers I quoted were from 2000 to 2004. That's still very far from the imaginary 1:20 ratio quoted above by Seaweed.
Interestingly, the estimate of the palestinian death toll given in the wikipedia article of almost 5,500 (more correctly 5366 if you read on) includes palestinian suicide bombers and an estimate of about 577 palestinians killed by palestinians.
All deaths (both palestinian and Israeli) are terrible, especially deaths of children and civilians.
I appraciate that! Thank you
If Iran had seized activists, we'd be hearing Britain and the U.S. reading the UN charter of human rights to the ayatollahs and requesting the immediate release of the activists.
But when Israel sequesters peaceful activists, silence is all we get from Britain and the U.S.
Same old hypocrisy and double standards.
Or have I missed some statement perhaps issued by the State Department?
What I read here is:
“Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman”
“A military statement issued”
“An Israeli news site reported Friday that the Defense Ministry”
Asides from the little bit from Law’s mother, this AP report and Aron Heller might as well be a mouthpiece for the Zionist state, especially when throwing away lines like “a blockade imposed by Israel when the militant group Hamas seized control of the territory from its Palestinian rivals in June 2007” which is not only prejudicial but untrue.
I much prefer the report on location yesterday from prisoner No. 88794 on her second day in Israeli jail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZPRKJzgkHA
In addition to the comments already posted about the distortions and omissions of this AP article (is anybody surprised by that?) there is total ignoring of the most elementary obligation of the American government to protect its citizens from illegal actions against them by foreign governments. Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney is clearly a U.S. citizen (unlike the doubts about the citizenship of her presidential rivals Obama and McCain). Ireland has already taken the correct position of demanding the release of its citizen; where are Hillary and Barack?
Jerry D Rose July 4th, 2009 3:23 pm........Bending over for Israel.
Would not the result have been quite different if the abductors had been Iranian?
... and imagine what John Bolton, Rush, Bill-o et al. would be squawking if the captors were from Venezuela.
What we have here is a giant middle finger from Israel.
Again.
Good "old US mainstream media" is out there with their lying for Israel, "Nobody was harmed." How about beaten? The Israeli military beat people, as far as the best information available has it. Also all reliable sources, which leaves out the US mainstream media have said this ship was in international waters, and that's piracy on the high seas. Didn't the USA once fight a war against the Barbary Pirates for this kind of thing. Then the Israeli war machine seizes a former congresswoman along with a Nobel Laureate.
As Saul Landau has rightly said, "Israel gives Jews a bad name."
AD
Exactly, and what about returning the vessel back? No where in the Associated Press' article does it even hint that Israel's actions are illegal. Where are the words "hijacked", "kidnapped", and "illegal" in the article? Nor does the AP even attempt to get the reaction of our government that American citizens were kidnapped and being illegally held.
"when the militant group Hamas seized control of the territory from its Palestinian rivals in June 2007."
THEY WERE ELECTED!
The Hamas won the majority of seats in the parliament. (Not the presidential election)
They took Gaza by force, after killing more than 400 Palestinians.
It's like a scenario when the republican party win most of the seats in the Senate, and then take control of Alaska by force. (Killing many US police officers.)
this is a lie
Not only were they elected, once elected Israel and Abbas' Fatah party began the process of arresting the elected Hamas leaders and jailing them. Mainstream media has pre-selected words to put in every article regarding Palestinians.
Israel assassinated and kidnapped a couple dozen Hamas Ministers immediately after their election.
This was in the MSM , how quickly we forget.