… the Free Gaza Movement said one of its boats, the Dignity, was rammed by Israeli gunboats in international waters. Activists with the Free Gaza Movement are attempting to sail to Gaza with over three tons of medical supplies requested by Palestinian doctors. Passengers include former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
Cynthia McKinney: There is a need for the medical supplies that are on this boat. There is a need for international attention. And perhaps most importantly, there is need for the people in the United States to understand that every piece of rubble that is there in that strip of land is caused by US weapons and the insistence on administration after administration of transferring weapons of mass destruction to parts of the world, and those weapons are then used to hurt and kill people.
The story was also carried by CNN, to include the following interview with Ms McKinney:
What I found rather interesting about the CNN broadcast was that, although it was incontrovertibly clear that the Israeli gunboat (or, as the CNN anchorman euphemistically dubbed it, a ‘patrol boat’) had rammed the Dignity, the legend at the bottom of the screen nevertheless reads “Ship collided with an Israeli warship”, effectively stating that it was the Dignity that struck the Israeli vessel and not vice versa.
The event was also covered by The Guardian, which reports that “Activists trying to bring aid to Gaza today claimed their boat had been rammed by Israeli gunboats” while “Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, told Reuters [that] two ships had made ‘physical contact’”. This may seem like nitpicking; though I’d argue that ‘told’ is a shade more assertive than ‘claimed’.
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