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Activists arrive triumphantly at Gaza harbor
Defying all odds and Israeli threats of force to stop them, two boats of the Free Gaza Movement reached port in Gaza earlier today:
Two boats carrying dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip Saturday in defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from thousands of Palestinians.
The boats docked in Gaza City’s tiny port after a two-day journey marred by communications troubles and rough seas. As they arrived, children swarmed around and leaped into the water in joy, while thousands of cheering residents looked on from the shore.
It is the first time that anyone has broken the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, in force since Gazans chose Hamas to represent them in 2006 elections.
The boats were greeted by scores of Gaza fishing vessels which sailed out to meet the peace activists who began their journey in Crete two weeks ago and reached Gaza after a 180 mile, 30 hour journey from Cyprus.
It was touch and go all the way as the Israeli defense ministry threatened to use force to prevent the boats from violating the Israeli siege. During the past day of their journey, someone–possibly Israeli electronic warfare specialists–jammed the boats’ electronic gear and prevented them from communicating with each other:
Gazan swimmer celebrates arrival of FGM flotilla
Earlier Saturday, the Free Gaza activist group accused Israel of sabotaging the mission, saying that Israel had jammed the boats’ electronic communication systems.
“I can’t think of any other reason or any other party with an interest,” said Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, the group’s spokeswoman in Israel. She accused Israel of jeopardizing the activists’ safety, and appealed for international assistance.
In a statement, the activists said their communications systems had been jammed and scrambled and said they were victims of electronic piracy.
The foreign ministry denied involvement:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel wanted “to avoid the media provocation” that the group was seeking. He dismissed the allegations that Israel damaged the communications system as “total lies.”
Haaretz reveals that there were a series of consultations between the defense and foreign ministries about how to handle the situation, with the IDF arguing for forcibly detaining the ships and participants for questioning in Israel. Free Gaza Movement spokespeople warned that they would consider such behavior a violation of international norms and kidnapping.
Apparently, cooler heads at the foreign ministry prevailed and the government decided to let the ships reach their destination. When you think of it, this is quite a remarkable feat for a nation seemingly always prepared to use maximum force in confronting perceived threats from Palestinians and their supporters. I can’t say whether this decision shows the imprint of a more pragmatic Tzipi Livni over a hot-headed Ehud Barak in the defense ministry. At any rate, it shows there was a certain level of maturity in this particular case. Though Israel couldn’t miss an opportunity to show its utter disdain despite its “forbearance:”
…Discussions were held last week on this matter…The IDF raised the idea of forcibly preventing the boats from reaching Gaza. The army officers suggested stopping the boats at sea and towing them to the Ashdod port for inspection, where the activists on board would be detained for interrogation.
However, after further consultation, it was decided on Friday to avoid a confrontation and to allow the boats to reach the Gaza Strip. In the wake of that decision, urgent directives were sent to Israel’s embassies around the world regarding the stance they should take concerning this event.
“These are professional provocateurs and we did not want to cooperate with that on the open seas,” a senior political source in Jerusalem said. “Instead of letting the entire international press obsess about this for a week, the boats received almost no coverage, simply because there was no confrontation.”
No press coverage? A GoogleNews search displays over 300 separate articles about the FGM journey. This is mere rhetorical puffery on Israel’s part.
Yvonne Ridley passenger on board S.S. Free Gaza (Andreas Lazarou/AP)
But unfortunately it was difficult if not impossible to see live footage of the arrival in Gaza port in western media. Which makes the following e mail, sent by a journalist in Britain to Miriam Adams, one of my blog readers, especially poignant in this interactive, inter-connected world we now live in:
Want to know the sheer power of the modern age?
I am in England. I do not have television.
Tom (Nelson) sent me an e-mail “We’re in” message from his Blackberry on board the boat to Gaza.
My closest Saudi Arabian friend called me on Skype as soon as he saw it.
He turned his web-camera towards the television set in his living room in Riyadh.
We watched – together – the boats sailing into Gaza, the people lined up on the shore and cheering. Hundreds of small fishing boats are there with them, cameras everywhere.
