May 31st, 2010
12:32 PM ET

Latest developments: Israeli raid on flotilla

[Updated at 10:57 p.m.] Here are the latest developments involving the pre-dawn raid by Israeli military on a flotilla of six ships carrying aid for the Palestinian territory of Gaza:

LATEST DETAILS

- Times Square protest draws 500 outside Israeli consulate

- One American among wounded, State Department official says

- Venezuelan network TeleSur calls on Israel to release journalist seized in raid

- As many as nine Americans may have been aboard the Gaza relief flotilla and were being held by Israeli authorities, a State Department
official said.

- The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday called by Turkey in response to the incident.

- On Monday, Israel insisted its soldiers were defending themselves when they opened fire. "They deliberately attacked soldiers," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the activists.

- In Iraq, hundreds of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets of Baghdad in protest of the Israeli action.

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday Israeli soldiers were attacked as they attempted to stop a convoy headed to Gaza to deliver aid. The soldiers were beaten and stabbed, and there was also a report of gunfire, Netanyahu said, appearing in Ottawa, Canada, with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Four Israeli soldiers were injured, he said.

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cut short his visit to Canada, and will return to Israel after holding a working meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to "update him on the recent events," said an e-mailed statement from a spokesman. Netanyahu spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier Monday, the statement said.

- The Israeli troops "were not expecting to be attacked," said Jonathan Peled, minister-counselor at the Israeli embassy in Washington. He said the soldiers came aboard carrying paintball pistols, but were attacked with knives and metal bars. One naval commando was stabbed, prompting the soldiers to open up with live fire, killing the nine, he said.

- The Palestinian Cabinet, in its weekly meeting, "strongly condemned the Israeli crime against international supporters on board of the Freedom Flotilla, which reveals, once again, Israeli disregard to the lives of innocent civilians and its disrespect to international law, norms and resolutions," the Palestinian Authority said in a statement.

THE RAID

- Israeli soldiers stormed a flotilla of six ships carrying aid for the Palestinian territory of Gaza in a pre-dawn raid on Monday, killing at least nine people, the country's military said.

- Israel Defense Forces says the number of people killed is nine, not 10 as previously reported.

- Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded in the raid, Israel Defense Forces said.

- Fifteen people captured on board the flotilla have been transferred to an Israeli prison in Beer Sheva, a spokesman for the Israeli Prison authority said Monday.

- Two Israeli naval commandos, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli soldiers boarded the ships armed with paint guns along with loaded pistols which they were only supposed to use in an emergency. Only when the soldiers felt they were mobbed and their lives were in danger did they pull our handguns and begin shooting live ammunition, they said.

- All six boats in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla were boarded by Israeli naval commandos, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Only one, the Mavi Mamara, offered resistance; the other five surrendered peacefully, the military said.

- An Israeli senior military official speaking on condition of anonymity said 15 soldiers aboard several commando boats were involved in the incident. An Israeli commando said upon descending into a boat with ropes, he was immediately attacked by a group of people. "They beat us up with metal sticks and knives," he said. "There was live fire at some point against us ... They were shooting at us from below deck." The account could not be independently verified by CNN.

- A senior Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in an independent account cleared by military censors, said Israeli troops were planning to deal with peace activists on a Gaza-bound flotilla, "not to fight." The official displayed a box from the boat containing switch blade knives, slingshots, metal balls and metal bats. "This was not spontaneous," he said. "This was planned."

- The military official said most of the nine deaths were Turks, he said. Twenty people were wounded.

- "We didn't come here for war," he said. "... They came to fight us. This was a voyage of terror."

- The Free Gaza Movement, one of the groups sponsoring the flotilla, said in a Twitter post that Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the deck of one of the ships and "immediately opened fire on unarmed civilians." Video aired on CNN sister network CNN Turk showing soldiers rappelling onto the deck of a ship from a helicopter above.

- The boarding of the ships took place more than 70 nautical miles outside Israeli territorial waters, according to the Turkish-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation or IHH - one of the organizers of the flotilla.

