The Utilitarian Libertarian

Exclusive: Seasick In Gaza
Adrian Morgan

On May 28 we published Steve Emerson's account of the "Freedom Flotilla" which was carrying 750 activists with 10,000 tons of supplies to Gaza. The flotilla of nine ships were intending to break the blockade imposed by Israel to prevent Hamas receiving arms. The Israeli government warned that it was preparing to prevent the flotilla from landing. This morning, the Israeli navy moved to prevent the flotilla from going forward and between 10 and 16 people have been killed.

The flotilla is the latest in a series of blockade-busting stunts by an international coalition of Islamists and their supporters (mainly from the left of the political spectrum). The organizing body behind the flotilla is called the Free Gaza Movement. Last year, activists connected with Viva Palestina, the charity run by George Galloway, were at the Egyptian border with Gaza when violence broke out. Riot police became involved. In the conflict, an Egyptian soldier was killed.

What has happened today is going to be used as propaganda to malign Israel further, but the convoys' political dimensions overshadow their humanitarian ventures. Melanie Phillips has described the current flotilla as an "absurd flotilla of fools". But there are political undertows that should alarm any observer of Middle East activities.

Gabby Levy, Israeli Ambassador at Ankara, Turkey's capital, had warned that: "The sole purpose of these activities is to create provocations that pose security risks to the state of Israel. All parties directly or indirectly involved in these actions shall be held responsible and accountable for violation of the maritime blockade."

The convoy was launched with the full approval of the Turkish government. Six of the nine ships are Turkish, and are controlled by Turkish charity called Humanitarian Relief Foundation. The largest of the Turkish vessels is called the Mavi Marmara, a passenger ship. Serkan Nergis, a spokesperson for the IHH "These ships have the Turkish flag on them. Anything that is going to be done to them is also done to Turkey, and they will have a diplomatic response."

It was on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara that today's violence broke out and already the Turkish government is blaming the Israelis for the violence.

According to Israeli spokesman Mark Regev on BBC radio, the violence was initiated by the activists on the Turkish boat when it was being examined. He said that 10 Israeli commandos had been injured. The activists were said to have attacked the Israelis inspecting the ship, using axes and knives.

The incident took place in the waters outside Gaza, before daybreak. Turkish television has been broadcasting footage taken by Al Jazeera. Jamal Elshayyal, an Al Jazeera journalist on board the Malvi Marmara was claiming that the ship had run up a white flag and yet shooting could still be heard. The Israeli military claimed that four soldiers had been injured, with two of these receiving moderate wounds.

The Malvi Marmara had left Cyprus on Sunday afternoon. The timing of the departure had been vague, and there had been uncertainty about the time of the flotilla's arrival at Gaza. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza MOvement had said: "A lot of that confusion is done on purpose because why should we telegraph to the Israeli navy... exactly when it is that we are going to come?"

Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister, had declared yesterday that any action to prevent the flotilla arriving will be seen as an "act of piracy".

Relations between Turkey and Israel have been slipping recently, even though as early as 1949, Turkey had officially recognized Israel. For the past year, IAF aircraft which had previously mounted annual joint exercise operations with Turkey had been banned from flying over Turkish soil. In April this year, Turkey mounted joint military exercises with Syria, a nation whose enmity toward Israel is implacable.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, is an Islamist. He heads the Justice and Development Party in Turkey (AKP) which has worked to remove from Turkey the secularism that was initiated by Kemal Ataturk. Under his leadership the first non-secular president (Abdullah Gul of the AKP) was instituted. Even though Turkey's constitution forbids the wearing of Islamic headscarves in government buildings, Ermine Erdogan and other wives of AKP representatives always appear wearing scarves. The military used to stage coups whenever a government showed signs of Islamism. While Turkey was officially trying to join the European Union, the military has stood back and allowed the AKP to roll back the secular state conceived by Ataturk.

In January 2009 Erdogan had stormed out of a TV debate with Israel's president, declaring: "You are killing people."

Turkey is still a member of NATO, but over the last year Erdogan appears to have been looking to the Islamic world, rather than the West, for alliances. With today's incident, diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey will reach an all-time low.

Israel claims that every week it allows 15,000 tons of aid to enter Gaza. Tom Gross, writing in Canada's National Post has claimed that many Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza are living a "middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on."

