Een nieuwe poging de blokkade van Gaza te breken. Vandaag woensdag zijn onder de titel Freedpom Waves, twee schepen op weg gegaan. De Ierse Saoirse en de Canadese Tahrir vertrokken in het geheim van verschillende plaatsen. Inmiddels zijn ze in de internationale wateren waar de schepen elkaar later zullen ontmoeten. Aan boord zijn 27 mensen, onder wie journalisten uit negen landen. Eén van die journalisten is de Egyptische Lina Attalah van de (Engelse sectie) van de progressieve krant Al-Masry al-Youm. Vandaag stuurde ze haar eerste verhaal. Ik neem het hier integraal over:
FETHIYE, Turkey - Two boats set sail from the Turkish port of Fethiye on 2 November, bound for the Gaza Strip in another activist attempt to break the Israeli siege on the Palestinian territory.
The
two boats, one Irish and one Canadian, were supposed to carry some 50
activists and journalists from around the world in an attempt to draw
attention to the isolation Gaza has suffered since 2007. The number was
reduced to about 25 at the port in Fethiye due to complications with
Turkish bureaucracy.
The Canadian boat is carrying US$30,000 in medical aid.
Amid
cheers from activists at the port, the Canadian boat, Tahrir, departed
at 2 pm local time. The activists who were left behind due to
bureaucratic reasons, cheered and greeted fellow activists on board,
asked them to bring back postcards from Gaza and to take care of
themselves.
“Stay
human,” shouted David Heap, a member of the boat’s steering committee,
echoing the words of Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian Gaza solidarity
activist who was murdered in April.
 |
| Lina Attalah |
The
flotilla, called “Freedom Waves” by the organizers, sails after a
flotilla of activist boats attempted to break the Israeli siege of Gaza
in July but were prevented from leaving port by Greek authorities in a
move that activists on board dubbed “Israeli outsourcing” of the Gaza
blockade.
The two boats set sail separately but plan to meet in international waters.
"I
am ecstatic that we are out of port. Hopefully both ships will get to
Gaza and we will show the world that we can break the siege," said Kit
Kittredge, an American activist on board.
Unlike
previous flotillas, the organizers this time had decided to keep the
mission secret until they reached international waters. And although
they left from a Turkish port, they had no plans of coordinating with
any state as they wanted to keep their action entirely civilian-based.
“We
don't want to find out whether the Turkish government would feel some
pressure to stop us. Our preference is not to engage any state actor.
We're civil society and we prefer to act with as little interference as
possible with state actors, even if that state, like Turkey, has taken a
constructive approach in isolating Israel,” said David Heap, a member
of the steering committee on the Canadian boat, which is called Tahrir.
In
September 2011, Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador after the
government in Tel Aviv refused to apologize for killing nine activists
aboard the Turkish Mavi Marmara boat attacked by Israeli troops as it
tried to break the siege on Gaza in June 2010. The attack caused a
diplomatic rift between the two countries, which had previously had
strong military and economic ties.
Organizers
have made sure to keep the current trip secretive after reports emerged
that the engine of one of the boats in a 10-ship flotilla that was
supposed to set sail in July was sabotaged. The perpetrators of the
sabotage went unknown, but most suspected Israel’s involvement.
Meanwhile,
the Canadian delegation to the flotilla insisted on setting sail again
in November. “We always said we will sail again, especially since we
already own the boat; we have the main asset. In September there was a
lot of attention on Palestine for political and diplomatic reasons. We
felt it was important to keep pressure up,” Heap said.
The
boat was acquired right after the Mavi Marmara incident, when Canadian
activists insisted on acquiring a boat and attempting to break the siege
again.
“People
dug into their pockets, some stopped me on the street and gave me five
dollars, others signed checks of US$5000. The Canadian boat is owned by
all these people,” Heap said.
Besides
the Canadian delegation, activists from Australia, the US and Denmark
are part of the mission, as well as journalists from Al Jazeera, the
independent New York-based program Democracy Now!, and the Iranian
state-run Press TV.
Hassan
Ghani of Press TV joined the Tahrir boat for his third trip on board a
Gaza-bound solidarity flotilla. He was on board the Mavi Marimara when
it was attacked in 2010.
“If
I am not there I will feel a bit empty inside,” Ghani said. “There is
always a possibility that there could be that one major flotilla that
breaks through. I see it as one of those waves, and it's important to
cover it because it's going to happen and people should know about it.”
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