Tim lawsonGaza flotilla raid: detailed recap
June 11th 2010 17:26
On May 31st, the Israeli navy conducted a pre-dawn raid on the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ - a group of six ships carrying over 10 000 tonnes of aid supplies and over 600 pro-Palestinian activists from 37 countries.
At 4:30 am, Israeli Shayetet 13 Special Forces, descended upon the ships while they were in international waters; the operation was dubbed ‘Operation Sea Breeze’ by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On board the main ship, the MV Mavi Marmara, activists engaged in combat with Israeli commandos who had abseiled onto the deck of the vessel.
During the fighting, nine activists were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers and, according to a recent Ynet News article forty-two other passengers were wounded. Eight of the dead were Turkish nationals and the other was an American of Turkish descent. The IDF suffered no casualties, although seven commandos were wounded, with two of them receiving severe injuries.
The flotilla was aiming to break the naval component of the Gaza blockade, which can be described as an Israeli and Egyptian cooperative naval, land, and air blockade surrounding the Gaza strip; it was initially implemented by Israel and Egypt during June 2007 as a reaction to Hamas winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.
In mapping out the events, it is useful to begin with the 2006 Palestinian election, as this was a key event in shaping the current political leadership in the country. Soon after being legitimately and democratically elected, Hamas refused to uphold agreements made between the preceding Palestinian Government, led by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and Israel. This and other similar events sparked a brief internal military conflict between Hamas and rival political party, Fatah.
The conflict culminted in Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and Fatah controlling the West Bank. This led to the current Gaza blockade, which is employed jointly by Egypt and Israel, and seals off the entire Gaza Strip. According to a BBC News article, the amount of goods allowed entry into the Gaza Strip by Israel is one quarter of the amount prior to the blockade.
Israel insists the blockade is needed to limit Palestinian rocket attacks on its cities; According to Haaretz, an Isreali newspaper, Egypt argues that lifting their section of the blockade would imply a recognition on its part of the Hamas government of Gaza, thus further widening the schism between Gaza and the West Bank.
In the days leading up to the raid, the Israeli government requested that the flotilla dock in Israel at Ashdod, so that the aid supplies could be checked by Israeli authorities. The flotilla declined this request, saying (as quoted in Haaretz): “This mission is not about delivering humanitarian supplies, it’s about breaking Israel’s siege on 1.5 million Palestinians.” It was announced by some supporters of the flotilla that “a violent response from Israel will breathe new life into the Palestine solidarity movement, drawing attention to the blockade.”
Arguments are still raging about who the initial aggressor was when the Israeli Special Forces boarded the MV Mavi Marmara. An article in The Australian expresses some frustration that people are still trying to proclaim the innocence of the activists on board the main ship, pointing to evidence that surfaced following the raids, stating: “the activists involved know they lost the first debate. Footage proves they used metal poles, knives, Molotov cocktails and live ammunition against Israeli soldiers, blowing out of the water claims of non-violence. The second, the flotilla was never about delivering aid; its organisers refused to co-operate with Israel, Egypt or the UN to have the goods delivered. Rather, the flotilla was about embarrassing Israel and bringing to light Israel's Gaza blockade.” The article also discussed the revelation that one of the organisations supporting the flotilla,, a Turkish NGO, has been linked with Hamas and other Jihadist organisations.
These events seemed to quell some of criticism directed at Israel by other international actors because, initially, international response to the botched raid was of widespread outrage and condemnation. Many protests took place around the world following the incident. The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned “those acts resulting in civilian deaths”, demanded an unbiased investigation and called for the immediate release of citizens detained by Israel. The UN Human Rights Council dispatched a team to investigate alleged violations of international law.
Israel claims the activists ambushed the commandos after they descended onto the board from helicopters; the IDF and Turkish TV has each released separate footage that supports this claim.
However, activists and journalists on board the ship have claimed that the Israeli commandoes started shooting before they boarded. Al Jazeera journalist, Jamal Elshayyal, writes in his blog on the Al Jazeera website that: “just after 4am local time, the Israeli military attacked the ship, in international waters. It was an unprovoked attack. Tear gas was used, sound grenades were launched, and rubber coated steel bullets were fired from almost every direction.” He describes the scene when the shooting began saying: “commandos on board the choppers joined the firing, using live ammunition, before any of the soldiers had descended onto the ship.”Activists on board at the time later stated that while they did engage in combat with the Israeli soldiers, they acted in self defense because the vessels were boarded by a military force.
In a section of an article in The Australian which comes to the conclusion that Israel is caught in a vicious cycle whereby “the more its hawk-thinks, the more the outside world will always hate it, the more it tends to shoot opponents first and ask questions later, and the more it finds that the world is indeed full of enemies. Though Israeli leader, Mr Netanyahu, has reluctantly agreed to freeze settlement-building and is negotiating indirectly with Palestinians, he does not give the impression of being willing to give ground in the interests of peace.”
As for the implications of this incident? It is doubtful that any of the main players have emerged from the last fortnight with their reputations intact. Israel has been criticized for what is seen as a tendency to lose its nerve and resort to deploying overly aggressive tactics. The IDF’s decision to send in commandos to turn the boats around also raises legal issues in regards to how the flotilla was handled at an organizational level. However, the activists should not escape censure for their violent actions, which justifiably undermined claims that they were ‘peace activists’. The fact that it has been established that some of the activists had close ties to terrorist groups and have lied about the nature of the confrontations on board the vessels undermines their cause, and draws into question claims that they are acting in the best interests of the people in Gaza or whether they are merely trying to engineer confrontations with Israel.
A considerable amount of time and effort has been wasted with the flotillas, and the only potential positive to emerge will be if it leads to some relief for the people of Gaza. Unfortunately, it seems that Gaza itself is often lost in the din of hardliners on both sides who are using this incident to propagate their own jaundiced and militaristic views.
