Israel Kills 16 Human Rights Activists on Route to Gaza, World Outrage Spreads
May 31, 2010 posted by Michael Leon
Massacre at Sea
As news Sunday reached the world that “participants in the international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip held a memorial service at sea to commemorate the 34 Americans killed and 174 injured in Israel’s 1967 attack on the U.S.S. Liberty,” the Israeli navy hours later this morning attacked the six-ship convey, killing at least 16 unarmed people in international waters and injuring 30 as Americans celebrated Memorial Day weekend honoring fallen American troops and Marines.Israeli troops reportedly killed several people as they lay asleep aboard the Turkish-registered Mavi Marmara, according to eye witensses.
Journalist Scott Lucas reports:
The Turkish Government has condemned the Israeli attack. A crowd of demonstrators have surrounded the house of the Israeli Ambassador and asked him to leave the country.Gaza has been under an Israeli-led blockade since 2006. Amnesty International, in its latest Annual Human Rights Report (May 26, 2010) stated that Israel’s siege on Gaza has “deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages have left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid. The scope of the blockade and statements made by Israeli officials about its purpose showed that it was being imposed as a form of collective punishment of Gazans, a flagrant violation of international law.”
The ship attacked this morning, the Mavi Marmara, is Turkish-registered.
- Protests are being called for across the country and the world as shock and outrage at what is being blasted a rogue state spreads. In New York, according to several sources, a protest has been called for 3 PM Eastern today in Times Square. -
Greta Berlin, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, informed Al Jazeera English that their lawyer in Israel has told them that 16 people have been killed as a result of the Israeli attack on the “Freedom Flotilla” aiming to break the Gaza blockade.
Gideon Levy of Haaretz, writes, “The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its hopeless frenzy,” as Israel now claims the unarmed human rights activists shot at raiding Israeli commandos, a charge ridiculed by WitnessGaza.
Lubna Marsawa, Free Gaza’s organizer on the Turkish passenger boat said in outrage, “Very few times in history has a flotilla delivering humanitarian goods been welcomed by military war ships.”
There has been no immediate comment from the White House or U.S. Dept of State.
Read more:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/05/31/israel-murders-at-least-16-human-rights-activists-on-route-to-gaza-on-the-open-sea/
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