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Sun, Dec 26, 2010 | IHH – Insani Yardim Vakfi

Photo Gallery: IHH’s Welcoming Ceremony For the Mavi Marmara

The Mavi Marmara “finally returned home after 219 days since the incident on may 31. Tens of thousands of people attended a welcome ceremony for the ship,” according to a press release from the Turkish IHH [Insani Yardim Vakfi - Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief - Dec 26, 2010].

The Mavi Marmara was accompanied by 80 small boats and people were waving flags of Palestine and Turkey to welcome the ship. Turkish citizens as well as hundreds of activists from 50 different countries participated in the event. Photo’s of the 9 “activists” who died during the Israeli raid were displayed at the ship. People were shouting slogans condemning Israel and showing banners protesting against the blockade of Gaza.

IHH President Bülent Yildirim spoke at the welcoming ceremony and the family members of the 9 dead “activists” attended the ceremony as well as Archbishop Hilarion Capucci^[1] (retired titular archbishop of Caesarea for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church), the Swedish-Israeli “leftist activist” Dror Elimelech Feiler^[2], Free Gaza legal advisor Audrey Bomse, Muhammad Sawalha (former Hamas commander and a signatory of the pro-Hamas Istanbul declaration), Mazen Kahel (from the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza) and Mavi Marmara “activist” Demetris Pleionis. [IHH website, Dec 26, 2010]

Photo Gallery

[1] On August 18, 1974 Capucci was arrested by Israeli police for smuggling weapons into the West Bank in a Mercedes sedan for Palestinian terrorists. He participated in the aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip and was a “passenger” on the Mavi Marmara.

[2] Dror Elimelech Feiler’s father met with PLO representatives in Rumania in 1978 while this was still illegal at the time. Dror Elimelech was also one of the first “refuseniks” to serve in the disputed territories. He is chairman of the Swedish organization Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (JIPF) and the European organization European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP). He was aboard the Mavi Marmara involved in the Gaza flotilla clash.