Israel likes to portray itself as a small, defenceless nation in the middle of a sea of angry Arabs. However, while Israel is anything but defenceless – it is after all a nuclear power with one of the most well-equipped and well-trained armies in the world – it is indeed beginning to be the focus of an upsurge of hostility and anger from its neighbours. Even long-time allies have started to lose their patience with Israel for its consistent law-breaking, daily human rights violations, lack of accountability and unabashed arrogance about the fact that it has, until now, been able to commit serious crimes with impunity.

Israel’s status as a pariah state is becoming more and more entrenched as a result of two key developments. The first is the gradual democratisation of countries in the Middle East and the second is Israel’s own conduct in refusing, for example, to apologise for killing the citizens of a former friendly state, or to bring those responsible to justice.

In terms of the democratic shifts in the region, countries like Turkey and Egypt, which once turned a blind eye to Israel’s criminality or were complicit therein, are finally waking up and taking a stand against the bully of the Middle East. Israel’s past reliance on its close ties with the Turkish military is no longer a winning hand. Since the ruling AKP came to power the army has been sent back to barracks and its influence over Turkish politics has diminished. The Israeli government now has to contend with its peers in Ankara and the likes of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan, who is making it very clear that the past alliance between Israel and Turkey is no longer assured. Understandably, he maintains that any relationship between the two countries is conditional and must be based on mutual respect. It is Israel’s apparent lack of respect and, it could be said, contempt for the people of Turkey which is placing the once cosy relationship in jeopardy.

Ever since May 2010 when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish citizens on board the Mavi Marmara on a humanitarian mission to break the siege on Gaza but still in international waters, Turkey’s stance against Israel has been hardening. Erdogan’s government in Ankara has waited patiently to give time for diplomacy to run its course in the hope that Israel would do the right thing and offer, at the very least, an apology for the killings. To no avail, it seems; the Israelis responsible have not been brought to justice and Israel’s piracy and kidnapping has gone unpunished. Israel’s refusal to offer a simple apology for the murder of Turkish civilians is an insult that the government of Turkey cannot let pass; it has become a matter of national dignity.

The escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two “allies” has seen Turkey expel Israeli diplomats from Ankara and downgrade its own diplomatic representation in Tel Aviv. Turkey has also said that its navy will now maintain a constant presence in the Mediterranean and provide a military escort for any future humanitarian flotillas heading for Gaza. Furthermore, Prime Minister Erdogan is visiting Egypt, with speculation rife about a possible visit to the besieged Gaza Strip. That would be a bold statement creating both anger and embarrassment in Israel which would be applauded across the Arab and Muslim world. Erdogan’s visit to Cairo may also see Turkey and Egypt solidifying their stand against Israel; if so, that would be bad news for the Zionist state.

Israel’s arrogance and refusal to apologise for its criminality is foolhardy as it has the potential to lose one of its strongest allies in the region. Turkey is emerging as a huge regional power, politically and economically, and is leading the way for many other countries to step out of the shadows and challenge Israel. Many of the emerging post-revolution Arab governments will be looking to Turkey for leadership and guidance and may well take Ankara’s lead on how to deal with Tel Aviv.

In Egypt, the same two issues are also having a major impact on the country’s relationship with Israel. Democratic change and Israeli intransigence place the countries’ peace treaty under threat. The Zionist state has enjoyed the protection of its Egyptian ally ever since the Camp David accords in 1979; post-revolutionary Egypt, however, is emerging as an entirely different kettle of fish. While the government and military institutions may more or less still be the same, the Egyptian people are not and never will be the same again. The nation has found its voice and will not be silenced. If the first significant victim of the Egyptian people’s freedom was Hosni Mubarak, the second may well be the treaty with their Israeli neighbour. It suited Israel to be surrounded by Arab dictators, particularly Mubarak, at its beck and call, but that era has now passed.

When Israeli troops killed six Egyptian soldiers on the border recently, could Tel Aviv have guessed that this would prompt demonstrations in Cairo leading to the Zionist ambassador and his staff having to flee the country? It is significant that the Palestinian flag was raised alongside the Egyptian flag over the embassy after the demonstration; that is indicative of the mood of the people of Egypt. The sight of the Palestinian flag around the Middle East does not bode well for the Zionist state.

