World Cup: Some Israelis OK with cheering for Germany

Germany's Philipp Lahm, second from left, and Germany's Piotr Trochowski, left, celebrate after winning their World Cup match against England in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on June 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) © 2010 AP

 

In a small artsy bar in a country founded in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust, a crowd lurchingly followed the World Cup game between Germany and England. Something deeply counterintuitive was happening: Israelis were cheering for Germany.

The unlikely scene is being repeated in neighborhood pubs across the Jewish state. It isn't in every bar, and certainly Israelis argue among themselves if it's OK to support the German team. Many say they still feel weird cheering for Germany — but it's happening.

It demonstrates how far Israel-Germany relations have moved on since the Jewish state was founded. Israelis support Germany for the same reason fans around the world do: They are one of the competition's strongest teams, with beautiful footwork, aggressive strikers and a no-nonsense defense.

The passing of time and Germany's consistent public contrition for the Holocaust has softened many Israelis. And Germany's strong political support for Israel at a time when the country feels like the target of international hostility makes their soccer team more endearing.

In the funky Uganda Bar in downtown Jerusalem, the game was screened in a tiny room with a sheet covering the window to block out the sun. Chain-smoking fans hooted as Germany scored goal after goal. One of the patrons was Ziv Rotfogel, the 33-year-old grandchild of Holocaust survivors.

"I don't treat the German people or the German nation the way my grandfather and grandmother do," Rotfogel said. "They have carried out the deepest soul searching for the biggest crime ever committed. They are dealing with the subject," he said.

Like other Israelis interviewed, Rotfogel said he initially felt strange cheering on Germany. He said he still couldn't wave their flag.

It was the same in another tiny Jerusalem bar, the Slow Moshe, where in an earlier game, four men wearing the knitted skullcaps of religious Jews quietly cheered as Germany thrashed Australia.

Back in the Uganda Bar, Ornit Arnon, 35, said the support of many Israelis for Germany was a nod to a better future. "It's an optimistic approach," she said.

Diaa Hadid is a Jerusalem-based AP correspondent.

AP Photo - In this photo taken Friday, June 25, 2010, Palestinian Noor Daod, left, a race car driver, talks to another driver while awaiting her turn to race in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Palestinian women are speeding into record books by participating in their first all-female car racing team, the Speed Sisters. Along the way, they're crashing through another gender barrier in this conservative Muslim society. The eight women have entered a popular race called. Posted on Sat, Jun. 26, 2010

Racing Palestinian girls speed into record books

By DALIA NAMMARI and DIAA HADID
Associated Press Writers

Palestinian women are speeding into the record books by competing on an all-female car racing team - the Speed Sisters. Along the way, they're crashing through another gender barrier in this conservative Muslim society.

The eight women have entered a popular race called "Speed Test." Souped-up cars race around a track, weaving their way around obstacles and spinning circles around others. The all-female team is a first for the event.

"I love sports that are tough and dangerous, because I am a dangerous woman," said Nour Dawood, 20, after a race this week outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.

She wore a yellow-and-black racing suit, sunglasses and a helmet as she leaned against her car, her curly hair pushed back into a ponytail. Around her, drivers revved their engines.

Arabic music pounded out of loudspeakers. A group of fans crowded around the track to watch, including a small contingent of women with large sunglasses.

It's another step for Palestinian women who have been claiming more positions of influence in a still very much male-dominated society. This year, the first female Palestinian governor was appointed to oversee the West Bank district of Ramallah. The mayor of the district's main city is a woman, as are four ministers in the Palestinian Cabinet.

Speed Test began in the West Bank in 2005, as violence between Israel and the Palestinians began petering out. Races take place throughout the territory that is ruled by Israel, with Palestinians administering parts of it. Palestinians want the land - about the size of Connecticut - as part of a future state.

In 2005, only one woman participated - the Speed Sisters' coach, 39-year-old Suna Awedia.

