By now you will have heard about Israel’s assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in the course of which, according to current estimates, at least 10 and as many as 20 peace activists were killed, and dozens injured. The flotilla was carrying hundreds of activists, including a Nobel Peace Laureate, along with thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to distribute to the besieged population of Gaza.
heathlander's diary :: ::
The narrative from Israel has been almost comically predictable, as has the extent to which that narrative has been accepted by news organisations. In the week leading up to the mission Israeli officials repeatedly threatened the ships, with the Foreign Minister going so far as to label the unarmed humanitarian voyage a "violent" threat. The flotilla was smeared as "pro-Hamas" and condemned for refusing to deliver a letter to Cpl. Shalit from his father (a claim that, while repeated uncritically in the purportedly ‘liberal’ Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, is a "a blatant lie"), and its attempts to dock in Gaza were declared an "an infringement of Israel’s sovereignty". Needless to say, this last accusation does not sit well with Israel’s claim that it does not occupy and has no intention to annex Gaza (the Israeli human rights NGO Gisha notes, in this vein, that the assault on the Freedom Flotilla "is proof that despite claims to the contrary, Israel never ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip but rather continues to control its borders – land, air and sea").
The Israeli navy began harassing the convoy when it was still well over 100 miles from Gaza, deep into international waters. As the ships drew closer the Israeli military attempted to disrupt their communications (journalists were reporting from on-board and a live video feed was streaming online) and began issuing threats. Finally, Israeli forces attacked, with soldiers descending from helicopters to board the ships. Initially Israel claimed that no activists were killed. It then performed an abrupt reversal, familiar to veterans of its clumsy rhetorical acrobatics during the Gaza massacre, reporting that at least 10 people were killed, but claiming that it was the peace activists who "attacked" first (as one commentator observed: "[p]eculiar how Israel is always violently attacked but it's only the ‘attackers’ who die"). Thus news organisations reported that "[f]ighting broke out between" (via) the activists and the soldiers, as if unarmed peace activists could ever meaningfully "fight" highly-trained, heavily armed members of one of the most sophisticated militaries on the planet. The BBC went even further, intoning, over footage of what was clearly a direct attack on unarmed civilians, that the Israeli soldiers were attempting to "control passengers" (via). Eyewitness reports, by contrast, described how Israeli forces started shooting "the moment their feet hit the deck. They shot civilians asleep". "This was not a confrontation", they report, "[t]his was a massacre". An al-Jazeera journalist aboard the ship reported that "despite the white flag being raised, the Israeli Army is still shooting, still firing live munitions".
