The "Dignity-Al Karama [1] "left this morning waters of Ile Rousse in Corsica. It will join in a few days the "Louise Michel" is currently in Greece.
40 The French, who will board the two boats in the eastern Mediterranean are ready. The appointment is given in Athens. In less than a week, they will be en route to the Gaza Strip. Thousands of dollars of equipment will be purchased by the campaign "A French boat to Gaza" and routed over a two international cargo fleet.
The two French ships will join the dozen boats that were present for this international initiative. They will bring 5,000 tons of material in the Gaza Strip.
It is thus 300 to 400 people from around the world who will board the urgency to proclaim the end of the blockade of the Gaza Strip and the respect of international law.
Given this historic citizen action, our states must be equal. They must act for Israel to let boats pass. The International Federation of Human Rights reiterated in a press release the "responsibility of the international community to take all necessary measures to ensure access for humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip."
We do what the international community should do. Our pressure is already bearing fruit. A few days before the start of the flotilla, Israel allowed the UN to import the materials needed for construction of 1200 houses and 18 schools in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza boat left France, kicking off the second Freedom Flotilla | Canadian Boat to Gaza
More worryingly Israel is threatening journalists
Furthermore, the letter says, "participation in the flotilla is an intentional violation of Israeli law and is liable to lead to participants being denied entry into the State of Israel for ten years, to the impoundment of their equipment and to additional sanctions."
Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass will be joining the flotilla, along with several dozen other journalists and several hundred activists from some 20 countries. Also joining the flotilla will be American writer Alice Walker, despite an American advisory that doing so could be a violation of U.S. law.
Israel warns foreign journalists: Joining Gaza flotilla is illegal - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
seems Israel has a fear of competition for reporting what happens.
It is disheartening that in this day and age peaceful protesters can not be certain that Western Governments will make certain their citizens come to no harm.
Alice Walker is certainly aware of the risk
AW; I’m thoughtful. Because we’re told it could be a quite dangerous journey. And so I am steeping myself in the wisdom and the images and words of people who in my culture have sustained us through dangerous journeys. Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Ella Baker, Fanny Lou Hamer, Black Elk, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Bob Marley. It’s good for me to feel that I am surrounded at all times by the presence of all these people who have understood American empire and who have stood against it.
AA: You’ve made the connection with the Freedom Rides that happened fifty years ago, in 1961. Can you talk about that?
AW: Yes, it means that the baton is being passed on to us of journeying to places in the world where people need us and where our governments are not helpful and in fact are destructive.
Just before my first year of college, the Freedom Riders came down to the South; I was living in Georgia under intense segregation that white supremacists and many black people assumed would last forever. They had become extremely complacent after a hundred years of brutality and subjugation of black people; and so when the Freedom Riders came down we didn’t expect them to survive.
Just as we didn’t expect Martin Luther King Jr. to live as long as he did. But we were very grateful because at least it assured us that someone outside of our own community objected to the repression that we endured every day and it meant a lot to us. It lifted our spirits, it gave us courage, it gave us hope.
cont'd here http://jfjfp.com/?p=23719
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