A Gaza-bound ship carrying aid to the strip was attacked and captured by the Israeli Navy today, and the 21 activists on the boat are being held as captives by the Israeli government at an undisclosed location. According to the ground that sponsored the voyage, the Israeli government has also confiscated the medicine and other humanitarian goods that were on board.
Among those captured by the Israelis was former US Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, who was also on board a ship which tried to reach Gaza in December before nearly being sunk by the Israeli Navy. That ship managed to flee to Lebanon, however.
McKinney’s current status is unclear, however. While previous military reports insist all those aboard were taken captive, Israel’s consulate in Atlanta claims the whole thing was a McKinney plot to “get in the papers” and that she is not among the detainees.
The Israeli navy defended the move, saying the ship posed a security risk. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the government was planning to eventually free the captives, adding “nobody wants to keep them here.”
The ship had struggled to leave the island nation of Cyprus last week, with Cypriot authorities reportedly blocking the voyage under pressure from the Israeli government. The Cypriot ambassador has informed Israel that they only allowed the boat to sail under assurances that it was going to head to Egypt. The ship was flying a Greek flag, and the Greek government has reportedly demanded that the passengers be released.
wonder where those EU officials are now , who were asking for the release of Iranians from Iranian authorities….HECK! ! this is a state-sponsored kidnapping !!
I've had it with these filthy Israeli terrorists!
Naturally, Israelis think we need to protected as lovers of the Devil for some sort of Loving intentions of Peace. Sorry, Israel and Netanyahu, we are well aware of many BAD intentioned people in the middle east, pro-Semite or Anti-semite. Let these good intentions be respected.
Pirates on the high seas! Attacking unarmed aid ships. As a person who subscribes to stopwar and tries to rise above prejudice and not blame ordinary people for the actions of their government, I find myself totally ashamed at my own escalatory reaction to this level of semitic barbarism. My thought was … actions like this committed by muderous lowlifes really justified Hitler!
Holocaust? Get over it! Or at least stop hiding behind that obscene tradgedy and glorifying it whilst giving no noticable credence to ours, or for example the Soviet loss of over 20m peeps in the same war. But thats the Israelis for you, they always want to make a profit even out of megadeath.
I think I now dislike natzis less than semites. (01/06/10 – the newspapers say 19 killed).
I believe these representatives of Satan have 200 nuclear weapons that are somehow not subject to international inspection – but the current media and politically inspired anti-muslim propaganda is more concerned about Iran?!!!