The following is from the transcript of an interview with Kevin Neish conducted live this morning by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. Neish is a Canadian citizen and a member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. He spoke by phone with Goodman from Istanbul.I stepped out on the deck at just one point, just to look at the Israeli rigid-hulled Zodiacs, big—I think forty-feet long, I believe, they’re huge—and gunboats, regular-hulled gunboats, just sort of, I guess, roaring up on either side. And then, I spent—I don’t know what time it was. I’ve been told it was 4:00, 4:30. I didn’t check my watch. But then, from there, I watched them pull in a couple of Israeli commandos, I guess, and strip them of their weapons and then pack them down the stairs. And then the wounded, wounded and dead—the staircase was slick with blood on one side where I came down. Blood splattered on my clothing.This corroborates what another eyewitness "peace activist", Kevin Ovenden, said yesterday to the British Stalinist newspaper The Morning Star. It also corroborates the IDF version of what really happened aboard the Mavi Marmara.
I realize that truth is famously the first casualty of war, and that this is war. But the fact is that the truth is not really all that difficult to find, at least in this case.
And the fact is that those aboard the Mavi Marmara were ready for a fight and got the fight they were itching for. This does not justify Israeli policy in Gaza. But the great injustices done to the Palestinians do not have the magical power to alter reality.
Click here for the complete transcript (along with various audio formats) of this morning's Democracy Now interview, which also includes Kevin Ovenden who, quite surprisingly, now openly states that it is "difficult to ascertain" whether or not IDF forces opened fire before they were themselves attacked by those on the ship. Ovenden also once again confirms that two IDF soldiers were forcibly abducted and held prisoner by the "peace activists" aboard the "aid ship":
two Israeli soldiers that I know of were overpowered, as people instinctively resisted with bare hands and whatever was around them—they were overpowered, but they were not harmed. The injuries they sustained were only those of being knocked to the ground. They were disarmed and handed back to the Israeli military as soon as was possible, which is after they had murdered nine people onboard the ship. There was every opportunity to inflict harm on those two soldiers, and no harm was inflicted. They were simply kept apart and dealt with by the medical team onboard.Israel has certainly reaped the whirlwind as a result of it's occupation and continued oppression of Gaza and the West Bank and of all Palestinians. But "peace activists" who stupidly seek out confrontations with the IDF and intentionally provoke and initiate violence in order to generate international headlines are playing with fire. If they want to fight the IDF let them join Hamas, if they haven't already.
