Israeli Forces Intercepted And Seized Control Of The Rachel Corrie

Israeli forces intercepted and seized control of the Rachel Corrie on Saturday as it tried to reach the Gaza Strip, without use of force like that on Monday when nine people were killed as commandos stormed an aid flotilla.
The Irish-owned 1,200-tonne Rachel Corrie was escorted into the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, and the activists and crew taken to Holon immigration centre near Tel Aviv for questioning before being deported.

Israel deported an Indonesian journalist on Sunday who had been among the passengers wounded on Monday in the interception of the flotilla.

Surya Fachrizal, 28, "was shot in the upper right chest," an Indonesian embassy official said, adding that the journalist was to be admitted to hospital in the Jordanian capital Amman before being flown home.
A group of Fachrizal's Indonesian friends, who had been among 126 people deported by Israel to Jordan on Wednesday, gave him a warm welcome at the border, chanting "Allahu Akbar" and carrying national flags.
Monday's operation has sparked global outrage, and many countries, including Jordan, which singed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, have called for an international probe.

Israel has blockaded the impoverished and overcrowded Gaza Strip since militants captured a soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in 2006. It further tightened its grip after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory the following year.
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes has said the disastrous raid should be used as an opportunity to press Israel to change its policy on Gaza.

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Rachel Corrie Biography

Activist, Writer, 1979–2003

"The international media and our government are not going to tell us that we are effective, important, justified in our work, courageous, intelligent, valuable. We have to do that for each other, and one way we can do that is by continuing our work, visibly. People without privilege will be doing this work no matter what, because they are working for their lives. We can work with them, and they know that we work with them, or we can leave them to do this work themselves and curse us for our complicity in killing them."

Rachel Corrie was a young activist whose life, at 23, ended abruptly on March 16, 2003 while she was working as a protester in the Gaza Strip. She grew up in Olympia, Washington, attending Capital High School and The Evergreen State College. While in college, Corrie joined the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and later, the International Solidarity Movement, or ISM.

The ISM, founded in 2001, looks worldwide for people to help with their nonviolent protests against the Israeli military in the West Bank. The organization seeks to pressure Israel and its Israeli Defense Force (IDF) into stopping its occupation of Palestinian lands, using a number of nonviolent resistance tactics. Violating Israeli curfews imposed on Palestinian areas, removing roadblocks placed by the IDF to isolate one village from another, and blocking military vehicles like tanks and bulldozers are among the measures used to protest the occupation.

Rachel Corrie went to Rafah in the Gaza Strip in January 2003 and received two days of nonviolent resistance training to assist in ISM activities. She was horrified at the amount of destruction she found there. Homes were destroyed and people detained and killed on a daily basis. Rachel recorded what she observed and felt in letters and emails home to her family. In one email she wrote, “Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university can’t. People can’t get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can’t get home; and internationals, who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, won’t make it.” Yet through all of this, she found that her presence was welcome, as when she wrote, “Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom….Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the willful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me.”

Rachel Corrie’s efforts to help the resistance movement cost her her life on March 16, 2003. She had placed herself between a Caterpillar bulldozer and a local home, trying to prevent the IDF from demolishing it. She was run over twice by the vehicle and killed.

The outcry from her tragedy has manifested in many ways. A memorial website has been set up to commemorate her life, as well as The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. Several music artists have paid tribute to Corrie in songs and compositions. Actor Alan Rickman and writer Katherine Viner put together a play based on Corrie’s letters, journals, and emails called “My Name is Rachel Corrie.” It played in London in 2005, and after an initial postponement in the US, had a limited run Off-Broadway in New York.

source: http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Rachel_Corrie.php

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Turkey-Israel News : Israel Ready To Intercept Another Ship To Gaza To Bring Aid And Activist

Israel says its blockade of the Gaza Strip, imposed after Hamas seized the territory from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, is meant to prevent arms and military supplies from reaching the territory's Hamas rulers.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "We will stop the ship, and also any other ship that will try to harm Israeli sovereignty. There is no chance the Rachel Corrie will reach the coast of Gaza."

The Israeli military declined to give prior details of what it planned to do in the event the navy had to intervene.

"We in Israel have no desire for confrontation ... If the ship decides to sail to the port of Ashdod in Israel then we will ensure its safe arrival and will not board it," foreign ministry official Yossi Gal said.

Turkey, Israel's only Muslim ally, has threatened to rethink its entire relationship. Thousands of protesters sang Turkey's praises at demonstrations in Egypt and Lebanon.

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Israel Flotilla Raid Videos In Youtube

The fight over what exactly happened on board the ferry is still raging on YouTube Days after the botched attack which killed nine Turks, with both sides posting more and more clips on the video-sharing website to support their case.

What first caught the world’s attention was chaotic footage of Israeli troops storming the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara.

