Turkish government releases identities of IDF soldiers who attacked the Mavi Marmara


 

After an extensive investigation the Turkish government has released the names of the IDF soldiers who participated in the attack on the Mavi Marmara. This news broke today in Sabah, a Turkish newspaper.

The search for the identities of IDF soldiers who participated in the deadly Flotilla raid began after Turkish intelligence demanded the information from Israel who refused to release the information. The Turkish government has requested an apology from Israel as well as compensation for victims of the attack and lifting the blockade on Gaza to abort this investigation. After Israel refused the Turkish government warned they would pursue criminal charges against individuals who participated in the attack. The prosecutor conducting the investigation on the Mavi Marmara raid is Mehmet Akif Ekinci of Turkey's Ministry of Justice.

The Turkish Intelligence Service as well as other agencies have conducted the identification and image hunt by meticulously combing thru all video and photographic evidence available thru worldwide media including leads thru thousands of facebook and twitter accounts. Members of the crew as well as passengers on the Mavi Marmara also participated in the investigation. Turkish experts in Hebrew were vital in following leads thru Israeli social media sites.

 IDF soldiers who have been identified thus far are:

Agai Yehezkel, Aharon Haliwa, Alex Shakliar, Amir Ulo, Amir Abste, Amir Shimon Ashel, Anna Strelski, Anton Siomin, Aram Zehavi, Ariel Brickman, Ariel Karo, Ariel Rifkin, Ariel Yochanan, Arnon Avital, Assaf Bryt, Avi Balut, Avi Bnayahu, Avi Mizrakhi, Avi Peled, Aviad Perri, Aviel Siman, Avihay Wizman, Avihu Ben Zahar, Avishay Levi, Avishay Shasha, Aviv Edri, Aviv Kochavi, Aviv Mendelowitz, Baruch (Barry) Berlinsky, Basam Alian, Ben-Zion (Benzi) Gruver, Bnaya Sarel, Boaz Dabush, Boaz Rubin, Boris Schuster, Dado Bar- Kalifa, Dan Dolberg, Dan Harel, Daniel Kotler, David Shapira, David Slovozkoi, David Zini, Eden Atias, Eden Atias, Efraim Aviad Tehila, Efraim Avni, Eitan Ben-Gad, Elad Chachkis, Elad Itzik, Elad Shoshan, Elad Yakobson, Eli Fadida, Eli Yafe, Eliezer Shkedi, Elik Sror, Eran Karisi, Erez Sa'adon, Eyal Eizenberg, Eyal Handelman, Eyal Zukowsky, Gil Shen, Gur Rozenblat, Gur Schreibmann, Guy Givoni, Guy Hazut, Haggai Amar, Hanan Schwart, Harel Naaman, Hila Yafe, Ido Nechushtan, Ilan Malka, Itay Virob, Liran Nachman, Michelle Ben-Baruch, Miki Ohayon, Moshe Tamir, Nadav Musa, Nathan Be'eri, Nezah Rubin, Nimrod Schefer, Nir Ben-David, Nir Dupet, Nir Ohayon, Niv Samban, Noam Keshwisky, Ofek Gal, Ofer Lahad, Ofer Levi, Ofer Winter, Ofer Zafrir, Ofir Edri, Ohad Girhish, Ohad Najme, Omer Dori, Omri Dover, Or Nelkenbaum, Oren Bersano, Oren Cohen, Oren Kupitz, Oren Zini, Pinkhas Buchris, Raz Sarig, Ron Asherov, Ron Levinger, Ron Shirto, Ronen Dan, Ronen Dogmi, Roi Elkabetz, Roi Oppenheimer, Roi Weinberger, Sahar Abargel, Shai Belaich, Shaked Galin, Sharon Itach, Shaul Badusa, Shay Unger, Shimon Siso, Shiran Mussa, Shlomit Tako, Tal Alkobi, Tal Bendel, Tal Kommemi, Tal Ruso, Tamir Oren, Tamir Yadai, Tom Cohen, Tomer Meltzmann, Geva Rapp, Tslil Birbir, Udi Sagie, Uri Ron, Yair Keinan, Yair Palay, Ya'akov(Yaki) Dolf, Yaniv Zolicha, Yaron,Finkelman, Yaron Simsulo, Yehosua (Shuki) Ribak, Yehu Ofer, Yehuda Fuchs, Yehuda Hacohen, Yigal Slovik, Yigal Sudri, Yizhar Yona, Yoav Galant, Yoav Gertner, Yoav Mordechai, Yochai Siemann, Yochanan Locker, Yom-Tov Samia, Yonathan Barenski, Yonathan Felman, Yoni Weitzner, Yossi Abuzaglo, Yossi Bahar, Yossi Beidaz, Yotam Dadon, Yishai Ankri, Yishai Green, Yuval Halamish, Zion Bramli, Zion Shankour, Ziv Danieli, Ziv Trabelsi, Zuf Salomon, Zvi Fogel, Zvi Yehuda Kelner.

There remain IDF soldiers who have yet to be identified by name although their images are familiar to investigators.

About Annie Robbins

Annie Robbins is Writer at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 243 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. seafoid says:

    Wow.

