Jewish boat to attempt to breach the siege of Gaza

A small (10 m long) catamaran with pro-Palestinian activists of Jewish ethnicity has set sail from Cyprus in yet another attempt to breach the siege of the macro-camp for displaced persons in South Palestine. The boat, named Irene, carries fishing nets in a nonviolent act of defiance against Zionist apartheid, 8 crew members and two journalists.

Reuven Moskovitz, an Holocaust survivor, 82, declared:

It is a sacred duty for me, as a survivor, to protest against the persecution, the oppression and the imprisonment of so many people in Gaza, including more than 800,000 children.

He also said: we are two peoples but we have one future. 

The crew of the Irene

The crew members are:

• Reuven Moskowitz, Israeli citizen. Founder of unsegregated village Neve Shalom – Wahat al Salaam (Oasis of Peace). He is an Holocaust survivor.
• Rami Elhanan, Israeli citizen. Lost his daughter Smadar in a suicide bombing in 1997 and is founding member of Bereaved Families Circle of Israelis and Palestinians (association of victims of the conflict).
• Lilian Rosengarten, US citizen. Peace activist and psychotherapost. She is a refugee from Nazi persecution.
• Yonatan Shapira, Israeli citizen. Former military pilot and member of Combatants for Peace. 
• Glyn Secker, British citizen. He is the boat captain and a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians Executive Commitee.
• Edith Lutz, German citizen. She is peace activist and a nurse. She was in the first boat to Gaza in 2008. 
• Itamar Shapira, Israeli citizen. Yonatan's brother. 

The two journalists are Eli Osherov, from Israeli Channel 10 News, and Vish Vishvanath, freelance photographer and reporter.

More information at Jewish Boat to Gaza and also at the support organizations:

• European Jews for a Just Peace.
• Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
• Juedische Stimme fuer einen gerechten Frieden in Nahost.
• American Jews for a Just Peace.
• Jewish Voice for Peace.
• Jews Against the Occupation Sydney.

See also news items at Al Jazeera and BBC.

Update: somewhat anecdotally, Jews sans frontieres mentions today that Marion Kozak, mother of the two confronted Labor party leaders Ed and David Miliband, is among the 1600 signatories supporting the boat, whose names will be displayed in colorful banners by the crew, as member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. She is a veteran left wing and Labor Party militant.

Update (Sep 28): Israel has taken the boat today. Not yet known whether in international or Gaza waters, in another illegal action in any case. The boat flies British flag so this is technically an act of war against the United Kingdom.

Physicians for Human Rights has asked for access to the kidnapped crew, as at least one of them is known to have a chronic illness and needs medical care.

Mapuches take UN see in Chile

This happens after two days ago they briefly took other UN offices in Santiago (International Work Organization and Economic Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean). 

As the hunger strike of Mapuche prisoners goes beyond the 70 days and government and prisoners failed to reach an agreement last Friday, native organization Maulen Huanchu took yesterday the offices of the United Nations in Santiago de Chile with intent of remaining there indefinitely.

Source: Gara.

Mapuche prisoners: 52 days in hunger strike

The hunger strike of Mapuche prisoners in Chile reaches today the 52nd day. In practical terms this means that they are beginning to notice the hard effects of the fast, losing muscle tissue and beginning to affect major organs as the liver, kidneys and heart. Their life is at risk.

The strikers demand the abolition of the anti-terrorist law by which they are being judged, under accusations of attacks and road blockades demanding that their ancestral lands be returned to the Mapuche communities.

The government is showing signs of weakness in this nonviolent struggle, and is asking, since tuesday, that the prisoners stop their hunger strike on promises of law reform. This announcement was welcomed by Mapuche organizations that demand hurrying up the procedure.

The strike began on July 12 in the prisons of Concepción and Temuco and has been joined by other prisoners gradually. The anti-terrorist law is a fascist law passed by Pinochet dictatorship and allows the imprisonment of suspects without charges for unlimited periods. If found guilty, the penalty is multiplied by three automatically.

The law is seldom applied to white Chileans but is systematically used against Mapuches, who are fighting for the return of their communal lands and their right to self-rule. The independent Mapuche polity was invaded by Chile in the 19th century and has no recognized autonomy.

The Appeal Court authorized prison guards to use forced feeding on striking prisoners.

Source: Gara.

This fight has, as so many other important news, got no room in mainstream media, either in Spanish or English. Many wonder if this happened in Cuba or Venezuela, what kind of media reaction would it trigger. This in turn causes deep concern for the situation of freedom of speech and journalism in general in the so called Western World. And this is not the only case: what do you know of the real situation Louisiana oil spill and its real effects on the people living at the Gulf of Mexico? If you are only following mainstream media: nothing at all! A very bad situation for information freedom the one we have.

Canarians get involved in West Sahara while the Moroccan tyrant choses repression again

Tenerife con el Sahara reports[es] that a number of Canarian citizens have taken part in a protest for the rights of the Arab Democratic Sahrawi Republic at El Aaiun. The reaction of the Moroccan autocracy has been brutal, as usual.

Carmen Roger one of the Canarian victims

After being beaten by the Moroccan occupation forces, the Canarians have been arrested at the "House of Spain". Two international observers, Mexican Antonio Velázquez Díaz and Catalan Isabel Terraza, are being besieged by the occupation forces at the homes of their Sahrawi host family. Tenerife con el Sahara claims that they are at serious risk, as well as the Sahrawi families besieged at their homes by the invader troops.

The international protests are organized by Saharaacciones which is promoting nonviolent protest in order to make the occupation and repression of the West Sahara more visible and hopefully push towards a democratic solution through the right of self-determination of the Sahrawi people:

We are demonstrating to make visible a vetoed territory, where we are unwelcome by the occupation forces, following the example set by the admirable peaceful resistance that the Sahrawi people are doing once and again since the beginning of the Intifada in May 2005.

Morocco may be pushing for greater involvement of Spain

This is what Pedro Canales argues at El Imparcial newspaper (found at Sahara Libre). According to him, Morocco wants Spain to take a more clear pro-Moroccan stand in regards to the West Sahara, a former Spanish province. As Spain cannot really control the high level of popular support for the Sahrawi cause, which is generally perceived as a treason to the formerly "Spanish" people of the Sahara by Madrid, nor can reign on the local and regional administrations in this matter, Morocco seems to have opted to do the same: leave the Moroccan popular discontent with Spain on matters such as the colonial outposts of Ceuta and Melilla or the treatment of immigrants, break loose.

