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Updated 6.45pm
ISRAEL HAS AGAIN denied claims it sabotaged ships trying to breach its sea blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The Irish Ship to Gaza group claimed that the Irish ship the MV Saoirse was damaged earlier this week while it was docked in the Turkish port of Gocek. Another boat moored in the Greek town of Piraeus was also damaged.
The boats are part of a flotilla attempting to reach the Palestinian territory. Efforts were further stalled yesterday when Greece prevented ships from sailing.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor has again dismissed the sabotage charges as “ridiculous,” calling them “sad conspiracy theories.” Palmor had previously said that the activists should “come out of the film world and start getting real. This is not Hollywood and Israel is not the bad guy”.
Meanwhile Turkish police have said that the upon initial inspection it appears that the damage to the MV Saoirse was done before it docked in Gocek. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports that “the breakdown of the ship might not have been a result of sabotage”.
The Irish Ship to Gaza Group has said that the Turkish investigation cannot be taken at face value. In a statement today the group said that it has “very strong doubts regarding a report published in the Turkish press”. Spokesperson Laurence Davis said:
It is important to remember that Turkey and Israel, under the watchful eye of the United States, are currently attempting to heal the rift created when Israel ordered an attack on last year’s Freedom Flotilla, killing eight Turks and one Turkish-American. These diplomatic manoeuvres cast doubt on the impartiality of both the Turkish investigation into the apparent sabotage of the Irish ship MV Saoirse, and the forthcoming ‘Palmer Report’, commissioned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to investigate the events surrounding the attack on last year’s Gaza Flotilla.
The group says that it is “beyond coincidence” that both the MV Saoirse and the Juliano suffered almost identical damage. The group provided photos of what it says is sabotage:
A spokesperson for the Irish Ship to Gaza group has also told TheJournal.ie that the remaining members of the Irish crew have now decided to return to Ireland in the wake of the Greek ban on the boats leaving for Gaza.
Greek authorities have arrested the captain of the American boat The Audacity of Hope. The 60-year-old is being held at Piraeus police headquarters and while remain there until a court hearing on Tuesday.
Greece’s coast guard said the captain of the “Audacity of Hope” faces charges of trying to leave port without permission and of endangering the lives of the boat’s passengers. The latter charge is a felony.
The “Audacity of Hope” was carrying 36 passengers, four crew and about 10 members of the media. Its attempt to sail on Friday night from the port of Perama, near Athens, was thwarted by coast guard speedboats.
- Additional reporting by AP
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Maybe they could head to China, Tíbet ,syria or even chechyna where they will find many oppressed peoples, but that would not fit too well with their anti jewish agenda and thats all it is, every country in the world has a right to protect it’s borders from constant rocket fire from a government whose agenda is to destroy the people of Israel. These flotilla fools should direct their ‘goodwill’ elsewhere, there aré many injured and terrified school kids in Israel who would like outside support and a few free rugby balls to help ease the stress of constant attack!
Maybe they could sail to Ireland, where the people have been terrorised by the ECB into paying the German bankers for the next 20 years
But some comments have been ridiculous like thinking the activists wanted to come home for holiday. The Israeli’s clearly dont want this flotilla to highlight the open air prison the Palestinians are living in, that’s why the Israeli army boarded the boat last time and shot dead unarmed activists. This method of sabotaging the boat stops the Israeli’s from murdering non-Palestinians and creates a murkier picture – as is obvious from some of the stupid comments here.
Ah sure everyone hates the Jews Karl….The whole world hates them… Cut the nonsense… Do you know anything about what’s happening to the Palestinians???????
I still can’t get over all these clowns, like Monks there, that continue to spout off about the previous “activists” being unarmed victims. They were cutting the bloody rails off the boat to use as weapons in preparation for the boarding and they were found with several knives. They commandeered the boat and were filmed beating the soldiers before 1 shot was ever fired. If you jackasses are to blind to see the plain -documented and well established- facts then there really is no hope for you in reality.
wonders how much isreal gave greece and id say it was dollers too
Well Philb .You’ll be rightly sickened by the UN report due shortly. Which will be highly critical of Turkey and the IHH terrorist group which organised last years flotilla.
Its so predictable. The flotilla is “damaged” and oopps they all have to come home from their holiday. Yet turns out the “damage” was already there.
People were saying 2 days ago when this first came out.It was a publicity stunt to demonise Israel and allow the activists to come home.
