The Mavi Marmara ship belonging to the Turkish relief organization IHH, part of the “Freedom Flotilla” headed to “break the blockade of Gaza” when it was assaulted at sea in the eastern Mediterranean by Israeli Naval forces on 31 May, returned to Turkey today.
During the Israeli Naval operation, 9 men (8 Turkish + one 19-year-old Turkish-American high school student) were killed. All had been on board the Mavi Marmara
The New York Times reported here that “On its return on Sunday, it [the Mavi Marmara] was decorated with posters of the dead passengers”.
The Mavi Marmara, a passenger ship carrying some 600 persons on the night it was attacked and boarded, was then forced to Israel’s southern port of Ashdod, and subsequently taken to Israel’s northern port of Haifa. It reportedly left on 9 August, and subsequently underwent repairs at some other “Mediterranean Port”, until its return to Turkey today.
Turkish Government officials, including most recently the country’s Foreign Minister, have said that Turkey is still waiting for an apology and compensation.
The personal belongings, including computers, and the media equipment, including films and photos, belonging to the passengers on board the six ships in the Freedom Flotilla who were deported from Israel after being forced to Ashdod have not all been returned…
Dror Feiler, an Israeli who has renounced his citizenship and now lives in Sweden and who was on board another of the ships in the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May — and who was recently deported when he again tried to enter Israel via Ben Gurion Airport — was present at the ceremony in Istanbul where the repaired Mavi Marmara was welcomed back. He told Israel’s YNet that ” ‘All the speeches stress that we are here together – Jews, Christians and Arabs against the blockade, this is not about religion, but about human rights, that’s why I presented myself as a Jew’, he said. Feiler, now a Swedish citizen, was not on board the Maramara, and when IDF commandos took over the ship he was on, there was no violent resistance. When asked if he is bothered by calls such as ‘death to Israel’, Feiler explained that it was the voice of a small minority. ‘What is important is the leadership and the person who is heading it – and these people talk about humanitarian objectives. Hot blooded people are everywhere, including Beitar Jerusalem (football) games'” Feiler noted, adding that “there are people who are extremely angry for losing their loved ones, and we must condemn such calls. But what’s important is that they understand that we are standing with them, and that just like there are good Muslims and not so good Muslims – there are also Jews who care’.” This is reported here.
On the same day that the Mavi Marmara finally returned to Turkey, the IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi made a second public appearance for questioning before Israel’s Turkel Commission set up to look into the “maritime incident” on 31 May.
Ashkenazi was asked by Commission members “if lowering soldiers into a crowd on the ship’s deck was wise. He said there was no better way to stop the ship. ‘If we had a special trick to stop the flotilla, we would have used it. We maintain intimate cooperation with other armies, and we haven’t heard of another solution’. Endorsing the commandos’ recollection, Ashkenazi said they were combat veterans who ‘know when they are being shot at’. But he also seemed to make allowances for the haze of melee. ‘I won’t take issue with a soldier who might confuse a slingshot, and the whizz its missile makes as it flies past, with a pistol, during night-time’, he said”.
A report in Haaretz on his testimony said Ashkenazi told the Commission that “passengers grabbed three Glock handguns and an Uzi machine pistol from commandos whom they overpowered. The troops had been dropped from helicopters onto the crowded ship as it ploughed through Mediterranean high seas at night. ‘We have testimony of one activist running at them [commandos] and firing with a mini-Uzi, and them shooting him’, he said. ‘They hit those who were clearly involved in the attack on them, and not those who were not’. Mavi Marmara activists have said any guns taken from the troops were disposed of, rather than used. Ashkenazi said commandos had fired some 350 beanbag rounds and non-lethal paintballs, all according to ‘protocol’. The navy opted against rubber bullets – a mainstay of Israel’s tactics against Palestinian demonstrations on land – because of a lethal risk within the Mavi Marmara’s confines, Ahkenazi added. This is all reported in Haaretz here.
UPDATE: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said later Sunday that Turkey’s continued calls for an apology were “beyond rude”, and he also accused Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayep Recep Erdogan of saying “lies” and of threatening Israel while on a visit to Lebanon. YNet reported that Lieberman added that “The one who needs to apologize is the Turkish government for supporting terror, the IHH, Hamas, and Hezbollah. There will be no apology, just the opposite, we are expecting one from Ankara”.
YNet added that “Lieberman’s comments led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce that the foreign minister’s views do not reflect that of the Israeli government, and that only Netanyahu can express official state opinions … Lieberman’s remarks ‘reflect his personal values and views, just as different government ministers in this government have different stances. The Israeli government’s stance is only that expressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’, the prime minister said in a statement Sunday evening”. This is reported here.
Lieberman also said, according to YNet that ” ‘Even if we were to offer Tel Aviv as the capital of Palestine and returned to the 1948 borders they would still find a reason not to sign a deal’, he said. Lieberman believes Israel should aim for a long-term interim arrangement and postpone decisions of borders and refugees. ‘We need to prepare Plan B, and I can say that it exists on the shelf. We are making last-minute modifications, and will be ready to use Plan B at any moment’, he said. ‘The WikiLeaks era has proven that classic diplomacy doesn’t help – the best diplomacy is to say things as is’.”