| Ander Nieuws week 23 / Midden-Oosten 2010 |
The Times
June 1, 2010
Joanna Sugden
Up to 40 Britons have been detained by the Israelis after the assault on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. They have been given the choice of being deported or detained. If they choose detention a judge will decide whether they are to stand trial in Israel.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said today that there were at least 31 British nationals and 11 British passport holders among those being held in a prison in southern Israel.
"We expect them to be deported very quickly," he said. One Briton has already been deported and Mr Hague said that others may have refused to give their identities or destroyed their papers making exact numbers of Britons involved difficult to verify.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it was "urgently seeking access" to the Britons who are being held in the town of Beersheba. It is believed that 28 people from the UK were taking part in the aid effort when it came under fire.
Foreign Office sources said that many of those detained had refused to give their names to the Israelis, making it hard to give firm numbers of Britons involved.
It was confirmed earlier that one Briton, Ahsan Shamruk, was injured in the attack and had received medical treatment.
Israeli officials said that about 50 of the 671 activists have been taken to Israel's international airport for deportation. They say others have refused to identify themselves and will remain in detention.
The list so far of those on board
The Britons
Ahsan Shamruk, from North London, has been named by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the Briton injured during the attacks. He is believed to be in a stable condition and is being treated in hospital. Mr Shamruk's Facebook pages shows that he belongs to groups such as Ship to Gaza, The History of Palestine, Voice and Echoes of Palestine, and Islamic Human Rights Commission. He was a member of the Viva Palestina group, a UK-registered charity founded by former MP George Galloway. The group campaigns for the rights of Palestinians and aims to get humanitarian supplies out to the Gaza strip.
Ewa Jasiewicz was in the flotilla as part of the Free Gaza Movement. Her sister Agi Donovan told the World at One programme on Radio 4 that she was anxious for her sister's safety. "All of us in the family have been trying to call her. . . and nobody's been able to reach her," she said.
"There have been suggestions that the mobile phones of all the passengers have perhaps been confiscated so that could be a reason."
Ms Donovan said she hoped that Ms Jasiewicz was off the ship and was safe."No information has been released, as far as I'm aware, of who has been injured, no names, so when you don't hear anything you wonder," she said.
Ismail Patel, an aid worker from Oadby, Leicester, is thought to be one of the 28 people being held in Beersheba.
Only hours before Israeli troops moved in, Mr Patel, chairman of the Leicester-based organisation Friends of Al-Aqsa, posted a video on YouTube. In it, he said: "We are on our way to Gaza to bring much-needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
"At the moment we can see three frigates and a navy helicopter hovering overhead despite the fact that we are in international waters, some hundred miles away from the shores of Israel."
Mr Patel's brother Shockat, told the Leicester Mercury that when they heard what had happened it was "as though our worst nightmares were coming true".
Edward Garnier, Conservative MP for Harborough, said: "I have been in touch with the Foreign Office, I have been round to see the family, and my latest information is that he is in the detention centre in Beersheba. I have no indications he is hurt or injured in any way but the consular staff from the embassy in Tel Aviv are trying to get into the prison now in order to see the 28 or so British who are there."
Peter Venner, 63, a father of two from the Isle of Wight. He runs a wood yard and became involved in delivering aid to the Palestinians three years ago and last January drove a lorry full of humanitarian supplies overland to Gaza. This was his first journey by sea.
His partner Rachel Bridgeland, 51, told the Daily Mail: "Peter is definitely not a violent man in fact he is exactly the opposite. The last time I heard from him was Saturday. He was in high spirits. He told me he knew the Israelis would try and stop them. But no one knew it was going to be like this.
"I do not know what has happened to him. I am desperately worried that he may have come to harm."
Baboo Zanghar, from Bolton, Lancashire was said to be carrying supplies worth £32,000 donated by people from the town. Attempts to reach him proved unsuccessful last night.
Tauqir Sharif, from Chingford, Essex. His sister Tyeeba Sharif said the family had heard nothing from him since last Tuesday. "He's totally innocent, he was taking nappies and teddy bears, there were no weapons."
Cliff Hanley, from Bristol who was part of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
Sakir Yildirim, from Bristol also part of the PSC.
Alex Harrison, 32, from London, describes herself as a "solidarity worker" who is based both in Britain and Palestine. She has family in the Palestinian territories and was on board a previous maritime mission to Gaza that was intercepted by the Israeli navy.
