Shipped named Rachel Corrie to commemorate Rachel Corrie and American peace activists who while protesting House Demolitions was crushed to death by an Israeli tractor.
The ship is part of the ongoing attempts to break through the illegal and inhumane Israeli blockade of Gaza.
see:
Rachel Corrie Memorial
1979-2003

Rachel Corrie Foundation For Peace & Justice

The blockade is still supported by the Obama administration and the Egyptian government .
As for Egypt the hope is with Hosni Mubarak unseated that eventually Egypt will end the blockade of Gaza on its border.

BREAKING NEWS: Israel’s Attack on Humanitarian Ship to Gaza.MAY 17, 2011 BY OCCUPIEDPALESTINE by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky via Global Research ,May 17, 2011

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) carrying a humanitarian cargo to Gaza was attacked by an Israeli naval patrol within the so-called Palestinian Security Zone on May 15, at 10.54pm EDT.

Anyway Israel and the United States even with Obama as president have shown their disdain for the rights of Palestinians. They have also shown lack of concern or sympathy for those killed by the Israeli forces-IDF.
Once again the lives of Israelis are considered more important ; more precious than the lives of Palestinians or Arabs or even Muslims in general.

So they attempt to impose their own creative yet erroneous narrative on the ongoing issues in Israel.
So even when children or teenagers or the elderly are beaten , shot, killed incarcerated and abused and tortured the American government defend Israel and condemns any individuals organizations /NGOs or nations which criticize Israel as being "Anti-Semitic". In other words there are not two sides or more to these issues but rather just one and that is Israel's.

Anyway one of the propaganda points made by the Israelis and IDF and their defenders is that Israel was taken off-guard by all of these protests on Nakba Day even though preparations for these demonstrations had been posed on internet sites including Facebook Twitter etc. months ago at least as early as March

Democracy Now! May 17, 2011

Israeli Troops Shoot U.S. Student in Head with High-Velocity Tear Gas Canister

"I was shot at close range with a high-velocity metal tear gas canister... When it hit me, it tore off a part of my scalp," says Christopher Whitman, a 25-year-old American student and activist who was seriously injured when he was shot by Israeli forces while attending a West Bank protest on Friday. At the time of the shooting, Whitman was recording video of the weekly nonviolent protest against the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank. Several Palestinians were also injured during the protest

Israel and the United States refuse to believe that many of the Palestinian protesters were rising up against Israel on their own initiative without outside influence ie Syria or Iran The protesters believe that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian lands whether they were stolen in 1948 or 1967 is ill-legal and immoral.
The UN has past various resolutions supporting the Palestinian claims to the occupied territories.

As was repeated during the protests this injustice has been going on for over 60 years and the people as it were have had enough of Israel, Washington or even their own leaders making deals which have left in the end the status quo more or less in tact.

Meanwhile the US defends the use of brute force taken by Israel to fight mostly unarmed protesters. As mentioned previously since Obama has taken power not much has changed concerning the disputed territories or on issues such as the right of return or even the basic human rights and civil rights of Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims in the occupied territories including East Jerusalem , Gaza , Golan Heights , West Bank or within Israel itself.

This blatant racist Apartheid Regime is still in place primarily because Israel's no. 1 ally the USA has defended Israel's right to build a security wall which in effect creates bantustan (ala South African Apartheid ) type areas which make life rather intolerable for Palestinians .
On a daily basis Palestinians are harassed at fixed & flying checkpoints which spring up over night and then disappear to be located elsewhere. Meanwhile Palestinian /Arabshave no rights essentially as they are treated as a hostile foreign element within Greater Ersatz Israel .

The Israelis contend that all the areas within Ersatz Israel belong to the Israelis and attitude is that Palestinians or Arabs etc. have no right to live in theses areas including land that presently lie within the borders of neighboring countries such as Syria, Jordan , lebanaon and so forth.