Fast forward five years and eight women are in the race.

As a team, the women get to pool trainers and share a car.

The British Consulate paid for a two-day driving workshop and repaired a banged-up car donated by the Palestinian Union for Race Car Drivers. The union also waived the $70 entry fee.

On the field, the Speed Sisters still need to prove their mettle. Only one woman so far reached the top 10 in this year's three rounds. They've got two rounds to go.

Awedia, their captain, says her drivers, who are mostly in their 20s, need more training, practice and better cars. She's searching for sponsors.

But Dawood says they are already champions.

"Look at us," she said proudly. "We are really into it. We are one team. And we are all winners."

Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2010/06/26/v-print/2391791/racing-palestinian-girls-speed.html#ixzz0s2duXOWS

Fearing expulsion, Palestinians stay home

By DIAA HADID Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press

June 24, 2010, 12:44AM

JENIN, West Bank — The Helou family is so worried about getting expelled to Gaza by Israeli authorities that they're all but trapped in this West Bank town. They couldn't even leave to get their disabled son the best possible surgery to let him walk.

Some 20,000 Palestinians in the West Bank live under the same fear, because they hold residency papers from the Gaza Strip and Israeli authorities refuse to allow their papers to be updated — though they have lived in the West Bank for years.

Israel eased its blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip this month by allowing more goods into the territory. But the embargo is just one of the many restrictions imposed on Palestinians and their movement — including rules effectively locking them into whichever of the two, widely separated territories they were born in, the West Bank or Gaza.

Fears of families like the Helous that they'll be thrown out of their homes have only increased since recent Israeli military rules branded those living in the territory without residency papers as "infiltrators" subject to prison or expulsion. The rules enshrine the military's on-and-off policy for the past decade.

Moving within the West Bank runs the risk of running into the more than 500 Israeli military checkpoints that carve up the tiny territory — about the size of Connecticut — and being discovered by soldiers.

"The whole world is closed to my children," said Lubna Helou, whose eldest son Issam, 17, has not walked for years because of an extreme flat foot condition.

His parents were afraid to send him abroad for surgery because he would have to show Israeli soldiers his ID that lists his address as Gaza, exposing him to the risk of expulsion. They've also skipped doctor's appointments outside his small town of Jenin.

"Tens of thousands of people are under constant threat, preventing them from obtaining jobs, medical care, educational opportunities — for fear of crossing a checkpoint," said Sari Bashi of the Israeli rights group Gisha, which is challenging the military order in court.

Israeli military officials say Gaza residents can return to that territory along with their West Bank spouses. But that would mean leaving West Bank homes they have lived in for years. Moreover, most Palestinians are reluctant to settle in impoverished Gaza, where daily life is a formidable struggle. The Islamic militant group Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007, while its rival, the U.S.-backed Fatah movement, continues to run the West Bank.

The regulations were first imposed in 2000 after the eruption of the last major round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Israeli officials sought to restrict the mobility of gunmen or bombers sneaking into Israel to carry out attacks.

The fighting, which lasted for about five years, "was a security turning point for Israel," said military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitch. More than 5,000 Palestinians and upwards of 1,000 Israelis were killed during the period.

The rules meant that Palestinians could no longer move freely between the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and which Palestinians want for their future state.

Thousands of Gazans who moved to the West Bank before 2000 could no longer register their new address in their Israeli-issued IDs. The two territories are located on opposite sides of Israel, and the only way to get from one to the other is to go through Israel. Also, West Bankers were required to get special permits to join spouses in nearby east Jerusalem.

In contrast, Israeli Jews may freely live in east Jerusalem and in West Bank settlements.

Gisha, the Israeli rights group, argues a person's address shouldn't be treated like a nationality. They also argue that the policies violate international law and Israel's own signed agreements with Palestinians to treat the West Bank and Gaza as one political unit — not two separate territories.

