[IsraelTimes] Norway asks Jerusalem to explain 'allegations of excessive use of force' in arrests of activists on boat en route to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run coastal enclave.The captain of a Norwegian boat carrying pro-Paleostinian activists en route to Gazoo accused Israeli authorities of violating the law by boarding the vessel in international waters and using violent force against its crew.
Norway asked Israel to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrests and "the allegations of excessive use of force," a Norwegian government front man told AFP on Thursday.
"We were tossed in the slammer
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in international waters and we were closer to Egypt than Israel," the boat’s captain Herman Reksten said early Thursday when he returned to Norway after being held for three days in an Israeli prison.
"Israel has broken all the rules; it’s horrific that they board a Norwegian ship in international waters and force it to moor in Israel," he told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
The IDF on Sunday announced the seizure of a boat off the Gazoo Strip with activists on board who were denouncing the land and sea blockade imposed by Israel on the Paleostinian enclave for more than a decade.
Egypt, too, has kept its Gazoo border crossing largely closed during several years of sour relations with the terror group ruling Gazoo.
Israel has imposed a blockade on Gazoo since Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, seized the territory from the internationally backed Paleostinian Authority in 2007. It says the blockade is in place in order to prevent weapons and other military equipment from entering the Strip.
The Norwegian-flagged Karstein ship had 22 people on board.
Several have been released since, but seven people ‐ two Norwegians, two Swedes, one French, one Spaniard and one Canadian ‐ were still detained on Thursday, according to the rights organization Just Future for Paleostine.
As he arrived at Oslo International Airport, Karstein captain Herman Reksten also accused Israeli soldiers of shocking the activists with tasers.
"I still have a headache from being hit in prison," he added.
| In some circles that's considered foreplay. What a humourless little prude this captain is. |
"I can say no more!"
"We’ve asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the course of events and on what basis they think they are entitled to intervene on the ship," Norwegian foreign ministry front man Frode Andersen told AFP in an email.
| "Your ship was going to intervene with our country, so we intervened first. This isn't rocket science, dude." |
| "Y'all aren't dead, or even temporarily broken, so clearly the force was not excessive. Dude.” |
| Be careful shat you wish for... |