CAMERA’s Israel office last week prompted correction of a Reuters article which incorrectly identified the Mavi Marmara, which departed Turkey for the Gaza Strip in a 2010 attempt to break Israel’s legal blockade of the coastal territory, as an “aid ship.” The Dec. 27 article, “Israel envoy named in Turkey after years of strain,” erroneously cited a “2010 Israeli raid on an aid ship to Gaza, which killed 10 Turkish citizens.” The Mavi Marmara passengers were armed with weapons — which they deployed against IDF soldiers — not aid.
Weapons used by Turkish combatants who violently attacked IDF soldiers aboard the Mavi Marmara, 2010 (Photo from Israel Defense Forces, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
If the flotilla had been a purely humanitarian mission it is hard to see why so many passengers were embarked and with what purpose. Furthermore, the quality and value of many of the humanitarian goods on board the vessels is questionable. There were large quantities of humanitarian and construction supplies on board the Gazze 1, Eleftheri Mesogeio and Defne-Y. There were some foodstuffs and medical goods on board the Mavi Marmara, although it seems that these were intended for the voyage itself. Any “humanitarian supplies” were limited to foodstuffs and toys carried in passengers’ personal baggage. The same situation appears to be the case for two other of the vessels: the Sfendoni, and the Challenger I. There was little need to organize a flotilla of six ships to deliver humanitarian assistance if only three were required to carry the available humanitarian supplies. The number of journalists embarked on the ships gives further power to the conclusion that the flotilla’s primary purpose was to generate publicity. (Emphasis added.)
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incompletely to a 2010 episode in which Ahmed Luqman Talib was shot. He was on a ship that was part of a flotilla trying to carry aid to Gaza, but the particular vessel he was aboard was not carrying aid.