Inquiry Concludes Israel Had the Right to Stop the Gaza Convoy

This ship made headlines in May 2010. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.


Joel Kontinen

In May 2010 Israeli commandoes intercepted a Turkish convoy bound for Gaza. The ”peace activists” on board the Mavi Marmara attacked the soldiers with metal tubes and other weapons.

Ten of the soldiers were wounded in the clash. The Israelis had to resort to firearms to calm the all-but-peaceful activists, nine of whom died and several were wounded.

For the most part, the popular media promptly condemned the Israeli raid.

Israel set up a commission to investigate the matter. In addition to Israeli experts, it also included two well-known international observers. Lord David Trimble was awarded the 1998 Nobel peace prize for his efforts to bring an end to the fighting in Northern Ireland. Ken Watkin, a retired Canadian brigadier-general, investigated the Rwanda genocide.

The inquiry concluded that international law gave Israel the right to intercept a convoy that was a potential security risk.

Reporting on the decision, BBC for instance did not even mention the names of the international observers.


Sources:

Israel inquiry finds Gaza aid flotilla raid 'was legal' BBC News. 23 January 2011.

Flotilla Report: BBC Plumbs the Depths. Honest Reporting. 24 January 2011.

A bizarre peace convoy

Joel Kontinen

When peace activists stock their ship with metal tubes, grenades, smoke bombs, knives and slingshots and then use them against Israeli soldiers, we might perhaps be justified in asking whether peace is very high on their agenda.

The Israeli commandos who landed on the ships from overflying helicopters were only armed with riot gear. The peace activists who had set out to break the Gaza blockade began to hit the soldiers with metal tubes and would probably have killed several of them if the Israelis had not fired at them in self-defence.

For Hamas and their allies the word ”peace” seems to be a catchword with a meaning akin to that what George Orwell used in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

It seems that the sole purpose of the convoy was to gain sympathy from the West.

The Palestinians have a long history of using the western media to further their aims.

And they have rarely been reluctant to be in the news. Since orchestrating a massacre of Israeli sportsmen during the 1972 Olympics in Munich they have been busy hijacking airplanes and ships and aiming their missiles at Israeli kindergartens.

The following video clips reveal more about the intentions of the ”peace activists”.