Ibrahim Musaji is also believed to be among the passengers, no address has been given for him.
Denis Healey, 55, originally from Portsmouth, was the skipper of the Challenger 1 boat that carried 20 passengers including three German MPs, a Swedish MP and a former US colonel.
He has a longstanding involvement in the Palestinian movement and has captained boats on previous aid journeys into Gaza, including one two years ago in which the boat was rammed by an Israeli gunboat.
He is a marine engineer and now lives in the Cypriot port of Limassol with his British partner, Ruth Baker.
Paveen Yaqub, 39, from Huddersfield is a council worker and was on board Mavi Marmara, the lead boat in the flotilla.
The last message Paveen wrote on her Facebook page yesterday read: "Something has kicked off; I gotta run up deck."
Minutes later she wrote: "We are now surrounded by Israeli warships with helicopters circulating and following the convoy of ships heading for Gaza still. "We will not be stopping unless we are forcibly made to do so."
Noreen Sheikh-Latif, a friend from Slaithwaite, said she was "extremely worried" about Paveen whom she looked on "as a sister".
She told the Liverpool Daily Post: "We were in contact with Paveen until two or three hours before the boat went under siege and nobody has heard from her since.
"Paveen had been saying that they were very conscious that they were being followed by the Israeli war ships.
"On her Facebook page she was saying that she could see helicopters flying overhead.
"In another one she said she thought there was something going on up on the deck.
"She was asking for everybody's prayers."
Ms Yaqub is a Muslim and raised £8,000 to fund her trip to Gaza.
Kevin Ovenden, 40, from Newham, East London, is a former member of the Socialist Workers' Party and an aide to George Galloway, the former Respect MP.
He has written a book on the American black power leader Malcolm X and has travelled on previous aid journeys to Palestinian territories. He is described as a leader of the relief effort.
Theresa McDermott, 43, is a postal worker from Edinburgh. Her friend Carl Abernethy said that she had travelled on three previous voyages to Gaza and was involved in training some of the activists who were new to such missions.
"Theresa takes these risks knowingly because she believes so passionately in the rights of the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza in particular, who have been suffering horrendously for years," Mr Abernethy said.
Alex Harrison, 32, from London, describes herself as a "solidarity worker" who is based both in Britain and Palestine. She has family in the Palestinian territories and was on board a previous maritime mission to Gaza that was intercepted by the Israeli navy.
Gehad Sukkur, 39, from Altrincham, Cheshire
Nicola Enchmarch, from Wimbledon, southwest London
Nader Daher, from Hendon, North London
Alexandra Lort-Phillips, 38, from Hackney, East London
Sarah Colbourne, from Hackney, East London
Hassan Ghani, from North London
Sidique Hajee, from Bradford, West Yorkshire
Mohammed Bhaiyat, from Bradford, West Yorkshire
Nur Choudhary, from Tower Hamlets, East London
The author
Henning Mankell, 62, the Swedish author of the Inspector Wallander books, was released today and is flying home. He was on board with eight other Swedes. Mankell is married to the daughter of the film maker Ingmar Bergman.
"We are worried about our friends who are still in jail," he told the Expressen tabloid on a flight to Sweden.
The daily, which published a picture of Mankell standing in the aisle of the aircraft , reported that the author and Mehmet Kaplan, a Swedish MP, had been allowed to leave Israel.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry said four of the eleven Swedes who had been travelling with the flotilla when it was attacked early yesterday had been permitted to return home.
Anders Joerle, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the others were not all being held at the same place and some had been imprisoned while some had simply been taken into custody.
The former US Ambassador
Edward Peck, 81, a former US Ambassador to Mauritania, was expected to arrive home today after the Free Palestine movement ship that he was on was seized by Israeli commandos.
Ann Peck, his wife, said that she received a brief e-mail from the Israeli Foreign Ministry yesterday informing her that her husband was fine and on his way home. The e-mail said he was likely to arrive today, but that did not have a mobile phone with him and would call from an unnamed New York airport when he landed, she said.
"He gets himself into these messes, and the phone is going to ring," she joked.
Mrs Peck said that as of yesterday evening she had not spoken to US officials, nor had she been able to talk to her husband, since the raid. She had last spoke with him briefly by satellite phone just as the aid ships were leaving their rendezvous point.
"Knowing him I doubt there are regrets," she said. "I think he was really hopeful of it making a difference."
