Emily wrote and recorded this song, entitled “I miss you, Palestine”, and put it up on Youtube (under her nom de plume, Thirstypixels), and added this explanation: “The week I got home, I got my energy back, and I was giddy with the joy of being alive. I walked my dog and bellowed out this song in the woods. I’m no musician, but the soul of the moment carried my voice. When I came home I got out my computer and recorded this in a message for my good friend Nick… but what the heck, I want to give it to the world! Also, if someone could remix this or re-sing this with piano, that would be brilliant“.

“Because I changed, people can change”, Emily sings in her song. “It ain’t gonna go on forever … I believe it can get better, if people just open their eyes”…

Article from UN-Truth read more here

Fox News reported that “The Palestinians called the shooting ‘irresponsible’. Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian Authority spokesman … identified the man as Bilal Abu Libdeh, 35, from the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya. He said Abu Libdeh was found to be unarmed when his body was recovered and that no one knew why he and the others sought to enter the settlement. ‘Regardless of the reason for them going there, they shouldn’t be killed’, he said”. This is posted here.

One of the points being debated, as “proximity” talks may soon melt into direct talks that may last for years, is whether or not the Israeli Jewish settlers can remain in the West Bank in any future scenario; maybe they can retain their Israeli citizenship and become residents of Palestine, subject to its laws, some suggest.

But former Defense Ministry official Shlomo Gazit said at a discussion organized by IPCRI (Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information) last week that there is no way Palestinian security can protect settlers who remain in the West Bank after the creation of a future Palestinian state — this can only be done by the IDF, he said.

An Israeli journalist who attended the discussion said that he believes there is no way any settlers can remain in the West Bank, because their mere presence will be an invitation to violence … of the sort that killed the merely “suspected” Bilal Abu Libdeh overnight.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

The statement said that journalists have been “harassed, arrested and attacked by the various on site forces before these forces turn their attention to the activists or demonstrators”.

The professional organization of journalists based in Israel said, in their statement that “The FPA strongly protests what appears to be a recent policy change by the Border Police and IDF with regard to legitimate news coverage in the West Bank. Over the past months journalists covering these events have been harassed, arrested and attacked by the various on site forces before these forces turn their attention to the activists or demonstrators. We would appreciate it were the authorities to remind the various forces involved, that open, unhindered coverage of news events is a widely acknowledged part of the essence of democracy. Generally speaking this would not include smashing the face of a clearly marked photographer working for a known and accredited news organization with a stick, or for that matter aiming a stun grenade at the head of a clearly marked news photographer or summarily arresting cameramen, photographers and/or journalists – www.fpa.org.il “.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

Even this picture is sanitized

The CNN article continues: “the TSA has distributed numerous news releases with similar language as it lobbies for public acceptance of the machines as a less intrusive alternative to pat-downs.  A TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official is not authorized to speak on the record said all full-body scanners have ’strong privacy protections in place’ and are delivered to airports ‘without the capability to store, print or transmit images. There is no way for someone in the airport environment to put the machine into the test mode’, the official said, adding that test mode can be enabled only in TSA test facilities. But the official declined to say whether activating test mode requires additional hardware, software or simply additional knowledge of how the machines operate … The agency adds that images are deleted from the system after the operator reviews them.  And employees who misuse the machines are subject to serious discipline or removal”…

However, EPIC’s Executive Director Rotenberg said: “I don’t think the TSA has been forthcoming with the American public about the true capability of these devices … They’ve done a bunch of very slick promotions where they show people — including journalists — going through the devices.  And then they reassure people, based on the images that have been produced, that there’s not any privacy concerns.  ‘But if you look at the actual technical specifications and you read the vendor contracts, you come to understand that these machines are capable of doing far more than the TSA has let on’.”

This report is published here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

Mohammad Abu-Tir, perhaps the most senior of four East Jerusalem Palestinian men facing “deportation”, is facing expulsion on Sunday 18 July.

An Associated Press report said that the “IPU brings together lawmakers from 155 countries. The U.S. Congress isn’t a member”. This is published here.

