19 july 2015
By Nadezhda Kevorkova
Seven journalists, several activists and the crew of the Freedom Flotilla ship were kidnapped by the Israeli Army in international waters. An RT journalist was searched six times and detained for a week without charge or trial.
The Swedish boat Marianne, bought and equipped with donations collected across Sweden, left the port of Gothenburg in early May. On her way to Gaza, the Marianne docked at several European ports, and on June 19, it continued on its journey from Messina, Sicily.
From then on my colleague Richard and I were on different boats according to our assignments. I was issued accreditation in Israel (Russian citizens don’t need a visa to enter Israel). I have been to the Gaza Strip on numerous occasions; I was once even a guest at a Zionist congress.
Freedom Flotilla III consisted of four boats, with a total of 47 people from 17 countries on board. The Marianne, with 18 people on board (citizens of Sweden, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Russia), was far ahead of the rest. The boats that trailed behind carried all of the most valuable cargo – a deliberate step by the activists to prevent the Israeli forces from seizing the humanitarian aid. Experience from the 2010 flotilla showed that Israel doesn’t deliver any medicine, equipment or household goods to Gaza.
From time to time a military helicopter, drone or plane would fly over the boat. Once, a plane flew parallel to the Marianne for some time, hovering right above the water. Sometimes there would be no satellite connection.
“Come what may, we are going to Gaza. When they start preparing for an attack they’ll cut off all our communication. Until they seize the command bridge, we will continue on our way to Gaza”, said Dror Feiler, a musician who was born in Israel and served in the IDF. He left the country at 22 and renounced his Israeli citizenship.
Dror’s 92-year-old mother still lives there and supports the Palestinians. She can’t visit her son because of her advanced age, while he is not allowed to visit her because of his anti-Israeli stance. Dror had taken part in all the Freedom Flotillas, so he understood the nuances of what was to come better than anyone else.
While there still was some reception, however weak, I got phone calls and emails from Gaza. The phone calls dropped. People in Gaza were waiting for the flotilla like no one in the world has ever waited. Many aboard the Marianne believed that in the end Israel would choose not to notice the flotilla and let it pass.
The sun sets. All of us, including the former President of Tunisia, famous journalists, politicians, key figures in science and arts, were busy cleaning up on the vessel.
The captain said, “We are going to Gaza. Tomorrow, when we arrive, the boat has to be immaculately clean.”
At 1:20 am lights suddenly started flickering all around the boat.
With 105 nautical miles (about 170 km) left to go to the Israeli shore, the Marianne was surrounded by four Israeli military vessels and nine coast guard boats. Thus the pirate attack on Freedom Flotilla III began.
Bear in mind that the coast guard can only legally operate in territorial waters, i.e. within 12 nautical miles from the shore. Three days prior to being captured, the crew, activists and journalists saw an example of how an ordinary coast guard acts when observing the law.
On June 26, former Tunisian President Dr. Moncef Marzouki, Knesset member Dr. Basel Ghattas, an Al Jazeera crew, and Ohad Herno, a journalist from Israeli TV Channel 2, arrived onboard the Marianne from Crete. The coast guard, having spotted the Marianne, asked whether the crew needed anything, never leaving their territorial waters despite requesting that we approach closer. The captain thanked them and refused, so the coast guard left.
The Israeli Navy and “coast guard” acted in a different way.
One of the Israeli boats approached the Marianne and directed its search light at the vessel. A man in military uniform holding a loudspeaker told the crew, the passengers and the journalists that the blockade of Gaza was lawful and demanded that the crew should stop the engine and let three Israeli servicemen on board for negotiations.
Captain Joel Opperdoes said he deemed the blockade unlawful and there was nothing to talk about. He declined both the negotiations and the very idea of an ultimatum that a private vessel let someone on board in international waters.
Captain Joel explained to me that such actions can be considered piracy, and when a vessel is attacked, it is the captain’s duty to prevent pirates from seizing it by putting up unarmed resistance and voicing disagreement with the capture. Any other actions, including voluntary surrender of the vessel, are considered professional misconduct.
One of the oldest nautical rules adopted 500 years ago and endorsed by the UNO, reads that no nation can extend its sovereignty to or claim control of open seas. And no one has the right to encroach on the navigational freedom of a vessel unless it is involved in human trafficking, piracy or unauthorized TV and radio broadcasting. The Swedish boat Marianne was not in any way related to any of these three crimes.
It should be noted that in the long history of trying to break the blockade from the sea there have been a number of successful attempts. In August and October of 2008 two small ships managed to reach the port of Gaza. It didn’t cause any repercussions in the media, unlike vessel captures by Israel, all of which are widely discussed.
It is unclear why Israel persistently prevents the Freedom Flotilla from entering Gaza year after year and makes a theatrical performance out of the vessel’s capture. All this naturally does not add to the reputation of the country. Everyone surely remembers the notorious seizure of the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, with 700 passengers on board, which took the lives of nine activists. Two others died of wounds later.
When the captain finished, the Israeli military spokesman said that the one person he cared about was the Knesset MP on board. Dr. Basel Ghattas, one of the two Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament, wrapped in a Palestinian scarf, was prepared for this scenario. He took the loudspeaker from the captain and the conversation went on in Hebrew. He said that the blockade was unlawful, just like limiting the boat’s freedom of navigation, let alone its seizure.
Very soon the Israeli spokesman lost any interest in the Knesset MP and switched to the former President of Tunisia. Dr. Marzouki, a human rights advocate who has been in the trade for years, said that the claims made by the Israeli Army were illegitimate.
Finally, the spokesman tried to approach Dror Feiler, an Israeli-born musician who had rejected his Israeli citizenship 40 years ago.
The Marianne was still heading for Gaza, as was promised by all those who spoke to the Israelis.
At 2:30 am the first soldiers came on board. Watch how the Marianne’s capture was carried out, filmed by Israeli journalist Ohad and aired on Israel’s Channel 2. This video shatters the Israeli army’s official report that the vessel was seized peacefully.
The soldiers were armed with stun guns, which they used to fight the crew. I was in the front of the boat and heard Herman, a Norwegian, and Charlie, a Swede, screaming. It took the Israelis 52 minutes to engage the crew and the captain took the ship’s wheel away from them. Finally, they captured the command bridge.
At that moment, the Marianne was 90.5 nautical miles away from the Israeli shore, according to the vessel’s measurements.
After that, the soldiers searched the entire ship. They tossed the kitchen, the hold, the saloon, the water storage and the sleeping quarter. They broke off all the hooks which secured the furniture in place and kept its doors closed, so all the contents were now free to fall out and scatter around making loud noises as the vessel rocked on the sea waves.
They soon discovered that the engine was broken and the hold was full of water. They failed to fix the engine and threatened to keep beating up the captain until the engine was fixed.
They searched everyone on board including the journalists. I was searched in the crew’s quarters by two women wearing masks. Cooking pots, cutlery and buckets rolled loose around the floor.
“What are you looking for,” I asked. “Tiny chips,” they answered.
“Do you believe I put some chips in the seams of my clothing?”
“This is just a procedure,” came the response.
Israeli military escorts Gaza-bound aid flotilla flagship to port of Ashdod
It was also just a procedure for them to offer everyone fruit and water. The military could use some footage showing them treating the boat passengers to the produce of the Israeli land. But everyone refused.
