World Palestine Newswire Archive

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org for Tuesday, June 2nd, 2010

`The European Campaign`: Funds are secured for the first three ships of the fleet of `Freedom 2` ... The "European Campaign to End Siege on Gaza", announced that it already obtain the funding of the first three ships of the new fleet which will go to the Gaza Strip, which will be named "fleet of Freedom 2", related to the name of the First Fleet, who was exposed to piracy and a bloody massacre by Israel against the peace activists on board.

Support the decommissioners!

www.smashedo.org.uk

General enquiries: 07538093930  smashedo@riseup.net
Press: 07526557436  smashedopress@riseup.net

Meet outside Nottingham Council House, Market Square at 5:00PM on Friday 4th of June 2010. Bring banners, lots of noise, friends and family.

including brian haw, barbara tucker, rebecca hall and the democracy village people.

court documents attached

Today the peace campaign initiated in June 2001 by Brian Haw reaches nine years. Here is a selction of photos through the years of the campaign.

The Islamophobic football hooligans of the English Defence League [EDL] are holding a rally tomorrow Wednesday 2nd June from 7pm with Zionists outside the Israel Embassy to defend Zionism and Israel. They have held protests with Zionist SIOE before. There have been International protests against Israel this weekend following the massacre of aid workers in International waters by the Israel Navy.

pics from the glasgow protest, george square, against the flotilla massacre.

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, June 1, 2010.

After the failure of the US/UK states to allow one single sanction against Israel, following the attack on the Flotilla boat yesterday, news is breaking that another two boats are already en route to Gaza.

The MV Rachel Corrie, which was held up in Malta due to technical problems is currently sailing towards Gaza with a crew of Irish and Malaysian activists in a bid to deliver its cargo of aid supplies to the besieged people of Gaza. It is expected to reach Gazan teritorial waters tomorrow, according to a spokeswoman for the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said, quoted in the Irish times. However, Greta Berlin, a spokesperson for the Free Gaza Movement said that the boat may not arrive until next week.

A demonstration was held in Edinburgh against the Israeli attack on the flotilla to Gaza. 20 photos are included.

Over 800 people gathered outside the BBC in Manchester in what was an angry and determined protest. Everyone gathered was outraged by the massacre committed by the Israeli military against aid workers bound for Gaza aboard a humanitarian flotilla organised by activists, MEP’s, trade unionists and journalists from across the world.

Customs officials deny Israeli claims weapons were onboard ......... The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid including food supply, cement, building materials and toys for children. Turkish officials have denied claims leveled by Israeli authorities that weapons were onboard one of the six aid ships attacked by Israel on Monday. ... Officials from the Customs Undersecretariat said every passenger was searched before getting on the ship with the help of X-ray machines and metal detectors. Senior officials from the undersecretariat said Israel's allegations were tantamount to “complete nonsense.”

What really happened? Well, the Israeli story, at face value, is difficult to take seriously. The activists on board the Flotilla were not peace activists, they are "terrorists" and "terrorist sympathisers" who supposedly in PM Netanyahu's words "mobbed, beat, stabbed and maybe even shot at" Israeli soldiers who were, of course, just popping in for a nice cup of tea... or bowl of homous... or whatever.

A flotilla carrying aid and international activists to Gaza was attacked in international waters on Monday and up to twenty people were killed. The ship was intercepted illegally and taken to Ashdod where its crew are being detained. Another ship, the Rachel Corrie, is still en route towards Gaza

21 year old American activist loses eye after being shot in face with tear gas canister

It should be understood that the raid on the Flotilla also coincided with NATO-Israel war games directed against Iran. According to the Sunday Times "three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline."

While these naval deployments were underway in the Persian Gulf, Israel was also involved in war games in the Mediterraean. The war game codenamed "MINOAS 2010" was carried out at a Greek air base in Souda Bay, on the island of Crete.

Also, in the wake of the decision directed against Israel's nuclear weapons under the auspices of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the White House reaffirmed not only its support to Israel, but also to Israel's nuclear weapons capabilities. The statement issued one day before the raid on the flotilla points to US support of "Israel's strategic and deterrence capabilities, which also include the launching of a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Iran.

Of course, there is hardly anything new here – Israeli forces using disproportionate violence, killing civilians with impunity. But on this occasion, the murderous incident is not in some poor ghetto in the Gaza Strip hidden from the full view of the world. Up to now, Israeli disinformation could afford just enough wriggle room to sow doubts over such events. The cynical phrases of “terror suspects” and “self defence” parroted by the western mainstream media served to give the Israeli government and its backers in Washington a degree of political cover for otherwise heinous conduct.

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the international Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, May 31, 2010.

Angered by Israel’s murder of unarmed civilians on board the Gaza flotilla carrying humanitarian aid, concerned residents and students from across Nottingham held a protest in the Market Square today.