The power of global citizen action...

Staff Sergeant S., whose full identity cannot be disclosed for security reasons according to the IDF, should soon be rewarded with a medal of valor for his role in the assault on the Mavi Marmara.
He single handedly shot dead six of the nine activists killed in the Israeli raid while striving to protect three of his comrades wounded during the operation.
S. did a remarkable job. He stabilized the situation and succeeded in hitting six of the terrorists, his commander Lt-Col. T told the Jerusalem Post.
When I hit the deck, I was immediately attacked by people with bats, metal pipes and axes. These were without a doubt terrorists. I could see the murderous rage in their eyes and that they were coming to kill us, S. told the Jerusalem Post.The IDF claims that its commandos were attacked by a well-trained group of mercenaries, according to the newspaper.
The murderous mercenaries, to quote the IDF once more, were in fact organized into squads of twenty mercenaries, and were armed with either bats, slingshots, metal bars, knives or stun grenades, according to the newspaper.
The IDF later concluded, in a post-operation analysis that members of the group were affiliated with international global jihad elements and had undergone training in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
If no weapons were found on board, it was because the terrorists threw their weapons overboard after the commandos took control of the vessel, according to the paper.
Yes, nine people have died, conceded Raphael Schutz, Israel‘s ambassador in Madrid.. But 155 died in a terrorist attack in India last week. Who cares about that? Have you heard anything about it? Twenty-three Spaniards died on the roads this weekend…We are talking about people on board [the flotilla] who are connected to al-Qaida. Fifty of the people who left Turkey are known for their connections with Hamas, with al-Qaida. Are these people pacifists? They hide behind a few Europeans, he told the El Periodico newspaper.
If the IDF was about to confront some fifty dangerous terrorists, then why were the commandos equipped only with paint ball guns and pistols?
In short, the Israelis claim that we had no choice but to kill the terrorists in order to protect oursleves.
The autopsy results of the nine victims released Saturday by the Turkish authorities revealed that they were shot thirty times, and at close range.
Five of the nine were shot three times or more, and five to the head and neck.
Aliheyder Bengi, 39, was shot six times.
Furkan Dogan, the nineteen-year-old American, was shot five times at close range, from less than 45 centimeters, according to the report quoted by The Guardian.
He was hit in the face, back of the head, back, left leg and left ankle.
Are the results of this report compatible with the IDF version of events, that the commandos, whom one witness, Dr. Coskun described as disoriented and frightened, beset by a mob, were only trying to save their own lives?
Some activists were not convinced.
Ismail Patek, chairman of Friends of al-Aqsa, a pro-Palestinian group based in Leicester, UK, accused the IDF of conducting a shoot to kill policy.
The Israelis argued that the fact that the victims were shot several times does not undermine their contention that they acted in self-defense.
The only situation when a soldier shot was when it was a clearly a life-threatening situation. Pulling the trigger quickly can result in a few bullets being in the same body, but does not change the fact they were in a life-threatening situation, an Israeli spokesman in London told The Guardian.
Andrew Slaughter, a British MP, considered that the evidence revealed by the autopsy reports only reinforced the need for a comprehensive inquiry into the raid on the Turkish vessel.
Given the very disturbing evidence which contradicts the line from the Israeli media and suggests that Israelis have been very selective in the way they have addressed this, there is now an overwhelming need for an international inquiry, he told The Guardian.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has advocated the creation of an international commission to investigate the incident, which would be led by the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer, an expert in international maritime law.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the proposal on Sunday.
I told [Ban] that the investigation of the facts must be carried out responsibly and objectively. We need to consider the issue carefully and level-headedly, while maintaining Israel's national interests as well as those of the Israel Defense Forces, he said at a cabinet meeting, according to Haaretz.
If the Israeli view prevails, then it seems more likely than not that the truth shall never be established.
For, if preserving the interests of the IDF and Israel are to condition the mandate and scope of the investigation, then it is certain to be neither thorough nor objective, but merely designed to exonerate Israel of all responsibility in the deaths of the nine activists.
Will the international community settle for such a limited and skewed inquiry?
Turkey most certainly will not.
We want to know the facts. If Israel rejects these, it means it's also another proof of their guilt. They are not self-confident to face the facts. We are ready, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN.
Turkey demands to know why our nine civilians were killed in international waters. This is a very good question, and we will ask this question in all international forums, he added.
