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Islamophobia

Eyewitnesses Say Israelis came in with Guns Blazing

Juan Cole 06/04/2010

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As The Lede points out, the more Mavi Marmara passengers who talk to the press, the more the Israeli official narrative about their landing on the deck of the ship is challenged.

Accounts of Israeli troops shooting passengers between the eyes are particularly chilling.

Aljazeera English broadcast an interview with Jamal ElShayyal , a journalist aboard the Mavi Marmara. In it, he asserted that the Israelis opened fire as they were boarding the vessel, and that one passenger took a bullet through the top of his head. Many passengers have now confirmed that they were fired on even before the commandos had boots on the deck. Presumably it is this suppressive fire that killed or wounded some passengers and which provoked an angry reaction and an attack on the commandos.

The Independent in the UK constructs a timeline for the Israeli attack that has twenty or so passengers attempting to stop the Israeli commandos from boarding their vessel, with some success. With four commandos captured by the aid activists and with boarding the ship now difficult, Israeli commanders appear to have authorized the use brute force.

Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks discusses the controversy around the Israeli killing of an American citizen of Turkish extraction:

He argues that this killing was an execution. As for the victim having lived most his life in Turkey, Cenk wonders if he would have been discounted as a citizen if he had lived most of his life in Israel. See his column here.

Filed Under: Islamophobia, Israel/ Palestine, Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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