Turks march in protest against Israeli ship raid
By Sasha Kavic – Sat Jun 5, 3:09 pm ET
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Thousands of people angered by an Israeli raid on an aid ship that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists marched through Istanbul on Saturday, demanding Turkey cut economic ties with the Jewish state.Damn Israel,Murderer Israel,protesters shouted.An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Revenge.On Monday, Israeli commandos intercepted the Mavi Marmara, part of a six-vessel convoy carrying mostly Turkish, pro-Palestinian activists trying to break a four-year-old Israeli blockade on Gaza. The raid quickly turned violent.Besides the nine Turkish men who were killed, dozens of people were wounded. The ship was also carrying activists from Britain, Germany, Malaysia, Belgium, Ireland and elsewhere.On Saturday, the Israeli navy boarded without incident another aid ship trying to reach Gaza, the Rachel Corrie. Israeli police said the 19 people on board would be deported within hours.Now the Israelis have seized two more ships with captives. This is why I condemn Israel,said marcher Filiz Calislar.The Turkish people have gathered here to protest the atrocities by Israel.Protesters waved Turkish and Palestinian flags and carried signs with the photographs of the dead activists.They demanded a boycott of Israeli products and called on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government to impose sanctions on the Jewish state. The rally was organized by the Islamist Saadet Party.
What we experienced on the Mavi Marmara is what Palestinian women and children live through every day,said Bulent Yildirim, head of the Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Istanbul-based group that organized the flotilla.The last five Turkish activists wounded during the raid returned to Turkey on board Israeli air ambulances late on Friday, said Metin Dogan, chief physician at Ataturk Hospital in the capital Ankara. They had been unable to travel sooner because of the seriousness of their medical condition.Of the 24 people being treated in Ankara, one is Irish, and the rest are Turkish, Dogan also said.Seven of the patients are in critical condition, but their situation has improved since they arrived,he said.A prosecutor took statements from those in hospital who were well enough to speak, the broadcaster CNN Turk said on its website. Turkish officials are considering legal action against Israel.(Additional reporting by Mert Ozkan and Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Israel troops board aid ship but no violence: army
Sat Jun 5, 6:45 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli troops boarded an aid ship heading for Gaza on Saturday, but there was no violent confrontation, a military spokeswoman said.Our forces boarded the boat and took control without meeting any resistance from the crew or the passengers. Everything took place without violence, the spokeswoman told AFP.The move came after the Rachel Corrie refused to respond to four requests from the navy to head for the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, and stayed its course for the Gaza Strip, which is under an Israeli naval blockade.Activists on board the ship had previously indicated they would not heed Israeli calls to change course, and would continue to head for their destination -- although they were prepared to let their cargo be inspected.The ship was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters shortly after dawn but the troops held back from boarding the vessel for several hours.The apparently peaceful ending to the standoff comes just five days after the Israeli naval commandos raided another aid ship heading for Gaza in a bungled operation which left nine foreign activists dead and scores wounded, among them seven Israeli soldiers.
Flotilla raid goes viral as Israel floods YouTube
by Hazel Ward – Fri Jun 4, 11:29 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel may have lost the initial PR battle over its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, but it is fighting back with a barrage of video clips in a bid to prove activists initiated the violence.Days after the botched attack which killed nine Turks, the fight over what exactly happened on board the ferry is still raging on YouTube, with both sides posting more and more clips on the video-sharing website to support their case.It was chaotic footage of Israeli troops storming the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara which first caught the world's attention.Streaming Internet video of bloodied passengers and reporters issuing urgent calls for help were transmitted in real time from the deck of the ship.The commandos eventually disconnected the feed but the damage was done, provoking a wave of global outrage which has dealt a harsh blow to Israel's image.Israel says its troops were violently attacked as they dropped onto the Mavi Marmara, and only shot back in self-defence. The activists say the commandos started shooting as soon as they arrived, prompting those on board to act in self-defence.Faced with a diplomatic backlash, Israel cranked up its propaganda machine, uploading a slew of video clips to YouTube to support its version of events.Grainy images of elite commandos taking a beating at the hands of Turkish activists turned out to be one of Israel's most unlikely propaganda successes.Over 1.6 million people watched that footage. You also saw it used on blogs and in forums, said Lieutenant Aliza Landes, head of the Israeli military's new media desk.
