Israelis massacre activists on aid flotilla

Scenes from the massacre:

UPDATE I, II, III, IV and V on the BBC’s despicable coverage below.

Al Jazeera International, 30 May 2010 — A deadly attack has taken place off the coast of Gaza – as Israeli forces stormed at least one ship – attempting to break the blockade of Gaza. Commandos lowered themselves from helicopters and onto the Mavi Marmara – the lead ship in a flotilla of six vessels which are carrying aid for the Palestinian territory…Israeli radio is reporting the death toll may be as high as 16 people. Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal onboard the ship sent this report before communications were cut

According to multiple reports the death toll now stands at 16, with over 60 injured. You can follow Al Jazeera International and Press TV‘s excellent live coverage. You can also follow the flotilla’s Twitter feed.

Mustafa Barghouti on Al Jazeera rightly notes that this constitutes an act of war against multiple countries. The ship was in international waters carrying the flags of several countries. This is a flagrant violation of international law.

The BBC’s Shame

Update I: The BBC proves its despicable subservience to the Israeli propaganda machine once again. It ends its report on the massacre with this line: “Hamas, a militant palestinian group that controls the Gaza strip, has fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past decade.” The victims weren’t innocent, you see. They were on their way to aid these terrible people who fire ‘thousands of rockets into Israel’. That’s all you need to know. And if you mention those hundreds of thousands of bombs, missiles and rockets that Israel has shot into Gaza…Why, you must be an anti-Semite!

Update II: Looks like I wasn’t the only one to complain. They have now removed the sentence.

Update III: I just found an earlier version of the BBC’s report where it presented the whole assault as a Hamas claim.

BBC News – Israel intercepts Gaza flotilla, says Hamas

The Palestinian movement Hamas says the Israeli navy has intercepted a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip.

Thanks to all who’ve written in. Don’t let them get away with using your tax money to feed you propaganda on behalf of a foreign criminal entity.

Update IV: Can you believe this! Check out the video that BBC has posted on the linked page. The reporter goes out of his way to ‘stress’ that according to the Israeli military no one has been killed. He then goes on to excuse the killings because ‘clearly when you have as many as 600 people on board these ships, at night, in high sees, it is a very very difficult situation…and you can imagine a rather chaotic situation. Of course the Israeli military is very well experienced with dealing with crowd control’. Perhaps concerned not to come across as a complete propagandist, he ends with the following weasel words: ‘but certainly if you’ve got live fire being fired as well as tear gas canisters which is what is being reported was fired, then that is a very dangerous situation in a very crowded space’.

Update V: the BBC has now added a sidebar in which ‘diplomatic correspondent’ Jonathan Marcus tells readers how terrible this massacre is…for Israel’s image! The clueless ass tells us that ‘this was always going to be a high-risk operation’… for Israel! He addes: ‘Taking over vessels at sea is no easy task, even if the units carrying out the mission are well-trained, and it is especially difficult if the people already on board the vessels resist.’ But at least he thinks the deaths are a tragedy…but for Israel! Because they ‘threaten to make what was always going to be a potential public relations disaster for Israel into a fully-fledged calamity.’ So the BBC pays a ‘diplomatic correspondent’ your tax money so he can worry about the myriad ways Israel hurts itself by killing innocent civilians in international waters!

Check out my articles on BBC’s record of whitewashing Israeli crimes here and here.

Folks, this is your money being used in the service of murderers and child molesters. You have a responsibility to act. At minimum, you can complain.