- The Israeli troops "were not expecting to be attacked," said Jonathan Peled, minister-counselor at the Israeli embassy in Washington. He said the soldiers came aboard carrying paintball pistols, but were attacked with knives and metal bars. One naval commando was stabbed, prompting the soldiers to open up with live fire, killing the nine, he said.

- Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said of the organizers of the flotilla, "They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror. On board the ship, we found weapons that were prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizers' intent was violent, their method was violent and unfortunately, the results were violent."

- Five soldiers were among the wounded, with two suffering serious injuries.

- The Israeli military said the soldiers were attacked with knives and gunfire and that their lives were in danger. "We did not attack any boat, we merely fulfilled the Israeli government's decision to prevent anyone from going into the Gaza strip without coordinating with Israel," a military statement said.

- IDF spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibowitz said light weapons and handguns were confiscated from the flotilla. "We basically encountered a lynch," she said. "We had to control this violence."

- Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev accused the leaders of the flotilla of looking for a fight. "They wanted to make a political statement. They wanted violence," according to Regev, who said Israel wanted a peaceful interception of the ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. "They are directly responsible for the violence and the deaths that occurred."

- The ships of the flotilla were being taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, the military said.

- On Monday, Israel insisted its soldiers were defending themselves when they opened fire. "They deliberately attacked soldiers," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the activists.

THE REACTION

- The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday called by Turkey in response to the incident.

- In Iraq, hundreds of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets of Baghdad in protest of the Israeli action.

- "We will not stop. We will go again," Free Gaza, one of the groups organizing the flotilla, said on its website. "Please, donate for the next trip ... we will go until Gaza is free."

- A protest in Paris over the incident attracted an estimated 1,000 people on the Champs-Elysees, according to CNN personnel at the scene. CNN producer Nikki Cook saw police fire tear gas at protesters, who smashed a window and threw bottles. Police riot trucks were lining up to corral the crowd, Cook said.

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken with Netanyahu and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express her "deep concerns." Merkel said she advised both officials that everything possible should be done to avoid escalation.

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday Israeli soldiers were attacked as they attempted to stop a convoy headed to Gaza to deliver aid. The soldiers were beaten and stabbed, and there was also a report of gunfire, Netanyahu said, appearing in Ottawa, Canada, with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

- Netanyahu said he was cutting short his Canadian trip and would return to Israel.

- President Barack Obama spoke on the phone with Netanyahu Monday morning, according to a statement from the White House press office. He "said he understood the prime minister's decision to return immediately to Israel to deal with today's events ... (and) agreed to reschedule their meeting at the first opportunity."

- Obama "expressed deep regret at the loss of life in today's incident, and concern for the wounded," the statement noted. He "also expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning's tragic events as soon as possible."

- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has spoken with Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, and with German Foreign Minister Guide Westerwelle on Monday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Lieberman "told them that the passengers on the ships are not freedom fighters, but terrorist supporters who fired at IDF soldiers as soon as the latter boarded the ships."

- The Palestinian Cabinet, in its weekly meeting, "strongly condemned the Israeli crime against international supporters on board of the Freedom Flotilla, which reveals, once again, Israeli disregard to the lives of innocent civilians and its disrespect to international law, norms and resolutions," the Palestinian Authority said in a statement.

- Egyptian President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak condemned Israel's interception Monday of humanitarian aid ships that were bound for Gaza, calling Israel's use of force "excessive and unjustified."

- Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, in a statement, "strongly condemned" what he called an "assault" by the Israeli military on the flotilla.

- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was "shocked by reports of killing of people in boats carrying supplies to Gaza. I condemn the violence and Israel must explain." Ban spoke at a news conference shortly after the official opening of the International Criminal Court Review Conference in Uganda.

- Westerwelle said he was "very concerned" about the incident. Westerwelle said in a statement, "we want a thorough and transparent investigation. It is clear that there must be some balance in international law. It is not acceptable to distort this balance."

- Six Germans, including two members of parliament, were on board the flotilla, Westerwelle said. Their conditions were unknown. Two German embassy officials were en route to the Israeli port of Ashdod, he said.

