Gaza flotilla activists: One of our ships was sabotaged

Israeli activist says his ship, which is docked in Greece’s Piraeus port, was found with its propeller shaft broken which he believes was a deliberate attempt at sabotage.

Haaretz

One of the ships due to participate in the Gaza flotilla was deliberately tampered with while it was docked in Greece’s Piraeus port, Gaza flotilla activists told Haaretz on Monday.

The ship, due to carry Greek, Norwegian, and Swedish passengers to Gaza, was found  with its propeller shaft broken, the ship’s spokesman Israeli activist Dror Feiler told Haaretz.

The ‘Dignitי – Al Karama’ (Dignity – Al Karama) ship sailing off the coast of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on June 25, 2011 to join the new pro-Palestinian aid flotilla.

A scuba diver who examines the ship on a daily basis discovered Monday that the ship’s propeller shaft, which connects the transmission inside the vessel directly to the propeller, was cut off.

According to Feiler, there is no doubt that the action was a deliberate attempt at sabotage, which he believed also violated Greece’s sovereignty.

Even though the problem can be fixed, it is still unclear how long it would take, especially with Greece’s recently declared general strike on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This action adds to a series of delays that have kept the Gaza flotilla from sailing, including Greece’s determination to carry out additional non-routine examinations on several of the ships.

Earlier Monday, organizers of the Gaza flotilla accused Israel of pressuring Greece to halt the ships’ departure.

American activist Ann Wright told a news conference that Israel is mounting a “tremendous diplomatic offensive” to prevent the flotilla from setting sail.

Organizers urged the Greek government in a statement not to “become complicit in Israel’s illegal actions by succumbing to this pressure.”

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Comments

1. spktruth200 says:

   June 28, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   Ann Wright is a retired Colonel. She should have that title in her name. Also Ray McGovern a 40 year old seasoned CIA analyst who resigned when Bush/Cheney/Betrayeus/Gates went to the CIS to force these agents to deliver up all information no matter how insignificant against Iraq…resigned in protest. They refused to lie and deceive. Ray has been a very outspoken person for peace. He turned his back on Hilary Clinton at a press conference as she was lying her butt off, and was immediately attacked and beaten. There are really great activisits and well known government officials on these flotillas. Of course, Israel and the US government putting pressure on Greece not to permit these ships to sail is obvious and transparent. You can bet some zionist did the sabotage and the flotillas should be prepared for more….anything to slow down or stop these flotillas from sailing. watch democracynow.org…who are posting up to the minute reports on the flotillas.

2. Ingrid B. says:

   June 28, 2011 at 5:35 pm

   as I said previously, the Zionist bankers have Greece over a fiancial barrel..
   the Greek, Swedish and Norwegian activists, should sue those responsible..

3. funky d says:

   June 29, 2011 at 1:27 am

   i wouldn’t say some zionist did it, i would say ‘A TALMUDIC JEWISH TERRORIST DID IT’. no point sugar coating it, it is jews not zionists. zionism is a smokescreen to try and divide the non jew world. the parasitic jewish hellhole, its creation and subsequent actions is because of their jewism, NOT COS OF THIS MYTHICAL ZIONISM. everything they have done has been dictated by their racist rag the talmud for centuries, long before the creation of zionism.

4. michael mazur says:

   June 29, 2011 at 8:00 am

   Funky has sharp focus, and is right on.
   A yacht supplier offers shaft diameters from 3/4″ to 3″. How thick was this shaft ? Whatever the thickness was i imagine that to cut a 3″ steel shaft would take 16 times more time (after calculating cross sectional area) than cutting a 3/4″ shaft when using oxy propane adjusted for underwater work. But how long does it take to cut a 3/4″ shaft?
   A minute ? Probably; then may we conjecture 15minutes max cutting time ?
   Who would notice at 2am anyway?
   As for `fixing the problem`, this would involve the replacement of the shaft itself and not putting in a weld to fill the gap left by the cutter. This would involve ordering in the shaft, removing the two pieces of the cut one and fitting in the new one. A week’s delay. Anyone ?
   What this episode does mean is that the state employed saboteur could have instead chosen to burn a hole in the hull at the keel just where the engine room is as no one would be there at that time.
   Probably his masters decided against that as drownings could have resulted.
   Next time, say next year, this is what they will consider, and to several boats at moorings at the same time overnight.