    The other thing is all those made up Zionist names
    Oren Kupitz. Peanut Slashhook Yishai Ankri Chestnut Rainbow

  2. eee says:

    This is going to be fun. We are going to raise millions to support the defense fund of these soldiers and show what a farce the Turkish justice system is. The Turks are going to get so much bad press and Erdogan will look like an idiot.

  3. Kathleen says:

    Pictures and names…now that is getting specific. Hope folks stay peaceful. Demand that they go on trial at ICC.

    Erdogan was spot on during his interview with Fareed Zakaria yesterday
    link to youtube.com

    • hophmi says:

      Great. We’ll publish the names of all Turkish officials who allowed violent IHH activists to board the boat and attempt to run a legal international blockade, starting with Erdogan.

      Not one of these soldiers will ever be prosecuted, and if so much as one hair on the head of one of these soldiers is touched by any Turkish official, it will be an act of war.

      • annie says:

        the flotilla attack was an act of war.

        • DBG says:

          according to Erdogan maybe. If it was really an ‘act of war’ Annie, NATO would have condemned it.

        • eee says:

          A UN report says it was a legal act. Keep howling at the moon.

        • annie says:

          The legal flaws of the Palmer Commission flotilla report

          Overall, however, the report of the Palmer Commission is severely flawed from an international law perspective. The most significant finding of the report is its most dangerous and legally dubious: the conclusion that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, in effect since mid-2007, was somehow, despite being severely harmful to the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza, a legitimate act of self-defense. The report gives considerable attention to the illegal rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants mainly associated with Hamas, and notes, appropriately, that “stopping these violent acts was a necessary step for Israel to take in order to protect its people.” But while that justifies protective action, it does not make the case for a valid claim of self-defense under international law.

          The report ignores altogether the crucial fact that a unilateral ceasefire had been observed by Hamas ever since the end of the Gaza War in early 2009. An earlier joint Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire had been declared in July 2008, and had led to a virtual halt in rocket attacks until it was broken by Israel in November of that year, in a lethal assault on Gaza that led to a crumbling of the ceasefire and thereafter to Israel’s Operation Cast Lead on December 27, 2008. The Palmer report cannot be legally persuasive on the central issue of self-defense without addressing the relevance of these ceasefires that gave Israel a viable security alternative to blockade and force. The fact that the word “ceasefire” does not even appear in the 105-page document underscores why this report is so unconvincing except to Israel’s partisans.

          Allowing a naval blockade – which the Palmer Commission acknowledges to be an act of war – to be imposed by Israel against the helpless civilian population of Gaza and then accepted as ‘legal’ by the UN, it is a sad day for both the global rule of law and the well-being of some of the most vulnerable and abused people on the planet.

        • James says:

          eee – relying on the un now are we? lol……………

          There were surprised reactions to the appointment of Mr Uribe who is accused of responsibility for widespread human rights violations during his period of office as President of Columbia. More relevant here are his associations with Israel. During his term of office Israel was Columbia’s top weapons supplier, [2] while the American Jewish Committee gave him its ‘Light Unto The Nations’ award in 2007. [3] This apparent conflict of interest is not addressed in the UN Panel’s report.

          uribe was a paid stooge for the bush war machine, when he wasn’t being a paid stooge for israel…

        • hophmi says:

          “the legal flaws of the Palmer Commission flotilla report”

          We know Annie. The UN is only relevant when it says things you agree with. Otherwise (see the Palmer Report and the report accusing Hezbollah), you complain.

        • eee says:

          So an opinion on mondoweiss is going to trump a UN report? Keep howling at the moon.

        • annie says:

          if the opinion is written by

          Richard Falk is a professor of international law and serves as the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.

          vs a known columbian torturer why yes, it would.

        • Kathleen says:

          bingo…but for Hophmi etc rules, laws that apply to others just flat out do not apply to Israel.

        • James says:

          hophmi quote “The UN is only relevant when it says things you agree with.”

          gee, where have i seen that before? lol..

        • Doctor Pi says:

          eee,
          the Palmer Commission report is a joke and is not even an official report since both the Israeli and Turkish representatives have rejected it. There have been other views on the Gaza blockade (the entire shebang not just the naval one). The only people howling at the moon are you and your fellow apologists.

        • Chaos4700 says:

          It’s stunning how eee and the others will keep trumpeting a report HIS GOVERNMENT rejected. This is kind of like how Israel accepted the UN partition plan after it declared unilateral independence, ethnically cleansed most of its Arab population and seized land well in excess of the partition borders.

          Who does he really think buys this crap?

        • Charon says:

          eee, you Zionists think that when the UN and international law is in favor of Israel, it is relevent. When not in favor of Israel, you say it is irrelevent

          There are no double standards. It was quite bold for Bibi to bring up Gilad Shalit and say it was a violation of international law. Israel, who violates international law on a daily basis. Israel who has hundreds of Palestinians prisoners in violation of international law. Pathetic

          The Palmer commission was made up of Americans, Turks, and Israelis. 2/3 of those were biased. The VP of the commission was Alvaro Uribe. The lobby played a role in the tone of the report. The commission should have been made up of outsiders.

