New Focus: Attack On Freedom Flotilla Pits Israel Against World Community

Antara News, Fardah, Wednesday, June 2, 2010 13:46 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Battles between Israel and Palestine or other Arab countries are no longer something extraordinary but the current situation where Israel has to face activists from various countries and condemnation by many nations following its attack on a Gaza-bound humanitarian ship is really something.

An outraged world continues to condemn Israel`s deadly attack on a convoy of aid-carrying ships headed to Gaza that killed 19 people aboard the "MV Mavi Marmara" early Monday.

"But Israel has challenged almost the whole world by raiding ships carrying volunteers from 32 nations. This insolent, irresponsible, reckless and unfair attack by the Israeli government, which trampled on every humanitarian value must be punished by all means," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said responding to Israel`s attack on the Turkish-led humanitarian aid flotilla.

The Freedom Flotilla carried more than 10,000 tons of relief and developmental aid to Gaza, along with roughly 700 participants from more than 30 countries, among them volunteers from Indonesia, South Africa, Algeria, Turkey, Macedonia, Pakistan, Yemen, Kosovo, the UK and US and Kuwait - and an exiled former archbishop of Jerusalem who currently lives in the Vatican.

The cargo includes prefabricated homes and playgrounds, cement and other home-building supplies, medical devices and medications, textiles and food, in defiance of Israel`s siege on Gaza, which restricts the entry of all materials, including food and medicine.

The flotilla's supplies were gathered by a coalition of international civil society and human rights organizations for direct delivery to the people of Gaza by sea, using only international waters and waters immediately off of the Gaza coast.

In the face of mounting world criticism of Monday`s assault, Israeli officials said all 680 activists held would be released, Israeli media Haaretz reported.

"It was agreed that the detainees will be deported immediately," Nir Hefez, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said in a written statement to reporters.

According to data from Israel, the expelled activists, including those wounded and killed, came from the following countries : Australia (3); Azerbaijan (2); Italy (6); Indonesia (12); Ireland (9); Algeria (28); United States (11); Bulgaria (2); Bosnia (1); Bahrain (4); Belgium (5); Germany (11); South Africa (1); Holland (2); United Kingdom (31); Greece (38); Jordan (30); Kuwait (15); Lebanon (3); Mauritania (3); Malaysia (11); Egypt (3); Macedonia (3); Morocco (7); Norway (3); New Zealand (1); Syria (3); Serbia (1); Oman (1); Pakistan (3); Czech Republic (4); France (9); Kosovo (1); Canada (1); Sweden (11); Turkey (380); Yemen (4).

Condemning Israel for its attack, thousands of people took to the streets in several Indonesian cities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Similar protest rallies were reported to take have taken place in Turkey, Malaysia and Australia, which added its voice on Tuesday to the worldwide condemnation of the violence.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also deplored and condemned the Israeli attack and was determined to continue to urge the United Nations (UN) to take the strongest possible action against Israel.

President Yudhoyono at a press conference at his office here on Wednesday said Indonesia would also continue to garner international support to press Israel to halt the construction of new settlements and its military aggression of any kind that could hurt the prospects of peace in the Middle East.

"We will encourage other countries to press Israel to halt all of its military assaults and return to the negotiating table and grant independence to Palestine. That is the diplomacy which we will continue to pursue at international level," President Yudhoyono said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, "The Australian government condemns any use of violence under the sort of circumstances that we have seen."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech to legislators on Tuesday, said Israel should be "punished" for its "bloody massacre" on the flotilla, and warned that no one should test Turkey`s patience. He said the Israeli action was an attack "on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace".

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Israel and canceled three joint military exercises with Israel and sent three planes to Israel to bring back around 20 of its nationals wounded during the violence.

AFP reported that Norway on Monday summoned the Israeli ambassador in Oslo and condemned the raid as "unacceptable". "Everyone should follow the Norwegian position in stopping all arms trading with Israel," said Kristin Halvorsen, education minister and head of the Socialist Left party, according to the Dagbladet tabloid.

