New Turkish Humanitarian Flotilla Set to Defy Gaza Blockade

[shian]

[QUOTE]Turkish aid organisation the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) will attempt to send a humanitarian convoy to Gaza by sea in spite of Israel’s naval blockade, they have announced.
The organisation, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said that representatives from 12 countries had met in Istanbul over the weekend and would send ships loaded with humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip “in the shadow of the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza”, in a statement emailed to Reuters.

The coalition will hold a press conference to announce the details of the convoy’s departure after a final meeting on Tuesday.

The coalition issued a press release last month saying that it would be launching a humanitarian campaign to Gaza by sea called “Gaza’s Ark”, in spite of Israel’s naval blockade of the region.

“We hereby announce that we are planning another flotilla in the near future, to challenge the blockade of Gaza , with participants from around the world,” a press release from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

The coalition will attempt to breach the blockade without military assistance, insisting they have “not asked for military escort, have no intention to, and will not sail with a military escort”.

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have maintained a naval blockade on the Gaza strip since 2007. Khaled Mashal, leader of Palestinian leading party Hamas told AFP on Sunday his movement’s final goal was ensuring “the Gaza Strip exist without a blockade.”

The international coalition was formed after the Israeli Defence Forces attacked the Mavi Marmara, the lead vessel of a Turkish humanitarian mission in 2010, killing nine Turkish activists.

After the incident IDF sources told the Jerusalem Post that “despite the unfortunate outcome” they would continue to use similar means to prevent any vessel from breaching the blockade on the Gaza strip.

Rhetoric from the Turkish government has strongly condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza, with newly elected president Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously calling it a “genocide”.

“If the flotilla gets through then the Israeli blockade is effectively over,” Dr. Ahron Bregman, Israel specialist and writer of Cursed Victory: History of Israel and the Occupied Territories told Newsweek. “The Israelis regard the blockade on Gaza as a bargaining chip to force the hand of Hamas so that they stop firing rockets.”

“I'll be very surprised if the IDF allows the new international flotilla to get into Gaza, given that in ceasefire talks in Egypt they show no flexibility whatsoever in allowing the Gazans to have a sea port, or free access from the sea,” Dr. Bergman added.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.newsweek.com/new-turkish-humanitarian-flotilla-set-defy-gaza-blockade-263825[/url]

[QUOTE]A Turkish aid group said on Monday it would send a new flotilla of ships to break Israel's siege of Gaza, four years after the deadly storming of its vessel by Israeli commandos.
The May 2010 Israeli assault on the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara in international waters en route to Gaza sparked widespread condemnation and provoked a major diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel.

The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which organised the first flotilla, said in a statement that activists from 12 countries had met in Istanbul and taken the decision to send the ships "in the shadow of the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza".

"As most governments are complicit, the responsibility falls on civil society to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gaza," it said.

The IHH would hold a press conference on Tuesday, it added. The group is considered to be close to the Turkish government.

Nine Turks died in the raid and one more died in hospital this year after four years in a coma.

As part of an ongoing criminal trial brought by the IHH and the victims' families in 2012, a Turkish court in May ordered the arrest of four former Israeli military chiefs involved in the raid.

Talks on compensation began a year ago after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by U.S. President Barack Obama.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/142782-turkish-group-to-send-new-flotilla-to-break-gaza-blockade[/url]

[QUOTE]Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said on Monday that its move aims to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Relations between the Israeli regime and Turkey soured in 2010 when Israeli commandos attacked the first Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, killing nine Turkish activists on board the Mavi Marmara. The tenth victim of the attack died of his injures in May 2014.
Outgoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in July that ties would remain frosty as long as Israel continues its Gaza offensive, noting that Tel Aviv must know that "if those massacres continue,” normalization of ties is out of question.

More than 1,940 Palestinians, including 470 children, have so far been killed and nearly 10,000 injured since Israel first launched its latest military offensive against the Gaza Strip on July 8. While the Israeli army says around 65 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas puts the number at more than 150.
Tel Aviv imposed an all-out land, aerial, and naval blockade on Gaza in June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/11/374914/turkey-to-send-new-aid-flotilla-to-gaza/[/url]

[QUOTE]The Turkish humanitarian aid group IHH intends to send a ship to Gaza similar to the flotilla that attempted to break the Gaza blockade in 2010. IHH director Bülent Yildrim explained in a statement that “as most governments are complicit, the responsibility falls on civil society to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gaza.”
Yildrim actually agreed with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who had described IHH as “a threat to Israel.” “Indeed it is,” Yildrim responded. “Because you [Lieberman] have no morality. If you lived in Gaza, we would provide you and your family with aid without discrimination. But you closed off all the aid channels and you are Hitler. You and all the members of the government who are with you are perpetrating genocide against the Palestinians.”

Under the slogan, “Let us be the medicine for Gaza,” the organization is recruiting the support of Turkish donors and aid organizations that work together with the Palestinian human-rights organization that operates in Turkey. Yildrim explained that the Turkish government is trying to help the civilians, “but the Zionists and the Americans won’t allow us to act.”

In May 2010, the IHH flotilla en route to Gaza was raided by the Israel Defense Forces and nine Turkish civilians onboard the Mavi Marmara were killed. The episode caused a deep freeze in Israel-Turkey relations, which only began to thaw last year after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the deaths of the civilians.