By about 07:00, the soldiers finally managed to fix the engine, yet they couldn’t properly maneuver the vessel. Instead of moving, it was shaking, rocking and going in circles.
They decided to try full throttle. Captain Joel responded with a melancholy remark that the only thing they were going to achieve that way was to kill the engine. They slowed down. Their orders were to deliver the vessel to port, but they had no tugboat.
Some of the soldiers were ordered to clear the vessel of the Palestinian colors and slogans that sent a clear message that this was a “ship to Gaza.”
Most of the Israeli soldiers were seasick by that time. We were sitting in the shade under a canopy as that was the only place they could hold all of us at gunpoint – but the soldiers themselves had to stay in the sun.
In the evening, two helicopters flew over the trawler. We finally saw the lights of Ashdod when it was already dark. The port was full of military, there were no reporters. The only cameras rolling were with the military, too.
They called us out by name, one by one. The first to go were Knesset member Ghattas, ex-president Marzouki, and European Parliament member Ana Miranda as we applauded them. They were searched and let go after their phones were confiscated. The next was the Israeli journalist.
When I was finally let off the boat I said that I refused to answer any questions, provide my identity, have my fingerprints taken, or be photographed until I had received consular and legal assistance, and that this was an illegal abduction of an accredited journalist accompanied by theft of my property, i.e. my satellite and mobile phone.
I was asked to take off the cap featuring my TV company’s logo that I was wearing. I refused to do so.
“Well, if you don’t want it the easy way…”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then we’ll have to do it the hard way.”
“Ok, go on.”
But they didn’t. Two young soldiers, male and female, were assigned to guard me. As I went on through the procedure they were growing more and more sympathetic towards me.
And then I saw that all of this - all the tents, desks and flags. It was brought and put up here only for us. There were no other passengers coming ashore at the port. Hundreds of soldiers came here for us and our small single-deck vessel.
I was searched again, as were the contents of my small bag. They went through my garments and undergarments several times feeling them thoroughly and even scrutinizing them against the light.
During the search my cellular phone charger was taken.
Then I was taken to a tent where a young man and a young woman made themselves look like doctors. I refused to give them my name yet again, demanding a lawyer and a consul.
“For your own good we want to find out if you have any diseases,” they said.
“I do not need it. My company takes care of me, I am insured,” I responded.
“You have no diseases or refuse to collaborate?”
I broke into laughter. The word “collaborate” has but one connotation to the Russian ear: it means “collaboration with your enemy”.
When my visit to the so-called doctors was over, I refused to move any further before the company’s property – the cellular and mobile phones – were returned to me. The military people started fussing around. Some of them tried to explain that it would not be possible. Others called for their bosses. The bosses also explained that it could not be done at the moment, but maybe sometime later… But I was unperturbed.
Of course it was not fair on my part – to mock at the exhausted people on duty. But it was they who had kidnapped me right in the middle of the Mediterranean, not the other way around. It was they who had explained to me for an hour that the blockade was legal, and my journalistic presence on the boat was not legal at all. It was they who handed me a welcome letter from Netanyahu in Ashdod, in which the prime minister of Israel rushed to explain to me: Gaza was not blocked at all. It was they who brought me to Ashdod against my will and contrary to my task as a journalist. It was they who had searched me three times demanding that I sign a paper stating that I had come to Israel illegally and therefore had no objections to being deported…
I stood right in the middle of the port with my RT cap on and demanded a lawyer, a consul and my corporate telephones. In the long run they agreed to give me a paper testifying to the fact that the property had been taken by the Israeli army. It was signed, dated and contained the property list. I asked for my charger, and it was given back to me.
Another search followed. They asked me to remove my cross. I said “no”. They took away all my cash, bank cards, a nail file, a pen, chargers, a brooch. And – strange! – RT stickers.
Then I was placed into a police wagon. There I found Ana, the Swedish journalist. Soon we were joined by a New Zealand journalist, named Ru.
Their case was even more interesting than mine. The Israelis tried to convince Ru that she was not a journalist, but an activist. And to Ana they explained that it would be better for her to write books on female circumcision than neo-capitalism.
At 4:00 am we were brought to the Givon jail facility and searched again. This time I was deprived of my white gloves and some other trifles. My shampoo disappeared without trace.
Our cell contained three iron bunk beds, a close-stool behind a little iron door, a shower behind a similar door and opaque windows under the ceiling with a camera installed in it.
We were placed in a special one-story building in a special section of the jail. The walls boasted all sorts of graffiti about freedom for Gaza and Palestine.
So the three of us were grouped together in a cell and had no idea about the others. From somewhere upstairs, someone kept screaming.
At about 06:00 (none of us had a watch) the door violently clanked opened and in came several guards, who shouted“Stand up!”
It was a standard procedure at 6 am and 10 pm. Every time they asked us to stand up, and every time we demanded a consul and a lawyer.
“Are we arrested? Are we convicted? What are the charges?”
“No, you are simply here. It’s nothing more than a check to see that you are fine and healthy,” they said.
We didn’t have TV, fridges, books, paper, pens, watches, or phones. They wouldn’t give us the bible or any other books. We had no right to make a phone call. We could not buy anything, and neither the consuls nor the lawyers could send us anything - not even candy or water. We are given tap water to drink, but they refused to give us things like milk or salt and pepper, not that we need the latter. But Ana requests milk three times a day. She also insists that they give her a drive around Tel Aviv:
“This is my first time in Israel, and all I get to see is a jail,” she remarked.
Ru signs papers and leaves the next day with her cameraman. Now there are two of us left in our cell, and I cannot just go leaving Ana behind. She cannot leave either. The Swedes cannot go leaving Dror Feiler behind. He was the one threatened before the flotilla’s departure, and during the interrogation.
The woman responsible for booking tickets tries to persuade us that we agree to leave one by one. She tries to talk us into signing papers. Sometimes she speaks in the sweetest tone; other times, she promises that we will be taken away in handcuffs. We’d rather go for handcuffs. However she does turn her tone down each time. She is no longer saying that we had illegally penetrated the Israeli territory. It’s not clear anymore how we got here and what we’re doing here.
“Don’t you want to go back home?”
“Personally, I want to go to Gaza. My job was to get to Gaza, together with my phones.”
Back in 2012, when the Estella boat was seized, they stole Dror Feiler’s saxophone, and locked him up separately from the others. When the others left for home, he was being beaten in his cell.
Ana and I are playing hopscotch and battleship. We have already discussed Lenin, Trotsky, Marx, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, the Greece situation, the Sweden situation, the Middle East conflict, the history of Russia starting from the Varangian princes (were they Swedish or not?), Ikea, Swedish writers, Norwegian writers, Russian writers, fairy tales, composers, and film directors.
Turns out Ana has read Velimir Khlebnikov’s poetry. Not many Russians could say likewise.
We laughed together. On one occasion we were laughing so much that a guard ran over screaming:
“Are you crying there?”
We are willing to stay here as long as it takes them to realize that we are only leaving this place together. Ana asks me to teach her to pray in Russian. Now we pray together, then we do some work out, and then Ana sings songs about freedom in Greek.
Israel intercepts & escorts Gaza flotilla flagship, RT columnist aboard
I’ve heard that Russia’s favourite book by Lindgren is Karlsson. But her best book is about Pippi Longstocking.
The lawyers show up; and we win. We will all be sent home together on the same day, and the Swedes will not have to leave one by one. And they will take my phones to the embassy.
