I am in Malta with the group ready to board the Gaza flotilla ship “Conscience” which was bombed by Israel yesterday. As one of the organizers of the US Boats to Gaza and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition, we have been working for months to bring activists from 22 countries to board the next ship to challenge the Israeli genocide of Gaza and break the illegal Israeli Siege of Gaza.
As an American citizen, and a retired US Army Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in opposition to the US war on Iraq in 2003, I have been horrified in the blatant complicity of the United States in providing bombs, weapons and targeting information to the Israeli military that has killed over 60,000 Palestinians and left hundreds of thousands wounded and homeless.
As best that we can piece together what happened,, our ship “Conscience” which was anchored in international waters 13 nautical miles off Malta, an Israeli C-130 aircraft flying from Israel at 5,000 feet dropped two drones from its cargo bay. The crew of the “Conscience” heard two drones before two explosions blew a hole in the bow of the ship and severely damaged the ship.
The participants from 22 countries were to board the “Conscience” the previous day, but Israeli instigated “lawfare” had resulted in the flag of the ship being taken after arriving in international waters off Malta. Therefore our participants including 8 US citizens were not onboard when the bomb, probably a US bomb supplied to Israel, hit the “Conscience.”
Only hours after the bombing of the “Conscience” we mobilized two boats to go from Malta to the “Conscience” in solidarity but not allowed to board.
On the 15th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the 2010 Gaza flotilla causing the deaths of 10 Turkish citizens, including a 18 year old Turkish American citizen and the wounding of 50 others on the ship Mavi Marmara, we call on the U.S. to stop its complicity with Israel in the Israeli genocide of Gaza and to investigate the use of U.S. bombs in attempting to destroy the “Conscience” and kill those who challenge the horrific Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
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