Israeli troops beat US peace activist in custody

[Ignis]

"Hello, my name's Lindsey, I'm living with Betty Larudee while her husband Paul is overseas with the Gaza flotilla. We just got an email from the Israeli Consulate General Andrew Parker in Jerusalem.

"He said that Paul is alive and seriously beaten. Paul told him to call us so this is the closest contact we've had so far. He asked us to spread the word as much as possible. Betty was the one that talked to Parker but now she is upset and doesn't want to talk to anyone until she gets an email from the consulate tomorrow.

"Paul silently refused to follow Israeli orders so they beat him. Now he's being held in prison. He's in the same room with the captain of the boat. They have no windows, no telephone, nothing. He refused treatment by Israeli doctors, and only let the ship doctor give him aspirin."

-- Berkeley Daily Planet: http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-06-01/article/35503?headline=Report-Says-That-El-Cerrito-Resident-Was-Beaten-By-Israelis

Piracy on international waters, beating prisoners, shooting into crowds...just another day in the IDF!

[LakeSamish706]

1. It's to bad the Obama Administration doesn't seem to have a problem with these issues.

The rest of the world certainly takes exception to what Israel has done.

[godai]

5. They need to explain NOW, who the Americans are and status.

It's starting to look like a stonewall to hope interest dies down, then report whatever bad news there is regarding the Americans when there's a distracting news story.

[EFerrari]

6. Turkey has said it will cut diplomatic ties with Israel if all Turkish citizens

are not returned today. And they mean, including the wounded and the dead.

[Ignis]

27. Reports are starting to come in, at least at the local level.

We had several progressives from the SF Bay Area on the flotilla, so it's been in the local news a bit.

National MSM news, on the other hand? :boring:

[fascisthunter]

2. sickening

[Tripmann]

3. The Irish shipmate kidnapped reports women being beaten

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/activist-accuses-israel-of-piracy-460039.html#ixzz0piRKf2LS

"He said that, despite a wound to his left arm from a Taser, he was treated better than most activists because he was a member of the crew.

“There was one girl, she was only young, a Belgian girl, she had a broken nose,” he continued.

“One of the leaders from the Free Gaza Organisation, he was beaten on the deck of the ship.

“They smashed our stern door which is glass and they beat some of the girls and pushed them around the deck. They weren’t friendly with them at all.”

[EFerrari]

4. The captain of one vessel reports that he was threatened

with having his vessel sunk before the boarding and that he and his crew were held at gunpoint.

"Huseyin Tokalak, the captain of one of the seized ships who was freed on Tuesday, told a news conference in Istanbul that an Israeli navy ship threatened to sink his vessel before troops boarded and trained their guns on him and his crew.

"They pointed two guns to the head of each of us," Tokalak said."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/20106201756414515.html

[Ignis]

7. "They weren’t friendly with them at all."

Classic Irish understatement. :thumbsup:

[Ignis]

8. It's...interesting...that no one has tried to defend this yet.

I guess even the IDF doesn't get a free pass on beating prisoners in custody.

And that gives me hope in DUers. :grouphug:

[hack89]

9. Not much to defend or condemn

just a uncorroborated statement from an interested party. I'm willing to wait for some real evidence.

[EFerrari]

11. The stories are piling up from different participants and on different boats

of unprovoked brutality. If you search "flotilla victims" a number of them come up. Like this one:

Freed journos tell of Israeli commandos like 'hyenas hunting'

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/freed-journos-tell-of-israeli-commandos-like-hyenas-hunting-20100603-x1mr.html

/typo

[Ignis]

15. ‘‘they picked out some of the activists and beat them up in public’’

:puke:

[BootinUp]

17. got any more?

The injuries as reported by the journalist were minor, the reported actions by the soldiers were during the tussle to get control of the ship. Doesn't read like unprovoked brutality to me.

[Ignis]

19. Translation: I applaud the Tasering of journalists on the high seas.

I'm so glad I'm here at DU, surrounded by progressives.

[BootinUp]

20. I don't applaud the actions

I am mostly neutral on this whole episode. I don't think it had to get so out of hand.

I think the activists pretty much experienced what they themselves expected and tried to make happen. I feel pretty sure there were at least a few on the large ship that were ready to die as martyrs. But no, I do not applaud anything here, I am just sharing my interpretation of events. Sorry they don't coincide exactly with yours.

[Ignis]

24. The activists have stated over and over they expected to get through.

Do you have some Secret Decoder Ring that helps you understand what they really mean, or are you honestly saying that not a single fucking one of the flotilla volunteers actually intended to deliver aid to Gaza?