However Canales seems to be writing for the Moroccan viewpoint and seems to think that greater Spanish involvement alone could change things. This is not possible because Spain already has a very shameful role by mere inhibition and cannot really take any stronger political stand against the Arab Democratic Sahrawi Republic. So if Spain would get involved, it could only do with a stand at least moderately opposed to Morocco's aspirations, so really Morocco is doing it wrong if Canales is right. After all some border riots at the Melilla fence won't get anyone worried this side of the Strait.

On the other hand, I guess it is always positive when the people, in this case the Moroccan people can express their discontent. It is a positive development that may be in the future will turn against the autocrat of Rabat. If the people can really express their anger and gets organized maybe in the near future we can hope to see a simultaneous solution to both colonial problems: Moroccan occupation of the Sahara and Spanish control of Ceuta and Melilla.

In any case, I don't think that Morocco really wants to press Spain to get itself "more involved" in the conflict of West Sahara because it can only backfire. For Moroccan imperialist interests the best situation is the status quo, with Spain inhibiting itself, what is as pro-Moroccan as it can get.

But that the people organizes itself and gets to speak out loud in any conflict is as such a good development. In an ideal democracy situation all these conflicts would not exist because it'd be up to each local people to self-determine their status and their future.

Anarchists Against the Wall

I've just now come to know of this nonviolent movement of Israeli anarchists and other anti-Zionists against the wall of shame that Israel has set to enforce apartheid in Palestine.



Looks promising, specially as they have been growing slowly but steadily along the years. With the many differences, I can hint to a parallel with the antimilitarist struggle we held in the 1980s and early 1990s against conscription in the state of Spain, which was a total success.

The keys of the success were, I understand: nonviolence, pedagogy, grassroots organization and the fact that the system was so rotten and delegitimized that it was relatively easy to pull it down. Of course people went to jail for that... but that was part of the plan.


Similarly the state of Israel and its apartheid and criminal genocide is morally bankrupt and it is just a matter of time until it falls.

This kind of struggle is what is needed in order to mend the wounds. It is important, I think, that the lead is being taken by people with no religion when it is that farce of religious sectarianism what is used as pretext for apartheid and colonization.

I am glad that it is expanding more and more.

Read more at: Anarchists Against the Wall and Ilan Against the Wall.

News on the human shields against the High Speed Train

This is the continuation of the info I posted last week on four activists entering abandoned mines with the intention of becoming human shields against the destructive, undemocratic, useless and extremely costly Basque High Speed Train, that is being built in the Western Basque Country.

The information was not being actualized properly at the AHT Gelditu site, I think (at least not when I checked), but now there are several news items.

I now reckon that the people giving the press release, some of which I identified, were not the same ones going to the mines.

Whatever the case, the news are:

The Government and its companies have continued work as if nothing happened. Explosions continued on thrusday and friday and it's reported that the activists felt rocks falling, though they are alive so far. This criminal attitude triggered that a legal denounce has been placed at court.

Two of the activists chained to each other through a cement filled barrel to make forced evacuation more difficult.

Another problem they are reporting is that the mines have high humidity levels, what makes their stance very uncomfortable and unhealthy. In fact unspecified health problems have been reported.

Demo in Ordizia.
The banner reads: 'Through disobedience until the High Speed Train (AHT) is stopped. Resistance in the mines of Itsasondo'.

There was an important demonstration at Ordizia on Saturday (photo above).

As police did absolutely nothing, the AHT Gelditu platform sent a group to check for the situation of the activists, which are alive but with the important caveats mentioned above that imply serious danger for their lives and health.

Contact group wading through the mine galleries

Finally today, police has shown up at the site and it is speculated that their intention is to take them out.

___________________

Update (July 6): the four activists were finally expelled from the mines yesterday evening, reports Gara. After passing through the health center, they were arrested and charged with "public disorder, resistance and disobedience to authority".

Risking their lives to stop the High Speed Train

Four people have become human shields to stop the Basque High Speed Train (AHT-TAV) work. The four ecologists have entered an abandoned mine at Itsasondo in the Gipuzkoan highlands near where the development companies are carrying on prospections by means of continuous explosions, which could destroy the old mine nearby at any time.


Above: the four nonviolent activists at the press conference where they announced their action. I am quite sure. in spite of the low quality of the pic and the lack of names in the source, I know personally one of them (Jaxo, the second from the right) and probably all four. No big surprise: this is a really small country. Guess I'll feel emotionally obligued to go to demo this Sunday.

And sure: I feel even more worried.


The High Speed Train is a waste

Not only it is enviromentally hostile, it is a total waste: a bottomless pit for public money and a relevant factor in the public deficit that so problematic has become.

It is not me who says that, it is a big business speaker: the president of the Spanish Association of Spanish Concessions of Highways, Tunnels, Bridges and Toll Roads (ASETA), José Luis Feito declared yesterday at a major university that this type of train is useless for the low population density and rugged orography of Spain, that the existing trains (between Seville, Madrid and Barcelona) can't pay even the 30% of the costs. To offset this, he admits, the ticket price would have to be at least tripled but that would mean that nearly nobody would use them.

He instead proposes to build freight railroads, which are almost non-existent in Spain, what means that most cargo traffic goes by road, crippling them.

He acknowledged that the high speed trains in Spain are one of the causes of the growing public deficit and proposed that something will have to be done about it.


5000 euros of debt to every Western Basque

The Basque High Speed Train is projected to cost 4900 euros to each Western Basque citizen. And as the Spanish government has, in an unprecedented act of pragmatism, removed its support for the Basque HST, that means we are going to have to pay that in full (Southern Basque territories are semi-autonomous in tax collection and allocation - it has been that way since the Castilian invasions of 1199 and 1512, except partially for the fascist interlude).

For that reason there is now a campaign going on to stamp or write down on the bank notes a short message denouncing the unduly high cost that the HST is having for us. This major financial argument may possibly persuade the indifferent after all because everybody knows how hard is to gather those 4900 euros.