We think it is very important that there is a credible and transparent investigation... there should be an international presence at minimum, British Foreign Secretary William Hague declared Sunday in Paris during a joint press conference with the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Eight of the nine victims were buried Thursday in Turkey, during an emotional ceremony conducted at the Istanbul mosque.
The next day, Turkish Prime Minister, Teyyip Erdogan, visibly still furious over the deaths of the nine activists, accused Israel of having no respect for even its holiest texts. I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says 'thou shalt not kill'. Did you not understand?
"I'll say [it] again. I say in English 'you shall not kill'. Did you still not understand? So I'll say to you in your own language. I say in Hebrew 'Lo Tirtzakh', according to Haaretz.
Currently, two opposing version of the events that unfolded on the Mavi Marmara are being put forward. Israel says the commandos resorted to force only after activists attacked them with knives, crowbars and clubs, as well as two pistols wrested from soldiers. Activists say the Israeli servicemen fired first, as The Independent put it.
Let us try to reconstitute the bloody assault on the Turkish vessel.
The initial Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara occurred during dawn prayers, when most of the men would be occupied fulfilling their religious duties.
According to witnesses interviewed by The Independent, Israeli commandos initiated the attack on the Marmara with stun grenades, paintballs and rubber-cased steel bullets. This may have precipitated the violent altercation.
Some of the activists, hearing the pop of the plastic bullets and the sound bomb, believed they were being shot, according to witnesses, including some wounded now in an Ankara hospital, wrote the NYT.
Instead of having dispersed the activist, the preliminary attack may have had the opposite effect, and galvanized the more determined militants.
Some fifteen dinghies each carrying about twenty commandos sped alongside the ship.
They hunted like hyenas – moving up and ahead on the flanks; pushing in, then peeling away; and finally, lagging before lunging, wrote the journalist Paul McGeouch, who was present at the scene.
The activists on the ship used water hoses to prevent the commandos form boarding the vessel. The latter were also on the receiving end of a shower of whatever its passengers found on deck or could break from the ship's fittings, according to Paul McGeouch.
Unable to board from the sea, the IDF then tried helicopters.
Two ropes were dropped from one helicopter so that IDF commandos could slide down onto the ship’s deck. Of the two ropes that were dropped simultaneously from the helicopter, one was grabbed by men on board the boat and tied to an antenna, Israeli officials said. The pilot released it to avoid being tethered to the boat, and the commandos then slid down only one rope, slowing the incursion and leaving them vulnerable, wrote the NYT.
The first commandos to land on the vessel were therefore easily captured by the activists. Some of the people caught the first commando before he touched the deck – a few started to hit him, but a lot of people moved in to shelter him with their bodies, Another soldier with a bleeding nose was brought in ... a few people threw punches, but not as many as I would have expected, Srojan Stojiljkovic, a Serbian cameraman told Paul McGeouch.
It seems that it was at this juncture that the commandos then used lived ammunition (yet, only minutes after the start of the operation, according to Staff Sergeant S.).
Some witnesses however, insist that the IDF began shooting from the very outset of the raid.
It felt a bit surreal. I couldn't quite believe they were doing what they were doing. There was live ammunition flying around and I could hear the sounds of the bullets flying and the whirr of the helicopter blades as people were dropped down onto the roof. What I saw was guns being used by the Israelis on unarmed civilians, Sarah Colborne, of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, wrote in The Guardian.
There was a second helicopter hovering over the ship, trying to lower Israeli soldiers down on a rope. On either side there was tear gas being thrown in from the boats, canisters which they were firing from a sort of gun. One man was shot in the top of the head from the helicopter. He collapsed on the ground. I snatched a microphone from one of the Turkish reporters to say one man had been killed. As I did that another man was shot. Those people died instantly.
Until that point I had not yet seen an Israeli soldier on deck. As far as I am concerned, it's a lie to say they only started shooting on deck. Only then did I see an Israeli soldier on deck.
The men who were dead had been fired on from above, wrote Jamal Elshayyal, a British producer for the Al Jazeera network, in The Independent.
At least two other eyewitnesses saw soldiers firing from above the ships before they landed on the Marmara's deck. It is possible that this is what prompted the fierce resistance to the soldiers when they dropped down. Several passengers recount how organisers urged their peers to stop hitting the soldiers, aware of how it would harm their claim to be peaceful protesters, wrote Catrina Stewart in The Independent, in a report on the raid.
They are using live ammunition,” said a man standing in front of a camera. “We cannot protect ourselves.”