Now that we have got it our way the guards break into our cells at night and light their flashlights in our faces for some reason.
Sunday, July 5. They return our belongings according to the lists. This time, they had stolen 300 Euros from Dror alone.
A female guard says: “I will miss you, really.”
Sure she will. When else is she getting inmates who’d be discussing Trotsky for hours?
We are now riding a large bus, with windows rather than bars. Then we undergo another search.
“What’s this for? What do you think I could’ve taken from prison?”
“It’s just a procedure.”
We are then placed in a deportation jail near the airport. They never change sheets here; they serve food that’s expired a month ago; and you cannot get them to bring you water or tea.
I am escorted onboard several minutes before take-off. My passport bears no evidence that I’ve spent time in Israel.
Nadezhda Kevorkova has worked at RT since 2010, before which she was a special correspondent for ‘Novaya gazeta,’ ‘Nezavisimaya gazeta,’ and ‘Gazeta.’ She covered the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ in 2008, 2010 and 2011; she also visited Gaza several times during the blockade. In 2010, Kevorkova was nominated for the ‘International Women of Courage’ award.
Seven journalists, several activists and the crew of the Freedom Flotilla ship were kidnapped by the Israeli Army in international waters. An RT journalist was searched six times and detained for a week without charge or trial.
The Swedish boat Marianne, bought and equipped with donations collected across Sweden, left the port of Gothenburg in early May. On her way to Gaza, the Marianne docked at several European ports, and on June 19, it continued on its journey from Messina, Sicily.
From then on my colleague Richard and I were on different boats according to our assignments. I was issued accreditation in Israel (Russian citizens don’t need a visa to enter Israel). I have been to the Gaza Strip on numerous occasions; I was once even a guest at a Zionist congress.
Freedom Flotilla III consisted of four boats, with a total of 47 people from 17 countries on board. The Marianne, with 18 people on board (citizens of Sweden, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Russia), was far ahead of the rest. The boats that trailed behind carried all of the most valuable cargo – a deliberate step by the activists to prevent the Israeli forces from seizing the humanitarian aid. Experience from the 2010 flotilla showed that Israel doesn’t deliver any medicine, equipment or household goods to Gaza.
From time to time a military helicopter, drone or plane would fly over the boat. Once, a plane flew parallel to the Marianne for some time, hovering right above the water. Sometimes there would be no satellite connection.
“Come what may, we are going to Gaza. When they start preparing for an attack they’ll cut off all our communication. Until they seize the command bridge, we will continue on our way to Gaza”, said Dror Feiler, a musician who was born in Israel and served in the IDF. He left the country at 22 and renounced his Israeli citizenship.
Dror’s 92-year-old mother still lives there and supports the Palestinians. She can’t visit her son because of her advanced age, while he is not allowed to visit her because of his anti-Israeli stance. Dror had taken part in all the Freedom Flotillas, so he understood the nuances of what was to come better than anyone else.
While there still was some reception, however weak, I got phone calls and emails from Gaza. The phone calls dropped. People in Gaza were waiting for the flotilla like no one in the world has ever waited. Many aboard the Marianne believed that in the end Israel would choose not to notice the flotilla and let it pass.
The sun sets. All of us, including the former President of Tunisia, famous journalists, politicians, key figures in science and arts, were busy cleaning up on the vessel.
The captain said, “We are going to Gaza. Tomorrow, when we arrive, the boat has to be immaculately clean.”
At 1:20 am lights suddenly started flickering all around the boat.
With 105 nautical miles (about 170 km) left to go to the Israeli shore, the Marianne was surrounded by four Israeli military vessels and nine coast guard boats. Thus the pirate attack on Freedom Flotilla III began.
Bear in mind that the coast guard can only legally operate in territorial waters, i.e. within 12 nautical miles from the shore. Three days prior to being captured, the crew, activists and journalists saw an example of how an ordinary coast guard acts when observing the law.
On June 26, former Tunisian President Dr. Moncef Marzouki, Knesset member Dr. Basel Ghattas, an Al Jazeera crew, and Ohad Herno, a journalist from Israeli TV Channel 2, arrived onboard the Marianne from Crete. The coast guard, having spotted the Marianne, asked whether the crew needed anything, never leaving their territorial waters despite requesting that we approach closer. The captain thanked them and refused, so the coast guard left.
The Israeli Navy and “coast guard” acted in a different way.
One of the Israeli boats approached the Marianne and directed its search light at the vessel. A man in military uniform holding a loudspeaker told the crew, the passengers and the journalists that the blockade of Gaza was lawful and demanded that the crew should stop the engine and let three Israeli servicemen on board for negotiations.
Captain Joel Opperdoes said he deemed the blockade unlawful and there was nothing to talk about. He declined both the negotiations and the very idea of an ultimatum that a private vessel let someone on board in international waters.
Captain Joel explained to me that such actions can be considered piracy, and when a vessel is attacked, it is the captain’s duty to prevent pirates from seizing it by putting up unarmed resistance and voicing disagreement with the capture. Any other actions, including voluntary surrender of the vessel, are considered professional misconduct.
One of the oldest nautical rules adopted 500 years ago and endorsed by the UNO, reads that no nation can extend its sovereignty to or claim control of open seas. And no one has the right to encroach on the navigational freedom of a vessel unless it is involved in human trafficking, piracy or unauthorized TV and radio broadcasting. The Swedish boat Marianne was not in any way related to any of these three crimes.
It should be noted that in the long history of trying to break the blockade from the sea there have been a number of successful attempts. In August and October of 2008 two small ships managed to reach the port of Gaza. It didn’t cause any repercussions in the media, unlike vessel captures by Israel, all of which are widely discussed.
It is unclear why Israel persistently prevents the Freedom Flotilla from entering Gaza year after year and makes a theatrical performance out of the vessel’s capture. All this naturally does not add to the reputation of the country. Everyone surely remembers the notorious seizure of the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, with 700 passengers on board, which took the lives of nine activists. Two others died of wounds later.
When the captain finished, the Israeli military spokesman said that the one person he cared about was the Knesset MP on board. Dr. Basel Ghattas, one of the two Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament, wrapped in a Palestinian scarf, was prepared for this scenario. He took the loudspeaker from the captain and the conversation went on in Hebrew. He said that the blockade was unlawful, just like limiting the boat’s freedom of navigation, let alone its seizure.
Very soon the Israeli spokesman lost any interest in the Knesset MP and switched to the former President of Tunisia. Dr. Marzouki, a human rights advocate who has been in the trade for years, said that the claims made by the Israeli Army were illegitimate.
Finally, the spokesman tried to approach Dror Feiler, an Israeli-born musician who had rejected his Israeli citizenship 40 years ago.
The Marianne was still heading for Gaza, as was promised by all those who spoke to the Israelis.
At 2:30 am the first soldiers came on board. Watch how the Marianne’s capture was carried out, filmed by Israeli journalist Ohad and aired on Israel’s Channel 2. This video shatters the Israeli army’s official report that the vessel was seized peacefully.
The soldiers were armed with stun guns, which they used to fight the crew. I was in the front of the boat and heard Herman, a Norwegian, and Charlie, a Swede, screaming. It took the Israelis 52 minutes to engage the crew and the captain took the ship’s wheel away from them. Finally, they captured the command bridge.
