Madison Rafah Journal

If you feel like driving to Chicago, a demonstration is planned: Protests in support of the aid convoy have been occurring around the world since Thursday, with Chicagoans scheduled to protest again at 4:30 PM on Tuesday, June 1 in front of the Israeli consulate at 111 E. Wacker Dr, Chicago.

Here are two quick actions you can take in protest of this massacre, one from the U.S. Campaign to end the Israeli Occupation and the other from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

Our friends in Olympia, WA are also asking people to call the U.S. Department of State to register a protest:

Amazingly, it was very easy to get through to the State Department just now. Only one question, “For passports press 1, or stay on the line” – and then I was immediately put onto a REAL PERSON, whom I spoke with for some time.

I asked how many Americans had been murdered by the Israelis, who had committed an act of piracy, boarding civilian ships in international waters. I also asked when USA was going to stop the $30 billion pledge to Israel, as our tax dollars paid for those guns that killed and wounded unarmed civilians, of whom some could be Americans. (Read on …)

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, May 31st, 2010

In an international act of piracy and murder in international waters, the Israeli navy intercepted, boarded, and opened fire on humanitarian activists on a flotilla of ships attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian Gaza Strip.

According to news reports, Israeli commandos killed as many as 19 humanitarian activists on board one ship, and have abducted all 700 passengers on board the six boats composing the flotilla who are in the process of being sent against their will to Israel for arrest and/or deportation.

The reaction of the Obama Administration to Israel’s attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla, which included U.S. citizens, has been tepid.  A White House spokesperson stated that he "deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained."

Of course, this statement completely ignores U.S. complicity in arming Israel and enabling its human rights abuses.  In July 2008, the United States signed a contract worth $1.9 billion to transfer the latest-generation of naval combat vessels to Israel at U.S. taxpayer expense.  Currently, Congress is in the process of appropriating a record $3.2 billion in military aid to Israel this budget year. (Read on …)

Two ultra-Orthodox Jews look at the Mavi Marmara off the coast of Israel. Photograph: David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images

What were the flotilla’s goals, and did Israel violate international law?

Ian Black and Haroon Siddique, guardian.co.uk, 31 May 2010

What was the aim of the Gaza Freedom flotilla?

The Free Gaza movement says it was intended to deliver aid to Gaza to get around the Israeli blockade and “to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation”. The movement is an international coalition of pro-Palestinian human rights organisations and activists. It has been endorsed by Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky and counts on the support of a number of Jewish groups that campaign for the rights of Palestinians. (Read on …)

Joseph Krauss, Agence France Presse, 31 May 2010

ASHDOD, Israel (AFP) – At least 10 activists were killed before dawn on Monday when Israeli navy commandos stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, sparking international outrage and plunging the Jewish state into a diplomatic crisis.

The bloody ending to the high-profile mission to deliver supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for fence-mending talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington Tuesday.

The early morning assault prompted an unprecedented fallout with Israel’s former ally Turkey, which recalled its ambassador in fury on the back of reports that most of the bloodshed occurred on a Turkish passenger ship carrying more than 600 people.

As Israel pointed the finger of blame at passengers for initiating the violence, accusing them of using deadly force, activists from the ships countered with their own descriptions of how events unfolded in the raid which took place at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT).

Live footage from the Turkish passenger boat, which was posted all over the Internet, showed black-clad Israeli commandos rappelling down from helicopters and clashing with activists, as well as several wounded people lying on the deck of the ship. (Read on …)

Several pro-Palestinian campaigners wounded after six-ship convoy sailing for Gaza Strip ignored Israel’s order to turn back, Turkish news reports.

Anshel Pfeffer, Avi Issacharoff, Associated Press and Reuters, 31 May 2010

Israel Navy troops opened fire on pro-Palestinian activists aboard a six-ship aid flotilla sailing for the Gaza Strip, killing two and wounding several others after the convoy ignored orders to turn back, Turkey’s NTV reported early Monday.

Earlier Monday, Al Jazeera reported that the Gaza aid flotilla had changed course to avoid a confrontation with Israeli warships.

The Israeli naval vessels reportedly made contact earlier with the six-ship flotilla, which is carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza.

The Israeli navy was operating under the assumption that the activists manning the boats would not heed their calls to turn around, and Israeli troops were prepared to board the ships and steer them away from the Gaza shores and toward the Israeli port city of Ashdod. (Read on …)

Of course the peace flotilla will not bring peace, and it won’t even manage to reach the Gaza shore. The action plan has included dragging the ships to Ashdod port, but it has again dragged us to the shores of stupidity and wrongdoing.

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 30 May 2010

The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its hopeless frenzy. It has distributed menus from Gaza restaurants, along with false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations battle, which it might have been better off never starting. They want to maintain the ineffective, illegal and unethical siege on Gaza and not let the “peace flotilla” dock off the Gaza coast? There is nothing to explain, certainly not to a world that will never buy the web of explanations, lies and tactics.

Only in Israel do people still accept these tainted goods. Reminiscent of a pre-battle ritual from ancient times, the chorus cheered without asking questions. White uniformed soldiers got ready in our name. Spokesmen delivered their deceptive explanations in our name. The grotesque scene is at our expense. And virtually none of us have disturbed the performance.

The chorus has been singing songs of falsehood and lies. We are all in the chorus saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are all part of the chorus claiming the occupation of Gaza has ended, and that the flotilla is a violent attack on Israeli sovereignty – the cement is for building bunkers and the convoy is being funded by the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli siege of Gaza will topple Hamas and free Gilad Shalit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, one of the most ridiculous of the propagandists, outdid himself when he unblinkingly proclaimed that the aid convoy headed toward Gaza was a violation of international law. Right. Exactly. (Read on …)