Israeli sailors intercepted a small boat carrying former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and 17 other activists sailing to Gaza to protest Israel’s blockade, the government said Monday morning.
The boat — the Marianne av Göteborg, one of four in a convoy called Freedom Flotilla III carrying pro-Palestinian activists — was boarded and redirected to the port of Ashdod without incident, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a one-paragraph statement.
“This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organization and ignores all of the horrors in our region,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We are not prepared to accept the entry of war materiel to the terrorist organizations in Gaza as has been done by sea in the past.”
Before the confrontation, Netanyahu sent a mocking letter to the estimated 50 activists on the four boats, saying: “Welcome to Israel. You seem to have gotten lost. Perhaps you meant to set sail for a place not far from here — Syria. There the Assad regime is slaughtering its own people every day with the support of the murderous regime in Iran.”
A copy of the letter that was issued last night to the passengers of the ship that tried to reach the Gaza coast in contravention of international law:
“Welcome to Israel,
You seem to have gotten lost. Perhaps you meant to sail to a place not far from here – Syria, where Assad’s army is slaughtering its people every day, and is supported by the murderous Iranian regime.
Here in Israel we face a reality in which terrorist organizations like Hamas try to kill innocent civilians. We defend our citizens against these attempts in accordance with international law.
Despite this, Israel transports goods and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip – up to 800 trucks a day. In the past year we enabled the entry of over 1.6 million tons of products, an average of one ton per person in the Gaza Strip. By the way, these supplies are equivalent to 500,000 boats like the one you came in on today.
Israel provides assistance to hundreds of humanitarian projects through international organizations, including the building of clinics and hospitals.
However, we will not allow the terrorist organizations to transfer weapons into the Gaza Strip by sea. Only one year ago, we thwarted an attempt to smuggle hundreds of weapons into the Gaza Strip by ship. These weapons were meant to target innocent Israeli civilians.
There is no siege on the Gaza Strip, and you are welcome to transfer any humanitarian supplies for the Gaza Strip through Israel.
Barring the entrance of boats and ships into the Gaza Strip is in accordance with international law, and was even backed by a committee commissioned by the United Nations Secretary General.
If you were truly concerned about human rights, you would not be sailing in support of a terrorist regime which summarily executes citizens in the Gaza Strip, and uses children as human shields.
If you were to travel around in Israel, you would see for yourself that the only stable democracy in the Middle East guarantees equality for all its citizens and freedom of worship for members of all religions; it is a country that upholds international law so that its people can live in safety and its children grow up in peace and quiet”.
Israeli sailors intercepted a small boat carrying former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and 17 other activists sailing to Gaza to protest Israel’s blockade, the government said Monday morning.
The boat — the Marianne av Göteborg, one of four in a convoy called Freedom Flotilla III carrying pro-Palestinian activists — was boarded and redirected to the port of Ashdod without incident, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a one-paragraph statement.
“This flotilla is nothing but a demonstration of hypocrisy and lies that is only assisting the Hamas terrorist organization and ignores all of the horrors in our region,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “We are not prepared to accept the entry of war materiel to the terrorist organizations in Gaza as has been done by sea in the past.”
Israeli occupied forces intercepted Marianne. The boat is currently en route to Ashdod port #SOSFreedomFlotilla pic.twitter.com/bqDOzcR7h1
— Freedom Flotilla (@GazaFFlotilla) June 29, 2015
Before the confrontation, Netanyahu sent a mocking letter to the estimated 50 activists on the four boats, saying: “Welcome to Israel. You seem to have gotten lost. Perhaps you meant to set sail for a place not far from here — Syria. There the Assad regime is slaughtering its own people every day with the support of the murderous regime in Iran.”
