British beaches - From Yahoo
1. Bournemouth, Dorset
Bournemouth benefits from 7 miles of pure gold. One of the best city beaches in the UK , its soft sand and acres of space are perfect for families. It's won awards for cleanliness and on a clear day you can see out to the Needles on the Isle of Wight . True, it's not a deserted paradise, but you can't ask for much more so close to a major town. And with the building of Europe's first artificial surf reef, the beach is set to become one of the UK 's premier surfing spots.
2. West Wittering, West Sussex
West Wittering near Chichester manages to please all comers with expansive sands, superior water quality and a thriving dune ecosystem. The beach shelves gently towards the sea making it ideal for safe swimming and when the tide is out you can bask in shallow tidal pools warmed by the sun. If you feel restless you can walk around East Head, a sandy spit populated by absorbing coastal flora and fauna.
3. Croyde Bay, North Devon
Hammering surf and excellent surf schools and shops have sealed Croyde Bay 's reputation as North Devon 's best beach for catching waves. The village has retained an old world charm despite the influx of young surfers keen to party and the beach is big enough for sunbathers and swimmers, too.
4. Holy Island, Northumberland
One of the most haunting and beautiful places in Britain , Holy Island was an early centre of Christianity in the UK . Cut off from the mainland twice a day by the tide, it has a castle, an evocative ruined priory and mile upon mile of deserted sand. If you're in a reflective mood, this is the one for you. Watch out for grey seals and rare birds.
5. Holkham, Norfolk
Draped in dunes, Holkham is a deliciously secluded beach backed by scented pine forest. Sunbathe, horseride or explore 3 miles of seemingly measureless, creamy sands. And if you come to Holkham, you'll be in illustrious company. The Queen likes to walk her Corgis here and Gwyneth Paltrow strode across the sands for the final scene of Shakespeare in Love.
6. Great Bay, St Martin's, Isles of Scilly
Short on Kiss Me Quick hats and sickly sticks of rock but with charm to spare, Great Bay is the best beach in the Scillys. You can only reach it on foot, so the holiday hordes generally stay away. It's only a 20 minute walk from the quay and the journey's certainly worth it. Offshore, kelp forests sheltering colourful fish wave lazily in a cobalt sea and the arcing white sands are distinctly tropical.
7. Blackpool, Lancashire
Ice creams, saucy postcards, fish ‘n' chips, rock, donkey rides and deckchairs – Blackpool beach is the essence of the traditional British seaside. Apart from miles of sand you'll find slot machines, shows and some of the biggest and scariest rollercoasters in the UK.
8. Abereiddi Blue Lagoon, Pembrokeshire
Not strictly a beach, the Blue Lagoon is actually an old quarry with a tidal channel to the sea. The quarry forms a satisfying circle, protecting and enclosing a disc of shimmering azure water. It's a romantic spot reached by walking passed ruined slate workers' cottages and quarry buildings. Surrounded by cliffs, it's popular with cliff jumpers and coasteerers.
9. Sinclair's Bay, Caithness
This all but deserted beach just south of John O'Groats has soft white sand that's lapped by waters tinged an otherworldly blue. It's hard to find a more atmospheric beach. This one's guarded by two 16 th -century castles and welcomes porpoises and whales. With 4 miles of uninterrupted sand you won't have any problems bagging a good spot.
10. Porthcurno, Cornwall
This glorious, unspoilt beach hugged by craggy cliffs has fine white sand made from sea shells. There are cliff-top paths, rock pools to discover and a stream trickling down the beach – ideal for paddling children. Nearby, the extraordinary Minnack Theatre hosts open-air plays with views of the ocean.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
The wise humanitarian souls...
Grey power free Gaza - Guardian
The key figures of the Free Gaza movement are all women of pensionable age, who came out of the 1960s protest generation
They are the generation who protested in the 1960s and have girded themselves again to campaign for Palestinian rights. The Free Gaza movement, which chartered the Challenger yacht as part of the flotilla that was attacked by Israel on Monday, is led by a group of women of pensionable age.
Founding members of the organisation, which is also operating the MV Rachel Corrie, include a US-based 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, and a 76-year-old grandmother originally from Bolton, Mary Hughes.
The four activists running Free Gaza's communications and legal operations from Cyprus during the flotilla are all women aged between 65 and 85.
"Part of it could be because we are children of the 1960s and we came out of the anti-Vietnam movement," said Greta Berlin, 69, also one of the founding members. Speaking from Bolton, Mary Hughes's brother, Brian Thompson, said he had not heard from her since an email last week. "Mary isn't a political person. This is not an anti-Israel stance she is taking, it is a humanitarian one," he said.
The key figures of the Free Gaza movement are all women of pensionable age, who came out of the 1960s protest generation
They are the generation who protested in the 1960s and have girded themselves again to campaign for Palestinian rights. The Free Gaza movement, which chartered the Challenger yacht as part of the flotilla that was attacked by Israel on Monday, is led by a group of women of pensionable age.
Founding members of the organisation, which is also operating the MV Rachel Corrie, include a US-based 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, and a 76-year-old grandmother originally from Bolton, Mary Hughes.
The four activists running Free Gaza's communications and legal operations from Cyprus during the flotilla are all women aged between 65 and 85.
"Part of it could be because we are children of the 1960s and we came out of the anti-Vietnam movement," said Greta Berlin, 69, also one of the founding members. Speaking from Bolton, Mary Hughes's brother, Brian Thompson, said he had not heard from her since an email last week. "Mary isn't a political person. This is not an anti-Israel stance she is taking, it is a humanitarian one," he said.
Flotilla update
From the Guardian
• Released activists have said Israeli commandos opened fire before boarding Gaza flotilla. Turkish activist Nilufer Cetin said Israeli troops opened fire before boarding the Turkish-flagged ferry Mavi Marmara, which was the scene of the worst clashes and all the fatalities. Israeli officials have said that the use of armed force began when its boarding party was attacked.
• Israel's military may have sabotaged two boats carrying Free Gaza activists after both malfuntioned at the same time in the same way prior to the raid. The ships were forced into port in Cyprus on Friday evening when both their steering systems broke down on the journey from Heraklion in Crete, a campaign spokeswoman said.
• Egypt has temporarily lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow aid into the area. Several thousand Gazans are reportedly making a dash to the Egyptian border, hoping to take advantage of a rare chance to escape the blockaded territory. Cars with suitcases piled on their roofs are streaming to the border, while many others are lugging overstaffed bags on foot. Dozens of Hamas police with automatic weapons are patrolling the area to maintain order.
• The MV Rachel Corrie, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla but had fallen behind, will still make for Gaza, according to the Free Gaza Movement. Spokeswoman Greta Berlin said the vessel would probably arrive next Monday or Tuesday. An unnamed Israeli marine lieutenant told Israel's Army Radio his unit was prepared to block the ship.
• Released activists have said Israeli commandos opened fire before boarding Gaza flotilla. Turkish activist Nilufer Cetin said Israeli troops opened fire before boarding the Turkish-flagged ferry Mavi Marmara, which was the scene of the worst clashes and all the fatalities. Israeli officials have said that the use of armed force began when its boarding party was attacked.
• Israel's military may have sabotaged two boats carrying Free Gaza activists after both malfuntioned at the same time in the same way prior to the raid. The ships were forced into port in Cyprus on Friday evening when both their steering systems broke down on the journey from Heraklion in Crete, a campaign spokeswoman said.
• Egypt has temporarily lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow aid into the area. Several thousand Gazans are reportedly making a dash to the Egyptian border, hoping to take advantage of a rare chance to escape the blockaded territory. Cars with suitcases piled on their roofs are streaming to the border, while many others are lugging overstaffed bags on foot. Dozens of Hamas police with automatic weapons are patrolling the area to maintain order.
• The MV Rachel Corrie, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla but had fallen behind, will still make for Gaza, according to the Free Gaza Movement. Spokeswoman Greta Berlin said the vessel would probably arrive next Monday or Tuesday. An unnamed Israeli marine lieutenant told Israel's Army Radio his unit was prepared to block the ship.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Israel Flotilla Raid
More from the Guardian
3.53pm:
More reaction from those caught up in the flotilla violence. Tom Phillips is in Rio de Janeiro for the Guardian.
The Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee, who was onboard the Mavi Marmara when it was stormed, claimed the Israeli troops had invaded the ship and "started shooting at people."
"It was a surprise because it happened in the middle of the night, in the darkness, in international waters, because we knew there would be a confrontation but not in international waters," she told Brazil's TV Globo on Tuesday.
"Their first tactic was to cut all of our satellite communications and then they attacked," Lee said, reportedly speaking from an Israeli prison in the city of Beersheva, 80km from Jerusalem, where she was under arrest.
"All I witnessed first hand was the shooting," said New York-based Lee, who has also lived in Iran and Lebanon. "They came onboard and started shooting at people."
Lee, a former director of the Sao Paulo film festival and whose film Synthetic Pleasures was nominated for a Sundance award in 1996, said the operatives then sent the women to a lower level of the ship.
"They said we were terrorists – it was absurd. They came into the part where the women were, lots and lots of them, dressed in black and with gigantic weapons as if they were in a war."
"They confiscated all of our telephones and all of our luggage that was on the ship and took everything out of the bags and put it on the floor."
Lee said she planned to return to Brazil and then to the US where she would continue her activism. "Justice will not come quickly, we will have to continue working," she said.
3.41pm:
The civil society organisation Avaaz has set up a petition calling for a full investigation into the flotilla incident and an end to the Gaza blockade.
The petition will be delivered to the UN and world leaders when it reaches 200,000 signatures, according to Avaaz.
"We call for an immediate, independent investigation into the flotilla assault, full accountability for those responsible, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade," the organisation says.
The petition has attracted 14,000 signatures in the last couple of hours and is growing fast.
Avaaz petition
3.53pm:
More reaction from those caught up in the flotilla violence. Tom Phillips is in Rio de Janeiro for the Guardian.
The Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee, who was onboard the Mavi Marmara when it was stormed, claimed the Israeli troops had invaded the ship and "started shooting at people."
"It was a surprise because it happened in the middle of the night, in the darkness, in international waters, because we knew there would be a confrontation but not in international waters," she told Brazil's TV Globo on Tuesday.
"Their first tactic was to cut all of our satellite communications and then they attacked," Lee said, reportedly speaking from an Israeli prison in the city of Beersheva, 80km from Jerusalem, where she was under arrest.
"All I witnessed first hand was the shooting," said New York-based Lee, who has also lived in Iran and Lebanon. "They came onboard and started shooting at people."
Lee, a former director of the Sao Paulo film festival and whose film Synthetic Pleasures was nominated for a Sundance award in 1996, said the operatives then sent the women to a lower level of the ship.
"They said we were terrorists – it was absurd. They came into the part where the women were, lots and lots of them, dressed in black and with gigantic weapons as if they were in a war."
"They confiscated all of our telephones and all of our luggage that was on the ship and took everything out of the bags and put it on the floor."
Lee said she planned to return to Brazil and then to the US where she would continue her activism. "Justice will not come quickly, we will have to continue working," she said.
3.41pm:
The civil society organisation Avaaz has set up a petition calling for a full investigation into the flotilla incident and an end to the Gaza blockade.
The petition will be delivered to the UN and world leaders when it reaches 200,000 signatures, according to Avaaz.
"We call for an immediate, independent investigation into the flotilla assault, full accountability for those responsible, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade," the organisation says.
The petition has attracted 14,000 signatures in the last couple of hours and is growing fast.
Avaaz petition
The missing Scottish journalist...
Herald Scotland
Missing Scot had warned of bloody outcome
BACKGROUND: Alison Campsie
1 Jun 2010
The last message left by Hassan Ghani from on board a ship that formed part of the Gaza aid flotilla contained a clear warning of the threat he was facing: “Israeli ships sighted on radar. Approaching.”
Glasgow-born Ghani, 25, has not been heard from since. The update was posted on his Facebook page from the Mavi Marmara passenger ship on Sunday night, shortly before Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter on to the deck, later opening fire on those on board.
The Stirling University graduate, now a London-based journalist for Iranian TV station PressTV, had been covering the Gaza aid attempt for the past week. His reports warned of a potential bloody confrontation should Israeli forces intercept it.
Now an information blackout has left Ghani’s family juggling conflicting reports about his safety. No Facebook updates have been made and mobile phones remain dead.
His father, Haq Ghani, yesterday drove 600 miles from England to Glasgow to be with his family as they desperately awaited official word on his son’s whereabouts.
Mr Ghani, 60, said: “I have been told that no British passengers are among those who have been murdered, but it has not been confirmed. I have tried contracting the Foreign Office, but they have no power or status in Israel.”
Ghani’s sister Khadija added: “There have been so many rumours, saying one minute that he’s dead and another that someone has heard he’s fine. We’re all over the place at the moment.”
The aid flotilla was one of the biggest ever to flout the blockade placed on Gaza, which has prevented all exports and confined imports to a limited supply of humanitarian goods.
The blockade has been in place since 2007 and aims to weaken the influence of Hamas, which seized power that year. The end result has been appalling living conditions for Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.
The UN has said that 60% of households are short of food, with the same proportion of residents having no daily access to water.
The Mavi Marmara was carrying 100 tonnes of cargo including concrete, medicines and children’s toys, some of which had been collected from the Scottish public. Ali El-Awaisi, 22, an estate agent from Dundee, but Palestine-born, was also on board the Mavi Marmara, chartered by Turkish humanitarian group Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), when it was attacked.
He was planning to deliver 13 palettes of goods collected in the city in just a fortnight, a load with an estimated value of £30,000. It was also a personal mission for El-Awaisi, who has never met his seven aunts who live in Gaza.
His brother, Dr Khalid El-Awaisi, said they were both due to travel on the convoy but he let Ali take the only available space on board.
The Dundee University history and politics lecturer, who last spoke to his brother on Friday, said: “I was hoping to go along with him but then we heard that only one person could go. Now I wish I was there with him, just to make sure he is all right.
“Everyone was in high spirits, everyone was happy, positive that they were trying to get the aid into Gaza. The worst [thing] for us now is being completely cut off from what is going on. We are completely distressed about what has happened to our brother.”
Post officer worker Theresa McDermott, 43, from Edinburgh, was sailing on a smaller passenger boat that was part of the flotilla.
She left for Crete two weeks ago to train up new recruits to the aid mission.
McDermott was detained last year in Ramleh Prison by Israeli forces who intercepted the Lebanese cargo ship on which she was travelling on another aid mission. She made a second voyage on another ship, Dignity, and was aboard when it was rammed by the authorities, Carl Abernethy, who co-founded Free Gaza Scotland with McDermott, said he strongly rejected reports from the Israeli Government that those on board the Mavi Marmara were armed when the forces landed on the ship.
“This voyage was about ending the siege of Gaza and if this huge operation was successful in doing this, then the idea was to do it every month,” Abernethy said. “It wouldn’t be in anyone’s interests to sabotage this one.”
Abernethy said goods taken to Ireland by McDermott before she joined the flotilla in Crete had been checked for weapons by port authorities there and by representatives of the Free Gaza movement.
Abernethy added: “Theresa was excited but she was worried that if she was arrested and not back in Edinburgh on time her job might be on the line.
“Our concerns now are not only the plight of the people of Gaza, but also the families of those on board who have been murdered.”
The shootings follow a number of failed attempts to get aid to Gaza. Last year, the Spirit of Humanity was surrounded by Israeli Navy gunboats and ordered to turn around and return to Larnaca in Cyprus.
Last June, the same ship was apprehended and taken into custody in Israel. Cargo and the vessel were confiscated and the crew and passengers arrested and deported.
An editorial in the Palestine Telegraph last month argued that the Free Gaza organisation was pushing the limits and putting volunteers in danger by going ahead with the latest voyage at a time when the Israel Navy was in training to deal with the flotilla.
Also on the board the flotilla stormed yesterday were 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, of Northern Ireland, crime author Henning Mankell and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85.
Delivering aid: the reporter, estate agent, postal worker and IT specialist
Hassan Ghani
A 25-year-old Stirling University graduate, from Glasgow, who was reporting from the aid ship when it was attacked. Ghani was with PressTV, an Iranian cable channel. His father Haq, who lives in Partick, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in the city last night.
Ali El Awaisi
The 22-year-old Dundee estate agent was on the ship to deliver supplies collected in the city, including a large consignment of concrete. A Palestinian by birth, he moved to Scotland just over 20 years ago and is a former history and politics student at Dundee University.
Theresa McDermott
A postal worker from Edinburgh and a veteran campaigner for human rights in Palestine was imprisoned in Israel last year after the navy intercepted a cargo of aid. The 43-year-old was on a smaller vessel in the flotilla and had gone to Cyprus to train new recruits on the aid mission.
Hasan Nowarah
A father-of-three and a Glasgow-based campaigner who had collected medicines.
The IT professional, 45, was born in Palestine but moved to Scotland 20 years ago. He was known to be travelling with the flotilla, but it is not clear if his boat was attacked by Israeli forces.
Missing Scot had warned of bloody outcome
BACKGROUND: Alison Campsie
1 Jun 2010
The last message left by Hassan Ghani from on board a ship that formed part of the Gaza aid flotilla contained a clear warning of the threat he was facing: “Israeli ships sighted on radar. Approaching.”
Glasgow-born Ghani, 25, has not been heard from since. The update was posted on his Facebook page from the Mavi Marmara passenger ship on Sunday night, shortly before Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter on to the deck, later opening fire on those on board.
The Stirling University graduate, now a London-based journalist for Iranian TV station PressTV, had been covering the Gaza aid attempt for the past week. His reports warned of a potential bloody confrontation should Israeli forces intercept it.
Now an information blackout has left Ghani’s family juggling conflicting reports about his safety. No Facebook updates have been made and mobile phones remain dead.
His father, Haq Ghani, yesterday drove 600 miles from England to Glasgow to be with his family as they desperately awaited official word on his son’s whereabouts.
Mr Ghani, 60, said: “I have been told that no British passengers are among those who have been murdered, but it has not been confirmed. I have tried contracting the Foreign Office, but they have no power or status in Israel.”
Ghani’s sister Khadija added: “There have been so many rumours, saying one minute that he’s dead and another that someone has heard he’s fine. We’re all over the place at the moment.”
The aid flotilla was one of the biggest ever to flout the blockade placed on Gaza, which has prevented all exports and confined imports to a limited supply of humanitarian goods.
The blockade has been in place since 2007 and aims to weaken the influence of Hamas, which seized power that year. The end result has been appalling living conditions for Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.
The UN has said that 60% of households are short of food, with the same proportion of residents having no daily access to water.
The Mavi Marmara was carrying 100 tonnes of cargo including concrete, medicines and children’s toys, some of which had been collected from the Scottish public. Ali El-Awaisi, 22, an estate agent from Dundee, but Palestine-born, was also on board the Mavi Marmara, chartered by Turkish humanitarian group Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), when it was attacked.
He was planning to deliver 13 palettes of goods collected in the city in just a fortnight, a load with an estimated value of £30,000. It was also a personal mission for El-Awaisi, who has never met his seven aunts who live in Gaza.
His brother, Dr Khalid El-Awaisi, said they were both due to travel on the convoy but he let Ali take the only available space on board.
The Dundee University history and politics lecturer, who last spoke to his brother on Friday, said: “I was hoping to go along with him but then we heard that only one person could go. Now I wish I was there with him, just to make sure he is all right.
“Everyone was in high spirits, everyone was happy, positive that they were trying to get the aid into Gaza. The worst [thing] for us now is being completely cut off from what is going on. We are completely distressed about what has happened to our brother.”
Post officer worker Theresa McDermott, 43, from Edinburgh, was sailing on a smaller passenger boat that was part of the flotilla.