I could see Yvonne Ridley waving her arms around from the side of one of the boats, so close to the harbour.
One has to take a deep breath and marvel at the magnitude of this power. There is no stopping people now.
While one may doubt her certainty that change is imminent in Gaza, one cannot discount the power of new technology to bring home far-off events with ever more immediacy. God bless Skype and the ingenuity of those who take advantage of such technology to surmount barriers that divide us.!
The next interesting development will be how the 47 crew members will depart from Gaza since Israel controls the borders. Will it let them depart without hassling them? Again, previous history shows that given an opportunity, Israeli intelligence will try to poke a finger in FGM’s eye by either detaining them or otherwise making their lives miserable. Anything to take the wind out of their sails.
Interestingly, the Israeli foreign ministry raised the possibility of more such voyages in the future:
Mekel, the Israeli spokesman, said Israel’s decision did not mean that future deliveries would necessarily be permitted.
“This decision was about these boats. We will see what happens with any future boats,” he said.
I think one of the real weaknesses of the FGM voyage as a political tactic is that it was not really a homegrown Middle Eastern project. It was based in California and the crew consisted of one Israeli, Jeff Halper, who was instrumental in planning the trip. Thus it became easy for Israelis to dismiss it as a stunt by radical leftist pro-Palestinians. It would be much harder to dismiss a future sailing composed solely of Israelis and Palestinians. That’s the tack I would take if I were pursuing another such mission. Make it as hard as possible for Israelis to dismiss the message. Make it hit them where they live.
At any rate, Free Gaza Movement has made a small but significant and valiant gesture in the movement against the Gaza siege. To paraphrase Churchill: It’s not the end or even the beginning of the end, but maybe the end of the beginning.
Related posts:
- IDF Kidnaps U.S. Citizens, Nobel Laureate in Gaza Waters
- Offering Carrots to Israel: EU Membership for Peace
- Comment is Free: Holding Israel Accountable for Gaza War Crimes
- Lieberman Rejects Annapolis Peace Process, ‘Concessions Lead to War’
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Tags: free gaza movement, israel allows boats to reach palestine, professional provocateur, ships break gaza blockade, yvonne ridley
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@Joy Wolfe:
Welcome to the hasbara crowd. Can you explain how the first ever successful breaking of the Israeli siege was a “failure??” And are you arguing that Israel is NOT blockading Gaza?
Where? Provide a source. Or are you talking about Little Green Footballs and Pammy Gellar, whose propaganda is entirely unreliable anyway?
It’s a laugh that the Israeli Firsters claim to complain that Egypt blockades Gaza; and when Egypt allows Hamas to breach the border they shrei bloody murder against breaking the siege.
Do you have any credible proof of such a thing? I thought not.
And I also love this crowd claiming to know what “grassroots Gazans” believe. In fact, “grassroots Gazans” were overjoyed w. the results & you would’ve been too had you been under siege.
Basayev sent 50 armed terrorists with explosives to take 800 civilians hostage. What the Russians did afterwards is irrelevant to the fact that this is an act of terror by a man whom Ridley characterizes as having “led an admirable fight to bring independance to Chechya.” Not to mention his role in the ethnic cleansing of Abkhazia many years before. A person that admires such a man is in my opinion evil. That’s an opinion. You’re free to disagree.
BTW, I never said she supports al-qaeda.
Ridley in her own words: “Our greatest shame has been our silence while martyrdom operations in Palestine and other occupied lands have been condemned as acts of terror”
Do I have to tell you what martyrdom operations in Palestine are?
Ridley in her own words: “Our young people have to be taught that what is happening in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan is legitimate resistance”
In her own words: “The international community should be imposing sanctions on this digusting little Zionist state … Now ask me again why I hate the Zionist State of Israel”.
Lovely.
(http://yvonneridley.org/yvonne-ridley/articles/the-passing-of-a-chechen-4.html)
(http://yvonneridley.org/yvonne-ridley/articles/yvonne-ridleys-speech-at-the-2006-global-peace-unity-conference-london.-uk-4.html)
(http://yvonneridley.org/yvonne-ridley/articles/a-lesson-for-the-zionists-4.html)
Miriam, are you an American? Maybe you should do what is called in Hebrew “bedek bait”.
