Seeking Justice for Israeli High Seas Attack, Survivors Turn to US Court

Survivors of Israel’s 2010 deadly attack on a humanitarian flotilla are now turning to a U.S. federal court to demand compensation for their wounds and inhumane treatment.

Israel garnered global condemnation five years ago when it attacked a six-ship “freedom flotilla,” bearing humanitarian aid, with the aim of breaking Israel’s U.S.-backed blockade of Gaza. Israeli commandos violently assaulted the Turkish Mavi Marmara, which was part of the fleet, immediately killing nine people, with one additional person later succumbing to his wounds.

The military assault wounded over 150 people total, according to the suit filed Monday night in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

The four plaintiffs—U.S. nationals David Schermerhorn and Mary Ann Wright, dual American-Israeli citizen Huwaida Arraf, and Belgian Margriet Deknopper—were among those who sustained physical and psychological injuries aboard the U.S. ship Challenger 1, which carried 17 people and was part of the fleet that was attacked.

“The human rights violations committed against us were the illegal boarding of a U.S. flagged vessel in international waters, the assault of civilians on a U.S.-flagged vessel, physical injuries, and psychological and emotional injury,” Wright, a retired U.S. army colonel and former diplomat who resigned in opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, told Common Dreams.