A show of force by Israel?

By Shaun Lee

The Israel raid on the Gaza flotillas was nothing more than a blatant show of force.  There is no other possible way to describe the incidents which took place in May this year.

First it was the Mavi Marmara, and then it happened again with the Rachel Corrie.  For those who aren’t familiar with these names, these were the two aid ships that were intercepted by the Israelis.  Both ships were halted by Israeli warships on their way to Gaza but the fate of the crew of the Mavi Marmara was worse than the Rachel Corrie with 15 casualties whereas the Rachel Corrie was seized and towed to the port in the city of Ashdod.

During the raid on the Mavi Marmara, there were 12 Malaysians on board including two media members from Astro Awani, Ashwad Ismail, journalist and Shamsul Kamal Latip, cameraman who were thankfully unhurt in the ordeal but it was established that 9 people were initially killed on board.

“They fired rubber bullets first but after some time they used live ammunition.  Five were dead on the spot and after that we surrendered” recalls Norazmah Abdullah, one of the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara when the attacks commenced around 4 to 4.30 am local time.  During this time, most of the crew members were performing the fajar (dawn) prayers.

Such an attack is what I consider as nothing more than a heinous show of aggression by the Israel navy.  What would they achieve by mercilessly assaulting unarmed aid workers bringing in nothing but supplies?  I would also like to question the Israeli navy’s use of live ammunition on the crew.  Did the situation warrant the action?

Opening fire on the crew members was bad enough but using live ammunition to the extent that lives were lost is just plain wrong.  The lost of nine lives on the Mavi Marmara was unnecessary and unjustified.  Think of the sadness and misery of family members of the casualties of the incident.

A casualty of the Mavi Marmara raid was a 19-year old Turkish-American volunteer, Furkan Dogan.  Dogan was volunteering as an aid worker for the first time.  Because of the actions of the Israel army, his first time would also be his last.

The Israeli navy argued in its defense that they were attacked by the Mavi Marmara crew with iron bars, knives and live fire first.  They even released a video to bolster their claims of the attack.  However, it was later discovered that the time stamp on the video which was at 5.03am indicated that attacks had already commence for an hour and that it would be more accurate to say that far from being the aggressors of the situation, the crew members were actually trying to defend their ship.

To make matters worse, the Israeli government has remained defiant and stated that they would be ready to attack all aid ships going into Gaza which Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said had become a “terrorist base which would threaten the heart of Israel”.  This announcement came on the eve of the arrival of the second ship, the Rachel Corrie into Gaza Waters.  An unnamed Israeli marine lieutenant even expected that seizing the Rachel Corrie would be easy as they were ‘ready’ for the ship.

The aftermath of the attacks saw countries like Turkey withdrawing bilateral ties with Israel and several groups condemning Israel navy’s actions.  Two major groups in Malaysia that have slammed Israel for the attacks are the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) calling the attacks on the ships as “attacking and killing innocent people” and that it was a “flagrant violation of international law” as well as “unacceptable”.

Overall, I would agree with the allegations that the Israel navy attacks on the aid ships were indeed nothing more than plain brutality towards innocent people.  The loss of lives on the Mavi Marmara and the Israel government’s stance of attacking any aid ship to Gaza further reinforces my belief that this whole incident is nothing more than a mere show of force by Israel.