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Lebanon has been threatening since the ill-fated Turkish flotilla to send its own version of this summer’s high profile efforts to demonize Israel. At one stage it was a journalist’s ship with room for no more than seventeen passengers and at others it has been a ‘woman’s flotilla’ - or more correctly, a single ship, called variously, Mariam, Julia, or Junia.
The Guardian’s essay mentions two ships Mariam, the first an all-woman ship and Naji Ali, presumably a journalists’ ship.
As Elias Youssef Bejjani, writing for International Analyst Network, has argued:
“Hezbollah’s scheme in this flotillas charade is to hide behind a ship that carries only women. Hezbollah’s security apparatus assigned the task to Mrs. Samar Al Hajj, wife of Ahmad Al Hajj, one of four retired pro-Syrian Lebanese high-ranking security officers accused of planning and executing the assassination of late Lebanese Prime Minister Raffic Hariri and committing horrible atrocities during Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. Meanwhile, the close relation of Mrs. Hajj and her husband with both Syria and Hezbollah is well-known all over Lebanon.”
If the ship does indeed exist, whether it has permission to leave or to dock is also not clear.
But al-Haj says the mission is purely humanitarian.
“Our goal is to arrive in Gaza,” she said. “It is the responsibility of the government to deal with the politics. We are not political.”
Considering that the Lebanese government is at pains not to have any dealings with Israel it is not clear how that is supposed to be done.
Asked on Radio A-Shams by Zohair Bahloul why the ship, Mariam, would only be carrying women, [Al Hajj] said,
“We are women in order not to give the thieving enemy an excuse to use arms against the ship.” She said the ship would be carrying cancer medication for children, and women suffering from breast cancer and cancer of the uterus due to “chemical bombs” dropped on Gaza by Israel.
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15 seconds in Sderot: An open letter to Harriet Sherwood, the Guardian’s Jerusalem, Israel correspondent
July 27, 2011 in Comments which are off-topic, ad hominem, racist, vulgar or include threats of violence will be deleted | Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Human rights, Israeli Navy, Sderot | by Margie in Tel Aviv | 18 comments
Dear Harriet,
Recently you and some apparently intrepid ‘human rights operatives’ went out for a sail with a fleet of Gazan fishermen to experience for yourselves how Israeli ships patrol the sea off Gaza. You helpfully informed us of how lenient the Israeli Navy is, by giving us GPS coordinates which indicated that you were right outside the three-mile limit while the only deterrent used by the IDF was water.
I sent you a little note via Twitter asking you and these unnamed ‘human rights monitors’ to complete the experience.
As defined by their title, it must surely be their aim to see things from all angles and to find out whether the treatment on the other side of the divide is as humane and if the threats from Gaza are as empty by spending some time in Sderot.
You haven’t replied yet and I’m sure that you wouldn’t wish to miss the opportunity to be fair and objective. So just answer in the comments below this short note and tell me how many of you there will be and when you can make it. I’ll ask your hosts to make sure that you get accommodations very near a bomb shelter. Although Sderot doesn’t have the water parks, luxury accommodations and fine-dining restaurants of Gaza I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people willing to show you the nearest route to safety.
One thing: I do hope that these monitors are young and fit. You really shouldn’t neglect your visits to the gym before going: your 15 second sprint rate is going to be tested there, possibly with your life as first prize.
Margie
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