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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Mavi Marmara updates

The Free Gaza mailing list sent out a curious message claiming that there were major anti-Israel moves afoot in Turkey to prosecute Israel and Israelis for defending themselves from Turkish terrorists on the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

On March 7, 2014, the Turkish NGO, Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) joined the referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting the ICC Prosecutor initiate an investigation into the crimes committed by Israeli commandos and officials into Israel's raid on Freedom Flotilla I bound for Gaza.

Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were murdered on the Mavi Marmara, some of them assassinated at close range. Several other pro-Palestinian human rights defenders/passengers were also wounded when Israeli commandos stormed all six boats in the early morning on May 31, 2010.

Two important proceedings are taking place in Istanbul, 1. a criminal proceeding on March 27 against four Israeli officials (in absentia) who ordered the attack on the Flotilla. Free Gaza board members, Audrey Bomse and Greta Berlin, along with several FG passengers, will attend that proceeding, and 2. a legal conference on the search for justice in both international and domestic forums on March 25.
I don't see any media coverage of either of these events.
However, I do see media that makes the pro-terrorist Hamas fans of Free Gaza seem to be on the losing side of thing.

Hezbollah's Al Manar reported in February:
Lawyers representing the victims of a fatal 2010 Zionist raid on an aid flotilla said they have been denied visas to the Netherlands on their way to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"They are not issuing us visas although we have made it clear that we are lawyers and we represent the victims of the flotilla raid," Cihat Gokdemir told Turkish Anadolu news agency.

Two members of the legal team, Gokdemir and Ramazan Ariturk, were not granted extensions to their three-year visas, which expired in November, despite informing Dutch officials that the ICC Prosecutor's Office - based in The Hague – had invited them for a meeting on legal action against high-ranking Zionist officials.
Trend.az reported last week:
Israel wishes to restore the diplomatic relations with Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, Turkey's Anadolu agency reported on March 11.

Israel wants the relations between the two countries to return to the level of early 2010, according to Netanyahu.
And Turkish news outlet Milliyet reported on Monday that negotiations between Israel and Turkey on compensation for the (Turkish) victims are almost finalized. Compensation is only one of Turkey's demands, so it is unclear how the other negotiating tracks are faring.

What's really going on is anybody's guess.

Meanwhile, Free Gaza called Scarlett Johansson a "dumb blond" on Twitter. For that usage of the term, they spelled "blonde" wrong.