Gaza Blockade: When The Shoe Was On The Other Foot

Avnery News:

ON THE high seas, outside territorial waters, the ship was stopped by the navy. The commandos stormed it. Hundreds of people on the deck resisted, the soldiers used force. Some of the passengers were killed, scores injured. The ship was brought into harbor, the passengers were taken off by force. The world saw them walking on the quay, men and women, young and old, all of them worn out, one after another, each being marched between two soldiers...

The ship was called "Exodus 1947". It left France in the hope of breaking the British blockade, which was imposed to prevent ships loaded with Holocaust survivors from reaching the shores of Palestine. If it had been allowed to reach the country, the illegal immigrants would have come ashore and the British would have sent them to detention camps in Cyprus, as they had done before. Nobody would have taken any notice of the episode for more than two days.

Read the whole story: Avnery News

Comments

[Johnny2Bad]

02:10 PM on 06/17/2010

When the shoe was on the other foot Leon Uris was hired to knock out a quick book. Then Otto Preminger banged out a ludicrous film that depicted Sal Mineo and one other Jew blowing up the King David Hotel and escaping the British on a Vespa. The Israelis and their supporters have had the world's biggest PR machine (Hollywood) at their disposal since day one. Ever see a mainstream studio picture that depicted terrorist Jews? You never will either.

[admiralj]

09:38 PM on 06/07/2010

Israel's right wing fanatics are bringing about the destruction of the nation that many have suffered to established.

[VNJD]

07:38 PM on 06/07/2010

This analogy is juvenile. The Jews of the Exodus did not want to exterminate British citizens. They did not want to impose Jewish law on the residents of British Palestine. The same people who want to break the Gaza blockade also want to eliminate the state of Israel, re-establish the Caliph in Jerusalem and then... Hey, Europeans - do you really think they're going to stop at Jerusalem?

[Progressneeded]

09:12 PM on 06/07/2010

Yes they did! All you have to do is flash forward 70 years. Where is Palestine now and what happened to its indigenous people? Yet the Palestinians were not the ones refusing to harbor the Jews, it was the British.

Here is a clue as to what happened to them:

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/05/06/sixty_years_of_palestinian_displacement

[brt929]

02:24 AM on 06/08/2010

Are you out of your mind? Do you actually believe that bull? Are you that ignorant of history that you believe that pile? Are you a total idi0t?

[lj9283]

11:26 PM on 06/07/2010

From leading Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine"

Of the Israelis' March 1948 plan for evicting the Palestinians Pappe writes,

"The orders came with a detailed description of the methods to be employed to forcibly evict the people (Arab Palestinians): large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding villages and population centres; setting fire to homes, properties and goods; expulsion; demolition; and, finally, planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning."

http://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851685553

[Kevin Atlanta]

03:42 PM on 06/07/2010

The Current regime in power in Israel has created many more enemies than any other in history and the people are powerless. I do not and cannot support the Israeli Apartheid and their human rights violations. They've offended their only Muslim friend and alienated most of America with the rabid gyrations of AIPAC here displayed for all Americans to see. Arms dealers, Nukes and the nasty attitude of the chosen; not a pretty combination.

[GuiltyByStander]

03:08 PM on 06/07/2010

Things are so often not what they seem.

Germany Is Moving To End Mass Immigration of Jews ...

http://www.forward.com/articles/4029/

Thanks to Juan Cole (juancole.com for all his hard work.

[Nisse Hult]

03:44 PM on 06/07/2010

That's just awful!

And I'm not talking about Germany tightening immigration laws.

Germany's been bending over backwards for 65 years now, begging the entire world for forgiveness for the Holocaust and the war, and everybody have been sucking out as much money as they possibly can from them.
The entire EU-project is a giant subsidy to France and the south of Europe, paid for mainly by Germany.
I can very well understand they eventually have to stop paying everyone else's bills, and Russian Jews protesting their removal from the German welfare-tit by wearing yellow stars is just disgustingly disrespectful to the actual Holocaust victims I must say!

I certainly hope the reason for you bringing this here wasn't any sympathy for that action?!

[ouchanapplefellonmyhead]

04:31 PM on 06/07/2010

The EU is not paid for "mainly by Germany" It is paid for mainly by Northern Europe as a whole.

[vmlinux]

02:32 PM on 06/07/2010

The blockade will end, and the missiles, and bombs will once again flow, Jewish blood will run faster, and the world will still not be happy.

[Palaver]

02:37 AM on 06/08/2010

Apparently, you refuse to acknowledge what was on that ship.

[NYCSocialWork]

02:06 PM on 06/07/2010

He states that alienating Turkey could burn a bridge they need to help Israeli relations with other countries in the region.

