Tag: GAZA FLOTILLA

Israel boards protest boats taking medical aid to Gaza

The Israeli navy has intercepted and boarded two boats which were trying to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Canadian and Irish boats with 27 activists from the US and eight other countries on board had set sail from Turkey on Wednesday.

They were carrying medical supplies for the coastal enclave.

The navy said no-one was hurt in the operation and the boats would be towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, north-east of Gaza.

The Irish Saoirse (Gaelic for freedom) and the Canadian Tahrir (Arabic for liberation) were about 50 nautical miles from the Gaza shoreline when they were contacted by the Israeli navy and told to turn back, the flotilla organisers told the AFP news agency.

The navy said it “advised the vessels that they may turn back at any point, thereby not breaking the maritime security blockade” or could sail to Ashdod or an Egyptian port.

“The activists refused to co-operate,” AFP quoted the navy as saying.

‘Safety ensured’

The navy ships then approached the boats and boarded them before towing them towards Ashdod.

“The Israel Navy soldiers operated as planned, and took every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of the activists onboard the vessels as well as themselves,” said the navy.

Palestinians in Ramallah demonstrate outside UN offices in support of flotilla and lifting of the blockade People in the West Bank have staged protests in support of the Gaza flotilla

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the activists would be questioned by police and immigration officials, then returned to their home countries, the Associated Press reports.

Denis Kosseim, a spokesman for the flotilla based in Montreal, earlier told AFP that all those on board had signed an agreement not to put up any resistance if they were boarded.

The US had urged the activists not to try to break the blockade. US officials also said Turkey had given assurances it would not send warships to escort the flotilla.

Ankara had previously threatened to use its navy to escort boats carrying activists and supplies to Gaza.

Relations between Turkey and Israel reached a crisis 18 months ago, when nine Turkish activists were killed in an Israeli raid on a far larger flotilla as it approached Gaza.

Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza in 2006. It aims to stop the supply of arms or other items for military use and to put pressure on the Hamas administration in the strip. Israel also controls air and sea access to the territory.

The importing of all weapons and military materials is banned, along with dual use materials such as fertilisers and certain chemicals.

There are also strict controls on building materials such as cement and steel cables.

All exports are banned, though this ruling is occasionally lifted.

Fishermen may only operate in a strip of water up to three nautical miles from the shore.

Egypt, which used to help maintain the blockade by closing its border with Gaza, now allows the restricted movement of people.

However, many types of goods are smuggled though tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.

via BBC News – Israel boards protest boats taking medical aid to Gaza.

November 5, 2011
Turkey seeks Red Notice in flotilla attack

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Oct. 13 (UPI) — A Turkey prosecutor is seeking a Red Notice for 174 Israelis involved in a 2010 flotilla raid that killed nine activists on a Turkish aid ship, a report says.

Today’s Zaman said the Bugun daily reported Thursday Istanbul Public Prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci, who is investigating the May 2010 flotilla attack, had reportedly written to the Turkish Justice Ministry requesting Interpol Red Notices for the Israeli soldiers and commanders.

The Bugun report also said the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office had written to Israeli authorities seeking names and home addresses of military and government officials who gave orders to attack the ship and those who carried out the raid on the ship, which was carrying humanitarian aid.

After Israel refused to provide the information, the prosecutor requested help from the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, which obtained the identities of the Israelis through Facebook, Bugun said.

Israeli would not confirm the identities, prompting the prosecutor to go to the Justice Ministry, Bugun said.

The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office had earlier denied Ekinci asked the NIO to identify the Israelis involved in the attack and said the list of names came from the Humanitarian Aid Foundation, the Turkish charity that owns the ship.

The ship, the Mavi Marmara, was part of an international humanitarian aid flotilla that tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Turkey said it would not recognize the blockade’s legitimacy and called on Israel to apologize for the raid and pay compensation for the nine people who were killed — eight Turkish nationals and a Turkish-American. Relations between the countries have been tense since then, and Turkey downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel and suspended all military agreements.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

via Turkey seeks Red Notice in flotilla attack – UPI.com.

October 16, 2011
Turkey did not sponsor Gaza flotilla

The aid convoy for Gaza organized in May 2010 was a humanitarian initiative with people from more than 30 countries (including the United States and Israel) in ships sailing under the flags of several nations. While there were private Turkish citizens among participants, the flotilla was not organized or even encouraged by the Turkish government, asDanny Danon conjures without evidence (“Why Turkey should apologize to Israel,” Commentary, Aug. 15). Quite the contrary.

Nine people lost their lives when Israeli commandos used excessive, lethal force and violated all established norms of international law by attacking the convoy in the international waters of the Mediterranean, as the U.N. Human Rights Council’s fact-finding mission concluded in its report on the incident. Eight of the nine killed were Turkish citizens, and one was an American citizen of Turkish descent.

As any country – including Israel – would be, Turkey was shattered by the loss of its citizens. We also were shocked that for the first time in our history, our citizens were killed by a foreign armed force during peacetime. What has increased our sorrow is that this deplorable action was caused by a country Turkey has long considered a friend.

Turkey rightly asks for a formal apology and appropriate compensation to the families of those killed. These acts will never fully ease the pain the families and the Turkish people feel, but they are essential to the normalization of relations, from which both Turkey and Israel benefit.