        • Shingo says:

          No eee,

          A farcical and compromised UN Report with no authority to fete one legality claimed it was legal, which is meaningless. A more recent report from UN legal experts say otherwise.

          Not that a criminal, fascist apartheid state like Israel ever cared about the law anyway.

      • seafoid says:

        As long as the soldiers stay in Israel and never travel anywhere, Hophmi, they’ll be safe.

        For how many days could Israel manage a war against Turkey ?

        • DBG says:

          why are you obsessed with a war between Turkey and Israel?

          You probably said the same thing in ’67 too. the Turkish and Greek Airforce would own the Turkish airforce, Israel would disable their air defenses like they did in Syria and then it would be ’67 all over again.

        • Cliff says:

          Why are youb obsessed with victimhood? Israel kills civilians on a boat outside it’s waters, after the IDF drops on top of them. And you’re excusing it.

          You have no credibility or moral high ground. Why do you come to MW?

        • DBG says:

          Cliff, can you please stay focused? I am not excusing anything, I was replying to seafoid’s warmongering. if you want to reply to what I am talking about fine, if not why don’t you tuck your talking points away.

          Why are you on MW if you can’t add anything but your overplayed talking points.

        • Chaos4700 says:

          It’s astounding that Israel can literally generate a mountain of corpses and her zealots will climb it and plant a flag with a Star of David right on top of it.

        • DBG says:

          mountain of corpses? what are we even talking about here anymore? did we jump back to caste lead now? LOL you guys are impossible to follow.

        • lysias says:

          Americas I’ve talked to who fought in the Korean War have told me how impressed they were with the quality of Turkish soldiers.

        • Charon says:

          DBG, it would be nothing like ’67. That was a pre-planned preemptive war. When Israel doesn’t plan for a war you get ’73 where they got owned and cried to the US for support with the threat of nuking Egypt and Syria.

          If Israel provokes a war with Turkey, Western powers would have to respond… to Israel. As conflicted as people are, it is the NATO policy.

        • seafoid says:

          “why are you obsessed with a war between Turkey and Israel?”

          Your stablemate brought up the topic of war, habibi.

          “if so much as one hair on the head of one of these soldiers is touched by any Turkish official, it will be an act of war”

          Is there no communication at hasbara central?

          Israel can’t manage a long war . See how twitchy she got in 06 when the nice Jewish boys started dying in Lebanon.

        • Whizdom says:

          A long, and proud military tradition, which they take very seriously. Terrific, ferocious fighters.

        • Shingo says:

          You probably said the same thing in ’67 too. the Turkish and Greek Airforce would own the Turkish airforce

           

          Haha, too funny. Haven’t you heard DBG? Greece is bankrupt and don’t own anything. They wouldn’t be able to buy the fuel to put those planes in the air.

          <blockquote<  Israel would disable their air defenses like they did in Syria and then it would be ’67 all over again.

          They would try, but Turkey ain’t Syria. Wars are won on the ground and we know Israelis are pussies when it comes to ground combat.

          It would be 2006 all over again, but much,  much worse for Israel.

      • Well, that would make Israel’s callous and cold-blooded murder of the Turkish activists an act of war. I guess this the only language you understand. Publish the names of the Turkish officials – so what, you want them prosecuted for sending wheelchairs and medicine.
        As usual Israel thinks it can do as it wants – murder and theft – and isn’t accountable to anybody. When people try, they whine and threaten, like the cowards and bullies they are. Another own goal by Israel coming up, when it could have settled this affair with some contrition.

      • Woody Tanaka says:

        “Not one of these soldiers will ever be prosecuted, and if so much as one hair on the head of one of these soldiers is touched by any Turkish official, it will be an act of war.”

        Interesting definition. Murder an unarmed Turkish-American, execution-style — okay with hophmi. Touch the hair of the murderer — act of war.

        • hophmi says:

          “Murder an unarmed Turkish-American, execution-style — okay with hophmi.”

          This “unarmed” person did not represent Turkey; neither did any of the other passengers. If they did represent Turkey, however, yes, running a blockade is an obvious act of war.

        • Kathleen says:

          go read the report. Many of these people shot at close range in the back of their heads.

        • Chaos4700 says:

          So let me get this straight — when Egypt operated a blockade, and Israeli ships challenged that, Egypt was committing the act of war. When Israel runs a blockade and EVERYONE ELSE challenges it, EVERYONE ELSE is guilty of an “obvious” act of war.

          That’s your stance? Based on… Jewish privilege, I guess, unless you can tell me what other common denominator makes Israel categorically innocent no matter what they do?

        • lysias says:

          8 of the 9 were Turkish citizens on a Turkish-flagged vessel, i.e., Turkish soil.

          Dogan was a U.S. citizen killed on Turkish soil. And all that he was armed with was a camera.

        • Woody Tanaka says:

          “This “unarmed” person did not represent Turkey; neither did any of the other passengers.”

