The Captain Speaks

Akawi: “I knew the weapons were destined for the Gaza Strip”.

Ma’ariv (p. 8) by Oded Granot — “I knew the weapons were destined for the Gaza Strip. I received instructions from the Palestinian Authority’s representative in Greece, Adel Awadallah,” said yesterday the captain of the Karine-A weapons ship, Omar Akawi, in a special interview he gave to television networks from his cell in the Shikma prison in Ashkelon.

Following are excerpts of the interview that was conducted by Oded Granot:

Question: Can you give us some details. How was the loading of the weapons carried out?

Akawi: “I was asked to go to a certain point in the Persian Gulf.”

Question: In the Persian Gulf?

Akawi: “Near the border with Iran, that’s where they gave me a point [of destination] and told me to sail to it and to drop anchor, to dock. I sailed, afterwards another, small ship approached me. They said to me: ‘we have a few items for you.’ I said ‘be my guest.'”

Question: Where did that ship come from, from Iran?

Akawi: “I don’t know where it came from. The ship came to me. It didn’t have a name or a flag. Nothing.”

Question: At this stage, did you know that you [your boat] were being loaded with weapons and explosives?

Akawi: “Yes. I knew they were loading weapons onto me [my boat].”

Question: How did you feel? That isn’t something routine, after all.

Akawi: “Look, I was told that these were weapons for Palestine. And I’m a Palestinian officer who is doing his duty. It is my people’s right to defend itself.”

Question: Did you know precisely what kinds of weapons were involved?

Akawi: “No. Everything was closed, and as the commander of the group it was my job to transship. My job wasn’t to take the weapons there. My job was to take these weapons and transfer them to other boats. I knew only that these weapons were going to Palestine.”

Question: From the outset you knew that these weapons were going to the Palestinian Authority and not to Lebanon or anywhere else?

Akawi: “These weapons were, I believe, a contribution from good members of the Arab and Islamic nation to the Palestinian people.”

Question: So you mean from Iran, from Hizbullah, from whom?

Akawi: “I received it near Iran, so where could it have come from? You’re smart and can understand on your own.”

Question: What is Hizbullah’s connection to this affair?

Akawi: “Hizbullah wants to help the Palestinian people. They want to take part in the Palestinian people’s struggle.”

Question: But a senior Hizbullah official took part in loading the weapons.

Akawi: “There was a guy. He was a diver who was responsible for those containers.”

Question: Were you surprised by the Israeli troops that landed on your ship? Did you expect that?

Akawi: “I didn’t expect it.”

Question: Tell us what happened.

Akawi: “I was asleep. They came at around 4:30 and raided the ship between 4:30 and 4:45. I wasn’t awake yet. I was asleep. I woke up when I heard noises on the deck. Stomping feet, so I thought it was a malfunction of some sort. I went out to see, it was around 4:45, and I saw armed soldiers all over the deck. What do you want, I said to my deputy. What’s up. They asked me: ‘what are you carrying?’ I said to them, just cargo. ‘Open up here, what’s in here?’ they asked, I said: crates. ‘And what’s in this crate?’ I said to them: equipment. They opened it, of course. Inside was a rubber boat, and they opened the large crate and said: ‘what’s in here?’ I told them: weapons. They said: ‘you open it.’ I said to them: okay, I’ll open it. They told me: ‘it’s booby-trapped.’ I said to them: ‘I don’t think so.’ They said to me: ‘you open it.’ I said: fine, and I opened it. They followed me and removed a Kalashnikov rifle from the crate.”

Question: While you were en route to Gaza, did you send reports to the Naval Command Headquarters here [i.e. in Gaza]?

Akawi: “I maintained some radio contact. I was in contact with another individual.”

Question: With whom?

Akawi: “With Adel Awadallah. I didn’t have anything to do with the others, neither with Gaza nor with anyone else.”

Question: And where is Adel now?

Akawi: “I don’t know.”

Question: Where was he?

Akawi: “He worked in Greece.”