The actions of Israel would appear to be a form of ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians and Arabs . So Israel is making life more and more intolerable for Palestinians so that they will either leave these areas willingly or will over a period of time have their numbers reduced to the point that they would be a mere remnant of the population which is their now.

Is Israel at a Strategic Dead End as Palestinian "Arab Spring" Arrives? The Palestinian "Arab Spring" is arriving and Israel has no political strategy to deal with it. Instead, Israel used the only weapon in its current arsenal - brute force.by Jonathan Cook via Alternet.org,May 17, 2011

They are extraordinary scenes. Film shot on mobile phones captured the moment on Sunday when at least 1,000 Palestinian refugees marched across no-man's land to one of the most heavily protected borders in the world, the one separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

...Unlike previous years, this Nakba Day was not simply a commemoration of the catastrophe that befell the Palestinians in 1948, when their homeland was forcibly reinvented as the Jewish state. It briefly reminded Palestinians that, despite their long-enforced dispersion, they still have the potential to forge a common struggle against Israel.

As Israel violently cracked down on Sunday's protests on many fronts - in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and on the borders with Syria and Lebanon - it looked less like a military superpower and more like the proverbial boy with his finger in the dam.

...Following in the footsteps of Egyptian and Tunisian demonstrators, ordinary Palestinians used the new social media to organize and coordinate their defiance - in their case challenging the walls, fences and checkpoints Israel has erected everywhere to separate them. Twitter, not Tehran, was the guiding hand behind these demonstrations.

Although the protests are not yet a third intifada, they hint at what may be coming. Or, as one senior Israeli commander warned, they looked ominously like a "warm-up" for September, when the newly unified Palestinian leadership is threatening to defy Israel and the United States and seek recognition at the United Nations of Palestinian statehood inside the 1967 borders.

Israeli troops fire at Palestinian protestors on borders, killing at least 12 - The Washington Post

If the Israeli troops were in the right and were acting appropriately why were many of them in Balaklavas besides having numerous undercover soldiers and police in disguise. Some were disguised as Palestinian women carrying guns. So were in fact some of the more violent protesters not Syrian agent provocateurs but in fact Israeli agent provocateurs.

By entering the area the Israelis appeared to be doing all they could to rile up demonstrators not as they say in reaction to violence committed by protesters.

While the Western media describes the Nakba protests as a security threat to Israel and as a Syrian or Yemen or Iranian conspiracy here we see in Qalandia that it was the Israeli IDF who iniated the violence because these Palestinians were not behaving themselves
and were acting as if they were "free" to protest non-violently.

Palestinian holds up symbolic key to demand the "Right of Return" -There are still many Palestinians who left their homes during the various conflicts expecting to return once the conflicts were over to their houses and the land they once owned including farms and orchards and villages or towns. The Israeli secular or religious Jews believe that after almost 2,000 years from circa 70 AD to the present they had the "Right to Return " because according to the Bible /Torah the land was given to the Israelites the Jewish people by God.
I don't know if such a claim can pass muster in a court of law.
The current protests by Palestinians isn't just about what occurred in 1948 but rather what has happened since including the 1967 six day war and the lack of respect for all Palestinians shown by the Israelis .

Meanwhile the Obama administration as with past US administration merely pays lip service to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied Territories. The US is much more concerned with the security, safety and rights of the Israelis than with the Palestinians.

And human rights' organization Amnesty International believes Israel's violent response to "Nakba Day" demonstrations need to be investigated to determine if Israel committed "Crimes against humanity" by its brutal over-reaction.

Since president Obama came into power Israel has been permitted to commit criminal acts of violence with impunity.
It began with Obama refusing to condemn Israel for its criminal invasion of Gaza and went from there to Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza to its attack on the "Free Gaza Flotilla" in international waters to inhumanely and illegally kicking Arab families out of their homes in East Jerusalem .

see for example :

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

"UNOCHR leader Baroness Valerie Amos’s comments concerning house demolitions in the Occupied territories" via The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions,May 16th, 2010

"Israeli Arab MK Zuabi: IDF boarded Gaza flotilla ships with intent to kill Zuabi testified before UN panel probing Israeli naval commando raid that left nine Turkish citizens dead on May 31." By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press, August 31, 2011

Guardian investigation uncovers evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza" The Guardian March 2009
and now the Obama administration is once again defending Israel's response to "Nakba Day" demonstrations this past weekend.