- White House spokesman Bill Burton said Monday regarding the incident with the Gaza-bound flotilla, "The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy."

- Three members of Germany's Die Linke party were participating on board the boat where 10 people were killed, the party said Monday. So far, efforts to reach Bundestag members Annette Groth and Inge Hoeger, along with former member Norman Paech, have been unsuccessful, the party said.

- Amnesty International called for Israel to launch an immediate credible and independent investigation into the killing by its armed forces of at least 10 activists on boats protesting the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. "Israeli forces appear clearly to have used excessive force," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement.

- France, Greece, Sweden and Ireland are among nations summoning their Israeli ambassadors. Other nations, including Russia, Spain, France and Indonesia, condemned the violence.

- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy for the so-called Quartet, a group of nations working toward peace in the region, said in a statement Monday: "I express deep regret and shock at the tragic loss of life. There obviously has to be a full investigation into what has happened. Once again I repeat my view that we need a different and better way of helping the people of Gaza and avoiding the hardship and tragedy that is inherent in the present situation."

- The Vatican said it was following the situation with "great attention and concern."

- "We have consistently advised against attempting to access Gaza in this way, because of the risks involved," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "But at the same time, there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations."

- Turkey has recalled its Israeli ambassador over the incident, canceled three military exercises with the Israeli military and called back its youth national football team from Israel, where two games were scheduled, said Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will return to Turkey from Chile after meeting with the Chilean president, Arinc said. The chief of the Turkish military is cutting short a trip to Egypt. The Turkish-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation or IHH was one of the organizers of the flotilla.

- "This operation will leave a bloody stain on the history of humanity," said Arinc.

- Nations including France, Spain and Bahrain, among others, condemned the violence. The Italian foreign minister has asked the European Union for a "serious and detailed" investigation.

- Police stepped up security across Israel.

- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for three days of mourning in the Palestinian territories.

- "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this Israeli attack on civilians who came from all over the world peacefully with wheelchairs and food supplies and medical supplies," said Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.

- Said Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad: "Nothing can excuse this attack by armed forces on a humanitarian convoy. The Palestinian government strongly condemns this crime, which portrays, once again, Israeli disrespect for the lives of innocent civilians, and its disrespect for international law."

- Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said: "The Israeli occupation tries to deny this massacre by saying that the activists on the boat are from Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood and this is a lying campaign, because the activists are international activists and between them are parliament members of western countries and know international peace activists."

- The British Foreign Office said it was seeking "urgent clarification" into the incident.

- After summoning its Israeli ambassador, the Greek foreign ministry said that the visit of the Israeli Joint Chiefs - scheduled for Tuesday - is being postponed, and that the Greek-Israeli military exercise that was in progress has been discontinued. A Greek foreign affairs ministry official could not say how many Greeks were aboard the six ships.

- Among the activists aboard the flotilla was Fatima Mohammadi from Chicago, according to the Free Gaza Movement – Chicago. Kevin Clark, a member of the organization, said that neither he nor Mohammadi's mother, who lives in Boise, Idaho, had heard from her. "None of us envisioned they would do this," said Clark. "Speaking for myself, this will not deter us."

- The Israeli Prime Minister's Office has issued a serious travel warning for Israelis visiting Turkey. The warning calls Israelis who are about to travel into Turkey to postpone their trip and for Israelis in Turkey to remain indoors and avoid presence in the city centers.

- More than 15,000 Israelis have canceled plans to visit Turkey, according to Guliz Akdeniz Ay, an official with tourism sales for Brontes Travel Agency, a leading travel agency in bringing Israeli tourists to Turkey. "So far, we have received more than 15,000 cancellations," he said Monday, for tours beginning the second week of June and continuing throughout the summer. All charter planes from Israel to the Turkish Mediterranean resorts of Bodrum and Marmaris have been canceled, he said.

- Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the raid will inflame the region. "Lebanon strongly condemns this attack and calls on the international community, and specifically on the major countries which are supposed to be responsible about the peace process, to take action in order to stop this continuous violation of human rights, which is putting the international peace at risk," he said.

THE CONVOY

- The convoy of boats left European ports in a consolidated protest organized by two pro-Palestinian groups to deliver tons of food and other aid to Gaza by breaking a blockade imposed by Israel in 2007. The groups are: Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish-based IHH, a humanitarian relief foundation affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood religious group.

- The convoy approached Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade, and was shadowed by three warships. Free Gaza had reported Sunday that they had been contacted by the Israeli navy. Israel wanted the flotilla to dock at Ashdod port, where supplies would be unloaded and transferred to Gaza.

- About 15,000 tons of humanitarian aid flows into Gaza per week, said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

- Saying that Israeli civilians were subjected to rockets and missiles fired from Gaza that had originated from places like Iran and Syria, the military prevents all ships from reaching the Gaza shore so that ammunition or missiles cannot be brought in, Regev said.

- Israel said Sunday that Western and Turkish authorities have accused IHH of having "working relations" with different terrorist organizations.

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soundoff (568 Responses)
  1. Jam

    CNN is a zionist mouthpiece generally speaking, but not everything can be hidden, even by CNN.
    The occupation is illegal and the methods used by the AshkeNazi Israelis are basically of the Nazi kind. Only media control in the US and elsewhere, including the UK, together with sponsorship of politicians, permits this terrible situation to continue.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:33 pm | Report abuse |
  2. ahmad

    Israel’s Wall: The Facts
    Currently, approximately 60% of the planned route has been constructed. Construction is ongoing in the districts of Qalqilya, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. The Jordan Valley is almost completely isolated fron the rest of the West Bank.

    The Wall’s total length will be some 760 Km, which is twice the length of the 1949 Armistice Line (Green Line) between the West Bank and Israel.

    When completed, the Wall will de facto annex some 46% of the West Bank. .
    Approximately 385,000 settlers in 80 settlements are located between the Wall and the Green Line.(98% of the settler population will be included in the facto annexed areas).

    Approximately 35,000 West Bank Palestinians will be located between the Wall and the Green Line (an area known as ‘no man’s land’). They require permits to live in their homes and can only leave their communities via a gate in the Wall. This is in addition to the majority of the 250,000 East Jerusalem residents.

    78 Palestinian villages and communities with a total population of 266.442 will be isolated as follows: Villages surrounded by the Wall, settlements and settler roads – 257.265 Palestinians Villages isolated between the Wall and the Green Line – 8557 Palestinians Villages isolated and residents threatened with expulsion – 6314 Palestinians

    The cost of the Wall to the Israeli government is now estimated at $ 2.1 billion. In addition, the Occupation has spent NIS 2 billion to construct alternative roads and tunnels.

    34 fortified checkpoints, 3 main terminals, 9 commercial terminals and 22 terminals for cars and workers, control Palestinian right of movement

    May 31, 2010 at 4:34 pm | Report abuse |
    • AK

      Yeah, and hopefully once completed I can resume taking the bus without fearing for my life.

      May 31, 2010 at 4:36 pm | Report abuse |
  3. JRu

    Once again we have EUROPEAN people from Crimiea who converted to Judism in 700AD laying claim to a land they never came from called PALESTINE. European convert Jews who's family lineage is EASTERN EUROPEAN. A people that have been kicked out of 95 countries out of the 195 we have on earth. Yet these Jews blame everyone one else but themselves. Read the Talmud, it preaches HATE. Anyone not Jewish is to be treated like cattle and all wordly goods belong to the self "chosen people". Boarding a ship of another nation in INTERNATIONAL WATERS is an act of war. Boarding a ship in INTERNATIONAL WATERS ARMED is an act of PIRACY. People forget for every Jew killed in a death camp, there where 4 CHRISTIANS that died in the same death camp. WHERE IS OUR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL. THE FIRST PERSON KILLED IN A DEATH CAMP WAS CHRISTIAN. So when you look at the horrible death camp photos most of the dead starved people in the photo ARE NOT JEWISH BUT CHRISTIANS. 24 MILLION CHRISTIANS WIPEDOUT but no mention of them? Why? BECAUSE CHRISTIANS DONT COUNT TO JEWS.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:34 pm | Report abuse |
    • AK

      Thats an interesting number...24 million? I would really like to see support for that, where did you find it? Also, have you ever read the Talmud? Because I have been studying it for 25 years and I have not found what you are referring to. But then again, I haven't been able to finish it yet.