The IPU said that deportation would violated the human rights of Palestinian parliamentarians Mohammed Abu Tir, Mohammed Totah and Ahmed Abu Atoun, who were were recently released from prison after serving four-year sentences, for their affiliation to Hamas. A fourth East Jerusalem Palestinian parliamentarian elected in 200, Khalid Abu Arafeh, is also facing deportation.

One question now is what is the IPU going to do to follow-up?

And what will it do if one or more of the deportations are carried out?

Incongruously, the Jerusalem Post reported that “Muhammad Abu Tir will be released from detention and exiled from the country next Sunday, if he can post bail of NIS 50,000. He is also required to post NIS 100,000 self-bail and NIS 100,000 third-party bail. Abu Tir was imprisoned for refusing to leave Jerusalem after Interior Minister Eli Yishai invalidated his Jerusalem residence permit”… This report is posted here.

So, if he can’t come up with that huge amount of money, he gets to stay in jail? In Jerusalem?

Two days earlier, the Jerusalem Post’s Palestinian Affairs correspondent by Khaled Abu Toameh reported that “Abu Tir was first arrested in 1974 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for security-related offenses. He was released 13 years later. In 1989 he was arrested for a second time, this time on charges of possession of weapons. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison.  Between 1990 and 2005 he spent eight years in prison on charges of membership in the armed wing of Hamas and trading in weapons”. This report can be read in full here.

The Voice of America’s correspondent in Geneva, Lisa Schlein, reported Thursday night that “the Committee says Israel has given the MPs the choice of renouncing their membership in the Palestinian Legislative Council or of facing deportation from East Jerusalem, the city of their birth. The committee says this is in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention”.   Her report is posted here.

Not much is clear about what’s happening.

But, deportation is a violation of the Road Map. Is Israel going to go ahead and deport Abu Tir when George Mitchell is here?

According to an IPU press release, the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has just concluded an examintion of “public cases concerning 122 legislators in 21 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Iraq, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palestine/Israel, Philippines, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Zimbabwe … The IPU assists legislators in representing their constituents freely and effectively. In 1976, it set up the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, which has since examined cases in over 100 countries and has often helped those under threat obtain protection or reparation. This can take various forms, such as the release of a detained parliamentarian, reinstatement of an MP to parliament, an inquiry into attacks, prosecution of the perpetrators of such crimes and payment of compensation”. This is posted here.

[The Interparliamentary Union asked the Knesset speaker for clarification of the Knesset committee recommendation withdraw parliamentary privileges from MK Haneen Zoabi in June (she was on board the Mavi Marmara, sailing to Gaza, when the Israeli naval assault occurred on 31 May, and for that she has been called a "traitor"), and the IPU also expressed concerns about the death threats to Zoabi and about the pending censure, but did not seem to have anything to say after the plenary vote to punish Zoabi this week.]

Article from UN-Truth read more here

The NYTimes further reports, a propos continued speculation about some kind of “deal” or other: that “Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of Libyan leader. Muammar Qaddafi, said in an interview with Ash-Sharq al-Awsat “that the Israelis ‘agreed to let Libya spend $50 million’ through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees [UNRWA]. The money, he said, would be used ‘to support the Palestinians and for reconstruction, including allowing construction materials and prefabricated homes’ … A spokesman for the United Nations agency did not immediately comment”. This report is posted here.

This is all a bit mysterious, because Libya was always free to contribute as much as it liked to UNRWA, for the Palestinians, whenever it liked (though it probably did not do so, previously, up until now…)

Juan Cole has also posted on his blog, Informed Comment, an item reporting that “al-Quds al-Arabi reports in Arabic that the Qadhafi Foundation is maintaining that it extracted several concessions from Israel in return for diverting to the Egyptian port, including a pledge that travel abroad for treatment of ill Palestinians in Gaza would be expedited and reconstruction projects would be allowed to go forward (one in 8 Palestinians in Gaza had their homes destroyed in the 2008-2009 Israeli assault on the Strip.)”… This, published here, is also a bit mysterious…

