As the MV Rachel Corrie, the last boat in the Free Gaza Movement’s Flotilla, is being dragged to Israel’s Ashdod port after being boarded and taken over in the early hours of Saturday, Israel continues to react to its Flotilla attack. Protests have been taking place throughout Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories. In the meantime, The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky investigates how Israel prepared for the Flotilla attack, and how the media repeatedly portrayed a connection between the activists and terrorism. After the attack, Israel went on the offensive to prove there was indeed a connection to terrorism. The IDF published a press release saying the activists on board the Mavi Marmara ship that was the site of at least 9 deaths on Monday morning were actually al Qaeda mercenaries. When Tarachansky and journalist Max Blumenthaul questioned the IDF for evidence of this allegation, the IDF said it didn’t have any and changed the title of the press release to “attackers of the IDF soldiers found without identification papers.”

Israeli troops have boarded another aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip. However, unlike the deadly confrontation on when Israeli troops stormed the Mavi Maramara aid boat earlier this week, killing seven people, there was no violence. The crew aboard the Irish aid ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, surrendered quietly on Saturday. Israeli forces boarded the ship, and escorted it into port, where the aid will be processed.

(Via Al Jazeera)