          So what? They were Turkish citizens. That makes it Turkey’s paramount concern to see that their murderers are brought to justice. The same would probably be true in the US if the Israel lobby didn’t have an Alien-facehugger-grip on the US government. Instead, Obama licks the ass of his murder. Shows you what a few well-placed dollars gets you…

        • kursato says:

          “Forensic evidence showing that most of the deceased were shot multiple times, including in the back, or at close range has not beenadequately accounted for in the material presented by Israel

      • Cliff says:

        Violent activists. LOL

        Last time I checked it was the fascist thugs, the IDF, who boarded the ship in international waters and killed activists up close and personal.

        So to review hophmi as a person,

        He is apparently American but judge his love for this country by what he says. He uses the US as a punching bag to make Israel’s depravity look less deprave. He also cynically uses the shallow support among Americans for Israel (vague) as some kind of seal of approval.

        He has said Palestinians supported Hitler with the usual specious bullshit.

        He attempted to whitewash a pro-Israel, racist, propaganda cartoon by StandWithUs. Then when the racist artist affirmed what we and any honest person saw as obvious, he played down the racism as a political, purely political, cartoon.

        When Israel buys off the media or a politician, you can expect this anti-intellectual tin-foil hat wearing putz to disassemble until he’s blue and white in the face.

        And now we see that in spite of the fact that it was Turkish CIVILIANS wielding whatever was near them as the IDF dropped onto their ship from helicopters with rifles, who died and were killed up close to the head – somehow in Hophmi’s sick mind, Zio-Land, the IDF is the victim.

        No one but morally depraved racist freaks, Christian fundies and bought and paid for politicians, celebs, media people, et al, are on your side.

        The disgusting backwards, hypocritical and cynical things you and the other Zionists here off the short-bus say are fantastic in enlightening people to what Jewish nationalism looks like. Ugly.

      • Shingo says:

        Great. We’ll publish the names of all Turkish officials who allowed violent IHH activists to board the boat and attempt to run a legal international blockade, starting with Erdogan.

        Wow Hop,
         
        This one really set you off didn’t?

        I couldn’t imagine a more pathetic and lame comeback if I tried. Good luck with proving that Turkish officials had any involvement, or such involvement was any kind if crime. 

        Not one of these soldiers will ever be prosecuted, and if so much as one hair on the head of one of these soldiers is touched by any Turkish official, it will be an act of war.

        Israel wouldn’t dare take on the Turks, and if they did, it would be the last war they fight.

      • richb says:

        Murder on a ship gives jurisdiction to the flag country. The largest diplomatic row between the U.S. and Italy was over the murder of Klinghoffer on the Achille Lauro. Italy since it was the flag country demanded jurisdiction over the hijackers and Abu Abbas. Reagan intercepted the plane going to Egypt and had it land on a NATO base in Sicily. It got so bad that Carabierni and Navy Seals lined up against each other. When Abu Abbas was captured in Iraq, Italy still demanded extradiction. Abu Abbas died of “natural causes” the next day.

        • richb says:

          Of course, readers will see one key difference. In the case of the Achille Lauro where an American citizen was murdered on an Italian cruise ship both countries wanted to prosecute the murderers to the point that their respective militaries lined up against each other. In the case of the Marvi Marmara where an American citizen was murdered on a Turkish cruise ship only the Turks want to prosecute. In one case the murderers were Palestinians and in the other the murderers were Israelis. Do you all think that might have something to do with the difference?

      • Koshiro says:

        and if so much as one hair on the head of one of these soldiers is touched by any Turkish official

        … Israel will whine, protest and bitch to no avail. Which is why all of these guys are going to cancel any future trips to countries that might extradite them to Turkey.

      • RoHa says:

        “We’ll publish”

        “We”? You mean Americans?

        “allowed violent IHH activists to board the boat”

        Of course, you should find evidence that there were violent IHH activists on board, but you will probably just keep screaming that they were there.

        “a legal international blockade”

        It isn’t legal, and it isn’t international.

      • yourstruly says:

        once the turkish government issues arrest warrants for the accused murderers, they’ll be bounty hunters looking for them, a 21st century version of the nazi huiters of yesteryear

    • Woody Tanaka says:

      “Pictures and names…now that is getting specific. Hope folks stay peaceful. Demand that they go on trial at ICC.”

      I hope so to. However, the Israelis have repeatedly engaged in extra-judicial killings. So they would really have no cause to complain if someone decided to pull an operation like that against their people.

  4. Kathleen says:

    I don’t believe Secretary of State Clinton has ever responded to Col Ann Wrights letters about the killing of Furkan Dogan
    link to open.salon.com
    Dear Secretary of State Clinton,

    I am a retired US Army reserve colonel with 29 years in the US Army and Army Reserves, and a former US diplomat who resigned after 16 years in the US State Department in opposition to the war on Iraq.

    I was one of fourteen American citizens on the Gaza flotilla.

    On June 14, 2010, I delivered to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of American Citizen Services a letter to you requesting investigation of the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla in which one unarmed American citizen was killed by Israeli commandos and fourteen other American citizens were kidnapped from international waters and taken to Israel against their will, imprisoned, and their personal possessions stolen by Israeli commandos.

    Despite numerous inquiries to the State Department about the status of the response to my letter, after seven weeks I have not received a response to the letter, nor to the 80 questions that I requested that the United States government pose to the Israeli government concerning their attack on the Gaza flotilla.