At that moment, the Marianne was 90.5 nautical miles away from the Israeli shore, according to the vessel’s measurements.
After that, the soldiers searched the entire ship. They tossed the kitchen, the hold, the saloon, the water storage and the sleeping quarter. They broke off all the hooks which secured the furniture in place and kept its doors closed, so all the contents were now free to fall out and scatter around making loud noises as the vessel rocked on the sea waves.
They soon discovered that the engine was broken and the hold was full of water. They failed to fix the engine and threatened to keep beating up the captain until the engine was fixed.
They searched everyone on board including the journalists. I was searched in the crew’s quarters by two women wearing masks. Cooking pots, cutlery and buckets rolled loose around the floor.
“What are you looking for,” I asked. “Tiny chips,” they answered.
“Do you believe I put some chips in the seams of my clothing?”
“This is just a procedure,” came the response.
Israeli military escorts Gaza-bound aid flotilla flagship to port of Ashdod
It was also just a procedure for them to offer everyone fruit and water. The military could use some footage showing them treating the boat passengers to the produce of the Israeli land. But everyone refused.
By about 07:00, the soldiers finally managed to fix the engine, yet they couldn’t properly maneuver the vessel. Instead of moving, it was shaking, rocking and going in circles.
They decided to try full throttle. Captain Joel responded with a melancholy remark that the only thing they were going to achieve that way was to kill the engine. They slowed down. Their orders were to deliver the vessel to port, but they had no tugboat.
Some of the soldiers were ordered to clear the vessel of the Palestinian colors and slogans that sent a clear message that this was a “ship to Gaza.”
Most of the Israeli soldiers were seasick by that time. We were sitting in the shade under a canopy as that was the only place they could hold all of us at gunpoint – but the soldiers themselves had to stay in the sun.
In the evening, two helicopters flew over the trawler. We finally saw the lights of Ashdod when it was already dark. The port was full of military, there were no reporters. The only cameras rolling were with the military, too.
They called us out by name, one by one. The first to go were Knesset member Ghattas, ex-president Marzouki, and European Parliament member Ana Miranda as we applauded them. They were searched and let go after their phones were confiscated. The next was the Israeli journalist.
When I was finally let off the boat I said that I refused to answer any questions, provide my identity, have my fingerprints taken, or be photographed until I had received consular and legal assistance, and that this was an illegal abduction of an accredited journalist accompanied by theft of my property, i.e. my satellite and mobile phone.
I was asked to take off the cap featuring my TV company’s logo that I was wearing. I refused to do so.
“Well, if you don’t want it the easy way…”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then we’ll have to do it the hard way.”
“Ok, go on.”
But they didn’t. Two young soldiers, male and female, were assigned to guard me. As I went on through the procedure they were growing more and more sympathetic towards me.
And then I saw that all of this - all the tents, desks and flags. It was brought and put up here only for us. There were no other passengers coming ashore at the port. Hundreds of soldiers came here for us and our small single-deck vessel.
I was searched again, as were the contents of my small bag. They went through my garments and undergarments several times feeling them thoroughly and even scrutinizing them against the light.
During the search my cellular phone charger was taken.
Then I was taken to a tent where a young man and a young woman made themselves look like doctors. I refused to give them my name yet again, demanding a lawyer and a consul.
“For your own good we want to find out if you have any diseases,” they said.
“I do not need it. My company takes care of me, I am insured,” I responded.
“You have no diseases or refuse to collaborate?”
I broke into laughter. The word “collaborate” has but one connotation to the Russian ear: it means “collaboration with your enemy”.
When my visit to the so-called doctors was over, I refused to move any further before the company’s property – the cellular and mobile phones – were returned to me. The military people started fussing around. Some of them tried to explain that it would not be possible. Others called for their bosses. The bosses also explained that it could not be done at the moment, but maybe sometime later… But I was unperturbed.
Of course it was not fair on my part – to mock at the exhausted people on duty. But it was they who had kidnapped me right in the middle of the Mediterranean, not the other way around. It was they who had explained to me for an hour that the blockade was legal, and my journalistic presence on the boat was not legal at all. It was they who handed me a welcome letter from Netanyahu in Ashdod, in which the prime minister of Israel rushed to explain to me: Gaza was not blocked at all. It was they who brought me to Ashdod against my will and contrary to my task as a journalist. It was they who had searched me three times demanding that I sign a paper stating that I had come to Israel illegally and therefore had no objections to being deported…
I stood right in the middle of the port with my RT cap on and demanded a lawyer, a consul and my corporate telephones. In the long run they agreed to give me a paper testifying to the fact that the property had been taken by the Israeli army. It was signed, dated and contained the property list. I asked for my charger, and it was given back to me.
Another search followed. They asked me to remove my cross. I said “no”. They took away all my cash, bank cards, a nail file, a pen, chargers, a brooch. And – strange! – RT stickers.
Then I was placed into a police wagon. There I found Ana, the Swedish journalist. Soon we were joined by a New Zealand journalist, named Ru.
Their case was even more interesting than mine. The Israelis tried to convince Ru that she was not a journalist, but an activist. And to Ana they explained that it would be better for her to write books on female circumcision than neo-capitalism.
At 4:00 am we were brought to the Givon jail facility and searched again. This time I was deprived of my white gloves and some other trifles. My shampoo disappeared without trace.
Our cell contained three iron bunk beds, a close-stool behind a little iron door, a shower behind a similar door and opaque windows under the ceiling with a camera installed in it.
We were placed in a special one-story building in a special section of the jail. The walls boasted all sorts of graffiti about freedom for Gaza and Palestine.
So the three of us were grouped together in a cell and had no idea about the others. From somewhere upstairs, someone kept screaming.
At about 06:00 (none of us had a watch) the door violently clanked opened and in came several guards, who shouted“Stand up!”
It was a standard procedure at 6 am and 10 pm. Every time they asked us to stand up, and every time we demanded a consul and a lawyer.
“Are we arrested? Are we convicted? What are the charges?”
“No, you are simply here. It’s nothing more than a check to see that you are fine and healthy,” they said.
We didn’t have TV, fridges, books, paper, pens, watches, or phones. They wouldn’t give us the bible or any other books. We had no right to make a phone call. We could not buy anything, and neither the consuls nor the lawyers could send us anything - not even candy or water. We are given tap water to drink, but they refused to give us things like milk or salt and pepper, not that we need the latter. But Ana requests milk three times a day. She also insists that they give her a drive around Tel Aviv:
“This is my first time in Israel, and all I get to see is a jail,” she remarked.
Ru signs papers and leaves the next day with her cameraman. Now there are two of us left in our cell, and I cannot just go leaving Ana behind. She cannot leave either. The Swedes cannot go leaving Dror Feiler behind. He was the one threatened before the flotilla’s departure, and during the interrogation.
The woman responsible for booking tickets tries to persuade us that we agree to leave one by one. She tries to talk us into signing papers. Sometimes she speaks in the sweetest tone; other times, she promises that we will be taken away in handcuffs. We’d rather go for handcuffs. However she does turn her tone down each time. She is no longer saying that we had illegally penetrated the Israeli territory. It’s not clear anymore how we got here and what we’re doing here.
“Don’t you want to go back home?”
“Personally, I want to go to Gaza. My job was to get to Gaza, together with my phones.”
Back in 2012, when the Estella boat was seized, they stole Dror Feiler’s saxophone, and locked him up separately from the others. When the others left for home, he was being beaten in his cell.