She left for Crete two weeks ago to train up new recruits to the aid mission.
McDermott was detained last year in Ramleh Prison by Israeli forces who intercepted the Lebanese cargo ship on which she was travelling on another aid mission. She made a second voyage on another ship, Dignity, and was aboard when it was rammed by the authorities, Carl Abernethy, who co-founded Free Gaza Scotland with McDermott, said he strongly rejected reports from the Israeli Government that those on board the Mavi Marmara were armed when the forces landed on the ship.
“This voyage was about ending the siege of Gaza and if this huge operation was successful in doing this, then the idea was to do it every month,” Abernethy said. “It wouldn’t be in anyone’s interests to sabotage this one.”
Abernethy said goods taken to Ireland by McDermott before she joined the flotilla in Crete had been checked for weapons by port authorities there and by representatives of the Free Gaza movement.
Abernethy added: “Theresa was excited but she was worried that if she was arrested and not back in Edinburgh on time her job might be on the line.
“Our concerns now are not only the plight of the people of Gaza, but also the families of those on board who have been murdered.”
The shootings follow a number of failed attempts to get aid to Gaza. Last year, the Spirit of Humanity was surrounded by Israeli Navy gunboats and ordered to turn around and return to Larnaca in Cyprus.
Last June, the same ship was apprehended and taken into custody in Israel. Cargo and the vessel were confiscated and the crew and passengers arrested and deported.
An editorial in the Palestine Telegraph last month argued that the Free Gaza organisation was pushing the limits and putting volunteers in danger by going ahead with the latest voyage at a time when the Israel Navy was in training to deal with the flotilla.
Also on the board the flotilla stormed yesterday were 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, of Northern Ireland, crime author Henning Mankell and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85.
Delivering aid: the reporter, estate agent, postal worker and IT specialist
Hassan Ghani
A 25-year-old Stirling University graduate, from Glasgow, who was reporting from the aid ship when it was attacked. Ghani was with PressTV, an Iranian cable channel. His father Haq, who lives in Partick, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in the city last night.
Ali El Awaisi
The 22-year-old Dundee estate agent was on the ship to deliver supplies collected in the city, including a large consignment of concrete. A Palestinian by birth, he moved to Scotland just over 20 years ago and is a former history and politics student at Dundee University.
Theresa McDermott
A postal worker from Edinburgh and a veteran campaigner for human rights in Palestine was imprisoned in Israel last year after the navy intercepted a cargo of aid. The 43-year-old was on a smaller vessel in the flotilla and had gone to Cyprus to train new recruits on the aid mission.
Hasan Nowarah
A father-of-three and a Glasgow-based campaigner who had collected medicines.
The IT professional, 45, was born in Palestine but moved to Scotland 20 years ago. He was known to be travelling with the flotilla, but it is not clear if his boat was attacked by Israeli forces.
Israel Flotilla Raid
Guardian blog - being updated regularly.
An excerpt from it thus far:
UN calls for inquiry into Israel's assault on Gaza flotilla
• Free Gaza Movement says it will send two more ships
• Egypt opens border crossing with Gaza
2.31pm:
Some of the people onboard the MV Rachel Corrie ship, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla but was not seized by Israeli troops after falling behind others in the fleet, have been named.
Gaza campaigner Ali Abunimah has named 11 of the passengers on his blog:
• Mairead Maguire, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from Belfast, Ireland
• Denis Halliday, Manhattan, NYC and Connemara, Ireland.
• Matthias Chang Wen Chieh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• MP Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria, a member of the Malaysian Parliament.
• Shamsul Akmar bin Musa Kamal 46, Selangor, Malaysia
• Mr. Shamsul Akmar bin Musa Kamal, Malaysian journalist
• Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria 41 , Perak, Malaysia
• Abdul Halim Bin Mohamed 29 , Selangor, Malaysia
• Abdul Halim, broadcast journalist for news and current affairs Malaysia TV3
• Mohd Jufri Bin Mohd Judin 33, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Mohd Jufri, cameraman for news and current affairs Malaysia TV3.
While the Press Association is reporting that there are five Irish people in total aboard the MV Rachel Corrie, also including Fiona Thompson, a film-maker from Dundalk.
The ship will still head for Gaza according to the Free Gaza Movement.
"We are an initiative to break Israel's blockade of 1.5 million people in Gaza. Our mission has not changed and this is not going to be the last flotilla," Free Gaza Movement activist Greta Berlin, based in Cyprus, told Reuters.
However an unnamed Israeli marine lieutenant told Israel's Army Radio today his unit was prepared to block the ship.
"We as a unit are studying, and we will carry out professional investigations to reach conclusions," the lieutenant said.
"And we will also be ready for the Rachel Corrie."
The Army Radio station reported that the ship would reach Gazan waters tomorrow, however Berlin said it might not attempt to reach Gaza until early next week.
"We will probably not send her till [next] Monday or Tuesday," she said of the 1,200 tonne cargo ship.
2.15pm:
Turkey's Foreign Ministry says four Turkish citizens have been confirmed dead on the Mavi Marmara, while another five of the dead are also believed to be Turks.
Israeli authorities say they are still trying to confirm the nationalities of the dead. More as we get it.
2.06pm:
Reuters is snapping the following sentence:
"UN chief Ban Ki-Moon says if Israel had heeded calls to lift Gaza blockade flotilla incident would not have happened"
I'm guessing this means there is a statement coming from Ban. More to follow.
1.25pm:
From the Guardian's Middle East editor, Ian Black, on Egypt opening the Rafah border crossing to the Gaza strip:
In one of the first signs of fallout from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident Egypt has announced that it is opening the the southern border of the Gaza Strip at Rafah to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
The crossing normally opens once a month for a few days. The sudden decision seems to show Egyptian embarrassment at Arab charges of complicity with the the Israeli blockade.
President Hosni Mubarak is deeply hostile to Hamas, which has close links to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest – and semi-outlawed – opposition group.
1.14pm:
Matthew Weaver emails with a summary of the day so far:
• The UN has called for an independent inquiry into the raid, but its compromise statement on the incident stops short of an outright condemnation.
• The Free Gaza Movement has sent more aid ships to the blockaded area despite warnings that they will be stopped by the Israeli military.
• The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned Israel not to test Turkey's patience. He called for Israel to be "punished" for the attack.
• More eyewitness accounts are emerging of what happened. Haneen Zuabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset who was on the Mavi Marmara, accused Israel of trying to "cause the largest number of fatalities" and said she did not hear any warning.
• The Foreign Office has confirmed that a British man was among the injured
• Israel has continued to insist that is troops were acting in self defence after they were attacked by activists.
12.23pm:
Haneen Zuabi, an Israeli-Arab MP in the Knessett who was on the Mavi Marmara, has accused her country of trying to "cause the largest number of fatalities".
She was released today after questioning and has been giving her version of events at a news conference, according to the Israeli news website ynetnews.com she told a conference.
"I entered the captain's room. He was asked to stop by the Israeli soldiers. He said, 'We are a Turkish ship.' We were 130 miles off. It was 11:30 pm. We saw four Israel vessels, they were at a distance because we were in international waters. At 4:15 am we saw the ships approaching.
"They were dinghies and choppers. At 4:30 am the forces landed quickly. I did not hear any warning from the ships, because noise was coming from the ships and the choppers. Within 10 minutes there were already three bodies. The entire operation took about an hour."
"There was not a single passenger who raised a club. We put on our life vests. There were no clubs or anything of the sort. There were gunshots, I don't know if they were live bullets or not. There were gunshots fired from the ships in our direction.
"A clear message was being sent to us, for us to know that our lives were in danger. We convened that we were not interested in a confrontation. What we saw was five bodies. There were only civilians and there were no weapons. There was a sense that I many not come out of it alive. Israel spoke of a provocation, but there was no provocation."
12.05pm:
Reuters has more from activists arriving at Athens airport – this is from Mihalis Grigoropoulos, who was steering one of the ships in the flotilla:
"They (Israelis) came down from helicopters and threw ropes from inflatable boats, climbing aboard. There was teargas and live ammunition.
"I was steering the ship, we saw them capture another ship in front of us, which was the Turkish passenger vessel with more than 500 people on board and heard shots fired.
"We did not resist at all, we couldn't even if we had wanted to. What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard? The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired upon with plastic bullets and were stunned with electric devices.
"There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground.
"They wouldn't let us use the bathroom, wouldn't give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this."
11.38am:
The news agency Reuters are running accounts of some of the activists in the flotilla.
Nilufer Cetin was travelling with her young son when the Israelli commandos boarded her ship.
"We stayed in our cabin and played games amid the sound of gunfire. My son has been nervous since yesterday afternoon ... I did not need to protect my son. They knew there was a baby on board. I protected him by staying in my cabin, then went to the bathroom. I put a gas mask and life jacket on my son. We did not experience any other problems on board, only a water shortage. We took walks on the deck, played games with my son. The curtains were drawn, so I did not see not the raid as it was happening. I only heard the voices. There are lightly and heavily wounded people.
"There are thousands, millions of babies in Gaza. My son and I wanted to play with those babies. We planned to deliver them aid. We wanted to say 'Look, it's a safe place, I came here with my baby-son'. I saw my husband from a distance, he looked OK. The ship personnel was not wounded, because they (the soldiers) needed them to take the ship to port. I will go again if another ship goes."
11.15am:
The Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement is reporting that a US activist injured in protests in the West Bank yesterday has lost her eye.
An American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel's murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.
21-year old Emily Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.
An excerpt from it thus far:
UN calls for inquiry into Israel's assault on Gaza flotilla
• Free Gaza Movement says it will send two more ships
• Egypt opens border crossing with Gaza
2.31pm:
Some of the people onboard the MV Rachel Corrie ship, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla but was not seized by Israeli troops after falling behind others in the fleet, have been named.
Gaza campaigner Ali Abunimah has named 11 of the passengers on his blog:
• Mairead Maguire, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from Belfast, Ireland
• Denis Halliday, Manhattan, NYC and Connemara, Ireland.
