Haaretz is now reporting that the IDF has announced that its naval forces have boarded the Jewish Boat that wanted to go to Gaza. This is posted here.
According to Haaretz, “A navy boat shadowing the ‘Irene’ made radio contact with the activists late Tuesday morning, asking: ‘Where are you going? Where did you come from? What nationalities are on board?’ according to the [Jewish Boat to Gaza] website. The crew replied: ‘They came from Farmagusta, the nationalities on board are British, American, German and Israelis, we are going!’ the website said” …
They are reportedly now going to Ashdod.
The Jewish Boat to Gaza website says the last known location of the boat this morning was 31 47 N and 34 12 E [n.b. – in the vicinity of the pushpins labelled k4 and n on our next graphic further down, after this one]:
They promise to update via google maps from their page, here.
Here is a graphic of where the Mavi Marmara was attacked and boarded on 31 May, kindly prepared for us by our friend Alethia Kallos, after the Freedom Flotilla fiasco. The interception point, then, was out on the high seas in the eastern Mediterranean, at 32° 00′ 29.80 N and 33° 50′ 15.35 E:
The interception point is interesting because it indicates that the Israeli military establishment has taken the advice reportedly given by the Israeli Foreign Ministry before the 31 May fiasco involving the Freedom Flotilla — which was not to intercept the Flotilla on the high seas but rather close to, if not at, the defined limitations of the declared Israeli naval blockade of Gaza Strip.
After the fiasco, there was also shocked criticism from commentors, who noted that the Israeli legal defense offered at the time was that the IDF had a right to stop, anywhere in the world, any ship intending to violate its declared blockade. This could have been interpreted to mean that Israel was effectively threatening to mount a missile attack on a ship in a Cyprus harbor before embarking for Gaza — or at an even earlier point, in fact, at any port around the world.
This Israeli naval blockade was announced on the night of 3-4 January 2009, when the IDF began the ground phase of its massive military assault, supposedly on Hamas targets, in the Gaza Strip [Operation Cast Lead, from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009]. Though this military operation ended by two unilateral cease-fires [one by Israel, and one by Hamas], just hours before Barack Obama was inaugurated into office as President of the U.S., succeeding George W. Bush, Israel has maintained that a state of hostilities still exists — and this is one of its justifications for continuing the naval blockade.
UPDATE: Just wondering — why is major media [via major news agencies, of course] all reporting without any qualification that the boarding was without violence? We have heard this before… While there may be little reason to think that the Israeli Navy hasn’t learned any lessons from the Flotilla fiasco, there are reports that at least one of those aboard the Irene was handcuffed [probably one of the Shapira brothers], that a doctor was asked for one of the oldest passengers on board [Reuven Moskovitz].
CORRECTION: Mairead Maguire [a Nobel peace prizewinner from Northern Ireland, was not among those on board the Irene, but in a related matter, she is being denied entry into Israel, when she landed at Ben Gurion airport as part of a human rights delegation. Maguire had been on board the MV Rachel Corrie, the boat that was was initially part of the Freedom Flotilla but travelled more slowly and with delays, that was boarded [probably with less violence that the Irene was today], and towed to Ashdod in early June. AP is reporting that [Israeli Foreign Ministry Yigal] “Palmor said that since Maguire had been deported from Israel for taking part in an earlier Gaza-bound flotilla, she could not legally enter Israel for several years. Palmor said Maguire was aware of that, calling her entry attempt a ‘deliberate provocation’ … [She is] diluting her prestige in useless and childish confrontations.” This AP report is posted here. Haaretz reported that “Prior to her deportation [in June], Maguire signed a document stating she would refrain from entering Israel again”. This is posted here.