In another clip, taken from the ship's security cameras, activists can be seen preparing for a confrontation.In that footage you can see them handing out metal batons and putting on masks, and you can see the light of the boat approaching so it's clear that they were preparing for a fight, said Landes.YouTube is the best tool we have as video gives the most powerful information, said Landes.Israel has, however, come under fire for using pirated footage to defend its botched raid -- material confiscated from journalists who were on board the ship.An interview with a passenger who says he wants to be a martyr is shown in a clip not credited to any media outlet, and only described as footage captured on the Gaza flotilla.The army refused to say whether the footage would be returned.Twitter has also been widely used by both sides, with the microblogging site flooded with Tweets as the raid happened, most of them posted by the flotilla organisers commenting on the live Internet feed.But none of the Tweets actually originated from the boat. And Israel has so far only used the service to distribute official information rather than as a breaking news tool.Chaim Shacham, director of information at the foreign ministry, says Israel is becoming more aware of the digital media battlefield. In this case, it was very clear to us that it would be a race for footage,he told AFP, saying that the navy had cameramen in the helicopters and patrol boats.
Getting footage was part of the operational plan, he said.All the clips put out by Israel have been rigorously edited, have no timestamp and show only scenes which vindicate the Israeli account without explaining what happened before, or after.
Shacham dismisses claims the footage provides a distorted image of events. The footage from the ship immediately put things into context -- it told the story of the soldiers as well as the protesters, clearly showing the soldiers rappelling down and getting beaten, he said. While some of the footage had not been very convenient for Israel, much of it vindicated the troops' account, said Shacham. The Arabic and Turkish footage is very revealing: it shows the jihadists on the ship were intending to beat the hell out of the soldiers, he said, pointing to interviews with Bulent Yildirim, head of the Turkish charity IHH.But analyst Yariv Ben Eliezer believes Israel's online efforts were too little, too late.We lost the propaganda war before we even started,said Ben Eliezer, a propaganda management expert at the IDC centre in Herzliya.We are considered by the world to be Goliath and the humanitarian activists are considered to be David, so it's a lose-lose situation.Israel, he says, should have done its homework and exposed activists aboard the ferry as extremists long before they set sail.It's not effective now because nobody wants to listen.
Hezbollah chief calls for Freedom Flotilla II by Natacha Yazbeck – Fri Jun 4, 4:13 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for the formation of a Freedom Flotilla II, and lauded Turkey's tough stance against Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid fleet.There is a real opportunity today to achieve what the Freedom Flotilla aimed to do... and that is to break the siege on our brothers and sisters in Gaza,Nasrallah said in a speech beamed to a mass rally in Lebanon's capital.This means we will need to form more flotillas of different nationalities and see them on to Gaza,he told thousands of his supporters, who waved Palestinian, Turkish and Hezbollah flags in a show of solidarity with the victims of Monday's raid.Nasrallah called on the people of Lebanon, including Christians and Muslims, to participate en masse in Freedom Flotilla II and again attempt to break the sea blockade of the Gaza Strip.Any Lebanese who is on that flotilla will come home safe and sound, he told the rally in Beirut's mainly Shiite southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold.Just as Israel takes into account the red flag of Turkey, so it takes into account the yellow flag of Hezbollah, Nasrallah said, paying tribute to four Lebanese activists aboard the flotilla who were repatriated this week.Nine people were killed when Israeli commandos stormed a fleet of boats dubbed the "Freedom Flotilla" that was carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid towards Gaza, which has been under siege since 2006.
