Israeli Deputy FM: 75 al-Qaeda Mercenaries on Aid Ship

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon appeared on CNN’s “GPS” show today, and once again changed the official story related to the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship two weeks ago.

Danny AyalonAyalon now claims that 75 al-Qaeda linked mercenaries were on board the ship, heavily armed, and that they ambushed the Israeli troops before their eventual capture.'

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Public Prosecutors in Germany: German Members of Parliament File War Crimes Complaints Aagainst Israel

Public prosecutors in Germany are looking into a war crimes complaint filed against Israel by two members of parliament with the Left Party and a human rights activist who were on board the Mavi Marmara when Israeli troops stormed it 11 days ago.

Eleven days ago, the Israeli military stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla carrying pro-Palestinian activists toward the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade. Now, it has become a case for German prosecutors.

Human rights activist Norman Paech and two German parliamentarians from the far-left Left Party, Annette Groth and Inge Höger, have filed criminal complaints for "numerous potential offences, including war crimes against individuals and command responsibility ... as well as false imprisonment".'

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Just watch the Israelis play the Holocaust card in response to this one!!

Silencing Gaza Flotilla Activists in the United States

The Israeli government, with the aid of its many proxies- especially in the Jewish institutional world, is working overtime after the Mavi Mavera massacre to paint the Gaza flotilla participants as terrorists.

Apparently–jamming satellite communications, absconding with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, confiscating every photo and video they could find, and releasing pathetically doctored “evidence” (thank you Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal and others) is not enough. Now groups are working to keep flotilla human rights activists out of the country.'

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Kidnapped by Israel and Abandoned by Britain

There was a second helicopter hovering over the ship, trying to lower Israeli soldiers down on a rope. On either side there was tear gas being thrown in from the boats, canisters which they were firing from a sort of gun. One man was shot in the top of the head from the helicopter. He collapsed on the ground. I snatched a microphone from one of the Turkish reporters to say one man had been killed. As I did that another man was shot. Those people died instantly.

Until that point I had not yet seen an Israeli soldier on deck. As far as I am concerned, it's a lie to say they only started shooting on deck. Only then did I see an Israeli soldier on deck.

The men who were dead had been fired on from above.'

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Rep. Sherman: Prosecute U.S. Citizens Involved with Gaza Flotilla

On a press call hosted by a pro-Israel organization, Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, told reporters that he intends seek the prosecution of any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla.

“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [PDF] makes it absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas or any of its officials,” Sherman said on the Israel Project call, conflating Hamas and Gaza’s civilian population. “And so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization".'

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Israel Intercepts New Gaza Aid Ship

The Israeli Navy has intercepted a new Gaza-bound aid ship Rachel Corrie following its earlier attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, pro-Palestinian activists say.

"They are being followed," Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza group told Reuters on Saturday.

Berlin said earlier that the Rachel Corrie was some 55 km (35 miles) west of Gaza in the Mediterranean.

The new ship, scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, was seeking to break a three-year-long blockade of the coastal sliver.'

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Can Americans be Murdered by the Israeli Government With Impunity?

For several days, Israel has been able to contain some of the fallout from the flotilla massacre by withholding information about the dead and injured. The object of this exercise has clearly been to slow the flow of information in the hope that by the time the most damning facts become known, the international media’s attention will have turned elsewhere.

But the dead now have names and faces and one turns out to be a nineteen-year-old American: Furkan Dogan.

Dogan is alleged to have been shot with five bullets, four in the head.'

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Turkish Sources – Israeli Advance Target Assassination List Found on Flotilla

Turkish sources and media revealed a document which shows that a death list had been prepared in advance by the Israelis, showing names and pictures of people on board of the ships to be murdered, who, according to Israel, were “involved in the International humanitarian aid for Gaza”. According to the Turkish sources, hundreds of Israeli soldiers stormed the blue Turkish ship “Marmara” flotilla and they had copies of the death list. The list included the names of civilians on the fleet who should be killed”. The document was apparently recovered after one of the Israeli soldiers lost it during the piracy act.'

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The Lone Ship of the Freedom Flotilla: The Rachel Corrie MV Continues to Sail Towards Gaza in Defiance of Israeli Threats

Following Israel's criminal raid in international waters on May 31st, the Rachel Corrie MV continues to sail towards the Gaza coastline in defiance of Israeli threats.

In an act of tremendous courage, the Rachel Corrie MV is determined to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.'

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Obama Gives Israel All-Out Support

After the United Nations ratified a resolution calling for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, the US president gives Israel "concrete guarantees" to prevent the decision from harming Israeli interests.

Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post quoted senior political sources in al-Quds (Jerusalem) as saying that President Barack Obama's assurances to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came with the promise of a significant upgrade to Israel's military capabilities.

President Obama gave Prime Minister Netanyahu "concrete guarantees that the US will strengthen Israel's strategic capabilities," the report said.'

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Israel Resembles a Failed State

One year has passed since the savage Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, but for the people there time might as well have stood still.

Since Palestinians in Gaza buried their loved ones -- more than 1,400 persons, almost 400 of them children -- there has been little healing and virtually no reconstruction.

According to international aid agencies, only 41 trucks of building supplies have been allowed into Gaza during the year.

Promises of billions made at a donors' conference in Egypt last March attended by luminaries of the so-called "international community" and the Middle East peace process industry are unfulfilled, and the Israeli siege, supported by the US, the European Union, Arab states, and tacitly by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, continues.'

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US Remains Silent Over McKinney Arrest by Israel

Nearly a day after the detention of former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney by Israeli forces, Washington has yet to make a reaction.

Israeli Navy detained former US congresswoman and Nobel Prize laureate Cynthia McKinney and twenty other human rights activists on board a relief boat outside Israel's territorial waters on Tuesday as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission.

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Founders of US Muslim Charity Jailed for 65 Years for Funding Hamas' School and Social Welfare Programs

The Holy Land leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organisation to money laundering and tax fraud. The group was not accused of violence, but of bankrolling schools and social welfare programmes the government says are controlled by Hamas. Holy Land itself was convicted of 32 counts.

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Egypt Blocks Relief Convoy to Gaza

Egyptian authorities block a 39-person solidarity convoy carrying medical aid to Gaza and permit only 16 of them to cross the border.

The organizers of the European Hope for Gaza Convoy refused Egypt's offer to allow only part of the group into Gaza, insisting that all 39 members cross, according to Ahmad Al-Kurd, the minister of social affairs in the Gaza government.

Al-Kurd told reporters at the main gate of the Rafah crossing that although Egypt had given assurances to the Palestinian side that the whole convoy will be given access to the Strip, they have changed their decision at the last moment, granting entry to only 16 people

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Aid Rots Outside Gaza

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt's North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Operation Cast Lead.

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Gaza Aid Prevented By US

After Israel's war on Gaza in January, much of the infrastructure is in ruins. Schools, hospitals, roads, and different public offices were bombed. Three hundred thousand people have no water, and UNICEF estimates that 8,000 children are badly malnourished. But Save The Children and other aid organizations are being prevented from rebuilding by U.S. legislation. According to the Patriot Act, support to build schools or clinics in Gaza is "supporting terrorism".

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Israeli Navy Fires at Aid Ship Destined For Gaza

The ship carrying 60 tons of medicine, food, toys and books, was intercepted as it sailed towards Gaza from Cyprus on Wednesday afternoon, said the Lebanese aid coordinator, Maan Bashur. "The Brotherhood Ship was fired on by an Israeli military boat 32 kilometers off the coast of Gaza and they were asked to divert course," said Bashour, adding that it remains in the water near the coast of Gaza, Haaretz reported.

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