Israel is in a quandary, not simply because the Middle East is undergoing such a seismic shift but also, primarily, because Israel is not evolving and adapting its own policies to the changes taking place around it. The stubborn refusal to amend its policies and practices towards the Palestinians is clearly costing Israel in terms of relations with its erstwhile allies.

Cries from Tel Aviv about the attack on the “sovereign land” of its embassy in Cairo fall on stony ground. How can the Israeli government have the audacity to complain while it continues to abuse Palestinians in their own land; build illegal settlements across the occupied Palestinian territories; kill Egyptians going about their lawful business; launch invasions of Lebanon apparently at will; and annex land stolen from its Arab neighbours? Israel cannot continue to insist on one set of rules for itself and another for everyone else. It has to get used to being judged by the laws and conventions by which the rest of the world is expected to abide. There is a limit to global patience, and it is running out, as is the time for Israel to make amends. If it ends the occupation of Palestine, perhaps that will give Israel a glimmer of hope. If not, what sort of future can there be for a pariah Zionist state in a sea of emerging Arab democracies?

Dr Hanan Chehata

Middle East Monitor Online

Under the financial pressure of EU bailouts to Greece, following their complicity in the blockade of Gaza earlier this year with the prevention of the ‘Freedom Flotilla 2′ vessels moored in Greek ports, Greece and Israel signed a security cooperation agreement. The content of the memorandum was not disclosed

Greek Defense Minister Panos Beglitis, making the first official visit by a Greek defense minister to Israel, and his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, signed a cooperation memorandum on ‘security’ in Jerusalem on Sunday during the first day of Beglitis’ three-day trip.

“I come as my country’s defense minister to state our political will as a government, as well as the majority of the country’s political forces, for the two countries, the two governments, the two peoples, to work together so that we can further develop and deepen our bilateral relations in all sectors of mutual interest and concern,” Beglitis said.

The visit is part of a cooperation memorandum signed last year between Prime Minister George Papandreou and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Last week a Greek Parliament committee approved the purchase from Israel of Rafael-made Spice 1000 and 2000 bomb precision upgrade kits at a cost of $155 million for 400 systems.

Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Arie Mekel, noted the “unprecedented number of high-level visits” between Israel and Greece this year. He said the visit by Beglitis “highlights again the dramatic upgrade of the relations between Greece and Israel for the benefit of both countries.”

Beglitis clarified that his visit concerns bilateral relations with the State of Israel exclusively and is not functioning competitively with other countries in the region.

His visit comes in the wake of the release last week of the United Nations’ Palmer report which said that Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is legal, but that Israel used excessive force when boarding the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara, leading to the deaths of nine Turkish citizens, in May 2010. Turkey has demanded an apology and, with none forthcoming, said it would ramp up sanctions against Israel.

Beglitis was scheduled to meet Monday with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, and also will have a private meeting with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. He met previously with the chief of Israel’s military, Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz.

Barak said he was pleased by the upgrading of the military and defense cooperation between Israel and Greece.

“We are seeing with satisfaction the deepening and widening of relations between us and the Greeks in all sectors, including the security sector, and we desire to see the deepening and widening of this cooperation between the governments, between the Defense Ministries and between our peoples,” Barak said.

SOMEWHERE IN THE EAST MEDITERRANEAN – On Saturday evening a Gaza-bound boat left Greek territorial waters. Its 10 participants regard themselves as representatives of the entire abortive flotilla to Gaza, and are determined to exhaust all possibilities in order to reach their destination, or at least carry out the symbolic act of protesting the blockade. They are well aware of the Lilliputian dimensions of their venture, compared with the massive impact organizers had initially planned to have with the 10-odd vessel flotilla.

Dignite-Al Karama, one of two yachts purchased by the French delegation in the second Freedom Flotilla, left a port in Corsica on June 25. Thus, it was spared the fate of eight other boats which were supposed to sail out of Greek ports, but were impounded by Greek authorities.

