I don't recall the IDF or I ever claiming that the activists brought guns. I've said the exact opposite a half-dozen times.
The IDF is now claiming they were fired on.
You're free to believe or disbelieve whatever you want. If you'd watched the videos, you would have seen several situations where soldiers were knocked down or piled oin by the activists. You're free to think that it's physically impossible that someone could have grabbed a gun in one of those situations, but I don't.
I believe it's extremely unlikely that it could have happened and the IDF has done nothing to back up these claims.
I was incorrect earlier as classifying it as an act of piracy, the IDF did carry a military commission from the Israeli government however that does NOT change the fact that the attack was against international law.
And yet they didn't do a very good job of it, as is clearly obvious from the videos. But I guess that never happened, because in your mind IDF soldiers are Ramboesque commandos who are completely invulnerable from any harm.
I find it difficult to believe that IDF commandos, who are HIGHLY trained and well armed soldiers, would suffer such set-backs at the hands of people who are largely untrained, unarmored, and armed with slingshots, metal pipes, and kitchen knives.
This is akin to a group of college students attacking US Navy SEALS and the SEALS saying "Well..they had PIPES!"
Not sure what you think your point is here. You said there were no weapons. I pointed out that there were a ****load of knives. You said that they were just kitchen knives. I pointed out that even kitchen knives can be weapons, and that there were additional non-kitchen knives.
Then by that logic everyone has THOUSANDS of weapons all over their homes! If you want to get nit-picky, we can do that: there was no item on board the ship that had the clear intention of being a deadly weapon. Happy?
Unless you're going to argue that a knife is not a weapon, I don't really know where you're going with this.
You're making knives that people carry around for utility into some arsenal of death. Utility knives are NOT rare things and you're making it seem like carrying one instantly means you intend to use it to kill someone and thats the only reason to have it.
If you still can't see how they could be classified as weapons, I advise you to grab a Jambiya and head down to the mall to see what happens.
I carry a similar weapon on me at all times.
And yet nobody has managed to prove this, bare assertions aside.
The Associated Press: Israeli police say 16 Gaza activists sent to jail
"Robin Churchill, a professor of international law at the University of Dundee in Scotland, said the Israeli commandos boarded the ship outside of Israel's territorial waters.
"As far as I can see, there is no legal basis for boarding these ships," Churchill said."
Was seizing the flotilla legal? - The Globe and Mail
"Israel justifies the boarding of the ships in international waters basically as an act of self defence. It is Israel’s argument that the naval blockade of Gaza is needed to prevent Hamas in Gaza from attacking Israel.
However, notes Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International law at UBC, the test in international for constituting legal self defence is whether the action taken was “necessary and proportionate.” On the facts, “the action does not appear to have been necessary in that the threat was not imminent,” Prof. Byers said."
How the flotilla bound for Gaza Strip sailed into death at sea - Times Online
• Boarding a vessel is acceptable in certain circumstances, such as when a boat is suspected of terrorist activities or carrying weapons of mass destruction,
but even then Israel, for example, would need to seek permission from the country where the boat is registered, in this case Turkey
• Jason Alderwick, a maritime analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that the Israeli raid did not appear to have been conducted lawfully under the convention
Israel has also violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by capturing the boats in international waters. They have also, by not seeking permission of the host government (Turkey) to board the ships in international waters, violated the UN International Maritime Organization Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation which Israel signed and agreed to abide by in 2009.
That convention is entirely inapplicable here. Not only is it designed to target individual non-state actors, but you're missing a key provision:
The Convention doesn't create any new crimes, it simply creates a remedy for things that are already crimes under international law. Citing this convention as proof that the action was illegal is circular reasoning.
This type of incident is spelled out as illegal by other bodies of international maritime law.
Boarding and inspection was consistent with international law (San Remo Manual, Law of the Sea Convention, and customary international law).
San Remo applies to a situation in which the laws of war between states are in force. The laws of war do not apply in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which isn't even a state.