Larry Derfner wrote today in his column for the Jerusalem Post that “Given the way Israel behaves now, it’s pretty sad to remember that it was envisioned as a country where the Jews ran their own national affairs – but nobody else’s. Now it’s not enough for Israel to have its own coast, its own territorial waters, its own airspace – no, we’ve got to control Gaza’s coast, Gaza’s territorial waters, Gaza’s airspace, too. The Gaza Strip is part of our sphere of influence. Let any Turkish ship, Libyan ship or any other ship we don’t like try to sail into Gaza, and they’ll get a taste of gunboat diplomacy, Israeli-style” …

The Larry Derfner article continued: “We fly spy planes over Lebanon on a daily basis. We blew up the beginnings of a nuclear reactor in Syria. We run the lives of two million Palestinians in the West Bank and take their land piece by piece. Why? Because might makes right. If anybody tried to blockade our coast and our airspace, if anybody flew spy planes over us, if anybody blew up one of our nuclear installations, if anybody ruled our lives at gunpoint and built foreign settlements on our land, we’d kill whoever we had to kill to stop it. But the Arabs are weak and we’re strong, so we get away with it … The Arabs want to destroy us, we say, that’s why we have to blockade this and bomb that and put up a new row of houses over there … All the Islamic countries are afraid of Israel, and for good reason – because this country is much stronger than all of them put together. We do things to the Palestinians, to Syria, to Lebanon and, reportedly, to Iran that we would never let anyone do to us in a million years – and they can’t stop us. They are extremely reluctant to even try; our military power deters them. So what more do we want from our enemies before we’ll stop screwing with them? Love? Recognition of the justice of the Zionist cause? An admission that they were wrong all these years and we were right? If that’s what we’re waiting for, we came to the wrong neighborhood. If we’re going to go on intercepting ships until their sponsors accept our right to keep Gaza under lock and key, we’re going to be engaged in gunboat diplomacy for a long time. If we think we can rule the West Bank Palestinians until they give up even nonviolent resistance, fly spy planes over Lebanon until Hizbullah agrees that we have the right to bear arms but it doesn’t, and bomb enemy nuclear sites until the whole Middle East acknowledges Israel as its sole, rightful nuclear power, then our future here is untenable. Maybe the United States and Russia can hold sway over their regions, maybe they can have spheres of influence, but a little Jewish state surrounded by 57 Muslim states cannot. Neither our enemies nor our friends will allow us to be a mini-empire, a hegemon, for long. That’s a recipe for escalating, never-ending conflict”. This commentary by Larry Derfner is published in the Jerusalem Post here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

If he does not agree to leave voluntarily — which he has vowed not to do — he will be forcibly expelled, the Jerusalem court ruled today.

He would be deported — and he would lose all his bail money. Not a good deal. So, he is staying in jail.

According to Israel’s YNet website, Abu Tir would have been “required to deposit NIS 50,000 (about $12,900) with the court. If he fails to do so, he will remain in detention by court order. In addition, he will be required to post NIS 100,000 (about $25,800) self-bail and a third-party bail of NIS 100,000. He will also be required to sign a document committing that he will not return to Israeli territory”. This is posted here .

The same YNet story also reported that “During his detention, he received an offer to resign from Hamas and cease all activities against Israel in exchange for permission to return to his home in Jerusalem”.

Apparently, Abu Tir has not agreed to these terms.

Ma’an news agency reported that Abu Tir’s lawyer, Usama As-Sa’di, said that “Abu Teir categorically rejected the offer because it means agreeing to expulsion, which he will never accept”. Ma’an added that “The Hamas-affiliated lawmaker’s legal team is considering further legal options … As-Sa’di said the ruling was ‘political and not legal’, adding that the issue should have been brought before Israel’s High Court”. This is posted here.

There was already a petition filed to the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of Abu Tir and three other East Jerusalem Palestinian politicians. The Israeli Supreme Court, however, to hear the appeal before September. If the deportations go ahead before then, the Court said, well, that would be reversible.

