Gaza Ceasefire Signals Sailing Success

The Free Gaza Movement, a group who is sailing to Gaza in August, says that the June 19 ceasefire between Hamas and Israel improves their prospects of getting in.

“Now Israel is even less likely to interfere with our plans,” says Greta Berlin [1], one of the organizers. “Since we were never passing through Israeli territory in the first place, we shouldn’t have a problem entering Gaza - even without the ceasefire – especially since we are nonviolent civilians from around the world who want to help open the Gaza Sea border.”

More than 45 people from 15 countries will gather in Cyprus for the maiden voyage on August 5 in what they hope will be the beginning of a ferry service between Gaza and Larnaca. The passengers include clerics, professors, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and human rights watchers. Several passengers once lived in Gaza and haven’t seen their families in years, because Israel refuses to let them in or their families out.

“My parents fled Palestine in 1948 when I was three years old,” said Naim Franjieh, a survivor of the Palestinian Nakba, (catastrophe), when 700,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes during Israel’s founding, “I want to be there, on the boat, to tell the people of Gaza they are not forgotten by those of us who have left.”

The project has been endorsed by The Carter Center and Desmond Tutu, as well as more than 70 other organizations and individuals.

“What an opportunity to make a change for good, both for Palestinians and Israelis. We intend to open the port, fish with the fishermen, help in the clinics, and work in the schools. But we also intend to remind the world that we will not stand by and watch 1.5 million people suffer death by starvation and disease.” Added Hedy Epstein, herself a survivor of the Holocaust.

Asked why Israel would agree to letting the boats pass, Paul Larudee, another organizer said,

“It’s not a question of permission. We are merely exercising the right of Palestinians to decide who may enter and leave their territory. The siege on Gaza ends only when Palestinians are accorded the same rights and freedoms as anyone else in this world. We demand nothing less, and we hope that a simple ferry to Gaza will usher in the day when Palestinians can enjoy those freedoms as much as Israelis and all other free peoples.”

The Free Gaza Movement
405 Vista Heights Rd.
El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA;
Contact: friendsofgaza@gmail.com ;
http://www.freegaza.org/