American entrpeneurs have made the transporting and dumping of critically ill uninsured immigrants to die in their old countries a prospering business.
One hospital alone in Pheonix “repatriots” 5 times the number of parients on your list each year.
link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/us/03deport.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
When people are as bigotted and disinterested in the truth as Richard Silverstein they are not worht wasting one’s breath on.
Just go and stand at the crossings daily and watch the convoys go through don’t take my word for it
there is plenty of written evidence and first hand quotes of Gazans saying they wish the Israelis were back in control
If you seriously don’t conced that much of the international aid has been misappropriated for buying weapons, paying families of suicide bombers and swelling bank accounts of the late Yasser Arafat and msny other Palestinian leaders then you are living on another planet
Yes I am seriously suggesting there is not a blockade, just an enforced monitoring to stop the digging of tunnels to smuggle weapons, crossing of terrorists and kidnap of Israelis.
If you consider two miserable boats sailing into
Gaza was @the first breaking of the siege, you need your head examining. And where were all the promised supplies and humanitarian aid the boats claimed they were bringing?
It is widely reported the cost of this mission was $500,000 dollars most of it loaned with just about half raised to pay it back
I’d rather have seen genuine peace activists spend that money on food medical aid, and imprved living conditions, but of course WNWRA and Hamas don’t allow living conditions to be improved. As the Palestinian leadership said when it sent back a team of UK builders who were building quality housing for people from the camp in Jenin,”@We don’t want you doing this as it will JEOPARDISE THEIR REFUGEE STATUS” Just how cynical is that?
I take it you were there to see the overjoyed
Gazans, and weren;t among those eye witnesses who reported how sickened they were when they realised this was just a balloon laded publicty stunt.
Strange there is virtually no footage or media coverage of “thousands of overjoyed Gazans” Could it be that was because that is just a trumped up version of the truth.
But then again the ISM, teh PSM and peopleike Richard Silverstein, Lauren Booth, Yvonne Ridley and jeff halper never let the truth get in the way of their agenda to misinform and invent a story.
Alex, do you have any information that the FGM at one point considered sailing from Egypt, but decided against it, and for which reason? Would the Egyptians have let them sail? Without such information any discussion on our part would be utter speculation.
@Joy Wolfe:
And yet you continue to do so. One wonders why you don’t take yr own advice.
And you have? And no matter how many convoys go through international human rights groups who are based in the MIddle East say only 43% of Palestinian basic needs are being met by such convoys.
Such as? THere was one story in Ynetnews quoting one Palestinian critical of the mission. What do you know that the rest of us don’t? Pray do enlighten us.
How much of that KoolAid have you been drinking? Even Israel concedes it is enforcing a blockade. But Israel’s own view isn’t good enough for you so you have to invent an even more twisted reality.
The Israeli navy enforces a blockade of Gaza’s shores. The boats got through the blockade. Hence they broke the blockade. You may not like the fact that they did. But to deny that they did shows that it is YOU who needs her head examined, not me.
“Widely reported” means precisely what? THe FGM site specifically says the trip cost $300,000 with $250,000 raised. Your propaganda is in error. If you have proof otherwise bring it.
I thought you said there WAS no blockade. Why should Gazans need any food or medical aid if there is only “enforced monitoring?”
I don’t trust or credit anecdotes provided by ideologues like yrself. If you have actual credible media rpts. you’ll provide links. Otherwise, yr claims will be treated with the skepticism they deserve.
1,000 media reports are listed in GoogleNews about this story all of which note the celebrations by Gazans in the harbor. Thousands of well-wishers welcoming them & scores of fishing boats going out to greet them. Ynetnews produced a single Gazan critical of the journey. I’ll let my readers judge which of us is more credible.
No media coverage? Besides the 1,000 articles there are scores of images & several of them are featured here. If I’d known you were so interested in witnessing the proceedings perhaps we could’ve arranged for you to be there.
