What Really Happened at Freedom Flotilla Raid to Gaza? Read the Real story!
I am sure you all heard about the Freedom Flotilla. 6 Ships were going to Gaza with Humanitarian Aid and the ships has been attack by the Israel's Army at International Water, 72 mile away from Israel.
As the Israel's propaganda machines such as Fox, CNN and many others are blocking the real story of what happened in the Freedom Flotilla Raid, I decided to write an article. I gathered all the information that I read from many different sources. You will find answers to 11 most popular Questions, which are:
1 Question: How the deaths happened. We thought Israel wouldn’t harm civilians?
2 Question: Is there more news from Autopsy?
3. Question: CNN, Fox and others says the Israeli soldiers were attacked with pistols, weapons, knives even swords? Also were the ships carrying missiles?
4. Question: Why did they resist? They should know IDF has one of the best commandos in the world, or are they?
5. Question: They say apart from Mavi Marmara, other 5 ships peacefully surrender?
6. Question: Are you telling me they tortured the activists, including an ex US Marine?
7. Question: However Israel government is happy with the result and they said they will give medals to the soldiers?
8. Question: What are the nationalities and what IHH means?
9. Question: What is the US government doing?
10. Question: What really went wrong for IDF this time during flotilla raid?
11. Question: Is they any more news from Activists?
What Can We do?
Latest Videos,
Despite the Israeli government’s thorough efforts to confiscate all footage taken during the attack, Iara Lee was able to retain some of her recordings. Above is 15 minutes of footage from the moments leading up to and during the Israeli commandos’ assault on the Mavi Marmara. http://www.culturesofresistance.org/gaza-freedom-flotilla
Israeli Attack on the Mavi Marmara, May 31st 2010 // 15 min. from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.
1 Question: How the deaths happened. We thought Israel wouldn't harm civilians?
I will start writing about Furkan Dogan, a US citizen who was born in New York and moved to Turkey when he was 2 years old. And he has lived in Turkey since. He was just 19 years old, and a high school student.They first shot once in the chest of Furkan Dogan, while he was on the floor already, they shoot few more times into his head from less then 45 cm. All the bullets were 9mm. This is what the first Autopsy report and witnesses said.
Furkan Dogan, 19
Furkan Dogan, 19
Video of the moment that Furkan killed
Another activist Cevdet Kiliçlar, 38 years old, was from the Press and he has been shot from 1 metre away on the forehead as well. At the time the only thing he was doing was taking pictures.
Çetin Topçu, 54 years old, is another activist who has been shot on the head as well. His wife was with him, and when she saw there is nothing she can do to help her husband she tried to help the other injured people as there were over 30 people who had been shot.
Çetin Topçuoğlu, 54
Once they realised, the Pirates were actually using real bullets and shooting randomly anyone and as there were lots of women and elderly on the ship they stopped resisting. After this point lots of activist witnessed another execution. An injured Turkish activist sat on his knees and put his hand behind his head and he was basicly surrendered. And what happened? He has been executed by a shot on the head. This is what lots of people witnessed.
İbrahim Bilgen, 61 years old, killed with 4 shoot, one of them were headshot. He was targeted for execution by Israeli forces who mistook him for Sheikh Raed Salah. If you look at the videos and witnesses each Israeli soldiers had an execution list. In the list there were 16 people and Sheikh Raed Salah was the number 3rd in the list. Sheikh Raed Salah said "After they executed my brother İbrahim, they report to their officer we executed Sheikh Raed Salah. İbrahim was looking like me so they made a mistake."
Ibrahim Bilgen, 61
Sheikh Raed Salah
Video of this Death List
At least 3 injured people died because they bled to death. Although people asked for help, IDF refused to give First Aid and watch them bleed to death for about 3 hours. After 3 hours they started to transfer the injured.
So it is 9 People from Turkey that have died so far and some are still missing. Such as an Indonesian doctor that I will mention below. Activist Idris Simsek, who was on board one of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla during the Israeli attack, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea.