• Matthias Chang Wen Chieh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• MP Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria, a member of the Malaysian Parliament.
• Shamsul Akmar bin Musa Kamal 46, Selangor, Malaysia
• Mr. Shamsul Akmar bin Musa Kamal, Malaysian journalist
• Mohd Nizar bin Zakaria 41 , Perak, Malaysia
• Abdul Halim Bin Mohamed 29 , Selangor, Malaysia
• Abdul Halim, broadcast journalist for news and current affairs Malaysia TV3
• Mohd Jufri Bin Mohd Judin 33, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Mohd Jufri, cameraman for news and current affairs Malaysia TV3.
While the Press Association is reporting that there are five Irish people in total aboard the MV Rachel Corrie, also including Fiona Thompson, a film-maker from Dundalk.
The ship will still head for Gaza according to the Free Gaza Movement.
"We are an initiative to break Israel's blockade of 1.5 million people in Gaza. Our mission has not changed and this is not going to be the last flotilla," Free Gaza Movement activist Greta Berlin, based in Cyprus, told Reuters.
However an unnamed Israeli marine lieutenant told Israel's Army Radio today his unit was prepared to block the ship.
"We as a unit are studying, and we will carry out professional investigations to reach conclusions," the lieutenant said.
"And we will also be ready for the Rachel Corrie."
The Army Radio station reported that the ship would reach Gazan waters tomorrow, however Berlin said it might not attempt to reach Gaza until early next week.
"We will probably not send her till [next] Monday or Tuesday," she said of the 1,200 tonne cargo ship.
2.15pm:
Turkey's Foreign Ministry says four Turkish citizens have been confirmed dead on the Mavi Marmara, while another five of the dead are also believed to be Turks.
Israeli authorities say they are still trying to confirm the nationalities of the dead. More as we get it.
2.06pm:
Reuters is snapping the following sentence:
"UN chief Ban Ki-Moon says if Israel had heeded calls to lift Gaza blockade flotilla incident would not have happened"
I'm guessing this means there is a statement coming from Ban. More to follow.
1.25pm:
From the Guardian's Middle East editor, Ian Black, on Egypt opening the Rafah border crossing to the Gaza strip:
In one of the first signs of fallout from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident Egypt has announced that it is opening the the southern border of the Gaza Strip at Rafah to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
The crossing normally opens once a month for a few days. The sudden decision seems to show Egyptian embarrassment at Arab charges of complicity with the the Israeli blockade.
President Hosni Mubarak is deeply hostile to Hamas, which has close links to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest – and semi-outlawed – opposition group.
1.14pm:
Matthew Weaver emails with a summary of the day so far:
• The UN has called for an independent inquiry into the raid, but its compromise statement on the incident stops short of an outright condemnation.
• The Free Gaza Movement has sent more aid ships to the blockaded area despite warnings that they will be stopped by the Israeli military.
• The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned Israel not to test Turkey's patience. He called for Israel to be "punished" for the attack.
• More eyewitness accounts are emerging of what happened. Haneen Zuabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset who was on the Mavi Marmara, accused Israel of trying to "cause the largest number of fatalities" and said she did not hear any warning.
• The Foreign Office has confirmed that a British man was among the injured
• Israel has continued to insist that is troops were acting in self defence after they were attacked by activists.
12.23pm:
Haneen Zuabi, an Israeli-Arab MP in the Knessett who was on the Mavi Marmara, has accused her country of trying to "cause the largest number of fatalities".
She was released today after questioning and has been giving her version of events at a news conference, according to the Israeli news website ynetnews.com she told a conference.
"I entered the captain's room. He was asked to stop by the Israeli soldiers. He said, 'We are a Turkish ship.' We were 130 miles off. It was 11:30 pm. We saw four Israel vessels, they were at a distance because we were in international waters. At 4:15 am we saw the ships approaching.
"They were dinghies and choppers. At 4:30 am the forces landed quickly. I did not hear any warning from the ships, because noise was coming from the ships and the choppers. Within 10 minutes there were already three bodies. The entire operation took about an hour."
"There was not a single passenger who raised a club. We put on our life vests. There were no clubs or anything of the sort. There were gunshots, I don't know if they were live bullets or not. There were gunshots fired from the ships in our direction.
"A clear message was being sent to us, for us to know that our lives were in danger. We convened that we were not interested in a confrontation. What we saw was five bodies. There were only civilians and there were no weapons. There was a sense that I many not come out of it alive. Israel spoke of a provocation, but there was no provocation."
12.05pm:
Reuters has more from activists arriving at Athens airport – this is from Mihalis Grigoropoulos, who was steering one of the ships in the flotilla:
"They (Israelis) came down from helicopters and threw ropes from inflatable boats, climbing aboard. There was teargas and live ammunition.
"I was steering the ship, we saw them capture another ship in front of us, which was the Turkish passenger vessel with more than 500 people on board and heard shots fired.
"We did not resist at all, we couldn't even if we had wanted to. What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard? The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired upon with plastic bullets and were stunned with electric devices.
"There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground.
"They wouldn't let us use the bathroom, wouldn't give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this."
11.38am:
The news agency Reuters are running accounts of some of the activists in the flotilla.
Nilufer Cetin was travelling with her young son when the Israelli commandos boarded her ship.
"We stayed in our cabin and played games amid the sound of gunfire. My son has been nervous since yesterday afternoon ... I did not need to protect my son. They knew there was a baby on board. I protected him by staying in my cabin, then went to the bathroom. I put a gas mask and life jacket on my son. We did not experience any other problems on board, only a water shortage. We took walks on the deck, played games with my son. The curtains were drawn, so I did not see not the raid as it was happening. I only heard the voices. There are lightly and heavily wounded people.
"There are thousands, millions of babies in Gaza. My son and I wanted to play with those babies. We planned to deliver them aid. We wanted to say 'Look, it's a safe place, I came here with my baby-son'. I saw my husband from a distance, he looked OK. The ship personnel was not wounded, because they (the soldiers) needed them to take the ship to port. I will go again if another ship goes."
11.15am:
The Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement is reporting that a US activist injured in protests in the West Bank yesterday has lost her eye.
An American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel's murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.
21-year old Emily Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.
Tom
(Previous post on Tom Hurndall)
His words:
'What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven't done. '
Tom Hurndall's sister, Sophie, talks to the Times
Tom Hurndall: his death was like a bomb going off in the middle of the family
As a TV drama examines the killing of Tom Hurndall by Israeli forces in Gaza; his sister talks for the first time about his death; the devastating impact that it had on the family and their campaign for the Palestinians
October 7, 2008, Penny Wark
In April, 2003, Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old photojournalism student, was shot in the head by an Israeli Defence Forces sniper
Sophie Hurndall and her mother have found catharsis by working for charities involved in the Middle East
When a young person dies, the instinctive reaction of those who love him is to dwell on his qualities, often to a point where the lost one becomes a hero. He was extraordinary, courageous, determined to make a difference, they say. All those words have been used about Tom Hurndall and, as his sister Sophie likes to point out with amusement and affection, they are a considerable part of the truth, but not all of it.
“Tom is like every brother, he winds you up at times and seems like the most amazing person in the world at other times,” she says. “There's that constant balance of loving someone so much and not wanting to leave those irritating parts out.
“I say bad things about him because it makes me feel closer to him. You know, the pizza boxes covered in mould on his bedroom floor. For me these are the things that make him who he was. He was human and normal and sometimes very annoying and that's what made him real. The amazing things he did made him who he was as well. I need to see both to keep hold of him. I think if you put him on a pedestal you'd lose him. It wouldn't be him any more.”
In April, 2003, Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old photojournalism student, was shot in the head by an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) sniper as he tried to protect a group of Palestinian children in the Gaza strip. He died the following January without regaining consciousness. During those months and beyond the Hurndall family - dad Anthony, a solicitor, mum Jocelyn, a teacher, and Sophie, just out of university, (there are also two younger brothers, Billie and Freddie) - suspended their lives as they sought to discover how and why Tom had died, and in doing so they took on the IDF. Eventually the family's tenacious refusal to accept a cover-up forced the IDF to investigate and to acknowledge that Tom had been wearing the fluorescent jacket of a non-combatant and had not been caught in Palestinian crossfire. In 2004 Taysir Hayb, an IDF soldier, was convicted of Tom's manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. Next week the Hurndalls' story will be the subject of a powerful Channel 4 drama-documentary, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall. It has been made with the co-operation of his family and for Sophie, two years older than Tom, it is a way not only of pursuing his humanitarian agenda, but of feeling close to him.
We meet at her mother's home and sit in the patio garden Jocelyn created after Tom's death as a sanctuary for her family. Sophie is 29 now, outwardly cheerful and poised. As children she and Tom hurtled around together, climbing trees, exploring, exchanging the banter she regards as the sibling's way of being close without being cheesy. Tom would leave her lunchbox at the top of the highest tree (whether by design or absent-mindedness, she isn't sure) and claim that her toys were his, but at the North London family home he was her closest ally. Their parents' divorce six years before Tom was shot made them feel jointly protective of Freddie, who is 11 years Sophie's junior. She felt protective of Tom too, especially when, in 2003, he told her that he planned to go Baghdad to photograph the “human shields”. “I was angry, frustrated and afraid for him. I didn't want to come across as the typical big sister and say you can't go. It was hard. I tried to ask him a few questions to establish whether he knew what he was doing. I wanted to sow some doubt. It was things like, ‘Do you know what you would do if there were bombings around you? Do you know what you're getting yourself into?' He tried to laugh it off. It was bravado to make himself and me feel more at ease. There was some part of him that needed to put on a tough face for himself as well as for me to get through it.”
Sophie recognised that Tom was someone who wrote his own rulebook and that he was an idealist motivated by seeking truth. He had always intervened when he saw injustice, protecting bullied children at school, confronting a man mugging a child near his mother's home. He went to Iraq and later to the Palestinian terrortories, she believes, because he had become aware that abuse of civilians was being misreported. “I think that took a huge amount of courage. You almost delude yourself to get through and he was conscious he was doing that and writes in his diary about having to pretend things are OK just to do what you believe in.”
