Israel sets out changes to Gaza blockade curbs

Israel has given details of its plan to ease the blockade of Gaza, with all civilian goods now expected to be let into the territory.

Israel will allow items into Gaza unless they feature on a new list which specifies banned goods.

The move will let in humanitarian aid, food and building supplies.

Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2005, but has faced heavy criticism since the recent killing of nine people on an aid flotilla heading to Gaza.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a long list of previously banned items, which included some food, domestic equipment and building materials would be replaced by a shorter, specific list of "weapons and war materiel".

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UN to Gaza

An Israeli official said Sunday that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is moving ahead with plans for an international commission to investigate Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Ban wants former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, a maritime law expert, to head the panel, which would include Israeli, Turkish and U.S. representatives, the Foreign Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because Ban has not announced details of his proposal.

The push for an international inquiry puts Israel under further pressure to explain how its attempt to stop the aid ship from breaching a blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza turned deadly. It could also cast light on the motives and plans of some of the ship's passengers who Israel says were Islamic extremists intent on attacking its troops.

The outrage over the deaths has also prompted calls from many nations, including the United States, for at least a partial lifting of a blockade that Israel says is necessary to isolate the Islamic

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Rachel Corrie's Ship Captured Israeli Soldier

The Israeli military says its troops have risen to Rachel Corrie's Ship “with the full compliance” of the crew and passengers in a peaceful operation. It added that the ship and the 15 people on board, most of them Irish or Malaysian activists, were being escorted to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.

But the takeover prompted a furious response from the Dublin-based Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. “For the second time in less than a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod port,” it said, also noting that those on board were believed to be unharmed.

Army spokeswoman Avital Leibovitz said the Rachel Corrie had been commandeered in international waters some 21 nautical miles northwest of Ashdod after the vessel refused to respond to four requests to change course.

The operation began shortly after dawn on Saturday when activists on board the vessel spoke by phone with the Gaza-based welcoming committee and said they had been surrounded by Israeli naval boats.

The boat was carrying around 1,000 tonnes of aid and supplies, half of which was reportedly cement – a substance which Israel does not allow into Gaza, claiming it could be used for building fortifications.

Despite an international outcry over the deadly commando operation, Israel vowed to block all attempts to reach Gaza by sea in defiance of the tight blockade it has imposed on the impoverished territory since 2006.

Israel had warned it would stop the Rachel Corrie, named after a US activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home.

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Is Hamas As a Terrorist Group ?

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he did not view radical Palestinian group Hamas, Israel’s arch-foe, as a terrorist organisation.

“Hamas are resistance fighters who are struggling to defend their land. They have won an election,” Erdogan said in a public speech in the central city of Konya, broadcast live on television.

I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The United States and the European Union blacklist Hamas as a terrorist group despite its victory in Palestinian elections in 2006.
Erdogan made the remarks in an angry tirade against Israel after Monday’s raid on a flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of nine Turks and plunged already strained ties between the once-close allies into deep crisis.

He lashed out at Western powers for denying Hamas a chance to shift to a democratic platform.
Erdogan renewed criticism of Israel’s raid on the aid flotilla, whose main organisers included a Turkish Islamist charity, with the bulk of its passengers Turks. Our problem is with the oppressive Israeli administration which commits state terror,” he said.

The Israel government, he said, is “hypocritical,” “paranoid” and a “lier.”
Ankara has previously insisted that peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East if Hamas was excluded from the process. In February 2006, Ankara angered Israel when it hosted a delegation led by Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, following the Islamists’ victory in Palestinian elections, in what Turkish officials defended as an effort to press the militant group to lay down arms.

In January 2009, Turkish officials acted as mediators between Hamas leaders based in Syria and Egyptian officials seeking to hammer out a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s devastating 22-day war on Gaza. Israel has cut Gaza off from all but vital humanitarian aid in a bid to pressure Hamas to end rocket attacks on southern Israel.

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Russia's commitment to the Palestinian Liberation

Russia is one country that is committed to help the Palestinians get the right to independence. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said "Going forward, Russia will of continue to promotes a settlement in the region on the universally recognized international legal basis," Medvedev said. "Our approach on this issue Principled Remains unchanged - the result of this work Should be an independent Palestinian state will from That live in peace with Israel."

