June 30, 2009 15:30 local time: Israeli Occupation forces have boarded the Free Gaza Movement's aid boat Spirit of Humanity and abducted 21 humanitarian aid workers including six-term U.S. Congresswoman and former presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Major news outlets MSNBC, ABC, CNN, BBC, FOX, and The Nation have been silent on events, thus far.
"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said McKinney. "President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey."
A communication from the Spirit of Humanity, earlier today, reported that the boat would continue to move slowly toward the Gaza port despite being surrounded by Israeli warships at 24 miles off Israel's coast. The activists aboard refused to retreat despite Israeli threats and warned the Israelis that they must not fire on unarmed human rights workers and journalists.
"We didn't come with guns and weapons, but with just humanitarian aid, in an attempt to break the siege of Gaza and to tell the apathetic world about what is happening in the Strip, especially after the last war," said Huwaida Araf, Chairperson of the Free Gaza Movement in an radio interview with Nazareth-based Al-Shams.
Arraf says the Spirit of Humanity left Cyprus after being inspected and given security clearance. It is carrying "medical supplies, children's toys, and reconstruction kits" to the 1.5 million people trapped in Gaza.
In 2007, Israel heightened the blockade on Gaza, which is home to some 1.5 million people. Please see the Free Gaza Movement's web site for live updates.
Video shows the Cyprus departure of the Spirit of Humanity on June 29th.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - roger nowosielski
If this indeed is true, then it's outrageous. And so is the silence of the mainstream media.
2 - roger nowosielski
Here's a link to another media source.
3 - Jeff
Cynthia McKinney is a total nutjob! How come there's no outcry from those wackos to release the hostages the Hamas TERRORISTS and MURDERERS still hold captive?
4 - roger nowosielski
What has this got to do with Israeli action?
5 - Cindy
Well, it has everything to do with it. Jeff's argument is nothing but a caveman version of all like arguments along the same vein.
It's just easier to see in a less sophisticated version. Really though, it's quite the same as any argument that supports authority--whether by making an attack on the opposition or defending the authority itself.
Either way it looks as stupid to an anarchist. It's merely that Jeff seems like he has nothing more than an unexamined defense. To someone who looks closer, this will extend to arguments defending actions by authority that people ordinarily present. They're generally unexamined. (When they are, it's through a biased lens.)
6 - roger nowosielski
It has everything to do with Jeff. The fact that he uses his hatred of Cynthia McKinney as any kind of counter-argument, again speaks volumes about Jeff.
7 - roger nowosielski
Not the best analogy. It was humanitarian aid and the Israelis clearly overstepped their authority. It was an arbitrary action on their part, bordering on illegitimacy.
8 - Dave Nalle
When you put the word "abduct" in the title it makes it a lot harder to take this article seriously especially when it's already involving Cynthia McKinney and a bunch of terrorist-loving moonbats.
And even if Jeff hates Cynthia McKinney, which is perfectly understandable, he DOES have a point. Why do the protests from these tranzis only go one way?
I guarantee McKinney and Co. are being treated a hell of a lot better by the Israelis -- prior to their speedy deportation -- than Hammas hostages are.
When you start choosing one group of murderers over another you become complicit in the crimes of the one you favor. They're still both evil.
Dave
9 - Cindy
#6 Agreed.
(Someone got this article out very quickly! Thanks so much whoever you are :-)
10 - Cindy
Dave,
So, the innocent people in Gaza (on whom bombs are being dropped) they have planes? They're evil? They have been without medical care, electricity is random...is that true for the Israelis?
When you have a captive group of people without the means to defend themselves that you invade and bomb and deprive them of supplies through blockades for years and refuse to sign a ceasefire agreement and then kill people within their borders as alleged potential threats so that you can then ostensibly and apparently justify bombing them--is there a difference?
Did you bother to look at the 9 videos I posted Dave? Or just like the rest of your positions are they just based on one-sided, unexamined ideology?
You are becoming nothing but another limp ideologue to me.
11 - Clavos
You're welcome. Had to, you were ahead of the timing curve on this one.
12 - Cindy
Thanks Clav! :-)
Note to self: Do not read Dave's posts when you are the chip leader in a 45 player sit & go at 6 people left. (didn't even notice the second caller--there goes an hour and a half of strategy down the sink) Back to the drawing board. :-)
P.S. Dave...I used 'abducted' because I find authority illegitimate. That is a reasonable view imo. It the view that legitimates it that I find biased.