At 4:30 am, Israeli Shayetet 13 Special Forces, descended upon the ships while they were in international waters; the operation was dubbed ‘Operation Sea Breeze’ by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On board the main ship, the MV Mavi Marmara, activists engaged in combat with Israeli commandos who had abseiled onto the deck of the vessel.
During the fighting, nine activists were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers and, according to a recent Ynet News article forty-two other passengers were wounded. Eight of the dead were Turkish nationals and the other was an American of Turkish descent. The IDF suffered no casualties, although seven commandos were wounded, with two of them receiving severe injuries.
The flotilla was aiming to break the naval component of the Gaza blockade, which can be described as an Israeli and Egyptian cooperative naval, land, and air blockade surrounding the Gaza strip; it was initially implemented by Israel and Egypt during June 2007 as a reaction to Hamas winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.
In mapping out the events, it is useful to begin with the 2006 Palestinian election, as this was a key event in shaping the current political leadership in the country. Soon after being legitimately and democratically elected, Hamas refused to uphold agreements made between the preceding Palestinian Government, led by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and Israel. This and other similar events sparked a brief internal military conflict between Hamas and rival political party, Fatah.
The conflict culminted in Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and Fatah controlling the West Bank. This led to the current Gaza blockade, which is employed jointly by Egypt and Israel, and seals off the entire Gaza Strip. According to a BBC News article, the amount of goods allowed entry into the Gaza Strip by Israel is one quarter of the amount prior to the blockade.
Israel insists the blockade is needed to limit Palestinian rocket attacks on its cities; According to Haaretz, an Isreali newspaper, Egypt argues that lifting their section of the blockade would imply a recognition on its part of the Hamas government of Gaza, thus further widening the schism between Gaza and the West Bank.
In the days leading up to the raid, the Israeli government requested that the flotilla dock in Israel at Ashdod, so that the aid supplies could be checked by Israeli authorities. The flotilla declined this request, saying (as quoted in Haaretz): “This mission is not about delivering humanitarian supplies, it’s about breaking Israel’s siege on 1.5 million Palestinians.” It was announced by some supporters of the flotilla that “a violent response from Israel will breathe new life into the Palestine solidarity movement, drawing attention to the blockade.”
Arguments are still raging about who the initial aggressor was when the Israeli Special Forces boarded the MV Mavi Marmara. An article in The Australian expresses some frustration that people are still trying to proclaim the innocence of the activists on board the main ship, pointing to evidence that surfaced following the raids, stating: “the activists involved know they lost the first debate. Footage proves they used metal poles, knives, Molotov cocktails and live ammunition against Israeli soldiers, blowing out of the water claims of non-violence. The second, the flotilla was never about delivering aid; its organisers refused to co-operate with Israel, Egypt or the UN to have the goods delivered. Rather, the flotilla was about embarrassing Israel and bringing to light Israel's Gaza blockade.” The article also discussed the revelation that one of the organisations supporting the flotilla,, a Turkish NGO, has been linked with Hamas and other Jihadist organisations.
These events seemed to quell some of criticism directed at Israel by other international actors because, initially, international response to the botched raid was of widespread outrage and condemnation. Many protests took place around the world following the incident. The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned “those acts resulting in civilian deaths”, demanded an unbiased investigation and called for the immediate release of citizens detained by Israel. The UN Human Rights Council dispatched a team to investigate alleged violations of international law.
Israel claims the activists ambushed the commandos after they descended onto the board from helicopters; the IDF and Turkish TV has each released separate footage that supports this claim.
However, activists and journalists on board the ship have claimed that the Israeli commandoes started shooting before they boarded. Al Jazeera journalist, Jamal Elshayyal, writes in his blog on the Al Jazeera website that: “just after 4am local time, the Israeli military attacked the ship, in international waters. It was an unprovoked attack. Tear gas was used, sound grenades were launched, and rubber coated steel bullets were fired from almost every direction.” He describes the scene when the shooting began saying: “commandos on board the choppers joined the firing, using live ammunition, before any of the soldiers had descended onto the ship.”Activists on board at the time later stated that while they did engage in combat with the Israeli soldiers, they acted in self defense because the vessels were boarded by a military force.
In a section of an article in The Australian which comes to the conclusion that Israel is caught in a vicious cycle whereby “the more its hawk-thinks, the more the outside world will always hate it, the more it tends to shoot opponents first and ask questions later, and the more it finds that the world is indeed full of enemies. Though Israeli leader, Mr Netanyahu, has reluctantly agreed to freeze settlement-building and is negotiating indirectly with Palestinians, he does not give the impression of being willing to give ground in the interests of peace.”
As for the implications of this incident? It is doubtful that any of the main players have emerged from the last fortnight with their reputations intact. Israel has been criticized for what is seen as a tendency to lose its nerve and resort to deploying overly aggressive tactics. The IDF’s decision to send in commandos to turn the boats around also raises legal issues in regards to how the flotilla was handled at an organizational level. However, the activists should not escape censure for their violent actions, which justifiably undermined claims that they were ‘peace activists’. The fact that it has been established that some of the activists had close ties to terrorist groups and have lied about the nature of the confrontations on board the vessels undermines their cause, and draws into question claims that they are acting in the best interests of the people in Gaza or whether they are merely trying to engineer confrontations with Israel.
A considerable amount of time and effort has been wasted with the flotillas, and the only potential positive to emerge will be if it leads to some relief for the people of Gaza. Unfortunately, it seems that Gaza itself is often lost in the din of hardliners on both sides who are using this incident to propagate their own jaundiced and militaristic views.
| 183 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
