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Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Press Release, 7th June 2010, 9pm

Today Monday 7th June 2010 family, friends and supporters welcomed home the five Irish MV Rachel Corrie passengers who were this morning deported from Israel. The five – Denis Halliday, Mairead Maguire, Fiona Thompson, Derek Graham and Jenny Graham – were greeted in Dublin airport by cheers and hugs from the assembled crowd who were there to salute their bravery, as well as a large media presence.

Following their safe arrival back on Irish soil, Mr. Halliday, Ms. Maguire and Mr. Graham addressed a press conference hosted by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) in the Central Hotel. Full audio from the press conference is available here: http://tinyurl.com/27rb46b

Ms. Maguire spoke of her motivations for taking part in the Freedom Flotilla which sought to bring much needed humanitarian aid and supplies into Gaza by breaking the illegal Israeli blockade. Ms Maguire said: “Israel is carrying out a slow genocide against the Palestinian people. It engages in collective punishment and practices apartheid policies worse than those of South Africa. For these reasons, we set out to break the three-year-old illegal siege of Gaza, to try and help ease this unspeakable suffering in a small but symbolic way by bringing humanitarian aid. Unfortunately we never made it to Gaza as we were boarded illegally in international waters and taken at the point of a gun to Israel. However, we say to the people of Gaza, we will be back. We will treble our efforts, we will not rest until the siege is lifted, the occupation of Palestine is ended and Palestinians have the right to self-determination. We will not be silent, and we will not be stopped.”

Mr. Graham, who was First Mate on the Rachel Corrie, recounted the boarding of the ship by the Israeli navy and the events leading up to it, and thanked the IPSC and the Irish media for the support and coverage they had given the Rachel Corrie mission, which he said he felt was crucial in ensuring their safety.

Mr. Halliday urged the Irish government, along with the EU, the US and especially the United Nations to take action against Israel. He also called for an independent international inquiry into the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara which left at least 9 people dead last Monday, something which Israel has rejected.

The other two passengers, Ms. Thompson and Mrs. Graham were praised by the speakers. It also emerged that Ms. Thompson, a documentary-maker, had managed to securely smuggle out five video tapes documenting their voyage from leaving Malta up until the Israeli boats approached the Rachel Corrie. However, the Israelis stolen her camera, which is her livelihood.

Freda Hughes, chairing the meeting on behalf of the IPSC, called for an intensification of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. She said: “Some of the parties involved in the flotilla are looking towards building another one. However, flotillas alone will not end Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. To that end the IPSC calls on the people of Ireland to carry out an economic boycott against Israel, for Irish multinational CRH and French multinational Veolia to divest from Israel where they are involved in building the apartheid wall and Jerusalem Light Rail respectively, and for the Irish government to pursue sanctions on the rogue state of Israel until such time as it complies fully with its obligations under international law and ends its apartheid regime”

All the speakers expressed their condolences to the families and friends of those who were murdered by Israeli commandos last Monday on board the Mavi Marmara aid ship.

Final deportee Al Mahdi Al Harati to return tomorrow

Al Mahdi Al Harati, will be the final Irish flotilla member to return to Ireland. He will be arriving in Dublin Airport tomorrow at 1.45pm, and there will be a welcoming for him. The IPSC encourages our supporters to go and welcome him home.

ENDS

Contacts:

Returned deportees

Jenny Graham: 086 3403689

Fintan Lane: 087 1258325
Shane Dillon: 085 7184987

IPSC Office: 01 6770253
Freda Hughes (IPSC): 086 1260359
John Dorman (IPSC): 087 2208560

Martin Quigley (IPSC): 087 9623624

Mark McDonnell (IPSC): 086 841 6297

from the IDF twitter

“# The Rachel Corrie will be brought to the Ashdod Port where goods will be inspected + transferred to Gaza via land xings 3 minutes ago

#

IDF soldiers boarded the Rachel Corrie with permission (??????)by sea, no helicopters used ”

We’ll be back

Israeli war ships are “shadowing” a Malaysian-funded Irish aid ship headed towards Gaza, activists on board have said.