      May 31, 2010 at 4:39 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Jam

    Many of the pro-Israel posters on blogs are sponsored by the violently racist Israeli government – many with non-Jewish sounding names (as with the assassination squad who went to Dubai with false passports), but we are not fooled. The whole world is waking up, and the Israeli's themselves are helping to show the world their true colors.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:38 pm | Report abuse |
  5. ahmad

    The average water supply to the Palestinian com-munities in the oPT is about 63 liters per capita per day in the West Bank versus 140/day in Gaza.

    In 7% of the Palestinian communities (43 out of 708), per capita supply is less than or equal to 30 liters per day; in 36% (225 communities) it is be-tween 30 and 50 liters per day; in 41% (264 com-munities) it is between 50 and 100 liters per day; and finally, only in 16% (100) of these communities does the per capita supply exceed 100 liters per day, which is the minimum amount recommended by the WHO.

    Only 69% of Palestinian communities that are connected to water networks.

    Only 7% of the available water in the Gaza Strip meets WHO standards.
    Israel, primarily the settlements, utilize 37% of the water from the Eastern Aquifer which is entirely located in teh West Bank.

    The price of water supplied by private tankers has increased in 290 communities in Palestine, with 205 of them experiencing an increase of up to 150% and the remaining 85 of them up to 200%.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:38 pm | Report abuse |
  6. microserf

    Israel is the biggest apartheid state since South Africa!

    May 31, 2010 at 4:39 pm | Report abuse |
  7. ROB

    MOISHE,ARE YOU F***ING SICK,WHY?,WHATS THE F***,DID YOU READ WHATS HAPPENED.F*** YOU,AND ALL EVIL SO CALL NATION,F*** YOUR NATION ATTACKED UNARMED CIVILIAN VESEL ON HUMANItARIAN MISSION,KILLING 9 OF THE CREW.F*** ISRAEL,HOW MANY U.S. SOLDIERS NEED TO DIE?F*** ISRAEL,TODAY IS MEMORIAL DAY!F*** ISRAEL,GOD BLESS AMERICA

    May 31, 2010 at 4:40 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Sine

    Israel's arrogance is matched only by the strong cover offered to its massacres by American and European lip service to human rights and peace. Give us all a break. Just come out and say it: the Palestinian people should disappear. Nothing less than that will satisfy those carrying the Zionist project to its completion. The Palestinians have to be exterminated, by any means necessary, slow or fast, by Israeli hands, American hands, or European. Palestinians: Die so that the world can continue its happy times. Seriously, that's the message.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:43 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Jam

    It’s now official – there’s no actual shortage of Holocaust Survivors :

    quote from The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. Finkelstein of the City University of New York, published by Verso in the year 2000:
    'The Israeli Prime Minister's office recently put the number of "living Holocaust survivors" at nearly a million.' (page 83)

    May 31, 2010 at 4:44 pm | Report abuse |
  10. microserf

    Why won't Israel stop the settlements?

    May 31, 2010 at 4:45 pm | Report abuse |
    • heiro

      Israel and Jews are subborn because they still believe the area of Palestine is theirs because of biblical history. Arabs and Palestinians are largely indoctrinated and irrational because of their Koran preachers. How could you reconcile these two extremes? The USA may have some influence over Israel but who has influence over Hamas, Fatah, Arab, Muslims etc.? Nobody!!!
      Now, how to proceed to achieve progress toward peace? – Don't take as a joke, but give both sides enough weapons to wipe each other out and declare Palestine a World Heritage Site where nobody can change anything anymore.