Lebanese women fleet aid ship for Gaza

I wonder how is the Zionist regime going to face the dramatic growth of nonviolent resistance initiatives against its apartheid system. After the announcement of a German Jewish organization of a new such anti-blockade ship, now it is Lebanese women who are organizing their own.

The reaction of the Zionazi bully has been to make war threats against Lebanon, arbitrarily making its government "responsible" from this "crime" of trying to bring aid to people who need it desperately.

Source: Pulse.

In related developments (there are always related developments but I can't report on all, follow Palestine Blogs Aggregator if you are interested):

• Women attacked by Zionist snippers at Gaza wheat fields (Palestinian Solidarity).
• Israel sends ship, within a 11-ship-strong US fleet and Egyptian protection, across the Suez canal. Hostile intent against Iran suspected (Y-Net News).
  
• Interview with UN rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, Richard Falk (Window into Palestine).
• Alan Hart: Israel’s Jews (as well as the Jews of the world and the whole of the Western world) had been lied to and deceived by their leaders (Window into Palestine).

Civilian caravan set to breach paramilitary control in Oaxaca

Not substantially different from what happened this past week at the Mediterranean but much less likely to reach the front pages, or even any page at all, of the international media.

I already reported a month ago on how a paramilitary gang, UBISORT, at the service of the Oaxacan oligarchy, lead by Governor Ulises Ruiz, attacked a civilian caravan in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, when they tried to breach their siege of the indigenous autonomous municipalities, murdering two, Betty Cariño and Jiry Jaakola.

Now the civil society of the southern Mexican state is willing again to risk their lives to challenge the impunity of the death squads and to bring emotional and material support to the isolated indigenous community of San Juan Copala, where several journalists and activists have already been murdered in the struggle between the democratic self-rule of the people and the landlords.

The risk is huge, like the Zionists, the paramilitary gangs at the service of the Mexican and multinational oligarchy are ready to kill. The members of the Misión Copala know this but still they march.

The Triqui people have no water, electricity, food nor medicines because of the siege by the death squads.

Spanish alternative information site La Haine is covering this new caravan on daily basis starting today (in Spanish language only).

Flotilla (13): 17 people still missing (and other news)

A brief review of the latest events re. the Zionist attack against the Freedom Flotilla and new initiatives.


17 activists still missing. Israel threw people to the sea

Window into Palestine reports that 17 peace activists who were aboard the Mavi Marmara are still unaccounted for and feared dead.

According to this source, Israeli troops threw four injured people to the sea and shot at blank point the man who raised the white flag indicating surrender and several people who were already hadcuffed.

This tells me that the lack of any sort of reaction by other countries may have co-adjuvated to some of the deads. Because most aboard the ship weared life jackets, so if a rescue mission would have been sent, they had a chance of finding those thrown by Israel to the sea still alive.


More videos, photos and first-person accounts

More raw footage has emerged, along with photos and declarations, clarifying the events at the Mavi Marmara. You can watch the video of some of the hottest moments of the Zionist aggression and pictures of the two Israeli soldiers neutralized in apparent self-defense actions by the people on the ship, and then taken care of by the very same people, at Ali Abuminah's blog.

Then you can read to Ken O'Keefe's first person account of the events aboard the Mavi Marmara and then in Israeli military prisons, where he was tortured, at Window into Palestine. An important read to understand about nonviolence and self-defence, including quotes from Ghandi.

O'Keefe. Injuries courtesy of Israeli torturers

Al Jazeera's Jamal Eishayyal, a UK citizen, also has a first person account of the events aboard the Mavi Marmara and how the British government totally ignored him.

Unions take action

It is also important to mention how worker unions are taking direct action against Israel. Justice reported yesterday that a Swedish dock workers' union has declared a week of strict boycott against Israel at all Swedish ports. Today WiP reports that British largest union Unite has voted to join the BDSM campaign in the hope to replicate the workers' resistence that was so crucial in dismantling South African apartheid.


Jewish ship to be sent to Gaza with aid

Jewish activists have decided to join the actions against the blockade of Gaza by fleeting their own aid ship to break the blockade, reports Justice.


Israel legitimacy to exist questioned

There is also an interesting article by Christopher King at Window into Palestine denying the legitimacy of Israel to exist on light of international law and historical SdN/UN resolutions. The key issue being the rights of the natives of Palestine, logically.


Meanwhile, Israel keeps murdering civilians in Gaza: four fishermen killed by Zionist fire in Gaza's waters.

Flotilla (11): most returned bodies were shot by the back

Autopsies have revealed that five of the nine returned bodies were shot in the back or in the back of their heads. Some were repeatedly shot.

That is the case of the young Turco-American Furkan Dogan, who was shot five times at close range in the face, back of the head, back and leg (twice). Similarly, 61 y.o. Ibrahim Bilgen was shot four times (temple, chest, hip and back).

Source: Al Jazeera.

In the same article there's also a declaration of Turkish PM, T. Erdogan, defending Hamas legitimacy:

[They] are resistance fighters fighting for their land. They are Palestinians.

They won an election and now they are in Israel's prisons. I told this to the Americans, that I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist group.

The details of some of the killings are now coming to light. Window into Palestine reports that Cevdet Kiliçlar was shot on the head as response to him taking photos of Israeli murders aboard the Mavi Maramara. He was shot on the head and died almost instantly.

Testimonies of survivors

Sarah Colborne:



Source: Window into Palestine

David Segarra (in Spanish):



Source: Palestine Video


Rachel Corrie

The Qatari news site also reports that Israeli warships are hunting the Rachel Corrie as it approaches Gaza, having jammed its radar.

Justice just reported 12 minutes ago that the Malayo-Irish ship has refused "order to stop" by the Zionist pirate squad.

Freedom Flotilla (10): Rachel Corrie nearing Gaza

Free Gaza has posted today at their site an article saying that the ship is just 150 miles from Gaza. However:

The passengers on board the ship have stated, “communication is difficult and sometimes impossible and there are many rumors out there started by Israeli authorities, but there is no way we are going to Ashdod. We are, for sure, on our way to Gaza.”

The Malayo-Irish crew includes a Nobel Prize laureate, a Malaysian MP, a former UN Assistant Secretary General, a former Political Secretary to the PM of Malaysia, among other people, including Malaysian journalists.


