[UPDATED: May 31, 2010 – 9:22pm]
Jacob Dayan, consul general of Israel in Los Angeles, held a news conference at his home on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, following Israel’s raid on a flotilla off the coast of Gaza Sunday night. When the ships, which were sailing from Turkey, attempted to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, Israeli soldiers boarded the convoy and a violent clash ensued, leaving at least nine pro-Palestinian activists dead and numerous Israeli soldiers injured.
“We regret any loss of life,” Dayan said at the 3 p.m. conference, but he emphasized that Israel believes the pro-Palestinian organizers’ of the flotilla were connected to Hamas and said their aim was to “delegitimize the State of Israel” by provoking a violent response from the Israeli soldiers.
“Unfortunately, terrorist organizations such as Hamas have no limits of using people,” Dayan said. “This Turkish organization that supports Hamas used this vessel, this flotilla, in order to create some kind of provocation. They succeeded.”
The flotilla included six ships and was said to be carrying humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It sailed in defiance of Israel’s legal blockade of the Gaza region, ignoring warnings to the ships not to proceed. The Israelis offered to deliver the humanitarian goods to Gaza themselves, Dayan said.
“They refused,” Dayan said, “and when they were approaching Gaza, Israeli forces approached the six vessels.”
Though five of the six ships cooperated peacefully, when Israeli soldiers—armed, Dayan said, for first defense with paint guns—boarded the sixth and largest ship of the convoy, Dayan said the activists “prepared an ambush for the Israeli soldiers.” They beat the Israeli soldiers with metal rods and batons, Dayan said, and only after the Israeli soldiers were attacked did they receive authorization to use live firearms.
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Dayan said that the attackers were not peace activists.
“I have to emphasize that no humanitarian activist, as they call themselves, attacks soldiers with knives, and no humanitarian activist wants to kill and to harm soldiers that from the very beginning came with the intention of bringing them peacefully to Ashdot [in Israel] and making sure that the goods that this ship was carrying after examination would be transferred to Gaza.”
Israel’s actions quickly came under fire from international leaders and humanitarian groups. Local community groups sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, including CODEPINK; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid in Southern California, staged a fervent anti-Israel demonstration late Monday afternoon outside the Israel Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard.
Jodie Evans, co-founder of CODEPINK, participated in the demonstration. She defended the actions of the flotilla, saying, “When you don’t let people take care of other people, they will find any means necessary. They will find a way to help.”
Told of Dayan’s statements earlier in the day – that the flotilla intended to provoke a violent response from Israeli soldiers – Evans said, “That is so insane. That’s heartbreaking. Nobody went there to provoke Israel. They went there to help!”
At the height of the protest, around 5 p.m., the protestors numberd about 500. Members of Al-Awda chanted “Viva la Palestine!” led by demonstrators with megaphones. Winds blew, a helicopter circled above, cars honked horns in support, and, in true Los Angeles style, a red, double-decker tour bus drove by. One driver speeding down Wilshire in a convertible, to the dismay of several protestors, waved an Israeli flag.
Linda Milazzo, a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and a member of CODEPINK, participated in Monday’s protest. She expressed sadness at the deaths of at-least nine activists on the flotilla’s ship. “These people put their lives on the lines,” she said. “Israel continues to disappoint us. They’re lowering the bar of their own humanity. If the bar was here with the blockade,” and she signaled low to the ground where she stood, “then the bar is here now with the murdering.”
Yael Korin, co-founder of the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid of Southern California, also protested against Israel on Monday. Korin discounted Dayan’s claim that the activists’s deaths were the result of acts of self-defense by the Israeli soldiers.
“It’s lies,” Korin said. “I can tell you for a fact that it’s a lie. For them to claim victimhood, it’s not even a joke. It’s a bad joke.” She called the decision by the Israelis to drop down from helicopters onto the ship misguided and a provocation for violence.
“Descending on them from the sky in the middle of the night in the darkness…anywhere in the world it would be pirating,” Korin said.
Muhammad Azemoon, a 21-year-old student from Simi Valley, wearing a green headband with Arabic letters on it and carrying a sign declaring, “Stop Israel Apartheid! Free Gaza,” said he came when he heard about the demonstration on Facebook.
The protest carried a dramatically different tone than the Israel-friendly press conference at Dayan’s home earlier that day where Dayan noted the support of the Los Angeles community for Israel.
“I got today many, many calls from the Jewish community – not only from the Jewish community, but from the Christian community of Los Angeles —supporting the state of Israel. I think that they realize it was an act of provocation.
“It’s good to know that we are not standing alone,” Dayan said.
Pro-Israel organization Stand With Us is planning a demonstration at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 1, in support of Israel to take place in front of the Los Angeles’ Turkish consulate, 5055 Wilshire Boulevard. Roz Rothstein, CEO of the national pro-Israel education organization, said she expects others pro-Israel groups to participate.