You call the Gaza siege “enforced monitoring” and have the chutzpah to claim that I’m misinforming??! That’s rich.
@amir:
Those 50 terrorists armed to the teeth didn’t kill a single person as far as I recall. Yet those Russians, whose actions matter not a whit to you, ended up killing 230 of the 800 hostages in their “effort” to free them.
Gimme a break. You’re simply not credible. The Russians are evil. The Chechnyans may be evil too, but their enemies are worse by an order of magnitude.
I find it ironic that Israelis who have very little if any problem w. acts of terrorism in Israeli history, fulminate when it comes to acts of terror by Muslims. Isn’t it the pot calling the kettle…?
I’m glad you’ve brought forward those quotations from Ridley. I find her deeply objectionable and wouldn’t have featured her words or image in my blog had I known of her views.
@Alex Stein:
Oh, if that was being positive in yr mind I’d hate to read what your firm denunciation would’ve sounded like.
As for Egypt, Amr Moussa, an Egyptian and president of the Arab League praised the FGM journey. What does it matter where they started from? Sounds like you’re trying to be provocative just for the sake of being provocative. And since the Egypt angle seems to be a common meme here where are you commenters dredging this idea up from? You sure didn’t all spontaneously come up w. this on yr own.
The fishing boats were Greek. The nearest port to Israel from Greece is Cyprus. So what’s the big deal?
As for Haniya, you appear not to have read my comment here yesterday. I only wish that it was Ehud Olmert & Ehud Barak meeting with Haniya instead of the FGM. If Israeli policy changed then the FGM wouldn’t have needed to undertake this dangerous action.
@fiddler:
I think their propaganda pt. is that Egypt would not have let them sail since it wouldn’t want to do anything helpful to Hamas. This is supposed to take the air out of the sails of the FGM somehow (at least in Alex’s mind). Another Egypt related meme that they sometimes throw out is suggesting that Egypt should take responsibility for Gaza.
“The nearest port to Israel from Greece is Cyprus”
This is news to most Cypriots who thought they lived in an independant republic.
re: Ismail Haniyeh: a journalist once asked him what he’d do if his sons came to him and said they wanted to be suicide bombers.
http://www.counterpunch.org/hass03172006.html
“`I`ve never sent anyone on a suicide mission,` he told CBS News. `If one of my sons came to me and asked me that, I wouldn`t even consider giving him my blessing.`
“CBS quoted Israeli officials as saying they have no evidence connecting Haniyeh to any terror attacks. ”
Haniyeh was elected in a clean process the US blessed, only to pull the rug out from under the Palestinians for not voting for the right guys.
I’m no fan of the group, but it’s not so monolithic as we are prone to think. Read some of the writings of Haniyeh aides Ahmed Youssef & Ghazi Hamad. Read this interview with assassinated Hamas co-founder Ismail abu Shanab: http://www.opendemocracy.net/people-debate_97/article_1469.jsp
Would you accept a medal from Shimon Peres? Read Robert Fisk on the Grapes of Wrath/Qana massacre: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51a/005.html
Would like to reply but for some reason can’t read all that’s been written here – any ideas why? The left hand of the screen seems to be hidden.
[...] (originally posted at Tikun Olam) [...]
@Richard: At the Moscow theater two were shot after they foolishly had entered the theater and confronted the Chechens. One of the hostages was shot when he, equally foolishly, attacked one of the hostage-takers.
That aside, I fully agree that the Russians’ “rescue” mission, likewise in Beslan, was catastrophically, criminally botched, even made worse by keeping secret the nature of the gas they used – many victims probably could’ve been saved if the doctors had had this information.
Inhuman, incompetent, brutish indeed, but I still have to say, I’ve no taste at all for sweeping statements like “the Russians are evil”. You’d rightly object, too, if the collective target of such an epithet were “the Jews” or “the Americans” or “the Israelis”.
@fiddler: A pt. well taken. I don’t think the Russian per se are evil. But I think their actions in particular situations are evil.
