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Qatari ship voyage to Gaza postponed, Libyan vessel
moored in Europe, due to pressures from the Israeli Occupation
government
Gaza: Qatar ship's voyage postponed, Libyan vessel moored in Europe,
Free Gaza boat to depart soon
Date: 06 / 12 / 2008 Time: 15:30 Gaza - Ma'an –
The aid ship from Qatar slated to depart from Cyprus Saturday morning
and arrive in Gaza the following morning was postponed for logistical
reasons stemming from Israeli pressure to prevent the ship’s arrival.
Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Jamal Al-Khudari
said the delay did not indicate that the ship would be stymied. He
explained that the boat is moored in an European port and is in contact
with the appropriate officials to ensure the contents of the ship will
be delivered to needy Gazans.
Another vessel, he added, is set
to launch from the fort of Yaffa (the Palestinian Arab town under
Israeli control) on Sunday morning. The Yaffa ship will carry aid as
well as Palestinian Arab members of the Israeli parliament and Islamic
leaders living in Israel.
A third voyage, coordinated by the
Free Gaza movement, which successfully landed three ships in the Strip
since August, will leave Cyprus in December. The boat will carry Arab,
European and international activists and Parliamentarians, as well as
aid for Gazans.
There is much international aid destined for
Gaza, Al-Khudari noted, explaining that there are 2,000 trucks of food
and supplies lined up at Gaza crossing points. He accused the Israeli
occupation government of invoking irrelevant pretexts in order to keep
the crossings closed.
Al-Khudari renewed his call to the
Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to take practical steps
to ensure that aid gets to Gaza, and that the siege ends.
Libyan aid ship docks at Greek port; still plans to reach
Gaza Strip
Date: 05 / 12 / 2008 Time: 10:32 Bethlehem -
Ma'an -
The Libyan ship blocked from docking at Gaza's port this week will
try again after picking up new passengers from Greece, where the boat
docked in Crete overnight, according to a statement sent to Ma'an.
A group called the Palestinian Brotherhood Association said that the
Libyan ship landed in the port of Crete to pick up more foreign
solidarity activists and travel back to the Gaza Strip, this time hoping
to actually make landfall.
"The ship came docked at the Greek
port to pick up a group of foreigners and take them to the port of Gaza,
as soon as possible, to challenge the blockade," the statement said.
The association also denied claims made by Israel that the ship was
laden with weaponry, saying that Greek immigration officials "saw what
this ship will be carrying."
On Wednesday, Libya accused Israel
of piracy at a meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council for
blocking a Libyan ship from delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza
Strip earlier this week.
Libya reportedly called for an emergency
session of the Security Council to protest Israel’s interdiction of the
ship, which officials said contained 3,000 tons of basic supplies.
Israeli warships forced the vessel to reroute its course to Egypt.
Libyan UN Ambassador Giadallah Ettalhi told the 15-nation council
that the Israeli action was "an act of piracy" as defined by the UN law
of the sea.
***Updated 12:55 Bethlehem time
Second Arab charity attempt to break Gaza siege with $2 million of
Qatari shipment of cancer medicine
ccun.org, December 6, 2008
Editor's Note:
This is the second Arab attempt to break the Gaza siege, as the first
was the Libyan failed attempt last week, after being blocked by Israeli
occupation forces warships.
=======
The Free Gaza Movement announced a joint mission with Qatar Charity,
a Qatar based relief organisation, to sail from Larnaca Port to Gaza
with $2 million dollars worth of cancer medicine this Saturday, December
6th at 4:30pm.
Through this precedent setting voyage, Qatar
Charity will become (if it succeeds) the first Arab organization to
break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The Free Gaza Movement has
successfully challenged the siege on three previous occasions this year,
landing missions in Gaza in August, October, and November. The Free Gaza
ships are the first to dock in Gaza Port in over 41 years.
Lubna
Masarwa, one of the movement organizers, stated that, "I'm confident
that we will reach Gaza. We are unarmed civilians carrying desperately
needed medical supplies to other unarmed civilians. It would be obscene
for Israel to use violence against us in order to prevent the delivery
of these medicines."
Israel maintains absolute control over
Gaza's borders and airspace, and has imposed an increasingly brutal
blockade on its 1.5 million civilians for over two years, drastically
increasing poverty and malnutrition rates.
According to Masarwa,
"What Israel is doing to the people of Gaza should be considered a
crime. Food and medicine are not weapons, the world must not allow them
to be used as weapons."
Israel temporarily lifted some
restrictions on aid workers and journalists today for the first time in
a month. However Caoimhe Butterly, Gaza Project Coordinator for the boat
missions, labeled the move "a fig leaf for an ongoing, all-encompassing
policy of collective punishment, starvation and humiliation. The
solution to this catastrophe isn't temporarily opening Erez, but ending
the Occupation once and for all. We hope the Qatari mission will inspire
Palestine's neighbors to mount similar missions and form the basis for
direct and continuing political action in the Arab world."
The
passengers on board the Dignity this Saturday will include:
• 5
Qatar Charity officials, including one Moroccan National • 2 Qatari
local governmental representatives • Australian, American, British,
and Italian human rights workers • A British surgeon traveling to
Gaza to volunteer in local hospitals for everal weeks • International
journalists from Al-Jazeera TV and McClatchy Newspapers
###
-- Greta Berlin Media Team Free Gaza Movement 357 99 08
17 67 www.freegaza.org
www.anis-online.de/office/events/FreeGazaSong.htm
www.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/
For More Information, please contact: (Gaza) Caoimhe Butterly,
+972 598 273 960 /
sahara78@hotmail.co.uk (Cyprus/Gaza) Lubna Masarwa, +972 505 633
044 / lubnna@gmail.com (Cyprus)
Ramzi Kysia , +357 99 081 767 /
rrkysia@yahoo.com
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