A group of activists detained for trying to sail an aid ship to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s blockade will be deported soon, Israeli officials have said.

The 11 campaigners and eight crew have signed deportation papers and most will be flown out on Sunday.

Security forces boarded the Irish-owned ship, Rachel Corrie, on Saturday.

Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today

Names of the nine Turks whose dead bodies were sent to Turkey

1. Ibrahim Bilgen – Siirt,
2. Ali Haydar Bengi – Diyarbakir,
3. Cevdet Kiliçlar – Istanbul (IHH staff),
4. Çetin Topçuo?lu – Adana (national taekwondo team member),
5. Necdet Y?ld?r?m – Malatya (?HH staff),
6. Furkan Do?an – Kayseri,
7. Fahri Yald?z – Ad?yaman,
8. Cengiz Songür – Izmir
9. Cengiz Akyüz – Hatay.

Names of Activists who are still missing

1. Çelebi Bozan,
2. Osman Kurç
3. Ayd?n Ataç

Names of peace activists who were injured during the Israeli Raid

1. Sükrü Peker
2. Mehmet Murat Yildirim
3. Canip Tunç
4. adettin Furkan
5. Tuna Yücel
6. Muhittin Yildirim
7. Osman Çal?k
8. Suat Kosmaz
9. Sahin Ibrahim Güleryüz
10. Imdat Avli
11. Mustafa Batiran
12. Rabiha Gümrükçü
13. Cevdet Öçenek
14. Erkan Baycidan

List of Passengers from Indonesia

Warga Negara Indonesia (WNI) two of Indonesian activists were injured

1. M. Yassin | TV One crew
2. Nur Fitri (koordinator) | MER-C
3. dr Arief Rachman | MER-C
4. Abdillah Onim | MER-C
5. Nur Ikhwan | MER-C
6. H Ferry Nur | Kispa
7. Muhendri Muchtar | Kispa
8. Hardjito Warno | Kispa
9. Okvianto Baharudin | Kispa
10. Surya Fahrizal (jurnalis Hidayatullah) – seriously injured shot at stomach, is treated in Israel hospital
11. Santi Soekanto (Former Jakarta Posts journalist)
12. Dzikrullah Ramudya | Al Aqsha

Names of Passenger from European Countries and America

From USA

1. Greta Berlin
2. Hedy Epstein (86), St. Louis, Missouri, USA
3. Katherine Elliott Sheetz (63), Woods Hole, Mass., USA
4. David Schermerhorn (80), Deer Harbor, Washington State, USA

Passengers From European Countries

Holland

1. Annekarijn de Jong (29), Weesp, Holland

Belgium

1. Griet M.A. Deknopper (Margarita) (32), Halle, Belgium
2. Inge Neefs (26), Ghent, Belgium

Ireland

1. Caoimhe Butterly, 31
2. Denis Halliday
3. Mark Daly, 37
4. Kerry, Ireland
5. Shane Dillon, 36
6. Dublin, Ireland
7. Fiachra O Luain, 28
8. Carndonagh

UK

1. Alex Harrison, 32, London, UK
2. Theresa McDermott, 43, Edinburgh, Scotland
3. Denis Healey, 55
4. Ewa Jasiewicz (31), London, UK / Otwock, Poland

Greece

1. Giorgos Klontzas, 39
2. Agios Nikolaos, Greece

Germany

1. Annette Groth, 56, Berlin, Germany
2. Inge D.M. Höger, 59, Herford, Germany
3. Matthias Jochheim, 61
4. Frankfurt, Germany
5. Norman Paech, 72, Hamburg, Germany

Palestine

1. Lubna Masarwa (32)
2. Huwaida Arraf (33), Ramallah, Palestine / Washington D.C. / Detroit, MI
3. Nader El Sakka (58), Hamburg, Germany

Renowned Passenger Profiles

1. Henning Mankell, author of the best-selling Wallander series of crime novels.
2. Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel peace laureate , co-founder of Northern Ireland’s Peace People and a veteran of the Gaza flotillas
3. Hassan Ghani, Scottish journalist and documentary film-maker, 24 and from Glasgow, was on board the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish vessel attacked by Israeli forces.
4. David Schermerhorn, 80, the oldest, an American film producer whose work includes City of Ghosts.