There were divisions in the family about whether to read his diaries; some have read bits, others haven't. “Through his diaries we know how he was making his decisions,” Sophie says. “In some ways his decision-making fills me with terror, but there's pride and admiration too. Also anger because I get pissed off with him sometimes.” She laughs. “Why the hell did you put us through this? But it wouldn't have been Tom to have done anything else.”
His death has changed her, of course. Initially she was angry about the IDF's dismissive response and threw herself into the family's campaign to seek accountability. “We did a lot of running around and trying to make a difference and being worthy in a crazy and intense way. It was like a bomb had gone off in the middle of the family. We rowed over things that didn't matter.
“It's taken a long time to get back to a point where we can be around each other and not be thinking ‘but Tom should be here too' - for that to be so painful that you don't want to look at your brothers because they remind you of him, or have a conversation with your mum who's going to talk about how much she misses him until you want to scream. I feel like after five years we're coming back together.”
Both Sophie and her mother have found catharsis by working for charities involved in the Middle East - Sophie, who once planned to be a psychotherapist, now works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map). Discovering that her brother is one of thousands of civilians killed by the Israelis in the occupied territories was shocking and salutary, she explains, and gives her job an emotional force she finds irresistible.
“That was almost more shocking than what happened to Tom and the loss and the grief and the pain and watching him dying and not being able to turn his life support machines off and fighting with the doctors over whether they could or couldn't. You can't use morphine, it has to be by the withdrawal of food and water, a hugely traumatic process. I can't put into words how awful that was. Not quite as bad was the number of Palestinian families that were coming to us saying this [Tom's shooting] is exactly what happened to my brother or my sister. That opened my eyes and I needed to do something to help to support Palestinian civilians who don't have any recourse to justice. What I find shocking is the consistency with which the IDF proactively covers up this kind of case.”
She cites the 13-year-old Palestinian girl shot on her way home from school, the woman refused help at a checkpoint as she was in labour (her baby died). She has often thought about how she would feel if she saw Taysir Hayb, whose actions have made her feel full-blown fury, she says. Almost as emotionally difficult is the prospect of visiting Gaza for her job - for the first time since Tom's death - next year. “I very much want to go and I'm terrified of going. Just to get through the checkpoint without shouting, punching, screaming is going to be very hard, knowing what Palestinians have to go through every day. I don't know how much strength it must take to get through that and not fight back.
“Tom has come to define my life. I still wear his ring. I'm terrified of losing it because I feel if I do I'll be losing the last thing of Tom. I've had several near misses. But I think working for Map and the film helps me to feel a bit like Tom's still alive.” She raises her voice in a question mark.
“I don't know that there's a feeling of obligation, but there is part of me that feels closer to Tom by following the path that he left for us. Once your eyes have been opened I don't think you can turn and go back.”
The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, Channel 4, October 13, 9pm
Medical Aid for Palestinians: 020-7226 4114, http://www.map-uk.org/
His words:
'What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven't done. '
Tom Hurndall's sister, Sophie, talks to the Times
Tom Hurndall: his death was like a bomb going off in the middle of the family
As a TV drama examines the killing of Tom Hurndall by Israeli forces in Gaza; his sister talks for the first time about his death; the devastating impact that it had on the family and their campaign for the Palestinians
October 7, 2008, Penny Wark
In April, 2003, Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old photojournalism student, was shot in the head by an Israeli Defence Forces sniper
Sophie Hurndall and her mother have found catharsis by working for charities involved in the Middle East
When a young person dies, the instinctive reaction of those who love him is to dwell on his qualities, often to a point where the lost one becomes a hero. He was extraordinary, courageous, determined to make a difference, they say. All those words have been used about Tom Hurndall and, as his sister Sophie likes to point out with amusement and affection, they are a considerable part of the truth, but not all of it.
“Tom is like every brother, he winds you up at times and seems like the most amazing person in the world at other times,” she says. “There's that constant balance of loving someone so much and not wanting to leave those irritating parts out.
“I say bad things about him because it makes me feel closer to him. You know, the pizza boxes covered in mould on his bedroom floor. For me these are the things that make him who he was. He was human and normal and sometimes very annoying and that's what made him real. The amazing things he did made him who he was as well. I need to see both to keep hold of him. I think if you put him on a pedestal you'd lose him. It wouldn't be him any more.”
In April, 2003, Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old photojournalism student, was shot in the head by an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) sniper as he tried to protect a group of Palestinian children in the Gaza strip. He died the following January without regaining consciousness. During those months and beyond the Hurndall family - dad Anthony, a solicitor, mum Jocelyn, a teacher, and Sophie, just out of university, (there are also two younger brothers, Billie and Freddie) - suspended their lives as they sought to discover how and why Tom had died, and in doing so they took on the IDF. Eventually the family's tenacious refusal to accept a cover-up forced the IDF to investigate and to acknowledge that Tom had been wearing the fluorescent jacket of a non-combatant and had not been caught in Palestinian crossfire. In 2004 Taysir Hayb, an IDF soldier, was convicted of Tom's manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. Next week the Hurndalls' story will be the subject of a powerful Channel 4 drama-documentary, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall. It has been made with the co-operation of his family and for Sophie, two years older than Tom, it is a way not only of pursuing his humanitarian agenda, but of feeling close to him.
We meet at her mother's home and sit in the patio garden Jocelyn created after Tom's death as a sanctuary for her family. Sophie is 29 now, outwardly cheerful and poised. As children she and Tom hurtled around together, climbing trees, exploring, exchanging the banter she regards as the sibling's way of being close without being cheesy. Tom would leave her lunchbox at the top of the highest tree (whether by design or absent-mindedness, she isn't sure) and claim that her toys were his, but at the North London family home he was her closest ally. Their parents' divorce six years before Tom was shot made them feel jointly protective of Freddie, who is 11 years Sophie's junior. She felt protective of Tom too, especially when, in 2003, he told her that he planned to go Baghdad to photograph the “human shields”. “I was angry, frustrated and afraid for him. I didn't want to come across as the typical big sister and say you can't go. It was hard. I tried to ask him a few questions to establish whether he knew what he was doing. I wanted to sow some doubt. It was things like, ‘Do you know what you would do if there were bombings around you? Do you know what you're getting yourself into?' He tried to laugh it off. It was bravado to make himself and me feel more at ease. There was some part of him that needed to put on a tough face for himself as well as for me to get through it.”
Sophie recognised that Tom was someone who wrote his own rulebook and that he was an idealist motivated by seeking truth. He had always intervened when he saw injustice, protecting bullied children at school, confronting a man mugging a child near his mother's home. He went to Iraq and later to the Palestinian terrortories, she believes, because he had become aware that abuse of civilians was being misreported. “I think that took a huge amount of courage. You almost delude yourself to get through and he was conscious he was doing that and writes in his diary about having to pretend things are OK just to do what you believe in.”
There were divisions in the family about whether to read his diaries; some have read bits, others haven't. “Through his diaries we know how he was making his decisions,” Sophie says. “In some ways his decision-making fills me with terror, but there's pride and admiration too. Also anger because I get pissed off with him sometimes.” She laughs. “Why the hell did you put us through this? But it wouldn't have been Tom to have done anything else.”
His death has changed her, of course. Initially she was angry about the IDF's dismissive response and threw herself into the family's campaign to seek accountability. “We did a lot of running around and trying to make a difference and being worthy in a crazy and intense way. It was like a bomb had gone off in the middle of the family. We rowed over things that didn't matter.
“It's taken a long time to get back to a point where we can be around each other and not be thinking ‘but Tom should be here too' - for that to be so painful that you don't want to look at your brothers because they remind you of him, or have a conversation with your mum who's going to talk about how much she misses him until you want to scream. I feel like after five years we're coming back together.”
Both Sophie and her mother have found catharsis by working for charities involved in the Middle East - Sophie, who once planned to be a psychotherapist, now works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map). Discovering that her brother is one of thousands of civilians killed by the Israelis in the occupied territories was shocking and salutary, she explains, and gives her job an emotional force she finds irresistible.
“That was almost more shocking than what happened to Tom and the loss and the grief and the pain and watching him dying and not being able to turn his life support machines off and fighting with the doctors over whether they could or couldn't. You can't use morphine, it has to be by the withdrawal of food and water, a hugely traumatic process. I can't put into words how awful that was. Not quite as bad was the number of Palestinian families that were coming to us saying this [Tom's shooting] is exactly what happened to my brother or my sister. That opened my eyes and I needed to do something to help to support Palestinian civilians who don't have any recourse to justice. What I find shocking is the consistency with which the IDF proactively covers up this kind of case.”
She cites the 13-year-old Palestinian girl shot on her way home from school, the woman refused help at a checkpoint as she was in labour (her baby died). She has often thought about how she would feel if she saw Taysir Hayb, whose actions have made her feel full-blown fury, she says. Almost as emotionally difficult is the prospect of visiting Gaza for her job - for the first time since Tom's death - next year. “I very much want to go and I'm terrified of going. Just to get through the checkpoint without shouting, punching, screaming is going to be very hard, knowing what Palestinians have to go through every day. I don't know how much strength it must take to get through that and not fight back.
“Tom has come to define my life. I still wear his ring. I'm terrified of losing it because I feel if I do I'll be losing the last thing of Tom. I've had several near misses. But I think working for Map and the film helps me to feel a bit like Tom's still alive.” She raises her voice in a question mark.
“I don't know that there's a feeling of obligation, but there is part of me that feels closer to Tom by following the path that he left for us. Once your eyes have been opened I don't think you can turn and go back.”
The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, Channel 4, October 13, 9pm
Medical Aid for Palestinians: 020-7226 4114, http://www.map-uk.org/
The Israeli attack on humanitarian aid
Civilians from more than 30 countries were on those floatillas of humanitarian aid. More than 30 news agencies were aboard. There was only aid on those floatillas.