It is meaningful that Mr. Danon, rather than supporting the efforts to leave this incident behind, is appealing to audiences in the United States and that he defines the essential ingredients of normalization as acts of humiliation. He does not recognize that rather than humiliation, these steps represent the cornerstones of civility upon which any strong friendship rests.

NAMIK TAN

Ambassador to the United States

Republic of Turkey

Washington

The Washington Times

August 21, 2011
Israel, Turkey to soften UN flotilla report?

Amid attempts to launch next Gaza flotilla, officials in Jerusalem, Ankara try to iron out differences, soften conclusions of Palmer committee on previous sail

Yitzhak Benhorin

Published: 07.02.11, 08:59 / Israel News

WASHINGTON – Israel and Turkey are holding secret talks in an effort to soften the conclusions of the Palmer Report, issued by a United Nations panel appointed to probe the events of the May 2010 Gaza-bound flotilla.

According to information obtained by Ynet, sources in Washington claimed that Israel’s representative to the UN inquiry committee Yosef Ciechanover, his Turkish counterpart and other officials were crisscrossing between Jerusalem and Ankara in an attempt to use the report’s conclusions to improve relations between the countries.

The sources also noted that the American administration was applying pressure on both sides to end the prolonged feud, and therefore postponed the publication of the committee’s final report, which was headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

According to the sources, if Israel and Turkey reach mutual understandings, the United Nations may decide to moderate the reports’ conclusions and refrain from assigning direct blame on one of the sides.

Recently, US President Barack Obama held two phone conversations with Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with her Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in an effort to make progress between the sides.

Washington regards Ankara as a main strategic ally in the new Middle East, especially following the recent uprisings in the region and Syria’s violent suppression of protesters.

On Monday, Turkish paper Hurriyet reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a Turkish demand to issue an apology for the killing of nine activists onboard he Mavi Marmara, but rescinded his decision three times due to internal pressure.

The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report, calling it “untrue.”

via Israel, Turkey to soften UN flotilla report? – Israel News, Ynetnews.

July 3, 2011
U.S. Congress members to Turkey’s Erdogan: Stop Gaza flotilla

36 members of the U.S. House sign letter addressed to Turkish PM urging him to stop another attempt ‘to provoke a confrontation with Israel.’

By Natasha Mozgovaya

Members of the U.S. Congress issued a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday in which they urge Turkey’s premier to stop the departure of another flotilla to the Gaza Strip.

“We write today to express our serious concern over reports that the so-called Free Gaza Movement and the IHH are planning to send another flotilla to Gaza in the coming weeks to provoke a confrontation with Israel”, read a signed letter by 36 members of Congress initiated by Rep. Steve Israel.

The Mavi Marmara, aboard which Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla resulted in the deaths of 9 Turkish activists May 22, 2010 Photo by: AP

“As members of the United States House of Representatives we ask you to help discourage these efforts and work with the Israeli government in a productive way as it continues to allow legitimate aid, but not weapons, to enter Gaza.”

The letter further stressed that the Israeli government has “a right and responsibility” to protect its people, emphasizing that the “threat facing Israel by weapons smuggled into Gaza is real.”

Congress members urged Erdogan to stop the flotilla from departing in order to prevent another confrontation such as last May’s from happening again.

“If flotilla organizers carry out their confrontational plans, the Israelis will have little choice but to board the vessels and search for weapons. We fear violence could erupt just as it did last year,” the letter warned.

The letter signatories expressed hope that the Turkish government will work out with Israel an alternative way to allow “legitimate humanitarian assistance” into Gaza.

“By finding a constructive solution as an alternative to another flotilla, you have a unique opportunity to potentially save lives and be a force for stability at a particularly volatile time,” the letter concluded.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Erdogan said in an interview with U.S. television late Wednesday that Hamas is not a terror organization but a political party. He also said the recently penned Palestinian reconciliation agreement was an essential step toward Mideast peace.

via U.S. Congress members to Turkey’s Erdogan: Stop Gaza flotilla – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

May 13, 2011
New int’l flotilla heading to Gaza in early 2011

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
10/12/2010 09:53

IHH says may send ship larger than Mavi Marmara; US group sending ship named after Obama’s book, “Audacity of Hope.”

GENEVA — Pro-Palestinian groups plan to sail a flotilla of boats through Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza as early as February in the second such attempt in less than a year, activists said Monday.

The activists, representing groups from over a dozen countries including Switzerland, Turkey and the United States, said the flotilla would be bigger than the one stopped by Israel earlier this year.

“It’s not about the aid,” Huwaida Arraf of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition told reporters in Geneva.

Arraf said the aim will instead be to show that the Gaza blockade can be broken. A spokeswoman at Israel’s embassy in Bern, Shlomit Sufa, said humanitarian goods are allowed into Gaza by land and the sea blockade is needed to prevent weapons being smuggled in to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Several smaller ships have failed to reach Gaza since the May raid — most recently last month, when a boat carrying Jewish activists tried to reach the densely populated strip. Among the groups planning to take part in the latest flotilla is the Turkey-based Islamic charity IHH, which sponsored the Mavi Marmara — by far the biggest ship in the first flotilla. A representative of the group, Ahmet Faruk Unsal, said IHH is considering sending another ship of the same size. An American group, US Boat to Gaza, is also planning to send a vessel, said activist Jane Hirschmann. The boat will be named “The Audacity of Hope” in reference to US President Barack Obama’s best-selling policy book.

October 12, 2010