Peace activists who were on the Rachel Corrie have said they do not hold out much hope of ever getting the ship back after Israel continues to detain the vessel indefinitely.
Campaigners believe that the boats are being held by Israel in order to deter further activists from attempting to block the state’s naval blockade of the coastal territory.
Israel last week relaxed the blockade of the Gaza Strip, allowing food and a wider range of building materials to enter into the Hamas-controlled territory. Envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair said last week that the easing in the restrictions renders the role of aid bringers, such as those aboard the Rachel Corrie, obsolete.
Two other vessels that were detained and held by Israeli authorities remain in Israel with an indefinite fate. The Arion has been sitting in the Israeli port of Ashdod for a year and its fate remains unclear while the Challenger 1, which was detained just days before the Rachel Corrie, remains in Israel.
"We are in the process [of trying to get the ships back] but that is done through the international stage," said Derek Graham, the first mate of the Rachel Corrie.
Graham remains undeterred, though, in his efforts to break the naval blockade of Gaza:
"The next flotillas are planned for September but the operations are so big you can't hold them to a date," he said.
Ireland-Israeli diplomatic relations are thought to be nearing an all-time low after the Irish government expelled an official for the Israeli Embassy over the passport-faking scandal.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.GeorgeDillon | Jun 25, 2010, 01:45 PM EDT
Starlet: The Israeli Army are not carrying out "a police investigation". They have no jurisdiction on the open sea. The Israeli Army are not police, they're murderers and thieves.
jimmy12003 | Jun 24, 2010, 06:36 PM EDT
starlet! you say i care for these people! yes i do care for them, as far as i think its time they were able to live free from terrorisim by israel! but what i really would like to see, is and end put to that cult, who always seem to be some way or other, involved in every conflict and war, since the time of our lord!
JimThompson | Jun 24, 2010, 01:37 PM EDT
For centries a blockaid was done by countries to stop enemies from gaining extra supplies, etc. The ship knew that they were violating a blockaid when they sailed; therefore, they should expect that the blockaider will extract full rights over thier ship. War is hell but war is just that - WAR.
shuvonn | Jun 24, 2010, 06:28 AM EDT
And are THOSE same credit cards NORMALLY used fraudulently while being kept for the *INVESTIGATION*? And why, if the case is that the vessels are being kept for that same investigation, were not all of the vessels kept ? It does not appear they were all kept ONLY some....And how long do these investigations normally take since some have been kept for over a year?? And does that same principle of self defense apply to ONLY Israelis? It seems that it does in your eyes....
Fatherpat | Jun 24, 2010, 03:47 AM EDT
When did pirates like the infamous Cap'n Morgan ever return their booty to the victims of their crimes and treachery? To expect Pegleg Net N yahoo to return the illicit haul stolen by IOF brigands is as naive as expecting the colonists in apartheid Palestine to return to their Russian ghettos and give back the land of Palestine to the one true Semitic folk of the region. "Only a crazy government that has lost all restraint and all connection to reality could do something like that - consider ships carrying humanitarian aid and peace activists from around the world as an enemy and send massive military force to international waters to attack them -- shoot and kill." - Uri Avnery, former Member of the Knesset, Israel, Gush Shalom Movement Ironic that In but a single generation the dispossessed Jews that fled Europe immediately after WW2 on "illegal" ships such as the Mataroa and Parita to begin their violent and terrorist colonization of Palestine, their gun-toting murdering grandchildren have become the NAZIS the Jews once so despised. The world however, has not forgotten and the sympathy once lavished on the Jews must now be for our brothers and sisters in their WARSAW GHETTO GAZA. Go Rachel Corrie Go & God Speed! BOYCOTT 729
Starlet | Jun 24, 2010, 02:29 AM EDT
GeorgeDillon, likewise, In any police investigation cards, credit cards, etc are kept until it's all over.
Starlet | Jun 24, 2010, 02:28 AM EDT
shuvonn Same with any police or other kind of investigation. Until it's over it is kept.
Starlet | Jun 24, 2010, 02:27 AM EDT
Searlit, if you knew what self defense and staying alive means to the living, you might understand the here and now.
Starlet | Jun 24, 2010, 02:25 AM EDT
Sure, Jimmy12003. Iran nukes the place you call "that occupied state" then what of the Hamas people you purportedly care for? Won't they be damaged along with the nuclear blast?
jimmy12003 | Jun 23, 2010, 06:54 PM EDT
hopefully, they get the ship back before Iran nukes that occupied state once and for all!
Searlit | Jun 23, 2010, 10:23 AM EDT
If they knew what agression and violence does to the soul, they wouldn't do it.
killowen | Jun 23, 2010, 09:08 AM EDT
Pirates without a care. Partner big Mucky Muck scared to confront The Cancer that jesus wrongly said "forgive them for they no not what they do."
shuvonn | Jun 22, 2010, 03:58 PM EDT
They have been using credit cards confiscated from the passengers, they took and have yet to return cash, cell phones, cameras, video equipment, memory cards, not to mention the clothing etc that has yet to be returned, apparently they think they are a law unto themselves...
GeorgeDillon | Jun 22, 2010, 01:01 PM EDT
Oh, so they're thieves as well as killers? I guess that's no great surprise...