The situation could not be more clear cut.
videos of protests
guardian
UN calls for inquiry into Israel flotilla attack
UN security council stops short of full condemnation after pro-Palestinian activists killed in botched Mavi Marmara raid
Harriet Sherwood in Ashdod and Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 07.55 BST
The UN security council has called for an impartial investigation into Israel's botched assault on a flotilla carrying aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, but it stopped short of an outright condemnation of the attack.
In a carefully worded compromise statement drafted after ten hours of debate the security also called for the immediate release of hundreds of civilians held after the raid.
At least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the raid yesterday as Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla carrying passengers. Dozens more were wounded, including at least one British man. The injured were taken to Israeli hospitals. It sparked a wave of global condemnation and protests.
Israel said more than 10 of its troops were injured, two seriously, in the battle that began early yesterday in international waters, about 40 miles from the Gaza coast. Israeli officials say about 50 of the 671 activists aboard the flotilla have been taken to Israel's international airport for deportation.
The flotilla was trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has been enforced for the past three years.
Organisers of the flotilla said today they are sending two more ships to the area within the next few days. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement said a cargo boat is already on the way to challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza and a second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it.
After a 10-hour emergency meeting that stretched into the earlier hours of today, the 15 council members agreed on a presidential statement that was weaker than that initially demanded by the Palestinians, Arabs and Turkey.
They had called for condemnation of the attack by Israeli forces "in the strongest terms" and "an independent international investigation".
But the statement said: "The Security Council deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza. The Council, in this context, condemns those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians and many wounded, and expresses its condolences to their families."
Last night Turkey, whose relations with Israel have been severely strained since the war in Gaza in 2008-09, called for Nato to convene over the military assault.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who ordered the recall of the country's ambassador to Israel, described the operation as "state terrorism" and said Israel had violated international law. "We are not going to remain silent in the face of this inhumane state terrorism," he said.
Israel immediately imposed a communications blackout on the detained activists – some were taken by bus to Beersheva prison in the south of Israel – while simultaneously launching a sophisticated public relations operation to ensure its version of events was dominant. Its prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who defended the assault, postponed today's meeting with Barack Obama at the White House back to deal with the crisis.
Activists with less serious injuries began to trickle into Israeli hospitals late yesterday afternoon. There were believed to be about 27 British civilians aboard the flotilla, and last night the Foreign Office confirmed that at least one had been injured. Most of the dead were reported to be Turkish nationals.
The deaths and injuries were condemned by the UN, EU and other countries. The US, in contrast, was restrained in its response, expressing regret and saying it was "currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy".
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the violence and called for an investigation. "I am shocked by reports of killing of people in boats carrying supply to Gaza. I heard the ships were in international water. That is very bad," he said.
The prime minister David Cameron described the assault as "unacceptable". In a telephone conversation with Netanyahu last night, the prime minister insisted Britain remains committed to Israel's security, but called for a "constructive" response to "legitimate criticism" of its actions.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, issued a statement "deploring" the loss of life. "There is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations," he said.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the storming of the flotilla as a "massacre" and called for three days of national mourning. Israel's navy had promised to exercise restraint in dealing with the flotilla, and the bloodshed will inevitably leave Israel open to charges of a disproportionate response involving excessive force.
The Israeli government, however, defended its actions saying its troops had been provokedby activists aboard the Mavi Marmara.
However, some Israeli commentators expressed reservations about the operation, fearing it would leave Israel internationally isolated. Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, told the Guardian the situation could have been averted. "Definitely we made mistakes and in retrospect anything would have been better – including letting the boats reach Gaza," he said.
The assault began at 4.30am as the convoy was heading to Gaza to deliver its aid cargo. According to a spokeswoman for the Israeli defence force (IDF), Avital Leibovich, officers aboard its warships gave the activists several warnings before commandos were winched from helicopters on to the deck of the Mavi Marmara.
"We found ourselves in the middle of a lynching," she told reporters in the Israeli port of Ashdod. About 10 activists had attacked commandos, taking their pistols, she said. "It was a massive attack," she said. "What happened was a last resort."
It was impossible to contact protesters on the ships, but the Free Gaza Movement, one of the organisers of the flotilla, said the IDF had started the violence, firing as soon as troops boarded the ship.
The Free Gaza Movement said later that one of the ships in the flotilla, the Irish-owned MV Rachel Corrie, was not intercepted, as it had been behind the rest of the vessels following a delay. Carrying among others the Northern Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire and Denis Halliday, the Irish former UN assistant secretary, it remained in international waters off Gaza, pending a decision as to where it would head next.
The Mavi Marmara was brought into port at Ashdod, 23 miles north of Gaza City, last night following the earlier arrival of two other passenger ships. The area was closed to the media.
Activists were expected to be processed in a large white tent on the quayside, where they would be offered the choice of immediate deportation to their country of origin or going through the lengthy process of the Israeli courts system.
The Israeli authorities gave no details of the injuries to activists, but confirmed that nine were dead, although government sources said the figure could rise.
Israel advised its nationals in Turkey to leave the country for fear of reprisals.
Israeli police cancelled leave and the army was on high alert, saying it feared possible rocket attacks from Islamist militants in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Last night a rocket fired from Gaza landed in Israel. No one was injured.
foreign policy - well worth reading
Israel's latest brutal blunder
Posted By Stephen M. Walt Monday, May 31, 2010 - 11:10 PM
By now you'll all have heard about the IDF's unwarranted attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a fleet of six civilian vessels that was attempting to bring humanitarian aid (i.e., medicines, food, and building materials) to Gaza. The population of Gaza has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2006. Israel imposed the blockade after Gaza's voters had the temerity to prefer Hamas in a free election held at the insistence of the Bush administration, which then refused to recognize the new government because it didn't like the results.
Late Sunday night, IDF naval forces and commandos attacked one of the unarmed ships in international waters, killing at least ten of the peace activists and injuring many more. IDF spokesman claim that the use of force was justified because the passengers resisted Israel's efforts to board and commandeer the ship. Other Israeli officials have sought to portray the activists, whose ranks included citizens from fifty countries, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a former U.S. ambassador, and an elderly Holocaust survivor, as terrorist sympathizers with ties to Hamas and even al Qaeda.
My first question when I heard the news was: "What could Israel's leaders have been thinking?" How could they possibly believe that a deadly assault against a humanitarian mission in international waters would play to their advantage? Israel's government and its hard-line supporters frequently complain about alleged efforts to "delegitimize" the country, but actions like this are the real reason Israel's standing around the world has plummeted to such low levels. This latest escapade is as bone-headed as the 2006 war in Lebanon (which killed over a thousand Lebanese and caused billions of dollars worth of damage) or the 2008-2009 onslaught that killed some 1300 Gazans, many of them innocent children. None of these actions achieved its strategic objective; indeed, all of them are just more evidence of the steady deterioration in Israel's strategic thinking that we have witnessed since 1967.
My second question is: "Will the Obama administration show some backbone on this issue, and go beyond the usual mealy-mouthed statements that U.S. presidents usually make when Israel acts foolishly and dangerously?" President Obama likes to talk a lot about our wonderful American values, and his shiny new National Security Strategy says "we must always seek to uphold these values not just when it is easy, but when it is hard." The same document also talks about a "rule-based international order," and says "America's commitment to the rule of law is fundamental to our efforts to build an international order that is capable of confronting the emerging challenges of the 21st century."
Well if that is true, here is an excellent opportunity for Obama to prove that he means what he says. Attacking a humanitarian aid mission certainly isn't consistent with American values -- even when that aid mission is engaged in the provocative act of challenging a blockade -- and doing so in international waters is a direct violation of international law. Of course, it would be politically difficult for the administration to take a principled stand with midterm elections looming, but our values and commitment to the rule of law aren't worth much if a president will sacrifice them just to win votes.
More importantly, this latest act of misguided belligerence poses a broader threat to U.S. national interests. Because the United States provides Israel with so much material aid and diplomatic protection, and because American politicians from the president on down repeatedly refer to the "unbreakable bonds" between the United States and Israel, people all over the world naturally associate us with most, if not all, of Israel's actions. Thus, Israel doesn't just tarnish its own image when it does something outlandish like this; it makes the United States look bad, too. This incident will harm our relations with other Middle Eastern countries, lend additional credence to jihadi narratives about the "Zionist-Crusader alliance," and complicate efforts to deal with Iran. It will also cost us some moral standing with other friends around the world, especially if we downplay it. This is just more evidence, as if we needed any, that the special relationship with Israel has become a net liability.
In short, unless the Obama administration demonstrates just how angry and appalled it is by this foolish act, and unless the U.S. reaction has some real teeth in it, other states will rightly see Washington as irretrievably weak and hypocritical. And Obama's Cairo speech -- which was entitled "A New Beginning" -- will be guaranteed a prominent place in the Hall of Fame of Empty Rhetoric.
How might the United States respond? We could start by denouncing Israel's action in plain English, without prevarication. We could help draft and push through a Security Council resolution condemning Israel's action and calling for an international commission of inquiry to determine what happened. And if American intelligence was monitoring the flotilla -- and it should have been -- we should make any information we collected available to the commission. We could also cancel or suspend elements of our military aid package to Israel. And we could say loudly and clearly that the blockade of Gaza is illegal, inhumane and counterproductive, and openly press Israel and Egypt to lift it immediately.
But even strong measures like these won't solve the underlying problem, which is the conflict itself. I've learned not to expect much from this administration when it comes to pushing the two sides toward a settlement, as Obama talks a good game, but doesn't follow through by putting meaningful pressure on the two sides. This latest incident, however, might convince Obama that he was right to put the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the front burner when he took office, and wrong to cave into Netanyahu when the latter dug in his heels last summer (2009) and again this past spring. The result of those retreats was a waste of precious time, while the situation in the Occupied Territories deteriorated.
