About the Freedom Flotilla, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Chair
MiddleEastMonitor — 25 mai 2010 — Meanwhile the Israelis have announced several measures to counter the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Apparently half of the Israeli navy has been placed on full alert to confront and stop our peaceful mission to take humanitarian aid to Gaza. Reports also claim that the Israelis have “set aside 700 places” in their prisons, which is a thinly-veiled threat to arrest all of those taking part in the flotilla. They used to call that sort of thing piracy.
Ismail Patel is the chair of UK human rights NGO friends of Al-Aqsa. He is one of the 700 activists from more than 40 countries preparing to embark on the Freedom Flotilla sailing from Turkey to Gaza with much-needed humanitarian aid.
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 25 May 2010
Israelis promise to stop eight ships carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid, 800 activists and politicians from more than 40 countries
A flotilla of eight boats carrying thousands of tonnes of construction materials, medical equipment and other aid is preparing to sail to Gaza in the next few days, setting the scene for a confrontation with Israel which has vowed to prevent the ships breaking the blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Three cargo ships and five passenger vessels plan to meet up in international waters between Cyprus and Gaza Strip before heading towards Gaza City. The Israeli military is expected to stop the flotilla and divert it to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Watch live streaming video from shiptogaza at livestream.com
Help us grow the movement to end the siege on Gaza, please Forward this message widely!
May 24, 2010
Dear friends,
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is Underway!
Over the weekend in Istanbul, the second ship was cheered and supported while it sailed off to join the Freedom Flotilla. It carries 700 passengers to Gaza as part of the ‘blockade busting’ flotilla. Unlike previous Free Gaza boats, this flotilla includes large vessels carrying substantial amounts of reconstruction, medical, and school supplies, and passengers from 50 countries. The likely date the convoy will reach Gaza coastal waters is Friday, May 28.
The Greek/Swedish cargo ship, the passenger boat from the European Campaign, and the Free Gaza passenger boats are ready to leave Greece this week. Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel, former U.S. diplomat, and active Gaza Freedom Marcher, will be joining this crew. Colonel Wright says,
“The Israeli siege of Gaza is illegal and a violation of international law. We demand that the Israeli, Egyptian, United States and European governments end this siege. If the governments will not stop the siege, it is up to the citizens of the world to break it-and that is what we will do!”
Despite Israel’s flagrant disrespect for international law, the director of European affairs for the Israeli foreign ministry, Naor Gilon, described the flotilla mission as “provocative and in violation of Israeli law”. He told diplomats, “Israel has no intention of allowing these sailboats in Gaza.” The government of Israel has repeatedly stated publicly that they intend to intercept this convoy, using the Israeli Navy “at any price”.
Israel’s intimidation tactics will not deter us! To this end, the Gaza Freedom March joins the flotilla emergency response network. We are taking pro-active measures to stop Israel from launching any military attack or naval blockade on the flotilla. The Emergency Response Plan is in effect. This includes confirmed protests at Israeli embassies worldwide! To add your embassy protest to the list, please email flotilla@gazafreedommarch.org or register your event on our website.
Direct actions can be taken now to support the flotilla! On this single page, you can track the flotilla GPS location, news, Twitter feeds, livestream videos, uploaded photos, discussions, social network groups and more.
The Freedom Flotilla mission could never be accomplished without your support and participation!
Keep up the pressure to lift the siege of Gaza,
GFM Team
Having read this article today
Israel’s naval forces are allegedly in training to prepare to seize eight boats scheduled to dock in the Gaza Strip on 24 May from Europe, Arabic-language media reported on Wednesday.
“About half of the Israeli naval forces will participate in an operation that was approved by the cabinet. [Israeli] Defense Minister Ehud Barak will supervise the operation,” an Israeli official told the Arabic-language satellite TV station Al-Hurra. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=283759
I think it time for some forward planning of our own..
In the event of the Gaza flotilla being stopped by the Israeli navy I would suggest a email phone and fax bombardmet of Israeli goverment offices and embassies around the world…
A list of contact numbers and email addresses and links to even more can be found here http://tpah.wordpress.com/israeli-goverment-and-embassies-address-phone-numbers-emails/
Further ideas would be also to contact your own goverments and your news media also…
For more information on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
By YAAKOV KATZ
20/05/2010 02:30
9 ships plan to break the Gaza Strip blockade next week.
