ANTI SIEGE SHIP sailing to GAZA with large international contingents aboard...
Miriam Adams
|
Khudari: The anti-siege ship will sail to Gaza regardless of Israel's fears
|
| [ 29/07/2008 - 04:56 PM ] |
|
GAZA,(PIC)-- MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee againstthe siege, stated Tuesday that the ship which is scheduled to leaveCyprus for Gaza to break the Israeli siege will sail despite the fearsvoiced by Israel towards this anti-siege voyage. TheIsraeli Ha'aretz newspaper revealed that Israel has worries of peaceactivists' determination to go on a voyage to Gaza in an attempt tobreak the Israeli siege, adding that the IOA is not certain about theseriousness of the organizers. In apress release received by the PIC, MP Khudari noted that thepersonalities who will take part in this voyage are insistent onarriving at Gaza, stressing that this voyage is considered a peacefulcivil resistance against the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza. Thelawmaker also pointed out that the participants started to arrive inCyrus in preparation for the sailing venture towards the besieged Strip. Thelawmaker underlined that the committee prepared 15 boats to receive theanti-siege ship and registered the names of journalists andpersonalities who will be on board of the reception boats, adding theopportunity for registration is still open through the website of thepopular committee against the siege. Forhis part, Rami Abdo, the spokesman for the popular committee warned theIOF troops of any intentions to attack or intercept the anti-siegevoyage. In a press statement, Abdosaid that such a step would have serious consequences especially as theship will be boarded by a number of European lawmakers, jurists,clerics and peace activists. Thespokesman added that the media outlets will cover every moment of thevoyage on air and any Israeli attack on the ship will be watched on TVscreens throughout the world. Theanti-siege voyage passengers are from Palestine, Cyprus, Australia,Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy,Lebanon, Pakistan, Scotland, Tunisia, the UK, and the USA. Altogether,more than twelve languages will be spoken among them. Amongthe participants are sailors, media people, lawyers, engineers,construction workers, nurses, teachers, doctors, speakers, professors,photographers, clerics, scuba divers, and nonviolent organizers. Theyare Muslims, Jews, Christians and humanists.
Holocaustsurvivor Hedy Epstein is one of those who has courageously agreed to goaboard, seizing what she describes as "an opportunity to make a changefor good, both for Palestinians and Israelis. We intend to open theport, fish with the fishermen, help in the clinics, and work in theschools. But we also intend to remind the world that we will not standby and watch 1.5 million people suffer death by starvation anddisease".
Naim Franjieh, survivor ofthe Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), will join Hedy on the boat : "Myparents fled Palestine in 1948 when I was three years old," he says "Iwant to be there, on the boat, to tell the people of Gaza they are notforgotten by those of us who have left."
|