Ana and I are playing hopscotch and battleship. We have already discussed Lenin, Trotsky, Marx, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, the Greece situation, the Sweden situation, the Middle East conflict, the history of Russia starting from the Varangian princes (were they Swedish or not?), Ikea, Swedish writers, Norwegian writers, Russian writers, fairy tales, composers, and film directors.
Turns out Ana has read Velimir Khlebnikov’s poetry. Not many Russians could say likewise.
We laughed together. On one occasion we were laughing so much that a guard ran over screaming:
“Are you crying there?”
We are willing to stay here as long as it takes them to realize that we are only leaving this place together. Ana asks me to teach her to pray in Russian. Now we pray together, then we do some work out, and then Ana sings songs about freedom in Greek.
Israel intercepts & escorts Gaza flotilla flagship, RT columnist aboard
I’ve heard that Russia’s favourite book by Lindgren is Karlsson. But her best book is about Pippi Longstocking.
The lawyers show up; and we win. We will all be sent home together on the same day, and the Swedes will not have to leave one by one. And they will take my phones to the embassy.
Now that we have got it our way the guards break into our cells at night and light their flashlights in our faces for some reason.
Sunday, July 5. They return our belongings according to the lists. This time, they had stolen 300 Euros from Dror alone.
A female guard says: “I will miss you, really.”
Sure she will. When else is she getting inmates who’d be discussing Trotsky for hours?
We are now riding a large bus, with windows rather than bars. Then we undergo another search.
“What’s this for? What do you think I could’ve taken from prison?”
“It’s just a procedure.”
We are then placed in a deportation jail near the airport. They never change sheets here; they serve food that’s expired a month ago; and you cannot get them to bring you water or tea.
I am escorted onboard several minutes before take-off. My passport bears no evidence that I’ve spent time in Israel.
Nadezhda Kevorkova has worked at RT since 2010, before which she was a special correspondent for ‘Novaya gazeta,’ ‘Nezavisimaya gazeta,’ and ‘Gazeta.’ She covered the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ in 2008, 2010 and 2011; she also visited Gaza several times during the blockade. In 2010, Kevorkova was nominated for the ‘International Women of Courage’ award.
12 july 2015
By Robert Fantina
The Gaza Flotilla, a group of three small boats attempting to break the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, has been thwarted, as was expected. Israel Defense Force terrorists, with their heavily armed vessels, blocked and boarded the first of the small, unarmed boats, and ‘escorted’ it to an Israeli port.
It will be interesting to see the international response to this, which was clearly an act of piracy. The boat in question, the Marianne, was nearly 100 nautical miles from shore. The territorial waters of any country extend only 12 nautical miles from shore; anything beyond is considered international waters. So Israel, in detaining the Marianne, was clearly, once again, in violation of international law.
Israeli Prime Murder Benjamin Netanyahu, whose statements about Israel, Palestine and the illegal occupation become more outlandish with each passing day, made this amazing comment: “This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organisation and ignores all of the horrors in our region.”
Let us break this remarkable statement down to its component parts and see what sense, if any, can be made from it.
• “This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies”. The boats of the flotilla were carrying international peace activists and dignitaries, including a former president of Tunisia and a current member of the Knesset. They were completely unarmed, and were carrying only medical supplies and solar panels. Although they did not expect to successfully breach the blockade, they did intend to bring attention to it.
So where, one might reasonably ask, are the ‘hypocrisy and lies’ that are so concerning to the Prime Murderer? The blockade exists, and has for years; the 1,000,000 -plus people of Gaza are considered to be living in the largest open air prison in the world. Exposing that fact is neither hypocritical nor dishonest. Bringing aid to them, in the form of desperately-needed medical supplies and solar panels to provide electricity, also cannot be considered ‘hypocritical’ or ‘dishonest’.
• “Assisting the Hamas terrorist organization”. The United States has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, and the European Union followed suit. But terrorism, one might say, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Words can be so easily manipulated. It wasn’t so long ago that the U.S. claimed that it was fighting ‘insurgents’ in Iraq. These ‘insurgents’ had the temerity to defend their nation against outside invaders. Hamas, like the Iraqi ‘insurgents’, dared to fight for the people of Palestine when no one else would. But since they were opposing the interests of Israel and its main financier, the U.S., they were labeled ‘terrorists’.
And Mr. Netanyahu thinks the flotilla aids Hamas. Well, perhaps he is correct, but not in the way he intended. When one considers that Hamas is working for the freedom and basic human rights of the Palestinian people, greater international focus on the brutal and illegal blockade does, in fact, help that goal.
• “Ignores all the horrors in our region”. Mr. Netanyahu has saved the best for last. The Gaza Flotilla, rather than ignoring ‘the horrors in our region’, has, rather, cast a bright spotlight on them. The illegal blockade, combined with Egypt’s unspeakable cooperation with Israel, and Israel’s own apartheid policies, means that very little reconstruction material has entered the Gaza Strip since the Israeli bombing and invasion of the summer of 2014. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless; unemployment is the highest in the world; the area is fast exhausting its supply of potable water; electricity is a rare luxury; medical equipment is extremely limited. No, Mr. Netanyahu, the flotilla is not ignoring ‘all the horrors in our region’.
For so long, whenever anyone compared the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinians with those committed by Germany against the Jews, one was immediately branded anti-Semitic. This knee-jerk reaction suited the purposes of apartheid Israel, and for decades prevented, or at least limited, criticism of that apartheid regime. This writer will risk the wrath of Zionists around the world by making an even more stark comparison.
Adolph Hitler, one of the world’s worst savages, whose murderous rampage Mr. Netanyahu seems determined to emulate, said this about what he termed ‘the Big Lie’: “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses… more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.”
Mr. Netanyahu’s ‘big lies’ are now legion. In a sarcastic letter prepared for the participants of the Flotilla, he made this ‘big lie’: “There is no blockade of Gaza. You are welcome to transfer humanitarian aid through Israel.” These two statements are contradictory: if there is no blockade of Gaza, humanitarian aid would not need to go through Israel.
The United States has always considered itself above the law, free to bomb, annex, kill, torture, invade or destabilize at will. Yet it reacts with shock and horror when any other nation emulates it. Any other nation, that is, except its fifty-first state, Israel. Let us imagine for a moment the response from the U.S. if Palestinian naval ships (which currently don’t exist; we are just being imaginative here) boarded and redirected unarmed Israeli boats on the open sea. One would expect the U.S. Air Force to respond, bombing the Palestinian ships.
A resolution would be introduced by the U.S. at the United Nations, condemning this act of piracy. Sanctions would be issued against Palestine, crippling its economy (remember, this is all fantasy; the Palestinian economy is one of the worst in the world, due to the illegal occupation). Yet one should not hold one’s breath awaiting a similar response to Israel’s actions; the U.S. is nothing if not a proponent of the double standard. After all, does Palestine have a rich and powerful U.S. lobby? Do the U.S.’s alleged ‘representatives’ rely on the largess of that lobby to purchase and repurchase their seats in Congress? Since Israel has such a lobby, it can proceed with impunity.
Or so said the old model. The international community is not quite as passive as it once was; global citizens are finally seeing Israel for what it is, and each of its crimes brings it additional criticism and further isolation. That apartheid nation continually increases its efforts to avoid international sanctions, and the tipping point will soon be reached wherein all its efforts will be in vain. When that happens, it will be a victory for justice, humanity and human rights.