    As an American citizen, I am distressed that no one in the State Department government will respond to this request for assistance.

  5. pabelmont says:

    Assuming the correctness of this list, one wonders: WHO WERE THE OFFICERS and HIGHER-UPS who gave the orders? I would far prefer to indict THEM.

    In future actions, ALL IDFers will wear FULL-HIJAB (i.e., black balaclavas) and no recognition of individuals will be possible.

    Anyone know if such disguise is illegal, or takes the soldier outside the protections of Geneva Conventions?

  6. hophmi says:

    It is apparently the IHH that compiled this list, not Turkish intelligence.

    link to todayszaman.com

    • annie says:

      interesting

      The statement comes in response to a report by the Sabah daily on Monday which said MİT, responding to a request from the İstanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office, had obtained information on the identities of the Israeli soldiers who killed eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American in last year’s flotilla raid, identifying almost all of the soldiers who took part in the deadly raid through Facebook.

      Sabah alleged in its story that the İstanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office had earlier written to Israeli authorities requesting the full names and residential addresses of the military and government officials who gave the orders to attack the flotilla, in addition to information about those who carried out the orders. Israel refused to provide the information, so the prosecutor asked MİT to share any intelligence information it had so far collected about the Israeli raid.

      Sabah said that upon the request of Mehmet Akif Ekinci, the prosecutor conducting the investigation, intelligence units first examined images of the raid and then launched “a commando hunt” on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. They also reportedly examined pictures of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the top-security Flotilla 13 base on the Israeli coast near Haifa, which conducted the flotilla raid, in October of last year, to identify the soldiers present. After identifying a few soldiers, Hebrew-speaking experts examined their online correspondence with other Israeli soldiers who are thought to have taken part in the Mavi Marmara raid, and were able to identify more of those involved via their “friends” lists on Facebook. The names of the soldiers were also reportedly confirmed by the Turkish intelligence units’ sources in Israel.

      well, there are bound to be different statements made so we will have to keep abreast of the news on this.

      • lysias says:

        I imagine there was a lot of special forces cooperation between Israel and Turkey in the past. That would make a lot of Turkish military people able to identify many of their Israeli counterparts.

        Anybody who wanted the Turkish military not to cooperate with Erdogan made a very dumb move if he helped the PKK Kurdish rebels to mount that rocket attack on the Turkish naval base at Iskenderun (the base, near the Syrian border, from which any Turkish naval assistance to the flotilla would have come) two hours before the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla. A PKK attack that killed six Turkish sailors.

    • DBG says:

      I am sure they worked hand in hand w/ the MIT. Saber rattling w/ Israel is Erdogan’s pet project, I am sure he pulled out all the stops on this one.

    • Woody Tanaka says:

      Well, whoever compiled the list, good job. May they all be brought to justice, one way or another.

    • annie says:

      hophmi, re your allegation the IHH compiled this list, they didn’t. i heard from my friend in turkey.

      Regarding the Zaman article.

      Quote -

      İstanbul Deputy Public Prosecutor Ateş Hasan Sözen told Today’s Zaman that the İstanbul Prosecutor’s Office did not order any state institution to identify the soldiers. “No state institution had such a request, nor does it have any information on this. The prosecutor conducting the investigation has given no such order,”

      - end quote

      This investigtion was done directly under the auspices of the Prime Ministers office as part of the Turkish panel’s investigation.

      Quote -

      a list of Israelis — reportedly prepared as a result of a Facebook search — has been drawn up by the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), the Turkish charity that owned the raided ship.

      - end quote

      A – notice ‘a’ NOT ‘the’ - list was drawn up by IHH and was submitted to the government. They are trying to be involved and help out. I wish they wouldn’t. The passenger statements given during the investigations are more than enough.

      I know people who were asked questions during these investigations.

      It is possible that Istanbul Deputy Public Prosecutor Ateş Hasan Sözen is talking about something which he knows nothing about – notice ‘Deputy’ Public Prosecutor.

      it does seem unlikely a deputy public defender for the city of istanbul is involved in this investigation run out of the turkish governments ministry of justice. that would be akin to having a deputy public defender for the city of chicago making statements about something holder is prosecuting. whole different branch of government, but then i don’t know enough about the turkish government to be sure. let’s hear what Mehmet Akif Ekinci of Turkey’s Ministry of Justice has to say before jumping to conclusions.

  7. Dex says:

    This is excellent news. In order to be held accountable, we have to know the names of these people; we have to know who fired the shots that killed innocents, and who dropped the bombs that did the same. Israel goes to great lengths to shield the identities of these people.

    As Ilan Pappe says, it is not enough to just say “Israel did this, or Zionists did that” — we have to document the names, faces, and actions of these criminals so they can be rightfully brought to justice.

    Seems that things are moving in this direction.

    The Zionists project is unraveling before our very eyes. No surprise, all racists ideologies eventually die…

  8. lysias says:

    According to JPost, the Israeli government is taking this report very seriously: IDF to legally protect ‘Marmara’ raid soldiers: After Turkish news reports claim intelligence agencies complied list identifying 174 soldiers, IDF takes legal precautions.:

    The IDF is taking legal precautions to protect soldiers and officers who participated in the operation to stop the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship, senior defense officials said on Monday after Turkish news reports claimed intelligence agencies had compiled a list identifying 174 soldiers who could be prosecuted for their involvement in the operation.

