Jewish yacht to Gaza stopped by force

IssueNovember 2010
News by David Polden

The latest attempt to break the Israeli siege of Gaza was organised by Jewish groups using a Jewish-crewed catamaran. The Irene was stopped and boarded by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on 28 September en route to Gaza with a cargo of aid.

The passengers included 82-year old Holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskowitz; former IDF pilot Yonatan Shapira; and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli who lost her daughter in a Palestinian suicide bombing. The IDF claimed that it used “no violence of any kind” against the passengers when 10 Israeli warships forced the Irene to head for the Israeli port of Ashdod.

In fact, Yonatan Shapira said: “There are no words to describe what we went through on that boat…. the soldiers’ actions were violent and disgusting. I was tasered.”