'We won't give up - we will return': Mankell
Published: 8 Jul 11 07:09 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/34808/20110708/
Swedish bestselling crime author Henning Mankell slammed Greece for blocking the aid flotilla to Gaza as some of Sweden's pro-Palestinian activists returned home on Thursday.
- Gaza flotilla group sets sail from Athens (7 Jul 11)
- Swedish Ship to Gaza express 'grief and dismay' at Greek authorities (5 Jul 11)
- Mankell commits to Gaza aid trip (26 Jun 11)
Greek government has sold its soul for a silver coin," the 63-year-old writer, who was taking part in the flotilla, told reporters at the airport in Sweden's second-largest city Gothenburg.
Greece, he was quoted by the TT news agency as saying, "has given in to
Israeli threats, to American threats and didn't let us leave, which is of
course a scandal."
"But we will come back. We won't give up," he added.
The author of the popular Kurt Wallander detective series had already returned from Greece, but was at the airport to welcome his fellow activists from Ship to Gaza's Swedish branch.
Mankell, whose books have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and
have been adapted to film and television, was on board a vessel seized by the Israeli army last year.
This year, Greece thwarted the hopes of a 10-boat flotilla aiming to reach Gaza by imposing a ban on any ships setting sail from Greece in an attempt to run the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Officials in Athens say they imposed the ban for the "safety" of the activists on board in the wake of last year's bloody showdown when Israeli commandos raided a six-ship flotilla in a confrontation that left nine Turkish activists dead.
More than 300 activists from 22 countries had signed up to participate in this year's flotilla, among them dozens of middle-aged and elderly Americans and Europeans.
Israel has made no secret of its determination to prevent the Freedom Flotilla II from reaching Gaza, which has been under a blockade since 2006 after militants there snatched an Israeli soldier who is still being held at a secret location.
Earlier this summer the Swedish Ship to Gaza group reported damage to their boat Juliano, while berthed in Piraeus harbour in Greece.
The Israeli government later rejected the claims of the Swedish Ship to Gaza movement that "foreign agents" had sabotaged their boat, calling it a ‘James Bond-esque’ insinuation, with no bearing on reality.
On Wednesday, Juliano finally set sail from its berth in the Greek harbour of Piraeus - not towards Gaza, but to Palea Fokea, a small coastal town south of Athens.
According to Ship to Gaza Sweden, Juliano - along with those activists that have chosen to stay - will now wait in a mediterranean port for the rest of the flotilla to be released.
Those that have returned home are all ready to head out again and start the journey towards Gaza if the opportunity will arise, according to a Ship to Gaza statement.
"No blockade in the history of mankind has survived forever.... No people
can accept oppression. Sooner or later, Israel will experience the same thing that happened to the South African apartheid system," Mankell said, according to AFP..
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And nothing!
Mankell and co. will never realize how anti-semitic they really are. They just don't get it.
Turkey correctly recognized that the Syrian/Iranian incursion into the eastern Mediterranean had to be stopped. Once Turkey withdrew support for the flotilla, it was dead in the water.
How many more Palestinians do you wanna kill ? What is their crime ? Just that they are asking for their homeland to be free of Zionists ? Daily they are being butchered , killed, raped, slaughtred but you are still thinking that Israel is ok .. what a senseless man you are.
So many idiots, so few bulldozers.
An untruth and wrong picture as the IDF is butcher,kill,rape ,slaughter Palestinians.
Gaza was evacuated from settlers and army since Ariel Sharon was in power,since then Hamas keep promise to destroy our land and we suffer allready 9 years from shelling on our villages in the Israeli side inside the international border with Gaza.Sderot,Netivot,Kfar Aza,Nirim,Zikim ,Saad,Erez,Yad Mordechai, Ashkelon a,Ashdod and Beer Sheva,the farmers can not go many days to work in he fields and many houses were damage , in Sderot a 12 years old boy lost his legs by bomb,in Ashdod a 35 old woman was killed in the park while walking, in Saad they fired an anti tank missile on school bus killed 14 years old boy,
idf react when the soldiers or our villages are under attack.
We recognized the two states solution allready on 29.11.47 with decision 181 of the UN on the division of Palestine in 2 states a Jewish one and an Palestinian one,the arabs rejected that decision for 63 years and open a repeated wars in order to eliminate us:1948,1967,1973 ,It is famous the 3 no of Gamal Abdel Nasser the President of Eygpt:No to recognize Israel,No to peace with Israel,No to cease fire with Israel,After the arabs failled to eliminate us with wars they went on to attack us with terrorists acts: in the streets, in the buses,in cinema, in restaurants,in airplanes and abroad but they failled also with those actions,then after 63 years of hostility Eygpt and Jordan understood that violance will not resolve the issue but just talks and peace treaty so we signed peace with this countries and as Sadat the President of Eygpt said :we got all our land back without shoting a single shot, and the same was with Jordan.
Then Arafat came and there was Oslo agreement,with Oslo agreement we came back to the same UN decision from 29.11.47 which we had accepted-2 states living side by side in peace, then Rabin was murded and Barak went on with talks first in Camp David and after in Eilat ,the parties were very very close to a 2 states solution,that wrote Bill Clinton in his memory book, but then Arafat insisted on immediate evacuation of the occupied territory but Barak ageed just to step by step evacuation after the Eygptian peace treaty model...
Short after that Arafat broke the negotiation and opened the armed first Intifada hope to convince the world and Israel to accept an immediate withdrown,
This was the second big mistake of the Palestinians after the mistake of rejecting the UN decision from 29.11.47..followedyears of terrorism with many civilians killed both sides without bringing any solution to the palestinian people,
The fact that these clowns are only trying to create an event with Israel when hundred are being slaughtered in Syria shows their contempt for the truth and the left-wing built in bias.
From January 2009 until June 2010 Israel delivered to Gaza over 1.2 million tons of supplies and 135 million litres of fuel. This was accomplish by an endless convoy of mainly Swedish Scania and Volvo trucks. Yes the Israelis love Swedish vehicles.
Well here is my contempt, to these fools on ships. Enjoy this spoof parody: "The Audacity of Dopes"
named after the US Ship and Barack Hussain Obama's caustic book.
http://youtu.be/Y5CsGViY5JQ
Do you shed the same tears for the innocent Syrians and Iranians being slaughtered by their own governments as you do for the Palestinians? Do you have the same anger for Assad and Ahmadinejad as you do for Netenyahu?
In fact because of your myopic view you missed my point entirely. The flotilla and the plight of the Palestinians is but a very small part of a much larger geopolitical game. The Turks, a Muslim country, pulled the plug on the flotilla to counter a much greater threat, the incursion of Iran into the eastern Mediterranean.
I remember Arabs first coming to London the late 60's and purchasing beautiful glats in London. They deposited their excretia in show boxes and threw them out of the windows. Oh, that was after they wiped themselves clean on the drapes and curtains. They had never seen a toilet, let alone running water.
Perhaps I'll be third time lucky?
All I said the last time was: Good luck next time Mr. Mankell.
And that before setting off on Flotilla number 3, since "Humanitarian crisis in Gaza" is the reason for his naval activism, he had better take a look at this:
http://unitedwithisrael.org/what-humanitarian-crisis-in-gaza/
did you know!????