The Gaza Flotilla, a group of three small boats attempting to break the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, has been thwarted, as was expected. Israel Defense Force terrorists, with their heavily armed vessels, blocked and boarded the first of the small, unarmed boats, and ‘escorted’ it to an Israeli port.
It will be interesting to see the international response to this, which was clearly an act of piracy. The boat in question, the Marianne, was nearly 100 nautical miles from shore. The territorial waters of any country extend only 12 nautical miles from shore; anything beyond is considered international waters. So Israel, in detaining the Marianne, was clearly, once again, in violation of international law.
Israeli Prime Murder Benjamin Netanyahu, whose statements about Israel, Palestine and the illegal occupation become more outlandish with each passing day, made this amazing comment: “This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organisation and ignores all of the horrors in our region.”
Let us break this remarkable statement down to its component parts and see what sense, if any, can be made from it.
• “This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies”. The boats of the flotilla were carrying international peace activists and dignitaries, including a former president of Tunisia and a current member of the Knesset. They were completely unarmed, and were carrying only medical supplies and solar panels. Although they did not expect to successfully breach the blockade, they did intend to bring attention to it.
So where, one might reasonably ask, are the ‘hypocrisy and lies’ that are so concerning to the Prime Murderer? The blockade exists, and has for years; the 1,000,000 -plus people of Gaza are considered to be living in the largest open air prison in the world. Exposing that fact is neither hypocritical nor dishonest. Bringing aid to them, in the form of desperately-needed medical supplies and solar panels to provide electricity, also cannot be considered ‘hypocritical’ or ‘dishonest’.
• “Assisting the Hamas terrorist organization”. The United States has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, and the European Union followed suit. But terrorism, one might say, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Words can be so easily manipulated. It wasn’t so long ago that the U.S. claimed that it was fighting ‘insurgents’ in Iraq. These ‘insurgents’ had the temerity to defend their nation against outside invaders. Hamas, like the Iraqi ‘insurgents’, dared to fight for the people of Palestine when no one else would. But since they were opposing the interests of Israel and its main financier, the U.S., they were labeled ‘terrorists’.
And Mr. Netanyahu thinks the flotilla aids Hamas. Well, perhaps he is correct, but not in the way he intended. When one considers that Hamas is working for the freedom and basic human rights of the Palestinian people, greater international focus on the brutal and illegal blockade does, in fact, help that goal.
• “Ignores all the horrors in our region”. Mr. Netanyahu has saved the best for last. The Gaza Flotilla, rather than ignoring ‘the horrors in our region’, has, rather, cast a bright spotlight on them. The illegal blockade, combined with Egypt’s unspeakable cooperation with Israel, and Israel’s own apartheid policies, means that very little reconstruction material has entered the Gaza Strip since the Israeli bombing and invasion of the summer of 2014. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless; unemployment is the highest in the world; the area is fast exhausting its supply of potable water; electricity is a rare luxury; medical equipment is extremely limited. No, Mr. Netanyahu, the flotilla is not ignoring ‘all the horrors in our region’.
For so long, whenever anyone compared the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinians with those committed by Germany against the Jews, one was immediately branded anti-Semitic. This knee-jerk reaction suited the purposes of apartheid Israel, and for decades prevented, or at least limited, criticism of that apartheid regime. This writer will risk the wrath of Zionists around the world by making an even more stark comparison.
Adolph Hitler, one of the world’s worst savages, whose murderous rampage Mr. Netanyahu seems determined to emulate, said this about what he termed ‘the Big Lie’: “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses… more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.”
Mr. Netanyahu’s ‘big lies’ are now legion. In a sarcastic letter prepared for the participants of the Flotilla, he made this ‘big lie’: “There is no blockade of Gaza. You are welcome to transfer humanitarian aid through Israel.” These two statements are contradictory: if there is no blockade of Gaza, humanitarian aid would not need to go through Israel.
The United States has always considered itself above the law, free to bomb, annex, kill, torture, invade or destabilize at will. Yet it reacts with shock and horror when any other nation emulates it. Any other nation, that is, except its fifty-first state, Israel. Let us imagine for a moment the response from the U.S. if Palestinian naval ships (which currently don’t exist; we are just being imaginative here) boarded and redirected unarmed Israeli boats on the open sea. One would expect the U.S. Air Force to respond, bombing the Palestinian ships.
A resolution would be introduced by the U.S. at the United Nations, condemning this act of piracy. Sanctions would be issued against Palestine, crippling its economy (remember, this is all fantasy; the Palestinian economy is one of the worst in the world, due to the illegal occupation). Yet one should not hold one’s breath awaiting a similar response to Israel’s actions; the U.S. is nothing if not a proponent of the double standard. After all, does Palestine have a rich and powerful U.S. lobby? Do the U.S.’s alleged ‘representatives’ rely on the largess of that lobby to purchase and repurchase their seats in Congress? Since Israel has such a lobby, it can proceed with impunity.
Or so said the old model. The international community is not quite as passive as it once was; global citizens are finally seeing Israel for what it is, and each of its crimes brings it additional criticism and further isolation. That apartheid nation continually increases its efforts to avoid international sanctions, and the tipping point will soon be reached wherein all its efforts will be in vain. When that happens, it will be a victory for justice, humanity and human rights.
6 july 2015
The Israeli occupation authorities deported five activists who were on board the flagship of a Gaza-bound flotilla a few days after Israeli navy had intercepted the boat.
Israel released the five activists, including the Israeli (now carrying Swedish citizenship) Dror Feiler, after forcefully seizing the ship that was on its way to break the Israeli siege on Gaza.
The newly released batch also includes the Russian journalist Nadezhda Kifrckova, who was warmly hailed and welcomed by a group of Pro-Palestine activists at the Moscow airport.
"This is the first time in my life that I was locked up in a prison,” Kifrckova said. “The experience has made me recognize what it feels like to be a Palestinian and a prisoner in Israeli jails despite the fact that the place where I was detained was kind of comfortable, so to speak, compared to where Palestinians are held.”
The Russian journalist released affidavits on the mistreatment and bullying she had been subjected to at the hands of the Israeli prison authorities. She spoke out against Israel’s infringement of international laws and treaties, including the freedom of press and speech.
Earlier, one week ago, the Israeli navy hijacked the Swedish-flagged Marianne of Gothenburg, part of the Freedom Flotilla III, detaining all on board. The ship was then commandeered to the port of Ashdod as concerns mounted for campaigners on board.
Israel released the five activists, including the Israeli (now carrying Swedish citizenship) Dror Feiler, after forcefully seizing the ship that was on its way to break the Israeli siege on Gaza.
The newly released batch also includes the Russian journalist Nadezhda Kifrckova, who was warmly hailed and welcomed by a group of Pro-Palestine activists at the Moscow airport.
"This is the first time in my life that I was locked up in a prison,” Kifrckova said. “The experience has made me recognize what it feels like to be a Palestinian and a prisoner in Israeli jails despite the fact that the place where I was detained was kind of comfortable, so to speak, compared to where Palestinians are held.”
The Russian journalist released affidavits on the mistreatment and bullying she had been subjected to at the hands of the Israeli prison authorities. She spoke out against Israel’s infringement of international laws and treaties, including the freedom of press and speech.