Huwaida Arraf arrested at Bilin

Huwaida Arraf, chairwoman of Free Gaza, was arrested again by the Israeli authorities while taking part at a weekly nonviolent protest against the wall of shame, reports Free Gaza. Bilin is a Palestinian village strangled by the construction of the Apartheid Wall.


Habeas Corpus petition

Free Gaza attorneys have also issued an habeas corpus petition to the High Court of Israel demanding information about the health and whereabouts of the 54 passengers who were admitted to Israeli hospitals after the raid.

They also sent a letter to Israeli health officers asking them to set up a hotline for the families of the injured and deceased.


Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, which calls to boycott Israel for its apartheid and genocidal policies, in response to the criminal attack against the Freedom Flotilla makes a call to:

• Mobilize for an emergency Global BDS Day of Action on Saturday 5 June 2010 -- the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
• Pressure governments to start implementing trade sanctions and arms embargos
• We call specifically on transport and dock workers and unions around the globe to: Refuse to load/offload Israeli ships and airplanes, following the historic example set by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban in February 2009 and endorsed by the Maritime Union of Australia (Western Australia).

Freedom Flotilla (8): the truth comes out

I am still having these most strange intermittent disconnections from the Internet. Oddly enough they only seem to happen when I using my browser (either one) but not when I'm playing online, which goes swiftly as long as I do not open a browser. I have made a virus scan and have not detected anything but the case is that I cannot use the Internet at the moment with the ease I should and hence my reporting activity is being handicapped.

Still, with patience I can do something like reporting that the testimonies of the people aboard the flotilla are being gathered at a new blog: Gaza Flotilla Survivors. It's a must read. You'll find out how the Zionist commandos started shooting at the Mavi Marmara before physically boarding it, how people was shot at close range and how a baby was threatened to force the captain to surrender the ship. And that is just part of it.

Scary, sure. But it is not like we are going to be allowed ourselves to be scared by a bunch of mafioso nazis, right?

Freedom Flotilla (6): all activists released, bodies flown to Turkey

According to Ynet News and also to Haaretz, both Israeli media outlets (handle with care), all survivors of the Freedom Flotilla, excepting seven severely injured who are being treated in hospitals at Israel but including the four Palestinians who had earlier been brought to trial, have finally been released.

Israeli courts accepted the argument of the defense that they could not be charged for being in ships attacked by Israel in international waters.

The bodies of the nine people (apparently the latest figure) murdered by Israel at sea have been flown to Turkey. Their identities are still not known, at least to me.


Turkish members of the flotilla got a well deserved heroes welcome at their arrival at Ankara, reports Desert Peace.

Declarations of Israeli ambassador in Washington evidence that the murderous attack against the Mavi Marmara was premeditated, reports Window into Palestine. The use of the term "nonviolent" in his declarations is absurd and offensive, by the way: Israel does not know what is nonviolence. He seems to mean "less violent" or "non-murderous" means, nothing else.


WiP also reports on Israeli MP aboard flotilla, Haneen Zoubi, denouncing that the goal of the criminal attack was to scare off further convoys. This seems obvious but what they have really achieved is the opposite: increased support for the Free Gaza project and most probably more and more resolute such convoys. As I said above, Israel with its violent neonazi ideology has no idea of what nonviolence means and, as I said in a comment here at Leherensuge on Monday, they have not, they cannot instill fear with such tactics, just rage, maybe pity.


They have achieved exactly the opposite of what they meant to. This cartoon describes it well:

What Israel has achieved with its gangster style is, at least to some extent, unite the civil societies at both sides of the Mediterranean above our cultural differences and, more often than not, above the stands of our weak and corrupt governments.

Again there is a single Humankind united by the blood spilled on the turquoise waters of the Mare Nostrum, by our love and admiration for the heroes of the Freedom Flotilla and by our determination to see the people imprisoned in the Gaza Ghetto and all those oppressed by the Palestine Apartheid (aka Israel) free and dignified.


The same blog has another article on how the only qualification needed to be in the US government seems to be unconditional love for Israel. It is based on a Haaretz article on the meaningless riff-raffs between Likudniks and Labor-Zionists on who is more Zionist than the other. In my opinion they all suck equally and US subservience to the Zionist International is really pitiful.


And this that comes now is something that really shames me, insults my humankind and boils my blood. But still I must show it:


The individual above is a Zionist counter-demonstrator at San Francisco, California (source), and what he is advocating for is for the Palestinian Holocaust. These monsters, these most vile criminals, these Jewish Nazis are not satisfied by ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people from their lands and dumping them by millions into a tiny strip of land. They are not satisfied with then bombing them with napalm and depleted uranium, nor with cutting them off from all but the very essentials and still calling them "terrorists" when they dare to defend themselves maybe throwing a powerless rock against a tank.

No these bastard sons of Hitler won't rest until they can be fully compared with the murderer of their ancestors, until they can reproduce to the tiniest detail the ovens of Auschwitz and Matthaussen.

That is Israel, that is Zionism.

And I'm not exaggerating: that is exactly the plan that at least many Zionists, the most vocal and determined ones, have: to exterminate or deport all Palestinians and make everything from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River (at least) Jewish-only land. Never mind they just arrived yesterday.

No words can really express what I feel in front of that, just determination to keep my stand and make what I can to make the much needed changes happen, to make Justice real again.


The Rachel Corrie is expected to arrive to Gaza on Saturday if Hitler's bastards don't prevent it. You can sign a statement of support here, as well as a petition to the UN to investigate the crime perpetrated by Israel on Monday.

Obama and Rahm Emanuel probably blessed the Flotilla massacre in advance

That is the opinion of Michel Chossudovski, who notes that the US Chief of Staff (Prime Minister), Rahm Emanuel, visited Israel and talked with Netanyahu just before Israel decided to intercept the Freedom Flotilla by military means in international waters, resulting in the massacre of Monday.

Full article at Global Research.

Image of the May 26 meeting (from Voltaire Net)

Emanuel, the second most powerful man in the USA (and by extension the World), is an Israeli citizen whose father was a member of terrorist and genocidal fascist organization Irgun, notorious for its attacks against civilian targets. His personal style is no better than his father's, as he is notorious for his irate and hyper-aggressive style at politics, that have gained him the nickname of Rahmbo.