Mr Peck served as deputy director in President Reagan's White House Task Force on Terrorism.
The US Navy veteran
Joe Meadors, 63, of Texas, is a navy veteran. His wife Jean said yesterday evening that she believed he was safe, "but I'd like to hear that from him".
She said his exact status, whether under arrest, detention or otherwise, was unclear.
Mr Meadors served aboard the US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty that was attacked by Israeli forces in 1967, killing 34 crew members.
"He hasn't had much luck with the Israelis," his wife said.
The television producer
David Schermerhorn, retired television commercial producer of Washington state, was also on the flotilla as an activist with the Cyprus-based Free Gaza Movement, his daughter told The Seattle Times.
Kate Schermerhorn said US Embassy officials had told her that the 80-year-old was taken into custody by Israeli officials and was unharmed.
The Germans
Norman Paech, 72, a former member of parliament, who was on board, told reporters in Berlin: "Personally, I saw two and a half wooden batons that were used . . . There was really nothing else. We never saw any knives. The Israeli Government justifies the raid because they were attacked. This was absolutely not the case. This was not an act of self-defence."
Mr Paech said that he had taken photographic evidence, but Israeli authorities confiscated his camera. "We had not prepared in any way to fight. We didn't even consider it. No violence, no resistance because we knew very well that we would have absolutely no chance against soldiers like this. This was an attack in international waters on a peaceful mission . . . This was a clear act of piracy," he said.
A German doctor, Matthias Jochheim, was also on the ship and said he had seen four dead bodies and expected the death toll to be 15.
Inge Hoeger and Annette Groth, two German MPs who had been on board the convoy, also said that they had seen no one with weapons.
The Irish
The group of Irish activists held in Beersheba includes Paul McGeough, 56, an Irish-born journalist and chief correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. He has reported from the Middle East for two decades.
Dublin-based Shane Dillon, 36, first mate on the Challenger 1, was being deported today. He has served as chief officer on Irish and British merchant ships. He is the brother of the musician Eoin Dillon from the traditional band Kila.
Dr Fintan Lane, 43, is a historian, political activist and spokesman for the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He is the author or editor of seven books on modern Irish history.
Fiachra O Luain, 28, is peace activist from Donegal who stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the 2009 European elections. He was one of the first people to protest over the US military using Shannon Airport.
Two naturalised Irish-Libyans and one person of Irish-Polish dual citizenship were also on board
The Turks
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that four of those killed on the ships were from Turkey.
Of the nearly 600 people on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara roughly 400 were Turkish citizens, according to Yavuz Dede, deputy director of Insani Yardim Vakfi, IHH, which organised the trip. He said that the passengers included men, women, and an 18-month-old baby.
Mehmet Ali Akdeniz, 34, was on board. His wife Aynur told the Hurriyet daily news in Turkey that she had been planning to travel to Gaza with her husband, but they decided against it because of the young age of their children.
"My son is 4 years old and my daughter is 6. They packed 300 lollipops for their father to take to Palestinian children in Gaza," she said through tears. "I did not expect that much cruelty. My husband even did not have a pocket knife on him. It was a strict rule for all of them not to have anything that might be used as a weapon. But Israel was afraid of a few civilian people."
Demet Tezcan's 15-year-old daugther, Sümeyye Sena, saw her mother in television images on board the aid vessel. "She was running during the attacks and was helping wounded people," she said.
Sahin Ibrahim Güleryüz, 42 was seen by his sister Selma Erkal on board the ship. "He had fainted, his head fallen on his chest, and there were people trying to help him," she said. "We wanted to believe that he is only wounded, but he could also be dead. He has two sons and we did not tell his wife what we saw. We wouldn't know what to say."
Hatice Çorluk, whose son Fevzi Çorluk, 24, was on the ship, said she had expected the Israeli army's response and accused Turkey of abandoning those on board. Neslihan Üstündag, Fevzi Çorluk's sister, said those on the ship had called for help many times during the night before the attack occurred. "But Turkey did not do anything. It could have sent a ship to help them."
Hayrünnisa Abdurrahman, a mother of four, said she was afraid that her husband, Abdülahad Abdurrahman, 40, could be dead. "He is a man who cannot stand injustice. I fear that he might have intervened during the attacks to save people from Israeli soldiers," she said.
Before leaving home, Mr Abdurrahman told his wife that the journey could be potentially fatal and asked for her blessing. He was not carrying anything that could be identified as a weapon except a sewing needle with which to repair any tears to his trousers, she said.
