7 thoughts on “Irish Gaza Flotilla Activists: ‘Israel Sabotaged Our Ship;’ Greeks Seize Canadian Ship, Tahrir, Four Miles from International Waters – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
task-attention.png
Comments are published at the sole discretion of the owner.
 

  1. Irish Ship to Gaza release documentation of boat sabotage
    Submitted by maureen on Thu, 06/30/2011 – 12:40

    The Irish Ship to Gaza campaign released documentation today that they say shows the MV Saoirse, docked in the Turkish coastal port of Gocek, was sabotaged in way “intended to endanger and/or inflict injury or death on Irish citizens as they went about their lawful right to sail on the high seas.”

    The MV Saoirse was meant to take part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was scheduled to make its way to Gaza this week to break Israel’s naval blockade and siege on the occupied terroritory. It is the second ship to be found damaged and most likely sabotaged.

    http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/irish-ship-gaza-release-documentation-boat-sabotage

      1. Oh, no, don’t rejoice too early. The French boat ‘Dignité/al-Karama” has left Greece and is on its way to Gaza with three high ranking politicians: a member of the European Parliament, a member of the Senate, the former leader of a left-wing political party, a leading Trade Unionist and a journalist from ‘LeMonde’.

      2. Like Mark Twain, the rumors of the Flotilla’s demise are premature. Yr friends haven’t yet sabotaged the remaining boats.

        In 1988 they actually blew up & sunk the Al Awda in Cyprus. Now they’re being slightly more subtle since there are nationals aboard of Israeli allies.

  2. Freedom Flotilla 2 has been a PR nightmare for Israel. In acting as they did, the Israeli authorities helped flotilla participants to achieve one of their primary aims: to heighten public awareness of the Gaza crisis.

    This has never been about the delivery of aid. Even when the flotilla consisted on ten ships (down to seven now, thanks to the sabotage of the Irish boat and the detention of ‘Hope’ and ‘Tahrir’) there was very little they could take to alleviate the suffering in Gaza. Some medicines, agricultural tools, one ambulance – the aid on board was symbolic rather than practical, representing an infinitesimal fraction of what is actually needed. The point of the flotilla was to highlight the nature of the blockade, to show how trapped Gaza’s people are, and to send a message of comfort and hope to Gaza. (This is why the ‘Audacity of Hope’ contained nothing but letters. As Alice Walker pointed out, “If they attack us, it will be like attacking the mailman.”) In that the flotilla has more than succeeded.

    I doubt you realise, but several of the flotilla participants have close personal friends in Gaza whom they can’t see any more because of the siege. They have to sit at a distance and hear of their suffering while the people around them try to look the other way. The flotilla is a gesture of friendship. Israel is frantically trying to persuade the world that it will permit more aid in over the crossings, that it will deliver the flotilla’s cargo safely, as though a faceless and clinical transfer of goods is all that is needed here. It isn’t. There is a human element too: people in Gaza are horribly trapped and they want to see people who care about them. It is this aspect of the flotilla that frightens the Israeli government like nothing else, because heaven forbid that the world starts to realise that the people cooped up in that giant prison camp are actually people, with lives and dreams and friendships like every other person. Until fairly recently, Israel has shaped public perception of Gaza’s population (inhuman terrorists). The freedom flotilla – whether it gets to Gaza or not – is bringing their humanity to world attention. Like many forms of non-violent resistance, this is an approach to activism that the Israeli government does not know how to handle, and flotilla participants will make the most of that.

    As for the ‘era’ being over, this is only the second flotilla. Watch out for more.

    1. Well said, Vicky. These are also my thoughts on the flotilla, except that I didn’t know about the close personal friendships of the participants with people in Gaza.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *