UN Security Council to hold emergency session over Gaza flotilla deaths

Source: News Agencies and Haaretz Service

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Monday afternoon for an emergency session to discuss Israel's storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Security Council diplomats told Reuters

Diplomats said the meeting would start at 1 P.M., New York time but they gave no further details.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a full investigation and expressed shock at Israel's storming of the flotilla.

"It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place. I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation," he said at a press conference in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-security-council-to-hold-emergency-session-over-gaza-flotilla-deaths-1.293299

Partial list of passengers on board:

*USA

Greta Berlin. Co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement

Hedy Epstein (86) St. Louis, Missouri.

Katherine Elliott Sheetz (63) Woods Hole, Mass.. Registered Nurse. Master's degree.

David Schermerhorn (80) Deer Harbor, Washington State. Commercial film producer.

*UK

Alex Harrison (32) London. Solidarity worker.

Theresa McDermott (43) Edinburgh, Scotland. Logistics worker.

Denis Healey (55). Captain.

*IRELAND

Caoimhe Butterly 31. Human rights activist.

Mairead Maguire 66 Belfast. Nobel Peace Laureate.

Mark Daly 37 Kerry. Senator.

Shane Dillon (36) Dublin. Seafarer.

Fiachra O Luain 28 Carndonagh.

*HOLLAND

Annekarijn de Jong (29) Weesp. PhD researcher.

*BELGIUM

Griet M.A. Deknopper (Margarita) (32) Halle. Solidarity activist and teacher trainer.

Inge Neefs (26) Ghent. Studied educational sciences and holds a master in anthropology.

*GREECE

Giorgos Klontzas (39)

Agios Nikolaos. Professional diver and sailor.

*POLAND/UK

Ewa Jasiewicz (31) London, UK / Otwock, Poland. Journalist, community and union organizer, and solidarity worker.

*PALESTINE

Lubna Masarwa (32).

Huwaida Arraf (33) Ramallah, Palestine / Washington D.C. / Detroit, MI. JD. American University Washington College of Law. Twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nader El Sakka (58) Hamburg.

*GERMANY

Annette Groth 56 Berlin, Member of Parliament in the German Bundestag.

Inge D.M. Höger 59 Herford. Member of Parliament in the German Bundestag

Matthias Jochheim 61 Frankfurt. Physician and psychotherapist.

Prof. Dr. Norman Paech 72 Hamburg. Member of Parliament in Germany's Bundestag. Professor of Public Law at the University in Hamburg.


http://www.freegaza.org/en/boat-trips/passenger-lists/75-ninth-trip-to-gaza-in-may-2010

Elderly Holocaust survivor did not join Gaza flotilla, is safe in Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus - A Holocaust survivor who planned to join a Gaza-bound aid flotilla changed her plans and was not aboard when Israeli forces raided it, killing at least 10.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/elderly-holocaust-survivor-did-not-join-gaza-flotilla-is-safe-in-cyprus-95253484.html

Greta Berlin at the Free Gaza Movement office in Larnaca told Radio Napa that communication with the ships had been down since 3.30 am Cyprus time.

Apparently they were both in Cyprus and not on board the ships.

for some of their carnage.

Rightwing governments seem to think they can step over the lines at will, and it has to stop.

carry out such violent acts without the whole world watching!

Killing the peacemakers. Doubleplusungood.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_O2JHv7M-9RE/SlJL38GlrcI/AAAAAAAAAIc/VmL0wdha9qY/s400/Mairead+Maguire.jpg

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Try this with the USCG in a maritime boarding out to 200NM off the US coast and see if they return fire. The US (and others) routinely board vessels and the act of boarding is legal. The events leading up firing weapons will determine the course of this event.

Iran has no right to send a flotilla to Louisiana to help the cajuns. In that event the CG would board, if they were met with violence, people would be shot.

Seems like the stunt got well out of hand.

Do you support the right of attacked peoples to defend themselves? And, by the way, how many Israeli soldiers were killed versus passengers? That might give you a clue as to who had which weapons.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

in international waters. People went nuts, they used cs gas. people donned gas masks and continue to violently resist. Seized a weapon and fired it. Fire was returned. That is what is out there now.