Sources:

• Freegaza.org
• Guardian.co.uk
• Vivanews.com

The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session Monday on how to respond after Israeli commandos intercepted a ship carrying humanitarian aid in international waters and killed at least nine pro-Palestinian activists.

The 15-member council convened an emergency session at the request of members Lebanon and Turkey.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who traveled from South America for the meeting, criticized Israel, calling the Israeli Defense Forces’ actions “tantamount to banditry and piracy.”

Timeline of Israeli and Arab Palestinian conflict 1896-2009

1896-1897
Theodore Herzl publishes Der Judenstaat, “The State of the Jews” calling for a Jewish state to solve the growing problem of anti-Semitism. First Zionist Congress discusses plans to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Political Zionism begins.

WW1 World War I
The Ottoman Empire, ruler of the Arab world since 1500’s, is defeated.

1915
Hussein-McMahon Correspondence- Britain pledges support for Arab independence from Ottoman Empire. Hussein and McMahon later disagreed over whether Palestine was included in the territory to be granted independence.

1916
Sykes-Picot Agreement – divides the Ottoman Arab lands into zones exercised by either French or British spheres of influence. Palestine comes under British influence

1917
Britain issues Balfour Declaration which calls for “support of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”

1922
Council of the League of Nations divides Arab lands; British mandate for Palestine established.

1929
Arab-Jewish riots in Hebron and elsewhere left nearly 250 Arabs and Jews dead and the Jewish community of Hebron ceased to exist.

1933
Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. Jewish migration into Palestine increases.

1936-1939
The Arab Revolt – First major outbreak of Arab-Jewish hostilities. Revolt leads to the Peel Commission recommendation in 1937 of partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Arabs rejected and Jews accepted but wanted more land. White Paper limits Jewish immigration; Jews found the Mossad to arrange for illegal immigration.

WWII – World War II
Holocaust; Haj Amin El Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem sides with Nazis. Jewish migration into Palestine intensifies (680,000 Jews in Palestine in 1946). By 1946, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan had attained independence.

1946
Hostilities in Palestine escalate, including the bombing of the British King David Hotel by the Jewish Irgun.

1947-1948
UN General Assembly Resolution 181 is passed, partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Greater Jerusalem was to be an international city (corpus separatum). UNGA Res. 181 rejected by Arabs. Tensions escalate. Deir Yassin Massacre (over 100 Palestinian civilians killed in Jerusalem village).

1948
British mandate ends; Israel declares statehood. Arab armies attack Israel. War results in a divided Jerusalem and 650,000 Palestinian refugees. UNGA Res 194 establishes commission to facilitate the repatriation or compensation of refugees.

1949-1950
Armistice (forms basis for what became known as the “Green Line”.) Israel holds 77% of territory. Jordan annexes East Jerusalem and West Bank. Egypt controls Gaza Strip. UNRWA established. Jews from Arab countries begin migration into Israel. The Israeli Knesset passes the “Law of Return,” which entitles any Jew to full Israeli citizenship.

1956
Suez Crisis. Nasser’s nationalization of the canal leads to military action by France, Britain and Israel. US forces allies’ withdrawal. Eisenhower threatens economic sanctions on Israel if it failed to do so.

1964
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is established, with the stated aim of “eliminating Zionism in Palestine.”

1967
Six Day War: – Israel launches a preemptive strike and conquers the Sinai, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, which it annexed. 600,000 Palestinians become refugees. UNSC Res 242 calls for Israeli withdrawal and establishes “land for peace” principle.

