This is a ridiculous game called “break the siege” … Yes, there are ships that sail off the port of Larnaca, Cyprus. First the Israeli embassy takes all passports of the passengers of the vessel to ensure the identities of the passengers and then examine what assistance will be on the ship. Secondly the Israeli navy ensures those on the ship and cargo loaded, before allowing them to continue the trip to Gaza .. Where is the blockade being broken?. Some States said they would send ships .. Where are those ships?

… If you want to send aid to Gaza, why not Tersloha[?] via Egypt or Jordan .. Egypt reaches everything as well as Jordan. Consequently, this is cheap, false propaganda and not the first nor the last time.

In other words, he just ripped people like Anis a new one…

(hat tip: king of auto-translation, Elder of Ziyon)

Their “ton of medical supplies and high-protein baby formula” that it brought is dwarfed by the aid that evil Israel brought in to Gaza yesterday as well – some 70 truckfuls of food and other supplies, along with fuel pumped through Nahal Oz.

Only a couple of dozen Gazans came to watch the circus, and the only TV coverage came from Iran’s Press TV.

Meanwhile, Free Gaza’s debt continues to grow. They seem to be “cooking the books” – if you compare their bizarre thermometer graphic from October to the one on their website today, you will see that they are now claiming to have spent less total money than they had two months ago!

October:

Today:

Somehow, through the miracle of modern accounting, the total amount they have spent went from $740,000 down to $654,000!

If you assume that they really mean that they spent $866,000 that the graphic indicates, this means that their debt has increased to $430,000 today from $415,000 indicated in the October chart. Their business model, which is that they would make money from a combination of leftists and “passenger fees” (which seem to have disappeared – I doubt that the UK moonbat teachers on this boat ponied up $1,000 each for the voyage) is falling apart.

But given that they are now linking to Iranian news stories, and Iran is the only country that pretends to care about Gazans as much as the Freaks do, perhaps they are working on a deal with their tolerant pals in Tehran.

Dear friends,
Israeli journalist, Amira Hass has been arrested as she attempted to cross back into Israel from Gaza, after spending three weeks there (coming into Gaza on one of the Free Gaza Movement boats).  Over the past few weeks, Hass has been filing on the ground reports from Gaza about life under the siege.

Hass, the child of Holocaust survivors, became the first and only Israeli journalist to be ever based in Gaza, moving there in 1993 to live and work.  Today, she is still the only Israeli journalist to based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories moving to Ramallah in 1997.  Three weeks ago, she once again became the only Israeli journalist to enter Gaza since the current illegal Israeli siege began, as not only has the Israeli military have prevented Israeli journalists for some time and recently also began preventing foreign journalists from entering Gaza.

Please find below the brief article on her arrest which appeared in the Haaretz, the paper she writes for.

In solidarity,
Kim
www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com
www.directaction.org.au

Last update – 16:44 02/12/2008

Haaretz journalist Amira Hass arrested for illegal stay in Gaza

By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042654.html

Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass was detained by Sderot police last night for having entered the Gaza Strip without a permit.

By order of the army, Israeli journalists have been barred from entering Gaza since the abduction of soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006.

Hass was stopped by soldiers at the Erez Checkpoint, on the Gaza-Israel border, as she was returning to Israel from the Strip. Upon discovering that she had no permit to be in Gaza, the soldiers transferred her to the Sderot police.

When questioned, Hass pointed out that no one had stopped her from entering the Strip, which she did for work purposes.

Chief Superintendent Shimon Nahmani, commander of the Sderot police station, said Hass had entered Gaza by sea three weeks ago.

Hass was released under restriction, and Nahmani said her case will be sent to court in the coming week.

Israel Press Council chairwoman Dalia Dorner, a former Supreme Court justice, commented that even journalists are subject to the law and the council cannot defend a reporter who breaks the law. Instead, she said, local journalists ought to petition the High Court of Justice against the army’s order.

Answer: This minor detail:

An Israeli reporter who traveled by boat to Hamas-ruled Gaza last month, defying her country’s blockade of the territory, returned to Israel Monday after Hamas officials told her to leave because of security concerns.

Amira Hass, an award-winning writer for the Israeli daily Haaretz, crossed into Israel on Monday afternoon. She said Hamas officials did not provide details about the alleged dangers to her safety.

Presumably, Free Gaza and Ha’aretz did not see fit to mention that Hamas turfed Hass out of Gaza, since this would detract from the main message of their story – that Israel is the real villain here.

Also interesting is the fact that if the IHT story is correct, Hass lied to Sderot police.

I wonder if they can add that to the charge sheet.

You may have thought she would have removed her foot from her mouth and shut up. But, alas, I guess she very much enjoys eating anything – even her foot – that is, anything but humble pie.

Here is an interview with her that is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure.