He has been accused of being an Israeli secret agent.

Freedom Flotilla news (4): the Irish are coming!

So far it has been an outstanding moral victory for the side of Justice, Peace and Freedom in the conflict between the Global Civil Society and the Zionazi Enemy-Of-All: Israel's ugly truth has been unveiled (again) at a high cost and it's clear that the Zionist colonial project is morally bankrupt in the face of the World.

But this has not finished yet. The six ships that were intercepted the other night are just part of the planned Freedom Flotilla. One ship, the Rachel Corrie, of Irish flag, was delayed and is right now somewhere between Malta and Gaza, other two ships had "technical problems" (were probably sabotaged by the Zionists) and had to stay in port in Turkey.

The final decision is not yet taken but it's very possible that the Rachel Corrie with or without the other ships will head to Gaza in the following days.

Cartoon from Irish4Palestine:
'Hey Israel... guess what? We're coming!'

Among the people aboard this ship is Peace Nobel laureate Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, wrongly reported earlier among those attacked by Israel, who is one of the promoters of Free Gaza.

The departure of the Rachel Corrie has been announced in various blogs and news sites but so far I had not really emphasized it because it lacked clear confirmation. According to Window into Palestine the final decision has not yet been taken but the ship has clearly departed from Malta already.

In any case, Greta Berlin, a speaker for the Free Gaza project declared:

We are an initiative to break Israel’s blockade of 1.5 million people in Gaza. Our mission has not changed and this is not going to be the last flotilla.

Here follows a nice video-report on what is the Rachel Corrie vessel and what aid is carrying to Gaza:



In other developments, it seems that Israel is set to deport as quick as possible all kidnapped activists. Though there are also news that some of the Palestinian ones are being subject to trial.

Also Basque newspaper Gara has this beautiful image of Gazans throwing carnations to the Mediterranean in homage to the victims of Israel's madness:

Israeli terrorist massacre (3) - latest developments

Again the Zionist massacre of maybe as many as 29 civilians (Galloway's figure, Israel says 10) aboard the Free Gaza flotilla is what I'm going to deal with. I have discussed it and tried to cover the most important developments

First of all it is intolerable that we still don't know for sure the casualty figures and their names.

Some of the prisoners are already returning to their homes but most remain under Israeli detention. Israel has declared, revoking previous statements that they would be judged there (on what charges: interception of Zionist bullets with their bodies?), that they will be offered the choice to identify themselves and be returned home or to remain in Israel as political prisoners.

I imagine that some of the approximately 130 Palestinians in the ships will chose the second option. Because in the videos before departure they were so extremely eager to return to their homeland in spite of all the oppression!



The declarations of some of the returning pacifists can be read at Reuters' AlertNet:

We did not resist at all, we couldn't even if we had wanted to. What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard? The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired upon with plastic bullets and were stunned with electric devices.

There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground.

They wouldn't let us use the bathroom, wouldn't give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this.

(Mihalis Grigoropoulos)


The captain of the vessel Mavi Marmara told us 'They are firing randomly, they are breaking the windows and entering inside. So you should get out of here as soon as possible.' That was our last conversation with him.

(Bayram Kalyon)


There are others but the only direct witness mentioned of what happened at the Mavi Marmara seems to be German MP Norman Paech (Die Linke):

"That was not an act of self defence. That was a war crime ... To talk about self defence is a mockery." He personally saw "two and a half" wooden blocks which activists used. He did not see any knives. He did not rule out that activists used metal rods, but he did not see them.


Other news taken from Al Jazeera's live coverage are:


British PM David Cameron calls for a lift of the blockade of Gaza.


King Abdullah from Jordan has offered to take those prisoners who are citizens of countries that have no relations with Israel.


A rather unusual development are the mass protests in Tel Aviv (see video from Israel Social TV - in Hebrew). It's difficult to evaluate the numbers because there are not panoramic images but I'd say that thousands [confirmed: Israeli Ma'an agency says that 2000, as reported by Gaza Solidarity].




The President of Finland declared:

We have condemned it very strongly. The first thing of course is the situation in Gaza. Isolation is not a constructive way for negotiations. So the people in Gaza should be treated in a human way. They have suffered quite too much. The second part is that, these ships of solidarity have been one effort by the NGO side, and the answer of [the] military is totally impossible to understand.

I think that the leaders of Israel have now seen not only different countries; the EU, and the UN Security Council have strongly condemned the violence, and have been very decisive to say that it has to be stopped, both the blockade and the other violence.


Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, demanded that Israel shares information about the condition of the activists from the flotilla.

Erdogan's discourse at least once emphasized the historical ties of friendship and cooperation with Israel. However he also addressed the Israeli nation in this manner:

We have always contributed to the attempts of Israeli people to maintain peace and stability. Now it is their turn. Your government's aggressive attitudes, like robbers, like pirates, this is damaging your country's respect in the international arena.

Part of his discourse was also critical with the USA, implicitly blaming them for Israeli's arrogance and reckless attitude.

More details of Erdogan's discourse can be read here.


Hamas denounced the UN Security Council declaration as weak and unbalanced. They also made a call for Palestinian unity.


Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak declared that it is opening the Rafah crossing for medical and humanitarian cases however he did not state for how long (in previous occasions it has only lasted a few days). Later information from Al Fatah (the so-called Palestinian Authority but that title would correspond to Hamas if anyone, as they won the last elections) said that there are no restrictions on who can cross through Rafah.


Al Jazeera cameraman Isaam Zaatar, on board of one of the ships, denounced violence from the Zionist troops:

I was filming, he [an Israeli solider] ran after me with an electric stick [stun gun]. He could not catch me. One of his colleagues hit my hand from behind with a stick [stun gun]. My camera fell down. He ran to crush the camera with his feet. I told him, don’t break my camera. If you want the tapes, I will give them to you. I told him these are media equipment. They had no limits. They used rubber bullets. They used tear bombs. It was an unbelievable scene.

He also informed that many of the arrested are being forced by the Zionist military to sing false documents declaring that they had broken the law.


The European Union and Russia issued a strong joint statement condemning the use of violence and calling for the blockade of Gaza to be lifted. In my opinion, this rare joint declaration shows how the lack of a strong stand from Washington on Israeli crimes is altering the geopolitics of West Eurasia and weakening NATO.