Because time is rapidly running out on a two-state solution, Obama should seize this opportunity to explain to the American people why a different approach is needed and why bringing this conflict to an end is a national security priority for the United States. He should also explain why using U.S. leverage on both sides is in Israel's interest as well as America's interest. And he will need to bring some new people on board to help him do this, because the team he's been using has spent more than a year without achieving anything. (If his economic team was this decisive, our economy would still be spiraling into the abyss.) Getting the so-called "proximity talks" restarted doesn't count, because those discussions are a step backwards from earlier face-to-face negotiations and because they are likely to fail.
A third thought has to do with Israel itself, and especially its present government. How are we supposed to think about a country that has nuclear weapons, a superb army, an increasingly prosperous economy, and great technological sophistication, yet keeps more than a million people under siege in Gaza, denies political rights to millions more on the West Bank, is committed to expanding settlements there, and whose leaders feel little compunction about using deadly force not merely against well-armed enemies, but also against innocent civilians and international peace activists, while at the same time portraying itself as a blameless victim? Something has gone terribly wrong with the Zionist dream.
Fourth, this incident is a litmus test for the "pro-Israel" community here in the United States. One of the reasons why Israel keeps doing foolish things like this is that it has been insulated from the consequences of these actions by its hard-line sympathizers in the United States. AIPAC spokesmen are already bombarding journalists and pundits with emails spinning the assault, and we can confidently expect other apologists to prepare op-eds and blog posts defending Israel's conduct as a principled act of "self-defense." And if the Obama administration tries to proceed in any of the ways I've just suggested, it can count on fierce opposition from the most influential organizations in the Israel lobby.
In this context Peter Beinart's recent article in the New York Review of Books is even more salient, especially his question:
The heads of AIPAC and the Presidents' Conference should ask themselves what Israel's leaders would have to do or say to make them scream "no." ... If the line has not yet been crossed, where is the line?"
Over the next few days, keep an eye on how politicians and pundits line up on this issue. Which of them thinks that Israel "crossed a line" and deserves criticism -- and maybe even sanction -- and which of them thinks that what it did was entirely appropriate? Ironically, it is the former who are Israel's friends, because they are trying to save that country before it is too late. It is the latter whose misguided zeal is leading Israel down the road to further international isolation -- and maybe even worse.
The FT - a slightly more right wing take on the matter:
Israel faces global backlash
By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem and Daniel Dombey in,Washington
Published: June 1 2010 03:00 Last updated: June 1 2010 03:00
Israel faced furious international condemnation yesterday after naval commandos attacked a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, killing at least nine pro-Palestinian activists and wounding many more.
Three of the boats were flying the Turkish flag and several of the passengers killed are believed to have been Turkish citizens. Turkey's government recalled its ambassador from Israel and gave warning that relations between the two countries had suffered irreparable damage.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, accused Israel of "inhuman state terror" and last night Ankara was leading a push at the United Nations for an international inquiry.
The Israeli forces attacked the flotilla of six vessels from helicopters and warships just before dawn, in international waters between Cyprus and the Gaza coast. Israeli officials said the troops opened fire only after coming under attack by activists, who charged them with knives and sticks, and allegedly fired live rounds.
Footage released by the Israeli authorities showed soldiers leaving a helicopter and abseiling on to a ship, only to be set upon by activists and beaten to the deck.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said the soldiers "had to defend themselves and defend their lives or else they would have been killed". Seven of the Israelis were wounded.
However, the organisers of the convoy accused the commandos of firing "directly into the crowd of civilians asleep".
The incident put an end to the most ambitious attempt yet to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group.
But analysts warned that the assault by the naval Shayetet 13 commando unit was likely to carry a significant political price. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he was "shocked" by the killings, stressing that the boats had been in international waters.
The UN Security Council was in emergency session last night seeking to agree a formal statement. Turkey said such a declaration should not just back an inquiry but also demand an Israeli apology and the release of the ships. Although such a move would fall short of a Security Council resolution, any UN backing for an international investigation would be deeply unwelcome to Israel.
While France called for an investigation that met international standards, the US, Israel's closest ally, did not endorse an international inquiry. US diplomats said they wanted to avoid any action that could jepoardise Middle East peace talks.
Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, told the Security Council that Israel had "lost its legitimacy as a respectful [sic] member of the international community" and called for the country to "be held accountable for its crimes". In its testimony to the council, Israel said the flotilla's organisers were connected to terrorists.
Mr Netanyahu cut short an official visit to Canada and the US to return to Israel to deal with the crisis, postponing a planned meeting today with Barack Obama, the US president, in Washington. Mr Obama spoke to the Israeli leader on the telephone, saying that he "understood" Mr Netanyahu's decision to return home and deeply regretted the loss of life.
William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, called for an "impartial investigation" into the incident and said one British citizen had been wounded.
Israeli leaders defended the assault and blamed the casualties on the activists. Danny Ayalon, Israel's deputy foreign minister, described the flotilla as "an armada of hate and violence" and accused its organisers of a "premeditated and outrageous provocation". He said Israel had offered to allow aid into Gaza through the usual channels, but the convoy had been seeking a new route for weapons shipments to militants.
The situation could not be more clear cut.
videos of protests
guardian
UN calls for inquiry into Israel flotilla attack
UN security council stops short of full condemnation after pro-Palestinian activists killed in botched Mavi Marmara raid
Harriet Sherwood in Ashdod and Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 07.55 BST
The UN security council has called for an impartial investigation into Israel's botched assault on a flotilla carrying aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, but it stopped short of an outright condemnation of the attack.
In a carefully worded compromise statement drafted after ten hours of debate the security also called for the immediate release of hundreds of civilians held after the raid.
At least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the raid yesterday as Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla carrying passengers. Dozens more were wounded, including at least one British man. The injured were taken to Israeli hospitals. It sparked a wave of global condemnation and protests.
Israel said more than 10 of its troops were injured, two seriously, in the battle that began early yesterday in international waters, about 40 miles from the Gaza coast. Israeli officials say about 50 of the 671 activists aboard the flotilla have been taken to Israel's international airport for deportation.
The flotilla was trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has been enforced for the past three years.
Organisers of the flotilla said today they are sending two more ships to the area within the next few days. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement said a cargo boat is already on the way to challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza and a second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it.
After a 10-hour emergency meeting that stretched into the earlier hours of today, the 15 council members agreed on a presidential statement that was weaker than that initially demanded by the Palestinians, Arabs and Turkey.
They had called for condemnation of the attack by Israeli forces "in the strongest terms" and "an independent international investigation".
But the statement said: "The Security Council deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza. The Council, in this context, condemns those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians and many wounded, and expresses its condolences to their families."
Last night Turkey, whose relations with Israel have been severely strained since the war in Gaza in 2008-09, called for Nato to convene over the military assault.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who ordered the recall of the country's ambassador to Israel, described the operation as "state terrorism" and said Israel had violated international law. "We are not going to remain silent in the face of this inhumane state terrorism," he said.
Israel immediately imposed a communications blackout on the detained activists – some were taken by bus to Beersheva prison in the south of Israel – while simultaneously launching a sophisticated public relations operation to ensure its version of events was dominant. Its prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who defended the assault, postponed today's meeting with Barack Obama at the White House back to deal with the crisis.
Activists with less serious injuries began to trickle into Israeli hospitals late yesterday afternoon. There were believed to be about 27 British civilians aboard the flotilla, and last night the Foreign Office confirmed that at least one had been injured. Most of the dead were reported to be Turkish nationals.
The deaths and injuries were condemned by the UN, EU and other countries. The US, in contrast, was restrained in its response, expressing regret and saying it was "currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy".
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the violence and called for an investigation. "I am shocked by reports of killing of people in boats carrying supply to Gaza. I heard the ships were in international water. That is very bad," he said.
The prime minister David Cameron described the assault as "unacceptable". In a telephone conversation with Netanyahu last night, the prime minister insisted Britain remains committed to Israel's security, but called for a "constructive" response to "legitimate criticism" of its actions.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, issued a statement "deploring" the loss of life. "There is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations," he said.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the storming of the flotilla as a "massacre" and called for three days of national mourning. Israel's navy had promised to exercise restraint in dealing with the flotilla, and the bloodshed will inevitably leave Israel open to charges of a disproportionate response involving excessive force.
The Israeli government, however, defended its actions saying its troops had been provokedby activists aboard the Mavi Marmara.
However, some Israeli commentators expressed reservations about the operation, fearing it would leave Israel internationally isolated. Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, told the Guardian the situation could have been averted. "Definitely we made mistakes and in retrospect anything would have been better – including letting the boats reach Gaza," he said.
The assault began at 4.30am as the convoy was heading to Gaza to deliver its aid cargo. According to a spokeswoman for the Israeli defence force (IDF), Avital Leibovich, officers aboard its warships gave the activists several warnings before commandos were winched from helicopters on to the deck of the Mavi Marmara.
"We found ourselves in the middle of a lynching," she told reporters in the Israeli port of Ashdod. About 10 activists had attacked commandos, taking their pistols, she said. "It was a massive attack," she said. "What happened was a last resort."
It was impossible to contact protesters on the ships, but the Free Gaza Movement, one of the organisers of the flotilla, said the IDF had started the violence, firing as soon as troops boarded the ship.
The Free Gaza Movement said later that one of the ships in the flotilla, the Irish-owned MV Rachel Corrie, was not intercepted, as it had been behind the rest of the vessels following a delay. Carrying among others the Northern Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire and Denis Halliday, the Irish former UN assistant secretary, it remained in international waters off Gaza, pending a decision as to where it would head next.
The Mavi Marmara was brought into port at Ashdod, 23 miles north of Gaza City, last night following the earlier arrival of two other passenger ships. The area was closed to the media.
Activists were expected to be processed in a large white tent on the quayside, where they would be offered the choice of immediate deportation to their country of origin or going through the lengthy process of the Israeli courts system.
The Israeli authorities gave no details of the injuries to activists, but confirmed that nine were dead, although government sources said the figure could rise.