13 - zingzing
cindy, you watch that crass doc? i did, and it was pretty cool. not enough about the music for my taste--totally about the anarchist actions of the group, including one thing i didn't know about.
they cut up and reorganized a bunch of reagan and thatcher speech tapes, turning them into a conversation about how thatcher rationalized the falklands war. then they sent the doctored tape to newspapers all over mainland europe, claiming them to be secret kgb tapes. it got pretty hairy, the us press fell for it, the kgb contacted crass (trying to recruit them) and they were eventually found out to be behind the hoax. of course, by then, the fact that there was much truth on the tape, despite its origins, was revealed to the public, who couldn't give a shit. bah.
a bit from a newspaper article at the time (san fran chronicle):
"It said, "From the drift of the tape, the evident purpose was to cause problems for Mrs. Thatcher by blaming her for the sinking of the British destroyer Sheffield and also for us by stirring trouble on the INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) issue."
The Sheffield was sunk by Argentine forces last year during the war with Britain over the Falkland Islands."
of course, the british were behind the sinking of the sheffield, or at least choosing that ship to be sunk, as it would cause the most response amongst the public.
the music they do present in the doc is crass at their most pure punk, which is wonderful and all, but they did a lot of experimental stuff as well. so, enjoy the doc, but go check out crass' music as well.
14 - Silas Kain
Cynthia McKinney may be a moonbat but I admire her tenacity. She's willing to fight for her principles and damn it she'll make herself heard. There are lessons, both pro and con, to be learned from Ms. McKinney. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the heart of the country doesn't have the will to be as passionate -- it might take them away from voting for the next American Idol.
15 - Cindy
thanks zing. i didn't finish it (a.d.d. and all). now i will. how excellent. i was ready for a melancholy look at what i missed not ever getting to live on a commune. that sounds very cool. and maybe an idea that can be recycled in various (if smaller) ways.
16 - Cindy
Well your comment is among the most intelligent and amusing, Ollie. And would that everyone were so engaged, they probably wouldn't have time to bomb anyone. Thanks for volunteering your...ahem...anatomy. It's for a good cause.
17 - Dave Nalle
Cindy, just as one group of murderers doesn't provide an excuse for another group, the innocence of one group of victims doesn't erase the innocence of another group of victims. Are your Gaza residents more innocent than an Israeli kid killed by a suicide bomber or a car bomb? No, they're all innocent. And when you choose one group over another you are abetting the bad behavior of those you support by default.
Dave
18 - zingzing
dave, are you choosing sides?
19 - Ruvy
I'm sorry, Cindy. You've just lost all my respect for you. This is a nice agit-prop piece for the Arabs, more appropriately labeled "satire".
You've put yourself on the side of murderers, killers and terrorists and made yourself their useful idiot.
Mazel tov!
As for Cynthia McKinney, there is only one lesson to be learned from her. Some women should be shoved into a kitchen and told to bake cookies - and the cookies they bake should be tossed into the trash before anyone dies from eating their garbage. Cynthia McKinney is one such woman.
It will be very hard to take anything you say seriously from now on.
Summary: Tolstoy's Cat needs her litter-box cleaned.
20 - Ruvy
One bit of praise is due you, Cindy. Your title, "Israel Abducts etc" will get you notice from every anti-Israel and Jew-hating group on the net. I can't wait for this to be featured on some neo-Nazi site.
21 - zingzing
i'm sure you're on there too, ruvy.
22 - Dave Nalle
And with the arrival of Ruvy, the circle of life is complete.
And no, Zing, I'm not taking sides. That's the point.
Dave
23 - Cindy
Dave,
Are your Gaza residents more innocent than an Israeli kid killed by a suicide bomber or a car bomb? No, they're all innocent.
Yes they are all innocent.
And when you choose one group over another you are abetting the bad behavior of those you support by default.
Here is where I disagree, Dave. I don't choose one group over another. I choose all innocent people--they all go in one group. All innocent people should stand up for each other. They will be the ones who are the victims of the terrorists on both sides.
However, I add the note that the Israeli govt purposely didn't renew the ceasefire agreement that was available to them. Hamas did not fire rockets until the ceasefire agreement was broken by the Israelis. (It says so right on the Israeli govt web site. I read it there myself and posted a quote referring to it with a list of 9 videos.) Israel needed an 'acceptable' reason not to have to negotiate. So they refused and then found some 'alleged' POTENTIAL threat to break the ceasefire. Because they are fucking NUTS! I suppose it's because GOD them Israel. They will never settle peacefully.
What do you call a govt that bombs a civilian population that is defenseless? That has no aircraft? No nothing? An astute scholar has called it a massacre. That is what it should be called.
So, once more, just so you understand me. I support all innocents on both sides. Again the problem as so many problems in the world right now, witnessed by massive protests worldwide, is government. It always has been, it always will be.
Open your eyes. People the world over, by the millions, are struggling against the few people in authority and trying to overcome their control. Here all people do, day after day, is argue about the same control govt has over them. And yet I am repeatedly asked how would we ever survive without government? How will we ever survive with it?
24 - Cindy
Of course he's taking sides.
25 - Cindy
What I don't understand though, is why he is taking sides with the government against people? I though Dave was for minimal government? I didn't think he would support government murder of a hostage population.