At one point they stuck two fingers in his eyes creating very strong pain. He said that he was very calm, he did not speak aggressively and that he just requested to see a lawyer... He also confirms that some activists were very badly treated.
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Greta Berlin, Co-Founder
+33 607 374 512
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza
‘Israel’ Hijacking of Freedom Wave flotilla “Violent and Dangerous”, Activists beaten.
Dublin (SaebPress)… Irish Ship to Gaza Coordinator Dr Fintan Lane was able to make a phone call Sunday 6th Nov afternoon from the ‘Israeli’ prison in which he and 13 other Irish citizens are being held. He communicated the following to the Irish Ship to Gaza team in Dublin:
‘’The takeover of the MV Saoirse was violent and dangerous. Despite very clear protests from the occupants of the two boats that they did not want to be taken to Israel, they were forcibly removed from the boats in a violent manner. The whole takeover took about three hours. It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows. I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boats were corralled to such an extent that the two boats, the Saoirse and the Tahrir, collided with each other and were damaged, with most of the damage happening to the MV Saoirse. The boats nearly sank. The method used in the takeover was dangerous to human life. The Israeli forces initially wanted to leave the boats at sea, but the abductees demanded that they not be left to float at sea, for they would have been lost and possibly sunk. All belongings of the passengers and crew were taken from them and they still do not know if and what they will get back. The 14 Irish citizens remain in Givon prison.’’
The phone call was very rushed and ended abruptly with Fintan saying, “I have to go.”
Claudia Saba, spokesperson for Irish Ship to Gaza, who received the call from Lane, said: “The account received from Fintan Lane flatly contradicts the Israeli narrative that Israel ‘took every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of the activists on board the vessels’. It is a small miracle that no one was seriously injured during this obviously very violent boarding of the Freedom Waves boats.”
Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson Laurence Davis added: “This account confirms our fear that the hijacking of the boats was very violent, and explains the time lag between the point at which we lost contact with the boats on Wednesday at 11:12 am (Irish time) and news of the passengers’ arrival at Ashdod not before 5pm.”
In an interview he gave to www.Omniatv.com, Greek captain of the Tahrir Giorgos Klontzas has confirmed the use of violence on him by Israeli soldiers during his interrogation.
21 still detained and refusing to sign false statements
Freedom Waves to Gaza
Palestine Office @PALWaves
7 November 2011
UPDATE ON FREEDOM WAVES POLITICAL PRISONERS
[RAMALLAH] Of the 27 human rights defenders captured during Israel’s illegal takeover of the Freedom Waves to Gaza vessels on Friday, 4 November, 20 remain in Givon prison and the whereabouts of one is unknown.
Israeli officials have been claiming that all 27 people aboard the MV Tahrir and MV Saoirse have been released or are awaiting deportation. This is not true. Freedom Waves can confirm that six people have been released or deported. These are Majd Kayyal (Palestinian from Haifa), Lina Attalah (Journalist from Egypt), Casey James (Journalist from the US), Aimane Zoubir (Journalist from Morocco), Captain George Klontzas (Greece) and Captain Zacharias Stylianakis.
The whereabouts of British journalist, Hassan Ghani of PressTV is unknown. On Saturday prison authorities told lawyers that Hassan was not at the prison, yet we know that he has not yet been released. Freedom Waves organizers demand that the Israeli authorities reveal where Hassan Ghani is being held and that he be allowed access to a lawyer.
The Israeli authorities have tried to pressure the human rights defenders that remain in Israeli prison to sign a voluntary deportation agreement (waiver of right to see a judge) in order to be immediately deported. The activists refuse to sign, not because they want to come before an Israeli judge, but rather because the wavier states that they came to Israel voluntarily and entered the country illegally, which are patently untrue in light of the fact that Israeli naval ships violently seized the Tahrir and Saoirse, and forcibly transported them and all on board to Ashdod. Israeli authorities have ignored requests by the group’s lawyer to deport the activists immediately without having to sign this form that contains falsities meant to absolve Israel of responsibility for illegal abduction of foreign nationals in international waters.