At the very, very least, media should be attributing this claim of no violence to the IDF, until there is further proof… There is also the fact that the IDF spokesperson this morning called the boat a “provocation”, and has just sent around an SMS saying that the “provocation” boat was boarded “without incident” [it did not say “without violence”]
UPDATE TWO: Haaretz is reporting that some of the Israeli activists who were on board reported that there was, indeed, violence used: “testimonies by passengers who were released from police questioning later in the day seemed to counter the IDF’s claims, with Israeli activist and former Israel Air Force pilot Yonatan Shapira saying that there were ‘no words to describe what we went through during the takeover’. Shapira said the activists, who he said displayed no violence, were met with extreme IDF brutality, adding that the soldiers ‘just jumped us, and hit us. I was hit with a taser gun. Some of the soldiers treated us atrociously’, Shapira said, adding that he felt there was a ‘huge gap between what the IDF spokesman is saying happened and what really happened’ … Eli Usharov, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 10 affirmed Shapira’s version of the events, telling Haaretz that the takeover was executed with unnecessary brutality. ‘They used a taser gun against Yonatan. He screamed and was dragged to the military boat’, Usharov said, adding that both Yonatan and his brother Itamar were handcuffed. The Channel 10 reporter also said that the activists managed to have a serious heart-to-heart conversation with the troops once they were all placed on board the military vessel … The Haaretz report said that Reuben Moscowitz, a Holocaust survivor who took part in the mission, expressed his disbelief that ‘Israeli soldiers would treat nine Jews this way. They just hit people’.” The Haaretz story is posted here.
UPDATE THREE: Just to put this in local [Israeli] perspective, Dahlia Scheindlin has written in the new Israeli group publication +972 [Israel’s international calling code] magazine sardonically that “The Israel naval unit warned the Irene twice not to break Israeli law. The ‘Jewish flotilla – actually just a single boat with symbolic amounts of provisions, continued sailing toward Gaza. The navy took over, and the boat ultimately anchored in Ashdod. The activists have been detained for questioning, the Israeli news reported. Yawn. For the most part, Israelis will probably dismiss the Jewish flotilla as radicals, weirdos and eccentrics at best, self-haters, at worst. The quiet conclusion and low-key coverage will be easy to ignore. It was left to the handful of relatives and supporters to create something quote-worthy. The mother of a leading activist, Yonatan Shapira, expressed fear about the IDF, as her son is reportedly being held for questioning (NRG reports that Israelis are being held at the Ashdod police station). “I don’t trust the IDF” – that’s a headline in Israel. This was in Hebrew – the English version is decidedly more neutral … But many Israelis will stop reading right at the top of those stories. The moment someone expresses subversive thoughts doubting IDF integrity, most Israeli minds will shut down. The IDF, recall, is consistently the most trusted institution in the country, by a longshot and this has always been the case. By contrast, ‘Leftists’ is one of the dirtiest words here these days, synonymous in many people’s minds with Israel-hating, possibly anti-semitism and treason. It is associated with other nasty terms like human rights and democracy, which are increasingly scorned as a result. But I wonder, if people could divorce the messages from the trappings they despise – how awful are the things the protesters are saying? They sought to symbolically protest a destructive policy, without hurting anyone, through civil disobedience. Their signs said ‘Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies’, ‘Are prosthetics dangerous?’ – as the ship tried to bring medical equipment for the sick. They called to ‘End the occupation’ – something most Israelis either want, or at least accept … Ariel Sharon said it seven years ago already. Further, the organizers say they protest the policy because it feeds hostility against Israel; they explicitly critique the siege as government policy, distinguished from anti-Israel messages – and they seek to end Israel’s feelings of ‘isolation and persecution’. That sounds like concern for Israel, not hate. Still, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson called it ‘a completely unnecessary media gimmick which should never have been born…a trick of hatred and publicity for people who don’t care about the love of Israel and don’t deserve more than a footnote’. So how do Israeli authorities suggest improving Israel’s relations with the world? Ironically, the advertising banner above the nrg story about the Jewish flotilla proposes a different solution: Join Israel’s propaganda efforts, run by the Ministry of Propaganda and Diaspora (the term Hasbara is also sometimes translated as public diplomacy in – well – diplomatic language). The ad shows a would-be female foreign reporter with demonic eyes demonstrating how Israelis cook their chicken skewers on primitive cooking fires. The idea is that these evil reporters are the real sources of anger against Israel” … This is posted here.
OK, now I will approve the comment sent yesterday, which you can see below, now in the proper context…