What President Obama is either not aware of or chooses to ignore is that Israel doesn't believe Palestinians, Arabs or Muslims and others who criticize the government have a right to protest or hold rallies etc.
Israel is far from being an open society or a pluralistic society and it is becoming more conservative every day it seems.
The current Israeli government backed by a large portion of Jewish and secular Israelis believe that the only way to have peace is to ethnically cleanse all of Greater Israel of all non-Jews .
This sounds a lot like Saudi Arabia which also does not allow dissidents to protest especially if the protesters are mostly Shiite Muslims.

In Bahrain such gatherings are also prohibited and especially if the protesters are Shiite Muslims whom the Saudis and the Bahrain government treat as second class citizens.
In Israel to be fair they consider all Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians as either second class citizens or deny them citizenship and the same rights as secular and Jewish citizens.

Israeli troops clamp down on 'Nakba' protest at Qalandia" Aljazeera

Israeli security forces confronted Palestinian demonstrators marking "Nakba Day" on Sunday at one of the West Bank's most infamous checkpoints.

The Qalandia checkpoint and crossing is a massive security terminal built into Israel's concrete separation wall dividing Ramallah from Jerusalem and the southern West Bank, and is a frequent flashpoint for protests.

On Sunday, as simultaneous demonstrations throughout the region commemorated the 1948 displacement of 700,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel, Israeli forces crossed the barrier into the Palestinian refugee camp of Qalandia and fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at hundreds of demonstrators who responded with stones in a day-long battle.

Palestinian medics evacuated dozens of people who succumbed to the heavy use of tear gas, including many in the nearby refugee camp not involved in the demonstrations.

"I have not seen this many casualties in one day since the Second Intifada," said Dr Sami Dar Nakhla, director of the field hospital. In total, more than eighty protesters received treatment, of which twenty were hospitalised - including three paramedics.
Dr Dar Nakhla said he found evidence of the army using new and brutal forms of crowd control.
"This teargas is toxic, it is the first time I have seen it. It is causing fits, seizures and unconsciousness," he declared.
As many as 40 people were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, according to reports, and there were numerous violent arrests.
In the late afternoon, undercover Israeli units dressed as Palestinian demonstrators - and at least one dressed as an elderly woman - turned on the crowd and made a series of dramatic arrests at gunpoint as Israeli troops advanced in an unsuccessful bid to end the protest.

Sunday's Nakba Day commemoration included protests elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as in Palestinian refugee communities in neighbouring Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.

"Amnesty: Israel's killing of Nakba protesters must be investigated" via The Daily Star.com May 17, 2011

BEIRUT - PRESS RELEASE: Amnesty International Monday called on the Israeli government to launch a full, impartial and independent investigation into the Israeli military’s use of force Sunday against Palestinian and Arab demonstrators, after at least 12 people were killed and hundreds more wounded at Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the [occupied] West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and neighboring countries had organized large demonstrations at Israeli borders and checkpoints to commemorate Nakba Day – an annual day to mark the Nakba (catastrophe), the term used by Palestinians to describe the displacement and dispossession that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948 when hundreds of thousands became refugees – and call for implementation of their right of return.

The Israeli government and military have characterized the protests as “riots” and attempts to “infiltrate” into Israel illegally, and in several of the protests, demonstrators threw rocks toward Israeli troops. Israeli officials have not claimed that any protesters fired on Israeli troops.

Israeli troops responded by firing live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets, artillery shells and tear gas against the protesters. Amnesty International is seriously concerned at reports that the Israeli military used excessive force, killing and maiming individuals who were not posing a threat to the lives of the soldiers or others.