	Fuelling the Dignite-Al Karama ship at Kastellorizo port, Greece, on July 15, 2011.
	Photo by: Amira Hass

Last Wednesday Karama left the port of Sitia in Crete, where it had been anchored for a week, awaiting the other boats in vain. Once it was clear that Greece, under strong Israeli pressure, would not allow those boats to sail, its remaining passengers ¬ three French nationals and one Tunisian ¬ were joined by three representatives of other delegations, a Greek, Swede and a Canadian, and by three more French activists who arrived from France. Also on board are three crew members and three journalists from Al Jazeera and Haaretz.

The decision to carry on the mission of sailing to Gaza was not automatically welcomed by other delegations or by the steering committee of the flotilla. Some preferred to officially end the current campaign. Karama’s participants spent long hours negotiating and convincing the others.

On Thursday evening Karama reached the eastern Greek Island of Kastellorizo in order to fuel and meet the additional delegates from France. Kastellorizo’s history is connected to Gaza: During World War II, after having been occupied by the British army and fearing German attacks, some of the inhabitants fled to Gaza and remained in Palestine for a couple of years. This made the inhabitants of the island and its small port city especially hospitable to the small boat and its mission.

Three of those on board already sailed towards Gaza in last years’ flotilla. One of them, Greek sociologist Vangelis Pissias, claims that while in detention in Ashdod last year he was severely beaten by Israeli security forces. Also on board for the second time is Dror Feiler, the Israel-born Swedish national, who is chairperson of ‘European Jews for a Just Peace.”

Claude L’Eostic, a French flotilla organizer and a veteran activist for Palestinian causes, said that even the sailing of one tiny yacht was the best way to expose the Israeli policy of blockading Gaza, and its illegality.

By Amira Hass

Ha’aretz

Vessel granted permission to sail from Crete to Rhodes but activists say ‘final destination’ is Palestinian territory.

The Dignite al Karama, one of the ships which had intended to take part in a Gaza-bound international freedom flotilla, has left Greek island of Crete with about 10 pro-Palestinian activists on board.

Greek authorities banned all flotilla vessels from leaving the country’s ports earlier this week, but the French ship was granted permission by the coast guard to sail to Rhodes on Saturday, Reuters reported.

But an activist on board said the boat’s final destination was Gaza.

“We hope that we will reach that destination, but for the time being we are sailing within Greek waters,” says Vangelis Pissias, a member of the flotilla’s steering committee.

Eight ships remain blocked in Greek ports while a ninth sits in need of repair in a Turkish port after an apparent incident of sabotage.

Israel was also preparing to expel 120 mostly European activists detained after having managed to fly in Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv in a so-called “flytilla” protest.

On Saturday, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 120 people had been denied entry and were waiting deportation with one or two days. Others had already been flown out, according to an immigration spokesperson.

Sabine Hadad, the immigration service spokesperson,  said most of the activists were French, with the others being American, Belgian, Bulgarian, Dutch and Spanish.

Israel said it had been monitoring social media site and compiled a blacklist of persons they regarded as “provocateurs” intending to cause disturbances.

Organisers of the “flytilla,” – officially called the ”Welcome to Palestine” campaign - had said up to 800 activists were expected to fly into Ben Gurion airport in a peaceful mission to visit Palestinian families.

Israel provided airlines and foreign security agencies with a list of 342 “unwanted people,” hoping they would be turned back at European airports.

At least 200 activists were halted in Europe by Friday evening, though a few dozen have reportedly managed to enter Israel so far, but further attempts are expected through Saturday.

Israeli authorities said they largely managed to pre-empt the campaign by foreign activists who are demonstrating for the right of access to the West Bank.

A statement from the Public Security Ministry quoted regional police chief Benzi Sau as saying a joint operation by police, the foreign ministry and transport officials “prevented the departure of hundreds of activists at their points of departure for Israel”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians and activists marched to the Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank a day after police stopped them from entering Israel.

Scuffles broke out after Israeli soldiers blocked the protesters close to the checkpoint and fired tear gas to disperse them. The activists say they want to draw attention to life under Israeli occupation.

Salah Khawaja, the “Welcome to Palestine” initiative organiser, said: “Today is the announcement of the beginning of a week-long movement against the apartheid system and racial discrimination.

“We have been preparing for this week months ago in the ‘Welcome to Palestine’ initiative to demonstrate to the world that Israel imposes an apartheid and racial system.

“And we have to continue our struggle and resistance to the wall, the occupation and their policies.”

The protest marks the seventh anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling that declared Israel’s erection of the barrier on occupied land illegal.

Israel has re-routed the barrier several times in response to its own high court rulings on appeals from human rights groups that Palestinians are cut off from vital farmland or services.

The non-binding ruling found that building the barrier on land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war was “contrary to international law”, and urged Israel “to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall” in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

The barrier has also drawn other international condemnation. Even Israel’s main ally, the United States, has called it unhelpful.

Al-Jazeera

Israeli politicians accused the government of “hysteria” and “overkill” as 600 police were deployed at Ben-Gurion international airport yesterday ahead of the expected arrival of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, in what has been dubbed the “flytilla”. With the Gaza-bound maritime flotilla blocked by Greek coastguards, attention switched to the Welcome to Palestine campaign.

Between 600 and 800 left-wing activists from Europe and north America, most of them French, plan to fly into Israel this weekend for solidarity visits to various Palestinian locations in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Fearing protests at Ben-Gurion airport, Israel declared known activists would be sent home. Police said more than 300 activists had already been identified ahead of arrival. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the police to stop any protest. “I’ve ordered all agencies to act with determination to prevent provocations, and also to try and prevent unnecessary confrontations. Every state has the right to prevent entry to provocateurs and to those who aim to disrupt public order.”

Among the 600 police deployed at the airport were undercover units and special forces. A special detention hall was set up to process up to 200 activists who will be held until plane seats are available to take them home. Special signs were put up around the airport forbidding photographs.

Organisers denied there was any plan for disruption at the airport. Adam Keller, from the left-wing Israeli group Gush Shalom, which is helping to co-ordinate the action, said the activists are committed to non-violence and intend to tell Israeli passport control they have come to visit Palestine. He said the activists plan to visit Palestinian families, protest sites along Israel’s West Bank barrier and the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where a weekly vigil is held against the expropriation of Palestinian homes.

Last year, when nine Turkish activists were killed as Israeli commandos stormed the MV Mavi Marmara, there was severe criticism in Israel that the authorities had been unprepared.

Opposition politicians said this time they were overreacting to prevent similar criticism.

A Greek coastguard boat yesterday intercepted a small French boat with 12 activists, the third flotilla ship to be prevented from sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel’s blockade. The Dignity was detected in the early morning near Crete as it was refuelling at sea.

It now looks unlikely any of the nine flotilla ships will be able to set sail for Gaza and most of the activists have already returned home. Despite frustration, activists said their mission had not been a complete failure as they succeeded in raising international awareness.

Irish Times

The Greek coast guard on the island of Crete has blocked a small French boat carrying activists to the impoverished Gaza Strip, says an organizer. Claude Leostic with the French boat Dignite El Karameh said the vessel “was taken to Sitia in Crete by the Greek coast guard after being stopped in a nearby port while it was refueling,” AFP reported on Thursday. “The authorities are stopping the boat from setting sail for various administrative reasons,” Leostic added. Dignite El Karameh, which is carrying 12 pro-Palestinian activists, departed from a Greek port on Tuesday despite the country’s ban on Gaza-bound aid ships. In a separate development, another French vessel’s attempt to sail to Gaza was also thwarted on Monday by the Greek coast guard officials. The Louise Michel, with 24 passengers on board, was circled by Greek vessels as it started up its engines. Greek coast guards on Monday also intercepted the Canadian Tahrir (Liberation) vessel with at least 50 pro-Palestinian activists onboard. More than 300 activists from 22 countries have signed up to participate in Freedom Flotilla II. Members of the flotilla say the Greek government is blocking the humanitarian convoy on behalf of the Israeli regime. Greece has recently expanded its ties with Israel, as the two sides are currently holding preliminary talks on potential energy deals. The Israeli military attacked the Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, 2010, killing nine Turkish nationals aboard the Turkish-flagged MV Mavi Marmara, and injuring about 50 other activists that were part of the team on the six-ship convoy. The Tel Aviv regime has ordered the Israeli navy to use all possible means to prevent the incoming international aid flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip, but the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II organizers insist that they will push ahead with their aid mission.

TWO SHIPS from the Gaza flotilla are still at sea in international waters and must be allowed reach their destination, a press conference in the European Parliament fronted by Irish MEP Paul Murphy was told yesterday .

He was one of three MEPs who failed to make it to Gaza when it was alleged that the Irish boat was sabotaged by Israeli agents in Turkey and then Greece imposed a ban on boats sailing there. He and his MEP colleagues, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, from Cyprus, and Nikos Chountis, from Greece, had been placed in danger by the action of the Israeli authorities, he said.

He said it was “very unlikely” it could be proven the Israeli government had ordered the attack, which placed the life of the sailors on board the Irish ship in danger because the propellers could have damaged the hull at sea. Mr Chountis accused the Greek government of breaking not only international maritime law but also Greek domestic law by preventing the boats from moving in its territorial waters and said this was not the will of the Greek people but its parliament.

The MEPs announced that they had demanded support for the flotilla in letters to the presidents of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and Baroness Catherine Ashton, who represents the EU on external relations. The letters outlined the case that the three MEPs, who had attempted to peacefully deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, had been prevented from doing so by “severe acts of sabotage” against the Irish and Scandinavian boats.

“We condemn these acts of sabotage which also infringe on the sovereignty of the states where the boats were moored and the states where the ships are registered,” said their letter. “We demand an independent and impartial inquiry into these acts of sabotage and we also expect a condemnation of these acts of sabotage by the Israeli authorities,” the letter added.

“We expect you to vigorously and publicly support those demands,” it said. The letter said they were very concerned about the well-being of many European citizens who had peacefully engaged in the humanitarian mission of the Freedom Flotilla 2.

“In light of these serious events, how do you intend to take up the above mentioned demands through your official and diplomatic contact with the Israeli authorities?” the letter continued. It asked what concrete steps they were willing to take to ensure the protection of all European citizens, including the elected representatives of the European Parliament. At the press conference, the MEPs announced the US captain of the US vessel who was under arrest in Greece had been released but two ships which were part of the flotilla were still at sea in international waters. One, they said, was a French vessel and the other was from Canada and they were demanding these vessels, which were carrying European citizens, should not be interfered with by the Israeli authorities.

A French boat has set sail for Gaza from Corsica in the latest attempt by activists to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory, according to a journalist aboard the vessel.

The Dignite al Karama, which left the western Mediterranean island overnight is, thus far, the only boat in a flotilla organised by pro-Palestinian activists to successfully sail for Gaza, with most confined to ports in Greece.

The vessel’s passengers include Olivier Besancenot, head of the New Left Party in France, French politician and member of the European Parliament Nicole Kiil-Nilsen, and other well-known French personalities.

“We are about 20 minutes from international waters, and when we arrive there, the organisers on the boat will decide what their next move is,” Quentin Girard, a journalist with the French newspaper Liberation, told Al Jazeera from aboard the boat.

Girard said that the activists on the boat want to go to Gaza, but are waiting to decide if they will go once the boat arrives in international waters.

“I think they will go if the international committee for the flotilla encourages them to go,” Girard said.

On trial

Meanwhile, the trial of the captain of a US ship who was arrested by Greek authorities is under way.

That boat, also part of the so-called ‘Freedom Flotilla’, set sail on Friday from the Greek port of Perama and was towed back to shore by the Greek coast guard.

Jane Hirschmann, member of “Jews Say No!” and national organiser for the boat, dubbed The Audacity of Hope, said, ”This is totally a political manoeuvre, nothing illegal about his mission. This has been orchestrated by the Israeli government and probably the US government.”

Greece’s coast guard said on Saturday that the captain of The Audacity of Hope faces charges of trying to leave port without permission and of endangering the lives of the boat’s passengers.

The US boat is one of nine vessels carrying several hundred activists attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
Some of the passengers on the US ship have remained on board in solidarity with the jailed captain.

On June 24, an anonymous complaint was filed against the ship’s “seaworthiness”. The Israel Law Centre (Shurat HaDin), took responsibility for the complaint in the Israeli media.

‘No matter how long it takes’

Alejandro Fierro, an activist aboard a Spanish boat, Guernica, that is currently in port in Crete, told Al Jazeera that activists from his boat remained fully committed to going to Gaza.

“We have a few people on the boat now, and they will remain on the boat, in Crete, until they can go to Gaza,” Fierro said, “Some people are going back to Spain, but we are going to continue to keep our boat in Crete, and keep people on the boat, until we can sail to Gaza.”

Some of the members of the Spanish boat are currently occupying the Spanish embassy in Athens, and have hung a Palestinian flag from the balcony of the embassy.

“We will wait no matter how long it takes. We’ve learned patience from the Palestinian people who have been resisting Israeli occupation for 60 years, so we can wait. We are not going to move until our government makes some solution for the Greek government to let us sail away,” Fierro said.

Canadians detained

On Monday, a Canadian boat, the Tahrir, was forced to return to harbour in Crete after an attempt to reach international waters was thwarted by the coast guard, according to onboard activists.

The Tahrir sailed 15 minutes out of harbour before it was intercepted, activists told Al Jazeera.

Jesse Rosenfeld, a reporter with Toronto’s Now Magazine, who was on board the Tahrir when it set sail, told Al Jazeera how the vessel managed to leave port: “In a matter of minutes, the people on the boat turned on the engines while two of the activists kayaked, trying to block the coast guard in port.”

The coast guard ship pursued the Tahrir, using water cannons and eventually boarding the ship, Rosenfeld said.

Ehab Lotayef, spokesperson and coordinator for the Canadian boat, told Al Jazeera from Montreal that the two kayakers and a Canadian-Jewish activist, Sandra Rush, whose name was on the boat papers, were being held.

According to Lotayef, everyone else on the boat remained aboard through the night. On Tuesday, the Greek prosecutor was on board taking statements from the activists.

“They all declared they were all captains of the boat, so that no one person would be charged, and this is causing some problems for the prosecutors,” Lotayef added.

The group of activists in Corfu seemed to have all but exhausted their attempts to comply with the necessary paperwork for getting official permission to leave port.

In a meeting on Tuesday, the Corfu group discussed staging local demonstrations against the Greek blockade of their flotilla, but did not disclose the nature of the planned protest.

Most activists in the group seemed to reject the idea of breaking out of port, while the captain of the ship said he did not want to copy other breakouts out of fear of jeopardising his sailing license.

Al-Jazeera

It has been widely reported and speculated that the reason for Greece’s participation in the suppression of Freedom Flotilla Two may be found in its own economic situation – that the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou, pushing a devastating IMF/EU austerity plan on the Greek people against their will, is so desperate for international financial and economic support that it is willing to serve as the enforcement arm for Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza.

Yesterday, in Vancouver, Canada, a Greek consular official, Georgios Ayfantis, confirmed that this is indeed the case.

In a conversation with a delegation of activists supporting the Tahrir, the Canadian Boat to Gaza, who entered the consulate demanding a meeting about the Freedom Flotilla, Ayfantis asserted that Greece’s economic interests were at stake in stopping the Flotilla, saying that an undersea natural gas pipeline and a natural gas liquidizing plant in Crete were at stake.

The offer Netanyahu made followed on Papandreou’s visit to Israel in July 2010 - the first visit of a Greek Prime Minister in decades - and is sharply at odds with both the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions from Israel, and Greek public opinion, which even the World Jewish Congress concedes is “clearly pro-Palestinian.”

Ayfantis further asserted that the Papandreou government’s enforcement of the Israeli siege was about “interests,” that Greece was afraid of Israel, and that the U.S. – and the Canadian government of Stephen Harper – is backing Israel completely.