Israeli commandos on Friday stormed a Convoy of vessels in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea That Were en route to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with Some 10.000 tons of humanitarian aid and 700 human rights activists.
Nine activists are confirmed killed but the Arab media reports put the toll at close to 20. Were Dozens reported injured. The international community has widely condemned Israel, with Turkey recalling its ambassador.

The president said that Russia is fully satisfied with the good results of the coordination of its activities with Egypt with regards to the promotion of the Arab-Israeli peace process.
On Friday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered to open the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and open access for Those WHO need medical treatment.

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Rachel Aliene Corrie Human Rights for Palestinians

"I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive ... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with." (On March 14, 2003)

Who Rachel Aliene ?

Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) bulldozer while attempting to prevent IDF forces from demolishing the home of local Palestinian Samir Nasrallah. The IDF has claimed that the death has been due to restricted angle of view of the D9 bulldozer driver. The New York Times said Corrie and others were acting as "human shields." A student at the Evergreen State College, she had taken a year off and traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada.

Corrie was born on April 10, 1979, and raised in Olympia, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of the three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie, an amateur flautist. Cindy Corrie describes their family as "average Americans — politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class".

After graduating from Capital High School, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College (TESC), also located in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took one year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps; other volunteer work included making weekly visits to patients with mental disorders for three years. In her senior year, she proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah. Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between kids in Olympia and Rafah.

Friends described her as "attractive in a plain-spoken way, the opposite of flashy, not working to call attention to herself. She was reserved in large crowds but intimate one-on-one". Colin Reese, Corrie's roommate, said she had wanted to become a writer and artist. Reese also said she was "not the most punctual or tidy person in the world," but that when it came to peace work, she "would work harder and longer than anybody else"

source : en.wikipedia.org

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Investigations UN to The Gaza Strip

The UN Secretary General told reporters that he is ready to take "the necessary action" to start off a full investigation into the events. He however informed that he would progress slowly in a deliberate manner after he discusses with all the concerned parties.

Afterwards, he told reporters he is ready to take "the necessary action" to start a full investigation into the events on the Turkish flagged ship the Mavi Marmara. But he said he would proceed in a deliberate manner, discussing it with all the concerned parties, before making a decision on how to go forward.

"It [the investigation] should be one which can gain credibility and support from the parties concerned," said Ban Ki-moon. "This is a very sensitive and even difficult, therefore, I am still in the process of these consultations. I will try to make it as impartial, as credible, as transparent as possible."

He however, refused to get into the details of the available options for investigations.

He said that the Israelis authorities would have to support with a full and detailed accounting of the events surrounding the incident and also added that there were possbilities of the UN Council sending an international fact finding mission to the region to look into the possiblity of violations of international law.
He added that the violence could be avoided if Israel had earlier paid attention to the three year long blockade resulting in prevention of the supply of essential goods from reaching Gaza.

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Gaza flotilla: Israeli-Turkish trade 'unaffected'

(http://www.reuters.com/)

Political tensions are high between Turkey and Israel after the Turkish prime minister called the Israeli commando attack on an aid ship heading for Gaza a "bloody massacre".

However, business relations between the two countries continue as normal. In terms of volume, Turkey ranks number eight for Israeli trade after the two sides signed a free trade agreement in 2000. "The business community is upset and a little concerned, but mutual trade is continuing," says the chairman of the Israeli-Turkish Business Council.

Mutual benefits

The total trade volume between the two countries in 2009 was $2.5bn, according to Turkey's state statistics institute. Trade ranges from agriculture to military equipment to energy.

Some Israeli companies have joint ventures with Turkish manufacturing facilities, which enables them to export from Turkey to the world. Those investments do not appear in the statistics on trade between the two countries, suggesting that economic ties between the two are possibly deeper than the figures indicate.

A lot of Israeli tourists also visit Turkey - although many have cancelled holidays because of advice from the Israeli government saying it is not now safe for them to travel there.

Trade unharmed

Menashe Carmon of the Israeli-Turkish Business Council says he does not envisage any major problems unless firms are dealing with a government company.

"But in private talks, people who were positive towards Israeli policies have difficulties in understanding and accepting what has happened," he says.

"We are now at the peak of contention. I believe in a few weeks, things will be clearer and people will have a more moderate reaction," he maintains.

He feels certain that current events will not adversely affect or influence existing projects.

By James Melik (BBC World Service)

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