He forgets that the people behind these types of actions by Israel have no intention of EVER fixing relationships with anybody (except their voters maybe). They get further ahead by exploiting the conflict and making themselves look like "protectors" instead of "antagonists".

[PDXM1ke]

02:46 AM on 06/08/2010

I am sick to death of Israelis and their apologists who eagerly play the "whole world is out to get us" card while willfully ignoring the manifold heinous things Israel does to antagonize pretty much anybody who does not tow their selfish line.

Grow a conscience.

[bill123456]

01:04 PM on 06/07/2010

well, he is comparing I.srael to British....pretty soon people will start comparing them to another European nation......similarities are there.....

[PDXM1ke]

02:48 AM on 06/08/2010

Pre-war German exceptionalism and the Israeli brand are more similar than any Israeli will ever admit.

[KarateKid]

12:41 PM on 06/07/2010

kjohney 3 hours ago (9:28 AM)
15 Fans

Well put Anbreen.
Karate Kid, if you are an innocent bystander, you'd have a much greater chance of being killed in Palestinian territory by Israeli forces, than you would if you were an innocent bystander in Israel being hit by a Hamas rocket.
---------------------------------------------------------

So? Tell that to the women and children who were the victims of Hamas acts of terror. Keeping score does nothing to further peace efforts.

It takes TWO to have a conflict, and TWO to make peace. With extremists like Likud and Hamas in charge, that's not going to happen.

That was the same with Northern Ireland, too. But when the IRA laid down their arms and renounced violence, peace became possible. Hamas must do the same. You don't see Israel doing in the West Bank what they're doing in Gaza, do you?

And how long has it been since Jordan and Egypt had bad relations? Decades.

If I were an innocent Israeli bystander, I'd want my government to do something to make me safer.

[gakabani]

12:57 PM on 06/07/2010

You need to understand that Israel will never negotiate in full faith. ISrael wants to annihilate all Palestinians by making their lives miserable and forcing the m to flee to other places.
Israel as a zionist entity wants all the territories. This is not about terrorism but about a a policy of expropriation. Terrorism, or whatever you want to call it, is a symptom of the disease called occupation. Occupation is the cancer that is creating these problems.

[KarateKid]

01:33 PM on 06/07/2010

Yeah, right. Yawn. Wake me up when you want to have an intelligent discussion.

[StCuthbert]

02:09 PM on 06/07/2010

You need to understand that the Palestinians will never negotiate in full faith. The Palestinians want to annihilate all Jews by making their lives miserable and forcing them to flee to other places.
The Palestinians as a people want all of Palestine. This is not about terrorism but about a policy of expropriation. Terrorism, or whatever you want to kill it, is a symptom of the disease known as "Arab land". Arab perception of all the land for Arabs is the cancer that is creating these problems.

[atlantis1star]

01:20 PM on 06/07/2010

Israel's IDF will not heasitate to shoot young boys throwing stones.

Between January and June 2008, Israeli forces conducting military operations killed 388 Palestinian fighters and civilians in Gaza, about half of whom were civilians; 59 of the dead were children. Israeli forces killed 41 Palestinians in the West Bank between January and the end of October, of whom at least 15 were civilians. The largest Israeli military operation, between February 27 and March 3 in Gaza, killed 107 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians. Human Rights Watch examined one area occupied by Israeli troops during the operation and found strong evidence in four incidents that Israeli forces deliberately fired at and killed five civilians, medical personnel, and incapacitated fighters. In other attacks, Israeli forces did not appear to take all feasible precautions to ensure targets were military and not civilian.

[lbsaltzman]

06:12 PM on 06/07/2010

A good summary of why sane people around the world oppose Israel's occupation of Palestine and blockade of Gaza.

[siafu]

12:40 PM on 06/07/2010

A very impressive and well thought-out editorial. I've often noted the reversal of the current situation in Israel vis a vis the situation in the British Mandate of Palestine (now who are the terrorist "freedom fighters" and who the oppressors?), but to read it from the words of one who was there is even more effective. The most frustrating part is that not only should the best course of action be determined from history, it is also being voiced actively in the present; those making the decisions for the state of Israel have no one but themselves to blame for the situation blowing up in their faces.

[vmlinux]

02:34 PM on 06/07/2010

Except one was a people fleeing a horrible situation, the other is trying to bust a blockade so they can get the weapons flowing again. Except for that minor oversight yea it's spot on.

[esseff44]

06:33 PM on 06/07/2010

The people on the flotilla were not bringing weapons and that was not the purpose of the blockade or the purpose of trying to break the blockade. The blockade is blocking everything needed to make daily life bearable and to rebuild UN schools. Gaza is a PR disaster with or without Hamas. Collective punishment is against international law and must end.

Calling Nobel laureates and legislators from many different countries 'thugs' is not going to help convince the world of sincerity or benign intentions.