Global civil movement Avaaz (Voice in Arabic) has an online petition that states:

We call for an immediate, independent investigation into the flotilla assault, full accountability for those responsible, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade.

In few hours it has achieved almost 70,000 signatures. You can add yours here.


Another such petition by US-based Freedom Forward can be found here.


Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa, declared that action will be decided tomorrow and that the action will be taken against Israel "on legal, political and economic levels".


The Israeli Military seems to insist that the death toll is of 10. We'll see.


Demonstrations across the World against the massacre continue and are likely to go on through the weekend at least.


Israel Occupation Archive highlights the declarations of Mossad Chief Meir Dagan to Haaretz newspaper acknowledging that:

Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden.

Dagan also said that the U.S. government has recently examined the possibility of coercing a settlement on Israel and the Palestinians, but retreated from the idea after realizing it would not lead to a peace agreement.


The same site also mentions that Israeli-Arab leaders have called a general strike in protest for the murderous attack on the flotilla. They also called on world governments to put Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on trial and called for a number of demonstrations.


Past coverage of the massacre and related events in this blog here and here.

Zionist piracy act against Free Gaza aid flotilla (2)

I blogged this morning on the violent act of piracy in international waters by the Zionist military. Now it is time to make a more serene review, even if the situation is still very confuse.


Ship still sailing towards Gaza

A last minute [update: confirmed but with caveat, see below about the second flotilla] news item from Twitter is that the VM Rachel Corrie, of Irish flag, has not been captured and is still heading to Gaza.


Piracy act

First of all it must be set clear that according to the Law of the Sea this is an unjustified act of piracy in international waters.

Territorial waters are almost identical to land territory and in them the state can enforce all local laws and policies. States also have authority on pollution, taxation, customs and immigration in the contiguous zone.

In the economic exclusive zone (EEZ) states have no authority except on the exploitation of natural resources (fisheries, oil, gas, etc.) Some of these merely economic privileges can also be applied in the continental shelf beyond the 200 miles line.

A nautical mile is approximately 1.8 kilometers, so the Israeli contiguous zone ends at roughly 40 kilometers from its coast.

When attacked, the Free Gaza flotilla was at 75 miles from the coast, clearly in international waters, where Israel has no authority other than over exploitation of natural resources, which was clearly not the case.


Casualty figures

It seems that my earlier figure of 20 people murdered and some 50 injured is more or less correct. I have been browsing very different news sites and, while some still mention 16 mortal victims, many already put the figure in 19-20, of which at least 10 are Europeans and at least 6 are Turks. No identities are yet known.

The fascist censorship imposed by Israel is not helping at all to get things clear. It is obvious that they fear scrutiny and that are anything but a democratic state where freedom of speech and information is granted.


Protests

Innumerable demonstrations have been held through the world and specially in Europe and West Asia, including Turkey and Palestine. I cannot really account for them all but I understand that there have been protests in all middle sized towns in West Eurasia, at least that is the case in the Basque Country.

In Qandaliya, Palestine, US citizen Emily Henochowicz was shot in the face with a gas canister by Zionist units during a nonviolent protest and has lost an eye.

Institutional reactions

The official reactions from the governments and other institutions have so far been mixed. Most affected countries have merely issued vague concern statements and at most summoned the local Zionist ambassador to issue explanations.

An exception is Turkey, a major regional power, which has expelled the Israeli ambassador and canceled join military drills with Israel. Similarly, Greece has also canceled joint military exercises with the Zionist entity.

Another state that has "emphatically condemned" the Israeli attack was Venezuela, denouncing Israel for its "genocidal and terrorist nature" and declaring their "solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, national sovereignty and dignity".

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the US government, totally controlled by the Zionists, which apparently has not even bothered summoning the ambassador and has issued a most vague declaration.

Turkey has also called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, while the Arab League is set to have a summit tomorrow.


Defensive violence?

Israel has claimed that their attack was met by violent resistence by some of the passengers, who knocked down the boarding commandos, attacked them with batons and chairs and what not.

I have watched the alleged Israeli military footage and it's not conclusive, specially considering the lack of credibility that the Zionist entity has, almost systematically lying about what happens in their police and military operations. One of the less credible claims is that a fire bomb was launched at them because you can see a flying object but it does not explode nor any fire is visible after it touches ground. Reports from Tel Aviv that they were subject to gunfire are also totally false: the ship was searched by the Turkish authorities before leaving port and there was nothing of that, no footage shows anything like that either: the only ones shooting in every occasion are the Zionist terrorists.

Also Israel has the capability of faking all that.

However it seems that some of the claims of violent resistence aboard the Mavi Marmara ship are real. This video shot from inside the ship shows some instances of passengers trying to neutralize the attackers in what can be considered a violent defense.

This must be strongly criticised because when you are in a nonviolent operation, you just cannot do that: it is naive and counter-producing.

However that does not justify the Israeli murders. Remember that we are talking of a piracy action by an armed group in international waters and that the passengers were legitimately defending their ship from such an attack.

Also if Israel would have treated this as a police and not a military conflict, it is most likely that the casualties could have been avoided. But Israel is so fascist and paranoid that even a peaceful aid convoy is treated as a military threat. The official discourse of Israel is that they are at war, though there is no state attacking them at all and the occasional rocket shooting, almost non-existent since the criminal attack and subsequent siege on Gaza and the parallel imposition of a puppet government in the West Bank bantustan, can only be considered a problem of public order, never a military threat.

They are a military-religious entity, not different from, say, the Templars or Al Qaeda, and that's how their limited fanatic minds and their circular propaganda discourse works: all is war, and in war all is legitimate. Under this discourse genocide becomes normal, civilians become deadly enemies to be shot and tortured and humanitarian aid becomes a matter of national security.

The problem of Israel is however political and ethical, not military.


Remembering Nick Clegg's statements

Among the many sites I have been looking in search for news, I have found this December 2009 article at The Guardian by current UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, in which he states that the blockade of Gaza must be lifted.

Well, Mr. Clegg, now that you are sustaining and participating in the government of one of the most powerful states in the Euromediterranean region, with a huge navy, nuclear weapons and military bases at Cyprus, you can do something about it, right? For instance sending the Royal Navy to secure free access of humanitarian aid to Gaza and/or imposing sanctions against Israel.