Abu Tir has been fighting the “deportation” order against him, which was issued in 2006, after he was elected to the Palestine Legislative Council on the Hamas-backed Change and Reform Party.

In the meantime, he was arrested for having been elected, and put into an Israeli jail for over four years.
t
Shortly after he was released in May, Abu Tir was summoned by Israeli Police and obliged to turn over his East Jerusalem ID, and ordered to leave Jerusalem a month later, on 19 June.

Then, he was arrested for not having an ID.
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Article from UN-Truth read more here

Just as the plan indicated, the Amalthea, a Libyan-chartered Greek cargo ship carrying food and medicine destined for Gaza went to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, on the northern coast of the Sinai peninsula, east of the Suez Canal, and not very far from the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip.

The Amalthea is one of seven ships now moored off El-Arish, and it is expected to dock imminently.

However, until the last minute, officials of the Gadhafi charity which chartered the ship insisted that their destination was Gaza.

Haaretz has reported that for the final day of its trip, “Israeli naval vessels were shadowing and monitoring the Amalthea, which had been immobile for much of the night due to engine trouble. ‘We are not surrounding; we are following’, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said … An Al-Jazeera correspondent aboard the ship said two of the Israeli ships were on the port side of the vessel, to prevent it from changing direction and sailing to Gaza”.

Haaretz also reported in the same article that Israel’s Prime Minister Dan Meridor told Israel Radio, “Anyone who wants to bring materials there which are not dangerous materials – munitions, etcetera – can bring them through El Arish, [or]can bring them through the [Israeli] port of Ashdod … What we want is to set the arrangement for inspections, so we can always check and not allow them to bust their way in,” Meridor said. This can be read in full here.

However, Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh, who was Prime Minister of a couple of successive Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority governments, following elections that Hamas won at the beginning of 2006 until mid-June 2007 [when Hamas military forces trounced Fatah/Palestinian Preventive Security forces in Gaza, after which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved a short-lived National Unity coalition government], continued to call for the Libyan-chartered Amalthea — and other “Flotillas” — not to divert, and to continue to head to Gaza, as did Jamal Khodairy, head of the Popular Committee to Break the Siege.

Earlier today, members of a Greek labor union affiliated with the Communist Party demonstrated at the El Al airlines counters at Athens airport in protest of the Amalthea’s — and Gaza’s — difficulties. Flights were reportedly delayed for about two hours until the demonstration dispersed.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority former minister for prisoner affairs, Ashraf Ajrami, wrote an op-ed published on Israel’s YNet website today saying that the recent post-Flotilla loosening of the Israeli sanctions against the Gaza Strip to allow more consumer goods to pass, was not enough, and further steps were needed — “Otherwise, global public opinion won’t change and the world will continue to say that Gazans face collective punishment and that the Strip faces a difficult, inhumane siege”. Ajrami wrote that “The Palestinian leadership cannot accept disconnection of Gaza from the West Bank and would not allow Israel to do it under any circumstances. In addition, and as opposed to what Israel wants, Hamas grows stronger because of the blockade. It grows rich via the smuggling of goods while also enjoying international interest in the Strip … Hamas is also becoming stronger thanks to the organizers of Gaza-bound flotillas. Indeed, not every person who arrives on those ships wishes to see peace in the region and an independent, prosperous Palestinian state. Some of them wish to express their support for Hamas, rather than for the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, an important part of flotilla organizers belong to Islamic Movements such as the Muslim Brothers. However, no Palestinian (and this is certainly true for the Palestinian leadership) can speak out against a movement that aims to show solidarity with the people. At the same time, it’s important for the Israeli people to know that while the Palestinian majority wishes the solidarity movement with Gazans to prompt the lifting of the siege, it is also interested in advancing a diplomatic process and in reaching a compromise with Israel. This is a Palestinian interest that is also an Israeli interest. The immediate move required of Isra]el is to open all the crossings that link the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, including the safe passage, to civilian movement. This would boost the Palestinian Authority, make the lives of Palestinians easier, weaken Hamas, and may stimulate a substantive diplomatic process”. This is posted here.

