[Ashdod, Israel] It was an inconsequential morning in Ashdod, a sleepy port city on the southern end of Israel’s Mediterranean coast. The sky was clear, the air warm, and the morning opened with a light, calming breeze.
Tens of thousands of workers headed to the port and another few thousand more to the power plant, coal terminal, oil refinery, pharmaceutical plant and nearby factories in Israel’s fifth largest city and largest port..
Then the news came that overnight Israeli naval commandos had killed at least nine people and wounded scores more in a pre-dawn raid of a flotilla of international ships heading to a blockaded Gaza with humanitarian aid supplies for the Palestinians. At least seven Israeli commandos were also injured by a mob on one boat attempting to prevent its takeover.
The world was quick to condemn Israel’s action. Even in Israel, as the navy towed in the six captured boats to the port of Ashdod, Israeli demonstrators arrived to protest their own government’s heavy hand.
As some of the 680 activists, mostly Turks, were being questioned before their deportation, and the 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid unloaded to be transferred to Gaza over land, Ashdod was suddenly transformed into the political epicenter of the Middle East.
Large contingents of police, army and naval officers were deployed to the city. Dozens of journalists arrived within an hour, and some 200 left-wing protesters from Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem showed up waving signs saying: ‘LET THE BOATS THROUGH‘ and ‘FREE GAZA‘ and ‘STOP ISRAELI PIRACY’ across the city’s northern beach.
“We’re sick and tired of living in a militaristic state,” Tali Berglass, a student from Kfar Sava told The Media Line while holding a sign reading ‘The Israeli Army is the most immoral, terrorist organization on earth.”
“These people came with boats to bring very basic things that Israel has not allowed to get to Gaza. They didn’t come to fight with the Israeli army,” she said. “I can’t understand the thinking behind it. I mean, soldiers come with guns, attacking people, then blaming the people for defending themselves.”
“This is a catastrophe and shows once again how the Israeli army does whatever it wants, just killing without regard for human rights,” Hasan Masre, a Palestinian Israeli from Taybe told The Media Line. “The army says they were attacked by kitchen knives, sticks and two stolen guns. First of all I don’t believe that. But even if it was true, this is the best unit in the navy.”
“As soon as we heard about this attack this morning we knew we had to act, and we came to show our solidarity and support to peace and human rights activists being dragged into this port,” Eilat Maoz, the general coordinator of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace, which helped organize the Ashdod demonstration, told The Media Line. “We have no reason to assume the army version of what happened is true because the army put up an electronic smokescreen to block all media and electronic communication from the boats. If the army’s version of what happened is correct, why was there a problem to allow the passengers on the boats to speak?”
Israel is understood to have erected an electronic smokescreen around the flotilla during the assault and journalists were kept out of the entire Ashdod port area on Monday. In what some may describe as an ironic twist, Ashdod is home to Elta, an Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary that produces electronic warfare systems.
Many of the protesters were impressed by the relatively strong showing of leftists, who have seen their support dwindle.
“We don’t usually get this many people at protests but I think it woke people up,” Ran Abdel Hail, a Palestinian Israeli from Jaffa told The Media Line. “There were many scenarios that could have happened, but killing peace activists that just came to make a statement? Nobody expected this, it’s really unbelievable.”
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