@Alex Stein: Usually in situations like this a display problem is caused by a browser issue. What browser are you using? Are you having any similar display problems w. other sites? If you’re using IE let me know as I only look at my site in Firefox.
Richard,
I would be interested in hearing what you think of what Orgo said. Do you think Haniyeh is a terrorist or connected to terror attacks?
Thanks.
The chechen terrorists murdered three unarmed men before the Russian assault and fiddler thinks they are victims of their own foolishness and RS apparently agrees (and in Beslan they murdered even more people) . That’s what I call twisted moral thinking. Do you think the passengers on flight 93 were also foolish. Afterall, they were all killed as well.
A hostage situation is one where the hostage takers threaten to kill all the hostages if their demands are not met. As far as I’m concerned, the Russians rescued hundreds of people in these two situations (Moscow theater and Beslan). It is the height of arrogance for the two of you to judge the execution of the rescue mission since I assume neither of you have any experience or expertise in these kinds of assignments. But even if, with aftersight, they did botch it up the moral stand of people trying to rescue hostages is far higher than those taking the hostages.
I’m a little old fashioned. I admire people who have courage and go into burning buildings to save people or storm buildings full of explosives to rescue hostages. On the other hand, I find people who sail the Mediterranean Sea in boats full of balloons in order to hug, kiss and receive medals from the head of an organization who’s main contribution to the world is to figure how to kill the maximum number of people on a crowded bus or restaurant to be quite contemptible.
@Kane: Haniyeh is less connected to terror attacks than Yitzchak Shamir was. Let me make clear that I’m no friend of Hamas. I wish there were another authentic, popular grassroots Palestinian political movement instead of it. I don’t like their politics or their willingness to embrace armed violent resistance. That being said, they ARE an authentic, grassroots popular movement. Until some other group can beat them in a legitimate election, they should be recognized as a legitimate government.
@amir:
That’s NOT what I recall. I’d challenge you to prove that charge.
You’re weakly attempting to change the terms of the debate. The Russian’s killed 60 times as many as the Moscow theater kidnappers did. I don’t think someone who resists being kidnapped is foolish. But you’re evading the main issue, which is Russian brutality & ineptitude.
In the Moscow theater situation I believe almost all the hostages were killed. So much for “rescuing hundreds of people.” Oh & by the way, the next time you’re held hostage by anyone I’ll give you a choice if you’d prefer to be rescued by Russian forces or Israeli. If you’re so pleased w. the Russian record you shouldn’t have a problem w. choosing the Russians, right?
No, actually it’s the height of common sense. Fiddler & I have observed the Russian bear for decades & we, as opposed to you, know precisely what we’re dealing with. But as with yr myopia about Israeli actions & policies, you have similar vision problems regarding seeing Russian behavior for what it is.
I notice you’ve refused to address Zionist terror attacks used duing the movement to create the State of Israel. Did you have a problem w. those? If not, you have no right to complain about Chechens resisting Russian domination. THe Russian record in Chechnya is abominable. Chechens had a right to resist. I don’t approve of kidnapping. But I don’t approve of mass executions, rape & sheer terror on the scale the Russians have used either.
Do you admire people who attempt to rescuse hostages & in the course of doing so actually themselves set the building on fire thereby killing 230 innocent hostages? That’s what happened in Beslan.
As for being contemptible. I think some of us here when searching for people who are contemptible might be more likely to find them here in this comment thread.
@amir: Actually it were two men and a woman who were killed. I don’t condone these killings, let alone the taking of hostages in the first place, I’m just saying that any reasonable person must have known that under the circumstances the likelihood of them being shot was extremely high, and conversely the likelihood of succeeding in whatever they were attempting to do, close to zero. In a more cynical mood than I’m in I’d consider them candidates for a Darwin Award.
I’m not an expert on hostage situations. There are however many aspects that you don’t have to be an expert to consider:
Lack of ambulances: The number of people in the theater was known, yet even at the time of the raid there were far too few ambulances and doctors at the scene. Victims had to be packed in commandeered buses, some who initially had survived choked to death on their vomit, etc. That’s imaginable in a remote village like Beslan, but Moscow, for Pete’s sake?
