Maori Television reporter Ruwani Perera has been deported from Israel after she and cameraman Jacob Bryant were filming a story onboard a flotilla of ships detained by the Israeli military.
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The protest contrasted sharply with the challenge posed by the six-ship flotilla organized in Turkey in 2010 with the blessings of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Israeli statement said that “after exhausting all diplomatic channels the Israeli government ordered the Israeli Navy to redirect the vessel in order to prevent breach of the naval blockade” of Gaza. The report, by a commission of the United Nations Human Rights Council, concluded that “impunity prevails across the board” regarding the actions of Israeli forces in Gaza.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition questioned Israel’s version of the operation and said on its website that it had “no reason to believe that Marianne’s capture was “uneventful””.
On Monday, Israel said it blocked a boat that was leading a flotilla of four vessels full of foreign activists from making it to Gaza Strip and forced it to sail to a port in Israel. Netanyahu dismissed the organisers’ goals.
Soon after the mission concluded, Netanyahu released a statement congratulating the Navy and Israeli security forces for a job well done while condemning the flotilla for aiding Hamas and casting a blind-eye while heinous atrocities are taking place everyday throughout the region.
Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Bassel Ghattas is also aboard a vessel in the flotilla, stirring outrage among Israelis who have called for him to be stripped of immunity from prosecution over his decision to join the campaign.
Fact: Saying Israel “assists in transferring goods and humanitarian equipment to Gaza” is polar opposite truth.
Nine Turkish citizens were killed when the commandos opened fire in what Israel said was self-defense, and one more died previous year from injuries sustained in the incident.
“We have seen on the sonar an unidentified vessel following us at a distance of about 20 (nautical) miles and the assumption is that it is an (Israeli) naval ship”, he said. “The problem is not Basel Ghattas or any Palestinian’s struggle against the blockade; the problem is that Israel’s policy does not allow any Palestinian or global sign of revolt to break the blockade”.
“The ship will head Gaza once it overcomes some administrative barriers and procedures”, Abdu said, adding: “The Greek administration is facing pressure from the Israel occupation and its supporters”. “We talked to a lot of witnesses but of course an investigation needs to be as close to the scene as possible and it would have looked different”. Their only crime was that they were demanding their freedom and rights.
Investigations had to be serious and comprehensive “before indictments are being prepared so that the indictments will also carry with them weight and assure prosecution”, Manor said. More than 2,200 people were killed, majority Gazans.
The two New Zealand journalists arrested by Israeli commandos off the Gaza Strip are on their way home, the employer says. Hamas and other militant groups launched thousands of rockets and mortar bombs out of the enclave into Israel.
Palestinian children take part in a rally to show support for the latest attempt to break the siege of Gaza by sea, at the Gaza City port on 28 June 2015.
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For decades, Israel has continued to misappropriate Palestinian land in the West Bank, where it continues to build Jewish-only settlements in breach of global law.
