Jewish Activists and the Gaza Blockade.

 In the article called “Jewish Gaza-Bound Activists: IDF used excessive force in naval raid”, the journalist Yanir Yagna  reports that the Israel Defense Force is responsible for using excessive force to take over the ship.  The boat was carrying nine Jewish activists, and had set sail from Famagusta harbor located in Cyprus. The activists were hoping to breach the blockade that Israel had set up outside of Gaza, on September twenty sixth two thousand ten. The Israel Defense Force issued a statement that they had “peacefully boarded” the Jewish aid boat and that “it is currently being led to the Ashdod seaport along with its passengers.”  However, the nine passengers did not agree with the Israel Defense Force’s report of how the ship was seized. Yonatan Shapira one of the passengers of the ship and a former Israel Air Force pilot stated that “no words to describe what we went through during the take over.”   Yonatan also claimed that the activists were met with extreme violence from the Israel Defense Forces, even though the activists were displaying no violence themselves.  He claims that he was beat and hit with a taser gun by one of the soldiers. Yonatan’s description varies a lot from what the Israel Defense Forces spokesman is saying happened.  Nevertheless he and the other eight activists stand proud of their efforts to breach the blockade. He issued a statement saying that Israel’s siege on Gaza is an immoral, un-Jewish, crime that must me spoken out about.

            Yonatan’s claims against the Israel Defense Forces are being conformed by other sources as well. Eli Usharov, a reporter for Israel’s channel 10 also conformed that the take over was very brutal, even though the violence was unnecessary.  However, Usharov also said that “the activists managed to have a serious heart-to-heart with the troops once they were all placed on board the military vessel, and that “overall the atmosphere was good””.  Another source named Reuben Moscowitz, who was also one of the activists aboard the boat, was shocked that the soldier’s could be so violent to their fellow Jews. Moscowitz is a Holocaust survivor, and compares the blockade of Gaza to his experience in the concentration camps. Moscowitz states that he “cannot live with the fact that the State of Israel is imprisoning an entire people behind fences.” 

            The reliability of this article seems to come from very direct sources. The journalist seemed to have a lot of information and personal recollections of events that took place. He took the time to get direct quotes from the activists that were involved, and provided their names as well as other information about them. He also gave a quote that showed the Israel Defense Forces side of the story.  Overall the reliability of the article seemed strong.  He also did a good job at providing more then one source of information. When he was describing how the activists were unfairly treated, the fact he had three sources saying that the soldiers acted in a violent manner gave the activists more validity then the Israel Defense Forces. Though the author does not say that he is taking a particular side of the issue, and writes very objectively, you can infer from his sources that he is defending the activist more then he is the Israel Defense Forces. He uses the quotes and the backgrounds of the activists to draw the reader into the story and cause the reader to relate more with Yonatan, Eli, and Reuben then with the nameless and faceless Israel Defense Force.