The gas: The Russians knew what it was, yet gave no information to the doctors, which, in all likelihood, lead to further deaths. It has since been suggested the gas was a fentanyl derivate aerosole. These are synthetic, very powerful opiates. Most every doctor can tell you about the consequences of opiate overdose, and the common antidote, naloxone, must have been widely available in a city like Moscow. Yet it wasn’t administered because the docs were prevented from knowing the cause of the poisoning. (Naloxone without opiate poisoning is in itself toxic, so it can’t be given “just in case”.)
The use of such a chemical agent, whatever it was, was in any case a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, of which Russia is a member.
The summary execution of most of the subdued, unconcious Chechens was murder in my book.
The disinformation campaign in the aftermath, including holding the injured victims incommunicado in the hospitals, even preventing family from seeing them, was wholly unjustifiable.
Aleksander Litvinenko, who was spectacularly murdered last year, and others, have alleged there had been FSB agents among the Chechens (who escaped the raid or were spirited away by their buddies), suggesting the (or some) Russian authorities had been in from the start on the plan, even that one agent provocateur had suggested the theater as a target in the first place. I’m in no position to judge these allegations, I’d just mention them.
Since Richard Silverstein calims to know so much about this I am surprised he can’t even quote the FreeGaza.org website honestly
It clearly says they have spent $500,000 dollars and that they have only raised $250,000.
What other facts is he distorting if he canlt even get that right?
The number of lies being published about this mission are mind-blowing
From the claim that the people aboard are all “human rights WORKERS” to an article on the Comment is Free Guardian website by Osama Qashoo Saturday August 23 2008 saying the vessels are carrying humanitarian and medical aid (200 children’s hearing aids and 5000 balloons!!!??) to many other claims of being the first to break a blockade, there is no end to the imagination of those trying to disguise their obvious disappointment that they were not challenged or stopped by the Israelis. What a waste of $500,000 dollars.
The hearing aids were a clear propaganda stunt about which Lauren Booth spoke in one of her radio interviews, claiming it was for children whose hearing has been damaged by explosions. No doubt many of them suffered when bombmaking factories, and explosives being carried in cars etc or being made in front rooms exploded prematurely
@Joy Wolfe:
Read this from the Jerusalem Post:
So much for my lies…unless that is, yr beloved right wing Jerusalem Post is lying as well.
When I last visited the FGM site about a week ago, the amount was $300,000. They clearly spent more since then. Or is it so hard for you to believe that in a project like this their expenses could rise from $300,000 to $550,000? I still don’t find this an inordinate sum considering the billiions Israel spends on building the Separation Wall and other such tools of occupation.
Children’s hearing aids are both humanitarian and medical aid. I’d venture to say if your child was deaf and medical care was denied you by an occupying power that you’d consider such aid both blessed and humanitarian. But far be it from me to ask you to place yrself in the shoes of someone you clearly loathe.
As for being the first to break the blockage–who else broke it before them? Or are you claiming that by reaching Gaza they didn’t breach it? That would be a good trick but I’m sure you can manage it somehow. Thankfully, the rest of the world knows what really happened even if you deny it.
Don’t make judgements about who I loathe because you are totally wrong and totally out of order.
Do you really think that 200 hearing aids were what the Gazans were expecting? In any event when the set out the claim was 2000 hearing aids What happened to the other 1800?
Actually Peace Now went to Gaza some months ago.
My point was that they did not have to do anything to “break the ‘alleged’ blockade” as to their clear sdisappointment their hope that they would be stopped by the Israelis were dashed so there was nothing to break.
fortunately there are many like me who saw this for waht it was a publicity stunt gone wrong because it did not draw the confrontation hoped for.
I’m surprised it is over a weeek since you have updated your misinformation of the Free Gaza website
“Do you really think that 200 hearing aids were what the Gazans were expecting?”
