Following the YouTube video’s release, U.S. blogger Max Blumenthal found that the recording, which was distributed by Israeli government employee Neil Lazarus on his Facebook page, was a hoax, and that the man who appears in it was actually an Israeli entrepreneur and public relations expert named Omer Gershon.
10:57pm ET, Gaza 5:57am: One Israeli warship coming to us very fast! We are in international waters, therefore they have no right to attack us. We are still sailing ahead.
10:59pm ET, Gaza 5:59am: They are opening fire across our ship! We are still sailing ahead.
In a move akin to the four-year-long economic blockade against the occupied Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers have closed the six entrances to the village of 17,000 inhabitants and have imposed a widespread prohibition policy against all major imports and exports from the village -- including gasoline, produce, raw industrial materials and basic supplies. Ambulances have also been prevented from entering or exiting the village.
Is Israel preparing to seize the Philadelphi corridor?
Short, sweet and to the point.
The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos. [...]
Although the report's revelations and conclusions about the killing of Dogan and the five other victims were widely reported in the Turkish media last week, not a single story on the report has appeared in US news media.
The world is full of illusions that are used by the rich and powerful to manipulate and control the people. The greatest illusion, and the one with the most devastating consequences, is that the American people and the Israeli, and the British, and numerous others, vote in their governments and hold them to account. Those who really control the governments are those powerful few who control the banking systems, the major multi-national corporations and, of course, the mass media. If you look beyond the faces of the presidents, prime ministers and politicians you will see that these governments' policies remain virtually the same, no matter who is 'leading' these countries. These 'leaders' do not answer to the people they have pledged to serve; they answer to those who remain behind the scenes.
Human rights activists reach Hamas-ruled strip by sea, despite Israeli blockade.
Two vessels carrying 46 international human rights activists have reached the Gaza Strip, despite Israel's strict 14-month siege of the Palestinian territory.
The end of the mission to symbolically break the siege came after Israel backed down from an earlier warning to the 'Free Gaza' protest group not to breach the blockade.
Al Jazeera's Ashraf Amritti in Gaza said: "The arrival of these two boats is a very symbolic gesture for the Palestinian cause, to end the siege, end the occupation.In fact, those phrases are written across the peace boats which carry flags from more than 70 nationalities."
Israel has 'natural right' to inspect ships heading to Gaza, army chief says, stresses Strip must not turn into Iranian port; addressing lethal raid on Turkish ship, Ashkenazi says: I salute fighters, they operated exceptionally well.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement yesterday that promised to "liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza." The announcement from Israel's security cabinet came after widespread international pressure on Israel following a deadly Israeli naval raid on a humanitarian flotilla trying to break the three-year old blockade of Gaza.
GAZA -- Dozens of Palestinians demonstrated on Sunday in front of the closed Karni commercial crossing on the border between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel, calling for Israel to completely lift the blockade and reopen all crossings.
Despite Israel’s Thursday decision to “ease restrictions on Gaza”, the Israeli Authorities closed all trade crossings leading to the coastal region. The closure, unless extended, will last until Sunday.
Interview with Ken O'Keefe, the former US Marine who was aboard the Mavi Marmara that was murderously attacked by Israel on Memorial Day.
Smuggled raw footage of the Israeli commandos' assault on Gaza Freedom Flotilla, taken by an eyewitness, has been published online. Activist Iara Lee has kept the recordings despite the Israeli government's efforts to confiscate all footage of the attack.
RAMALLAH - Under intense international pressure, Israel declared last week it would ease its crippling blockade on Gaza by permitting an additional but limited number of daily items, including food, into the coastal enclave.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has described Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and called on the Israeli government to lift it.
The visit by Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, to Gaza is the first serious attempt by an Arab official to break the Israeli-imposed siege on the tiny Strip.
It took a war, the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, and nine Turks, killed during a lethal Israeli interception of an aid flotilla, for Arab states to finally move against the blockade.
It was the United Nations that asked for the Gaza Flotilla to happen!
On the night of Sunday, May 30, showing a terrifying disregard for human life, Israeli naval forces surrounded and boarded ships sailing to bring humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. On the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara, Israeli commandos opened fire on civilian passengers, killing at least 9 passengers and wounding dozens more. Others are still missing.
Palestinian-American human rights activist, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and currently chair of the Free Gaza Movement, Huwaida Arraf was on board Challenger 1, one of the six siege-breaking ships ferrying desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza when the flotilla was murderously attacked in international waters by Israeli commandos on 31st May 2010 - nine other human rights activists aboard the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara were murdered in cold blood.
I have for many years understood that we, people of conscience, are the true holders of power in this world. Frustratingly however we have largely relinquished that power and failed to reach our full potential. Our potential to create a better world, a just world. Nonetheless I have conspired with others of like mind to reveal and exercise our true power. In 2002 I initiated the TJP Human Shield Action to Iraq because I knew that the invasion of Iraq had been planned well in advance, that it was part of a ‘Global Spectrum Dominance’ agenda as laid out by the Project For A New American Century.
The last member of the international aid convoy, the Rachel Corrie MV, has not made it to its Gaza destination at the scheduled time mid-morning Saturday, according to local media reports.
German Jewish group prepares flotilla to protest Israel's blockade on Gaza. 'Activists frightened, but not by Hamas,' member of organization says.
Free Gaza Movement - June 6th 2010 - The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has just recieved word that the five Irish prisoners from the MV Rachel Corrie, which was hijacked yesterday by Israeli forces, are due to arrive in Dublin airport at 11.20am tomorrow morning. There will be a welcoming committee to meet them and press conference to follow at 3pm in The Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dulin 2. Included among the five returning are Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ireland and Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General, Ireland.
Activist Idris Simsek, who was on board one of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla during the Israeli attack, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea.
Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal.
Autopsy results on the nine Turkish activists killed in Monday's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship showed they had been shot a total of 30 times, many at close range, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
Week-long ban is initiated by Swedish Port Workers Union, who says act is reaction to the 'unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy.'
Israeli troops have taken control of an aid ship trying to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military says soldiers boarded the Irish-owned vessel from the sea and did not meet any resistance.