State Department Says Flotilla Participants Could Face Criminal Charges
The United States government has warned U.S. citizens from participating in the Gaza Flotilla scheduled for this week. State Department Spokesman Victor Nuland said,
We underscore that delivering or attempting or conspiring to deliver material support or other resources to or for the benefit of a designated foreign terrorist organization, such as Hamas, could violate U.S. civil and criminal statutes and could lead to fines and incarceration.
The stern State Department warning against consorting with terrorists contrasts with a news article in the Christian Science Monitor that reads like an advocacy piece for the Flotilla. The “news” report by Dan Murphy states,
This flotilla is attempting to reach Gaza in a dramatically changed regional context from May 2010, before the uprisings collectively known as the Arab Spring. With the chance for real democratic change in Israeli neighbors like Egypt, organizers are hoping to press home their argument that the Palestinian residents of Gaza are as deserving of basic freedoms as any of their neighbors.
Israel does not occupy Gaza, and the lack of basic freedoms among its residents are a result of the policies of Hamas, a U.S. and E.U. defined terrorist organization.
The article goes on to present a one-sided description of last year’s flotilla:
But that flotilla was stopped by an Israeli assault that killed nine activists (one with American citizenship) in international waters, sparking international condemnation that led Israeli to ease, though not lift, its blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.
The United Nations is reportedly releasing a report that severely criticized Turkey’s role in the affair and the U.S. and others have supported Israel’s right, in fact, obligation, to enforce the blockade.
The article presents opposition to the flotilla by the U.S., the U.N. and E.U. states as a result of “furious” lobbying by Israel. It also depicts flotilla participants like Ann Wright, Alice Walker and Hedy Epstein as “human rights” activists without disclosing their extremist affiliations and long records of hostility to the Jewish state.
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