Because they have refused to sign the waiver, according to Israeli law, they will be detained for 72 hours and then brought before an immigration judge, who will rubberstamp the deportation order. After this mock legal process, deportation will commence. For the first 24 hours of their abduction, none of the activists, crew, or journalists, were allowed to call a lawyer or family members. On Sunday, a few were able to make one one-minute phone call.
NOTE: Various accounts from prisoners have come out contradicting Israel's claim of a peaceful takeover of the boats. Some activists were tasered and beaten, and at least one of the captains abused during interrogation. For accounts that we have been able to obtain, please see: www.tahrir.ca and www.irishtogaza.org
For more information, please call:
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Greta Berlin, Co-Founder
+33 607 374 512
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza
Canadian Boat to Gaza
For Immediate Release – Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Canadians face two months of incarceration in Israel without trial
For more information:
English inquiries: Wendy Goldsmith, Canadian Boat to Gaza, 519-619-6766
Dylan Penner, Canadian Boat to Gaza, 613-859-6996
French inquiries: Denis Kosseim, Canadian Boat to Gaza, 514-923-5594
Yesterday, Freedom Waves to Gaza activists detained in Israel – including Canadians David Heap and Ehab Lotayef – came before a judge and were told they could be held in prison for 2 months without charges or trial.
To avoid this, the judge told them, they must sign a statement that they entered Israel ‘voluntarily’ and 'illegally’ despite being violently kidnapped from international waters and taken to Israel against their will while trying to reach Gaza. While a handful of Freedom Waves to Gaza participants have been deported – including Canadian Karen DeVito – 18 activists and journalists have now been in Israeli prison for 5 days with no end in sight. DeVito is available for interviews.
The Israeli military forcibly commandeered the boats Tahrir and MV Saoirse that journalists and activists were travelling on as part of the Freedom Waves initiative and brought them to Ashdod port in Israel.
American journalist Jihan Hafiz was on the Canadian boat Tahrir, and was among those detained by Israel despite her press credentials. Israeli authorities ordered her and others not to talk about “anything negative or political” during their brief phone calls to home from Israeli detention. This censorship explains why some details are only just coming out now. She reported Tuesday about her experience during the Israeli takeover of the Irish and Canadian boats:
“There were three warships [...] four Zodiacs, four water cannon boats, as well as four regular gunboats. All of the commandos on all of these boats were heavily armed. It looked like they were taking on an army of a foreign country.”
She added: “Two water cannons started to pour lots of water into the Irish boat, which flooded it, blew their sockets, and cut off all the electricity. And so, at that point, the Irish delegates I spoke to said they told the Israeli army, ‘We’re taking on water. We’re sinking. We’re going to go down at sea if you continue with the water.’"
Hafiz went on to describe the violent takeover during which guns were pointed at the heads of the boats’ passengers, how they were roughed up, mistreated, strip-searched, and filmed naked. She also tells of how the journalists’ equipment was confiscated, in a bid to silence any reporting that might contradict the sanitized Israeli account of what happened during the hijacking of the Tahrir and the MV Saoirse.
For the full video interview and transcript, see: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/8/israel_deports_democracy_now_correspondent_jihan
“Our friends have been assaulted, tasered, beaten, kidnapped, robbed, and imprisoned. Now Israel is threatening to illegally detain them for two months. What is it going to take for the Canadian government to actually do something about another country kidnapping Canadian citizens and refusing to let them go?” demands Wendy Goldsmith, an organizer with the Canadian Boat to Gaza.
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, by the inaction of Baird and Harper,” said Canadian Boat to Gaza organizer Dylan Penner. “In its failure to speak out against Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Canadian Government is condoning Israel’s disregard for the human rights of the citizens of Gaza and giving it impunity for its refusal to comply with its international obligations. It is this silence that compels citizens of good conscience, like David and Ehab, to act where our Government has so consistently failed to do so.”