Earlier, one week ago, the Israeli navy hijacked the Swedish-flagged Marianne of Gothenburg, part of the Freedom Flotilla III, detaining all on board. The ship was then commandeered to the port of Ashdod as concerns mounted for campaigners on board.
2 july 2015
The International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG) expressed on Thursday its deep concern over the Israeli continued detention of seven activists, who were on board the Flotilla boat Marianne while on its way to Gaza.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli authorities informed Freedom Flotilla Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky of their intention to release three of Marianne activists identified as the Norwegian Herman Rekesten and the two Canadians, Robert Lovelace and Kevin Neish.
The seven remaining Marianne activists still in Israeli prison are: Nadya Kevorkova, Russia, Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Sweden, Joel Opperdoes, Sweden, Gustave Bergstrom, Sweden, Jonas Karlin, Sweden, Charlie Andreasson, Sweden, Ammar Al-Hamdan, Norway, Mohammed El-Bakkali, Morocco, Dror Feiler, Sweden, and Ruwani Perera, New Zealand.
Coordinator for the committee Zaher Birawi called for the immediate release of all the activists who are still illegally held in Israeli detention centers.
He also revealed that the committee embarked on consultations with a number of attorneys and experts in the international law to prosecute Israel for its piracy of Freedom Flotilla 3 and for detaining the participants.
On Monday, Israeli navy attacked the Marianne that leads Freedom Flotilla 3 in international waters, 100nm from Gaza, during one of its usual acts of state piracy, kidnapping 18 participants on board including the former Tunisian president el-Moncef el-Marzouki.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli authorities informed Freedom Flotilla Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky of their intention to release three of Marianne activists identified as the Norwegian Herman Rekesten and the two Canadians, Robert Lovelace and Kevin Neish.
The seven remaining Marianne activists still in Israeli prison are: Nadya Kevorkova, Russia, Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Sweden, Joel Opperdoes, Sweden, Gustave Bergstrom, Sweden, Jonas Karlin, Sweden, Charlie Andreasson, Sweden, Ammar Al-Hamdan, Norway, Mohammed El-Bakkali, Morocco, Dror Feiler, Sweden, and Ruwani Perera, New Zealand.
Coordinator for the committee Zaher Birawi called for the immediate release of all the activists who are still illegally held in Israeli detention centers.
He also revealed that the committee embarked on consultations with a number of attorneys and experts in the international law to prosecute Israel for its piracy of Freedom Flotilla 3 and for detaining the participants.
On Monday, Israeli navy attacked the Marianne that leads Freedom Flotilla 3 in international waters, 100nm from Gaza, during one of its usual acts of state piracy, kidnapping 18 participants on board including the former Tunisian president el-Moncef el-Marzouki.
1 july 2015
Chairman of the Global Union for Muslim Scholars yesterday called for lifting the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip and hailed the participants in the Freedom Flotilla including former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Yousef Al-Qaradawi called for lifting the siege and starting rebuilding projects.
"Despite the widespread oppression, there are free people around the globe who challenge the oppressors and defend the oppressed," Al-Qaradawi said. "They do not care about their suffering to achieve their goals."
"We salute every participant in the Freedom Flotilla III and we salute the courageous and free man who adopts the issues of his nation, the former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki," he said.
He also thanked all the activists who took part in the flotilla and suffered a lot in an attempt to revitalise the Palestinian issue.
The siege is trapped nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza leaving them with amongst their destroyed homes, with no work, no education or proper health care, Al-Qaradawi said, calling for the siege to be lifted to allow the residents to live a decent life.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Yousef Al-Qaradawi called for lifting the siege and starting rebuilding projects.
"Despite the widespread oppression, there are free people around the globe who challenge the oppressors and defend the oppressed," Al-Qaradawi said. "They do not care about their suffering to achieve their goals."
"We salute every participant in the Freedom Flotilla III and we salute the courageous and free man who adopts the issues of his nation, the former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki," he said.
He also thanked all the activists who took part in the flotilla and suffered a lot in an attempt to revitalise the Palestinian issue.
The siege is trapped nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza leaving them with amongst their destroyed homes, with no work, no education or proper health care, Al-Qaradawi said, calling for the siege to be lifted to allow the residents to live a decent life.
Palestinian factions have accused the UN of being a partner with Israeli in the attack on Freedom Flotilla III, which aimed to break the nine-year Israeli siege on Gaza, Anadolu agency has reported.
In a press conference held on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad Leader Khalid Al-Batsh said that: "The [Palestinian] national and Islamic factions announce their support to the Freedom Flotilla and the activists on board of Marianne, which was attacked by the Israeli occupation early on Monday while it was heading to Gaza."
Five Palestinian factions from both the left and right took part in the joint press conference, which was held in the Gaza fishing port.
"We hoped that the UN and the international community would have protected the ships of the Flotilla and guaranteed their arrival to Gaza, but it looks like the UN is a partner in the siege and the international piracy practiced against this Flotilla," Al-Batsh added.
He called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to activate international protection for the ships heading to Gaza, saying Israel should take responsibility for the repercussions of the attack on the Marianne.
In addition, he called on the international community to put more pressure on Israel in order to lift the siege on Gaza and build a seaport connecting Palestine with the outside world.
In a press conference held on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad Leader Khalid Al-Batsh said that: "The [Palestinian] national and Islamic factions announce their support to the Freedom Flotilla and the activists on board of Marianne, which was attacked by the Israeli occupation early on Monday while it was heading to Gaza."
Five Palestinian factions from both the left and right took part in the joint press conference, which was held in the Gaza fishing port.
"We hoped that the UN and the international community would have protected the ships of the Flotilla and guaranteed their arrival to Gaza, but it looks like the UN is a partner in the siege and the international piracy practiced against this Flotilla," Al-Batsh added.
He called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to activate international protection for the ships heading to Gaza, saying Israel should take responsibility for the repercussions of the attack on the Marianne.
In addition, he called on the international community to put more pressure on Israel in order to lift the siege on Gaza and build a seaport connecting Palestine with the outside world.
Tunisian ex-president Moncef Marzouki said, Tuesday, that a Moroccan flotilla will be heading to the Gaza Strip within a few day, according to Ma'an.
Marzouki reached Charl Degol airport in Paris, Tuesday morning, after he was arrested by Israeli forces on Sunday night. Marzouki was forced to Paris on Tuesday.
Marzouki, according to news reports, described what the Israeli navy did to the flotilla as “piracy which won't stop us from supporting the Gaza Strip."
On Monday, Israel deported Tunisian ex-president Moncef Marzouki and European parliament member Ana Miranda after they took part in a flotilla seeking to defy its Gaza blockade, an official said.
"The (former) president of Tunisia and the Spanish lawmaker flew this morning. There are another 14 who have begun the expulsion process," a spokeswoman for Israel's immigration authority told AFP.
Marzouki, who is widely known as a human rights activist, sailed aboard the Swedish ship the Marianne of Gothenburg as part of a four-boat flotilla that set sail from Europe last month.
Israel commandeered the Swedish-flagged Marianne on Monday and accompanied it to the port of Ashdod. Sixteen foreign nationals were on board along with two Israeli citizens, Palestinian Knesset member Basel Ghattas and a television reporter.
The two Israelis have been released, though Ghattas could face a parliamentary hearing on whether he should face sanctions.