Ismail Yesildal, who was shot in the back as he stood on the lower deck away from the fighting, said doctors were overwhelmed with the wounded. By the end of the confrontation — around 5:08 a.m., according to the surveillance video — two dozen people were hurt.
“I saw wounded people everywhere,” he said. “People were panicked. There was helplessness in their faces, wrote the NYT.
Journalists also appear to have been targeted.
Kevin Ovenden of Britain, an activist on the ship that arrived in İstanbul on Thursday, also said a man who had pointed a camera at the soldiers was shot directly through the forehead with live ammunition, with the exit wound blowing away back of his skull, wrote the Turkish daily Todays Zaman.
The entire operation took less than ninety minutes.
Various witnesses however, have made some very serious accusations.
Hence, only a thorough and impartial investigation can establish the facts.
That should be the sole priority of any inquiry, and not preserving the interests of the parties involved…
The interception of the Rachel Corrie was a much more peaceful undertaking.
The ship, boarded shortly after noon on Saturday in international waters, was transporting school supplies, wheelchairs, paper, sports equipment and children’s shoe.
Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire who was on board the Rachel Corrie, described the objectives of the flotilla, we are inspired by the people of Gaza whose courage, love and joy in welcoming us, even in the midst of such suffering gives us all hope. They represent the very best of humanity, and we are all privileged to be given the opportunity to support them in their nonviolent struggle for human dignity, and freedom. This trip will again highlight Israel’s criminal blockade and illegal occupation. In a demonstration of the power of global citizen action, we hope to awaken the conscience of all.
The ship was then taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The eleven activists and nine crewmembers were arrested upon arrival.
Greta Berlin, of the Free Gaza Movement, expected them to be treated with kid gloves. The world is watching, according to The Guardian. The fact that Israel boarded a civilian boat in international waters is a violent act, she added.
Incidentally, the Israeli navy referred to the ship as the Linda, its previous name, and not the Rachel Corrie, named after a young American activist crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in 2003.
The Israelis were clearly relieved that no blood had been shed this time.
Today it was much easier. People were much more polite and did not attempt any violent provocations. Some of them, like the Filipinos who were part of the crew, didn't really understand why they're here.
They came off the boat and arrived to us in a civilized manner, did not riot, and did not swear at our inspectors or looked at them with hatred in their eyes. Compared to the previous people they were very calm, an immigration official told Ynet.
The Israelis stated anew that they did not intend to lift the siege, the sole means of preventing the establishment of an Iranian port in Gaza, contended Mr. Netanyahu.
Yet, the botched assault on the Mavi Marmara may have had the unintended consequence of undermining the very siege the operation was meant to preserve.
For the first time since it was imposed, the siege made front-page news around the world, and for several days at that.
As such, the organizers of the flotilla have succeeded in awakening the conscience of all, to quote Mrs. Maguire.
Hamas, clearly reveling in the attention Gaza was receiving thanks to the bloody assault on the Turkish vessel, and obviously enjoying the painful and embarrassing predicament Israel now found itself in, sensed that a new phase, and perhaps the end of the siege itself may be in the offing.
Now not only Gazans speak of the blockade, but also the [UN] security council and the international community. Everyone is demanding the siege be lifted, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas Prime Minister of Gaza said Friday. We have had warm words about the pain of Gaza but now we want these words to turn into action. Today we are in a new era of victory, he added.
The tragic events on the Mavi Marmara did remind the international community of Gaza’s plight. Many leaders now seem uncomfortable with the current situation and sense that preserving the status quo is no longer politically tenable.
What’s important right now is that we break out of the current impasse, use this tragedy as an opportunity so that we figure out how we meet Israel’s security concerns, but at the same time start opening up opportunity for Palestinians, President Obama said Thursday night.
We are working urgently with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza.
The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed, Mike Hammer, National Security Council spokesman declared.
The UN reiterated last week that the siege itself is illegal.
International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and it is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on civilians, declared Navi Pillay, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
Rising poverty, unemployment and food insecurity in Gaza, compounded by the recent 23-day Israeli offensive, have increased the threat of child malnutrition, say UN agencies, health ministry officials and healthcare NGOs in Gaza. UN World Health Organization (WHO) officials are concerned by the warning signs, including rising malnutrition indicators - like increased cases of stunting, wasting and underweight children - and continuing high rates of anemia among children and pregnant women, wrote IRIN in April 2009.
Something must be done to relieve the miserable living conditions in Gaza.