An agreement was also reached, in principle, for the payment of compensation to the families of the dead, with Israel consenting to pay more than $22 million to a special fund, but not directly to the families.

However, Turkey is still demanding that the blockade on Gaza be lifted as a key condition for renewing full diplomatic relations with Israel, and Hamas is insisting on this condition in the current cease-fire talks in Cairo. But even if Israel agreed to lift the blockade now, it’s highly doubtful that relations with Turkey could be normalized given the invective hurled at Israel by Erdogan in the course of the Gaza conflict.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.610003[/url]

[QUOTE]A Turkish aid group said on Monday it would send ships again to Gaza to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, some four years after Israeli commandos stormed its flotilla of Gaza-bound ships and killed 10 people.
The incident wrecked diplomatic ties between Turkey and Israel, once close Middle East allies but whose relationship had been tense since late 2008 over a previous Israeli operation against Gaza.
The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said in an e-mailed statement that members of a "coalition" of pro-Palestinian activists from 12 countries had met in Istanbul at the weekend and decided to launch a convoy "in the shadow of the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza," referring to the latest, month-long war. Fighting has abated under a 72-hour ceasefire deal.
"The Freedom Flotilla Coalition affirmed that, as most governments are complicit, the responsibility falls on civil society to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gaza," it said.
An IHH spokeswoman did not elaborate. The group will hold a news conference on Tuesday, she said.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.worldbulletin.net/turkey/142313/turkeys-ihh-to-challenge-israeli-blockade-with-new-gaza-flotilla[/url]

[QUOTE]A pro-Palestinian campaign group in Turkey is to send aid on ships bound for Gaza, four years after its last attempt to break the Israeli blockade ended in a bloody raid and the deaths of 10 activists.
In a statement issued after a meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation group said it had formed a multi-national coalition designed to "challenge the Israeli blockade".
The fighting in Gaza has abated in the last 24 hours as both sides agreed to a new three-day ceasefire deal. The conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant groups has now lasted more than a month and led to the deaths of almost 2,000 people.
A spokesperson for IHH said pro-Palestinian activists from 12 different countries had come together to form the "Freedom Flotilla Coalition", which will launch a convoy "in the shadow of the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza".
"The Freedom Flotilla Coalition affirmed that, as most governments are complicit, the responsibility falls on civil society to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gaza," the group said. A further news conference has been scheduled for Tuesday.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-turkish-campaign-group-to-challenge-gaza-blockade-by-sending-flotilla-full-of-aid-for-palestinians-9661748.html[/url]

[Jonzky]

[quote]
As well as Erdoğan, who condemned Israel in another hate-filled speech on Friday, the activist also fingered Bulent Yildirim, the head of IHH, a terror-tied humanitarian NGO behind the 2010 Mavi Marmara Flotilla in Gaza, for inciting Jew hatred in Turkey.

On Thursday, Yildirim told local television station Haber Turk that[B] “Turkish Jews will pay dearly” for Israel’s actions. “Jewish tourists, don’t dare come to Turkey,” he said on television. “Tonight and tomorrow we are going to hold a different kind of protest, we do not have patience anymore. The Zionists are putting the future of the Jews in danger, we can not hold back our youngsters anymore.”[/B]

The activist said that “from the first days of (the) Gaza operation,” Yildirim ”accused the Turkish Jewish community.”

“Yildirim said that Istanbul-Tel Aviv planes are full with Turkish Jews with dual nationality and that they are going to Israel to fight against Palestinians and that the Zionists in Turkey are the main financiers of Israel and Mossad,” the activist said.

“With the announcement of the ground operation, the debates on TV channels became really provocative against the Turkish Jewish community,” the activist said. “They asked the community to put pressure on Israel to stop the operation. Yildirim on TV said, ‘We are stopping people from doing ‘bad things’ to the community. The community has to stop Israel, if not ‘bad things’ can happen.’ And the protests in Ankara and Istanbul started. Today it’s Friday and we expect the continuation of these protests.”

Late Thursday, another Turkish Jewish activist also decried the violent situation in an interview with The Algemeiner. “The Turkish Jewish Community which has been living in Turkey peacefully for over 500 years, is in grave danger for their lives after the escalation of the events in the Middle East,” the individual said.
[/quote]
[url]http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/18/jewish-activist-in-turkey-blames-erdogans-incitement-for-violence-against-jews-as-israeli-diplomats-withdrawn/[/url]

But yeh sure a group that has been liked with terrorism ties, and a leader that states things like that will surely be 'winner' if they set sail to Gaza. Despite the fact they can legally send the aid through the crossings, they decide to go the controversial way.

[bravehat]

Fuck yeah Blockade Shooting 2: Electric Boogaloo!

[Gentry]

[QUOTE=Jonzky;45658677][url]http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/18/jewish-activist-in-turkey-blames-erdogans-incitement-for-violence-against-jews-as-israeli-diplomats-withdrawn/[/url]

But yeh sure a group that has been liked with terrorism ties, and a leader that states things like that will surely be 'winner' if they set sail to Gaza. Despite the fact they can legally send the aid through the crossings, they decide to go the controversial way.[/QUOTE]

people should take note that algemeiner is a far right Israeli shill site.

[ScumBunny]

I asked google, and it says [URL="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.606820"]Haaretz[/URL] and [URL="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4545835,00.html"]Ynet[/URL] report the same story.
The head of IHH is also, not surprisingly, a [URL="http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4300.htm"]Hamas supporter[/URL].