The IDF is gearing up to stop a flotilla of aid ships that is directed at breaking the blockade on the Gaza Strip next week.
Two ships, one named for international activist Rachel Corrie who was killed in Gaza in 2003, sailed from Ireland to Cyprus where they will join another seven boats scheduled to set sail for Gaza next Thursday.
The ships will carry hundreds of international peace activists as well as some 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment and school supplies. While the Free Gaza movement claims that the flotilla is needed to provide Palestinians in Gaza with basic supplies, the IDF pointed out on Tuesday that it had, in the past week, allowed over 14,000 tons of supplies into the Gaza Strip.
On Monday night, Foreign Ministry officials met with ambassadors from Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden and informed them that the ships would be stopped on their way to the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has instructed the Navy to prepare for the operation, which due to the large number of vessels will require the participation of a large naval force.
The Israeli Navy has in the past stopped international aid ships from reaching the Gaza Strip. Last June, a ship from Cyprus that included a Nobel laureate among its passengers, was stopped en route to Gaza and towed to the Ashdod port.
Meanwhile Wednesday, Hamas sped up work it is doing on the Gaza port to expand it ahead of the flotilla’s arrival.
The project is funded by a Turkish NGO, and according to a report by the Quartet, work is carried out daily by 40 workers who put in 18-hour days. The first phase of the expansion is slated to be completed by the arrival of the ships and includes increasing the depth of the port basin to 8 meters.
The second phase of the project is expected to be completed in two months and includes increasing the depth of the entire port. The third phase will be aimed at turning the Gaza sea port into a tourist attraction for local residents. According to the Quartet report, most of the raw materials for the expansion work comes from recycled rubble of buildings destroyed in the Gaza Strip.
By GRETA BERLIN
We’ve all caught the fever, every one of us who works to send boats to Gaza. From August 2006, when a handful of us started the Free Gaza Movement, every one who has joined us has been stricken with a bad case of the disease. It is chronic. It sometimes causes afflicted patients to insist that if just one more voyage can be planned to this small slice of the Mediterranean, we’ll all be in remission. There is no real cure in sight… yet.
Gaza Fever has now attacked thousands of us who have a passionate sense of justice.
The disease began shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, as a group of us were in despair that the Palestinians, once again, were the forgotten symptom of Israel’s grand designs. As the world watched the defeat of Israel by a small band of guerrilla fighters in Lebanon, Israel decided it would take its wrath out on the Palestinians, specifically the Palestinians of Gaza. We watched as Israel, in January 2009, deliberately bombed 1.5 million Palestinians into abject poverty, a man-made catastrophe bordering on genocide.
One man in Australia suggested we sail a boat from New York to Gaza in protest of the closures there. That small idea has grown into a flotilla that leaves at the end of May with 700 people on board nine ships.
Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel and former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to Bush’s war on Iraq, will join the 8-ship Free Gaza boat flotilla (www.freegaza.org) that will break the Israeli government naval siege/blockade of Gaza and bring reconstruction materials and humanitarian assistance items to the Palestinians of Gaza.
The Blockade of Gaza is three years old and is suffocating the Palestinians of Gaza. After the 22 day Israeli attack on Gaza in December, 2009 through January, 2010 that killed 1440, wounded 5,000, left 50,000 homeless and destroyed most of the civilian infrastructure-water, sewage and electrical systems. No reconstruction materials have been allowed into Gaza by the Israeli or Egyptian governments.
Colonel Wright travelled three times into Gaza in 2009 and was an organizer for the Gaza Freedom March (www.gazafreedommarch.org) that brought 1350 persons from 44 countries to Cairo, Egypt to go into Gaza, but Egyptian authorities refused to allow the majority of the group to go into Gaza.
Colonel Wright said “the Israeli siege of Gaza is illegal and a violation of international law. We demand that the Israeli, Egyptian, United States and European governments end this siege. If the governments will not stop the siege, it is up to the citizens of the world to break it—and that is what we will do!”
Ms. Wright will depart the United States for Athens, Greece on May 19, 2010.
band annie's Weblog 