Tuesday - December 30, 2008

Israeli Navy rams Gaza-bound aid boat, forcing it to dock in Lebanon. ( They shouldda sunk it! )

UPDATE: Lunatic ex-Congressman Cynthia Mckinney was on board the ship at the time of the incident!

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht in the Lebanese seaport of Tyre, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.

“Our mission was a peaceful mission,” McKinney told CNN. The recent Green Party candidate for U.S. president and frequent center of controversy is the most prominent political figure to join the relief voyages sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said Tuesday that U.S. diplomats had issued no protests to Israeli authorities. “When you enter a zone of conflict, then you have to realize that it’s very, very dangerous,” the spokesman told reporters.

In a news release Tuesday afternoon, one of the 16-member mission, Caoimhe Butterfly offered a conflicting version. The Israeli gunboats “gave us no warning” and “rammed us three times,” she said.

The jerks should consider themselves lucky they weren’t fired on.  I’m much disappointed that the Israelis didn’t blow the bastards out of the water.

On the tired side, it’s late so pulling the plug on my puter till the morning.

Cheers All.

By Michael Theodoulou
Last updated at 6:26 PM on 30th December 2008

The British skipper of a boat carrying medical supplies and peace activists to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade told today how his vessel was rammed by an Israeli gunboat.

Denis Healey spoke of ‘panic stations’ on the Gibraltar-flagged Dignity after the pre-dawn collision in international waters.

Two Israeli gunboats had been shadowing the 20-meter motor yacht for half-an-hour, ‘shining powerful search-lights at us, blinding us,’ Healey said.

Then, without provocation or any warning we were rammed. It was a blow to the front port side. It wiped out the wheel house and took away some of the upper deck.’

Healey, a 53-year-old Cyprus-based marine engineer from Portsmouth, said the Israeli Navy had made no radio contact before the collision nor fired any warning shots.

‘They told us to turn back to Cyprus. They claimed we were involved in terrorist activity,’ he said.

He managed to guide the limping Dignity into the Lebanese port Tyre.

‘Initially, we took in quite a bit of water but managed to stem the flow once we got the pumps working.’

There were no casualties among the 15 passengers and crew, among them four Britons, including Dr David Halpin, an orthopaedic surgeon who had volunteered his help to Gazan hospitals and clinics.

Israeli officials portrayed the collision as an accident and insisted the patrol boats had radioed the Dignity to turn back before the collision occurred.

They accused the international activists on the boat of ‘being intent on creating a media incident’.

Karl Penhaul, a Briton correspondent for CNN on the Dignity, said suggestions it was a mere collision ‘doesn’t square with what we saw here at sea’.

The US-based Free Gaza Movement, which operates the Dignity, said it was intercepted 90 miles from Gaza in international waters and accused Israel of an act of ‘piracy’.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said that ‘the UK is internationally responsible’ for the Dignity because it is registered in Gibraltar.

He said: ‘We advised all British nationals on the boat to Gaza that it would be reckless and dangerous at this time. At the same time, we told the Israeli government that we take the safety of our nationals seriously and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.’

PEACE ACTIVISTS

Posted by peiper     on 12/30/2008 at 02:07 PM   
Filed Under: • International • Israel • Paleswine • Stoopid-People •  
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