Transmitted in real time from the deck of the ship were streaming Internet video of bloodied passengers and reporters issuing urgent calls for help.

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The Ambiguous Nature Of America

The Obama administration on Tuesday tried to placate an outraged Turkish government while refusing to condemn Israel for its deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza.

The deep rift between Israel and Turkey, which had cultivated close ties, puts the Obama administration in a tough spot on two of its most pressing foreign-policy issues: the Middle East and Iran.

The United States does not want to abandon Israel, which has been subjected to international opprobrium since the raid. The administration is desperate to keep alive indirect peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians brokered by its special envoy, George J. Mitchell.

But it also does not want to alienate Turkey, which is playing an increasingly vocal role on the world stage. Relations were already tender after the United States threw cold water on a Turkish and Brazilian effort to resolve the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program. Turkish officials complain that they negotiated the deal with the encouragement and agreement of the administration.

“Turkey and Israel are both good friends of the United States, and we are working with both to deal with the aftermath of the tragic incident,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters at the State Department after meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.

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Turkey's Parliament Called On The Government To Review All Ties With Israel

Turkey's parliament called on the government to review all ties with Israel as the country prepared to welcome home Turkish activists who had been detained after Israel's bloody raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Israel has come under harsh international condemnation after its commandos stormed a six-ship aid flotilla Monday in international waters, setting off clashes that killed nine activists and wounded dozens. The nearly 700 activists - including 400 Turks - were trying to break the three-year-old Israeli and Egyptian naval blockade of the Gaza Strip by bringing in 10,000 tons of aid.

Israel rejects claims that Gaza is experiencing a humanitarian crisis, saying it allows more than enough food, medicines and supplies into the territory.

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Israeli Police Sent 16 Pro-Palestinian Activists To Jail

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the activists were taken ashore and were jailed in the southern desert town of Beersheba after refusing to identify themselves.

Israel has said it will deport the roughly 700 activists in the flotilla. But those who refuse to cooperate will be jailed. About 80 activists have been brought to shore so far.

sraeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday.

Dozens of activists and six Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody predawn confrontation in international waters.


Israel said it opened fire after its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter to board one of the vessels.

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Nato Holds A Meeting To Discuss The Gaza Issue

NATO will hold emergency talks on Tuesday at Turkey's behest after the deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla of aid-carrying ships bound for Gaza. The talks will gather ambassadors from the 28 NATO member countries at its Brussels HQ.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Santiago, Chile, that his government was demanding the NATO council gather to address a crisis that has already seen Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a visit to Canada and Washington where he had been due to meet with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

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Aid Ships Set Out To Defy Gaza Blockade

A convoy of ships containing pro-Palestinian activists and aid destined for the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday steamed south from Cyprus towards Israeli naval vessels determined to stop them.
The five ships, carrying more than 700 passengers, are on the last leg of a high-profile mission to deliver tonnes of aid to Gaza, which has been subjected to a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
In Gaza City, dozens of Palestinian fishing boats were preparing to set sail to meet the flotilla, which is carrying hundreds of civilians and a handful of European MPs as well as dozens of Muslim activists.
The flotilla of cargo and passenger ships, which is carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid for Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, had been due to reach Gaza on Saturday.
Israel has slammed as "illegal" the convoy's attempt to break its blockade on Gaza, and has naval forces at the ready to intercept the ships and detain the pro-Palestinian activists on board.
To date, the amount of aid has been largely symbolic but organisers say this convoy is laden with 10,000 tonnes, ranging from pre-fabricated homes to pencils.

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BBC Reports on Gaza

Whether or not the boats of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla arrive safely in Gaza, they will have at least achieved the difficult feat of catching the attention of the mainstream press, something which every activist action for Gaza should be aimed at. Jon Donnison of the BBC reported on the boats yesterday and followed up with another report today.
Is Donnison’s reporting perfect? The answer is no, but he is operating within an extremely confined power structure and he and other mainstream reporters and outlets need evidence that viewers want increased, accurate reporting on Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Gaza is recognized as the world’s largest “open-air prison” and this flotilla can’t change the situation for the long term, but what it can do is wake up the world to the point of asking why activists from around the world continue to face-off with one of the world’s top most brutal armies when others like them have lost their lives while doing so.

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Israeli Aircraft Hit 2 Gaza Targets

The Israeli military says its aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop and a militants' tunnel in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Hamas security officials said Saturday that nine missiles were fired, but that no one was hurt.
The military says the tunnel targeted late Friday was dug with the intention of smuggling militants from Gaza into Israel. Metal workshops are part of Gaza's small homegrown weapons industry, which makes crude rockets that are fired at Israeli border towns.
Hamas says the workshop targeted Friday was destroyed.
The airstrikes came a day after a rocket fired from Gaza hit near an Israeli town and armed men tried unsuccessfully to rush across the border with Israel.

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