Last year Canadian activist Kevin Neish was on board a Turkish ship that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The mission ended in disaster with nine passengers killed by Israeli soldiers and scores of others injured, but Neish is getting ready to try and break the blockade again on the same boat later this month.
Who is to blame for the deaths of the nine passengers on the Mavi Marmara is, of course, the subject of bitter dispute. The Israeli government says that its soldiers were deliberately provoked by members of a Turkish group called IHH and acted in self-defense. But a fact-finding mission by the UN asserted that six of the victims were summarily executed, shot in the head at close range. The UN’s full report on the incident will be published in July.
At the end of June, another Freedom Flotilla is scheduled to sail for Gaza from an undisclosed location. A group called the Canadian Boat to Gaza will be sending its own vessel, but Neish will again be onboard the Mavi alongside members of the controversial IHH group.
Why are you going back on the Mavi?
I went through an awful lot of blood and threats and beatings with the folks on that boat. When I was in prison in Beersheba with 40 folks from all over the world, the Turks said to me they wanted me to go with them again on the Mavi Marmara.
I took it as quite an honour. Of course I said yes. I had their blood on my pants, on my shoes, so what could I say to them?
What is the goal of the Freedom Flotilla?
Big picture, we want peace. Everyone’s been complaining about the fact that it’s a political statement. Yes, that’s what it is. The amount of aid that we can take in is a drop in the bucket. There’s a million and half people there.
We’ve got international law on our side and if we can break the blockade, if the Gazans can be treated like human beings and sell their goods to countries around them, I would say they would have no reason to be attacking Israel or firing rockets in desperation.
Last time passengers on the Mavi Marmara were carrying small weapons. Will you be carrying any weapons this time?
No, no, no. I won’t be carrying any weapons, I’ll be there as an observer.
What happened on the Mavi last year? How did the violence start?
The folks I was on the ship with, they’ve got children, they’ve got wives. From what I saw they weren’t wild-eyed jihadists out to kill people.
The Israelis were the ones that started the violence. The activists stood along the railing looking at them and all of a sudden they were being fired at with ordinance. Because the activists had filled up the upper deck and physically by their presence they were preventing the Israelis from coming down, [the soldiers] opened fire.
What do you expect the Israeli response will be this year? Will there be more violence?
I don’t know what will happen. It will be up to the Israelis. The Israelis have laid out what they’re going to do in their own reports.
[Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff] Gabi Ashkenazi said the problem was the Israelis didn’t strike hard enough and fast enough and that they shouldn’t have put anyone on the deck until they had cleared. The sense I get from the Israelis is they won’t put anyone on the deck again, they’re going to clear the deck from the helicopter.
This time there’s going to be two ships the size of the Mavi Marmara. There will be eight other ships, and I understand there could be up to 15, so I don’t know what the Israelis are going to do to physically stop these ships.
Last time, people started putting on lifejackets when the Israeli ships came. I thought it was silly. In hindsight it wasn’t silly, the prospect of the Israelis sinking the boats is real. We could have boats going down.
What will the Mavi be carrying this year?
Last time, what they carried was laptop computers for school, they had medical supplies. They had masses of boxes that had been put together by school children and families, mainly from Turkey, and gift packages for families in Gaza.
From what I understand they’re going to repeat that cargo. More than anything it’s going to be packing witnesses.
Critics say that by delivering supplies to Gaza, activists will be aiding Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group. Will the Mavi be delivering supplies to Hamas?
I would imagine they would probably have to. Hamas controls Gaza.
But When [former British MP] George Galloway was barred from entering Canada for supposedly giving aid to Hamas, a Canadian judge [wrote] that giving money to the civilian Hamas government is not giving money to a terrorist organization.
The Canadian government, particularly Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, has advised Canadians not to take part in the Freedom Flotilla.
Thank goodness Rosa Parks didn’t listen to the John Bairds of her day. I have a legal right to take aid to the people of Gaza. As a citizen I have a legal right to try to help those people. To hell with John Baird and Mr. Harper’s attempts to cow us and scare us.
