The following press release was sent by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition:
It has been more than 50 hours since Israeli navy attacked the “Marianne” in international waters, 100nm from Gaza, during one of its usual acts of State piracy, always behaving as the bullying state of eastern Mediterranean. 18 participants on board were kidnapped and brought by force and against their will to the military Ashdod port. During the operation of seizure of the “Marianne”, which IDF called “uneventful”, Israeli soldiers used violence against participants on board.
Dr. Bassel Ghattas (Member of Knesset), Dr. Moncef Marzouki (ex-President of Tunisia), Ana Miranda (Member of European Parliament) and Ohad Hemo (Channel 2 journalist), were released and the rest were moved to Givon camp at Ramla area, where they remain hostages until this moment.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition stands with all sailors of the “Marianne” who are illegaly kept in the Israeli camp. We demand that the State of Israel immediately releases them and also returns the “Marianne of Gothenberg”. We demand that our governments condemn violence of the State of Israel against peaceful citizens and stand by the rights of the Palestinian people.
The remaining “Marianne” passengers still in Israeli camp are:
Nadya Kevorkova, Russia
Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Sweden
Robert Lovelace, Canada
Joel Opperdoes, Sweden
Gustave Bergstrom, Sweden
Herman Reksten, Norway
Kevin Neish, Canada
Jonas Karlin, Sweden
Charlie Andreasson, Sweden
Ammar Al-Hamdan, Norway
Mohammed El Bakkali, Morocco
Dror Feiler, Sweden
Ruwani Perera, New Zealand
Jacob Bryant, New Zealand
I don’t think that this is going to be remembered as one of Israel’s finest hours… more violence and demonstration of military might against peaceful activists piled on top of the disgraceful behavior and words of Mazuz, Hazan, and Netanyahu & Co.
From Ship to Gaza Sweden:
““No regret , no surrender , Freedom Flotilla succeeded it’s mission,” -Interwiev with Basel Ghattas
For member of the Knesset Dr. Basel Ghattas, It is true the Freedom Flotilla II didn’t reach Gaza, “ but it succeeded on its mission, it achieved by large its goals as it showed the entire world how Israelis don’t respect the International law .”According to Ghattas, the Freedom Flotilla shed light on the Israeli occupation’s reality and how it turned Gaza to a closed prison.
“No surrender, let me know when it is the next Freedom Flotilla and I will be the first to participate , It is part of my political duty as a Palestinian living in Israel,” he said.
– Hijack, violence and threats
Explaining how Israelis “hijacked” The Marianne boat, Ghattas said that around 13 Israeli military warship surrounded the boat after midnight on Sunday.
“ One of the warships had a military helicopter on its deck, he stressed.”
He said Israeli navy ordered the crew to turn back the boat to where it came from.
“Gaza is our destination, we will not changed it, “ was the answer they received from the Captain Joel .
Than , Ghattas said he started negotiating with them for an hour in order to avoid any confrontation or violence.
“We told them you are hijacking the boat, it is a Swedish boat and by attacking it you attack Sweden itself,”
“What you are doing is illegal, you are aggressively attacking us in international water.”
Afterwards, the Israelis soldiers climbed into the boat and took control of it.
They started vocally insulting us, pushing some of us and attacked Swedish activists and they even used electrical teaser against the Swedish crew member Charlie Anderson.
They started interrogating us. The former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki refused to answer approach and said: “What you are doing is illegal and I’m in international water so under the protection of international law and therefore you will not get a word of me.”
He said the captain of the boat was smart and turn off the engines as soon as IDF boarded the ship, which cost them hours to restart them again in order to take the boat to Ashdod port.
Ghattas said they arrived before sun set to the port, but IDF kept turning around till it got dark and than entered “ so that media can’t see how they hijacked the boat.”…”
https://shiptogaza.se/sv/news/no-regret-no-surrender-freedom-flotilla-succeeded-its-mission-interwiev-basel-ghattas
13 (thirteen) military warships, an attack helicopter, and I read somewhere that they had a low- flying plane tracking them as well! I’m really looking forward to the other forthcoming interviews~ each of the imprisoned have a tale to tell. Free the 18 peaceful humanitarians NOW!
It’s a sick place. Thanks, MW editors. #ReleaseFlotillaSailors @- https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReleaseFlotillaSailors?src=hash
Why did the other boats in the flotilla turn back and return to Greece? Had they been sabotaged?
Must see tweet:
“Pirates of the Mediterranean….”
https://twitter.com/StefanRajert/status/616273790885076992
There’s nothing funny about the actions of Israel wrt the hijacking of the ship nor the kidnapping of the peace activists, but this is clever! Maybe Annie can work her magic on this tweet…
Are the countries that these brave people come from demanding the release of their citizens?
It is the least they can do. These arrogant zionists keep getting away with these crimes against unarmed civilians.
Why didn’t Sweden’s navy escort the flotilla until the end of the high seas?