Breaking the Gaza blockade
Issandr El Amrani
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I am humbled by these people's courage and ashamed to find myself not doing more to break this inhuman siege on Gaza:
ASHDOD, Israel — Israel on Thursday unveiled a massive makeshift detention center in the country's main southern port and announced the end of days of intense naval maneuvers, vowing to stop a flotilla of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists trying to break a 3-year blockade of the Gaza Strip this weekend.
Military authorities said that masked naval commandos would greet the eight ships deep out at sea, escort the vessels to port and give each of the activists a stark choice: leave the country or go to jail.
But the tough response threatened to backfire by breathing new life into the activists' mission and drawing new attention to the oft-criticized blockade of Gaza.
"We know that we are sailing for a good cause," said Dror Feiler, 68, an Israeli-born Swedish activist who was on board a cargo ship headed from Greece to Gaza. "If the Israelis want us to pay a price, we will pay a price, but we will come again and again."
Some 750 activists, including a Nobel peace laureate and former U.S. congresswoman, have set sail for the Gaza coast in recent days, carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies. They are expected to reach the Israeli coast on Saturday.
You can find out more and donate at the Free Gaza campaign.
Reader Comments (3)
Re: the Gaza blockade, I'd like to learn more about Turkey's official/unofficial role. I believe you have commented on this before. Have Egyptian officials said anything publicly about Turkish 'meddling'?
To my knowledge there has been no public statements about the Free Gaza flotilla - but I've been outside the country. The Israelis have said that the campaign should have taken up Israeli or Egyptian offers to channel the aid (the Egyptians would have probably done so through the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, as they have in the past, rather than Rafah). As for the role of the Turks, a year ago my Egyptians contacts said the Turks were quite helpful in the Hamas-Fatah negotiations. I think they appreciated that the Turks were leaving the limelight of the "Egyptian Initiative" to the Egyptians, who needed it after the Gaza war. But over the past decade the Egyptian attitude to Turkey's mounting interest in regional affairs has been that of resentment tinged with jealousy. The Turks clearly make the Egyptians look bad, without having to explicitly criticize Egypt.
Not satisfied with bombing and burning the hell out of defenceless men, women and children, STALINAZI ISRAEL has intercepted aid convoys which would make the UNLAWFUL IMPRISONMENT of innocent Arabs a little more bearable. Israelis wouldn’t keep their own zoo animals in such inhumane conditions! STALINAZI methods have been used to liquidate unwanted entities from this abominable apartheid state. Why do Christians continue to kiss the butt of a nation which would only crucify Jesus a second time if they got the chance? As for praying for Israel, Jeremiah, one of their own prophets, gave up on them:
PRAY NOT FOR THIS PEOPLE FOR THEIR GOOD, because in the day you pray for them God won’t hear you!(Jere.14:11). Jesus NEVER starved sick, oppressed people or stopped food from getting through to the hungry. Today’s news showed WHEELCHAIRS being confiscated from the Rachel Corrie aid ship. A deadly weapon to fire missiles from, I guess. D-Day was the turning point of WWII. We should have a G-Day for Gaza when aid ships from all over the world crush the ILLEGAL blockade and set Israel's captives free.