Thursday, August 14, 2008

Free Gaza boats set sail

When we were in Israel and Palestine, we met Angela, who took us on a tour of demolished Palestinian homes and new homes being built by Israelis in Arab areas of East Jerusalem (see today's previous post). She told us she would be participating in an international demonstration to breach the blockade in Gaza, to publicize the damage that Israel's blockade is doing to Gaza. The group purchased two boats and they have now set sail. On Wednesday I got an update from the group:

"By the time you read this, our two boats, the Free Gaza and SS Liberty should be sailing from Chania's old port in Crete despite a gloomy forecast of storms ahead. Our captains have decided it is time to quit our dock for security reasons and so we are heading along the Crete coastline on our way to pick up the rest of our passengers who have been waiting patiently in Cyprus. We could be in for a rough ride, but without going into too much detail, we probably are more at risk by not moving. Israel has a history of using Mossad and Kidon to sabotage and destroy peaceful operations designed to help or show solidarity towards Palestinians. From Crete we will head towards larnaca, Cyprus to pick up the rest of our group and then we are bound for Gaza to break the medieval siege imposed by Israel".......(read more on their web site: http://www.freegaza.org/ or subscribe to the listserve to get updated email news of their progress: https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/gazafriends

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