Again I’ll say one thing.THey don’t know if they are in Turkey or Greece.So they aren’t the wisest to let onto a boat.Who knows they could have ended up in Syria.
Here is an idea.Why not send the “life saving” rugby balls to the Syrian refugees in Turkey. Now that they can’t get to Gaza.With its higher life expectancy for men than Glasgow Scotland.
Philib I wonder where you get your information from. To suggest this was sabotage and a conspiracy by Israel is nothing more than fanciful fiction. They made a mess of their booze cruise and now want to blame Israel.
There isn’t an aid crisis in gaza. they don’t even want aid.
So let me get this straight.They were aware the engine room was damaged already and that it was old damage.Yet they were happy to take a “damaged” boat and sail to Gaza? A damaged engine? A totally unsailable boat?? Yet they were going to still sail to Gaza ,before this “newer” damage happened?? What would have happened if the engine failed mid way??hhhmm All seems like a publicity stunt.
Correct, Barry. This anti Israel thing is plain ridiculous.
But loike how are we going to get the heiners to our brothers in gaza now loike?
One word – Sap!!!!
Thanks for that insightful comment Michael!
Obviously he doesn’t get comic irony !!! No offence – loike -
I would presume that who ever was in charge of leasing/buying this boat did a proper inspection and took some pictures of the various vital components. Or were they sold a pup that they didn’t even bother to kick the tyres on, if the metaphor police will forgive me?
The boats were out of the water and inspected so stop your crap.
Gawd, it’s descending into farce. The whole thing was ill-considered from the start.
I wish they’d stop calling it “the Irish boat”.
Irish name, Irish flag, Irish crew, Irish boat. Simples!
Half a hour watching Whale Wars on Discovery & anyone can see been a “activist” doesn’t make you a sailor, perhaps it was all the weight of the humanitarian rugby balls supplies.
Sea Shepherd’s Mission Statement
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.
Sea Shepherd’s international crew of volunteers are not professional sailors and never claim to be, as most professional sailors would not do what the crews do.
Chris Andrews tweet about “TEH GLOBAL ZIONIST CONZPIRASEE” in 5, 4, 3…..
OK.So lets get this straight here.
a)Demonisation of Israel worked for two days,but those annoying Turks who are friends with the “Joozes” finds out our lie,So march in plan b) Attempt to smear Turkish investiagation and c)While we are at it knock the Palmer report due in the next ten days.Which will be very critical of the Terrorist group IHH and Turkey itself.It will also agree with the blockade as it is helping to stop Iranian weapons.
Sad really Irish journalists give such air time to such groups. I wonder was the “Spokesperson” Claudia Saba. ?? The Irish-Palestinian UCD student who attempted to sue the student newspaper in UCD for a report on her,Which found quotes of her sympathy with Hizbollah?? Yes. Will the media ever get the “balls” to report the fact the main spokesperson for Irish Ship to Gaza is a Hezbollah sympathiser.
Is that true about claudia Saba? Do you have a link with info about it?
If you wish to send me your email address.I can mail you the article which she attempted to sue the UCD student newspaper from printing,
Here you go Ferg.Hope this link works.
http://issuu.com/colmanhanley/docs/collegetribunevolume24issue2
Thanks for the link Barry.
I’m amused that I got red thumbs for asking a simple question!
Actually what would be a good article or debate would be miss Sabia defending hizbollah and miss Cambell talking about her time with the IDF. I would love a ringside seat at that one.
Typical pro Israeli rubbish, not a single statement based on fact.
Yes. The reporting is not balanced, fair & just. It’s OK for some of these “protesters” to scream their hatred, intolerance & bigotry at Israel, but when it comes to some facts about themselves, it’s another story.
Emer.Why when you edited this again.Did you remove the part of the original article which said the boat was already damaged?? And that they feared the Turks had mistaken the damaged in the Engine room which was there already??
Yes thats it folks.There was damage to the engine room already there.No wonder they didn’t want that on this article. It seems to have been removed and replaced by more “spin” by the Irish Ship to Gaza” group.
Barry, why were you on this boat? You know so much about it you must have been living in the engine room!!
