Destination Gaza
Lite positiva nyheter - nu presenteras besättningen på den båt som i en solidaritetsaktion skall försöka ta sig till Gaza utan att passera israeliskt territorium. De har därför inte heller sökt tillstånd från Israel. På måndag håller de en presskonferens där alla passagerare presenteras mer ingående. Den 5:e augusti ger de sig av mot Gaza. I mina ögon är de hjältar!
Från Israeli Committe against House Demolitions (Israel):
In August, unarmed Palestinians, Israelis and internationals will sail directly to Gaza without going through Israeli territory and without seeking permission from Israeli authorities. They include an 81-year-old Catholic nun, an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, Palestinians from Gaza, 16 nationalities, at least four major religions and the international press.
On Monday, August 4, 2008, the Free Gaza Movement publicly introduces its international team that will take volunteers from Cyprus to Gaza in popular solidarity with Palestinian human rights. From that day, any attempt to damage the project will be considered an act of aggression against a nonviolent international human rights mission.
Från Palestine Solidarity Campaign (England):
Setting Sail on August 5th 2008 to Break the Siege of Gaza
Around 60 Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals from 15 countries will sail to the Gaza Strip to deliver medical equipment on August 5th 2008. The delivery to Gaza Port of desperately needed medical supplies will be the first international cargo to reach Gaza directly since the crushing embargo on its civilians began.
“The siege of Gaza ends only when Palestinians are accorded the basic fundamental human rights of citizens throughout the free world,” says UK passenger, Musheir El-Farra who knows the irreparable human cost of current Israeli government policies. “My family and beloved ones in Gaza have been under siege for over two years now; living without their most basic human rights in their own country.
Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein is one of those who has courageously agreed to go aboard, seizing what she describes as “an opportunity to make a change for good, both for Palestinians and Israelis. We intend to open the port, fish with the fishermen, help in the clinics, and work in the schools. But we also intend to remind the world that we will not stand by and watch 1.5 million people suffer death by starvation and disease”.
Naim Franjieh, survivor of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), will join Hedy on the boat : “My parents fled Palestine in 1948 when I was three years old,” he says “I want to be there, on the boat, to tell the people of Gaza they are not forgotten by those of us who have left.”
The crew intends to travel into the Gaza strip, past the international waters boundary, the 1996 Oslo accords boundary (20 nautical miles from the Gaza coast), the 2002 Bertini agreement boundary (12 nautical miles and 22.2 km from the Gaza coast) and the current ”Fishing Limit” imposed by the Israeli navy since October 2006.
Legally, the group says there should be no problem passing each of these lines since Israel disengaged from the Gaza strip in 2005 and should no longer control its airspace and territorial waters.
The boat’s cargo includes hearing aids for the children of Gaza. These desperately needed items have been blocked by the Israeli authorities, causing serious damage to all aspects of the livelihood, education and well-being of children with hearing difficulties.
In his letter of support for the voyage, Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated “Peace and security, we discovered in South Africa, do not come through the barrel of a gun…I support the boat convoy in its attempt to bring on-going humanitarian relief to the people of Gaza”. The Carter Center is also backing the voyage.
Ten of the 60 Campaigners are from the UK and Ireland, including 2 members of the PSC.
Chairman of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Palestinian Legislative Council member and lawyer Jamal El Khoudary said that he hopes the arrival of the ship in Gaza will mean an end to the siege. He emphasized that the ship has a right to enter the local waters and Gazans have the right to host their guests without Israeli intervention.
Opening a port in Gaza would allow residents to export agricultural products, and gain control over the goods and material brought into the region. Currently, all crossing points are controlled by Israel and Egypt. The truce between Hamas and Israel was supposed to see the blockade and restriction on essential goods lifted, but food, medical supplies, cement and fuel are still only trickling in.
För mer information www.freegaza.org