İbrahim Bilgen, 1949, Batman, Turkey, killed with 4 Shot, Headshot
Ali Haydar Bengi, 1971, Diyarbakir, Turkey, killed with 6 Shot
Cevdet Kılıçlar, 1972, Kayseri, Turkey, killed with 1 Shot, Headshot
Çetin Topçuoğlu, 1956, Osmaniye, Turkey, killed with 3 Shot, Headshot
Necdet Yıldırım, 1978, Malatya, Turkey, killed with 2 Shot
Furkan Doğan, 1991, NewYork, USA, Turkey, killed with 5 Shot, Headshot
Fahri Yaldız, 1967, Adiyaman, Turkey, killed with 3 Shot
Cengiz Songür, 1963, Konya, Turkey, killed with 2 Shot
Cengiz Akyüz, 1969, Mardin, Turkey, killed with 4 Shot, Headshot
Source: http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazze_insani_yard%C4%B1m_filosu_sald%C4%B1r%C4%B1s%C4%B1
Video from Funerals:
They didn't kill just civilians, they even use their bullet on a canary bird which has been taken as a gift to a Gaza children. Here is the source, http://www.haber7.com/haber/20100606/Israil-askerleri-o-kanaryayi-bile-vurdu.php, you can translate to your language by using google.
Here is a Video of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to injured activists in Ankara.
2 Question: Is there more news from Autopsy?
Yes. There were 30 bullets taken out of 9 bodies. 8 of the victims had been shot more than once. And 5 of them had been shot on the head. All of the bullets entered to bodies from close range and without hitting anywhere else first. Apart from 1 bullet all the bullets were 9mm, and that single bullet has been never seen before. According to autopsy this must be a new weapon and the shocked with the damage it cause on the body. Doç. Dr. Haluk Ince in my whole life I have never seen such a bullet and scar. They ask Turkish government if they are allowed to publish the picture of the damage from this bullet. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/boyle-mermi-boyle-yara-gormedim-/guncel/haberdetay/06.06.2010/1247231/default.htm
So obviously the intention of the soldiers was killing randomly, and they even started shooting from helicopters before the soldiers landed on the deck. One activist has been shot just on top of his head.
3. Question: CNN, Fox and others says the Israeli soldiers were attacked with pistols, weapons, knives even swords? Also were the ships carrying missiles?
Activists know only too well, if they have any type of gun, or pistol or sword etc, Israel will use it against them to explain why they committed this massacre? Did you see any video footage as any activist is holding a gun? Israeli has the ships in their ports, do you think they haven't searched the ships yet? They also have and distrain the cameras of the activists; surely they can find some footage of the imaginary weapons. Showing knives from the kitchen of the ship won't save them.
There were not any weapons on the ship. Everything has been checked by authorities before the ships left the ports in Ireland, Greece, Turkey and few other countries. And if there were any weapons you would see on CNN and FOX by now as "Shocking News".4. Question: Why did they resist? They should know IDF has one of the best commandos in the world, or are they?
Yes they resist against Pirates same as everybody would do, same as Green Peace and other activists all over the world. They used some wooden sticks and whatever they can such as plastic chairs. They were in international waters, 72 miles away from Israel and Israel had no right to attack them.
So called Israel's top commandos has been beaten by 19 years old Furkan, 54 years old Cetin, 61 year old Ibrahim, ex US Marine Kennetth O'Keefe etc. And they actually captured 3 soldiers. However they knew, they shouldn't be on cameras with guns and they shouldn't give them any reason to commit a massacre. Plus they are not murderers or pirates, they were travelling for aid. And so they threw the captured guns into the sea. And according to the witnesses, one of these 3 soldier had even wet himself.
An Indonesian doctor gave the Israeli soldiers first aid and he took the soldiers to the other Israeli soldiers, again in order not to give them any reason to do a massacre. So they set the soldiers free however as soon as they took their soldiers, they shot the doctor with 5 bullets on his chest and belly. His body is still missing? Some people said they might throw his body into the sea, we don't know yet.
Plionis Dimitrios, a Greek activist in the Mavi Marmara "They know we had no guns, and we were resisting by wooden sticks. They shot 6 people in front of me." http://www.zaman.com.tr/haber.do?haberno=991467&title=yunan-yardim-gonullusu-mavi-marmarada-yasananlari-anlatti
Old US's Iraq ambassador Edward Peck: "They started the attack by throwing gas and sound bombs, and they started shooting before they land on to the ship. We had no weapons."
