Letter: Gaza Flotilla Story

The Sunday Leader

In response to an article on a Australian Sri Lankan shot in the Gaza Flotilla raid,

Hameed Abdul Karim writes:

I wish to point to an error in your reporting on the news item about the attack on Sri Lankan Australian Ahmad Luqman. You have stated that the Israeli soldiers opened fire after they were attacked by civilians on board the Mavi Maramara. Unfortunately this is not true. It was reported extensively in the world media (except the US and of course the Israeli media) that the Israeli commandos opened fire before they landed on board killing two activists according to Paul Larudee, an American on board the humanitarian ship.

Ahmad Luqman, who happens to be a nephew of former minister Imtiaz Bakeer Markar, says just about the same thing in the documentary televised by Al-Jazeera.

 

In this documentary a peace activist shows a document giving ‘orders’ and photographs of certain activists that the Jewish state wanted killed. This document was taken from an Israeli soldier whom doctors on the ship were treating for injuries he sustained in the brave but futile resistance put up by the peace activists.

 

For sure the activists on board resisted, not attacked, as your report says and it didn’t do the image of the tough and invincible Israeli soldier any good when the Israeli’s themselves showed an activist throwing an Israeli commando overboard.

 

Hameed Abdul Karim