Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

John Kerry Compares Gaza Flotilla and Boston Marathon Bombing Victims

Israeli lawmakers are condemning U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s comparison of the Boston Marathon bombing victims to the 2010 deaths of Turkish citizens aboard the Mavi Marmara ship.

Lawmakers from political parties on the right and left slammed Kerry’s remarks of Sunday. However, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond.

“It is never helpful when a moral equivalency is made confusing terrorists with their victims,” Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon of Netanyahu’s Likud party said of Kerry’s statement, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Mavi Marmara in May 2010 attempted to evade a maritime blockade of Gaza. Nine Turks were killed in the ensuing violence when Israeli naval commandos boarded the ship.

Kerry spoke to reporters following meetings in Istanbul.

Asked about the recent thawing of relations between Israel and Turkey, Kerry said of the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010, “I know it’s an emotional issue with some people. I particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident, we understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them. And nobody – I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country. We’re very sensitive to that.”

Turkey and Israel agreed to normalize ties after Netanyahu, prodded by President Obama, apologized last month for the raid and agreed to compensate the families of the nine Turks.

In the wake of the incident, Turkey withdrew its high-level diplomats from Israel and froze deals with Israel’s military.

Lawmakers from political parties on the right and left slammed Kerry’s remarks of Sunday. However, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond.

“It is never helpful when a moral equivalency is made confusing terrorists with their victims,” Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon of Netanyahu’s Likud party said of Kerry’s statement, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Mavi Marmara in May 2010 attempted to evade a maritime blockade of Gaza. Nine Turks were killed in the ensuing violence when Israeli naval commandos boarded the ship.

Kerry spoke to reporters following meetings in Istanbul.

Asked about the recent thawing of relations between Israel and Turkey, Kerry said of the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010, “I know it’s an emotional issue with some people. I particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident, we understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them. And nobody – I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country. We’re very sensitive to that.”

Turkey and Israel agreed to normalize ties after Netanyahu, prodded by President Obama, apologized last month for the raid and agreed to compensate the families of the nine Turks.

In the wake of the incident, Turkey withdrew its high-level diplomats from Israel and froze deals with Israel’s military.

Lawmakers from political parties on the right and left slammed Kerry’s remarks of Sunday. However, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not respond.

“It is never helpful when a moral equivalency is made confusing terrorists with their victims,” Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon of Netanyahu’s Likud party said of Kerry’s statement, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The Mavi Marmara in May 2010 attempted to evade a maritime blockade of Gaza. Nine Turks were killed in the ensuing violence when Israeli naval commandos boarded the ship.

Kerry spoke to reporters following meetings in Istanbul.

Asked about the recent thawing of relations between Israel and Turkey, Kerry said of the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010, “I know it’s an emotional issue with some people. I particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident, we understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them. And nobody – I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country. We’re very sensitive to that.”

Turkey and Israel agreed to normalize ties after Netanyahu, prodded by President Obama, apologized last month for the raid and agreed to compensate the families of the nine Turks.

In the wake of the incident, Turkey withdrew its high-level diplomats from Israel and froze deals with Israel’s military.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.