TIM KING: The Ugly Details of Israel’s Gaza Siege & Attack Against the Mavi Marmara (VIDEO)

Ken O’Keefe’s International NW Tour leads to interviews with a second Gaza Flotilla attack survivor.

(SALEM, Ore.) – The last thirteen days of my life will leave an indelible impression from here on out; to say any less would be a vast understatement. I have been accompanying Ken O’Keefe on an international speaking tour of the NW Americas.

This man who fought Israeli commandos last May aboard the passenger ship Mavi Marmara isn’t afraid to admit that it takes strength to bring about real change. I like his program and I certainly admire Ken’s spirit.

From the midst of a movement to free Palestine from Israeli occupation that is largely tied to non violence, Ken admits that it takes direct action, physical resistance, and yes, sometimes violence, to counter a deadly threat to peaceful action.

I had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing a second Mavi Marmara survivor in Victoria, British Columbia, on the tour; his name is Kevin Neish, a lifelong peace activist and friend of Ken O’Keefe’s for many years.

It was very interesting to hear things that had missed my attention, and to record these thoughts and statements so they can be presented to the public.

The level of dedication these activists possess is definitely long term.

Ken O’Keefe’s involvement in the future is centered around the company AlohaPalestine.com, though his activism goes back and includes years of fighting for Hawaiian national heritage, marine sea life and ecosystems, human shields in the beginning of the Iraq War, and many other accomplishments.

Ken renounced his U.S. citizenship in protest over political issues, specifically relating to the U.S. military industrial complex and the wars overseas. Today he is a citizen of Palestine and Ireland, though the U.S. he explains, does not release citizenship, even when one burns their U.S. passport in a public ceremony… twice.

This video delves into areas that have not been fully explored:

• The absurdity of Israel stating that the Gaza activists were terrorists, Ken O’Keefe specifically; it is one area wide open for factual rebuttal.
• Israel’s use of deadly firearms against unarmed activists armed with broom handles; that is certainly an area screaming for exposure.
• Then there are the three activists who died by bleeding to death while Israeli ‘commandos’ refused to offer medical aid.
• Ken O’Keefe offers his straight opinion on suicide, an act he says he will never commit.
• Finally, Kevin Neish addresses the question; what is responsible for Israel’s lack of humanity?

Over the next several weeks we will deliver a great deal of information regarding Ken O’Keefe, future plans to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza, and highlights from Ken’s Northwest tour, which is extended to

include one more speaking engagement at Portland State University.

This has been an extremely important and successful event and Ken’s talks were well received everywhere in the U.S. and Canada.

Needless to say, people are curious about what happened last May when the Turkish flagged Mavi Marmara was attacked by Israel’s top rated commando unit 13 in international waters.

The ship was part of a larger flotilla operation that intended to break Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This report is the first in an upcoming series that will examine many aspects of the attack that happened on 31 May 2010, leaving nine people dead, including one U.S. citizen who was 19-years old.

Our party included Ken’s mom Pat Johnson who had not seen her son since before the Mavi Marmara attack, and Salem-News.com Reporter Eileen Fleming, who discussed her seven trips to Israel/Palestine and her new book. Learn more by visiting WeAreWideAwake.com.

Special Thanks to Tim King: Salem–News.Com Editor and Writer

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com’s Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.   

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation’s only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 65 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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TIM KING: Ken O’Keefe Arrives in Northwest

Debbie Menon

Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. Her main focus are the US-Mid- East Conflicts. Her writing has been featured in many print and online publications.

Her writing reflects the incredible resilience, almost superhuman steadfastness of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians, who are now facing the prospect of a final round of ethnic cleansing. She is committed to exposing Israel’s Lobbies’ control of ‘U.S. Middle East Policy. Control’ which amounts to treason by the Zionist lobbies in America and its stooges in Congress, and that guarantees there can never be a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only catastrophe for all, in the region and the world.

Her mission is to inform and educate internet viewers seeking unfiltered information about real events on issues of the US/Middle East conflicts that are unreported, underreported, or distorted in the American media. PS: For those of her detractors that think she is being selective and even “one-sided,” tough, that is the point of her work, to present an alternative view and interpretation of the US-Israel-Middle East conflict, that has been completely ignored in mainstream discourse.

The purpose is to look at the current reality from a different and critical perspective, not to simply rehash the pro-US/Israel perspective, smoke and mirrors that has been allowed to utterly and completely dominate Mainstream discourse.