60 Peace Activists to sail to Gaza in August to break the Israeli siege

Tuesday July 22, 2008 13:12 by George Rishmawi - IMEMC & Agencies

Around 60 Palestinians, Israelis, and Internationals from 15 countries will sail to Gaza during the sixty-year anniversary of the Nakba “the forcible expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands to create Israel, in 1948” (Now numbering 9 millions) to challenge Israeli control over the open-air prison called Gaza Strip, a press release issued by the Free Gaza Movement stated.

The crew includes Holocaust and Nakba survivors and will sail to focus the world's attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip that is resulting from the siege that has been in effect since June 2006 and intensified in June 2007 after Hamas assumed control over the Strip after an armed clash with its rival Fatah party.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, however it continues to control all entrances and exits, in addition to airspace and waters of the coastal region, putting nearly 1.5 million Palestinians in an open-air prison.

"The siege of Gaza ends only when Palestinians are accorded the basic fundamental human rights of citizens throughout the free world," says UK passenger, Musheir El-Farra. "My family and beloved ones in Gaza have been under siege for over two years now; living without their most basic human rights on their own land.

Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust Survivor who will be on the boat, believes that what she is doing is good for both Palestinians and Israelis. "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".

The boat is expected to sail from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip on August 5, 2008. A press conference will be held in central London one day before the sail.

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