All nine of the victims were Turks, including one who held US citizenship.The confrontation sparked a diplomatic storm between Turkey and Israel, two major powerbrokers in the region.Ankara recalled its ambassador from Israel and said it intends to reduce economic and defence ties with Israel but would stop short of freezing all bilateral cooperation.In his speech transmitted to Friday's rally via videolink, Nasrallah praised Turkey's tough stance against the Jewish state, describing it as an earthquake for Israel.I will not say that Israel has lost Turkey (as an ally), but it has begun to lose Turkey and that is a significant strategic shift in the region,Nasrallah said.The lesson to be learned here is that... only diplomacy which is built on strength and arms is effective, he added.But the head of the Lebanese militant group, who rarely makes public appearances, downplayed his intention to ignite a renewed round of conflict.I do not intend to create a new problem, he said. But we need to be part of this humanitarian struggle, and not leave it to those who traverse the sea to get here.Hezbollah fought a devastating month-long war with Israel in the summer of 2006.More than 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers, were killed in the 34-day conflict which destroyed much of Lebanon's major infrastructure.Fears of a fresh conflict between the two arch-enemies have escalated in recent weeks after Israel accused Hezbollah of having acquired long-range Scud missiles.
Ahmadinejad warns opposition, blasts Israeli raid By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 4, 7:41 am ET
TEHRAN, Iran – The Iranian president on Friday warned the country's opposition against straying from the path of the founder of the Islamic Revolution and slammed Israel for a deadly raid this week on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke before hundreds of thousands gathered at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the surrounding grounds in southern Tehran for a ceremony marking his death 21 years ago. The Khomeini-led Islamic revolution toppled the U.S.-backed shah and brought hard-line Islamists to power in 1979.Those who deviate from the Imam's path will be banished by the people, Ahmadinejad said.The stark warning came just days ahead of the opposition's mass rally planned on the anniversary of last June's disputed presidential election. The rally is to be the first opposition gathering in months and authorities have warned they will confront any unauthorized demonstrations.The Iranian opposition claims Ahmadinejad won the June 12 election through massive vote fraud. It had rallied for months against the election results but was met by a heavy government crackdown, which the opposition says killed 80 people during street protests so far.More than 100 opposition figures and activists were put on a mass trial, and 80 of them were sentenced to death or given prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years.But Ahmadinejad reiterated Friday that the election was 100 percent free and added he is bound by duty to protect the people's vote.The annual commemoration of Khomeini's death is part mournful ceremony, part political rally for the base that sustains Iran's hard-liners amid rising dissatisfaction with inflation, unemployment, social constraints — and an opposition movement that has persisted despite the crackdown.Ahmadinejad, known for his anti-Israeli rhetoric, used the podium at the shrine grounds Friday to blast Israel's commando raid on the international flotilla off Gaza's shores, calling it barbaric and urging the dismantling of the Zionist regime.
They have lost their self-control and ability to think,he said of the Israeli raid that killed nine activists on the Turkish flagship in the flotilla Monday.Thousands such freedom flotillas across the world will sail out with freedom fighters, to scrap the Zionist rule and bring peace and freedom to all mankind, added Ahmadinejad.
Iran's supreme leader and Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also criticized the raid as a mistake that showed how barbaric the Zionists are.Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, also indirectly criticized opposition leaders, saying that some who revered the late Khomeini now speak differently than before. He also warned the opposition to carefully examine what he said was support that comes from foreign enemies of Iran, enemies of the Imam.
Khomeini's grandson took the stage as he does every year on the anniversary, but this time his speech was repeatedly interrupted by anti-opposition chants from Ahmadinejad supporters. The chanting was apparently a jab at Hassan Khomeini's perceived support for opposition leaders.Khomeini left the podium before finishing.The dignity of the anniversary does not deserve what this small group is doing,he said.The semiofficial Ilna news agency said other Khomeini relatives who attended the ceremony left in protest over the incident.State TV carried the ceremony live, saying it was attended by 2 million people, including more than 700,000 Iranians who were bused in from various provinces.Khomeini is still deeply popular and respected among Iranians, including veterans of the eight-year war that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched against Iran in the 1980s. The TV reported that after the Tehran ceremony, there were anti-Israeli demonstrations in several Iranian cities and towns following Friday prayers.
