Freedom Flotilla Boat Carrying Medical Supplies For Gaza Hijacked by Israeli Forces

NDPP wrote:

Goodness, another 'progressive' does his bit for Israel.

Suppose I could always hide weapons inside medical supplies destined for Gaza, that'll help.

So let me get this right, weapons for Palestinians bad. Weapons for Israelis good. Am I right? Am I missing something?

Paladin1 wrote:

https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Wheelchairs-as-well-as-weapons-found-on-boa...

Wheelchairs as well as weapons found on board aid ships

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/weapon-making-materials-caught-en-route-to...

Weapons-making materials caught en route to Gaza

 

https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/world/meast/israel-intercepted-weapons/in...

Israel intercepts ship with weapons headed to Gaza

 

https://www.haaretz.com/1.5136756

IDF Seizes Boat Carrying Weapons From Turkey to Gaza

None of these stories have anything do to with the Freedom Floatilla and three of them are not even from this year. WTF is your point?

FFS, the Freedom Flotilla is NOT carrying weapons to Gaza. I know this because I know some of the participants - both on the boats and providing support behind the scenes. My activist colleague and friend, Prof. David Heap (University of Western Ontario) speaking to Al Jazeera in London, UK, about what actually happened.

https://mediaview.aljazeera.com/video/c0OTMRiHBk

If you're going to quote propaganda from Apartheid Israel's media, know that they represent the people who murder journalists to prevent the truth of their atrocities being reported.

Unionist wrote:

MegB wrote:

FFS, the Freedom Flotilla is NOT carrying weapons to Gaza. I know this because I know some of the participants - both on the boats and providing support behind the scenes. My activist colleague and friend, Prof. David Heap (University of Western Ontario) speaking to Al Jazeera in London, UK, about what actually happened.

https://mediaview.aljazeera.com/video/c0OTMRiHBk

If you're going to quote propaganda from Apartheid Israel's media, know that they represent the people who murder journalists to prevent the truth of their atrocities being reported.

You stole my thunder, Meg - thanks for that!

You're most welcome Unionist. Can't let garbage propaganda go unchallenged. Not here. Not anywhere.

NDPP wrote:

 You confess you know next to nothing about a topic yet you are perfectly ready to believe and defend corporate media stories which are obviously unsupported or false. You will continue to be gullible to such propaganda until you actually do use that google and educate yourself. You are however half right about the 'assholes' in the Israel Palestine struggle. 

Know little about the motivation and politics of the struggle. I do make a study of conflicts, tactics, stragtity  and the like (maybe not grammar though eh?) . Quick searches on google easily show cases where weapons were found during searches, from reputable sources (I can forward a spreadsheet that helps you calculate the authencity of a website).

There's clear propaganda on both sides of this conflict. Where there's smoke there's also fire, money to be made smuggling weapons in. Unless of course you think people are saying no to making money on the backs of others? I don't think so.

If I was Israel I'd even pay gun runners to smuggle weapons to Gaza through medial relief flotilla in order to make a public scene of capturing them to make palistine look bad. If I was palistine I'd make it look like Israel was framing palistine with the same tactic. 

I've found contraband stuff in all kinds of relief aid, from inside computers to kids backpacks.  NGOs are as corruptable as anyone. 

Its not black and white in a conflicts like these.  But go on thinking one side are saints and the other devils.

I can also add I helped organized some companies to donate expired but still very much usable medical equipment to people fighting ISIS a couple years ago. By and large the supplies arrived and apparently most didn't even appear opened or inspected. 

Always an honour to have the attention of the babble bully lol

But since we're talking mercenaries you're like a sniper. Come out of nowhere, take a shot then run away.    Great stuff. 

NDPP wrote:

Elder Larry Commodore has been freed and is homeward bound.

Fantastic news! Thanks NDPP.

Maybe not such a good idea to use a Trumpian "It's not a crime" defense to sell into what is propaganda, and for which there is no evidence. It just legitimizes the Israeli position.

Aside from there being no evidence, why would they jeopardize a protest after going through the trouble of having the boat searched on their departure? It makes no sense. They must have expected they would be boarded, and thoroughly searched, and that they would likely not reach land.

6079_Smith_W wrote:

 It makes no sense. They must have expected they would be boarded, and thoroughly searched, and that they would likely not reach land.

