The IDF's storyline to justify its attack on an unarmed humanitarian vessel in international waters has been to claim that the flotilla members dared to defend themselves against armed IDF commandos with -- pipe wrenches.
In order to prop up this storyline, the Israeli government has been trying to deny the international media access to the flotilla survivors -- but their effort to create an information blockade is failing.
More after the jump.
From CNN, of all places:
Hanin Zoabi, a member of the Israeli parliament, was on board the Miva Marmara, the ship that was the scene of the confrontation between activists and Israeli soldiers. The Israeli Navy fired on the ships five minutes before commandos descended from ropes that dangled from helicopters, Zoabi said during a news conference in Nazareth, Israel. She said passengers on board the ship were unarmed.
From AFP via http://www.zawya.com/... :
Three visibly shaken Germans who experienced at first hand a deadly raid by the Israeli military on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza denied on Tuesday that anyone on board was armed.
"The Israeli government justifies the raid because they were attacked. This is absolutely not the case," former member of parliament Norman Paech, 72, wrapped in a blue blanket, told reporters in Berlin.
[...]
His comments were backed up by two others on board the convoy when it was raided at dawn on Monday in international waters, MPs Inge Hoeger, 59, and Annette Groth, 56.
Meanwhile, sane and moral Israeli citizens are condemning the attack:
Some 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside Israel’s Ministry of Defense late Monday to protest the military’s violent raid on an aid flotilla that attempted to break the country’s years-long siege on the Gaza Strip.
[...]
"[The flotilla] has been demonized from the get-go," Matar said. "It was portrayed as illegitimate Turkish involvement in our politics or as provocation or, we’ve heard today more than ever before, that the flotilla was organized by Hezbollah and Hamas and Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad ... But we never thought we’d end up with such a terrible act of the [IDF] boarding and shooting and killing so many civilians."
[...]
Uri Avnery, the founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement and a former Knesset member, explained that "Many Israeli citizens are shocked by this crime. It was a massacre committed in international waters, and we demand a full and independent investigation."
Avnery added that the raid damaged "Israel’s credibility as a peace partner" as well as called into question Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to resolving his country’s ongoing conflict with the Palestinians.
Knesset Member Dov Khenin (Hadash), who was the only government official present at the Tel Aviv protest, remarked, "It’s important to be here today to demonstrate that there is a different voice in Israel. The activities of the government don’t reflect all of us."
Khenin alleged that Israel’s current administration is extremely right wing and is intent on making war.
It's not 1967 anymore, when Israel could attack the USS Liberty in international waters and get away with it by pretending they mistook the vessel for an Egyptian ship. Times have changed, and the hardliners running Israel are about to find out just how much they've changed.
UPDATE: The Guardian has more eyewitness accounts from flotilla survivors further contradicting the IDF's official story:
"It was extremely bad and very tough clashes took place. The Mavi Marmara is filled with blood," said [Turkish activist Nilufer ] Cetin, whose husband is the Mavi Marmara's chief engineer.
She told reporters that she and her child hid in the bathroom of their cabin during the confrontation. "The operation started immediately with firing. First it was warning shots, but when the Mavi Marmara wouldn't stop these warnings turned into an attack," she said.
"There were sound and smoke bombs and later they used gas bombs. Following the bombings they started to come on board from helicopters."
Cetin is among a handful of Turkish activists to be released; more than 300 remain in Israeli custody. She said she agreed to extradition from Israel after she was warned that conditions in jail would be too harsh for her child.
"I am one of the first passengers to be sent home, just because I have baby. When we arrived at the Israeli port of Ashdod we were met by the Israeli interior and foreign ministry officials and police; there were no soldiers. They asked me only a few questions. But they took everything – cameras, laptops, cellphones, personal belongings including our clothes," she said.
[...]
Michalis Grigoropoulos, who was at the wheel of the Free Mediterranean, said: "We were in international waters. The Israelis acted like pirates, completely out of the normal way that they conduct nautical exercises, and seized our ship. They took us hostage, pointing guns at our heads; they descended from helicopters and fired tear gas and bullets. There was absolutely nothing we could do ... Those who tried to resist forming a human ring on the bridge were given electric shocks."
Grigoropoulos, who insisted the ship was full of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza "and nothing more", said that, once detained, the human rights activists were not allowed to contact a lawyer or the Greek embassy in Tel Aviv. "They didn't let us go to the toilet, eat or drink water and throughout they videoed us. They confiscated everything, mobile phones, laptops, cameras and personal effects. They only allowed us to keep our papers."
UPDATE 2: Former Ambassador Edward Peck, who was part of the flotilla, reminds his MSNBC interviewer and the world that the IDF commandos, in addition to "paint guns", had automatic weapons, pepper spray, tear gas and other things which the people they attacked in international waters at four o’clock in the morning did not possess. This even as snippets of the carefully-edited, grainy IDF video played with uncredited bits of other videos in a split-screen shot.