Question: Is there anything you want to say?

Akawi: “I want to say that we will rely on patience and Allah. I want my daughter Malek to be proud that her father struggled. I want to find out how my daughter, wife and parents are.”

Akawi signaled V for victory at first, but then asked for tissues.

Ma’ariv (p. 8) by Oded Granot — Captain Omar Akawi, 44, is a veteran seaman and a member of the middle generation in Fatah. He is a mustached seaman of the kind that becomes nauseous on solid ground.

He was born in Tulkarm, but spent most of his years in the organization outside the territories. In 1976 he joined the Fatah’s naval force in Beirut, received naval training in Pakistan and sailed from one port to another. A little bit of trade and probably a bit of smuggling too. He moved to Gaza just three years ago and in the past two years has served, in addition to his job as an officer in the naval force, as the captain of the Gandali, a missile ship of sorts that is docked in Gaza.

Yesterday he told me that as such, it was his honor to ferry Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to the consecration of the natural gas site off the coast of Gaza. He cannot confirm whether Arafat knew about the weapons ship. In the last 20 years it has been his lot to be involved in some way in all the failed operations conducted by the Palestinian naval force. He was on board the Blue Moon, which tried in the early 1980s to fire Katyusha rockets on Eilat, and which was caught by Egypt. Nearly two years later he was on board another ship that was about to open fire on Eilat, but which was sunk by the Israeli Navy.

He was also linked to the Santorini, which last year tried to smuggle weapons from Lebanon into the Palestinian Authority but was caught by the Israeli navy. There were some people who tried to foist onto him the blame for the negligent planning of the operation, which led to the seizure. Yesterday, in the interview he gave from Shikma prison in Ashkelon, Akawi did away with all doubts and confirmed what was already known: The weapons being carried by the ship were meant for the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. The Iranians organized the shipment. Hizbullah was involved in training the divers.

Akawi entered the interview raising his hand in a V for victory. He knew that he was transporting weapons and he did it to assist “the struggle of my people.” He burst into tears when he recalled his wife and daughter, who live in Libya. “I want my daughter Malek to be proud of her fighting father,” he said, crying.

He asked for a tissue. I handed him a box. When he wiped the tears and composed himself he said that while the IDF operation took him by surprise, he believed that there was a good chance that the Egyptians would stop him in the course of the strict inspection they conduct in the Suez Canal, or the Americans, who now check out the entire world.

Sharon demanded and the GSS objected, but ultimately the interview was approved.

Ma’ariv (p. 9) by Yoav Limor —

GSS officials objected to allowing the captain of the Karine-A to be interviewed by journalists, but ultimately caved in to the explicit demand made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The proposal to hold interviews with the captain of the Palestinian ship, Omar Akawi, was introduced on Sunday night. The reason for the proposal was the meager turnout of foreign journalists at the press conference held by the prime minister in Eilat, and the feeling that the Israeli public relations effort had failed to be persuasive in the world. After a consultation, a decision was made to allow a number of foreign journalists to meet with Akawi and to interview him.

The recommendation was approved by Sharon, and a decision was made to let two foreign television crews — from the American Fox network and the Reuters news agency — to interview Akawi. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office began coordinating the interviews, at which point a new idea was raised by the Prime Minister’s Bureau, to allow Israeli television crews interview the captain.

Akawi is under GSS custody and is being interrogated by GSS agents in the Ashkelon prison. As a result, officials from the Prime Minister’s Bureau asked the GSS to arrange for the interviews to be held. The GSS objected strongly to this proposal. GSS Director Avi Dichter said he believed that the investigation ought to be completed first, noting that the public relations effect could be achieved by other means. But Dichter failed to persuade Sharon, who instructed that the interviews be arranged. Yesterday morning the television crews showed up at Ashkelon prison, and interviewed Akawi for a number of hours. When representatives of the other media learned of this (the radio and the press) they were furious and demanded that they be given an equal opportunity to interview the captain of the Karine-A. Their demands were rejected.

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