Since restrictions began in 2000, Israel agreed to transfer the residency permits of just 17 Gaza residents to the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

The Helous started out in Gaza. Gaza-born Mouin, 41, and his wife, Lubna, 35, a West Bank native, had four children in Gaza. In 1998, they crossed to the West Bank town of Jenin, where their four youngest children were born.

Now the Helou family is trapped. Issam, the eldest, was operated on by a local surgeon in Jenin in March. Since then, his legs have been encased in plaster and he's on a constant dose of pain killers. His doctor says the prognosis is good.

Issam's mother says doing the surgery locally, where prospects for success were much lower, was the family's only practical option for getting Issam to walk again.

Some families have already been cleaved apart.

Gaza-born Baker Hafi, 37, had lived in the West Bank for a decade when he was picked up by Israeli soldiers at his home for questioning on security-related suspicions. He was released without charges and dumped into Gaza in January. He hasn't seen his wife or their two baby girls since. "I speak to my wife on the phone and look at her picture. That's our relationship right now," Hafi said.

The March military order sparked fears of a move to expel Gazans in large numbers, but there has been no noticeable increase.

Leibovitch, the army spokeswoman, said the order was intended to clarify military policies. She said only those Gaza residents found by patrolling Israeli soldiers would be expelled — some 90 people in the past two years.

Wafa Abdel Rahman of Harakeh, a newly formed Palestinian group lobbying to overturn the rules, argues military officials should rectify the unfair rules instead of leaving Palestinians at the army's whim.

"We don't think the Israelis have innocent intentions," she said.

Ordinary Gazans hurt most by 3-year blockade

Palestinian Mohammad Maadi, 49, sits on the side of the street as his wife Hanan, 44, looks from the house door in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Thursday (AP photo by Khalil Hamra)

Ordinary Gazans hurt most by 3-year blockade

By Karin Laub and Diaa Hadid, Associated Press Writers  |  June 11, 2010

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip --Three out of four factories in Gaza have closed because they can't import or export. Legitimate businesses have been replaced by a Hamas-controlled black market economy. Millions of gallons of sewage are pumped into the sea every day because a lack of spare parts holds up infrastructure repairs.

Three years after Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza in hopes of squeezing the territory's Islamic militant Hamas rulers, those suffering most are ordinary Gazans.

They include tens of thousands who lost their jobs, among them 49-year-old Mohammed Maadi, whose family of 15 scrapes by on U.N. rations and whose teenage sons risked their lives digging smuggling tunnels to help put food on the table.

Even if the blockade were to be lifted soon -- as many demanded after last week's deadly Israeli raid on a blockade-busting flotilla -- recovery could take years. Production lines have fallen into disrepair. Entrepreneurs have moved investments abroad. Men forced into idleness have lost their place in society.

Gaza was "working poor" before, but economists say the blockade closed off any chance of development.

"We have been transformed from a productive society into one dependent on handouts," said economist Mohsin Abu Ramadan.

Israel says economic sanctions are a legitimate tool against the Iranian-backed Hamas, branded a terror group by the West and responsible for years of rocket fire on Israeli border towns. Hamas critics note that the Islamists could instantly open Gaza's borders if they renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Instead, Hamas has clung to its militant positions, and the standoff seemed intractable -- until last week, when Israel's sea raid trained world attention on Gaza's plight.

President Barack Obama said this week that Gaza's situation is unsustainable and suggested that everything except weapons should be let in.

For now, Israel only allows in a few dozen types of goods, such as potato chips, frozen meats and medicines, but bans raw materials, including construction supplies, and virtually all exports.

As a result, more than 70 percent of Gaza's 3,900 factories are closed or operating at minimal capacity. Eighty percent of Gazans receive humanitarian aid, up from 63 percent in 2006, the U.N. says.

Some 300,000 have no income at all, a threefold increase over the course of a year.

Delays in bringing in spare parts have held up repairs of a dilapidated, overburdened infrastructure. Electricity is cut for hours a day in rolling blackouts, and millions of gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage have to be pumped into the Mediterranean every day.

