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Israel Fired On Gaza-Bound Ship Before Boarding (VIDEO)

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posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:02 PM
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I was reading the thread about the Israeli soldier who said that they had no choice but to use lethal force in the flotilla attack and decided to do a little research.

I found this article that with an eyewitness account that not only did the Israeli forces not act in self defense but they fired upon the ship before they even boarded it.

One man was shot in the top of the head from the air before a single Israeli soldier even boarded the ship.

And you wonder why the people on the ship retaliated the way they did? When you are getting shot at from the air and then soldiers try to board the ship what are you going to do? I would say you will try to defend yourself.

Israel has done a good job hiding the true story by confiscating all recording devices that could have shown the true story and all of the footage we see is provided by the Israeli's... Hmmm, what a coincidence.




A reporter and producer for the Arabic news organization Al Jazeera who was on board the Gaza-bound aid flotilla during Monday's deadly raid gave a firsthand account of the grisly scene aboard the ship to the network Thursday.

According to Jamal ElShayyal's account of the raid, the Israeli military had fired on the Mavi Marmara before boarding the ship.

"It was evident there was definitely fire from the air, because one of the people who was killed was clearly shot from above -- he was shot, the bullet targeted him at the top of his head," ElShayyal said.

"There was also fire coming from the sea as well." This account differs from the one given by the Israeli military.

The reporter also describes being mistreated by officials alongside other civilians before his Thursday release.

www.huffingtonpost.com...




posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:04 PM
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reply to post by TV_Nation
 


That is 100% conclusive - I mean a first hand account from one of the people on the boat - an impartial judge of the events at hand.

NOT



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:15 PM
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Here's a second account of someone saying the Isreali's shot at the boat before boarding,

"The 37-year-old resident of St. Catharines, Ont., said he was near the cabin of the Mavi Marmara early Monday when he heard the first shots ring out.

"They started shooting at the ship itself for no reason whatsoever," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday from Amman, Jordan, where he arrived after being released by Israeli authorities. "We’re a humanitarian ship, we were unarmed, we’re all civilians, we had no weapons onboard.""

thetyee.ca...



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:18 PM
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reply to post by ararisq
 



So you are willing to dismiss this account and go on only the information and footage that Israel has provided?

If Israel had nothing to hide then why did they confiscate all of the recording devices of the people on board.

This is not 100% conclusive to say the least and I never said it was but this could be considered the other side of the story.

I love how you act like Israel's description of the events must be true and that Israel is impartial and non biased...



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:21 PM
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Originally posted by joeroxor
"We’re a humanitarian ship, we were unarmed, we’re all civilians, we had no weapons onboard.""


I cannot believe I am getting sucked in to this mess. I've done so well avoiding it. I just cannot stand this partisanship and latching on to every statement that supports your view and dismissing every statement that does not.

There needs to be some filtering and judgement involved.

Clearly they had weapons - I saw them in the video so that makes everything else this person is saying subject to review don't you think?



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:24 PM
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Originally posted by TV_Nation
reply to post by ararisq
 

So you are willing to dismiss this account and go on only the information and footage that Israel has provided?

If Israel had nothing to hide then why did they confiscate all of the recording devices of the people on board.

This is not 100% conclusive to say the least and I never said it was but this could be considered the other side of the story.

I love how you act like Israel's description of the events must be true and that Israel is impartial and non biased...


I didn't act like that at all - I acted like a statement from one of the people on the boat running back and forth beating soldier's would probably be a little biased. I was hoping for an actual video of it happening. This is nothing more than a guy posting a vLog against Israel, its meaningless.

If this was a court of law it's be a Israel-said/Gaza-said situation and a stalemate.



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:26 PM
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reply to post by ararisq
 


I see where you are coming from and the fact of the matter is that just about anything can be used as a weapon.

The people on board took apart the railings of the ship after they had been fired on so that they had something to fight back with.

The ship did not have firearms on it and like I said just about anything can be used as a weapon including parts from the ship.

Also if you watched the entire video he stated that the passengers did indeed grab makeshift weapons once the Israeli navy was about to board.

I am not dismissing everything that does not fit my view I am just trying to look at this from a different angle. To be honest when this story first broke and I saw footage of the attack I was on Israels side.



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 07:45 PM
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I'll play devil's advocate (no pun intended)


Originally posted by TV_Nation
The people on board took apart the railings of the ship after they had been fired on so that they had something to fight back with.


I would not think that a ship's railing could be dismantled so quickly - would make for a rather flimsy ship - unless you believe the shooting happening 30 minutes or more before they landed?



The ship did not have firearms on it and like I said just about anything can be used as a weapon including parts from the ship.


You don't know that the ship did not have firearms on it. To suggest that it didn't just means you trust the people on board more than the Israelis. We don't know and even if Israel provided evidence - it wouldn't be trusted. I for one don't believe the people on the ship were all peace loving, lets make love not war, hippies. They looked like they swung those "railings" violently enough to put holes in the deck.



Also if you watched the entire video he stated that the passengers did indeed grab makeshift weapons once the Israeli navy was about to board.

I am not dismissing everything that does not fit my view I am just trying to look at this from a different angle. To be honest when this story first broke and I saw footage of the attack I was on Israels side.


We know they had and used weapons against the landing Israelis - its on the video. We don't know if the Israelis fired before landing there is no proof. The orientation of the bullet wound is meaningless given the fact that it was a boat with multiple levels and dozens of people were running around, tripping, falling, sliding.

Until I have evidence that I can believe I am still viewing this from the Israeli side mainly because I think the whole purpose of the flotilla exercise was to create an international incident and stir up the hornets nest. Another war is not in anyone's interests whether they believe so or not.



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 08:05 PM
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reply to post by ararisq
 

Only responding to one point because I think it needs to be pointed out that in fact no firearms were aboard that ship and that is coming from the Israelis themselves.



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 08:06 PM
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That's what Israel does:









Another extremely similar case where Cynthia McKinney was aboard another boat a couple of years ago, trying to deliver medical supplies to the women and children of Gaza. The boat she was on was also attacked:



A US Navy veteran, who was aboard the USS Liberty when it was attacked by Israel, speaks:






The sad fact of the matter is that this is not the first time Israel has done something like this. In fact, Israel has a very bad habit of firing at, sinking and otherwise harassing innocent civilian vessels. This was not an isolated incident.

--airspoon



[edit on 4-6-2010 by airspoon]



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 08:08 PM
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reply to post by ararisq
 



You make some valid points about the time frame from the alleged shooting and to the time the rails were dismantled.

From the video it was said that the first shots were fired from the air and sea at around 4am. I tried to find out the time when they actually boarded the ship but had no luck finding a time table of the events.

As for the speculation on weather there were weapons on board that you pointed out it was proven there were no firearms on board.

That was one of the main reasons given by Israel and when they went through the ships cargo they found no firearms or other weapons. That was confirmed many times by news outlets that have run the story including ABC and CNN. All that was on the ship was aid materials.



posted on Jun, 4 2010 @ 08:35 PM
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I can't believe there is any debate about this.

It is ILLEGAL to commit an act of war in International waters. The activists had every right to defend themselves.

What do people expect them to do? Just lay down and be taken prisoner?

Please, I would like a pro-Israeli ATS member to address this point and to show justification for this act.

Another thing that I want to touch on is this ridiculous idea that the activists were organised mercenaries or terrorists.

If they were, then I ask why there weren't any Israeli soldiers killed.

Because, if organised mercenaries were on that boat, waiting for Israeli soldiers to board so they could attack them, they would have been much better armed and much more successful in their attack.







 
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