No Authority Over Me

[eumelia]

I haven't updated, as I should have, regarding the flotilla ships and the fact that we have gone utterly bonkers, not that that's News.

But I'm exhausted. In about an hour I'm heading out to a demo, calling for the government to stop sinking us deeper and deeper into a position in which we will have no way out. Not that Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman give a flying fuck about any demonstration calling for them to act like decent human beings.

That's fantasy land.

I'm exhausted because I've spent the past week trying to explain the basic tenant of self-defence. How things get out of hand. How we are being fed lies - if the flotilla was said to be filled with terrorists and ammunition for the terrorists, why were the Commando's dropped onto the boat armed with paint guns. And if they had nothing but pain guns, how is it that nine people were killed with live ammo.

Their names and faces, may they rest in peace.

There are eye witness accounts that say that during the chaos, after helicopters flew over head and shots were fired before the soldiers even landed on board the Mavi Marmara, that wounded soldiers were being guarded by some of the activists on board and taken below deck and treated by the doctors on board the ship.

I have to say that I'm really sickened by the way the Israeli media machine and general public just lap up, no questions asked, everything that comes out of the IDF spokesman's office.

Like this video, from the IDF spokesman office, which recorded and uploaded the Israeli Navy's call to the Mavi Marmara:

If you go to time - 00:38, you will hear the following:

The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the gaza strip and invites you to enter the Ashdod port. delivery of the supplies, in accordance with the authorities regulation, will be through the formal land crossings

The emphasised (by me) part is crucial, as it exposes the lie of that entire utterance.

"In accordance to the authorities regulation", that the only supplies that can be shipped into Gaza are the ones decided by Israel, meaning that everything on board that flotilla was banned - I've heard reports from the other day and yesterday that Hamas was rejecting the supplies brought into Israel via the flotilla, I don't know what that means, but that in no way absolves Israel's lie regarding the fact that they were planning on passing the supplies.

They never intended to, because in included the following "banned" material:
Sesame
Books
Chocolate
Clothes
Pomegranates
Preserved meat
Semolina
Butter
Kiwi
Cherries
Green Almonds
Shoes
Mattresses
Wheel Chairs
...Among other things. These are banned for "Security Reasons".
My peachy white ass.

The reason for this arbitrary list is pure interest and not security, "as such":

“If you go back two years, you see that it was utter foolishness,” says a senior officer who was serving in [Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the [Occupied] Territories] when the blockade was imposed. “There was a vague, unclear policy, influenced by the interests of certain groups, by this or that lobby, without any policy that derived from the needs of the population. For example, the fruit growers have a powerful lobby, and this lobby saw to it that on certain days, from 20-25 trucks full of fruit were brought into Gaza. It’s not that it arrived there and was thrown out, but if you were to ask a Gazan who lives there, it’s not exactly what he needs. What happened was that the Israeli interest took precedence over the needs of the populace.”

Don't tell me the siege is done in order to save Gilad Shalit or to stop the rockets from falling on Sderot. The Israeli Air Force flies over head and drops bombs all the time. In the went bank non-violent demonstrations against the Occupation turn violent because Soldiers fire tear gas grenade launches straight into the crowds and rubber bullets are actual bullets wrapped in rubber. All those "non-lethal" weapons have killed.

Meanwhile in Israel proper, various Members of Knesset physically accosted and assaulted Israeli-Palestinian Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi who was aboard one of the ships of the flotilla and called her traitor.
There has been talk of stripping her of her citizenship.

What happened aboard the Mavi Marmara was another example of the violence and disregard for human life that the IDF has shown time and time again.

The focus of the media on the activists violence in self-defence is completely disproportional to the violence committed by the soldiers, by orders of their superior officers, of the ministry of love defence and of the Prime Minister's office.
I could go on.

This was not about defending Israel. This was not about Gilad Shalit.

While everyone is talking about Israel's image, I'm far more concerned about its character and my own.

But Israel just wants to save its face, never mind that it's showing its ass.

Comments

[silveradept]

I wonder if anyone has noticed the possible comparisons of this to things like the Kentucky State shootings and the beatings applied to black people in the 1950s United States, or however many other disproportionate responses to peaceful protests of unlawful actions have happened throughout recent history.

[ironed_orchid]

Oxfam issued a media release on Wednesday, discussing the ammount of aid that Israel allows into Gaza.