Note: the content of this post will be updated as needed in the coming hours. I am not going to post of discuss anything else for the time being, really. This is a most critical episode in ongoing history.

A lot of information can be found at Palestine Blogs Aggregator but in particular I must mention Window into Palestine, which is covering the massacre and related events in great detail.


Updates:

At Ashdod, it has been reported that Zionist nazi settlers attacked the reporter from Al Jazeera.


(Confirmed, see below) Turkey may send an aid convoy supported by its navy

Window into Palestine reports that Turkey "warned that further supply vessels will be sent to Gaza, escorted by the Turkish Navy, a development with unpredictable consequences". No source is provided but so far this blog has been extremely informative, often in advance of what has been reported elsewhere.


Palestine Think Tank publishes an emotive poem by Sahar Ahmed saluting the Freedom Flotilla heroes that really touches you.


Under My Olive Tree publishes the message of a sensible Israeli teenager whose heart is broken by the fascist horror and corruption of his "country" and that really makes you feel sad about the poor Israelis who are conscious (not many but there are some).


Window into Palestine publishes addresses by former USA congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and by former UK MP George Galloway (audio), both promoters of the initiatives to break the criminal siege of Gaza.

Galloway reports that the actual figure of killed people is 29, as some of the members of the expedition managed to message just before arrival to Ashdod.

He also mentions that the British Foreign Ministry has used the unusually hard verb "condemn" in regard to this attack and has called for the siege of Gaza to be lifted, which are unprecedented declarations from British authorities.


The Guardian has a list of some famous people who were part of the expedition. Among them, Peace Nobel prize laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, three German MPs (Annette Groth, Inge Höger and Norman Paech) and 80 years old Holocaust survivor David Schermerhorn, a US film producer. An incomplete list of passengers from Europe, North America and Palestine can be found at Free Gaza.


Window into Palestine mentions that NATO is to hold an emergency meeting on Turkish request. The vast majority of the passengers of the Freedom Flotilla are citizens of NATO member states, including many from Turkey but also from Greece, Britain, Germany, Spain, the USA... and, of course, the troublemaker attitude of Israel is of grave concern for many of them.


A media outlet that is broadcasting some interesting interviews is Russia Today (in English). I had never before heard of this channel but they have some good stuff such as this interview with Palestinian human rights activist Wisan Ahmad who clearly puts Israel credibility and legitimacy in its real place: zero, and explains how the Freedom Flotilla and similar civic initiatives are only filling the gap that should have been taken by the international community of states (UN, etc.) long ago.


Another news site that has some decent coverage is, naturally, Al Jazeera, which is still today following in live format the events as they unfold. For instance here there is a video-report on some of the reactions to the outrageous criminal attack.

It also mentions that elderly former US ambassador Edward Peck, 81, has been the first passenger to be released and sent back home (Associated Press link) and that all 535 passengers have been offloaded from the ships (however other sources mention more than 700 passengers).

The Qatari channel also has a review of statements by international leaders and an article on previous internationalists murdered by Israel: Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall and James Miller were all killed in 2003. Tristan Andersson barely survived with severe brain damage after being hit by a gas canister thrown to his head in 2009.


The International Middle East Media Center, a Palestinian information site, mentions among other things that the whole family (both parents and six siblings) of activist Osama Qashoo, a British citizen who appeared in videos distributing what might be painkillers or antibiotics after the Zionist attack, are going on hunger strike until Israel releases him safely.


Found a source on the Turkish plan of sending further humanitarian aid to Gaza with military escort: IBN live. The same news item mentions that Egypt is facing huge pressure to lift the blockade of Gaza.


Besides Egypt, the ball is now at the US court. It seems obvious that the World (and by this I mean the whole World, including all other members of the UN Security Council) is not satisfied at all by the vague concern expressed by Barack Obama, who is obviously afraid to upset his Zionist support base. Either the USA shows clear leadership in forcing Israel to make important concessions or the reality is one of a leaderless World and a leaderless NATO, which may well be heading for a military showdown between two major US allies, both holding nuclear weapons in their territory.

Israel is behaving like a mad dog but the USA is behaving like a wimp, unworthy of global leadership, apparently unable to take any decision without the consent of Tel Aviv and to follow an independent and sovereign international, or even national (think Goldman Sachs), policy.


According to The Raw Story, an Al Jazeera "raw video" (same as the one linked above, I believe) shows that the Zionist troops were shooting before boarding the Mavi Marmara.


Window into Palestine, citing AFP, mentions that 48 of the arrested have been released already and sent back home, while other 480 remain under arrest. However I have already mentioned that other sources talk of a total of more than 700 passengers in the Freedom Flotilla.


The same blog also deals with the hot UN Security Council meeting of today, with the Turkish ambassador accusing Israel of "tantamount piracy" and "murder" and saying "it has lost all legitimacy".


Mondoweiss suggests that technically the Zionist attack is not an act of piracy, as I stated above, but an illegal attack in any case. The reason is that piracy is carried only by private actors and in this case it was a state (though the legitimacy of the state of Israel is highly doubtful). Whatever the case, it was an illegal criminal act in Turkish jurisdiction (at least in what regards to the Mavi Marmara, of Turkish flag). Hence, legally Israel has two options: (1) deny responsability (extremely unlikely) and hand over its commandos to Turkey to be judged there or (2) accept full responsability, in which case, Israel is technically at war with Turkey and the action is a war crime.

I understand that, as Turkey is member of NATO and Israel is not, technically all NATO is obliged to support Turkey because the charter of this alliance states that members must defend each other in case of attack in North America, Europe, West Asia or insular possessions north of the Tropic of Cancer. This issue will be surely raised at the NATO emergency meeting that has been called on behalf of Turkey. I would have to check the details of NATO's charter but the attack borders a declaration of war to NATO as whole.


Other details from Al Jazeera's live coverage are that:

A second Free Gaza aid flotilla will be sent. This flotilla is made up by the MV Rachel Corrie, which was delayed and is only 300 km away from Gaza and probably the two ships that had mechanical problems (read Zionist sabotage) and could not leave port.

The Israeli Army has declared that will send the humanitarian aid in the flotilla to Gaza via land route at 8:30 GMT (which is 10 minutes from now).