"It doesn`t have much of an effect if we do it alone, but the current situation is unbearable," she added.

UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco called on Israel to end its "unacceptable" blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Fernandez-Taranco, who was speaking on behalf of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, said Israel`s Monday attack on peace activists on a flotilla of ships off the coast of Gaza would not have happened without the blockade, DPA reported.

The UN official also called for a thorough investigation into the Israeli military assault on the ships. The UN Security Council started an emergency meeting on Monday after Turkey called for a meeting on the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla.

Joining the global condemnations, the Elders Group of past and present world leaders, including former South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on Monday condemned as "completely inexcusable" the deadly Israeli attack.

"The Elders have condemned the reported killing by Israeli forces of more than a dozen people who were attempting to deliver relief supplies to the Gaza Strip by sea," the 12-member group said in a statement issued in Johannesburg, where it met over the weekend, as reported by The Hindu daily.

The group, which was launched by Mandela on his birthday in 2007 to try to solve some of the world`s most intractable conflicts, called for a `full investigation` of the incident and urged the UN Security Council "to debate the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza Strip." "This tragic incident should draw the world`s attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza`s 1.5 million people, half of whom are children under the age of 18," the group said.

Norway's first female Prime Minister Gro Brundtland; former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former Irish president and ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson; Mozambican social activist Graca Machel; Indian women`s rights activist Ela Bhatt; and Algerian veteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi are the other members.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement late Monday "China is appalled and condemns the Israeli navy`s attack on the Turkish fleet shipping humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.".

Cynthia McKinney Mourns, a former US Congresswoman and a member of the Green Party, said in her statement: "I am outraged at Israel`s latest criminal act. I mourn with my fellow Free Gaza travelers, the lives that have been lost by Israel`s needless, senseless act against unarmed humanitarian activists. But I`m even more outraged that once again, Israel`s actions have been aided and abetted by a US political class that has become corrupted beyond belief due to its reliance on Zionist campaign finance and penetration by Zionist zealots for whom no US weapons system is too much for the Israeli war machine, and the silence of the world`s onlookers whose hearts have grown cold with indifference."

Irish Congress President Jack O`Connor and General Secretary David Begg have jointly condemned the Israeli assault on the Gaza aid convoy. They said the Israeli attack was a callous attack on innocent civilians which showed an utter disregard for all precepts of international law and human rights.

Germany, generally reluctant to criticize Israel because of the Holocaust, voiced horror at what Palestinian leaders dubbed a massacre, The Guardian newspaper reported.

"The German government is shocked by the events in international waters off Gaza," said a German government spokesman, adding that Israeli actions should observe the fundamental principle of proportionality. "A first glance suggests this basic principle was not adhered to."

Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign and security policy chief, said: "I have spoken to Israel`s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman to express our deepest concern about the tragedy that has happened. I said there should be an immediate inquiry by Israel into the circumstances." Her demand for an Israeli inquiry was echoed by European governments.

Dr Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of Indonesia`s Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) presidium said the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza was a universal humanitarian mission because the naval march`s participants came from all over the world.

"The issue has managed to unite various groups, institutions, communities, religions and others," he said.

The Palestinian issue is seen not as a certain religion or movement issue, but as a bigger and even the biggest issue at present, namely oppression and crimes against humanity that must be stopped, Murad said.

The flotilla was seeking to break Israel's crippling blockade of Gaza and deliver basic necessaries to the impoverished Palestinians in the coastal enclave.

Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists were on the boats. They included an Italian cardinal, several Orthodox Jews, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and an elderly Holocaust survivor. Also among them were Ann wright, a retired United States Army colonel, and a former US diplomat who resigned in 2003 to protest then President George Bush's war on Iraq.

Ann Wright said in a statement the Israeli blockade of Gaza which was supported by the US and Egypt banned the entry of all goods, except only 44 items, into the territory. "Who can survive in such conditions?" she said.