Doctor giving first Aid
5. Question: They say apart from Mavi Marmara, other 5 ships peacefully surrender ?
Unfortunately this is not true as well. Because Mavi Marmara was the flag ship and it was the first ship that Israelis attack. The other ships were attacked afterwards. And 3 of the ships were Turkish ships, not just Mavi Marmara. They only surrender after the Mavi Marmara announced "don't resist anymore as the ship has been controlled by them".
And even after they surrendered everybody in those ships has been beaten as well, including an MP from Sweden. You can read what the Greek activists said on their return to Athens and how they tortured "Vagylys Pisaias"
And after his return one Greek guy was confessing the so called weapons from the ships." Some of these weapons are: 50 prefabricated houses, 250 motorized wheel chairs, bricks, cement, school bags, tents, water cleaners, children toys, iron, food, etc... To torture us they even used electric shock on us."
Dimitris Yelalis claimed they hit everyone, including passengers who didn't resist.
Theodoros Bukas, captain of Greek ship Sfendoni, "we didn't have any weapon but they continuously hit us. I had been tortured. Look at my ears, look at my body."
If they were peacefully surrendered why did they beat them? Look at the protests in Athens, Greece. In the protest, A 64 year old American, Paul Larudee, this is the link to the gallery of his pictures. http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/GaleriDetay.aspx?cid=36528&p=1&rid=2If you look at his arms you will see why he is protesting. He is actually surprised that his bones aren't broken.
Paul Larudee, 64, during Protest in Athens
Paul Larudee, 64, arriving GreeceGreek citizen Halid Kabani " They beat Paul Laroundi so much, he had to jump into sea, then Israeli soldiers took him out of the sea and continue beating. They didn't allow any first aid as well."
Yorgos Lieros, from Sfendonis ship, "I saw the real face of Israil and its army with my eyes, its army is actually rubbish. They steal my passport and everything; I hope it won’t be used in another assassination like they did in Dubai."
First reports coming out of Israeli violent acts against unarmed humanitarian aid workers. Huwaida Arraf, one of the Free Gaza Movement organizers, told CNN Israeli troops roughed her up when they responded aggressively to her ship, a smaller one in the flotilla that was near the Turkish vessel where the casualties occurred.
"They started coming after our ship," she told CNN, "so we took off and they charged us also. Eventually, they overtook our ship and they used concussion grenades, sound bombs and pellets."
She said the people on her ship tried to keep them off. She said they were told the vessel was American and the people aboard were unarmed.
But, she said "they started beating people. My head was smashed against the ground and they stepped on my head. They later cuffed me and put a bag over my head. They did that to everybody."
6. Question: Are you telling me they tortured the activists, including an ex US Marine?
Yes, just look at his face on this webpage, http://haber.mynet.com/detay/dunya/kan-revan-icinde-istanbula-geldi/515009, video: http://webtv.hurriyet.com.tr/default.aspx?vid=7073 if you saw the picture and read what he says I am sure you will agree ex US Marine Kennetth O’Keefe, now Irish citizen, has been tortured. "I took the gun from the hand of a soldier and emptied the bullets. I saw another activists throw the rifle into the sea. they thought we will kill them however we let them go. I saw 5 people murdered. Even after they murdered 2 of us we never thought to use any guns against them." Isreali soldiers beat him again and again even at the airport while he was coming to Turkey.
Kennetth O’Keefe
Kennetth O’Keefe, arriving Ataturk Airport Turkey. They have been tortured, especially injured ones. So called doctors did the operations such as taking out the bullets with no anaesthetic.
I am sure you saw the picture that they even handcuffed heavily injured people on the stretcher. http://www.objektifhaber.com/fotogaleri/Yaralilari-kelepcelediler-240-3.htm
One activist said, "My foot was broken and some Israeli Soldiers come and kicked my broken foot. And they carried me to the helicopter they dragged me about 150 meters."
Another witness "when they were carrying heavily injured to the helicopter they were dragging them by holding from their feet. So their head were on the floor, which is unacceptable, especially if you are losing blood and badly injured."
Some of them also have been tortured in the prisons. Just reading the Greek activists story is enough I think.
7. Question: However Israel government is happy with the result and they said they will give medals to the soldiers?
They also said, 1 soldier killed 6 activists on his own. However it is a lie as usual. Witnesses have not confirmed this and just said the opposite.