That would be assuming they were even aware. Smugglers will often hide their stuff among legitimate cargo/travellers. 

I don't understand why the US funnels so much money into Israel. Hundreds of millions, billions? It's a lot.  And Israel has incredibly advanced weapons and technology and they're fighting with people who literally use sticks and stones and slingshots. They're hardly at risk of bringing invaded from Palistine.  The fact that medical supplies need to be brought in in such a manner should tell the world how fucked up things are for Palistine and the UN should sort it out.

Has rabble.ca did any kind of fund raiser or anything for Palistine? I bet we could get a few boxes of medical supplies together. Any takers? 

Just because the boat will be boredef doesn't mean the searches will automatically find contraband items. Lots of hiding places. Maybe whom ever is footing the bill is willing to take the risks, especially if they aren't the ones on the boat. Likewise for smugglers getting paid to try and get stuff smuggled in. If they're paid to get the items and sneak it on a boat they may get paid beforehand, whether the boat is searched or not. If it's discovered there's always another boat. There's a lot of variables. 

Do you think it's being the realm of possibility that Israel is smuggling in weapons in order to discredit the aid flotilla? Maybe they're pulling a Tolkien gulf play. 

Paladin1 wrote:

NDPP wrote:

Goodness, another 'progressive' does his bit for Israel.

 

Suppose I could always hide weapons inside medical supplies destined for Gaza, that'll help.

It's not as simple as "if they use the word 'found weapons', that justifies everything".   And I don't particularly like Hamas, but Hamas wouldn't be a thing if the Israeli government hadn't A)spent years working for the pointless objective of discrediting the PLO; and B)Humiliated both the PLO and all other Palestinians who did all they could to cooperate with Israel and the "peace process" in the Nineties by continuing to build settlements and by having a security policy in which physical beatings were an officially encouraged tactic. 

It's not about Hamas or "terrorism".  It's about the fact that the people of Palestine have been persecuted for decades.  When you're persecuted, resistance is justified-and ANY of us would resist, in some way, if placed in that situation.  And if(as has been the case here) non-violent resistance, such as that Mubarak Awad was organizing in the Eighties, and which is still the approach used by the majority of rank-and-file Palestinian civilians and their international accomplices, was violently crushed by the authorities being resisted, it would be inevitable that any of us would at least strongly consider moving towards other means.

This situation was not invented by Hamas, or by the PLO.  It was invented by Israeli regime arrogance and intransigence.  And the racist citizenship law Netanyahu's government just pushed through the Knesset destroys any remaining non-reactionary case for taking the Israeli "side" against the Palestinians, as well as severing any remaining connection between the reason for Israel's existence and the past oppression experienced by the peoples in whose name Israel purports to exist.

It's now nothing more than just another 19th-century nationalist movement.  And as all other forms of nationalism have edged closer and closer to fascism and ethnic/religious supremacism, so has this one.

(on edit) also, you're assuming we should just take the word of the IDF that they "found weapons".

Weapons get smuggled to every conflict zone on the planet. Conflict zones created and encouraged by imperialist, neo-liberal backed forces filling the vacuum created by the ousting of colonials. In this particular instance we have an Isreali force, illegally (not just by international law, but mariner law as well), halting and boarding a ship (piracy) and abusing its passengers and crew and taking them from the boat (kidnapping) to be imprisoned, released and deported.

This is not ideology. This is fact. Israel continually violates international law without reprecussion from other signatories to that law. Like Canada, who played a key role in the creation of Israel. Paladin, if you're not interested in understanding or learning about these things (you can Google a list of erroneous articles but can't be bothered to look up Apartheid? What the fucking fuck?), you should look at contributing to a forum that better meets your particular celebration of ignorance and stupidity.

WWWTT wrote:

My apologies for getting sucked into the  tactic of using "weapons" to derail this thread.

This flotilla addresses an everyday problem the Palastinians face. We in Canada have never experienced their plight so it's very easy for trolls to manipulate the direction.

May I be bold enough to post a link to bring this thread back on track? 

-BEWARE- this is a graphic read! 

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-gazan-sur...

thanks but no thanks for the link.

if you think many FNs in Canada haven't experienced this you are way off base.

ffs even FN in the GVA haven't got potable water for well over a decade.

the further north you go the situation worsens.