Human Rights Workers Sail Jubilantly into Gaza
Free Gaza is a coalition of human rights observers, aid workers, and journalists who are responding to the Israeli siege of Gaza with nonviolent direct action. For more information visit www.freegaza.org.
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August 23 -- Two small boats, the SS
Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, successfully landed in Gaza early
this evening, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The boats were crewed by a determined group
of international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement.
They had spent two years organizing the effort, raising money
by giving small presentations at churches, mosques, synagogues,
and in the homes of family, friends, and supporters.
They left Cyprus on Thursday morning, sailing
over 350 kilometers through choppy seas. They made the journey
despite threats that the Israeli government would use force to
stop them. They continued sailing although they lost almost all
communications and navigation systems due to outside jamming by
some unknown party. They arrived in Gaza to the cheers and joyful
tears of hundreds of Palestinians who came out to the beaches
to welcome them.
Two days after their arrival, 20 of the human
rights watchers planned to go to sea with Palestinian fishers
in a show of support for their struggle to keep their industry
productive.
According to a recent article in the Guardian,
"Under the Oslo accords, which in 1993 were supposed to
herald the coming of an independent Palestinian state, Gazan fishermen
were to be allowed 20 nautical miles out to sea, where they could
catch sardine as they migrated from the Nile delta up towards
Turkey during the spring.But Israeli naval ships in recent years
have imposed their own, much-reduced limits, sometimes fewer than
6 miles out."
