CRIME FICTION Henning Mankell, Wallander author on the Gaza Flotilla he was part of

Henning Mankell, the renowned Swedish crime writer and author of the Wallander series, was on board the Sophia, which formed part of the Gaza Flotilla, when Israeli commandos raided the ship.

Speaking at a press conference in Berlin after spending 24 hours in an Israeli cell, Mankell accused the Israelis of “going out to commit murder” and says he witnessed the shooting an elderly passenger with a stun gun.

Mankell described how he was woken at 4am and told that the ship Mavi Marmara was under attack.

Passengers on the Sophia could see helicopter spotlights and hear weapons firing. They couldn’t find out exactly what was happening because communication had been stopped by the Israeli military.

Then, at 4.35am, the Israelis attacked the Sophia. Passengers and crew had decided not to resist, and stood on the bridge. Masked commandos landed, carrying submachine guns and forced them all below deck.

“We had elderly people among us, who perhaps weren’t so quick on their feet,” says Mankell. “One of them was shot in the arm with an stun gun and he fell to the floor in pain. Another man was hit with a rubber bullet and also fell to the floor.”

The soldiers then searched the ship. After a while they came back and said they had found weapons. “We said, ‘What weapons? There aren’t any weapons on board this ship.’

“Then they showed us a wet razor—my razor. Then they showed us a little knife from the kitchen, which the Egyptian cook used to open provisions.”

“When we got to land, something happened that I will never forget. One after the other, we were led into a prison—we had to run a gauntlet between two lines of soldiers.

“The soldiers never identified themselves but they filmed us the whole time, though Geneva Convention forbids treating civilians like this.

“And I can testify that they stole everything I had. They stole my camera, my phone, my money, my credit card, my clothes—everything.

“A policeman said to me, ‘Either we’ll deport you or you’ll go to prison.’

“I asked, ‘What am I accused of?’ He said, ‘You have entered Israel illegally.’

“I replied, ‘What are you talking about? I was kidnapped and forced to come here’.”

Mankell angrily rejects accusations that people who protest against Israel are anti-Jewish.

“I’m not an antisemite. I am against the current policy of Israel towards the Palestinians. I’m against it, because it’s a kind of apartheid. I was against apartheid in South Africa and I’m against apartheid today.”

“I prefer not to be one of the useful idiots who sit around and cynically assert that solidarity isn’t worth anything. I’d rather not belong among them.”

Mankell vowed to continue the fight to free Palestine.

“This time we came with six ships, and we’ve seen the Israeli reaction,” he said. “But what if we came back in a year with a hundred ships? What would Israel do? Bomb us?

“Wouldn’t it be a better idea for Israel to lift the blockade?”

VIDEO Nilin marking 20 years to the fall of the berlin wall by taking down the wall on their land

20 years to the fall of the Berlin wall - Demonstrators toppled 8 meters tall concrete wall in Ni'ilin
 

The protest in Nilin was held today to mark the 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin wall, which has been declared an international day of action against Israel's barrier.
The 300 demonstrators managed to topple a part of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the village's land. The concrete wall in Ni'ilin - five to eight meters (15 to 25 feet) in hight has only recently been laid on the path of the wall cutting through Ni'ilin's lands, in addition to the already existing electronic barrier and razor-wire.

Since the Wall was built to allow more land to annexed to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. The section of the Wall in Nilin is the only place along the route of the barrier where a concrete wall has been erected in an attempt to deal with the civic, unarmed campaign waged by the village in protest of the massive land theft that will enable the expansion of the illegal settlements of Modi'in Il'it and Hasmonaim.

Since Israel began its construction in the year 2002, This is the first time demonstrators succeed in toppling a part of Israel's barrier which is a concrete wall. One of the demonstrators, Moheeb Khawaja, said during the protest: "Twenty years ago no one had thought the monster that divided Berlin into two could be brought down, but in only two days in November, it did. Today we have proven that this can also be done here and now. It is our land beyond this wall, and we will not give up on it. We will win for a simple reason - justice is on our side."

Hamas – They're not bad, they're just drawn that way

How did it work that the world was so fooled and allowed Israel to destroy Gaza to "get rid of Hamas"? It was quite simple, and it's always the same answer: Israel and its allies keep people disinformed. Those who actually will go slightly below the screaming headlines of the newspapers might find out a few facts buried that that will contradict the spin, but not that many people will go that far, given that they are exposed to something with an element of truth buried deep within. If that were not problematic enough, even the "progressives" have done meritorious services to rendering Hamas untouchable. They might accept them as a "resistance movement" but they won't allow their personal ideological bias to see Hamas as a progressive force for their own people's advancement. This may be out of conviction, convenience or even lack of research or a blindspot that does not allow variations on the theme of the class struggle, where everything is "international" and the same type of rules and ideals should be considered applicable and necessary for all, going so far in some cases to "import democracy" under various more or less aggressive forms.

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VIDEO:Raytheon and the Israeli Chamber of Commerce meet in Adelaide.

The military industrial complex meet at the Hilton International In Adelaide - Protesters picket outside.
Raytheon, one of the top three weapons manufacturers in the US, meet with the Israeli Chamber of Commerce.