WAITING FOR IRAN
The Iranian Students Association says humanitarian ships intended for Gaza will be setting sail this Sunday. Everyone in Israel is a little - if not a lot - apprehensive. Hizbullah sponsored ships are also due to set sail from Lebanon any day now. It seems the ships will meet in Cyprus and then sail for Gaza. Israel insists it will deal with them in the same way it dealt with a flotilla three weeks ago - in which nine people were killed. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says there's no way the ships can sail to Gaza without being checked by Israeli authorities to make sure there're no weapons onboard.
We covered the Flotilla episode hourly for the full week that it transpired. We were based in Ashdod giving hourly updates. It was a difficult story to cover. There are two very clear points of view - Israel insisting it has legal authority to monitor the waters off Gaza and check cargo intended for Gaza; and the leaders of the 'Free Gaza Movement' who organised the Flotilla and who insist humanitarian activists were on board. So why was it so difficult?
Because, while on the one hand, the two points of view seemed quite clear and distinct - they actually weren't that clear. The flotilla organisers released footage on You Tube that showed Israeli snipers targeting the ship (at least that's how it appears) so it begs the question who started first. Israel insists there were militants on board the first ship - the Turkish ship, the Marmara, and that they had weapons on board. From the footage the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) released, you see guys on board, pulling the railings off the ship and attacking the soldiers as they tried to climb onto the ship.
But, then, is that really the most important question - who started it? Is it not a legal question of who has the right to act how in this part of the Mediterannean sea? Israel insists it had a legal right to stop the ship. The protestors insist they have a legal right to reach Gaza.
What struck me most about covering this story is the very different way it was presented in the Israeli and international media. There was global condemnation and pictures of demonstrations from around the world dominating international networks. A Turkish colleague of mine was in Israel at the time and he told me he didn't attend an Israeli rally in Tel Aviv in front of the Turkish embassy in support of Israel and against Turkey "because those are not the pictures the Turkish population (and presumably Turkish leadership) want to see."
A Turkish-Israeli woman I know is returning from Israel to Istanbul - I asked her if she wasn't afraid going back, being Israeli and all. She asked me why? Reminded me that as journalists we sometimes do a disservice to the news because the fallout between Turkey and Israel probably hasn't destroyed mainstream relationships between peoples of both countries. But after watching the news you might think so. It's still not clear what happened - and depending whose side you're on - and what networks you watch - it might not become any clearer. But Iranian ships are on their way - and that has everybody worried. That much is clear.