aid ship to Gaza UNITED NATIONS, June 11 (KUNA) -- Iara Lee, a US filmmaker and human rights activist who was on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara when Israeli commandos attacked it on May 31st, showed reporters late Friday an hour-long new video she managed to smuggle out after she and others were released from an Israeli prison.
She told a press conference "we expected to be deterred from delivering our aid to Gazans, but we did not expect to be attacked savagely by criminals, and by surprise." Although the Israeli forces confiscated the cameras, laptops and all other electronic equipment on board the ship, she managed to smuggle her exclusive footage by concealing it in her underwear, she said.
Her high-definition, raw and unedited footage of the attack on Mavi Marmara conveyed the mood on the ship and of the passengers on it.
A male adult, wearing the Kuwaiti flag and "Kuwait" on the back of his jacket, was filmed praying peacefully with other passengers. Others were filmed working at their laptops.
The footage showed an instruction sheet in Hebrew with the photos of some passengers the Israeli commandos would not harm. Those included a German Parliamentarian and an archbishop.
Lee wondered how can Israel allege that these passengers laid a trap for Israel, duped the Israeli military, and plotted a lynching? "Do you see a premeditated ambush, or do you see some passengers using items at hand to protect themselves from an unprovoked assault by heavily armed commandos?" she asked.
The footage showed a doctor on board the ship even treated one of the Israeli commandos, as reported by the reputable New York Times newspaper on Friday.
She insisted that the Israeli commandos kept chasing the ship even as the captain was steering it away from the original route to Gaza.
She also noted that the passengers found it mysterious that five of the passengers simply disappeared after the ship docked in Israel and no country claimed them, raising suspicion that they were Israeli spies.
She said she will make the footage available on the Youtube for the whole world to watch, and said she will seek advice from experts in international law in order to sue the Israeli army.
Asked if she would do it again, she said yes but with more nationalities involved and a bigger flotilla.
She blamed her government for always covering up for Israeli "crimes" and found it shameful that the US is the only country which did not condemn the assault.
Lee, also a Brazilian of Korean origin, visited Gaza a few months ago and witnessed the Israeli war on Lebanon during the summer of 2006. "I am familiar with the Israeli crimes," she said. (end).
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