1969-1970
Israel begins establishing settlements in occupied territories. Jordan drives PLO out of Jordan: PLO forms base in southern Lebanon. Egypt’s “War of Attrition” against Israel, with Soviets aiding Nasser, leads to the Rogers Plan which sets UNSC Res. 242 as the basis for negotiations.

1973
Yom Kippur War – Egypt and Syria attack Israel. No territorial change. UNSC Res 338 calls for negotiations between the parties. Arab oil embargo begins and lasts for 5 months.

1974
Palestinian National Council adopts a political program. Israelis interpret this as staged liberation of Palestine; it comes to be viewed as meaning that a state in part of Palestine was acceptable to the PLO.

1977
Menachem Begin and Likud coalition win Israeli elections. Settlements in occupied territories increase. Egypt’s President Sadat goes to Israel’s Knesset and expresses desire for Egypt and Israel to live together in “permanent peace based on justice” and calls for Palestinian right to own state.

1978
Camp David Accords – through negotiations led by President Carter, Sinai returned to Egypt in exchange for recognition of Israel; sets framework for settling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab League expels Egypt. Israel invades Lebanon, occupies its southern border.

1980
Israeli government declares Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital, affirming the de facto annexation of East Jerusalem, and its expanded municipal lines that included West Bank land, in 1967.

1981
Israel annexes Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967.

1982
Israel invades Lebanon a second time and lays siege to Beirut. PLO moves its headquarters from Beirut to Tunis. Reagan Peace Initiative and Fez Summit Peace Proposal

1987
Intifada, a Palestinian popular uprising against the Israeli occupation of the territories, begins in Gaza and spreads to West Bank

1988
The PLO accepts UN resolution 242 and 338, renounces violence and recognizes the right of Israel to exist within its pre-1967 borders. The United States opens dialogue with the PLO. Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement is founded.

1991
Gulf War begins in January in response to Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Madrid Conference – Israel and Arabs begin bilateral and multilateral negotiations.

1992
Bush-Baker Administration holds up $10 Billion in U.S. loan-guarantees to Israel (fiscal years 1993 to 1997) in attempt to limit Israeli settlement building. Israel expels 415 Palestinians suspected of pro-Islamist sympathies to South Lebanon.

1993
Oslo Peace Process, the agreement between the two sides to make gradual steps towards a final settlement of the conflict, begins. Clinton hosts PLO and Israel signing of the “Declaration of Principles.” Israel recognizes the PLO and gives it limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza, creating the Palestinian Authority. In return, the PLO gives up its claims to Israel’s territory as defined by its pre-1967 borders. First Hamas suicide attack.

1994
Palestinian Authority is established in Gaza and Jericho. Arafat arrives in Gaza. Jordan & Israel sign peace treaty. Rabin, Peres, Arafat receive Nobel Peace Prize.

1995
“Oslo II” establishes 3 areas in West Bank: Area A— direct Palestinian control. Area B –jointly controlled: Palestinian civilian control and Israeli security control. Area C – exclusive Israeli control. Prime Minister Rabin is assassinated by right-wing Israeli fanatic in Tel Aviv.

1996
Palestinians elect Yasser Arafat as President. Israel launches “Operation Grapes of Wrath” in southern Lebanon; Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister of Israel. Summit in Washington between Arafat, Netanyahu, King Hussein, and Clinton.

1997
Hebron Protocol signed dividing city of Hebron. Israel starts building a settlement, Har Homa, on a hill overlooking East Jerusalem resulting in widespread protests. Peace process frozen.

1998
Wye River Memorandum, outlining further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, is signed but frozen. PNC renounces clauses in PLO charter offensive to Israel.

1999
PLO postpones declaration of statehood. Ehud Barak elected as Prime Minister, pledges to work for peace. Sharm el Sheik memorandum signed between Israel and PLO, final status talks begin. President Clinton attends PNC Meeting in Gaza.