      May 31, 2010 at 4:58 pm | Report abuse |
  11. Jam

    Elie Wiesel vs Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Wiesel has been one of the most prominent spokesman for the very sizeable group of people known as Holocaust survivors. Wiesel has chaired the US Holocaust Memorial Council and has been the recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal and Nobel Peace Prize..

    Time Magazine, March 18 1985:

    ‘How had he survived two of the most notorious killing fields [Auschwitz and Buchenwald] of the century? "I will never know" Wiesel says. "I was always weak. I never ate. The slightest wind would turn me over. In Buchenwald they sent 10,000 to their deaths every day. I was always in the last hundred near the gate. They stopped. Why?"

    Compare this with Encyclopaedia Britannica (1993), under ‘Buchenwald’:

    "In World War II it held about 20,000 prisoners.. Although there were no gas chambers, hundreds perished monthly through disease, malnutrition, exhaustion, beatings and executions."

    May 31, 2010 at 4:46 pm | Report abuse |
  12. ruffnutt

    buy a chevy volt and we wont need thier oil anymore..then we can get out of the middle east.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:47 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Davey Hanson

    Just look at the Israel supporters.....don't react to them, they are too far gone or just shills....USA/Canada must stop all the billions of dollars in support....why can't they support themselves? Look at all the dual citizens from Israel in the U.S. Gov't, jusr research it. Wake the heck up people...stop watching mainstream news and stupid shows like Oprah or Maury or Ellen....or Idol....start researching for yourselves and see what is going on. Dump your Fed Reserve now....WAKE UP....who gives a crap who's wearing what at the award shows...or who's dating who behing someones back, your only chance is to wake up now. Research now....ewverything.

    May 31, 2010 at 4:47 pm | Report abuse |
  14. ROB

    OBAMA-WATHS UP

    May 31, 2010 at 4:47 pm | Report abuse |
  15. Jam

    Washington Report on Middle East Affairs | January/February 1999

    "A Terrible Fraud" :
    Wiesel Ignores Palestinians
    To the Jerusalem Post, Oct. 9, 1998 (as submitted).

    (from Prof. Daniel McGowan, Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY)

    In your Oct. 9 article on Elie Wiesel, the American icon of Holocaust survivors, he is paid a special tribute as a "speaker of truth." This is the same Elie Wiesel who is continually referred to by Noam Chomsky and others as "a terrible fraud." What can explain such disparity of opinion?

    Perhaps it is because Wiesel, who has written literally volumes Against Silence, remains silent when it comes to such issues involving Palestinians as land expropriation, torture and abrogation of basic human rights.

    Perhaps it is because Elie Wiesel proclaims with great piety that "the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference," while he remains totally indifferent to the inequality and suffering of the Palestinians. Perhaps it is because he enjoys recognition as "one of the first opponents of apartheid" in South Africa, while he remains totally silent and indifferent to the apartheid being practiced today in Israel.

    Perhaps it is because he decries terrorism, yet never apologizes for the terrorism perpetrated by the Irgun at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948. He refuses even to comment on it. He dismisses this act of terrorism in eight short words in his memoirs, All Rivers Run to the Sea. He remembers the Jewish victims at Kielce, Poland (July 1946) with great anguish, but ignores twice as many Palestinian victims of his own employer at Deir Yassin. The irony is breathtaking.

    It is even more shocking that the world's best known Holocaust survivor can repeatedly visit Yad Vashem and yet keep silent about the victims of Deir Yassin who lie within his sight 1,400 meters to the north. He bitterly protests when Jewish graves are defaced, but has nothing to say when the cemetery of Deir Yassin is bulldozed. He refuses even to acknowledge repeated requests that he join a group of Jews and non-Jews who wish to build a memorial at Deir Yassin.

    Elie Wiesel may profess modesty and claim he is "not a symbol of anything" but, unfortunately, he has become a symbol of hypocrisy.

    Daniel A. McGowan, Director, Deir Yassin Remembered, Geneva, NY

    May 31, 2010 at 4:48 pm | Report abuse |
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