And, an Israeli delegation argued to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday that its naval blockade of Gaza’s maritime space is legitimate: “Under international law… a blockade can be imposed on the sea”, Israeli envoy Sari Rubenstein told the HRC. This is reported here.

************************

Nigel Parry wrote a wry commentary criticizing the proposed [then cancelled] Iranian flotillas [and the postponed Lebanese flotillas], in which he said: “As if drawn from that bit about the Apocalypse found at the end of the Bible of Really Bad Ideas, Israel’s Most Wanted were not only going to send ships in the wake of the bloody IDF commando assault on the last aid vessels attempting to ease the siege on Gaza, but send ships with Iranian commandos no less … The move predictably sent Israel over the edge. IDF Chief of ‘Gabi Ashkenazi asserted that, ‘We cannot allow Gaza to become an Iranian port’ and the Associated Press wrote that, “Security officials said the prospect of an Iranian boat headed for Gaza had Israel deeply worried, and that naval commandos were training for the possibility of taking on a vessel with a suicide bomber on board’. Iran wasn’t the only one. Suddenly it seemed as if all of Israel’s enemies were planning to rent cruise ships, fill them up with flour and concrete, and ruin all our summers … Fortunately, for those of us who had summer plans other than being hunched over a computer fretting over yet another Israeli war during yet another American holiday season, Iran and Lebanon canceled. Even I—beach blanket and sunscreen at the ready—was ready to call those particular flotillas ‘a provocation’. Hossein Sheikholeslam, secretary general of the International Conference for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada—an Iranian body set up by parliament—announced that the aid flotilla would be canceled after Israel had ’sent a letter to the United Nations saying that the presence of Iranian and Lebanese ships in the Gaza area will be considered a declaration of war on that regime and it will confront it’. You think Hossein? It would have played straight into Israel’s current ‘Iran defense’, which consists of mentioning the words ‘Iran’ and ‘nuclear weapons’ as often and repeatedly as possible, every time a journalist or American politician strays within 10 feet … Which brings us to Libya, who also announced its own flotilla in the wake of Iran and Lebanon’s. The Libyan boat, whose arrival in Gaza is scheduled to be within the next 12 hours, is being sent by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, headed by Seif Al Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s leader. Again, perhaps not the best idea, given regional tensions and history, and current Israeli spin … Everything about this whole affair—the Israelis, the Iranians, the Libyans, and the rest of us—is starting to seem like bad theater.  Bad theater in which only the Gazans continue to be excluded access to the auditorium in which the drama of their lives is acted out in front of the entire world”.  This was posted on mondoweiss, here, as well as on his own new website, here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

It could be headed to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, as it has apparently official listed as its destination, or to Israel’s Ashdod Port — or even to Gaza.

People associated either with the ship or with the Libyan aid group that chartered it have sounded accommodating and non-confrontational for days. Yet, as some Palestinians [in Gaza and in Jerusalem] — and others — encourage the ship to head to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s formal naval blockade, Israeli military officials have raised their tone as well.

UPDATE: The IDF spokesperson has just sent a tweet assuring that “Contrary to media reports, no ultimatum was issued to crew of Libyan boat by Israeli Navy … Rather, the Navy had emphasized that the boat could not be allowed to enter Gaza Port” A few hours earlier, the IDF sent these two tweets: “Israeli Navy has begun preparations to stop Libyan boat in case boat persists in trying to enter maritime closure area”. and “The Israeli Navy has initiated communication with the Libyan ship”. It is still not clear, but the boat appears to be turning slightly in the direction of El-Arish.

[A message which just arrived via SMS at about 2:30 pm Jerusalem time quoted foreign press reports as saying that the Israeli Navy has made contact with the Amalthea, and asked it to move towards El-Arish. This was also reported on Israel [Army?] Radio… At about 3:30 pm Jerusalem time, that it has begun the process of identification and communication with the ship.]

