Free Gaza boat to sail Thursday

Tuesday September 23, 2008 23:03 by Free Gaza - Press release

The Free Gaza movement announced on Tuesday that its new boat will sail to Gaza on Thursday September 25 at around 10 am and that the estimated arrival time in Gaza will be on Friday at 10 in the morning.

The movement will hold a press conference on Thursday at Larnaca Port prior to departure.

 The passengers on board include five physicians from 4 countries, human rights lawyers and monitors, Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Israeli Knesset,  Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and Mairead Maguire, winner of 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for work in Belfast. According to Maguire, a world-renowned human rights campaigner, "This mission carries with it the hopes and wishes of many people around the world," the Free Gaza Movement reported.

On August 23, two of the Free Gaza Movement’s boats, the Free Gaza and the Liberty arrived in Gaza Port to the jubilation of tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered there. It was the first time in over forty years that international ships have docked in Gaza Port.

Since Israel tightened its blockade two years ago, malnutrition and unemployment rates in Gaza have soared. In May 2008, several international aid organizations, including CARE International UK, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, and Medecins du Monde UK, stated that, "the stranglehold on Gaza’s borders has made ... the work of the UN and other humanitarian agencies.... virtually impossible.  Only a trickle of medicine, food, fuel and other goods is being allowed in…making people highly dependent on food aid, and [it has] caused the near-collapse of the health system and basic services, such as water and sanitation."

Huwaida Arraf, delegation spokesperson and a law lecturer at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, said, "The world cannot stay silent as Palestinian people are deliberately being starved and humiliated; Palestinians have the right to live with dignity. Last month, on August 23rd, our two, small, wooden boats, the Free Gaza and Liberty, sailed to Gaza and did what our governments would not do - we defied Israel’s illegal collective punishment of 1.5 million men, women and children living in the Gaza Strip. On September 25th, we’re sailing back to Gaza to challenge it again. Our boats are very humble, but what they represent is hope, and hope is what mobilizes change around the world."

The “Hope” was named in recognition of St. Augustine, who wrote that "Hope is the greatest of all virtues, even greater than Love. For Love only teaches us what should be, while Hope teaches us what will be."

The Israeli siege is barring the entry of medicine, medical equipment, food, humanitarian supplies, fuels, construction material, and many needed goods and supplies essential for daily life.

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