“Gaza is a concentration camp,” she fumes. “Why am I using an inflammatory term? Because underplaying the situation in Gaza and being sensible has done them no good at all.

“That’s not the same as mincing with the truth – it’s that the situation there has been underplayed for too long.

“Gaza isn’t a prison – a prison is somewhere guilty people go, somewhere people are locked up for the good of society.

“Sixty-one per cent of the population there are children. They are not prisoners, they’ve had no due process – it is more like an internment camp.

I would love to know Booth’s source for this statement. Even the pro-palestinian Palestine Media Center has the figure at 56%, and another more objective source has the percentage of children under 14 at around 47%.

“They are being tortured for their race or, the latest excuse, their political opinions. That – under the Oxford English Dictionary definition – is a concentration camp and I want people to be shocked by it, I want them to see the civilian life there.

Actually, they are suffering because a segment of their population is committing heinous terrorist acts against innocent people in Israel, including firing rockets deliberately at civilian areas, and the vast majority of Gazans are either supporting these terrorist acts or certainly not acting or speaking out against them.

“If they cannot escape, they’ve got soldiers around them, people keeping food from them – what else is it?”

It is proof that when the IDF withdraws unilaterally from territory captured in a war of self-defense, terrorism intensifies, and this terrorism is at best ignored, and at worst supported, by people like Booth.

Ok, so up until this point you might conclude that Booth could very well be a kind-hearted person who just happens to be woefully ignorant.

I think the next paragraphs indicate that this woman is not merely ignorant, but willfully ignores the truth.

Likewise, she finds it backs up her argument that Palestinians are a peace-loving people.

She admits: “When I was going to Gaza I had a moment thinking, ‘Well, what about Islamic jihad, is that going to be dangerous?’ I walked around as the sister-in-law of Tony Blair – God as my witness – I walked around Rafah refugee camp at night on my own.

“People knew who I was, I was welcomed and I was safe. The Hamas police force has pledged safety as much as possible for the people living there – that is not to say they are perfect – but the organisation that kidnapped Alan Johnston is all but finished now.”

The fact that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and company fire rockets at population centers in Israel is of no concern to Booth. As long as they do not harm her and do good for palestinians, they are alright, and the palestinians who support them are “peace-loving.”

This theme of peace among Palestinians is one to which the journalist continually returns.

When stranded in Gaza, she says a woman took her in, offering her daughter’s clothes to her.

“It’s raised time and time again that within Islam there’s an inherent hate for Judaism – it’s a lie,” she says.

I have seen plenty of Quranic verses that would suggest otherwise. But you needn’t go much past the Hamas Charter for proof she is talking out of her arse.

“I have been in homes and I hear and I see people want to live in peace with their neighbours. There is a genuine feeling of welcome.

“The danger for someone visiting is that you’ll get loved to death – force-fed mint tea and biscuits.”

Now this I am inclined to believe.

As for not speaking out against palestinian terror, Booth wants you to know it is not because she denies its existence. It just does not interest her.

No one can deny violent attacks and terrorism have been committed by people living in Palestine. But her real argument is that the Palestinian people are being punished indiscriminately and permanently for it.

“I don’t condone any violence at all,” she says. “Why am I talking about Palestine? Because they are under occupation and I have seen the suffering first-hand.

“I don’t want to talk about anything else - just the human rights abuses.

Clearly, Booth does not consider rockets fired at Jews to constitute a humans right abuse.

And here’s the kicker:

“If Londoners went through what Gazan people go through for one day, we would commit massacres, we would riot. They’ve been going through it for 60 years.

At least she admits the palestinians commit massacres.

And that, my friends, is terror supporter Lauren Booth.

Update: Honest Reporting has discovered that Booth is on Iran’s payroll.

An International peace activist said on Saturday that he faces “torture” during his detention in an Israeli custody.

In a letter received today by Ramattan, Vittorio Arrigoni, (33) from Italy, said that the detention he lived “can be considered a real torture more than a punishment.”

The full text of the letter delivered to Ramattan:

Manifestly violating every human and civil right and against every international law, I spent the last six hours with Andrew locked in a piggish toilette full of fleas and parasites and without drinking water. This was the treatment we received because we announced a hunger strike in order to ask for the restitution of the fishing boats stolen to Palestinian fishermen offshore Gazan coasts when we were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers.

They took away the telephones we were given yesterday by our lawyer but, even more shameful and clearly violating international laws, they prevented us from getting in touch with our lawyers and with our consulates even though Andrew and I asked for it tenaciously many times.

In order to report these regrettable events I had to stop my hunger strike so that I could have back my telephone and pass on this reporting. Based on what I could hear before they separated us, Andrew will keep staying in that cell (absolutely non compliant with every standard of every convention about detention and human rights) as long as he will continue his hunger strike.

