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Wed, June 16, 2010 | Video file 2 and Video file 3 | Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center | Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Inflaming Emotions aboard the Mavi Marmara before the Confrontation with the IDF

(Video File No. 2)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRgzbQqGK3s

During the voyage the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, especially the hard core of IHH operatives, were indoctrinated by senior figures such as IHH head Bülent Yildirim and Israeli-Arab sheikh Ra’ed Salah, a radical Islamist. A number of hours before the IDF took control of the ship, in addition to organizing and preparing weapons, the operatives on the upper deck shouted battle cries to incite those who were expected to take part in the premeditated violent confrontation with the IDF.

The ITIC is in possession of videos documenting the incitement to violence aboard the Mavi Marmara. For example:

A. A report prepared by Al-Jazeera TV broadcast live from the ship two days before the confrontation with the IDF showed the ship’s passengers singing anti-Jewish songs and songs of praise for the intifada (Palestinian terrorist campaign). It also showed them shouting “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahoud,”^[1] a reference to Muhammad’s slaughter of Jewish men living in Khaybar in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century (Al-Jazeera TV, May 29, 2010).

B. There was incitement by the hard core of IHH operatives during preparations for the confrontation. Among the slogans shouted were “Allah shall instill fear in their hearts.” One of the most vociferous was sheikh Muhammad al-Hazimi, a member of the Yemeni Parliament and of Al-Islah (the Yemini reform bloc) (also photographed aboard the ship holding a curved dagger).

Sheikh Mohammed al-Hazimi, a member of the Yemeni Parliament and of Al-Islah, aboard the Mavi Marmara.

Additional Evidence of the Preparations of the Hard Core of IHH Operatives for the Confrontation with the IDF

(Video File No. 3)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TxchZ39e-s

This video file contains a number of clips documenting the stages of the hard core of IHH operatives aboard the Mavi Marmara preparing themselves for the violent confrontation with the IDF. Some of the videos were taken by the ship’s security cameras (close to the time of the confrontation IHH operatives disabled some 20 security cameras on the upper deck) and others were taken by media correspondents or photographers on board who documented the events.

The videos illustrate the intensive preparations made for the confrontation, which began immediately after the Israeli Navy hailed the ships and asked them to return to their home ports. At that point all the ordinary passengers were sent below decks while all the operatives of the hard core mounted the upper deck and began preparations for the confrontation (statements to that effect were also reported when passengers and crew members were questioned).

The videos show some of the preparations:

A. Dividing the operatives into avtion teams: Every team was briefed by a senior operative. During the briefings one leader is heard listening to orders (in Turkish) on his walkie-talkie and repeating them to his team. He orders, “Don’t move from here.”

B. Cutting chains and iron bars from the ship’s railings using disks brought on board in Istanbul. The lengths of chains and bars were used to attack the IDF forces.

C. Removing wooden clubs from their hiding places on the ship and distributing them to the operatives.

D. Putting on gas masks and handing out filters.

E. Gathering the operatives on the upper deck, facing the sea. The operatives are armed with clubs to meet the IDF forces.

When the first soldier landed on board the ship he and those following him were viciously attacked by the IHH operatives who used the weapons they had prepared in advance, to the point of trying to kill the soldiers.

Notes:

^[1] Khaybar was a settlement in the Arabian Peninsula conquered by Muhammad and his supporters in 628 AD. It was accompanied by the slaughter of hundred of Jews and those who surrenders were forced to pay a high tax to the Muslims. The battle of Khaybar became a symbol of Muslim conquest and especially of the defeat of the Jews at the hands of Muslims, and is used as a militant slogan against the Jews by Islamic elements, among them Hamas.