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| Mavi Marmara flotilla ship |
(Scroll down for video) A Turkish activist who participated in a Gaza flotilla vowed to use the compensation to fund Hamas terror activities against Israel, according to press reports in Turkey.
One of the so called victims of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla has announced that he will donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Israel apologized to Turkey for the assault on the Mavi Marmara in which nine Turkish citizens were killed and agreed to pay compensation to the families of the victims.
Mehmet Tunc said he would donate the payments he receives from Israel to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine itself, adding that he would not touch even one "Turkish Lira" of it, in a press conference today.
“Israel should take this as a warning of what happens when it capitulates to terrorists,” Nathan Hillman, 49, a political activist in Brooklyn, New York told YourJewishNews.com.
Israel's decision to apologize to Turkey was slammed by civil right groups, according to a press release by a prestigious law firm.
"Israel's decision to apologize to Turkey is pathetic pandering to an Islamic extremist who compared Zionism to fascism and is still trying to indict Israeli officers for war crimes.
Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan should be tried for the deaths of the activists on the Marmara" – this according to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center.
On Friday, the Israeli government decided to voice regret for the 2010 Marmara flotilla incident which led to the deaths of nine Turkish citizens who attacked Israeli soldiers enforcing the Gaza blockade.
Darshan-Leitner: "The United Nations has investigated the Israeli blockade of Gaza and has determined that it is in full compliance with international law.
The flotilla, which was provided material support by the Turkish government, was a provocation designed to endanger the lives of Israeli sailors. As we head into Passover, the festival of freedom, the Israeli government displays that it is still not free from US pressure."
In 2011, Shurat HaDin's legal actions against the Mavi Marmara's insurance companies prevented it from once again sailing to Gaza's shores.
Shurat HaDin—Israel Law Center is an Israeli based civil rights organization and world leader in combating the terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world. Shurat HaDin seeks to bankrupt the terror groups and grind their criminal activities to a halt – one lawsuit at a time.
In December 2012, the law center representing two American families won a successful $338 million lawsuit against the government of Syria. The decision, handed down in the United States district court for Washington D.C., ruled that Syria was liable for the PKK's 1991 kidnapping of a group of American archeologists leading an excavation in Turkey.Mobile video not loading? Click here to view