Last year’s violent altercation aboard the Turkish flotilla ship the Mavi Marmara is most remembered for the Israel Defense Forces’ footage which unequivocally showed Israeli soldiers being violently lynched by the radical passengers on the ship. Despite the bold lies that the passengers subsequently used stating that they “unarmed” and were acting only in “self defence,” it was this footage that vindicated and corroborated the Israeli account.
To recall, when Israeli forces tried to peacefully board the Marmara, large groups of radical activists surrounded the soldiers and beat them with metal poles, rods, and chairs, stabbing them with knives, and throwing firebombs, stun grenades, and even one Israeli soldier over the side of the ship. Some of the activists grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire, while others brandished their own automatic weapons. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed. The “activists” had premeditated violent intentions as evinced by the dangerous cargo they brought on the ship including: Molotov cocktails, sling shots, and other makeshift items that were fashioned for use as weaponry in a planned attack against Israeli forces.
Even with this evidence widely available and disseminated worldwide, Canadian media continue to peddle the radical activists’ narrative that they were non-violent resistors. Case in point, on the July 19 broadcast of “Canada Live,” Sun News Network featured a segment by reporter Bryan Dunstan who made the following erroneous claim in a discussion with host Krista Erickson:
“Last year, the same situation occurred. A boat that was registered out of Turkey tried to breach the blockade and there was nine people that were injured, actually killed, in the raid on this boat. It turned out they were NOT ARMED. they were just pelting the soldiers that boarded the ship with FRUIT AND ROCKS if you have and they responded with lethal force. Nine people killed on the, what was that boat called again? the Mavi Marmara…”
Certainly the activists weren’t unarmed as Mr. Dunstan has claimed. The Israeli soldiers only used lethal force when their lives were at risk (which they clearly were as demonstrated by the video evidence). Keep in mind that the soldiers were deployed with paint-ball guns in a posture fitting of a riot-dispersal scenario. They certainly wouldn’t use live ammo only on people who pelted them with “fruit” and “rocks” as Mr. Dunstan has stated.
How You Can Make A Difference:
To contend that Israeli soldiers killed 9 unarmed people simply because they threw apples and oranges at them is a gross distortion of the truth. Shame on this Sun News reporter for peddling this false narrative.
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