Lone Flotilla Boat Fails to Enter Gaza



Not missing the Flotilla:
Shoppers at newest Gaza Mall
Photo Credit: EoZ blog 

Early yesterday afternoon a single boat from the “Fizzled Flotilla” entered Israel’s territorial waters and was stopped by the Israeli Navy. The ship's activists had misled Greek authorities by stating that they were headed for Egypt, but they changed course to head for Gaza.

The boat was boarded without incident; this represented, we hope, the end of protest cruise season this year. The Ship to Gaza movement, which last year brought little or useless aid to Gaza  residents, was represented today by the French-Corsican registered Dignite al Karama. Like last year’s Mavi Marmara it is a passenger ship, and carried no aid supplies.  But unlike the Mavi Marmara, it carried no club- and knife-wielding mercenary jihadists, just a small number of protesters.

A flotilla information press release dated yesterday lists 16 passengers and crew, including Swedish repeat cruiser Dror Feiler. (Seems that Swedish author Henning Mankell missed the boat this time.) Since Feiler was barred from entering Israel for 10 years last year, we will see if Israeli immigration authorities prosecute him this year.

A talkback comment titled “Swedish news agency TT manipulates reporting”  by Fredrik on the Ynet news item stated:

-“The Swedish news agency TT manipulates the reporting on this story to Swedish media, because they sympathize with the activists and hate Israel. TT even edited the quote from Danny Ayalon, and took out the part where he says Ship to Gaza is breaking international maritime law by trying to sail to Hamas-ruled Gaza.  99% of the dispatches from TT contain claims favorable to the anti-Israel activists, while 1%, at most, could be viewed as neutral. TT SHOULD BE BANNED FROM REPORTING FROM ISRAEL.”

Here’s a quote from the Local with a slanted view of the protest, making it sound as if the flotilla is all about helping the Gazans:

-“The Freedom Flotilla II, uniting 300 activists from all walks of life and 22 different countries, and aiming to transport necessities and to protest the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian-controlled coastal strip, has suffered a slew of setbacks.”

As we have reported a number of times, the humanitarian aid is a negligible part of this protest, which primarily aims to delegitimize Israel. Painting it as a humanitarian mission to the hungry is flat out misleading, just like the Dignite’s sailing plans.  

SIJ supports freedom of the press, and so does Israel. In fact, in addition to the two Al-Jazeera reporters, Haaretz’s Amira Hass is also on board. However, we wonder what this minor media circus was supposed to achieve, beyond Israel delegitimization. 

By Chanah Shapira