Justice mentions that the UN Security Council has already issued an statement calling for "an impartial inquiry into Israel's raid on a flotilla of Gaza-bound aid ships". The statement said the inquiry should be "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent".

It seems a most weak statement to me, sign of a weak position by the USA. This weakness in front of criminal Israel, I fear, we will have to pay with more blood as Israel now feels immune again. I put all responsibility on the shoulders of Barack Obama and hist ultra-Zionist cabinet.


La Haine has a photo-report of some of the protests in the Spanish state.

Bilbao


Valencia
I chose this one because the banner highlights the global danger (peligro mundial) that Israel poses if left unchecked

Valladolid

Israel attacks Free Gaza ships. At least 20 murdered.

Part of me really can't believe it. And of course deep feelings of mortal hatred are now burning inside.

Israel has declared war on Humankind.

What else is attacking a peaceful convoy with humanitarian aid and killing the people carrying them, including maybe members of your parliament or the bishop of Jerusalem, and of course many other less famous but equally heroic people.

At the moment I don't have words. I was watching some videos at YouTube on the nonviolent enterprise and was getting ready to write a "heat up" post on the matter, imagining that the situation would unfold in one way or another (but certainly not in this way) along the day or maybe tomorrow.

So I checked Chet's blog Justice that has been covering the nonviolent operation systematically and I was stroke by the most horrible possible news: the cold blood murder of these heroes. I checked at Al Jazeera and there it was the bloody spite on the face of Humankind.

I feel sad but specially I feel terribly angry about this. We have to put with much in our lives but that a micro-state, a tiny protectorate of NATO with no legitimacy whatsoever, dares to do this is too much.

I demand that EU and NATO, entities that supposedly defend me as European citizen, declare immediate war to Israel and annihilate it. Nonviolence has been destroyed as an option in the Palestinian conflict, this sadly shows that there can't be a solution in Palestine by peaceful means.

... Just hate them more than ever before. The Zionazi entity must be banished from the face of Earth and that must happen now. Humankind can't just sit and watch, much less finance or even tolerate any form of finance to the Judeo-Nazi state. It's just like with Hitler: we can't wait a minute more because each minute we do nothing they murder more people.

It's time to dismantle Israel.

Updated info at Twitter Free Gaza. Last is 10 people murdered, Zionist commandos dropped from a helicopter on the largest ship and started shooting everybody (who of course were unarmed civilians). At least 30 more injured. Casualty figures will surely increase as the facts become more clear.

But we will never forgive in any case.


Updates:

The death toll is rising fast. According to Window into Palestine, at least 20 people were murdered.

Also there are "innacuracies" and blunt lies in many informations from mainstream media:

Some media have reported that the Zionist troops intervened in Israeli territorial waters. That is totally incorrect and it was not Gaza territorial waters either. As you can see on the map at Witness Gaza, the last "ok" communication before the assault happened in international waters at, roughly, the latitude of Tel Aviv or Haifa. The humanitarian flotilla has always sought to avoid Israeli waters traveling only through international zones or, necesarily, Gaza territorial waters, which in this case they did not reach.

Israel is spreading now the lie that the attackers faced resistence from people armed with sticks and knives. That is also false: reported video evidence (known link is this one but it's a live stream from Turkish IHH television channel, I'll change it as soon as I have a more useful link) shows soldiers landing on the ship and opening fire without any sort of provocation.

Also a growing number of Turkish citizens is concentrated at the giant Israeli consulate in Istanbul. Some attempted earlier to storm it but were repelled by the police. It seems very likely that Turco-Israeli relations, already very damaged but once very strong, are going to be slashed. Turkey is not only one of the greatest regional power but is also a NATO member.

See also the official site of the nonviolent campaign Free Gaza.


More updates (demos):

Some of the protest demonstrations called for today in Europe are:

· London: today at 14:00 at Downing Street
· Uppsala: today at 17:00 at Stor Torget
· Stockholm: today at 18:00 at Plattan, with demonstration planned to head to the Israel embassy
· Madrid: today at 19:00, in principle in front of the ministry of foreign affairs

Source: La Haine[es] (also photos and some videos of the attack there)


More updates:

Israel has declared military censorship on all the info on the attack. For that reason, as all the flotilla has been captured by the Zionist pirates and communications have been cut, the exact number of casualties is not well known. Figures vary between 16 and 20 killed and maybe 50 injured.

It is also unclear if the Zionist troops began shooting already in the ships or before boarding them.

Indymedia Chicago reports that one of the injured, or maybe killed, may be a member of the European Parliament but no name is given.

Kaosenlared[es] gathers reports from several media in Spanish and English and mentions that Spain has summoned the Israeli ambassador, as three Spanish citizens were in the ships (to activists and a journalist from TeleSur). They also mention that the Arab League has called an emergency summit for tomorrow.

FreeGaza Twitter page says that the ships have been taken to the port of Ashod, where the activists are as well, the injured have been taken to Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv and to Rambaun.

British newspaper The Guardian is trying to make a live coverage of the attack in blog and twitter format with mild success. Among other items Harriet Sherwood mentions, largely based on rumors, that, besides Turkey and Spain, also Greece has summoned the Israeli ambassador, that Palestinian leader Sheikh Rayed Salah has been injured and is undergoing surgery, that the Zionist military has closed roads in the West Bank and access to Temple Mount in Jerusalem, that at least one demonstration was called in Jerusalem for today and that four of the injured are naval commanders and that one of them is seriously injured.

Somewhere else (don't ask me where) it's said that even that Zionist agent that is Mahmmoud Abbas has felt obligued to condemn Israel for the massacre.


And more:

Israeli newspaper Haaretz also has some stuff. However, considering the repeated reports (and my own careful confirmation) that adverts in this newspaper spread a virus, I strongly recommend to access it with javascript disabled and antivirus guard activated.

Bradley Burston mentions that Gaza has become the Israeli "Vietnam" but most importantly, considering the reports of Palestinian demonstrations being organized in all the territory, Amos Harel warns of a third Intifada if the reports that Raed Salad is among the casualties (seriously wounded is the rumor) are confirmed.

Demonstrations have also been called in Barcelona (19:00 at Israel consulate) and Seville (20:00 at Plaza Nueva), as reports TerceraInformación.