Friday 5 January 2018

The official term for piracy is now “taking control” (Oct. 21, 2012)

Israeli Navy boards Gaza-bound ship ‘Estelle’
by YAAKOV LAPPIN, The Jerusalem Post 10/20/2012 18:16
Navy seizes Swedish ship carrying 30 pro-Palestinian activists after it refused to change course, tows it to Ashdod. PHOTO: COURTESY IDF
The Navy took control of a Swedish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists towards Gaza on Saturday, and towed the vessel to Ashdod instead.
The activists refused all Israeli requests to divert their course, and had declared that their intention was to violate Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. ….
Read more from Israel’s Pravda by clicking here….
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=288598
  • karol1.1
    Ah, yes.  But of course, there are always two sides (at least) to a story.  I aw the Al Jazeera version on my TV this morning, as in the video here, aor with the print reporthere.
    “The Estelle is now under attack – I have just had a message from them by phone,” Victoria Strand, a Stockholm-based spokeswoman for the Ship to Gaza Sweden campaign told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

    According to Dror Feiler, another spokesperson, the SV Estelle, whose passengers included five parliamentarians from Europe and a former Canadian politician, was boarded at around 08:15 GMT. 
    “Five or six military vessels surrounded the Estelle. Soldiers wearing masks are now trying to board the ship. The attack took place on international water: N31 26 E33 45,” Feiler said. The Israeli military confirmed that the ship was boarded.
    • Morrissey1.1.1
      Thanks for that, karol. I posted a brief and polite response on the Jerusalem Postcomments section. I wrote: “‘Taking control’—the new term for piracy.”
      Instead of being immediately published, as no doubt all the racist and bloody-minded anti-Palestinian posts were, my comments were “put into moderation”.
      No wonder their comment section is so overwhelmingly pro-government. And no wonder the Jerusalem Post is dismissed by thinking people as Israel’s Pravda.
      • Colonial Viper1.1.1.1
        Democracy in Israel has long long since gone. And a lot of Israeli’s are very unhappy about it.
        • Dr Terry1.1.1.1.1
          Israel, politically, has long enjoyed the full backing of the United States. (I have no argument with the Israeli people as a whole). To his credit, Obama has been distancing the brutally minded Netanyahu in more recent times, especially on that man’s pressing desire to attack Iran. (It is Israel that possesses the nuclear weapons, not Iran). Now we should really worry with Romney looking a possibility for President. The Israeli government will welcome him with glee. With Romney the world would become, generally, in greater danger (not to mention the rich becoming richer and yet more powerful). This would be likely worse than the rule of George Bush. Yes, yet again, we have to bewail the short memories of human kind!
        • Interesting .that many Jewish people world wide now refer to Jews who live in Isareal as Israelies.
    • Jenny1.1.2
      Thanks for this Morrissey, It must be terribly disappointing and possibly very frightening for the those aboard the Estelle, but when it comes to enforcing the siege on Gaza Israel is no longer all powerful.
      While the sea going route to the territory of Gaza is still blocked by Israel and it’s allies.
      Less widely reported in the Western media is their weakness in enforcing the siege on land. What has not been reported in the Western median media is that the internationall convoy movement has had much more success breaking the siege of Gaza by the overland route through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert.
      Before the fall of Mubarak International aid convoys of trucks filled with medical and other aid were stopped by the Egyptian police and army at the border and turned back. If they refused to turn back they were beaten and arrested by by Mubarak’s riot police who enforced the siege on the territory at the border between Egypt and Gaza in agreement with and on behalf of Israel.
      Despite this they persisted.
      In one dramatic encounter in 2009 after being attacked by Egyptian riot police the international convoyers fought back and captured numbers of police and even one senior officer who they agreed to release if the police released all the arrested convoy members.
      Unable to be moved on by the Egyptian authorities the convoyers through sheer persistence and determination and with the support of the Egyptian people forced the Mubarak regime to back down and let the International Aid convoy enter Gaza.
      After this defeat for the Mubarak authorities Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tried to play down this defeat in the Arab media describing the international aid convoys as “farcical” and said Egyptian authorities would no longer allow such solidarity convoys.[16]
      Leading up to, and since the Arab Spring, despite continuing resistance from Egyptian authorities particularly within the army and the police who still hold loyalties to the old regime, several more land convoys have been able to break through the siege and successfully enter Gaza through the northen Egyptian border.
      In defying the internationally illegal siege, New Zealand’s own Kia Ora Gaza headed by team captain Roger Fowler have since participated in two successful international overland convoys, one in 2011 in open defiance of Mubarak’s ban and one since his overthrow.
      As in the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa, through their courageous and defiant actions New Zealanders can also claim some small part in the overthrow of the oppressive Mubarak regime.
      Though the land seige hasn’t been broken, the international convoy movement’s efforts have seriously weakened the enforcement of the siege at the Egyptian border allowing more and more people and goods to get through into Gaza across the Sinai.
      Internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky is the latest person to defy the siege and enter Gaza through northern Egypt. In 2010 Chomsky was prevented from entering Gaza through the Israeli controlled border. Chomsky is due to defiantly deliver an address today at Gaza university his topic will be the significance of the Arab Spring.
      No doubt like every other successful breach of the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza a media cone of silence will descend.
      However a full report will be carried on the Kia Ora Gaza website when it comes to hand.
  • Vicky321.2
    The official term for piracy is now “taking control”
    Oh, why am I not surprised? 🙁

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