Gaza's health service is overwhelmed and advanced care, including cancer treatment, is not available, forcing thousands every year to seek treatment abroad, including in Israel.

Israel issues special permits for patients, but some are turned down and others face delays. Infant Mohammed Hajaj, born with congenital heart disease, died March 5, two days after his appointment with a Jerusalem specialist and two days before his Israeli entry permit arrived, said Mahmoud Daher of the World Health Organization.

Israel allows in medical equipment, but delivery is slow, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for Gaza's main U.N. aid agency. Hundreds of items, including CT scanners, X-ray machines and spare parts for lab equipment have been waiting to get into Gaza for up to a year, he said.

Almost every household seems to have been touched by the blockade.

Maadi, the jobless father of 13, said Israel stripped him of his work permit in January 2006 when Hamas won parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas' ascent to power -- starting with that election victory and continuing with the capture of an Israeli soldier by Gaza militants later that year -- marked the start of increasingly tighter restrictions, leading to a full closure after the Islamists seized the territory in 2007.

Maadi was one of tens of thousands of Gazan day laborers in Israel and used to make $40 a day as a construction worker, enough to provide for his family. Now the Maadis barely survive on U.N. food rations of flour, rice, oil, sugar and powdered milk, supplemented by occasional gifts from relatives.

Maadi's wife, Hannan, 44, said she is worried her children aren't getting enough nutrients. Four are anemic, she said, listing each child's hemoglobin level.

Fruits, vegetables, canned goods and other foods are plentiful in Gaza shops, coming either from Israel or through the hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.

Israel argues that full shelves show there is no humanitarian crisis. However, more Gazans, like the Maadis, can no longer afford to buy even the basics.

In a bid to help the family, two of the Maadi boys, 18-year-old Mahmoud and 19-year-old Hussam, briefly worked in the tunnels. Hussam was terrified, but overcame his fear of his damp, dark workplace because he and his brother each made $25 a day.

A month into the job, Hussam's tunnel collapsed, burying him to his neck before he was rescued. The Maadis told their sons to quit, saying the money wasn't worth the risk of losing them. Dozens have died in tunnel collapses, and Israel also bombs the tunnels from time to time to try to disrupt weapons smuggling.

Gaza's unemployment was around 39 percent at the end of 2009, but dropped by about five percentage points in the first quarter of 2010, apparently because Hamas hired thousands more civil servants.

The Hamas government employs 32,000 people, while about 20,000 work in tunnels, said economist Mohammed Skeik. More than 70,000 former civil servants, who quit after the Hamas takeover, continue to draw salaries from Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In its Gaza takeover, Hamas defeated forces loyal to Abbas, who since formed a rival government in the West Bank.

The Maadis' unemployed neighbor, 55-year-old Mohammed Kahlout, depends on the Hamas police salaries of his two sons.

Kahlout's sewing workshop used to employ more than 40 people sewing jeans for an Israeli company, but he was forced to close over Israeli trade restrictions in 2006. If the factory was open, his sons would be working for him, not Hamas, said Kahlout.

The Hamada clan had to close four factories, including a tomato cannery that could no longer import empty cans from Israel. Israel says the metal could be used to build weapons.

"It's my feeling that Israel wants to create terrorists," said Alam Hamada, 31, a member of the once powerful family. "Imagine you ... lose everything you have, your income, your car, all that you hold dear, you'll be a different person."

With many traditional businesses wiped out, an alternative Hamas-controlled economy has sprung up.

The Hamas government raises 90 percent of its revenue abroad, including aid from Iran and donations from the Muslim world.

But taxes imposed on smuggled goods -- from cars to calves and cigarettes -- are an important source of income. Trader Ibrahim al-Awawda says he pays 30 percent tax on smuggled bikes that range in price from $900 to $1,100.