Turkish group behind flotilla is Gaza's new hero By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writers – Thu Jun 3, 5:36 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Turkish group that bankrolled the aid flotilla raided by Israel has big plans for Gaza.Its bearded 50-year-old leader has assumed hero status in the impoverished Palestinian territory, where he says his group plans to spend $25million on housing, medical care and education.Mehmet Kaya has been treated like a star wherever he goes since the deadly raid on Monday. Gazans young and old gather to shake his hand, and he enjoys ready access to leaders of the territory's ruling Islamic militant group Hamas.The Arab countries that are a part of us haven't done what Turkey did, said Jihan Balousha, 30, who bought her five children to meet Kaya at Gaza's dilapidated port Wednesday.It's all part of Turkey's muscular push into the blockaded Gaza Strip and its growing ambition to be an influential player in the Middle East.Israel accuses Kaya's group, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, of supporting terrorism. The Turkish activists vehemently deny that, saying they're strictly involved in humanitarian efforts and have to deal with Hamas, since it is the authority in Gaza.We have found that the support, when it goes through the Hamas government ... it goes to the people,said Kaya, the Gaza representative for the group, whose name in English means Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief.Kaya has gained new prominence since the six-ship flotilla tried to challenge Israel's 3-year-old blockade of Gaza. The attempt ended with Israeli commandos commandeering the boats and clashing with club-wielding passengers on one vessel in a confrontation that left eight Turks and an American dead.
Seen as a kind of unofficial ambassador to Gaza, Kaya symbolizes Turkey's dramatic shift toward Hamas' key patrons Iran and Syria, at the expense of its traditional alliance with Israel.Ties had been warming gradually, but the sea raid pushed the fledgling partnership out into the open as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan railed against Israel, accusing it of committing a massacre on the high seas.
Israeli-Turkish ties had been showing signs of strains even before the raid. Erdogan was an outspoken critic of Israel's war in Gaza last year and in one high-profile incident, stormed off a stage he was sharing with Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in the days after the war.Turkey's government unofficially sponsored the flotilla, which was transporting 10,000 tons of aid and hundreds of activists. In the weeks before the operation, Israeli military and diplomatic officials repeatedly urged Turkey to call off the flotilla — a request that was rebuffed in Ankara.IHH insists it has no ties to Turkey's Islamic-leaning government, though its top fund-raisers are believed to be among Erdogan's core support group, the country's wealthy merchant class.Signs of the warm Turkish-Gaza ties are popping up around the territory.A Hamas statement quoting Erdogan as telling the Islamic militant group's leader, Ismail Haniyeh, by phone that we will continue to support you even if we remain alone was widely distributed and posted on mosque walls in Gaza this week.The IHH is renovating the port, funding a Turkish-Palestinian school and plans to build a hospital and apartments for Gazans made homeless during the war with Israel early last year. The group also supports 9,000 families with money and food parcels, and is hosting computer and sewing courses for women, Kaya said.Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas, which most Western countries consider a terrorist organization, seized power in Gaza and stepped up rocket fire into Israel.