Turkey and Israel will be facing each other down for some time to come, but today's incident will benefit one group of Palestinians - Hamas. It is precisely because of the activities of Hamas on the Gaza Strip that there is a blockade. Hamas has made no attempt to stop its activists firing Qassam rockets at Israeli civilian targets. The Qassam rockets are primitive devices, but they continue to be fired. Yesterday, Ynet News a strike was made against a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip as a response to continuing Qassam launches from Hamas-controlled territory. The tunnel had been used to smuggle weaponry and activists into Gaza.

Hamas, as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has no intention of making peace with Israel. Its notorious charter urges the destruction of Israel and invokes Hadiths which claim that the Last Hour will not come until the Muslims fight against the Jews. The Charter of 1988, which specifically describes Hamas as a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, has never been altered. It contains a quote from Hassan al-Banna ("of blessed memory"), who founded the Muslim Brotherhood:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

Hamas has carried out numerous deadly terrorist attacks against Israel. Between September 2000 and May 2004, Hamas terror attacks killed 227 Israeli civilians and injured 1,393.

In January 2006 Hamas won elections in the Palestinian territories but violence erupted between Hamas and Fatah (a group closely connected with the Palestinian Authority) loyalists. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah had formed a "Unity Government" under the leadership of Ismail Haniyeh, but three months later, the two factions had split. Haniyeh seized the Gaza Strip forcibly and Fatah activists were thrown off buildings by Hamas members. If this is how the Hamas "leader" of the Gaza Strip treats his own fellow Palestinians, how can he be expected to create peace with Israel? Haniyeh still holds IDF corporal Gilad Shalit as a hostage, even though Shalit had been kidnapped in a raid on Israeli soil, and not engaged in conflict at the time of his abduction.

Supporters of Hamas have been using Turkey as a means of "legitimizing" their political presence. On February 16, 2006 the supreme head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, visited Ankara with the support of Erdogan and his government. In May this year Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, urged that Middle East peace talks should include Hamas, saying: "Unfortunately Palestinians have been split into two… In order to reunite them, you have to speak to both sides. Hamas won elections in Gaza and cannot be ignored."

Turkey has been a host for numerous Islamist "conferences" and at one of these, held on February 13, 2009, 90 Islamic scholars and religious leaders signed a document known as the "Istanbul Declaration (pdf). This document praised the "muhajidin" in the land of Gaza, and condemns the Palestinian Authority for giving up on Jihad.

It states: "The obligation of the Islamic Nation to restrict itself to dealing only with the legitimate elected Palestinian government (Hamas) in the delivery of aid and reconstruction of dwellings. It is the sole government authorized to do that by reason of its official legitimacy as well as its maintaining the Resistance against the Jewish Zionist occupation, its integrity, and its solidarity with the people in all circumstances. "

Statement 6 of this document states: "The obligation of the Islamic Nation to open the crossings -- all crossings -- in and out of Palestine permanently, in order to allow access to all the needs of the Palestinians -- money, clothing, food, medicine, weapons and other essentials, so that they are able to live and perform the jihad in the way of Allah Almighty. The closure of the crossings or the prevention of the entry of weapons through them should be regarded as high treason in the Islamic Nation, and clear support for the Zionist enemy."

The document encourages armed resistance to any attempt by a navy to stop arms from being smuggled into Gaza. One of those who signed this document was Daud Abdullah, the deputy leader of Britain's "Muslim Council of Britain" a group which had acted in an advisory capacity with the UK Labour government. In January 2009, the UK government had promised to allow its navy to assist in keeping the blockade against weapons entering Gaza by sea. Daud Abdullah's signing of the document caused arguments.

Mohammed Sawalha had also signed the Istanbul Declaration. Sawalha was a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood-related UK group called the Muslim Asociation of Britain (MAB) and now heads the British Muslim Initiative (BMI). According to the BBC's journalist John Ware, Sawalha used to be a Hamas fundraiser, known on the West Bank by the code name Abu Abada.

Sawalha, in his capacity as one of the organizers of the flotilla, gave an interview with Al-Intiqad, the website of Hizbollah. This took place on December 17, 2009 in Beirut, at a conference attended by Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, Hizbollah leader Hassan Nazrallah, and also the "spiritual head" of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. In a discussion of the conflict with the Egyptian authorities which took place last year and led to the death of an Egyptian policeman, Sawalha made an ominous statement.

Sawalha said that "the next time the confrontation will be directly with the Zionist enemy itself on the high seas."

That confrontation has now happened.