The four-boat flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists had been seeking to reach the Gaza Strip to highlight the Israeli blockade of the territory that they called "inhumane and illegal".
The three other boats had turned back before the Marianne was boarded by the Israeli navy in an operation that took place without the deadly force that marred a raid to stop a similar bid in 2010.
The activists' campaign came as Israel faced heavy international pressure over its actions in Gaza, with a UN report last week saying Israel may have committed war crimes during a 50-day conflict in the besieged coastal enclave last summer.
Israel says the blockade is necessary to stop weapons from arriving in the Gaza Strip by sea, but international rights groups say it is collective punishment and has led to a humanitarian crisis for 1.8 Palestinians in the territory.
The reconstruction of thousands of homes destroyed during the fighting between Israel and Hamas, Gaza's Islamist de facto rulers, is yet to begin, and both Israel's blockade and a lack of support from international donors have been blamed.
In 2010, 10 Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara were killed in an Israeli raid on a six-ship flotilla.
Marzouki reached Charl Degol airport in Paris, Tuesday morning, after he was arrested by Israeli forces on Sunday night. Marzouki was forced to Paris on Tuesday.
Marzouki, according to news reports, described what the Israeli navy did to the flotilla as “piracy which won't stop us from supporting the Gaza Strip."
On Monday, Israel deported Tunisian ex-president Moncef Marzouki and European parliament member Ana Miranda after they took part in a flotilla seeking to defy its Gaza blockade, an official said.
"The (former) president of Tunisia and the Spanish lawmaker flew this morning. There are another 14 who have begun the expulsion process," a spokeswoman for Israel's immigration authority told AFP.
Marzouki, who is widely known as a human rights activist, sailed aboard the Swedish ship the Marianne of Gothenburg as part of a four-boat flotilla that set sail from Europe last month.
Israel commandeered the Swedish-flagged Marianne on Monday and accompanied it to the port of Ashdod. Sixteen foreign nationals were on board along with two Israeli citizens, Palestinian Knesset member Basel Ghattas and a television reporter.
The two Israelis have been released, though Ghattas could face a parliamentary hearing on whether he should face sanctions.
The four-boat flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists had been seeking to reach the Gaza Strip to highlight the Israeli blockade of the territory that they called "inhumane and illegal".
The three other boats had turned back before the Marianne was boarded by the Israeli navy in an operation that took place without the deadly force that marred a raid to stop a similar bid in 2010.
The activists' campaign came as Israel faced heavy international pressure over its actions in Gaza, with a UN report last week saying Israel may have committed war crimes during a 50-day conflict in the besieged coastal enclave last summer.
Israel says the blockade is necessary to stop weapons from arriving in the Gaza Strip by sea, but international rights groups say it is collective punishment and has led to a humanitarian crisis for 1.8 Palestinians in the territory.
The reconstruction of thousands of homes destroyed during the fighting between Israel and Hamas, Gaza's Islamist de facto rulers, is yet to begin, and both Israel's blockade and a lack of support from international donors have been blamed.
In 2010, 10 Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara were killed in an Israeli raid on a six-ship flotilla.
Two South Africans, who were part of a team of activists attempting to bring aid to Gaza by boat, will return home on Wednesday morning, the National Coalition for Palestine (NC4P) told News24.
The activists are Chris Le Bruyns, an academic and theologian; and Ismail Moola, one of the co-ordinators from the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA).
Neither were on the swedish vessel, Marianne of Gothenburg, which was seized by the IOF on Monday.
“Dr Clint Le Bruyns was on-board a standby vessel, while Ismail Moola provided logistical support for three boats and 50 crew and passengers,” NC4P said in a statement.
Both Le Bruyns and Moola were representing the Palestine Solidarity Alliance.
The “Freedom Flotilla III”, led by Marianne, was carrying humanitarian goods when it was intercepted.
The boat was towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod where the crew and passengers were detained in Tel Aviv, NC4P said.
On Monday, Moola told News24 that about 25 people including delegates and crew members were on board Marianne. Among them were Israeli parliamentarian Basel Ghattas, former Tunisian president Moncef Marzuki and Spanish Member of the European Parliament Ana Miranda.
Ghattas and Marzuki have been released but most of Marianne’s crew are still being held in Givon prison in Israel.
In May 2010, nine Turkish nationals died when Israeli commandos staged a pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to break the blockade. A tenth activist later died of his wounds.
The activists are Chris Le Bruyns, an academic and theologian; and Ismail Moola, one of the co-ordinators from the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA).
Neither were on the swedish vessel, Marianne of Gothenburg, which was seized by the IOF on Monday.
“Dr Clint Le Bruyns was on-board a standby vessel, while Ismail Moola provided logistical support for three boats and 50 crew and passengers,” NC4P said in a statement.
Both Le Bruyns and Moola were representing the Palestine Solidarity Alliance.
The “Freedom Flotilla III”, led by Marianne, was carrying humanitarian goods when it was intercepted.
The boat was towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod where the crew and passengers were detained in Tel Aviv, NC4P said.
On Monday, Moola told News24 that about 25 people including delegates and crew members were on board Marianne. Among them were Israeli parliamentarian Basel Ghattas, former Tunisian president Moncef Marzuki and Spanish Member of the European Parliament Ana Miranda.
Ghattas and Marzuki have been released but most of Marianne’s crew are still being held in Givon prison in Israel.
In May 2010, nine Turkish nationals died when Israeli commandos staged a pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to break the blockade. A tenth activist later died of his wounds.
Deputy head of Hamas Ismail Haneyya afternoon Tuesday spoke by phone with Tunisia’s ex-president Moncef al-Marzouki, hailing his serious and sincere efforts to break Israel’s eight-year blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Haneyya congratulated Tunisia’s former president al-Marzouki for his safe return home after he was abducted by the Israeli navy, earlier on Monday, off the Gaza shore while on board of the Freedom Flotilla III.
He hailed al-Marzouki, branding him an activist who represents the pro-Gaza positions emerging in the wake of the Arab Spring and the Arab revolutions.
He also saluted all the activists on board the flotilla, who have run the risk of trying to break the eight-year Israeli siege on the coastal enclave.
For his part, al-Marzouki thanked Haneyya for the phone call and reiterated the campaigners’ serious determination to arrive in Gaza no matter the risks and threats.
The Israeli navy intercepted the first of the flotilla's ships, the Marianne of Gothenburg, at dawn Monday approximately 100 nautical miles off the Gaza coast. The ship was towed to Ashdod seaport while a number of the activists on board were deported.
Haneyya congratulated Tunisia’s former president al-Marzouki for his safe return home after he was abducted by the Israeli navy, earlier on Monday, off the Gaza shore while on board of the Freedom Flotilla III.
He hailed al-Marzouki, branding him an activist who represents the pro-Gaza positions emerging in the wake of the Arab Spring and the Arab revolutions.
He also saluted all the activists on board the flotilla, who have run the risk of trying to break the eight-year Israeli siege on the coastal enclave.
For his part, al-Marzouki thanked Haneyya for the phone call and reiterated the campaigners’ serious determination to arrive in Gaza no matter the risks and threats.
The Israeli navy intercepted the first of the flotilla's ships, the Marianne of Gothenburg, at dawn Monday approximately 100 nautical miles off the Gaza coast. The ship was towed to Ashdod seaport while a number of the activists on board were deported.