[davidariley]

06:59 PM on 06/07/2010

so.....what weapons were found on the ships in the flotilla?

is this another "i KNOW they have wmd's in iraq", and then 8 years later - nothing.

[lbsaltzman]

06:15 PM on 06/07/2010

Everything Uri Avnery writes is impressive. I regularly go to the website www.gush-shalom.org. Gush Shalom is the Israeli peace organization started by Avnery. You can find all of Avnery's articles there along with excellent factual discussions of what is really going on in the occupation and blockade. There are also many excelent links to Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian websites of organizations working to end the occupation and blockade.

[RiyazGuerra]

12:32 PM on 06/07/2010

It's a very good article,..can't recommend it enough.

Avnery is one of the few rational minds left on the planet concerning this conflict.

[solomon sez]

12:31 PM on 06/07/2010

solomonsez..."It's Deja Vu all over again." Occupations never work.They are the work of tyrants,built on fear and doomed to fail.

[RTIII]

11:36 AM on 06/07/2010

.

Yes, it's true; Israel is making enemies of the last of her friends.

Very sad.
.

[exhale09]

11:10 AM on 06/07/2010

I asked this question before, I will ask it again.

Does Religion, FAITH, have a specific Homeland piece of Real Estate, or does FAITH reside in the heart?

[keepemhonest]

11:20 AM on 06/07/2010

I doubt any of the players who call the sh0ts have any faith or any religion ... they like war and real estate.

[Zanubiyah]

12:25 PM on 06/07/2010

exhale09

I belive that religion has been brought into this issue to confuse it. It is simply a matter of who has the right to the land.

Remember, we are breaking down 60 years of Israeli PR. We are finally down to what happened, and you realized it quite right. It has always been a matter of dirt.

[esseff44]

06:38 PM on 06/07/2010

Don't forget water. It's a matter of dirt and water. You can live without dirt on a boat, but you can't live without water. All the settlers moving toward the Jordan River will need copious amounts of water and it's got to come from somewhere. Stealing dirt is one thing;stealing water is a whole different crime.

[Sepulchre]

10:46 AM on 06/07/2010

Ok I accept that I am about to get flamed massively but I have a question I would like an answer too. I am actually not defending Israel, but I feel the need to understand what I see as a logical inconstancy. Why are the people who are calling for the destruction of Israel and the return of all the lands back to the Palestinian people, not also calling for them to be returned to them from Jordan. The British gave 22% of historically held Palestinian lands to what is now Israel, and 78% to the Arabs to form Transjordan. So why only the rallying against one of the two? If the issue is stolen lands then the British stole all that land and gave it away to not one but two countries. I don't understand this logical inconstancy in the claims, and I would like to understand it. Jordan has been fighting with Hamas as well, not just Israel.

[Zanubiyah]

10:53 AM on 06/07/2010

Actually...

This particular article is about a historical incident in which Jewish refugees were turned back as "illegal immigrants' by the British.

There is no 'side taking' here. It is simply a reminder, and a reflection of human history.

If we did more sharing between mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandmothers and so on, and less sharing of numbers and political borders...we might find common ground, and eventually peace.

[Sepulchre]

11:02 AM on 06/07/2010

There are several posters on this thread posting about stolen lands from the Palestinian people. This is directed at them to try to understand there logical inconstancy. I am fully aware of what the article is about.

[exhale09]

11:20 AM on 06/07/2010

There has been so much bias and distortion about so many facts over the decades Zanubiyah, on both sides, that sorting through them to reach and understanding that might bring a peaceful outcome, is hard to imagine.

Your last sentence is well said, and I agree with you. I wish I knew how to accomplish it.

[lbsaltzman]

11:01 AM on 06/07/2010

FIrst off "people" are not calling for the destruction of Israel. Most are calling for the end of the blockade and occupation which might actually save Israel from destroying itself.

Secondly, going back to what the British did is pretty irrelevent now. If you really want to rectify the damage done by the British, then in addition to the West Bank and Gaza all of Israel should be returned to the Palestinians. But at the practical level, Jordan has relinquished all claims to the West Bank and is not an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The only obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state is Israel.

[Sepulchre]

11:14 AM on 06/07/2010

Actually several people are calling for the destuction of Israel and the return of Palestinian lands. This post was specifically directed to them. I am sorry if I did not make that clear in the post.

[StCuthbert]

11:14 AM on 06/07/2010

1. Helen Thomas called for the removal of all the Jews from Palestine and that they need to go back to Germany and Poland, signifying she thinks Israel in its current form as a Jewish state needs to be destroyed. If you read this thread or the article covering that story, you will find a great many people agreeing with her.

2. Hamas and Hezbollah have not given up the dream of all of Palestine restored to the Arabs. They are quite an obstacle for peace.