Whatever happens now will happen after midnight — most likely, as usual, around 03:30 or 04:00 or so in the morning, just before first light.

Go to this Live Ships map on the AIS Vessel Tracking and Position site, here.

On the upper left side of the page, under Ships Map, click on the third box ["Go to Vessel"], and choose Amalthea from the drop-down menu.

Then, use the zoom-in or zoom-out button to see what you want.

Military vessels are not identified on this map…]

The Egyptian port of El-Arish, is the Libyan ship’s declared destination.

Either El-Arish, or Ashdod Port in Israel, are apparently both all right for the Israeli Navy.

The Jerusalem Post has just reported that “One of the owners of the … Almathea headed towards Gaza said on Tuesday that if Israel will only allow the ship to dock in Ashdod instead of reaching Gaza, the crew will instead unload the humanitarian goods in the Egyptian port of El-Arish … ‘If this is the only option put forward by the Israeli authorities, we will choose to sail to the port of El-Arish and transfer the assistance by ground to Gaza’, Greek businessman Aleksei Angeolopoulos said in an interview with the Arabic newspaper Ashraq al-Awsat. Angeolopoulos continued, ‘I say to the Israeli authorities that the ship is carrying humanitarian aid and food and there are no weapons or prohibited materials, as claimed by Israel … If Israel wants, the Israeli navy is invited to board the ship and to search it so that they can see with their own eyes that it is only carrying food and allow it to continue to the port of Gaza’.” This is published here.

According to Israel’s Professor Ruth Lapidot, specialist in international law, only material or personnel that would aid Hamas in its “war effort” against Israel should be banned by the formal Israeli naval blockade. But, if Israel has a “suspicion”, it can take a look — and/or try to persuade the ship not to go to the blockaded area [and if the ship is not persuaded, Israel can attack, she says]. See our report on Professor Lapidot’s 16 June remarks at the JCPA here.

Meanwhile, in a just-published interview, Greta Berlin, Co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement [which sent 8 expeditions by sea from Cyprus towards Gaza, and which participated in the Freedom Flotilla expedition that was stopped at sea on 31 May] told Elias Harb that “We do not have any connection to the Libyan boat since we do not deal with governments who want to send boats. Our organization is made up of people from civil society (although we certainly take members of Parliament) who work civilian to civilian …we are going again sometime in the fall”. [n.b.- The Libyan aid organization that chartered the boat says it is not an official or government organization, even though it is headed by Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's son].

Berlin said in the interview that there are now no passengers missing from the Freedom Flotilla: “everyone is accounted for. There are no passengers held in Ashdod. There are, however, five very seriously injured passengers still in hospital, two are not expected to live…making the count really 11 murdered”. This interview is published here.

Meanwhile, the entire Israeli Knesset has been debating today whether or not to strip Knesset member from Nazareth, Haneen Zoabi, of her parliamentary rights for having participated in the Freedom Flotilla. Zoabi was on board the large Turkish passenger ship, the Mavi Marmara, when it was boarded by Israeli commandos in the early morning hours of 31 May. The Jerusalem Post is reporting that, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 television, Zoabi said “[The Knesset] has no idea what democracy is here. I represent my views, my party’s views, and the views of all the Arab members of the Knesset … you were supposed to defend my right to express my opinions’, and ‘protect me from racism which targeted me for my views. I stand not only for my peoples’ views, but for a global consensus’.” She also said in the interview that “the Libyan aid ship, which is currently bound for Gaza, proved that ‘there is a world consensus that the blockade of Gaza is illegitimate’.” This is published here.

UPDATE: The decision to strip Zoabi of her parliamentary privileges was adopted by a vote of 34-16.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

A few months after Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Foreign Ministry (MFA) offered a briefing to journalists on its response to criticisms about the Gaza war. Despite the nicely-air-conditioned auditorium, five journalists came.

Some days before that, the MFA offered a similar briefing on the same topic to the diplomatic corps. I was told that five diplomats attended….

