Gaza Boat Organizers
bomber who murdered 21 people in the
Endorse Terrorism
BY SAMUEL SOKOL
ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
The Coalition to Break the Blockade
on Gaza has announced its support of ter-
rorism against the State of Israel.
According to a manifesto posted on the
website of the Greek branch of the Ship
to Gaza organization, which is a coalition
member, the coalition supports
“Palestinian resistance in all its forms,” a
euphemism frequently used by Arabs to
indicate armed violence.
“According to international law, people
who are occupied have the right to resist
and even [use] violent resistance,” said
Dror Feiler, spokesman for Ship to Gaza
of Sweden, when asked by the Five Towns
Jewish Times about the phrasing on the
Greek website.
The coalition comprises Turkish,
Greek, and Swedish organizations, in con-
junction with the European Campaign to
End the Siege on Gaza and the Free Gaza
Movement. The Free Gaza Movement is
closely aligned with the International
Solidarity Movement, whose members
have served as human shields for terror-
ists in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
The coalition is planning to arrive with
a convoy of eight boats in mid-May. There
will be four cargo ships and four ships
carrying passengers. The activists’ goal is
to break through the “Israeli blockade” of
24 April 23, 2010 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES
Gaza, which has been described by a
coalition spokesman as an “act of piracy.”
Two further flotillas are scheduled to
arrive in June.
Feiler expressed his opposition to mis-
sile fire against targets in the western
Negev, saying that it is “not moral” and
that it is “not good for the resistance.”
However, he did endorse violence against
Israelis beyond the Green Line, saying
The flotilla, which Hamas has termed “the
ship intifada,” will be bringing “financial
assistance for the Hamas administration.”
that he has “nothing against resistance
against the illegal occupation and the ille-
gal settlements [and] developments in
the West Bank.”
Israel withdrew all Israeli residents
and soldiers from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
The Israel-born activist has a history of
making inflammatory statements. In
2004, Feiler produced the art installation
“Snow White and the Madness of Truth,”
which glorified Hanadi Jaradat, a suicide
Maxim restaurant in Haifa. After the
Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel,
caused a diplomatic incident by pulling
the plug powering the piece’s lighting and
music, Feiler told him that Israel was an
“apartheid country.”
The Greek branch of Ship to Gaza
expressed a similar opinion to that of
Feiler regarding resistance. “Some
forms of resistance should not be used,”
said spokesman Vangelis Pissias, “but
it’s not up to me to tell them how they
will resist.”
Pissias accused Israel of killing 1,500
people, primarily women and children,
during the IDF’s 2009 counter-terror
incursion into Gaza, and he compared
Palestinian terrorism to resistance
against the Nazis during the Second
World War.
Another staffer of the Greek branch of
Ship to Gaza concurred, saying that they
“see the Palestinian people being
attacked by a war machine that is very,
very brutal and hard and I am guessing
that they must have a way to resist.”
Pissias also minimized the importance
of weekly Israeli shipments to the Gaza
Strip. During the week of April 12, Israeli
authorities transferred nearly 12,000 tons
of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as
well as almost 200,000 gallons of diesel.
Israel also allowed three truckloads of
carnations to be exported to Europe.
Links With Hamas
And Turkish Group
According to Feiler, his movement has
“nothing to do with the authorities of
Gaza, nothing to do with the people who
rule Gaza.” However, according to the
Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center (Malam), the mem-
bers of the coalition “have associated
themselves with the Hamas administra-
tion,” which “is involved in organizing
the flotilla.” One of the primary planners
of the previous aid flotilla was
Muhammad Sawalha, the senior Hamas
operative in Britain.
The flotilla’s plans for avoiding the
Israeli navy were recently announced by
Jamal al-Khudari, a Hamas operative who
heads the Popular Committee Against
the Siege. The ships are to leave from dif-
ferent locations and will only ren-
dezvous outside Gaza, where they will
attempt to enter together. One hundred
local boats, some carrying children, will
be on hand to accompany the foreign
ships into the strip.
The flotilla, which Hamas has
termed “the ship intifada,” will be
bringing “financial assistance for the
Hamas administration” as well as such
dual-use materials as cement and iron,
 Photo By Insani Yardin Vakfi (IHH)

Photo By Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH)

Representatives of Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) handing over the keys to 145 vehicles to the Members of the Turkish Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) organization alongside the Mavi Marmara,
Hamas terrorist group in a ceremony attended by IHH’s president, Turkish MPs, a Hamas a passenger ship purchased by the group for its upcoming attempt to bring aid to the Hamas
minister, and British MP George Galloway. terror organization.

Malam claims.
Hamas hopes that Turkish participa-
tion in the flotilla will further damage
already strained relations between
Jerusalem and Ankara.
Representatives of the Turkish Insani
Yardim Vakfi (IHH) organization, a mem-
ber of the Coalition to Break the Blockade
on Gaza, have previously met with
Hamas Prime Minister Ismaiil Haniyeh
and have donated supplies and motor
vehicles directly to the terror group. IHH’s
president, Bulent Yildirim, has previously
visited Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in
Damascus.
A spokesperson for the IHH told the
Five Towns Jewish Times that the current
situation in Gaza is a “silent genocide.”
The IHH stressed that if the “siege would even supporting humanitarian causes,”
be on Jews, we would [also] try our best said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal
to end the siege.” Palmor. “They are engaged in only one
However, this is questionable, as the thing, and that is to create provoca-
spokesperson admitted that IHH is in tions and to collaborate with Hamas
touch with Sawalha, who is a former propaganda.”
commander of Hamas’s terrorist opera- “When they were apprehended [pre-
tive infrastructure in Judea and Samaria viously] it turned out that their boats
and is wanted by Israeli authorities. He were not carrying any sort of humani-
has also been accused of funneling tarian assistance to Gaza,” he charged,
money from Europe to Hamas’s armed calling Hamas “the illegal occupier of
wing, the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades. the Gaza Strip.”
Many Israelis maintain that control of
Israeli Response Gaza’s coast is necessary in order to stop
The Israeli Foreign Ministry had shipments of Iranian weapons, including
harsh words for the organizers of the missiles, from reaching Hamas. Islamic
flotilla. “These people are not support- terrorist groups have been attacking
ing the Palestinians and they are not Jewish targets by missile and rocket for
almost a decade. In February, three bar-
rels laden with explosives were found
floating just off Israeli beaches. The IDF
believes that they were launched from
fishing boats from Gaza.
The Foreign Ministry did not disclose
its plans regarding the ships or what
actions, if any, it would take regarding
foreign-government representatives
attempting to enter Gaza by sea. Feiler
claims that five Swedish MPs will be
accompanying the flotilla. He also indi-
cated that several other Israeli citizens are
planning on joining the flotilla. “If Israeli
citizens are found to be on the boats after
all is over and done with, they will be
dealt with according to Israeli law,”
Palmor stated. ❖

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