Video will be the final arbiter.

...in international waters?

The reaction of the UN in particular to this event suggests they do not.

ships are boarded when a nation has a interest or a security event is provoked. Boardings are common, violent resistance to them generally ends poorly.

I also posted this helpful article so you can learn how the US actually conducts these events in international waters.

http://www.slate.com/id/1007689

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3meF46rwKs

The video shows similar tactics you saw yesterday. We use shotguns and short rifles now.

This is not some little drug boat or Panamanian cargo tub. You don't have to support the 'free Gaza's movement to recognize that there are a bunch of lawmakers from different countries on these boats, and that info has been extensively reported in the leadup to this incident.

For example, there are 8 Irish people in the flotilla, including a Nobel peace prize winner and a Senator. Senators tend to be fairly important figures in their home countries. There are members of the EU Parliament on board. What part of the phrase "diplomatic incident" do you not understand?

special people on board as you want. If they fired on the boarding party they would be met with returned fire.

The part where there is no incident. This was a stunt from the beginning and it ended poorly for all involved.

The ship is in international waters and stunt or not, it is known to have parliamentarians onboard - who are part of their countries' governments, not self-appointed special snowflakes.

Israel created a diplomatic incident when they started dropping commandos from a helicopter onto the deck.

Let me make this clearer for you. Using your logic, it will be perfectly ok for the customs/police/military forces of any country to storm El Al aeroplanes as soon as they land because they might have Mossad agents or materiel on them. Remember that embarrassing incident where a British court issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Lonnie and the UK government had to step in and quash it? You think travel for Israel citizens and public figures just got easier or harder?

the USCG handles interdiction of drugs. Other groups handle boardings that are more sensitive.

The US can intercept aircraft as well.

This is established maritime law. They told them to turn around, they did not, so they boarded.

The gunfire is the real issue, not the boarding.

Ignore the fact that there are centuries of maritime convention and diplomatic protocol precisely to avoid these kind of clusterfucks. Go on asserting the right of countries to just do whatever they feel like to vessels from other countries. After all nobody has ever gone to war or issued sanctions over that sort of thing, so why worry.

I am done arguing with you. You are a delusional person.

helicopters, guys with guns.

dupe

Madison made sure of that.

history is best used in its full context.

link?

will answer that. Israel is a sovereign nation, they control their airspace and coast. This is not new in the world of national activity.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

if video shows murder so be it. If it shows a passenger firing a weapon and fire returned then what is it?

You going to move the goalposts and still call it murder?

admitting that they did not discriminate when shooting at residents in Gaza. That is fact.

It is fact that they felt killing innocents was just like having to break some eggs to make an omelet.

i was in the U.S. Army and was in some schools with fellow students sent there y their country of Israel.

f Israel wants to return to the rule of law and democratic practices, I will be happy to speak up for them as I in no way hate that country, anymore then I hate mine for letting the SCOTUS rule in favor of GW Bush who lost his first election for president.

The destruction of Palestinian property, seizing of their lands and the obscene practice of building Apartheid walls needs to go. Otherwise we need to suspend all aid to Israel.

not happening. If guys broke the ROE they should be charged. Same as US. However none of that covers what happened out there.

Video will show the truth. No matter what the sides and their camps sell.

As a matter of clarity, I support neither. Everyone who pimps one side or the other forgets that American interests should be served first.

unless you had 16 separate passengers firing weapons, you're going to have a very hard time arguing that the Israeli response was appropriate. Assuming the passenger did pick up and fire a dropped weapon, there's still no justification for mowing down a ship's worth of people.

as rifle rounds maintain lethal energy over long distances. Still the video from israeli side should settle things.

M4 magazine holds 30 rounds, can empty it in about three seconds. So if you have 5 guys shooting at a person 150 rounds went downrange in 3 seconds or so.

If he picked up a weapon and fired it, he is responsible for his death and the others killed by his act.

I have a hard time believing it's going to work because it's so ridiculous, but if it gets repeated enough maybe people will start to believe it.

that tends to settle these things.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

before forming an opinion. Generally a good idea.

Long before this happened. If Israel shot his mother he'd defend them.