Nilufer Cetin, a Turkish activist and her one-year-old son have returned home after being released by Israeli authorities. They were among the first Turks returning from Israel after the flotilla was seized by Israeli commandos. She said she agreed to be extradited from Israel after being warned that jail conditions would be "too harsh" for the baby.
Ms Cetin and her son, Kaan Turker, were on the Mavi Marmara. She said the two were hiding in their cabin's bathroom during the raid.
"The ship turned into a lake of blood," Nilufer Cetin told reporters. "We were aware of the possible danger; in joining the trip, but there are thousands of babies in Gaza. If we had reached Gaza we would have played with them and taken them food.
"When the Mavi Marmara continued on its course the harassment turned into an attack. They used smoke bombs followed by gas canisters. They started to descend on to the ship with helicopters," she said, calling the clashes that then erupted "extremely bad and brutal".
"I was one of the first victims to be released because I had a child, but they confiscated everything our telephones, laptops are all gone," she said.
Her husband Ekrem Cetin is the ship's engineer and was still in Israeli custody today. Turkey said that it was sending three ambulance planes to Israel to pick up 20 more Turkish activists injured in the operation.
Three Turkish Airlines aircraft were on standby waiting to fly back other activists, the Prime Minister's office said. Meanwhile in Turkey's main cities of Ankara and Istanbul, people staged a second day of protests in front of Israeli missions to denounce the raid.
The Greeks
Six Greeks, including a crew member, returning to Athens today told reporters that Israeli commandos boarded the boats in international waters about 80-90 miles off the Israeli coast.
Michalis Grigoropoulos has just returned to Athens after deportation from Israel. He was on board the Eleftheri Mesogeio which was smaller than the lead boat that troops had attacked earlier.
"Israeli troops jumped on to the boat around 0530 on Monday," he said. "They fired rubber-coated bullets, teargas and then used electroshock weapons on some activists," he told Skai television shortly after Israel deported him and five compatriots.
"An hour beforehand, at 0430 local time, we heard gunfire on the Turkish boat Mavi Marmara; the Israelis jumped from helicopters on to the boat," he said.
Mr Grigoropoulos said he was kept incommunicado, denied access to a lawyer and made to sign papers he did not understand.
He criticised "the wretched detention conditions at Ashdod [where] 500 people were packed in together" saying that "two Greek activists were beaten up" there by Israeli police.
"They made me sign papers on my expulsion, without me knowing what was on the papers because I did not have the right to a translator, a lawyer or to communicate with my family," he said.
Zaharias Stilianakis, the captain of the Eleftheri Mesogeio, who was among those returned to Athens, said that "after their assault on the boat, the commandos cut all means of communication."
Dimitris Gielalis, who was travelling on the Sfendoni, said: "Suddenly from everywhere we saw inflatables coming at us, and within seconds fully equipped commandos came up on the boat."
"They came up and used plastic bullets, we had beatings, we had electric shocks, any method we can think of, they used," he said.
He said that the boat's captain had been beaten for refusing to leave the wheel, and had sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and a cameraman filming the raid had been hit in the eye with a rifle butt. "Of course we weren't prepared for a situation of war," Mr Gielalis said.
The returning Greeks said those still in custody were refusing to sign papers demanded by the Israeli authorities.
"During their interrogation, many of them were badly beaten in front of us," said Aris Papadokostopoulos, who was on the Free Mediterranean, which was travelling behind the Turkish ship and carrying mainly Greek and Swedish activists.
The journalists
Two Australian journalists and two other Australian women were being detained in Beersheba and their safety had been confirmed, Australian officials said.
An Australian man on board the ship underwent surgery after being shot in the leg.
. . . and still to arrive, the Nobel prizewinner and the UN diplomat
Mairead Corrigan-Maguire is on board the Irish-Malaysian ship MV Rachel Corrie, which is currently off the coast of Libya and due to arrive off Gaza tomorrow with another load of aid. Last year the peace activist from Belfast was arrested and detained in Israel after attempting to defy the blockade by sailing a boat load of aid into Gaza.
Also on board is Denis Halliday, former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations. After more than 30 years in the UN, Kofi Annan appointed him Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq in 1997. He has been a strong opponent of the war in Iraq.
Copyright 2010 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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| Ander Nieuws week 23 / Midden-Oosten 2010 |