Aye, they’re quick on the draw here.
typical, you say anything that remotely criticizes Israel for their actions and you are called anti Semitic – yet Israel has one of the biggest propaganda machines in the world – very short memory they have, selective too, it was only 1947 that the Jewish flotilla ran the English blockade that caused the world wide outrage when 7 Jews were killed that gave rise to Israel – any attempt by Israel to continue to blockade the Palestinians is a disgrace – if this was happening to Jews the Jews would be making us all feel guilty – pfffft to anyone defending the Jewish line on this – Israel, the same country that continues to chase Nazi’s, that sent Mossad on killing missions around the world, the same Israelis that stole Irish and Australian passports and killed in their names – yeah, the story is a conspiracy all right, the part where it quotes Israeli spokesman claiming the conspiracy in the first place
The very fact that there is a need to send a humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza in the first place says it all.
Shame on you Israel. Shame on you for continuing to de-nationalise and consequently de-humanise the people of Palestine. Shame on you for doing this while the world is still in the shadow of the atrocity that was visited upon Jews in the 1940′s. It doesn’t look or feel any better now with you as the protagonists.
And please don’t hide behind a religion by calling this statement and others like it anti-semetic because it is not. It is an observation of the shameful actions of a nation.
Sail on to Gaza folks, if you can make it and may good luck go with you.
maybee Mr ward you would like to protect the Hammas and IRAN AND THE SYRIAN REGEIMS WHILST they MURDER their own CITIZENS and when they are finished and they move on to central europe you will be there to support them, but as I see it I HOPE THE israel is fuckn NUKE THEM OK
You are either drunk or suffering from a head injury based on your diction, spelling and logical formulation of representational argument. I will however challenge you on one point and that is your advocacy of a thermonuclear strike on Gaza. Given that Israel is suspected of having nukes in the megaton range and also the fact that Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are only about 35 miles from Gaza City it would not be in Israels interest to ” fuckn NUKE THEM “. It would be much akin to shooting ones self in the foot.
thank you however for your views and for bringing some light entertainment to area of debate. :-)
I am not reading or listening to any more of this story.
I don`t believe either side, the comments on this page are “mob mentality” and “for us or against us” type tripe that I can hear down the local should I choose to torture myself over few pints.
Both sides are screaming at each other about how correct and accurate they both are respectively.
No comment is impartial, except the main article which has presented us with a factual account of boat leaves Ireland, Boat berths, Crew (sailors/activists???) come home.
This reminds me of the time, when every South American/African/ Asian Dictatorship was a valid member of the Free World, and everything inside the iron curtain was Evil and Bad.
Troll…….yawn.
Ahh Ciaran your intellectual wit knows no bounds!!!!!!!!
Very constructive commentary Mark. Please do not make generalisations and assumptions.
Comment reported.
Thanks Ciarán missed that button but was taken down pretty quick!! :)
Ah, we have an erudite orator in our midst! Welcome to the debate.
Fair enough if you disagree with or are sceptical about the motives of the activists; the may very well be linked to undesirable groups. It’s also understandable if you wish to challenge their claims of sabotage; the evidence is far from conclusive.
What I can’t understand is how people on here have tried to defend the actions of the Israeli commandos who shot dead a number of civilians on the previous flotilla attempt. The Israeli troops were attacked by the activists but they were, after all, an armed force illegally boarding a privately owned, foreign-registered ship in international waters in the middle of the night. They were effectively acting in the same fashion as the (rightly) vilified Somali pirates. The crew were defending their ship.
Furthermore, I would not be at all surprised if the UN report does look favourably upon Israel. I am no conspiracy theorist but for such a small nation, Israel does manage to have an unreasonably strong influence on the international political stage thanks, I’m sure, to its powerful ally across the Atlantic. Why, for example, was absolutely nothing done about the theft by the Israeli government of Irish citizens’ passports? The Irish government stood idly by as Israel stole from Irish citizens and then used their identities in a series of assassinations.
Again, feel free to disagree with the activists mentioned above but don’t rush to the defence of a criminal state.
Pat Fitzgerald engineer of the Irish Ship to Gaza talks about the damage in detail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4fEMc9sGI
Interesting video Greg, I cant’t wait to hear what the pro-Israeli’s have to day about this although from what I’ve observed they usually usually shy away from commenting on anything that they can’t deal with. This was a concise and well laid out narrative of what happened to the MV Saoirse. What happens now is deafening silence from pro-Israeli’s or else they will come back with childish insults and name calling, illogical and ill thought out arguments or some totally irrelevant side issue that had no meaning or purpose to the debate on hand other than to muddy the waters and deflect from their lack of valid argument.
The title should read ” irish activists buy dodgy boat , Israel ignores it completely as they have better things to do ” but then “Israel tried to kill us” sounds better ! Catch yourself on !
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