I think they just started to worry, if it goes to the international court they want to say "1 or 2 soldiers did it, not all of us. They will say that these 2 soldiers had psychological problems." So why are they going to be given medals then? Shame.
8. Question: What are the nationalities and what is IHH means?
Australia 3; Azerbaijan 2; Italy 6; Indonesia 12; Ireland 9; Algeria 28; United States 11; Bulgaria 2; Bosnia 1; Bahrain 4; Belgium 5; Germany 11; South Africa 1; Holland 2; United Kingdom 37; Greece 38; Jordan 30; Kuwait 15; Lebanon 3; Mauritania 3; Malaysia 11; Egypt 3; Macedonia 3; Morocco 7; Norway 3; New Zealand 1; Syria 3; Serbia 1; Oman 1; Pakistan 3; Czech Republic 4; France 9; Kosovo 1; Canada 1; Sweden 11; Turkey 380; and Yemen 4.
IHH is short name for “İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı “ in English: “The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief” and their center is in Istanbul,Turkey. Apparently they work in more than 110 countries in the world. The IHH holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2004. For more information this is their website, http://www.ihh.org.tr/anasayfa/en/ .
9. Question: What is the US government doing?
The US government do nothing, unfortunately, as usual. Look at Clinton's and Joe Biden's speeches. The US couldn't even condemn, so what can you really expect.
If you search the story of what really happened to USS Liberty, in 1967, you will see they killed 34 US marines and injured 171 for no reason. They used the ship basically for target practice for 75 minutes. Why target pratice, because the ship was shot 850 times, for 75 minutes. S. Fishel said "This must be the longest accident in Maritime history" I would understand 1 rocket shot by mistake, 2 or 3, but not 850 times, so obviously it wasn't any accident. And while the US Navy's 6th. Fleet wanted to help, they were shocked once more by the call from Washington, because President Lyndon Johnson ordered the US 6th Fleet not to help. All of the Planes had to return to Saratoga. Why? Johnson said because Israeil were having a diificult time so didn't want to cause more trouble for ally Israeil for this accident. You can learn more about it from James Bamford's investigations.
When some soldiers thought they will sink and decide to use life boats, hoping they won't shoot them, israeil soldiers continue to shoot the life boats as well.
Why they attacked? Because Israeli tanks just destroyed an Indian Peacekeeper Force in Al-AriÅY and also bomb the UN centre. And they thought this American ship, which is a technical research ship, was so close and it might be collecting some evidence. So what shall we do, just destroy the ship, and kill everyone.
And still in US history it is the only so called military accident event have not been investiageted by US Congress.
There are lots more:
American college student Emily Henochowicz, 21, has lost her left eye after being shot in the face by an Israeli tear-gas canister during a protest against the flotilla assault in the occupied West Bank. A talented visual artist whose recent work has been inspired by her experiences in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Emily also suffered considerable facial damage including fractures to the bone around the eye-socket. She was carrying a Turkish Flag at the time. What went wrong for Israel is, Probably Israeli Soldiers thought she was Turkish, so lets shoot.
Israeli Military Shoot Gaza Farmer - 18th February 2009. Israeli forces shot a twenty year-old Palestinian farmer as he worked his land in the village of Al-Faraheen, east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. International Human Rights Activists were accompanying the group of farmers at the time as they worked approximately 500m from the Green Line.
Mohammad al - Breem, 20, was shot in the right leg as the farmers, together with the international Human Rights Activists, attempted to leave the area having worked on their land for 2 hours in full view of the Israeli forces situated along the Green Line. As the farmers were loading up the parsley and spinach from the agricultural lands shots were fired from Israeli forces on the border. Mohammad was shot in the right leg and evacuated, while still under fire, to hospital.
International Human Rights Activists have repeatedly witnessed Palestinian farmers being shot at by Israeli forces as they attempt to work on agricultural land situated within 700m of the Green Line.On Tuesday 27th January 2009, in Al Faraheen, Israeli forces shot at several farmers, killing a 27 year old farmer.
Lots of People in USA protesting this massacre, including some Jew who are against Zionism. In the following video you will see some protestors, activists in Mavi Marmara and even the execution list of Israeli soldiers that i mentioned above.
http://www.haberler.com/ihh-baskani-yildirim-dan-olum-listesi-iddiasi-2088210-haberi/
Not all Jews are Zionist and same of course. There were lots of Jews protesting Israel in US. And here is a video of a Jewish Professor Norman Finkelstein during his conference in University Of Waterloo, Canada.