A concerted international effort to improve the lot of the Gazans may prove successful this time.
This is the beginning of the end of the blockade. Israel cannot keep punishing the people of Gaza, denying our human rights to travel, destroying our economy, stopping us from rebuilding our homes by blocking the construction materials from entering.
The leaders of the world know that this situation cannot continue, Mohammed Abu-Dayyah, owner of the PLO Flag Shop in Gaza City, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Despite a very modest relaxation on the entry of some supplies into Gaza in the past months, entry of major essential goods like materials for reconstruction remains in limited quantities or is barred. 'As a result, three-quarters of the damage and destruction caused to civilian infrastructure during Israeli military Operation Cast Lead has still not been repaired or reconstructed 17 months on, Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam, told the paper.
Yet, it remains to be seen whether Israel is willing to make the necessary concessions on this issue. Is it even capable of doing so?
According to the NYT, an Israeli official said that Israel displayed flexibility all the time concerning what is authorized to enter the Strip. Why are living conditions there so horrendous, then?
The siege was imposed to force Gazans to overthrow Hamas (elected democratically in 2006, defeating the PLO of current President Abbas), stop the firing of rockets into Israel, and secure the release of Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.
None of these objectives has been reached, and yet Israel refuses to revise a policy that has visibly failed.
Israel claims that only the siege can prevent Hamas from obtaining weapons from Iran.
Yet, the activists on board the Rachel Corrie had proposed that the Israelis inspect the ship to ascertain that no weapons were on board, and then let it proceed to Gaza. Israel refused.
Why, if Israel’s sole preoccupation is preventing arms shipments from entering Gaza?
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner suggested that the EU would be willing to undertake the mission of inspecting the cargo of all ships bound for Gaza to ensure no weapons entered the Strip. Kouchner indicated the EU could play the same role at Rafah, Egypt’s border crossing with Gaza.
It seems that preserving the siege is of paramount importance even if it has become a foreign policy nightmare for Israel.
The Israeli leadership no longer seems capable of adjusting the country’s policies to changing circumstances, as if any evolution or concession would create a dangerous precedent and be construed as a sign of weakness by its enemies.
Israel seems thus to have become deaf to all criticism, even the constructive kind.
Israel has real enemies like Iran and Hezbollah. Human psychology is such that fear often leads to freezing and hanging on to the same course of action, even if it proves disastrous time and again. As a result Israel doesn’t listen to criticism - either from inside or from outside.
This inability to listen is reinforced by self-righteousness: Israel is stuck in the belief that it is right, and everybody else is wrong and hence incapable of admitting that Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians has been disastrous; that Israel should have engaged with the Arab League peace initiative years ago, and that a U turn needs to be made. Admitting that one has been wrong is always difficult; but Israel’s need for self-righteousness makes it even more difficult, wrote Carlo Strenger in Haaretz.
Israel may have no choice but to revise its policies if it does not want to be compelled to do so by an international community exasperated by the fact that this issue still has not been resolved.
Outside actors, like the flotilla activists, have vowed to pursue their mission, one they believe they were forced to undertake due to the fecklessness of Western leaders concerning the Palestinian issue, until the blockade is lifted.
We will continue until we break the siege of Gaza, warned Greta Berlin.
Another activist considered the raid on the Mavi Marmara may indeed have been a turning point. This has been the Soweto or Sharpeville of the movement for Palestinian solidarity. It is the equivalent of the apartheid assaults that changed world opinion, and I believe this will be a turning point that will accelerate the day the siege is lifted, Kevin Ovenden told The Independent.
Predictably, therefore, plans for other flotillas are already underway.
A German-Jewish organization called Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East intends to sail for Gaza this July. Because of limited space, there will be school equipment, candy, and mainly musical equipment, and there'll be musicians aboard who'll teach the children of Gaza. They need to see that Jews are not how they are drawn in their eyes, Kate Leitrer, of the organization, told Ynet.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan himself is considering traveling to Gaza, according to Haaretz. The Turkish navy may accompany future flotillas, setting up a potentially dangerous confrontation with the Israeli navy.
Even Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are making plans to send shipments to Gaza and escort future flotillas bound for the Strip.
It is time the Israelis listened to reason and lifted the blockade, for the siege will end one way or another, either after another series of violent confrontations or through a negotiation process that caters to the interests of all relevant parties.
Let us hope that the nine activists who were killed on the Mavi Marmara will be the last to die for Gaza…
(the photograph of the Rachel Corrie is by AP)