Despite a cash crunch earlier this year, the Hamas government manages to stay afloat, even as ordinary Gazans lose hope.

Kahlout, taking visitors through his dusty, cluttered sewing workshop, said being without work makes him feel like a nobody. The sudden attention being paid to Gaza has given him a little boost, he said, but hopes it isn't a fluke.

"I hope no one will forget Gaza, and the people who live here," he said.

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Hadid reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press Writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

Israeli lifts ban on snack foods, spices for Gaza in bid to defuse outcry over flotilla raid

By: Diaa Hadid, The Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israel lifted a ban Wednesday on some food items such as snacks and spices that had been barred from Gaza under a three-year blockade, an effort to defuse worldwide furor over its deadly raid on an international flotilla bound for the Palestinian territory.

Critics complained the step falls far short of what is needed in the impoverished, densely populated coastal strip battered during a brief war with Israel 18 months ago.

Hours after Israel announced the change, President Barack Obama called the raid a "tragedy" and said a "better approach" is needed in Gaza. He called for a "new conceptual framework" for the blockade.

"What we also know is that the situation in Gaza is unsustainable," Obama said.

In the first tangible step to temper the uproar caused by last week's raid, Israel narrowly expanded the list permitted items, adding soda, juice, jam, spices, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies and candy. It did not allow more crucial items such as cement, steel and other materials needed to for rebuilding.

The U.N. said Israel must change its blockade policy.

"The international community is united in seeking an urgent and fundamental change in Israel's policy of blockading Gaza," said Maxwel Gaylard, the U.N.'s most senior humanitarian official in the Palestinian territories. "A modest expansion of the restrictive list of goods allowed into Gaza falls well short of what is needed. We need a fundamental change and an opening of crossings for commercial goods."

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the gesture was not worth commenting on.

Israeli officials said the move was meant to defuse pressure for an international investigation of the May 31 raid. One said authorities would continue to ease the blockade but could not lift the embargo altogether as long as Hamas remains in control. The Israeli officials all spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

The clashes broke out after Israeli naval commandos boarded one of six ships on the flotilla and some of the hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on board attacked them with pipes and other makeshift weapons. The Israelis killed eight Turkish citizens and one dual Turkish-American citizen.

The clash drew attention to the blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt to punish after Hamas militants seized Gaza in 2007. Hamas does not recognize Israel, and refuses to renounce violence. The blockade is meant to strangle Hamas' ability to govern, prevent it from acquiring building materials and weapons and pressure the militant group to release a captured Israeli soldier it has held for four years

Critics say it has not worked and its sweeping nature has punished Gaza's weakest residents. The blockade prevents all but basic humanitarian items and consumer goods from getting in, bars exports and prevents the import of goods such as metal cans and tubs of margarine needed for industrial production.

It has deepened Gaza's poverty, wiped out thousands of jobs and prevented most reconstruction of areas damaged from the war launched to stop years of Hamas rocket attacks.

Some of the items banned from Gaza seem arbitrary. Basic foodstuffs such as instant coffee and coriander were barred as luxury items, while more expensive foods such as herbal tea, salmon steaks and low-fat yogurt were permitted.

Sari Bashi, an Israeli human rights advocate whose group, Gisha, has led criticism of the blockade, called Israel's easing a "cosmetic" gesture.

"We are pleased that juice and sesame paste are no longer considered threats to Israeli security, but Israel needs to let in raw materials necessary to allow Gaza residents to engage in dignified, productive work," she said.

Israel has rejected calls for an international investigation into the raid, fearing it would be biased against the Jewish state. Instead, officials are working on a formula for an investigation to be run by Israelis while including some international observers. Israel has been seeking U.S. support for this approach, but so far has not been able to reach a formula.

"We are conferring with various elements in the international community regarding the appropriate process of investigation that will expose the facts on the Gaza flotilla. We know the truth," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an investors' conference.