This Time We Went Too Far: Finkelstein // Lowkey // McIntyre from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.
10. Question: What really went wrong for IDF this time during flotilla raid?
This is something normal for them maybe, as they do this every day in Gazza. However this time something went wrong for them. While Israel thought they had blocked the Satellite system of the ship, clever activists switched to a different frequency that nobody knew about except their media centre.
Dimitris Pleionis, one of the 2 Greek in Mavi Marmara "There were lots of cameras everywhere in the ship. We were trying to stop the commandos with our hands. Soldiers continue shotting even after the white flag. Their first aim was stopping the broadcasting. There was one Turk who was organizing the broadcasting, camera and everything. Broadcasting continue about 30 minutes. When they finally killed that Turk then system stopped. They were pointing us laser pointers even after they tied people's hands." http://www.milliyet.com.tr/yunanli-yardim-gonulluleri-israil-saldirisini-anlatti/dunya/sondakika/06.06.2010/1247437/default.htm
While the pirates were thinking they are safe to attack and kill anybody they want, cameras continued broadcasting. IDF must be surprised with the broadcast technology of the ship, they didn’t think activists would have such a system.
11.Question: Is they any more news from Activists?
Israeli-Swedish peace activist and artist Dror Feiler says he will file a lawsuit against Israel for assaulting and falsely imprisoning him.
On May 31, the Israeli military launched an assault on one of the ships in the Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish vessel M. V. Mavi Marmara, killing nine activists and wounding 50. The Freedom Flotilla was carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and was clearly in international waters.
On Saturday, Feiler said that he had tried to talk with the Israeli soldiers on board the ship but was beaten up. He was later detained, after the boat was diverted to Ashdod, on the grounds that he had illegally entered Israel, the Maan news agency reported.
Contrary to Israeli statements, the passengers did not possess any arms and were only trying to defend themselves when they were attacked, he added.
Another Swedish activist, Ida Manga, told Arab News that the Turkish group IHH, which helped organize the Freedom Flotilla, "works in the field of humanitarian aid in 143 countries around the world. The Israeli assault was illogical and I cannot fathom the reasons behind it."
Activist Idris Simsek, who was on board one of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla during the Israeli attack, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea.
The Israeli troops also put immense psychological pressure on the activists of the Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish daily Today's Zaman quoted Simsek as saying in an article published on Saturday.
Simsek said they expected some harassment from the Israeli forces but did not expect an armed attack.
He went on to say that he witnessed that the person who waived the white flag to surrender was shot by the Israeli troops.
Erol Demir, another activist who was on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, said there is film footage of the chaos and the carnage on the ship and stated that the footage will show the real face of the Israeli military to the entire world.
"They even shot those who surrendered. Many of our friends saw this. They told me that there were handcuffed people who were shot," he added.
Hakan Albayrak, a journalist from the Turkish daily Yeni Safak who was also on the ship, said, "It was an outright massacre what Israel did out there. They attacked us in international waters... We had no weapons. I think we lost more people."
The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea early on May 31, killing nine Turkish citizens on board the six ships and injuring about 50 other people.
The fate of few Freedom Flotilla activists is still unknown.
Israel also arrested nearly 700 activists from 42 countries on board the ships of the Freedom Flotilla, which was attempting to break the siege of Gaza in order to deliver 10,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to the long-suffering people of the territory.
Another article: http://www.milliyet.com.tr/yunanli-yardim-gonulluleri-israil-saldirisini-anlatti/dunya/sondakika/06.06.2010/1247437/default.htm
What Can We do?
Can you see the difference and the power of Media? That is what Fox and CNN are doing everyday just in the opposite way. Try to read what the media of other countries say. Another good tactic is if CNN and Fox are saying one thing, you should recheck from an independent source or just believe the opposite. Shame on BBC as well.
Also it looks like Wikipedia will delete the information about some of the Israel's murders, such as Ibrahim Bilgen's story. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0brahim_Bilgen. They consider deleting the whole article already “This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.” Propaganda Wars.
COME ON let's spread the word and LET'S BEAT THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME. Please share this article with your friends on Facebook and other networks.