The United Nations, which was to lead reconstruction efforts after the Gaza war ended early last year, has been paralyzed because Israel does not allow in building materials. U.N. aid agencies are not permitted to buy goods brought in through Gaza's smuggling tunnels. Groups like IHH have filled the void because they can use black market goods and — unlike the international agencies — are under no obligation to stay away from Hamas. In the war-ravaged Gaza neighborhood of Izbet Abed Rabbo, IHH is building a three-story apartment block for families made homeless during the Gaza war. The $250,000 project provides jobs for 100 people.As the IHH shot to attention, so have Israeli accusations that it supports terrorism. Israel has been trying to defuse widespread international anger over the sea raid, arguing that its troops came under premeditated attack and fired in self defense. The IHH is ... known as a group implicated in terrorist operations, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.Their close ties with Hamas are an avowed policy of this group.The IHH's website shows its founder warmly embracing Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Syria. Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks. On Wednesday, former French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who investigated the group in the 1990s, said he found links to terrorism networks, including al-Qaida, but didn't say whether IHH now has terror ties. Israel's Shin Bet security service says the group is a major player in raising funds for Hamas.Reuven Erlich, head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli think tank with close ties to Israel's Defense Ministry, said the group in the past provided at least logistical support to Islamic jihad organizations, including funds and arms. We were not surprised when we heard what happened, Erlich said.This fits well with their past.
Despite such claims, the IHH, unlike Hamas, is not among some 45 groups listed by the U.S. State Department as terror organizations. IHH board member Omer Faruk Korkmaz said his group is strictly involved in delivering aid. We don't approve of the actions of any terrorist organization in the world, he said in an interview at the group's Istanbul headquarters Wednesday. Gaza residents say they appreciate the IHH and Turkey for spotlighting Israel's harsh blockade on the territory.They have really stood beside us, and we are grateful,Balousha said.Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Istanbul and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Israel has right to board Gaza-bound ships: Biden
Thu Jun 3, 11:46 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Vice President Joe Biden has said Israel has the right to protect its security by boarding ships heading for Gaza, but warned Washington would cajole its ally on the plight of Palestinians.Despite a wave of global outrage over the Israeli commando assault on a Gaza aid flotilla on Monday which killed nine people, the White House has so far refused to explicitly single out the Israeli government for blame.I think Israel has an absolute right to deal with its security interest, Biden said in an interview with the Charlie Rose show broadcast by PBS television late Wednesday.The truth of the matter is, Israel has a right to know -- they're at war with Hamas... whether or not arms are being smuggled in.It's legitimate for Israel to say, I don't know what's on that ship. These guys are dropping eight -- 3,000 rockets on my people.But Biden also said Washington, which has branded the situation in Gaza untenable, would continue to press Israel to improve living conditions for Palestinians under the Gaza blockade.The one thing we have to do is not forget the plight of these Palestinians there ... they're in bad shape.So we have put as much pressure and as much cajoling on Israel as we can to allow them to get building materials in.On Thursday, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell warned the Gaza flotilla tragedy should not be allowed to undermine US efforts to revive the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Top US lawmaker: Israel rightfully raided flotilla
Wed Jun 2, 5:37 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israel has rightfully invoked its right to self-defense to justify a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, and should not face UN condemnation, a top US lawmaker said Wednesday.The loss of life was tragic, but the administration and Congress are determined to prevent condemnation of Israel at the UN Security Council,Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in a statement.
Israel -- facing a global uproar over its pre-dawn raid which left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead -- has blamed those aboard the ships, including the main vessel, the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara, for initiating the violence.Hoyer, a staunch backer of Washington's main Middle East ally, said he was waiting for all the facts to emerge about the Monday raid, but seemed to side with Israel's account.Israel -- rightfully so -- invoked its right to self-defense on the Mavi Marmara. While the majority of ships in the flotilla -- five out of six -- reacted peacefully when approached by Israeli Defense Forces, activists on board the Mavi Marmara were clearly bent on a violent confrontation, he said.Hoyer said the flotilla had set a collision course with Israel, ignoring two week's worth of repeated warnings that they would not be allowed access to Gaza, and Israeli offers to distribute legitimate aid to Gaza's people.Finally, to the extent that this act was in protest of the Gaza blockade, let's be clear: Hamas could end the blockade at any time by recognizing Israel's right to exist, renouncing violence, and releasing Gilad Shalit,an Israeli soldier held by the militant group since 2006, he said.In times of increased tension such as now, it is imperative that we not allow these events to distract from our main goals of achieving peace in the region and preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons,said Hoyer.