In Lebanon, thousands of Palestinian refugees and Lebanese activists marched toward the Israeli border at Maroun al-Ras. A Lebanese Army statement said that 10 were killed and at least 112 were injured, some of them critically, by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military has acknowledged that its troops opened fire toward demonstrators, but claimed that Lebanese Army troops also fired on demonstrators and were responsible for some of the casualties. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which patrols the Israel-Lebanon border, confirmed that live ammunition had been used at Maroun al-Ras.

Israeli authorities reportedly prevented Palestinian citizens of Israel from reaching the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon for a planned solidarity demonstration. The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) signaled its growing disapproval of events commemorating the Nakba by passing the Budget Foundations Law (Amendment No. 40) 5771- 2011 on March 22, 2011.

This law allows the finance minister to reduce state funding to institutions organizing any activities “commemorating Israel’s Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning.” It is only one example of legislation recently passed or pending in the Knesset which together constitute a major assault on freedom of expression in Israel.

Amnesty International is particularly concerned that the law targets institutions serving Israel’s Palestinian Arab minority and threatens these citizens’ rights to preserve their history and culture.

Palestinian and Druze protesters in the Syrian-administered part of the Golan succeeded in breaching the U.N.-patrolled border and entering the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied part. Israeli forces opened fire, killing two demonstrators and injuring more than 20, some of them critically. Israeli police sealed off the town and conducted house-to-house searches for “infiltrators,” who were forcibly returned to Syria.

In the West Bank, up to a thousand Palestinians demonstrated near the Qalandiya checkpoint, which separates Ramallah from occupied East Jerusalem. Some protesters reportedly threw rocks at Israeli troops and attempted to attack parts of the wall/fence near the checkpoint.

Israeli forces responded by firing rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas canisters, and sound bombs at the demonstrators, and there are also reports that Israeli troops used live ammunition. Dozens of civilians were injured, some of them critically, with medics reporting that the majority were injured in the upper body. Over 100 people were treated by Palestinian medics for gas inhalation, with at least 20 reportedly suffering from seizures. Israeli forces arrested at least six people, including one who was reportedly badly injured after being hit in the head by a rubber-coated bullet.

Smaller demonstrations took place across the West Bank, and met with similar Israeli responses in several cases. Israeli forces have also arrested dozens of people in East Jerusalem since 13 May 2011, following clashes Friday afternoon in Silwan, Issawiya and the Old City.

Seventeen-year-old Milad Said Ayyash was shot in the abdomen, allegedly by a private security guard at the Beit Yonatan settlement in Silwan, and subsequently died from his wounds. His father testified to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) that he was walking down the road when he was shot, and that the immediate area was calm at the time.

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians marched from the northern town of Beit Hanoun toward the Israeli border and the Erez border crossing, which has been completely closed to Palestinians since June 2007, except for urgent medical cases receiving special Israeli permits.

Israeli forces fired artillery shells, live ammunition, gas canisters, and sound bombs at protesters. PCHR reported more than 100 civilians were wounded, including 31 children, three women, and three journalists, some of them critically. Israeli forces also fired on a demonstration near ‘Abasan village, east of Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in further injuries.

Finally, in a separate incident, 17-year-old Khamis Salah Mesleh Habeeb was killed by an Israeli artillery shell in the “buffer zone” near the Nahal Oz crossing east of Gaza City.

