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.

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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

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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/