Do you know the history of past attempts at delivering aid, and how many of them got through? This attack on the flotilla was both unexpected and beyond the pale.

[BootinUp]

26. Yeah, they've been rammed or boarded the last few attempts

Maybe you're right and they are stupid fucks that decided Israel was just playing with them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/world/middleeast/02activists.html?scp=6&sq=flotilla%20gaza&st=cse

Actually, its clear that they prepared to make a media splash when Israel stopped them. I have read or seen interviews where some have stated it, can't quickly find it now. No matter. I am not sure you even believe some of the shit you post.

[Ken Burch]

28. Yeah you're obviously "neutral"

If by "I am mostly neutral", you mean "I think the IDF ROCKS!"

How can there be any question in your mind that a violent attack on a humanitarian aid convoy in international waters is simply WRONG?

[EFerrari]

21. There are still people in hospital in Israel. But, carry on. Very revealing.

[EFerrari]

22. More. If you need more, I'll start a thread just for you.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4411392&mesg_id=4411392

[BootinUp]

12. You clearly are not partisan enough

to be here.

[EFerrari]

13. Facts are not partisan. n/t

[Ignis]

14. Fair and Balanced (tm)

[Ignis]

23. Would you only accept evidence from the IDF?

:shrug:

Here are several more accounts of violence against detainees:
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/flotilla-detainees-assaulted-in-custody-460310.html

[Ignis]

10. More details on the beating of prisoners by Israeli troops:

Ambassador Peck this morning described the Israeli commando raid on the Sfendoni, the Freedom Flotilla ship he and other FPM delegates were aboard: "The first thing we knew was the sound of footsteps, and my eyelids flicked open, and there they were, heavily armed. The Israeli government keeps referring to the paint guns, but the paint guns were attached to the automatic weapons and the stun grenades and the pepper spray and the tasers and everything else that these guys carry. ... And it was all over in the inside of the ship, where I was. But up on the upper deck, where some people had been sitting and sleeping, they made an effort to peacefully prevent the Israelis from taking over the wheelhouse, and we had a number of people injured in that. Nothing of a critical nature, but we had people on crutches and people with bandages and peoples with their arms in slings, and the captain had his neck in a brace."

...

"As a survivor of the June 8, 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty," Meadors said, "I am fully aware of the tactics the Israelis are capable of and willing to use with impunity and without remorse. That time they fired machine guns, cannon, rockets, napalm, and torpedoes on us, then deliberately machine-gunned life rafts we had dropped over the side in anticipation of abandoning ship. And the only response from the American government was to impose a gag order on the crew of the USS Liberty. This time, too," Meadors continued, "the Israelis have shown no remorse, and I fear that the US government is again granting them impunity."

As to the other FPM detainees, St. Onge suffered a gash on his head when kicked by an Israeli soldier as he tried to protect a fellow passenger whom the commandos were beating on the deck of the Sfendoni, he told his wife Jan St. Onge. Kobren was allowed to make a brief phone call to the US from a women's prison unit in Beersheba, Israel, yesterday and reported that she is good health, but all the prisoners' belongings had been taken from them.

...

At least seven other US citizens took part in the Freedom Flotilla under the auspices of other organizations. One, Huwaida Arraf, chair of the Free Gaza Movement, was released Tuesday. The FPM has no confirmed information about the status of the other six: Iara Lee, a filmmaker from San Francisco; Kathy Sheetz, a retired nurse from Richmond, CA, and Woods Hole, MA; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a U.S. diplomat until she resigned in opposition to theIraq war; David Schermerhorn, a film producer from Deer Harbor, WA; Fatima Mohammadi, a longtime activist from Chicago; and Khalid Turaani, who was founder and executive director of the former American Muslims for Jerusalem and now lives in Dubai.

-- BDP @ http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-06-01/article/35522?headline=More-Gaza-Flotilla-Detainees-Released-Larudee-Badly-Beaten-But-Now-Headed-to-Greece

Gosh, these US Lefties sure do sound like the "Jew-hating warmongers" I've seen the flotilla aid volunteers called here in I/P.

:eyes:

[BootinUp]

16. I don't see anything about beatings on the flotilla in your post

and I am not interested in trying to connect the Liberty fuckup to this recent one. Two completely different fuckups separated by about 40 years.

[Ignis]

18. I'd try reading the 1st and 3rd paragraphs I posted. Or just RTFA.

I'm sure these prisoners deserved their beatings, of course. Or so the IDF will tell us.

[Skratchez]

25. Look Obama told them in no uncertain terms-

that the IDF needs to investigate these goings on. If they find no wrongdoing, then it's all kosher.