"Only a crazy government that has lost all restraint and all
connection to reality could something like that - consider ships
carrying humanitarian aid and peace activists from around the world as
an enemy and send massive military force to international waters to
attack them, shoot and kill.
"Noone in the world will believe the lies and excuses which the
government and army spokesmen come up with," said former Knesset
member Uri Avnery of the Gush Shalom movement. Gush Shalom activists
together with activists of other organizations are to depart at 11:00
from Tel Aviv to protest in front of the prepared detention facility
where the international peace activists will be brought.
Greta Berlin, the spokeswoman for the flotilla organizers located in
Cyprus, told Gush Shalom activists that the Israeli commandos landed
by helicopter on the boats and immediately opened fire.
This is a day of disgrace to the State of Israel, a day of anxiety in
which we discover that our future was entrusted to a bunch of trigger-
happy people without any responsibility. This day is a day of disgrace
and madness and stupidity without limit, the day the Israeli
government took care to blacken the name of the country in the world,
adding convincing evidence of aggressiveness and brutality to
Israel’s already bad international image, discouraging and distancing
the few remaining friends.
Indeed, today a provocation took place off the coast of Gaza - but the
provocateurs were not the peace activists invited by the Palestinians
and seeking to reach Gaza. The provocation was carried out by Navy
ships commandos at the bidding of the Israeli government, blocking the
way of the aid boats and using deadly force.
It is time to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, which causes severe
suffering to its residents. Today the Israeli government ripped the
mask of its face with its own hands and exposed the fact that Israel
did not “disengage” from Gaza. Real disengagement from the area does
not go together with blocking the access to it or sending soldiers to
shoot and kill and wound those who try to get there.
The State of Israel promised in the Oslo Accords 17 years ago to
enable and encourage the establishment of a deep water port in Gaza,
through which Palestinians could import and export freely to develop
their economy. It’s time to realize this commitment and open the Port
of Gaza. Only after the Gaza port will be open to free and undisturbed
movement, just like the Ashdod and Haifa ports, will Israel really
have disengaged from the Gaza Strip. Until then, the world will
continue - and rightly so - to consider the Gaza Strip under Israeli
occupation and the State of Israel as responsible for the fate of the
people living there.
Contact: Uri Avnery 0505-306449
Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesman 03-5565804 or 054-2340749
Coalition Against the Siege: Yacov - 050-5733276, 09-7670801,
Sebastian -050-6846056
Greta Berlin spokeswoman for flotilla organizers 35799187275
31.5.2010