Now, Israel’s YNet website has reported that “Weeks before the Gaza-bound flotilla left port, at the end May, 2010, the Israeli government was aware of the problem and the potential whiplash. Israel’s Defense Ministry, under Ehud Barak, worked out plans to enforce the blockade and apprehend the ships; Israel’s Foreign Ministry was responsible for PR and the legal justification for stopping the flotilla”…

The YNet article continued: “According to Israeli government sources, journalists were ‘unofficially’ referred to a Danish government report on IHH, US court and CIA documents several days prior to the arrival of the flotilla. ‘Unofficially?’ Why not officially? Why wasn’t the IHH thoroughly exposed and the Turkish government held responsible? According to the Australian-based Talk Gaza organization, which provides information on the incident, Israel’s Foreign Ministry circulated information on IHH ‘to some people at least five days before the incident’. ‘Some people?’ Who? Why not circulate it to everyone? ‘A number of journalists were also referred by various official sources to the few news articles that did discuss IHH days before the incident’. How many journalists? And when? Was the FM staff overloaded, understaffed, or simply unaware of the magnitude of the problem? Asked why a press conference wasn’t called before the engagement at sea, this journalist was told: ‘No one would come’.” This is posted here.

Our first report on the composition of the Freedom Flotilla and what might happen was published on 6 May, in our post entitled “Can Turkish involvement help Free Gaza – Freedom Flotilla challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza?”, which is published here.

Yesterday, as we noted, YNet reported — after some journalists were briefed by Gen. Eiland — that “The report adds that the IDF had begun preparing for the flotilla in February. In mid-May Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak requesting their cooperation in order to prevent a violent incident“. This is published here.

Nevertheless, the Eiland report, released last night — which focuses on the IDF — stated that “The expert team determined that regarding media relations, the preparations made in advance were good. However, [n.b. - here the report seems to be referring to the period after the Israeli naval assault at sea] the release of press statements and visual materials was delayed due to the need to maintain reliability, the obligation to notify the families of the critically injured soldiers and the long authorization process at the levels above the IDF Spokesperson Unit [who does this mean?]. The team noted with favor the work of the IDF spokesperson following the incident and emphasized the need for better coordination between the IDF, the foreign ministry and other foreign affairs institutions?…

As we noted here on 26th May — five days before the interception of the Freedom Flotilla, in a post entitled “Israel lining up options to deal with Freedom Flotilla” — we asked: “there are reports of Turkish-Israeli contacts, and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls this big operation a ‘publicity stunt’. (Do you use military force against a publicity stunt?)”

We also reported in the same post that “Yesterday, the Israeli MFA sent around a message saying that one of its legal experts, Sarah Weiss Maudi said: ‘The reason why ships can’t come into Gaza currently is because a maritime blockade is currently in effect off the coast of Gaza. Such a blockade has been imposed by Israel because Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with the Hamas regime that controls Gaza. Hamas has repeatedly bombed civilian targets in Israel proper with weapons that have been smuggled into Gaza by various routes, including the sea. Under international maritime law, when a maritime blockade is in effect, no vessels can enter the blockaded area. That includes both civilian vessels and enemy vessels. Any vessel that violates or attempts to violate the maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked. Maritime blockades are a legitimate and recognized measure under international law, and may be implemented as part of an armed conflict at sea’. Is there an ‘armed conflict at sea’ – at least until now? Weiss Maudi is, the MFA says, the ministry legal expert on maritime and humanitarian law — but she is very young. No senior Israeli government official has spoken so clearly, publicly, on these matters. She duly notes ‘the requirement to give due notice’ of the blockade, and to ‘publicize the existence of the maritime blockade in effect’ — and, she says, Israel has ‘published the exact coordinates of the blockade via the accepted international professional maritime channel’. (See the Youtube video starting at 1′16″.) IDF spokespersons refused to return my calls recently, when I asked for confirmation that its naval blockade of Gaza still exists. Other Israeli government spokespersons have appeared, generally, to evade this issue, and have appeared to make efforts to refrain from calling it a naval blockade” This post is published here.

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