Israel advised its nationals in Turkey to leave the country for fear of reprisals.
Israeli police cancelled leave and the army was on high alert, saying it feared possible rocket attacks from Islamist militants in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Last night a rocket fired from Gaza landed in Israel. No one was injured.
foreign policy - well worth reading
Israel's latest brutal blunder
Posted By Stephen M. Walt Monday, May 31, 2010 - 11:10 PM
By now you'll all have heard about the IDF's unwarranted attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a fleet of six civilian vessels that was attempting to bring humanitarian aid (i.e., medicines, food, and building materials) to Gaza. The population of Gaza has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2006. Israel imposed the blockade after Gaza's voters had the temerity to prefer Hamas in a free election held at the insistence of the Bush administration, which then refused to recognize the new government because it didn't like the results.
Late Sunday night, IDF naval forces and commandos attacked one of the unarmed ships in international waters, killing at least ten of the peace activists and injuring many more. IDF spokesman claim that the use of force was justified because the passengers resisted Israel's efforts to board and commandeer the ship. Other Israeli officials have sought to portray the activists, whose ranks included citizens from fifty countries, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a former U.S. ambassador, and an elderly Holocaust survivor, as terrorist sympathizers with ties to Hamas and even al Qaeda.
My first question when I heard the news was: "What could Israel's leaders have been thinking?" How could they possibly believe that a deadly assault against a humanitarian mission in international waters would play to their advantage? Israel's government and its hard-line supporters frequently complain about alleged efforts to "delegitimize" the country, but actions like this are the real reason Israel's standing around the world has plummeted to such low levels. This latest escapade is as bone-headed as the 2006 war in Lebanon (which killed over a thousand Lebanese and caused billions of dollars worth of damage) or the 2008-2009 onslaught that killed some 1300 Gazans, many of them innocent children. None of these actions achieved its strategic objective; indeed, all of them are just more evidence of the steady deterioration in Israel's strategic thinking that we have witnessed since 1967.
My second question is: "Will the Obama administration show some backbone on this issue, and go beyond the usual mealy-mouthed statements that U.S. presidents usually make when Israel acts foolishly and dangerously?" President Obama likes to talk a lot about our wonderful American values, and his shiny new National Security Strategy says "we must always seek to uphold these values not just when it is easy, but when it is hard." The same document also talks about a "rule-based international order," and says "America's commitment to the rule of law is fundamental to our efforts to build an international order that is capable of confronting the emerging challenges of the 21st century."
Well if that is true, here is an excellent opportunity for Obama to prove that he means what he says. Attacking a humanitarian aid mission certainly isn't consistent with American values -- even when that aid mission is engaged in the provocative act of challenging a blockade -- and doing so in international waters is a direct violation of international law. Of course, it would be politically difficult for the administration to take a principled stand with midterm elections looming, but our values and commitment to the rule of law aren't worth much if a president will sacrifice them just to win votes.
More importantly, this latest act of misguided belligerence poses a broader threat to U.S. national interests. Because the United States provides Israel with so much material aid and diplomatic protection, and because American politicians from the president on down repeatedly refer to the "unbreakable bonds" between the United States and Israel, people all over the world naturally associate us with most, if not all, of Israel's actions. Thus, Israel doesn't just tarnish its own image when it does something outlandish like this; it makes the United States look bad, too. This incident will harm our relations with other Middle Eastern countries, lend additional credence to jihadi narratives about the "Zionist-Crusader alliance," and complicate efforts to deal with Iran. It will also cost us some moral standing with other friends around the world, especially if we downplay it. This is just more evidence, as if we needed any, that the special relationship with Israel has become a net liability.
In short, unless the Obama administration demonstrates just how angry and appalled it is by this foolish act, and unless the U.S. reaction has some real teeth in it, other states will rightly see Washington as irretrievably weak and hypocritical. And Obama's Cairo speech -- which was entitled "A New Beginning" -- will be guaranteed a prominent place in the Hall of Fame of Empty Rhetoric.
How might the United States respond? We could start by denouncing Israel's action in plain English, without prevarication. We could help draft and push through a Security Council resolution condemning Israel's action and calling for an international commission of inquiry to determine what happened. And if American intelligence was monitoring the flotilla -- and it should have been -- we should make any information we collected available to the commission. We could also cancel or suspend elements of our military aid package to Israel. And we could say loudly and clearly that the blockade of Gaza is illegal, inhumane and counterproductive, and openly press Israel and Egypt to lift it immediately.
But even strong measures like these won't solve the underlying problem, which is the conflict itself. I've learned not to expect much from this administration when it comes to pushing the two sides toward a settlement, as Obama talks a good game, but doesn't follow through by putting meaningful pressure on the two sides. This latest incident, however, might convince Obama that he was right to put the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the front burner when he took office, and wrong to cave into Netanyahu when the latter dug in his heels last summer (2009) and again this past spring. The result of those retreats was a waste of precious time, while the situation in the Occupied Territories deteriorated.
Because time is rapidly running out on a two-state solution, Obama should seize this opportunity to explain to the American people why a different approach is needed and why bringing this conflict to an end is a national security priority for the United States. He should also explain why using U.S. leverage on both sides is in Israel's interest as well as America's interest. And he will need to bring some new people on board to help him do this, because the team he's been using has spent more than a year without achieving anything. (If his economic team was this decisive, our economy would still be spiraling into the abyss.) Getting the so-called "proximity talks" restarted doesn't count, because those discussions are a step backwards from earlier face-to-face negotiations and because they are likely to fail.
A third thought has to do with Israel itself, and especially its present government. How are we supposed to think about a country that has nuclear weapons, a superb army, an increasingly prosperous economy, and great technological sophistication, yet keeps more than a million people under siege in Gaza, denies political rights to millions more on the West Bank, is committed to expanding settlements there, and whose leaders feel little compunction about using deadly force not merely against well-armed enemies, but also against innocent civilians and international peace activists, while at the same time portraying itself as a blameless victim? Something has gone terribly wrong with the Zionist dream.
Fourth, this incident is a litmus test for the "pro-Israel" community here in the United States. One of the reasons why Israel keeps doing foolish things like this is that it has been insulated from the consequences of these actions by its hard-line sympathizers in the United States. AIPAC spokesmen are already bombarding journalists and pundits with emails spinning the assault, and we can confidently expect other apologists to prepare op-eds and blog posts defending Israel's conduct as a principled act of "self-defense." And if the Obama administration tries to proceed in any of the ways I've just suggested, it can count on fierce opposition from the most influential organizations in the Israel lobby.
In this context Peter Beinart's recent article in the New York Review of Books is even more salient, especially his question:
The heads of AIPAC and the Presidents' Conference should ask themselves what Israel's leaders would have to do or say to make them scream "no." ... If the line has not yet been crossed, where is the line?"
Over the next few days, keep an eye on how politicians and pundits line up on this issue. Which of them thinks that Israel "crossed a line" and deserves criticism -- and maybe even sanction -- and which of them thinks that what it did was entirely appropriate? Ironically, it is the former who are Israel's friends, because they are trying to save that country before it is too late. It is the latter whose misguided zeal is leading Israel down the road to further international isolation -- and maybe even worse.
The FT - a slightly more right wing take on the matter:
Israel faces global backlash
By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem and Daniel Dombey in,Washington
Published: June 1 2010 03:00 Last updated: June 1 2010 03:00
Israel faced furious international condemnation yesterday after naval commandos attacked a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, killing at least nine pro-Palestinian activists and wounding many more.
Three of the boats were flying the Turkish flag and several of the passengers killed are believed to have been Turkish citizens. Turkey's government recalled its ambassador from Israel and gave warning that relations between the two countries had suffered irreparable damage.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, accused Israel of "inhuman state terror" and last night Ankara was leading a push at the United Nations for an international inquiry.
The Israeli forces attacked the flotilla of six vessels from helicopters and warships just before dawn, in international waters between Cyprus and the Gaza coast. Israeli officials said the troops opened fire only after coming under attack by activists, who charged them with knives and sticks, and allegedly fired live rounds.
Footage released by the Israeli authorities showed soldiers leaving a helicopter and abseiling on to a ship, only to be set upon by activists and beaten to the deck.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said the soldiers "had to defend themselves and defend their lives or else they would have been killed". Seven of the Israelis were wounded.
However, the organisers of the convoy accused the commandos of firing "directly into the crowd of civilians asleep".
The incident put an end to the most ambitious attempt yet to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group.
But analysts warned that the assault by the naval Shayetet 13 commando unit was likely to carry a significant political price. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he was "shocked" by the killings, stressing that the boats had been in international waters.
The UN Security Council was in emergency session last night seeking to agree a formal statement. Turkey said such a declaration should not just back an inquiry but also demand an Israeli apology and the release of the ships. Although such a move would fall short of a Security Council resolution, any UN backing for an international investigation would be deeply unwelcome to Israel.
While France called for an investigation that met international standards, the US, Israel's closest ally, did not endorse an international inquiry. US diplomats said they wanted to avoid any action that could jepoardise Middle East peace talks.
Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, told the Security Council that Israel had "lost its legitimacy as a respectful [sic] member of the international community" and called for the country to "be held accountable for its crimes". In its testimony to the council, Israel said the flotilla's organisers were connected to terrorists.
Mr Netanyahu cut short an official visit to Canada and the US to return to Israel to deal with the crisis, postponing a planned meeting today with Barack Obama, the US president, in Washington. Mr Obama spoke to the Israeli leader on the telephone, saying that he "understood" Mr Netanyahu's decision to return home and deeply regretted the loss of life.
William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, called for an "impartial investigation" into the incident and said one British citizen had been wounded.
Israeli leaders defended the assault and blamed the casualties on the activists. Danny Ayalon, Israel's deputy foreign minister, described the flotilla as "an armada of hate and violence" and accused its organisers of a "premeditated and outrageous provocation". He said Israel had offered to allow aid into Gaza through the usual channels, but the convoy had been seeking a new route for weapons shipments to militants.
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