The MV Rachel Corrie’s radar was reportedly jammed as the ship sailed closer to restricted waters off the Gaza Strip early on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the campaign group supporting the ship said.

Activists aboard Rachel Corrie are attempting to break the siege of Gaza imposed by Israel, five days after Israeli troops violently intercepted a flotilla of aid ships carrying humanitarian aid for the territory, killing nine activists.

Mairead Maguire, who is aboard the aid ship told Al Jazeera just before radio contact was lost, that navy vessels were following Rachel Corrie and its radar systems have been jammed. She, however, added the situation on board was calm.

“We are not afraid and we are all advocating non-violence… and we will just sit here and go if they insist on commandeering our boat and forcing us into Ashdod,” she said.

Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza movement that sent the ship, said the vessel was 56km from Gaza’s shores at 5am Israeli time [02:00 GMT].

Deterimined activists

“There were two warships in the back of them … and a smaller boat was approaching,” Berlin said from the movement’s headquarters in Cyprus, citing a passenger on board.
IN DEPTH

The Malaysian-funded ship is carrying 11 activists, including Mairead Corrigan, a Nobel Peace laureate, Denis Halliday, an Irish former senior official at the United Nations, and eight crew members.

The activists say they are determined to continue sailing to Gaza with their cargo of medical and construction supplies.

But Israel says it will not allow the ship into Gaza, and has urged it to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Those on the ship have said they will offer no resistance if Israeli forces decide to board the vessel.

The Rachel Corrie is funded by Perdana Global Peace Organisation, a Malaysian non-governmental organisation headed by Mahathir Mohamad, the country’s former prime minister.

read on

Another ship full of humanitarian aid — this one named after an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer — is sailing toward the Gaza Strip even as the furor over a deadly confrontation between Israeli soldiers and another group of activists has yet to subside.

The Cambodian-flagged MV Rachel Corrie, named after the Evergreen State College student killed while protesting Palestinian house demolitions in the Gaza Strip, is carrying 11 passengers, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan, who was honored for pressing for peace between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, and former United Nations Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday.

Another activist aboard the Rachel Corrie said they would not fight back if confronted by Israelis.

“If the Israeli army attacks us and tries to board our ship, we will not attempt any resistance,” Shamsul Akmar told Al Jazeera International. “We will take our boat as far as possible and if they do come on board forcefully, we will not resist.”

Any confrontation between ship and Israeli forces could spread anger over the ongoing Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip beyond the Arab world to Muslims worldwide.

[Updated, 5:50 a.m., PDT: The latest dispatch from the organizers says the 1,200-ton cargo ship is 150 miles away from Gaza in international waters. “Communication is difficult and sometimes impossible and there are many rumors out there started by Israeli authorities,” said a statement attributed to those on board. “But there is no way we are going to Ashdod,” the Israeli port of entry for most humanitarian aid to Gaza. “We are, for sure, on our way to Gaza.”]

The government of Malaysia, a rising Asian power home to a majority Muslim population of 28 million, has called on Israelis to exercise restraint.

“Any Israeli military action on an unarmed vessel transporting civilians and humanitarian assistance will deepen the international community’s negative perception of Israel,” Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Thursday night, according to the news website Bernama. “It will demonstrate Israel’s total indifference to its international obligations in defiance of world opinion. Every single item on board the vessel such as educational materials, toys and construction materials have been inspected in Ireland.”

The prime minister of Ireland, which opposes the blockade, has also warned Israelis to back off. Five Irish nationals are aboard the ship.

“We are in constant contact with the Israeli government on this matter, advising absolute restraint in relation to the vessel as it goes about its humanitarian purpose,” premier Brian Cowen was quoted as saying by the Irish Times. “Cement on board the vessel is not regarded by the Israelis as a product that is simply humanitarian. We await what emerges from the definition Israel has put forward.”

The ship is being funded by a non-profit group linked to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, according to a report by The Star of Malaysia.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut