Turkish charter airlines yesterday began to cut back weekly flights on routes to and from Israel against the backdrop of the crisis in relations between the two counties and the rise in canceled reservations for travel to Turkey.

Meanwhile, El Al Israel Airlines has contingency plans that would address the possibility that Turkey would bar the Israeli carrier from overflying Turkish territory, Haaretz has learned.

The contingency plan was developed after relations between Turkey and Israel deteriorated last year in the wake of a confrontation between the Israel Navy and the Gaza flotilla ship Mavi Marmara. Relations deteriorated further this past week with the release of a United Nations commission report on the incident, a clash in which nine Turkish passengers were killed.

On Monday, a group of air travelers who arrived in Istanbul on a flight from Israel complained of humiliating treatment. Turkish passengers claimed similar treatment at Ben-Gurion International Airport the day before.

If Turkish airspace is closed to Israeli airlines, it would require El Al to fly longer routes to several destinations, particularly in the Far East, including flights to China and Thailand, and to former Soviet republics. In addition to the inconvenience it would cause passengers due to longer flights, it would also require El Al aircraft to use more fuel, with the added expense involved.

Foreign Ministry staff expressed the hope that the Turks would not disrupt Israeli air traffic over Turkey, noting that it would engender international condemnation as a violation of agreements. Israeli carriers pay Turkey for the right to overfly the country, payments that collectively can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The latest decline in ties between Turkey and Israel follows a summer travel season in which there was an upturn in travel between the two countries with charter operators increasing service between Israel and Turkish destinations. Tourism operators will not only suffer a loss of flight business if Israelis don’t travel to Turkey, but will also lose out on guarantees they made on hotel space in Turkey for future stays. A reduction in air service from Turkey could also affect foreign tourism by travelers who add short stays in Israel to vacations in Turkey.

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.

The government in Gaza has expressed strong condemnation after Israeli naval forces surrounded the lone vessel that slipped past Greece’s Gaza flotilla ban, calling the move ”new Zionist maritime piracy”, and placing some of the blame on the United Nations.

Three naval ships have intercepted the French yacht, dubbed Dignite – Al-Karama, and towed it into Israel’s Ashdod port with 16 activists and several journalists on board.

Tahir al-Nunu, a spokesman for the government in Gaza, has told the AFP that the UN must take some of the responsibility as it has yet to take sanctions on Israel over its lethal attack on the Mavi Marmara ship that joined the first Freedom Flotilla last year, which has lured Israel into continuing the same ”illegal and aggressive approach”.

Israeli soldiers intercepted the first Freedom Flotilla in late May 2010 and attacked the Mavi Marmara ship, killing nine and injuring many on board.

Nunu called on the international community to take a ”a clear position”.

He wondered: ”Is the Gaza siege legal and moral or not? The answer is certainly that it is neither legal nor moral.”

He said the matter calls for ”a serious stand against Israel, away from political hypocrisy and double standards”.

Palestine information center

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

Outsourcing, aggressive and vocal diplomacy and ridiculous lies thwarted the flotilla, but they have not taken Gaza off the international agenda.

By Amira Hass

Like an anti-Semitic caricature, Israel has extended its long tentacles around the globe in an effort to stop 10 decades-old ships from sailing to Gaza. Many Israelis interpreted this as a great victory.

The story could be read as follows: The Greek government wanted to save people whom it surely views as eccentrics and professional trouble-makers, even if naive, from a traumatic and perhaps even fatal experience. The Greek foreign minister rejected claims that Israeli pressure led his government to ban the flotilla’s departure. He explained that Greece wanted to prevent a “humanitarian disaster” in the event of a clash between the Israel Defense Forces and the protesters.

Indeed, a Greek police officer – one of those who tried (in vain ) to discover from passengers on the Tahrir who was piloting their ship – did not beat around the bush. We wanted to save you from the Israeli army, he told one of them. The Jew of the blood libel, of whom one must be wary, has been replaced by an Israeli navy commando.

In anti-Semitic caricatures, the cunning Jew is doomed to lose and his control over the world is fated to come to an end. But Israel’s government is revising the caricature and sketching a glorious victory. A war of attrition, in the form of mysterious breakdowns and unprecedented red tape by the Greek authorities, thwarted the flotilla’s original plan to anchor off the Gaza coast. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly thanked the Greek government, he knew full well what he was thanking it for.

We must now await future media leaks to know what exactly Greece received in exchange, other than closer military ties. Perhaps money, to complete the caricature?

This is a convenient time to be using pressure tactics. Greece’s socialist government is in a fragile situation, as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund are forcing the country to adopt an austerity plan that most of its people oppose. True, the fact that Greece has become a subcontractor of the Israeli army did not bring the masses into the streets, but there is no doubt about it: The sympathy of the Greek soldiers who arrested the Tahrir’s passengers and of the bureaucrats who delayed them was with the flotilla and with Gaza, not with their government’s orders. That’s all we need: another country whose government gets along well with Israel in complete opposition to popular sentiment.

The flotilla’s organizers added a term from the world of business and globalization to their description of Israel’s domination of the Palestinians. Israel, they said, was outsourcing the industry of the blockade on Gaza. In exchange for reward, a foreign government – Greece – took on an active role and adopted a deliberate policy of keeping the Gaza Strip one huge prison.

Logic dictates that a government whose policy validates anti-Semitic stereotypes ought to worry Israelis and Jews worldwide. But the Israeli government is doing what its voters want and believe in. For there is one stereotype that has not been recycled here: that of the wise Jew.

Outsourcing, aggressive and vocal diplomacy and ridiculous lies thwarted the flotilla, but they have not taken Gaza off the international agenda. If Israel – which knew full well that there was not one gram of explosives aboard the ships – had let them sail to Gaza, the flotilla would not have preoccupied the international media as it did.

Blocking the flotilla did not discourage the organizers, who are graduates of the anti-apartheid and anti-white supremacy struggles. Rather, it provided ample proof of how white Israel is. As a result, blocking the flotilla only increased their motivation to keep placing the Palestinians’ demand for freedom at the forefront of the international agenda.

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