Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
31 May
ISRAEL'S MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS
On this day in 2010 in international waters, Israeli commandos attacked the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, to prevent it reaching Gaza. They shot dead ten activists; according to a UN report into the deaths, "the circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were...summary execution[s]." Israel paid $20 million to Turkey in 2017 as compensation. Responding to mass public outrage, the Turkish Government had initially demanded an Israeli apology and the end to the siege of Gaza.
جرائم إسرائيل في أعالي البحار
31 مايو
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2010 ، هاجمت القوات الخاصة الإسرائيلية السفينة التركية مافي مرمرة في المياه الدولية لمنعها من الوصول إلى غزة. قتل الجنود الاسرائيليون عشرة نشطاء بالرصاص. وفقًا لتقرير الأمم المتحدة حول الوفيات ، "كانت ملابسات مقتل ستة ركاب على الأقل ...إعدامًا بإجراءات(معجلة) موجزة ". دفعت إسرائيل 20 مليون دولار لتركيا في عام 2017 كتعويض. ردا على الغضب الجماهيري ، طالبت الحكومة التركية في البداية باعتذار إسرائيلي وإنهاء الحصار المفروض على غزة.
In the early hours of 31 May 2010, Israeli commandos in speed boats and helicopters attacked a six-boat flotilla full of international human rights activists bound for Gaza. The Israelis killed nine people and injured dozens more aboard the largest vessel, the Mavi Marmara. A tenth victim died of his injuries four years later.
The Israeli forces commandeered the boats with all their passengers and crew and took them to the port of Ashdod, where they were held incommunicado for many days. All videos and photos were confiscated, and media were not allowed to speak to the hundreds of kidnapped passengers.
“People ask weren’t you scared?” Iara Lee recalls. “I was like No: I was outraged!” Lee was on board the Mavi Marmara, and smuggled out digital footage of the raid and massacre. Nine of the victims were Turkish citizens. One, 18-year-old Furkan Doğan, was a US citizen.
The Obama administration ignored calls to investigate his execution-style killing and bring the Israeli perpetrators to justice. The Israeli commandos still escape prosecution.
A Turkish court dismissed the Mavi Marmara raid case, a thorny issue that strained Turkish-Israeli relations, on Friday, acquitting all of the Israeli suspects who were accused of killing 10 Turkish activists on international waters.
Last week, the prosecutor in the case asked the court to drop the charges against the Israeli military brass implicated in the case, pointing to a recent agreement between the two countries to mend ties.
However, the families of the victims called the court to ignore the Turkish-Israeli agreement and send the agreement to the highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court, for its annulment. The court rejected the demand by the families' lawyers.