Organizers of the Canadian Boat to Gaza are demanding Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird step down for failing to do his job to stand up for the interests of Canadians.
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For updates, stay tuned to:
Twitter (@CanadaBoatGaza and #freedomwaves), Facebook.com/CanadaBoatGaza, tahrir.ca, ustogaza.org, freegazaoz.org, irishshiptogaza.org and witnessgaza.com
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Greta Berlin, Co-Founder
+33 607 374 512
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza
Update.
Irish Ship to Gaza
Press release, Thursday 10 November 2011, 9:45 am
ISRAELIS PREVENT IRISH ACTIVISTS FROM BOARDING FLIGHT HOME
The seven Irish human rights activists due home in Ireland this afternoon at 2:25 pm were at the last minute prevented from boarding their flight out of Ben Gurion airport by Israeli armed guards. They had been taken last night to a holding cell and were ready to board their 7:40 am flight to London this morning when at the last minute they were prevented from doing so by Israeli security forces and returned to Givon prison. All seven are now being detained indefinitely, with no further news available from Israeli authorities or the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs about when they will be released.
An Irish Ship to Gaza shore team coordinator spoke briefly on the phone with Fintan Lane before communication was abruptly cut off. Lane said: “This is a deliberate and calculated attempt by the Israelis to break our spirit. It won’t succeed.”
Lane also reported that the seven had been subject to “continuous harassment and repeated, humiliating body searches” and were shackled and “denied sleep”.
Gay Lawlor, Zoe Lawlor’s brother, spoke briefly with Zoe, who described what was happening as “sheer malice” on the part of the Israelis.
The families of the detainees are phoning member of the Irish Ship to Gaza shore team this morning in great distress.
Laurence Davis, Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson, commented: “We are outraged by this latest attempt by the Israeli authorities to break the morale of the human rights activists, their families and their supporters, all of whom had been looking forward to the homecoming this afternoon in Dublin. This is yet another example of the cruelty and arrogance that the Palestinians face every day.”
Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson Claudia Saba added: “It is particularly distressing for the families to learn that their loved ones won’t be coming home as they had expected, and distressing that they have no update as to what exactly is happening or when they will be finally freed.”
ENDS
Further Update
Irish Ship to Gaza
Press release, Thursday 10 November 2011, 4.40 pm
For more information, contact:Laurence Davis 086 360 5053 Claudia Saba 086 393 8821TWO leading Irish human rights activists were prevented for a second time today from flying home from Israel, in the latest strange twist to the protracted homecoming saga of Ireland’s #FreedomWaves campaigners.They were among the 14 Irish passengers of the MV Saoirse, hijacked in international waters last Friday on a humanitarian mission to Gaza.
The seven people who had earlier been stopped from flying out on a morning British Airways flight were returned to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport this afternoon to take a Lufthansa flight. However, only five of them departed, with two -- Irish Ship to Gaza co-ordinator Fintan Lane and Limerick university lecturer Zoe Lawlor -- being returned to Israeli custody. A further seven were due to be released tomorrow, but today’s bizarre and cruel developments put all such predictions in doubt.
The Irish Ship to Gaza campaign understands that these developments caught Irish consular officials by surprise.
“We had been informed by the Irish consular mission that seven Irish citizens, held in Israel since last Friday, were placed on a Lufthansa flight home bound,” spokesperson Claudia Saba said this afternoon. “However, a few minutes later we got a call saying that the bus that had gone out to the plane with seven passengers then returned with two of them still on it.”
Campaigners were told by Irish officials that Lane and Lawlor had boarded the flight, but were then removed and "returned to their holding cells" at the airport.
The other five human-rights activists did leave Tel Aviv and are due to arrive in Dublin airport at 23.40 tonight, on a connecting Lufthansa flight.
ENDS
