In all of the news about the flotilla, I'm surprised that more attention is not being paid to the fact that as of yet, nearly all of the surviving passengers, almost 500 people, have been detained in Israeli prisons, unable to contact their families, or attorneys, or tell their side of the story to the press.
According to a statement from the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, none of the activists were permitted to meet with lawyers, and Free Gaza updates say no contact with the crew of the ship had been made since 3:30am Monday morning.
http://www.maannews.net/...
The main reason for this continuing outrage is clear: it gives Israel a "head start" in establishing the media narrative. Right now, we're basically getting just one side of the story: Israel's. You haven't seen any interviews with passengers. There were videos transmitted from the flotilla early on, but since then there's been nothing. Meanwhile, Israel's PR machine is on hyper-drive, spamming their way through the Internet and the media with an avalanche of misinformation.
Keep in mind, these passengers never voluntarily entered any waters under Israeli jurisdiction, so on what basis are they being held against their will in Israeli prisons?
A statement from Al-Mezan said that because the flotilla was intercepted in international waters, Israel has no right to detain the passengers of the boats.
http://www.maannews.net/...
The only possible legitimate basis for boarding a foreign-flagged vessel in international waters might be if that ship was in fact carrying weapons destined for a hostile actor (which arguably Hamas-controlled Gaza is). But there's not even evidence for that.
Israel is of course trying desperately to peddle that story, based on this video:
But to no avail. Do they seriously expect anyone to believe that a couple of dozen kitchen knives pose a material threat to the State of Israel?
My own editorial comments:
The Palestinian issue is increasingly becoming less of a nationalist, violent struggle based on a two-state solution, and more of a nonviolent, anti-apartheid type struggle for freedom and equality. There are daily, growing nonviolent demonstrations all over the West Bank, and the so-called "BDS" movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) continues to gain steam.
Meanwhile, given the continued growth of the Israeli West Bank settlements, the realistic prospects for a two-state solution become ever more remote.
The flotilla massacre highlights the fact that all of the Palestinian people live under de facto Israeli rule. The struggle then becomes not so much about establishing a chimeric "Palestinian state", but freedom and equality for all Palestinians who live under the jurisdiction of Israel. Nonviolent actions such as the flotilla are a key element in movements for equal rights under law in a way that they can never be in the context of national independence struggles.
This is the same story of apartheid in South Africa. The National Party tried to maintain the pretense that blacks in South Africa were actually citizens of their own indepedent "bantustans", and thus had no rights within South Africa proper. But that fiction was eventually rejected both within South Africa and internationally in favor of a new constitution that guaranteed equal rights for citizens of South Africa, regardless of race.
I hope that eventually the international community, and those within Israel, will also discover that the best way to create lasting peace is to recognize every person as a full and equal citizen, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, whatever. If those who died on the flotilla play some part in helping to bring this about, then maybe their lives will not have been lost in vain.