Madam, – The details regarding the key issues surrounding the Gaza flotilla will no doubt emerge in due course, in particular whether Israel was entitled to board the vessels concerned and whether excessive force was used. However, the fact that a Turkish vessel was involved and Turkish citizens were killed raises a new dimension to to the Middle-East peace process as this must affect the position of the EU as an “honest broker”.
In addition to being a founder member of the Council of Europe and the OECD and a Nato member, Turkey is an EU accession country. The Irish Government fully supports Turkey’s application to join the EU. Therefore, in seeking to find a resolution to this crisis, the EU and its member states have an interest and a duty to lend their support to Turkey’s right to ensure its vessels and citizens are safe in international waters. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I note the ship attacked by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) was funded by the Turkish organisation IHH, which is alleged to be an extreme fundamentalist organisation with links to al-Qaeda.
Why is it the people on this flotilla thought they would be allowed to land at Gaza, when every one before them has been stopped? If those people were really so concerned about providing aid, why didn’t they take up the Israeli offer to land at an Israeli port, and be escorted to Gaza with all their supplies, once it was certain no weapons, that would later be used to kill Israeli civilians, were included? I notice none of the people involved have ever attempted to bring aid to people in Burma or Zimbabwe or to the many other places where such aid is also needed.
It’s remarkable that Hamas and its allies never seem to run out of guns and bullets but somehow food and medical supplies can’t get through – maybe if they employed the same methods used for smuggling in weapons to bring in food there’d be no need for the IDF to prevent normal trade.
If Israel is forced to allow free trade with Gaza, I wonder will any of those now so keen to condemn Israel be rushing to provide aid or support to Israeli civilians who are attacked with the rockets and guns which will flood into Gaza – not to mention the Palestinians who will be killed for being on the wrong side of whichever person is pointing the gun at them.
The naivety of people who engage in these follies is astounding. If anyone is to blame for these deaths and injuries, it is the people who organised this flotilla. They deliberately chose to put people’s lives at risk for the sake of gaining victimhood PR brownie points in a game where Israel is damned if it defends itself and equally damned if it doesn’t. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – You use the headline on a prominent article “Israel’s attack on vessels will only benefit Hamas” (Opinion, June 1st). In your Editorial you drive home this message: “Israel’s government insists once again on its right to defend itself against the threat that Hamas in Gaza does indeed represent.” Your Editorial line is effectively justifying Israel’s murderous actions in the Mediterranean, its siege of Gaza and its Operation Cast Lead that murdered 1,400 Palestinians a little over a year ago.
Hamas has nothing to do with Israel’s acts of piracy and murder against the humanitarian flotilla and cannot serve as an excuse for minimising world reaction to it. As our Minister for Foreign Affairs and our Taoiseach have repeatedly stated, the Israeli blockade of Gaza is illegal and represents the “collective punishment” of a trapped civilian population, under international law.
Israel has systematically occupied, colonised, ethnically cleansed and starved the population of the occupied Palestinian territories for decades, meeting at worst only weasel words of “condemnation” from the west, including The Irish Times. Many millions of Palestinians have lived for decades without rights under occupation, making a farce of the claim of Israel to be a “democratic state”. Hamas represents a desperate resistance to this, in a situation of very unequal forces.
Please spare us the humbug about the Hamas “threat” to Israel. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Whatever happened to shalom? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With the recent anniversary of the Dunnes’ workers strike against apartheid, is it time that we all started to refuse to handle Israeli products, to show our disgust at the apartheid regime being operated by the Israelis against the Palestinians in Gaza? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It has always been legitimate for seafarers to attempt to repel pirates with every means at their disposal. Responsibility for the Gaza convoy deaths rests entirely with the Israeli pirates, not with those attempting to repel the heavily armed boarders. It is laughable for the Israelis to claim a justification of self-defence when they were the armed aggressors attacking an unarmed ship.
I look forward to seeing those involved in the authorisation, planning and execution of this criminal act brought before the international court on charges of piracy and murder.
In the meantime, we ordinary citizens can take our lead from the actions of the Dunnes Stores workers who, in 1984, showed us the appropriate response to a repressive regime which consistently shows two fingers to the international community with regard to human rights. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As an Irish writer, I am calling upon Aosdána, Poetry Ireland and the Irish Writers’ Union to issue a public statement condemning the Israeli attack on the Gaza relief ship and the murders committed by Israeli soldiers on board that vessel. I am further asking that the Irish Government immediately expel the Israeli ambassador. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Is it not time for the EU to deploy an anti-piracy naval force in the eastern Mediterranean to protect EU vessels going about their lawful business, just as they have done off the coast of Somalia? While that naval force is assembling, could the Irish Government not put a team of Irish commandos onto the Rachel Corrie to defend the unarmed Irish citizens onboard from any future murderous acts of piracy in those waters? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Another shameful day for Israel as it launches an offensive on an aid ship and massacres civilians. As usual, the response is disproportionate and it will now attempt to justify its actions, most likely with lies. Watch the Israeli PR machine kick into action and defend the indefensible. The victims were “allies of Hamas and al-Qaeda”, not aid workers. The ships were opening an “arms smuggling route”, not carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Let’s call this what it was – a murder of unarmed civilians. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I wish to add my name to all those who abhor this latest attack by Israel in international waters. It is beyond belief that Israel sees this as an exercise in self defence rather than an act of brutal aggression. It seems to be the classic case of the persecuted becoming the persecutors. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Enough is enough, the long-suffering people of Gaza need our support.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin must change his obsequious behaviour towards this pariah state. It’s time for action, not rhetoric. 1. Expel the ambassador immediately, 2. Seek to implement international sanctions until Israel complies with international and humanitarian law, and signs up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 3. Reverse the OECD accession. We must also pressure the US in whatever way we can. Israel is only allowed continue its murderous violations with US support. Israel needs to learn that its security is undermined, not strengthened, by these acts. Finally, when will we hear Obama’s “Ich bin ein Palestinian”? Today, I am a Palestinian. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Like most people I would rather have seen a peaceful solution to the Gaza aid convoy situation. As this did not happen,there is now widespread condemnation of Israel, yet again. From what I can gather (on Monday evening) from news stations, this is what really happened. Allegedly 10 Israeli troops were injured. Video footage on al-Jazeera English news channel showed troops being overwhelmed by people in orange life-jackets. This suggests to me that Israel did not send overwhelming force; as has been suggested by some reporters.
Video footage showed troops being overwhelmed as soon as they touched deck, by people attacking them with what appear to be metal bars. There is also evidence of handheld catapults, often called slingshots, being used. These weapons can maim and even kill at close range. Do international commentators really expect the troops to let an angry mob maim or beat them to death? Did they expect the 50 troops to fist-fight the 600 people on board? Soldiers opened fire, as they are trained to do. This is not excessive force in that situation, it is the force required for self-defence.
The real question is: why did Israeli politicians order troops to board the ship? Did both sides secretly want bloodshed?
I believe some of the “aid workers” wanted to bait Israel, to show them up and I think Israeli leaders knowingly jumped for the bait. Both sides have made their point quite publicly; unfortunately they proved yet again that life is deemed cheap. – Yours, etc,