Maguire: Israel Cannot Cut off Gaza Forever, We'll Come again
Amid the rain floods sweeping through Gaza's refugee camps, described by Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad as unprecedented economical disaster resulting from the Israeli siege and the separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the 21m Dignity&Hope, skippered by a Briton and flying the Gibraltar flag, which put the vessel under British jurisdiction, arrived in Gaza port at 8.10am after sailing overnight from Cyprus, carrying a ton of medical supplies, 27 passengers and breaking the Israeli siege.
The voyage, as was the first one in August, was organized by the Free Gaza Movement, a Palestinian advocacy group based in El Cerrito, Calif., USA.
On board were 27 bleary-eyed but jubilant Italian, Israeli, Palestinian and American and British passengers and crew from 13 countries, including five doctors and Mairead Maguire, the winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland, Mustafa al-Barghouti, an independent Palestinian legislator and one Israeli, who are scheduled to remain in Gaza for four days.
The UK Foreign Office in London had told the five Britons on the Dignity that travel to Gaza would be reckless at this time, but it also warned Israel that Britain took the safety of our nationals seriously.
After the Dignity informed Gaza port that it was on its way in, an Israeli boat got in touch. "What is your home port?" "Limassol." "What is your flag?" "Gibraltar." "What was your last port?" "Larnaca." "Where are you going?" "Gaza." Pause. "Ok." Pause. "Thank you."
Journalist Gideon Spiro, the sole Israeli passenger, observed: "I was very surprised that they let us through . . . They are more sensible than I thought." The first place the boat people went was the government hospital where a tonne of basic medical supplies was delivered to senior medics.
A day before the boat was to arrive at the shores of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a consultation and decided to allow the boat to reach land - and thereby block the activists' plans to create an international incident.
According to The New York Times on Thursday, in late August, two boats arrived together in Gaza despite Israeli threats to stop them. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said at the time that there had been a last-minute decision to let the boats through to avoid a public relations debacle, and not to play into the hands of people they described as provocateurs.
�This time, too, Israeli officials had stated that the boat would not be allowed to reach Gaza, yet it was allowed to proceed without hindrance.
�It was decided at the highest levels to allow them to enter, said Yigal Palmor, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, without explanation.
�The authorities denied entry this week to 120 international academics and health professionals who had applied to attend a conference organized by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which offers a range of local services and is supported by the World Health Organization and other international bodies. The conference focused on the state of mental health in Gaza in light of the blockade. The international experts participated by video conference from Ramallah, in the West Bank.
Our small boat is a huge cry to the international community to follow in our footsteps and open a lifeline to the people of Gaza, declared Huwaida Arraf, a spokeswoman for the activists and a law lecturer at Al Quds University in Jerusalem. �Once again we�ve been able to defy an unjust and illegal policy while the rest of the world is too intimidated to do anything.
"Israel cannot cut off Gaza forever. We will come again and again," Maguire said.
Alan Lonergan from Ballina, Co Mayo, said the voyage was rough and most were sick, but he was happy to endure "if in some small way I can acknowledge the dignity and humanity of the people here in Gaza."
Caoimhe Butterly, an Irish peace activist who has been in the region since 2002, stated: "I am overjoyed to have arrived in Gaza and to have symbolically broken the siege, but that joy is tempered by the stark reality of the situation here and the collective silence of the international community."
Al-Barghuti said arrival in Gaza marked "an historic day in the life of the Palestinian people."
"Today the embargo has been broken. It is a message to the people of Gaza that we have not been abandoned."
"We have arrived here without having to apply for permission from the Israelis," he said.
More than 260 Palestinian patients have died since the siege was imposed in early 2006 because Israel refuses to issue permits for Palestinians in Gaza to go abroad for treatment.
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