    Related Ha’aretz story: Gaza flotilla probe to examine IDF’s handling of past war crimes charges: Investigation by Turkel Commission meant to determine if IDF soldiers would be exposed to prosecution in foreign countries according to international law.:

    A governmental commission that investigated the Israel Defense Forces’ 2010 raid of a Gaza-bound flotilla is now probing the army’s ability to investigate war crime charges levied against its own soldiers.

    International law stipulates that for soldiers of one country to be prosecuted by another the country in which the war crime was committed has to be proven as unable to properly investigate the incident.

    How’s that supposed to protect the Israeli soldiers? The murders on the Mavi Marmara were committed on Turkish soil (a Turkish vessel) in international waters.

    • annie says:

      International law stipulates that for soldiers of one country to be prosecuted by another the country in which the war crime was committed has to be proven as unable to properly investigate the incident.

      but the crime didn’t take place in israel. it took place in international waters.

      • DBG says:

        Turkish intelligence put those ‘activists’ on the Mavi Marmara to martyr themselves so they could then sever ties with Israel. It is pretty obvious this was an intelligence operation perpetrated by the MIT from the start.

        the MIT and the Pakistani ISI are cut from the same cloth.

        • lysias says:

          If this is going to be the new hasbara spin on MİT, an organization that has a long history of cooperating with U.S. and Israeli intelligence, I don’t think Israel is going to get much of the support from the Turkish military that it has been hoping for.

          Speaking of intelligence operations before the attack on the Freedom Flotilla, how about that PKK Kurdish rebel attack on the Turkish naval base at İskenderun near the Syrian border, the base from which any Turkish naval support for the flotilla would have come, two hours before the Israeli attack on the flotilla?

        • Charon says:

          LOL@DBG

          Seems you guys have an excuse for everything. Interpret people’s actions and make up stories to justify immoral behavior. There is zero evidence to support your claim. Bullets rained down on the activists prior to the fast roping. They weren’t plastic either. Israel interpreted it as a provocation justifying a military response to send a message. Unfortunately it didn’t exactly send a good message.

          It’s funny you would come up with something outrageous like that yet shrug off the far more incriminating circumstantial evidence indicating that Israel had something to do with 9/11 and foreknowledge at the very least.

        • seafoid says:

          Charon

          What have you got linking Israel to 9/11 ? It makes a lot of sense

        • Shingo says:

           Turkish intelligence put those ‘activists’ on the Mavi Marmara to martyr themselves so they could then sever ties with Israel.

          Get a new tinfoil hat NBG. Where did you read that? The someplace that says one man one vote means a one world government?

          It is pretty obvious this was an intelligence operation perpetrated by the MIT from the start.

          And the moon landing was fake too right?

        • lysias says:

          Justin Raimondo’s book The Terror Enigma lays out a lot of the evidence that Israelis at least had foreknowledge of 9/11. And it’s sourced with a lot of footnotes to mainstream media reports.

        • Antidote says:

          lysias, I don’t know the book, but my understanding is that Israel (and many other countries) had issued plenty of warnings to the US – some of them precise enough to have Pentagon generals cancel their flights for the morning of 9/11. You find a list here:

          link to projectcensored.org

          To come up with an answer re who did it as fast as the Bush admin did would indicate that they knew who did it before it was done, which raises the question why air defense failed rather than be on high alert, and why the POTUS had nothing more urgent to do than reading children stories in Florida. Warning fatique? Gross negligence? Inside job? One caveat surely applies here: Never ascribe to malice what can be sufficiently explained with incompetence.

    • seafoid says:

      Turkish news reports claimed intelligence agencies had compiled a list identifying 174 soldiers

      I wonder what help the Turks got from foreign intelligence agencies. It’s Lieberman vs the World (- the US) and it doesn’t matter how hot the Shin Bet and Mossad are (forget about the shoddiness in Dubai for a moment) – they just don’t have the resources to fight the world. At the end of the day Zionism is 5.5 million Jews. Lieberman is a fruitcake.

  9. ToivoS says:

    I understand there are interpol warrants out for those 20 or so Mossad assassins that carried out that killing in Dhubai and now another group of Israelis will have international arrest warrants chasing them. This keeps up a significant proportion of the Israeli population will be confined to staying on that sliver of land on the Eastern Mediterranean. It must be getting a little claustrophobic for them.

    • seafoid says:

      “It must be getting a little claustrophobic for them.”

      The deeper into the occupation they go, the more they cut off themselves from the outside world. It’s like a trance. Some sort of hasidic chant state. Israel isn’t run rationally any more. So they lose Turkey, they lose Egypt, they alienate Europe. Underlying it all is their belief in their own superiority and the belief in technology.

  10. Whizdom says:

    I think the Mavis Marmara was flagged in the Comoros Islands, so they have jurisdiction. I seem to recall that the Chief of Staff (Ashkenazi ) and Defense Minister (Barak) both denied giving the order to proceed, this was the day after it happened.