The Papandreou government, of course, is no stranger to representing the interests of the International Monetary Fund and the United States (and its ally and partner Israel) at the expense of the Greek people. Greek social movements have been directly involved in supporting the flotilla, negotiating with police, and raising the cause of Gaza, the Flotilla, and Palestine at the mass protests in Syntagma Square against the Papandreou government and IMF-imposed austerity. Greek trade unionists and shipbuilders are working now to repair the Tahrir, which was damaged by the Greek Coast Guard when slammed into a concrete pier after being boarded and commandeered and returned to shore earlier today. Earlier, stevedores working to load the flotilla’s boats were the only workers exempt from the general strike called by Greek trade unions in the last week of June. Greek activists are currently sitting dockside to guard the flotilla’s boats from sabotage.

Derrick O’Keefe, one of the Vancouver organizers of the Canadian Boat to Gaza campaign, led a chant at a weekend emergency demonstration, “Solidarity, Not Austerity!” prompting cheers for Greek workers who were participating in support actions for the flotilla in defiance of the Papandreou government.

Indeed, Syntagma Square, which has become the center of the Greek workers’ movement, hosted a mass protest for the Flotilla on July 3. The Square has faced severe police violence and brutality, as well as the massive use of tear gas and chemical gases, mainly purchased from Israel, against protesters. With as little regard as the Greek government has shown for Greek laws and the rights of its people, it is of no great surprise that this same government has seen fit to sell out international law, the right to travel, and the humanity of Palestinians in Gaza for a potential pipeline and natural gas liquidizing plant.

However, wrote Foula Farmakides, “If my experience this week shows me one thing, it is that the authorities are afraid of what has happened in Syntagma Square and in other Greek neighbourhoods over the last 35 days. They do not like the fact that people gather and talk about democracy and the economy, issues that are currently under their control. They don’t want us to share opinions, instead of just accepting the media propaganda. They do not like the fact that in spite of their aggressive efforts, the demonstrators are showing no signs of intimidation….The Greek people will not give up until the government, IMF and ECB leave their country. Less than 12 hours after we were beaten by the police, we reoccupied Syntagma Square.”

In much the same way, Israel fears the flotilla deeply – because the flotilla is a popular representation of international solidarity with Palestinian steadfastness and resistance. For over sixty-three years, Israel has engaged in ethnic cleansing, apartheid, home demolitions, bombings, all-out wars, raids, siege, blockade, mass imprisonment, harsh brutality, and worse. And yet, despite all of these efforts, Palestinians insist on living, on existing, on struggling and resisting. Palestinian refugees insist upon returning home. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza struggle to tear down walls and break sieges. Palestinians inside Israel fight to end apartheid and dismantle the structures of a state based on the denial of their existence and identity.

The flotilla symbolizes growing international solidarity with that steadfastness and creativity. Indeed, the flotilla is so threatening because it is not, fundamentally, a humanitarian aid flotilla – it is a material statement of solidarity and support for Palestinian sovereignty over Palestine’s borders, coasts and ports. It is not a gesture of charity, but a clear statement that the siege will fall, and will be broken. Joe Catron, writing from Gaza, said, ”Ties between Palestinian organizers and the global network of activists supporting them will emerge stronger than ever before. And the siege – along with the colonial project imposing it – will be pushed one big step closer to their final end.”

Indeed, this is not the first time that Israel’s desperation to prevent any such assertion of the illegitimacy of their occupation of Palestine’s land, seas, and borders from taking place has become visible, nor was last year’s massacre on the Mavi Marmara, in which nine activists, including 8 Turkish activists and one American student, were killed in an armed military commando raid on the civilian boat. In 1988, during the first Intifada, Egyptian, Syrian and other Arab actors and artists had joined together with 131 Palestinian deportees forced from Palestine for their organizing in the Intifada, to sail a “ship of Return,” named “Al-Awda,” to the port of Haifa. The ship was sunk in port in Cyprus on  and three Palestinian leaders, Abu Hassan Qasim, Hamdi Sultan and Marwan al-Kayyali, who had worked on the project were assassinated on the same day, February 16, 1988.