Netanyahu said he, along with top government and military officials, would be willing to appear before the probe, but said it must look at key questions about the activists who clashed with the soldiers. Israel alleges they were trained mercenaries.

US wants Israeli inquiry after protester loses eye

US wants Israeli inquiry after protester loses eye

 

 

A Palestinian woman reacts as she holds a cloth to the bleeding face of an American activist who was wounded during clashes with Israeli troops at the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, Monday, May 31, 2010. The clashes erupted during a protest against Israeli naval commandos on Monday storming a Gaza-bound flotilla of ships, that left at least 10 passengers dead, and dozens of activists and at least 10 Israeli soldiers wounded. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

JERUSALEM — The United States has asked Israel to investigate the incident in which an American woman lost an eye after Israeli forces shot her with a tear gas canister during a pro-Palestinian protest in Jerusalem, a U.S. embassy spokesman said Monday.

Emily Henochowicz, a 21-year-old visual arts student from Potomac, Md., and a dual Israeli-American citizen, was struck in the face by a canister fired by a policeman during a violent demonstration on May 31 against Israel's deadly naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists. Nine activists were killed in the raid on the same day.

"We have talked to the Israelis about getting the details on the situation as soon as possible," said U.S. embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer.

Henochowicz's family also demanded action.

"We demand a full and transparent investigation from the Israeli government. Certainly, we want an apology," Henochowicz's mother Shelley Kreitman, 54, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "She's a beautiful young girl and she's been maimed for life."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel is fully cooperating with the U.S. request for an investigation but said an apology would be forthcoming only if the inquiry shows Israel was at fault.

Henochowicz, an artist whose chief icon on her Internet blog is a large eyeball, returned to the U.S. over the weekend and couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Her lawyer, Michael Sfard said he filed a complaint demanding a criminal investigation of the incident.

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist who took part in the same protest, said Henochowicz was hit as a few Palestinian youths hurled rocks at a checkpoint in northern Jerusalem.

Footage captured by a Russian television channel posted onto YouTube shows the young woman walking with a Turkish flag - in solidarity with the many Turkish activists who tried to sail to Gaza. She is seen several yards (meters) away from rock-throwing youths, falls down and is dragged away, bleeding profusely.

Israeli police spokesman Moshe Fintzy said an initial investigation said the tear gas was fired "according to procedures and there was no deviation from those procedures."

A report in the Israeli daily Haaretz said a police investigation indicated that the tear gas canister bounced off a wall and exploded close to Henochowicz's face. They quoted an official as saying that police did not aim at the woman.

But Sarit Michaeli, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said police and soldiers often fire tear gas canisters directly at people - a practice she called "illegal and dangerous."

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Online: http://thirstypixels.blogspot.com

The Associated Press

Turkish group behind flotilla is Gaza's new hero

Turkish group behind flotilla is Gaza's new hero

By DIAA HADID
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 3, 2010; 5:36 PM

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The Turkish group that bankrolled the aid flotilla raided by Israel has big plans for Gaza.

Its bearded 50-year-old leader has assumed hero status in the impoverished Palestinian territory, where he says his group plans to spend $25 million on housing, medical care and education.

Mehmet Kaya has been treated like a star wherever he goes since the deadly raid on Monday. Gazans young and old gather to shake his hand, and he enjoys ready access to leaders of the territory's ruling Islamic militant group Hamas.

"The Arab countries that are a part of us haven't done what Turkey did," said Jihan Balousha, 30, who bought her five children to meet Kaya at Gaza's dilapidated port Wednesday.

It's all part of Turkey's muscular push into the blockaded Gaza Strip and its growing ambition to be an influential player in the Middle East.

Israel accuses Kaya's group, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, of supporting terrorism. The Turkish activists vehemently deny that, saying they're strictly involved in humanitarian efforts and have to deal with Hamas, since it is the authority in Gaza.

"We have found that the support, when it goes through the Hamas government ... it goes to the people," said Kaya, the Gaza representative for the group, whose name in English means Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief.