ANYONE who has paid attention to the collective punishments, incursions, starvation, closures, intimidations, sonic booms, concussion grenades, low flying fighters and apache helicopters that terrify children, ad nauseum,
the GAZANS were expecting NOTHING, except perhaps more DEATH and CASUALTIES…at the least. They were overjoyed to WELCOME humane people who came to say “you are not forgotten by the world”. And risked their lives to say so.
“their hope that they would be stopped by the Israelis were dashed so there was nothing to break.”
As with your other previous cynical and sarcastic comments, that the participants went knowing NOTHING except that they might die in the effort. tremendous courage to go despite the intimidation and bullying threats by the Israeli military and establishment. How many non violent or innocent have been abused, wounded or killed before you acknowledge the courage needed to go forward. They are heroic, humane and courageous IMO.
“a publicity stunt gone wrong because it did not draw the confrontation hoped for.”
More cynicism and negative grousing –cannot diminish the courage or humanity of these folks…Perhaps if you were capable of comprehending THAT, they perhaps there would be no rightwing calling for more slaughter or war, and would sit down like MENSCHEN and find solutions.
@Joy Wolfe:
Oh, you mean it’s Palestinians you love but Hamas you loathe? C’mon you have about as much sympathy for a Palestinian as a dog has for a flea. If I’m wrong I’d sure like to hear of anything you’ve written or done that says otherwise.
I never read any such claim, but if you have proof why don’t you supply it?
No, there was a caravan of Israelis (not Peace Now) who went to the border to deliver humanitarian aid. They didn’t cross, hence didn’t break the siege. Again, if you have evidence to the contrary pls. let us read it.
I have no idea what you’re trying to say here.
I’ll tell you what: if you contact the Jerusalem Post & tell them to update their site then I’ll update mine. In the meantime, I’ve got to get word out about Jeff Halper being arrested & that’s a bit more important I’m afraid.
there was a caravan of Israelis (not Peace Now) who went to the border to deliver humanitarian aid. They didn’t cross, hence didn’t break the siege. Again, if you have evidence to the contrary pls. let us read it.
Correct!!…thanks Richard for reminding…
I can add that it was many of the SAME people who coordinated that delivery of humanitarian aid which I supported. To send desperately needed water treatment filters…so that the occupied people could drink something besides boiled sewage water…courtesy of..their occupiers.
No electricity to operate the treatment plant -so the sewage has been flowing back into streets and homes. ….stench amongst others gifts of occupation…on of those aerial bombing–if I remember correctly–was pivotal in causing the on-going sewage backflows …as well as direct dumping of untreated sewage directly into the ocean–due to non functioning treatment facility…thus prohibiting even a simple cooling dip in the ocean for relief from the intense desert heat and lack of bathing water..after all, swimming pools in occupiers’ settlements need filling.
Unfortunately Hamas were caught out manipulating a “fuel crisis” when Associated Press and Reuters both published pictures which showed there was daylight in an alleged meeting held by candlelight and an incubator which they alleged could not work because of Israeli cutting off fuel was actually working
there was ahitch in fuel supplies when Hamas bombed the power station and also the corossing points when the fuel was being delivered. Also an article which claimed there were “no swimming pools in Gaza” was also proved with pictures to be false
Richard, don’t bother with your usual challenge to my having proof of this. Just look it up online
@Joy Wolfe:
You remind me of the Pope who persecuted Galileo for saying the earth revolved around the sun. “The sun revolves around the earth,” he must’ve said. “Just go ask God, He’ll tell you.” You’ll have to forgive me for not believing a friggin’ word you say. I’m not looking anything up on yr behalf. If you want anyone here to believe you you’ll have to do the work & find proof for what you’re spewin’. Otherwise, you have zero credibility.
Besides everything you say amounts to individual anecdotes. Even those are likely untrue. But even if they were they wouldn’t dismiss the suffering of 1.5 million Gazans. And didn’t you say you don’t loathe Palestinians? Yet you deny their suffering. Suffering confirmed by multiple independent sources & Israeli journalists themselves. How cruel you are.
I’ll challenge you: if Gazans aren’t suffering would you be willing to spend a week there just to prove me wrong? I thought not. If I had the money I’d even pay yr airfare.