CAIRO: It was a peace mission to deliver aid to the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip. For the activists aboard the ships headed to Gaza, it was a chance to show the Israeli government that the world would not stand silent as atrocities continue against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Egyptian support for the mission was in full force by Sunday, with Twitter flaring with comment upon comment. By Monday morning, the optimism surrounding the Flotilla had dissipated into anger toward the Israeli government after soldiers stormed the Flotilla early Monday, murdering up to 19 people and injuring dozens more. According to reports, the attack came some 45 miles off the Gaza coast in international waters. Footage from the flotilla's lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showed armed Israeli soldiers boarding the ship and helicopters flying overhead. Al Jazeera reporter Jamal Elshayyal, who was on board the Mavi Marmara vessel, said Israeli soldiers used live ammunition during the operation. According to Israeli Army Radio, soldiers opened fire “after confronting those on board carrying sharp objects.” “This did not need to happen. There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” an Israeli foreign ministry official said on Al Jazeera English. The Flotilla mission was to break the economic blockade on the Gaza Strip and deliver aid to the people of the small Mediterranean enclave. Israel, obviously, believed there was no need for the mission to take place and decided instead to open fire and murder the activists. A planned Egyptian protest was also scheduled to take place in front of the Egyptian foreign ministry building in Cairo to protest the murder of the nonviolent activists by the Israeli government. One Egyptian activist, Engy Ghozlan, wrote on her Twitter page that “Egypt is equally responsible for all what's happening in Gaza, Egypt should have the least helped the Flotilla.” The sentiments after the news of the deaths began to spread throughout the Internet and activist forums, was whether the United States would stand by and allow Israel to get off without condemnation. Sarah Carr, an Egyptian-British journalist in Cairo said it was “the 1.5 million dollar question” as to whether Washington would stand by its friend in the Middle East. As the remaining Flotilla passengers were being processed by the Israeli security forces, Egyptian activist and one of the leading distributors of information surrounding Flotilla, justicentric wrote justicentric “To Flotilla passengers, Refuse deportation, Stay in Israeli jail till Gaza siege is off! The time has come!” For now, Egyptians are angered, as is much of the world over the cold-blooded murder of nonviolent activists in international waters by the military of a recognized international state. The question is whether the world will respond to the incident with condemnation. For Egyptians and those in the region, the actions of the Israeli government have shown their is not peace to be had. Cynthia McKinney, a leading international activist who has participated in a number of siege breaking journeys to Gaza in recent years, wrote that she is “outraged at Israel's latest criminal act. I mourn with my fellow Free Gaza travelers, the lives that have been lost by Israel's needless, senseless act against unarmed humanitarian activists. But I'm even more outraged that once again, Israel has been aided and abetted by the silence of the world's onlookers whose hearts have grown cold with indifference.” BM
