The Israeli navy seized an international pro-Palestinian activist ship in the Mediterranean sea on Saturday to prevent it breaching its blockade of the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said. She said no one was hurt when marines boarded the SV Estelle, a three-mast schooner, and that it was rerouted to Israel’s southern port of Ashdod…
Free Gaza Movement co-founder Greta Berlin, who has come under fire for tweeting that Zionists created and ran the Nazi concentration camps, had book talks canceled by at least two California venues. Book Passage canceled Berlin’s talk scheduled for Sunday at its flagship location in Corte Madera. UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies had canceled…
Israel asked the United Nations to stop a Swedish-owned ship carrying human rights activists from attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, called the ship Estelle a “provocation” that “raises tensions and could easily spark a serious escalation of the conflict.” “I want to stress that…
A Swedish ship carrying human rights activists has left from Italy to attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. The Estelle, carrying 17 activists from countries including Canada, Norway, Sweden, Israel and the United States, left from the port at Naples, Italy on Saturday. The vessel, which measures 173 feet long, reportedly is carrying…
Relatives of nine Turkish citizens killed in a raid by Israeli commandos on an activist ship attempting to break the naval blockade of Gaza have filed a lawsuit against Israel, according to Turkish media. The lawsuit was filed Oct. 5 in a Turkish court by more than 30 relatives of Turkish citizens killed in the…
Chrisopher Hitchens, in a July 4 piece on Slate linked to on Tuesday by J.J. Goldberg, almost got it almost right. “It seems safe and fair to say that the flotilla and its leadership work in reasonably close harmony with Hamas, which constitutes the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he wrote. It’s unclear if…
Never thought I would say this, but Benjamin Netanyahu just saved me from banging my head against the wall in desperate frustration. This morning brought news that Israel’s Government Press Office had warned media outlets that any foreign correspondent found aboard the flotilla about to set sail for Gaza would be “denied entry into the…
Must reading on Barak’s resignation from Labor: Haaretz military correspondent Amir Oren writes today about the very complicated relationship between Barak’s defection, the retirement of Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and his replacement by Yoav Galant, and the Turkish flotilla. Barak defected to save his own skin, of course. Avi Braverman and Buzhi Herzog were…