Kaya has gained new prominence since the six-ship flotilla tried to challenge Israel's 3-year-old blockade of Gaza. The attempt ended with Israeli commandos commandeering the boats and clashing with club-wielding passengers on one vessel in a confrontation that left eight Turks and an American dead.

Seen as a kind of unofficial ambassador to Gaza, Kaya symbolizes Turkey's dramatic shift toward Hamas' key patrons Iran and Syria, at the expense of its traditional alliance with Israel.

Ties had been warming gradually, but the sea raid pushed the fledgling partnership out into the open as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan railed against Israel, accusing it of committing a "massacre" on the high seas.

Israeli-Turkish ties had been showing signs of strains even before the raid. Erdogan was an outspoken critic of Israel's war in Gaza last year and in one high-profile incident, stormed off a stage he was sharing with Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in the days after the war.

Turkey's government unofficially sponsored the flotilla, which was transporting 10,000 tons of aid and hundreds of activists. In the weeks before the operation, Israeli military and diplomatic officials repeatedly urged Turkey to call off the flotilla - a request that was rebuffed in Ankara.

IHH insists it has no ties to Turkey's Islamic-leaning government, though its top fund-raisers are believed to be among Erdogan's core support group, the country's wealthy merchant class.

Signs of the warm Turkish-Gaza ties are popping up around the territory.

A Hamas statement quoting Erdogan as telling the Islamic militant group's leader, Ismail Haniyeh, by phone that "we will continue to support you even if we remain alone" was widely distributed and posted on mosque walls in Gaza this week.

The IHH is renovating the port, funding a Turkish-Palestinian school and plans to build a hospital and apartments for Gazans made homeless during the war with Israel early last year. The group also supports 9,000 families with money and food parcels, and is hosting computer and sewing courses for women, Kaya said.

Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas, which most Western countries consider a terrorist organization, seized power in Gaza and stepped up rocket fire into Israel.

The United Nations, which was to lead reconstruction efforts after the Gaza war ended early last year, has been paralyzed because Israel does not allow in building materials. U.N. aid agencies are not permitted to buy goods brought in through Gaza's smuggling tunnels.

Groups like IHH have filled the void because they can use black market goods and - unlike the international agencies - are under no obligation to stay away from Hamas.

In the war-ravaged Gaza neighborhood of Izbet Abed Rabbo, IHH is building a three-story apartment block for families made homeless during the Gaza war. The $250,000 project provides jobs for 100 people.

As the IHH shot to attention, so have Israeli accusations that it supports terrorism. Israel has been trying to defuse widespread international anger over the sea raid, arguing that its troops came under premeditated attack and fired in self defense.

"The IHH is ... known as a group implicated in terrorist operations," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. "Their close ties with Hamas are an avowed policy of this group."

The IHH's website shows its founder warmly embracing Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, in Syria. Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.

On Wednesday, former French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who investigated the group in the 1990s, said he found links to terrorism networks, including al-Qaida, but didn't say whether IHH now has terror ties.

Israel's Shin Bet security service says the group is a major player in raising funds for Hamas.

Reuven Erlich, head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli think tank with close ties to Israel's Defense Ministry, said the group "in the past provided at least logistical support to Islamic jihad organizations," including funds and arms.

"We were not surprised when we heard what happened," Erlich said. "This fits well with their past."

Despite such claims, the IHH, unlike Hamas, is not among some 45 groups listed by the U.S. State Department as terror organizations.

IHH board member Omer Faruk Korkmaz said his group is strictly involved in delivering aid.

"We don't approve of the actions of any terrorist organization in the world," he said in an interview at the group's Istanbul headquarters Wednesday.

Gaza residents say they appreciate the IHH and Turkey for spotlighting Israel's harsh blockade on the territory.

"They have really stood beside us, and we are grateful," Balousha said.

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Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Istanbul and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.