While those who planned to sail on Al-Awda were Arab artists and Palestinian deportees, the name of the ship – “Al-Awda” – and its destination – Haifa – evoked the inalienable, fundamental Palestinian right of return, and the reality that Israel’s foundation as a “Jewish state” was built on the bedrock of a stolen Palestinian land and a displaced Palestinian people. In much the same way, the marches of Return on Nakba Day (May 15) and Naksa Day (June 5) this year, mass marches to the borders of Palestine from Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, demanding the right of return of Palestinian refugees, were met with harsh and violent repression, with 20 protesters – simply demanding their right to return to their lands and homes – killed by the Israeli military on each day.

The Flotilla is part of the resilience of the Palestinian people – reflected in the global solidarity movement – that despite nakba after nakba, the struggle and the resistance will continue until the siege is broken, the wall falls, refugees return, Palestine is liberated. And thus, like the general strikes and mass protests of Greece’s workers, it strikes fear in the heart of those who would rule through the power of capital and the force of arms – and inspiration in the hearts of those who would see justice and liberation for Greece, Palestine and the world.

Charlotte Kates is a Palestine solidarity activist in Vancouver, Canada, on unceded Coast Salish Territories. She is a member of the Organizing Committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (http://www.usacbi.org) and is active with Al-Awda the Palestine Right to Return Coalition – NY (http://www.al-awdany.org) and the National Lawyers Guild (http://www.nlginternational.org).

Mondoweiss

The members of the flotilla say the Greek government is blocking the humanitarian flotilla on behalf of the Israeli regime.

Greece has so far barred three vessels from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II from sailing for the besieged Palestinian territory.

Separately, American flotilla activists have staged a protest outside a courtroom where their captain faces charges for attempting to sail to Gaza without permission.

The US Audacity of Hope boat was prevented from leaving Greece on Friday and its captain, 60-year-old John Klusmire, was arrested.

Greece has recently expanded its relations with Israel, as the two sides are currently holding preliminary talks on potential energy deals.

The cash-strapped Greek government is also currently seeking additional sources of overseas investment, possibly from Israel, to offset its financial crisis.

The Tel Aviv regime has ordered the Israeli navy to use all possible means to prevent the incoming international aid flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip, but the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II organizers insist that they will push ahead with their aid mission.

Press TV

A Canadian boat taking part in a planned aid flotilla to Gaza has been boarded by Greek coast guards after attempting to break out of Crete harbour, according to activists aboard the vessel.

Most of the boats which hoped to sail to Gaza in an effort to break Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory have been stuck in Greek ports after being refused permission to embark on the journey by Greek authorities.

The Tahrir sailed 15 minutes out of harbour in an attempt to reach international waters before it was intercepted by coastguards, activists told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera spoke with activists on the boat as it was being boarded by members of the Greek coast guard.

“Some of the Greek coast guard have boarded and are trying to take control of the vessel,” Dylan Penner, a member of the steering committee of the boat, told Al Jazeera while the boat was still sailing away from the harbour.

“We’re about 15 minutes out of port, and still under power. We are still moving forward. We still have control of the Tahrir.”

But members of the coast guard promptly took control of the vessel and are currently bringing it back to port, Penner said.

“We were going 15 knots for 15 minutes, attempting to reach international waters that are 95km from the coast,” Penner said. “I  estimate that we made it a quarter of the way.”

The coast guard boat was parked near the marina guarding the Tahrir, Penner said: “We saw a window of opportunity and took it by using kayakers to block the coast guard. But eventually the coast guard ship caught up with us, and launched a Zodiak from which we were boarded.”

On Friday the US boat, The Audacity of Hope, left port, only to be blocked by the coast guard, who towed the ship back to port, where it is being detained. The captain of that boat was jailed and charged with a felony.

Earlier, David Heap, aboard the Tahrir, said that preventing the boats from sailing was a “clear violation” of human rights.

“The Tahrir is leaving port in Crete, and we are breaking through Israel’s Gaza blockade which now extends to Greek ports,” Heap said.