The detention I lived today and Andrew is still living can be considered a real torture more than a punishment.

It’s more than probable that Darlene, who is continuing her hunger strike, is suffering the same inhuman treatment.

I’m about to report this seriously severe event to the Italian, the Scottish and the American consulates.

It’s important being constantly informed about mental and physical conditions of our friends.

Tomorrow I will have to turn to urgent medical treatments to cure dozens of bites from insects and parasites which attack me every night leaving my body full of sores.

Vittorio Arrigoni, kidnapped in an Israeli prison in Ramle.

21st November 2008, 6 p.m. –end of the letter-

Interestingly enough, these terror supporters are being fed.

Must be to give the Zionist Death Bugs^TM more meat to feast on.

Just before arriving in the waters of Gaza, an Israeli naval gunboat approached, cutting across the bow of the boat, then falling back and tracking it for about an hour. Finally, the gunboat radioed the DIGNITY and asked who they were and where they were going.

After Huwaida Arraf responded, the gunboat asked for the passenger list. “Our passengers are listed on our Free Gaza website for everyone to see,” replied Ms. Arraf, “You’re welcome to visit it any time. And… while you’re there, feel free to make a donation.”

After a pause, then a laugh, the voice on the other end said, “Have a nice day” and left the DIGNITY to glide into the port of Gaza to cheering crowds and a packed agenda for the Parliamentarians.

The sad thing is, she probably wasn’t joking.

Incidentally, the Free Gaza mailing list put out a mail with a different version of the exchange.

At 8:000 am Gaza time, an Israeli patrol boat made contact with the DIGNITY. They had been following the boat for about an hour prior to contacting them

They requested a list of passengers on board.

DIGNITY answered “You’re welcome to go to our website, freegaza.org. We have the entire list and biographies of the passengers there.” Huwaida then added, “Once you are at our website, please make a donation.”

The answer from the the warship was “ha, ha, ha, ha.”

Not that we should be surprised by Free Gaza tools being loose with the facts.

Per their latest press release:

For Immediate Release
November 6, 2008

Larnaca: Tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 pm, the DIGNITY leaves for the third time for the shores of Gaza. This time, eleven past and current members of the European Parliament are on board, along with journalists from Al Jazeera English and The Independent.

These dignitaries were among the 53 Parliamentarians denied entrance by Egypt at the Rafah checkpoint.
“Egypt did not allow us to enter Gaza via the Rafah terminal, but this will not stop us from visiting the area,” Lord Nazir Ahmad, head of the European delegates stated, “We will sail to Gaza, we are determined to break the siege”.

Ms Clare Short MP emphasized, “The Egyptian refusal to grant us access through Rafah Crossing is insulting to all of us, and Egypt should open the crossing now.”

They will be on a three-day fact finding tour organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the European Campaign to End the Siege as well as several of the organizations in Gaza who have worked with the Free Gaza Movement on the past two voyages.

On the past two trips, Israel has threatened to stop the DIGNITY, arrest its passengers and tow the boat to Israel. The government has been silent on its plans this time, perhaps out of respect for the dignitaries on the voyage. Members of the two organizations stress that the DIGNITY has no intention of going anywhere near Israeli waters but will enter Gaza through its own coastal waters.

The port authorities have asked the media to come between 3:30 and 5:00 pm Friday at Larnaca Port to see the boat leave and to conduct interviews.

The passenger list is posted on the Free Gaza website, www.freegaza.org.

Yes, good old Clare Short, one of the most vehemently anti-Israel European MPs there is. Notice how when Israel limits access to Gaza (as a consequence of terrorism) it is a siege. When Egypt limits access, it is an insult.

The real insult here is the one suffered by our intelligence when this movement tells us their goal is to break the siege of Gaza.

As if this is a siege.

As if this is their real end goal.

The inclusion of the likes of Clare Short should make even clearer the fact that these people do not want a “free” Gaza as much as no Israel.

The question is was that him on their last voyage?

Look at this graphic on their site (they apparently had a typo which I correct):

The FGMers have so far spent $740,000 and have raised $325,000 – but $300,000 came from “donations” and $25,000 from “passenger fees”.

There was no mention of “passenger fees” on their website when we previously looked at their bizarre thermometer graphic.

Since their latest trip to Gaza, where they were greeted by their Hamas terrorist pals and a tiny crowd, included 27 people, it appears that they are so broke that they are charging their “humanitarian” passengers about $1000 to get their publicity.

Comparing their numbers, they’ve spent $190,000 since September – and only raised $75,000, even including their passenger fees. And this was after the massive amount of publicity they received from their first trip.

Clearly their leftist pals aren’t willing to pony up the bucks for them to continue these public relations stunts, and nobody is buying the boats they are trying to sell (for quite inflated prices.)

What will they try next?