Gaza activists plan aid flotilla, tell Israel not to repeat fatal 2010 incident

Pro-Palestinian activists told Israel on Monday not to interfere in a planned aid flotilla to Gaza in late June, a little more than one year after Israeli commandoes boarded an aid ship killing eight Turks and one Turkish-American.

The May 31 operation, which saw troops stage a pre-dawn raid on six ships seeking to break the naval blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, plunged Israel's already cool relationship with Ankara into crisis.

The bloodshed provoked worldwide condemnation and played a major role in deepening Israel's isolation on the international stage.

Holding a news conference on the deck of the Mavi Marmara where the confrontation occurred, a coalition of 22 activist groups called on governments to ensure there was no re-run of the incident.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has asked governments to discourage activists from sending a new convoy and Turkey has told them of the risks of trying to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, but said they are outside government control.

Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel and the group is regarded as terrorist by Western powers, including the United States and the European Union. Israel says it blockades Gaza to stop the importation of weapons.

"They will not attack. We don't believe they will repeat the same big mistake against humanity," said Huseyin Oruc, a spokesman for the IHH Islamic charity. The activists later held a minute's silence for those who were killed in 2010.

"It is the Mavi Marmara, it is a peace boat and the other 14 boats are also peace boats," he told the news conference on the ship, overlooking the Golden Horn inlet in Istanbul, as workmen carried out maintenance work on the decks below.

"If you have a bit of conscience, you have to allow this second fleet," IHH head Bulent Yildirim said earlier this month.

"Otherwise, everything you do will turn against you."

In an interview with Reuters on Monday Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the onus was on Israel to avoid any repeat of the bloodshed, adding it should abandon its illegal blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians living in the enclave.

"Therefore we are sending a clear message to all those concerned. The same tragedy should not be repeated again," he said.

Turkey wants Israel to apologize for its actions on the Mavi Marmara and to compensate the families of the men shot dead.

The activists said 15 ships, including the Mavi Marmara, would be in the new flotilla, carrying 1,500 people from around 100 countries, humanitarian aid and construction materials.

Egypt eased travel restrictions for Gaza residents on Saturday, eroding the blockade.

But a spokesman for the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla II" vowed to keep challenging it.

"Israel's unlawful blockade remains in effect. Israel still prevents Palestinians from using their sea and controls and severely restricts all goods entering and exiting Gaza," said Greek university professor Vangelis Pissias.

"We renew our call to our governments to do their utmost to ensure that Israel does not repeat its attack on us," he said.

The United Nations has said it was giving a panel set up to investigate last year's incident more time to finish its work.

In letters to Mediterranean governments, Mr. Ban said aid for Gaza should go through "legitimate crossings and established channels" -- which in practice means through Israel -- and said he was concerned by reports of a new flotilla.

He called on Israel to "act responsibly" to avoid violence.
Activists say it is legal for them to send goods by sea direct to the coastal Gaza Strip.

For Israel, the arrival of a new flotilla is part of a broader Palestinian strategy that seeks to chip away at the Jewish state's legitimacy on the international stage.

"There's a gradual but incremental increase in the volume of delegitimiation attempts on Israel, in terms of boycotts and so forth," said Jonathan Spyer, a political analyst at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Centre.

Central to that strategy is a Palestinian bid to win United Nations recognition of their independent state in September, a move that is expected to win massive support.

The strategy is definitely winning the Palestinians psychological points, Spyer told Agent-France Press.

"There is a sense that after September, in real terms, that declaration won't mean very much, but in terms of atmospherics against Israel on the international stage, they are growing and they will grow still more after September, and that's not good for Israel," Mr. Spyer said.

(Sara Ghasemilee, an editor at Al Arabiya, can be reached at [email protected])