Right of Reply: Rebutting Woode-Smith's "misleading" attack of Sumud Flotilla

Key topics:

• Woode-Smith defends Israel, dismissing the Sumud Flotilla's aid mission.

• Israel's violent seizure of flotilla violated international law and rights.

• Activists, including South Africans, faced abuse while delivering humanitarian aid.

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By Iqbal Jassat

In his frustration with media coverage of the "Sumud Flotilla", Nicholas Woode-Smith relies on the usual Zionist-Israeli talking points to rubbish the humanitarian efforts of the flotilla. 

This comes as no surprise because the regime of Netanyahu has and remains in the midst of a rotten stinking public image. 

The last two years of devastating cruelty inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza in what the world and a range of credible human rights organisations - barring the US empire - has acknowledged to be a genocide, has reduced the image of the apartheid regime to tatters. 

There is no dispute about the fact that Israel’s public relations is so severely damaged, Netanyahu has yet again allocated billions of dollars to PR companies and social media influencers in a frenzied effort to undertake damage control. 

Woode-Smith's attack on the "Sumud Flotilla" is thus not surprising for it fits the pattern of Israeli Hasbara. 

To suggest that the media-hype in Mandla Mandela’s abduction by Netanyahu’s thugs is a "farce", is not only disingenuous; it is a desperate attempt to salvage and restore public opinion in favour of Israel. 

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That his argument is fallacious is clearly detected in Woode-Smith's weak attempt to blame media for correctly reporting the violent abductions of Mandela and the rest of the hundreds of participants in the globally acclaimed humanitarian mercy mission. The truth about Israel's Illegal military aggression in international waters is evident in the testimonies of the participants and substantiated by subsequent evidence of sexual abuse, torture and denial of legal rights. 

To foolishly argue that Mandela was "detained, not abducted", is to juggle with semantics to whitewash the brutal invasion by Israel of the flotilla. Equally it is naive to expect anyone to believe Woode-Smith's misleading fake argument that the purpose of the mercy mission was "aimed for headlines, not genuine humanitarian aid", especially given the devastation wrought by Netanyahu’s scorched-earth policies of mass slaughter in full view of the world. 

To therefore suggest that the South African media "amplified false claims", is utter rubbish.The narrative is clear as explained by David Heap of the Canadian Boat to Gaza and Freedom Flotilla Coalition Steering Committee: “Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard these ships". Contrary to Woode-Smith's Hasbara (proganda) the reality is that the violent seizure blatantly violated international law and defied the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.

South African Occupational therapist Dr Fatima Hendricks recounted her six-day detention in an Israeli prison following her abduction in international waters. It is important to recall that six  South Africans—Hendricks, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela, Zukiswa Wanner, Reaaz Moolla, Dr Zaheera Soomar, and Carrie Shelver—were captured by Israeli forces on the Global Sumud Flotilla.According to Hendricks, their goal was to deliver aid and establish a sustainable humanitarian sea corridor, allowing subsequent aid boats to follow.She said activists boarded the boats from Italy, Spain, Greece, Libya, Turkey and Tunisia.

South Africans set sail from Tunisia. Hendricks recounted the harrowing experiences while being attacked by Israeli Occupation Forces in both Tunisian and Greek waters, and the interception of their vessel in international waters, reported IOL. Hendricks explained that she was denied her hijab and accused of being a terrorist. She endured paralysis from Guillain-Barré syndrome and faced breast cancer, undergoing a bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy.“They chose that particular moment in my strip search to mock my body.

The female soldiers told all the male soldiers that I did not have breasts and what I looked like as an act of humiliation,” Hendricks said. For Woode-Smith to ignore such harrowing abuse of unarmed civilians and by resorting to well-worn Zionist propaganda tactics to reimage Israel’s illegal conduct as "civilised", is futile.