2000
Camp David II – Clinton-led negotiations on final status issues between Barak and Arafat breakdown, largely over the issue of Jerusalem. Sharon makes provocative visit to Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. Protesting Israeli-Arabs shot by Israeli police. Second Intifada, a violent and sustained uprising, begins.

2001
Taba Talks: Arafat and Barak find common ground but no agreements. Bush inaugurated. Sharon elected Prime Minister. Violence escalates. Mitchell Report released. Ceasefire attempts are made but broken.

2002
Reoccupation of Palestinian areas begins. Arafat placed under house arrest. Occupation of Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Saudi Crown Prince peace plan, endorsed by Arab League, promises recognition of Israel for ending occupation. UNSC Res. 1397 affirms 2-state vision, welcomes Saudi initiative and Quartet diplomacy. President Bush declares vision for a “viable Palestinian state next to a secure Israel.” Israel begins construction of “security fence” around the West Bank.

2003
US-initiated war in Iraq. Occupation of Iraq begins. The Road Map is released by the US, UN, Russia and the EU. Geneva Accords and People’s Voice Initiative released.

2004
Sharon announces unilateral Gaza withdrawal plan and gains U.S. support. Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat dies. International Court of Justice rules that the route of Israel’s “separation barrier” violates international law.

2005
Mahmoud Abbas elected President of the Palestinian Authority on a non-violent platform. Second Intifada ends with Sharm el-Sheikh summit in February and declaration of cease-fire by militant groups in March. In State of the Union address Bush recommits to two-state solution and asks Congress for additional aid to the Palestinians. Gaza withdrawal is completed in September.

2006
Prime Minister Sharon suffers a serious stroke; Deputy PM Ehud Olmert assumes power. Hamas, a State Department designated foreign terrorist organization, wins majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections. Escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence in Gaza and abduction of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit. Hezbollah-Israel conflict erupts in the summer following kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

2007
Mecca Agreement between Hamas and Fatah, brokered by Saudi Arabia, leads to formation of Palestinian unity government in March. Arab League relaunches its Peace Proposal. Hamas takeover of Gaza in June, leads to breakup of unity government and appointment of Salam Fayyad as new PM of PA. Former British PM Tony Blair appointed Quartet’s envoy. Annapolis international peace conference convened in November with all Arab League nations participating including Syria and Saudi Arabia. PM Olmert and President Abbas agree to a “joint understanding” to “make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008.”

2008
In January, President Bush makes his first visit to the Holy Land as president. Also in January, Israel closes all border crossings with Gaza to halt Palestinian rocket attacks. Palestinian militants bomb the Rafah border and tens of thousands of Gazans cross the border into Egypt. In May, Israelis celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary and Palestinians reflect on the 60th anniversary of the “Nakba.” Also in May, Israel publicizes that they are in negotiations with Syria via Turkish intermediaries. In June, a Gaza cease-fire is brokered between Hamas and Israel by Egyptian intermediaries. In September, Israeli PM Olmert announces intent to resign and by October Tzipi Livni announces she cannot form a coalition because of Shas party demands and calls for new elections. In December, Hamas-Israel cease-fire expires and violence breaks out. Rocket fire from Gaza increases, and on Dec. 27 Israel launches Operation Cast Lead.

2009
2009 begins with escalating violence in Gaza and southern Israel. On Jan. 8 the UN Security Council passes Resolution 1860, calling for a full ceasefire. The U.S. abstains. On Jan. 17, Israel announces a unilateral end to offensive military operations in the Gaza Strip and on Jan.18 Hamas announces a one-week ceasefire, demanding Israeli troops withdraw from the Gaza Strip. US President Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20. He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appoint former Senator George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East to work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli elections are held in February; Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister with right-leaning coalition government in March. Obama Administration holds series of meetings and consultations throughout spring, including urging Israel to “stop settlement activity” and culminating in Presidential speech in Cairo on June 4.

Courtesy: http://www.cmep.org/documents/Timeline.htm

WASHINGTON — The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press.