"UNOCHR leader Baroness Valerie Amos’s comments concerning house demolitions in the Occupied Territories May 15, 2011

ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain met with United Nations Under-Secree Amos’s comments concerning house demolitions in the May 16th, 2011 tary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Baroness Valerie Amos on Sunday (15/05/11) to highlight the apartheid-like system of occupation, disfranchisement, oppression, and the denial of self-determination. Following the meeting, attended by various officials from the UN and Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, the UN humanitarian chief was quoted saying, “Palestinians are utterly frustrated by the impact of Israeli policies on their lives. They can’t move freely around their territory. They can’t plan their communities. They are evicted from their homes. Their homes are regularly demolished. I don’t believe that most people in Israel have any idea of the way planning policies are used to divide and harass communities and families. They would not themselves like to be subjected to such behavior.

also see for example of Israeli brutish behavior towards Palestinians: Mentally Handicapped 12 year old arrested by Israeli Forces in Silwan" March 30 2011 via OccupiedPalestine.org

UN: Israel’s demolitions of Palestinian homes hit record high

Ready to demolish a Palestinian home, Israeli soldiers and buldozers surround Samir Muhammad Hasan Younis home in the West Bank village of Azzun Atma near Qalqilia on January 11. (MaanImages/Khaleel Reash)

April 3, 2011

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israel’s demolitions of Palestinian homes and buildings reached a record high in March for the third consecutive month, according to figures from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

The UN Relief and Works Agency recorded 76 demolitions of Palestinian buildings in March, forcibly displacing 158 Palestinians including 64 children.

So far this year, Israel has demolished the homes of 333 Palestinians, including 175 children, UNRWA reported.

Meanwhile, Israel has built a record number of Jewish-only homes on occupied Palestinian land, in contravention of international law.

Commenting on the unprecedented figures, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told Ma’an that they revealed ethnic discrimination.

“I am not saying this is classic ethnic cleansing, but the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned this discrimination and make no mistake, it is discrimination against one ethnic group.”

Demolition of the peace process

The last round of talks collapsed over Israel’s refusal to extend a partial freeze on illegal settlement building on occupied Palestinian land. Palestinian negotiators refused to engage in talks while Israel built on land which would be a Palestinian state if a peace agreement was reached.

Gunness noted that by demolishing Palestinian homes, Israel was diminishing the possibility of a two-state solution.

“The West Bank is where the future Palestinian state is meant to be situated. Its viability is being reduced with each demolition.”

The UN agency urged peace makers to pressure Israel to end its discriminatory practices, noting that the culture of impunity led to more abuses, stimulated anger and resentment on both sides and impeded the peace process. “Homes, families, lives and the peace process are being demolished,” Gunness said.

Never Cast Lead Again)

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Gaza massacres (27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009)

More than 1,300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were killed during 22 days of Israeli shelling from sea, air and land. Palestinians in Gaza had nowhere to flee from Israel’s onslaught as the border has been closed for two years, with disastrous consequences for the 1.5 million in habitants of Gaza — the majority of them children and refugees.

On 27 December, Israel began its bombardment on Gaza and then on 3 January began its ground offensive.

Israel claims that it was targeting Hamas armed fighters and infrastructure, ostensibly in response to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. However, field investigations by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezanshow that United Nations-administered schools, mosques, universities, emergency medical crews, private homes and other civilian objects have all been in Israel’s sights.

Among those killed on the first day of bombing, when more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on the tiny coastal enclave, included police officers who were attending a graduation ceremony, school children heading home after a day of study, and other Gazans killed without warning as they were conducting their normal business.

Entire families have been wiped out during the air strikes and shelling, including that of Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan who was extrajudicially executed along with his family in their home in a Gaza refugee camp. More than 40 were killed on 6 January when Israeli forces shelled the United Nations-administered Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp, where families who had been displaced by the bombing were seeking shelter. The UN has demanded an independent investigation and its spokespersons assert that GPS coordinates of all UN locations were given to Israel to prevent such an atrocity. Israel recanted its claim that resistance fighters released fire on Israeli soldiers from the school, which has been categorically denied by UN officials.

The International Committee of the Red Cross protested Israeli forces preventing them from evacuating casualties. Some victims died because Gaza’s hospitals — already chronically short of medicines and supplies due to the Israeli siege — were unable to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. Medical workers faced grave danger as they responded to the sites of Israeli strikes; according to the World Health Organization, as of 8 January, 21 medical workers had been killed and more than 30 injured since 27 December