    I, personally, am uncomfortable with listing the names of the troops and junior officers, they are as much victims of this misbegotten, poorly conceived and executed operation. The senior guys, yes, absolutely.

  11. jon s says:

    If this list indicates the quality of their information , we have nothing to worry about. For example :Avi Bnayahu is the former IDF spokesperson, Yom-Tov Samia was retired from the IDF in 2001, Eliezer Shkedi commanded the IAF until 2008 and is now CEO of ElAl…and that’s just from a first glance at the list. It looks like they just Googled “IDF” and posted whatever names appeared .

  12. DBG says:

    funny the list annie printed above looks alot like this list regarding caste lead:

    this gets more laughable by the hour.

    link to site.www.umb.edu

  13. benedict says:

    Lo and behold! Turns out that the perpetrators of the mavi marmara massacre are exactly the same people involved in operation cast lead. Who would have believed?

    Kudos to the great Turkish intelligence for there amazing breakthrough.

    • annie says:

      since cast lead called up reservists it stands to reason most of their standing military participated in cast lead. so why wouldn’t most of the soldiers involved in the raid have participated in cast lead? how does this ‘prove’ anything.

      besides, all this means is those people could be tried in turkey or where ever else they plan on prosecuting. israel and the citizen of israel should consider the rules of law and war and understand not everyone is going to go along with israel flipping the bird at international law.

  14. annie says:

    yes, you have a strange mind american. most people don’t go in for assassinations. that’s a state thing and a rightwing extremist thing. zionism is embedded in both the state and the rightwing.

  15. benedict says:

    Really, annie? How about “anna strelski, mortar teaching instructor”?

    are you sure she was also part of the Israeli force stopping the marmara?

  16. eGuard says:

    A lot of hophmi and eee here. We’re on the right track. It smelled from the start, of course.

  17. ToivoS says:

    My, my this subject seems to have hit an exposed nerve in our local hasbara community. Of the 123 comment so far on this thread they have posted 30. The faux defiance, threats and nonchalance they display give off the unmistakable odor of fear.

    Another plank being placed into the wall of isolation being slowly built around Israel.

  18. Why do we worry? Is this the first time our enemies have compiled lists of Jews? As we say, Ani Mashtin aleyhem

    • Chaos4700 says:

      Gosh, yeah, and with Turkey hijacking ships, gassing your peaceful protesters, waging pogroms, burning whole orchards and demolishing cisterns, using munitions to set CHILDREN on fire, demolishing hospitals and schools and mosques, and… oh wait. That’s what your state is doing. My mistake!

    • annie says:

      lists of Jews?

      how convenient! make an ethnic state and then when they commit war crimes pretend we notice because of their ethnicity! yeah, we don’t like your war crimes because we’re…racist! how convenient. seriously guys, is this drummed into you since birth? get a grip. excuses excuses excuses. name another occupation on the globe running as long as your apartheid, then try telling me it’s all about the jews we notice. not!

      • Donald says:

        “how convenient! make an ethnic state and then when they commit war crimes pretend we notice because of their ethnicity!”

        So many defenses of Israeli behavior have that “heads I win, tails you lose” quality. It’s monumentally stupid, but that often seems to work in politics, I guess because so many people approach politics with the rational part of their brain turned off.

        • eee says:

          Donald,

          Really? Don’t you see in this nothing similar to the famed method of making a list of Jews and blaming the death of Christian children on them? And then of course demanding money from the Jews to be taken off the list? If you want to look serious, at least demand reasonable evidence before putting a person on the list. This list is completely random. It is just Jews that served in the IDF at some time.

        • Cliff says:

          Man you are so full of yourself.

          They aren’t listed because they are Jews. They are listed because they are the IDF soldiers responsible for the killing of civilians.

          You are so goddamn narcissistic that you twist this as an attack on Jews? DISGUSTING

        • annie says:

          This list is completely random. It is just Jews that served in the IDF at some time.

          wow, why does that sound familiar. let’s look on the bright side 3e. what are the chances a special unit will assassinate a few random jews in the wrong house before apprehending one of the suspects? what are the chances a special unit will kidnap one of their relatives children in the middle of the night and torture him til he confesses his relative was on the mavi marmara or was in fact one of the shooters? what are the chances they will hold that child until one of the suspects offers himself and his confession to save his family? what are the chances his home will be demolished? or, as with the case of the recent eliat attack, what are the chances turkey will declare the verdict prior to any trial and simply bomb their homes and kill them? iow, this isn’t israel we are dealing with here, this is turkey. they are more civilized.

          i’m wondering if it was you on that list and you were brought to trial and you had a choice of an israeli military kangaroo court or the kind of court turkey has in mind which would you choose? would you like charges or a simple administrative detention? what about access to the lawyer? or if perchance your choice was to confess (and be released in a 18 months) vs waiting years for a trial by military court, would you confess?

          just curious.

        • annie says:

          and what are the chances the whole town he lives in will be rounded up and arrested and dna taken and hundreds of people questioned for months? and then at the end of the months turkey announces certain boys have confessed? would you believe it? would you? who pumped bullets into innocent brains eee? and who will pay, israeli style?

