the tipping point

Banner hung near Gaza port in preparation for Freedom Flotilla arrival. Photo courtesy of Eva Bartlett.

What to write about the Freedom Flotilla massacre? There is so much news and events are still moving rapidly. It seems ages ago that I wrote about how the Freedom Flotilla had backed Israel into a corner in which all its options were bad. That was true, but I don't think anyone could have predicted how dramatic events would become in the following days.

Some are saying we shouldn't be shocked that Israeli commandos opened fire with live ammunition on a humanitarian aid ship, murdering at least nine, and possibly as many as 20 people. (Rumors that Israeli soldiers tossed bodies off the ship are unconfirmed but persistent.) But I was shocked, and I think many veteran activists--including Palestinians and internationals who had lived through Operation Cast Lead--were shocked too. Watching Turkish news broadcasting on the IHH livestream after the satellite feed from the Mavi Marmara was cut, listening to a woman's voice begging in English and Hebrew for the soldiers to stop shooting and help the wounded...that was one of the most disturbing things I've ever witnessed. I think we should be shocked, because it is shocking. I don't think we should ever lose our capacity to be shocked by violence.

I think most of us expected the ships to be intercepted, boarded, the passengers arrested and aid stolen (which has happened.) I don't think anyone expected the bloodbath that took place. I certainly don't think the passengers or organizers believed they were on a suicide mission.

There is some debate about whether Israeli commandos had a premeditated plan to kill, or whether they simply panicked and overreacted with hysterical, overwhelming force when confronted with (shocker!) actual resistance to their aggressive seizure of the Marmara. MK Hanin Zoaby (who has faced death threats, attempts to strip her of her Israeli citizenship, and physical attacks in the Knesset for her participation) is convinced they planned to kill as many activists as possible to send a message to deter future convoys. Some evidence in the Israeli press supports this theory. But there are also reports of soldiers who sounded genuinely surprised and frightened by the fierce (although makeshift) resistance they encountered on the Marmara.

Whether or not they planned to kill, while a somewhat interesting debate on a psychological and sociological level, is really neither here nor there. What is beyond debate is that they did not hesitate to kill...and kill and kill and kill...when activists did not instantly comply with the violent efforts to seize control of the ship and stop it from sailing to Gaza. I am sure the fact that many of the passengers on the Marmara were Muslim (although European) helped them justify their lethal actions to themselves.

Whether or not there was a premeditated plot for violence, commandos armed to the teeth stormed a civilian humanitarian aid ship at 4:30 in the morning--the time of night when the most people would be sleeping, and when US interrogation manuals tell us people will be most disoriented and frightened when violently awakened. (Those who weren't sleeping were praying fajr, the first Muslim prayer of the day. The call to prayer was one of the last things heard on the livestream before it cut off.) Even if they didn't plan such an unmitigated slaughter, there is no doubt that they planned to brutalize and terrify a bunch of unarmed civilians.

Israel walks a fine line when it comes to internationals. To a certain extent, they do try to keep the worst violence confined to Palestinians, because they know, cynically, that the media outlets of powerful countries don't care about Palestinian deaths. But since the beginning of the Second Intifada, small groups of internationals have been putting themselves into the most dangerous situations, resolutely insisting on standing with Palestinians even when it means facing danger they have the privilege of being able to avoid. This means that every once in a while, Israel has to kill or wound an international, just to remind us that they can. Just one day after the Flotilla massacre, Israeli soldiers shot 21-year-old American art student Emily Henochowitz in the face with a tear gas canister at close range while she was supporting a protest of aforementioned massacre in the West Bank. She lost her left eye.

The problem is that this strategy--like all uses of repressive violence--can easily backfire. And backfire it has in the case of the Freedom Flotilla. Because the whole world has seen the face of Israeli brutality.

The stories emerging from the ships and from detention afterward would be familiar to any Palestinian--or anyone who read the Goldstone Report, for that matter. White flag killings. Critically wounded denied medical care despite pleas for help. Soldiers pointing the laser sights on their rifles at passengers' head to scare them. Repeated strip searches and passengers made to kneel, bound, for long hours on the deck of the Marmara, freezing at night and sweltering during the day. Beatings and Taser shocks for anyone who resisted. All these things are forms of torture, and of course they're also standard treatment for any Palestinian who gets arrested in the Occupied Territories.

Israel worked hard to institute a total media blackout on news from the Flotilla during and immediately after its capture--blocking communications from the ship, tearing apart passengers' luggage and confiscating every phone, camera, video camera and laptop they could get their hands on, and holding passengers incommunicado for up to two days. But they simply cannot shut up some seven hundred eyewitnesses from over 40 countries. All over the world, Flotilla survivors are returning home and are telling their stories to family, friends, comrades and media. Two important websites, Gaza Flotilla Survivors and the Gaza Flotilla Archive, have been set up to collect eyewitness testimony and documentation of the attack.

In the days after the raid, a wave of protest has swept the globe, and it shows no signs of ebbing. The Gaza Freedom March website currently lists 125 separate protests in response to the massacre taking place between June 3 and June 12--and I'm sure there are many events that are not on this list.

And the final chapter of the Freedom Flotilla saga has not yet been written. The MV Rachel Corrie is an Irish cargo ship that was supposed to be part of the Freedom Flotilla, but was delayed in the Mediterranean--likely due to Israeli sabotage, it now appears. Because of the delay, the Rachel Corrie was not with the Flotilla on the 31st and escaped the attack. It is still heading for Gaza, loaded with cement, paper, medical supplies, and carrying Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, former UN Assistant Secretary-General Dennis Halliday, a Malaysian Member of Parliament and a crew from Malaysian TV, among others.

The latest reports are that the Rachel Corrie still intends to sail for Gaza and may reach the danger zone where the Freedom Flotilla was attacked as early as tonight, US time. No one knows what will happen with this ship. There are rumors that the same commando unit is preparing to intercept it. The passengers onboard have said that they will not resist an Israeli boarding, but neither will they be deterred from their attempts to sail to Gaza. And would you really expect them to turn back after their comrades gave their lives trying to break the siege?

I think we are watching the siege on Gaza implode. Egypt has already given way and opened the Rafah crossing, for the first time in a year. Freedom Flotilla II was in the works before the blood had dried on the Marmara decks. The global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is only growing. If this is not the end, it is certainly the beginning of the end. And not just for the siege of Gaza, but for the entire apparatus of Israeli apartheid, I think. A few days before the Flotilla debacle, West Bank activist Mazin Qumsiyeh said the struggle in Palestine was reaching its "endgame." I think he's right. No one can tell if that endgame will last two, five, or ten years, although I wouldn't be surprised if things collapse far more rapidly than anyone expects. This does not mean that Israel will become less violent--quite the reverse, I think. But it's reached a tipping point where it can neither win nor even stabilize the situation. Instead of deterring struggle every act of violence just pushes it forward.

The time to act is now. GAZA WE ARE COMING! FREE PALESTINE!