How do you figure that?

the response (the same the us would provide if Iran sailed an "aid ship" to louisiana) is pretty much par for the course. If you violently resist the USCG boarding you vessel they will kill you.

Just like running the gate at military installations that operate under high security.

Israel does not own the Gaza strip

You have been making that mistaken conflation for several dozen posts now.

it has no state status.

How many posts can one person make justifiying these killings? I guess we'll see.

Business as usual.

There are Christian and Jewish Zionists, I do not like anti-semitism or Christian bashing. But I do not believe Palestine is a place to torture, starve, kill or injure people to advance Israeli apartheid based policies.

If you remove this message denying me freedom of speech, close my account too Mr/Mrs moderator. I have a right to not like Zionism, I would never lower myself into the sewer of anti-semitism.

the IDF members who admitted Palestinians were indiscriminately killed. That they felt as long as some of those killed were 'bad guys,' during their incursions into Gaza this was acceptable.

This is fact. Moderators can censor people posting about what they have seen in the web and from material sent them from comrades still serving at Ft Bragg, N.C. where they served as well.

But they just show they have to suppress information in order to try to control the spin of things.

You can't run from the truth; that this operation was one meant to try to foolishly paint people well trained to stay peaceful as violent. It won't work, and it is the advocacy of Israeli Apartheid/Zionism that will ultimately suffer because of this operation.

i don't click on blind links

with weapons. No one fired on them so no one was shot.

comparing a commando live fire attack on an unarmed peaceful aid ship flying a white flag in international waters to the USG is ludicrous

any country's shore or even infrastructure. They will skip boarding you and just open fire.

A white flag, was the vessel moving? All the video i saw showed it under power.

sorry

that would pretty much provoke a response. If you say, try to disarm a highway patrolman, odds are you will die in the process.

Pathetic attempt at spin.

Identity politics is a bitch on days like this huh?

If he offered automatic rifle fire and it was returned that covers it.

nope nothing wrong with this massacre, move along and keep whistling that tune.

waiting to see how gunfire began. The rest is smoke and mirrors publicity stunt.

Being quite the aficionado of military snuff films, as you've revealed elsewhere.

Especially the video showing what happened before gunfire broke out. All else is a distraction and just words. All spin by both sides. Video settles things.

whatever evidence comes out you will support the state of Israel's right to kill anyone anywhere.

returning fire. When he made that call he should have just turned around and shot those people himself. If that pans out.

Again if video shows everyone sitting around having a beer and then they get shot, that also defines a situation that warrants a us response.

Video does not have a side.

shooting up a boat full of people because one of them has stolen a gun is AOK with you.

unfortunate for the dead, but AOK and within your universe's acceptable rules of engagement.

Do you ever wonder why you get flak over your views on this ?

Contrary to what you seem to imagine, in international waters people are allowed to defend themselves. If you point a weapon at someone then they have a basis for trying to take it away from you. You do not get to do whatever you want outside your own jurisdiction even if you have a nice uniform.

I will send flowers to your memorial. This is not a game, you point a weapon you get shot. This was not a law enforcement event, so a military response to that event would be more gunfire.

At least until all people, Palestinian, Israeli and any other people living there have rights, political franchise, and practices IDF members confessed to involving the murders of innocents in Gaza during the incursion stop.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Thanks for the thread, dipsydoodle.

And incidents like this will continue. Meanwhile, the right wing echo chamber is already jumping to the defense of the Israeli pirates. If you don't believe me, just turn on Fox News (if you can stand to watch it.)

look no further than the undeleted posts in the IP forum for the latest IDF spin.

The U.N. is not going to punish anyone. The 'World' will not do anything.
Cowardly terror-supporters attacked brave citizen-soldiers. Case closed.

Israel is emerging as our very own North Korea.

n/t

Israel has the ONLY vote that counts in their sugar-daddy's pocket...

in history as 'The Israeli Mistake.' (As forecasted by halfpasthuman.com)

I, for one, do not want our country to back Israel on this attack on an humanitarian effort.

Next, the Israelis will say they found 'knives'....some of them are for cutting food, you know.

This Occupation is insane.

HERE

Channel 1

PB