        • annie says:

          of one thing i am quite certain, israel will not be getting a taste of it’s own medicine. you know why i know? because turkey wouldn’t lower itself to that kind of degradation. it’s just a list. go back to bed.

        • eee says:

          Annie,

          Of course it is “just” a list. We Jews are used to such lists being put forward by people what have problems with Jews.

          If you want to accuse someone of doing something wrong, don’t you think you need some evidence to do it? If you endorse a list of Jewish “war criminals” don’t you think that you need some evidence that they were even close to the incident at hand? Apparently not. Just publish the list and start cheering about “justice” being served. Not only that, the people who publish the list are also “heroes” according to you. Who do you think you are fooling?

        • Shingo says:

          We Jews are used to such lists being put forward by people what have problems with Jews.

          You Jews hah?

          Yes, you guys love lists.

          link to jpost.com

      • eee says:

        Annie,

        When you start salivating over a list that is clearly bogus, what does it say about you?

        link to ynetnews.com

        LLI is right. If the Turks only have to come up with a random list of Jews for you to start celebrations… You would be singing a different tune if some Israelis put out a list of Americans that visited Pakistan and said they were potential terrorists.

        • annie says:

          You would be singing a different tune if some Israelis put out a list of Americans that visited Pakistan and said they were potential terrorists.

          lol, what are you talking about eee. israel puts out lists all the time. go look at their jails. you think it is different if it is americans vs palestinians eee? that’s their gig in the land of apartheid. they make the lists and haul in whoever the hell they want. no trial nothing. this is so not israel, it’s turkey.

    • RoHa says:

      Here’s a list of Jews.

      link to masada2000.org

      Compiled by your enemies, of course.

    • Shingo says:

      Is this the first time our enemies have compiled lists of Jews?

      This of it as a hit list of sorts:

      “An IDF hit list of 16 activists to be assassinated “fell from the pocket of an Israeli commando during the boarding of the Mavi Marmara,” Yildirim stated.”

      link to jpost.com

    • Woody Tanaka says:

      LMAO. Whenever the likes of LLI and eee start doing the “woe is us, forever victims” routine, you know that someone hit the nail on the head. Good job, Turkey.

  19. crone says:

    Turkey it seems does not gloss over the killing of their citizens in international waters by Israelis.

    Methinks Turkey intends to see this through….

    About time a nation state held Israel accountable for its actions.

  20. dbroncos says:

    While Clinton surely knows she does not have truth on her side, she takes comfort that money surely is.

  21. dbroncos says:

    …and the crew members of the USS Liberty are still waiting for their day in court. The case of the Liberty raises my hackles more than just about any other episode in the long, sad, sordid history of US-Israel relations. Those sailors, who swore an oath to defend their country, were sold out and knifed in the back by the US gov and the top brass of the Navy. It goes beyond hypocrisy. It’s mendacity and pure wickedness. Echoes of the wickedness at the core of US-Israel relations are still heard today as in the Peace Prize winner’s speech at the UN. ‘Hypocrisy’ isn’t a strong enough word when trying to describe the germ of American -Israeli relations.

    • DBG says:

      oh God, they’ve had their day in court like 5 separate times. Just because you guys don’t get the answers you like, it doesn’t mean you can continue to whine about it for eternity.

      • Chaos4700 says:

        Oh yes, keep telling us how US veterans are such “whiners.” Good way to show your patriotism, DBG! (Just not for, you know, the country you were born in.)

      • Charon says:

        DBG, they lied in the investigations. They lied because an American public would not respond too nicely were they aware that Israel deliberately attacked an unarmed American ship. How do we know they lied? Because when the dust was settled people came forward and said they lied. The entire crew knows it is a lie. The situation was dealt with secrecy from the start and the crew was threatened.

        Every single official report starts off the US findings the same way. They mentioned that the sky was clear and visibility was perfect, that the name of the ship was in huge English letters, they mention the flag being flown shot down and replaced. That’s all you need to know. There is more but anybody with common sense can stop right there.

        AIPAC’s goons are all over any event that relates to it. Israel has pieces of it as trophies of enemies in a war museum. It’s disgusting the way you pass it off as meaningless. Why did they do it? There were many reasons. The most ‘logical’ was to prevent the Americans from discovering what they were up to in Sinai.

  22. POA says:

    It is a hardship reading through a lengthy thread like this in which eee, DBG, and Hophni contribute so profusely. I find myself repulsed by the cavalier manner in which they can argue false premises, fantasies, and known lies.

    These are people with no scruples, no integrity. They exist to compose falsehoods, obsfucations, and justifications based in fantasy. Its despicable beyond belief.

  23. HHM says:

    I cannot help but wonder if any of these IDF soldiers have duel American citizenship. I recall that on Aug. 16, 104 immigrating 18- to 22-year-old Americans arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport to enlist in the Israel “Defense” Force. Will they, too, attack and shoot non-violent American human rights activists on Israeli command? Or spy on Americans if/when they return?

  24. kursato says:

    Justice will prevail, one way or the other those iDF soldiers are going to pay the price for the killing of those 8 Turkish (and 1 American) activists on the board of the Mavi Marmara

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