Ship sponsored in part by Carter Center to challenge Israeli blockade of Gaza [Jimmah goes to war!]

IMRA ^ | 7-20-08

[SJackson]

Ship sponsored in part by Carter Center to challenge Israeli blockade of Gaza Port

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=39984

"Free Gaza" initiative to try and enter Gaza by sea and open port Date: 19 / 07 / 2008 Time: 14:58 www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30657

Bethlehem - Ma'an - A small shipping vessel will set sail for Gaza from Cyprus on 5 August expecting to be illegally detained as it enters Gazan waters.

The waters off the Gaza Strip are patrolled by Israeli naval vessels, and Israel enforces a "Fishing Limit" that is 6 nautical miles (11.1 km) from the Gaza shore. These restrictions on access and borders are enforced despite the 2005 Israeli "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip.

There will be 60 people aboard the "Free Gaza" vessel including a Holocaust survivor a survivor of the Palestinian Nakba, and members of the international Palestinian diaspora.

The crew intends to travel into the Gaza strip, past the international waters boundary, the 1996 Oslo accords boundary (20 nautical miles from the Gaza coast), the 2002 Bertini agreement boundary (12 nautical miles and 22.2 km from the Gaza coast) and the current "Fishing Limit" imposed by the Israeli navy since October 2006.

Legally, the group says there should be no problem passing each of these lines since Israel disengaged from the Gaza strip in 2005 and should no longer its control airspace and territorial waters.

The initiative hopes to draw attention to the continued de facto occupation of Gaza. In an interview with Ma'an on Saturday, a spokesperson for the group in Israel said that the crew expects to be stopped by the Israeli navy shortly after they cross from international waters into Gazan territorial waters, which according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, extend 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) from an area's shoreline.

While Israel has not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, they did sign the Bertini Agreement in August 2002 with the UN, which stated that Gazan territory extended the full 12 nautical miles from the shore.

In June 2005, Israel unilaterally "disengaged" from Gaza and withdrew all troops to the 1967 borders. In theory, Gazans control the entire Strip, excluding approximately 650 meters along the eastern border which is called a buffer and "no go" zone.

The trip organizers think one of four things will happen to the ship: it may be stopped as it crosses or approaches the barrier marking the international waters boundary, in which case the crew is prepared to stay on board for at least two weeks in protest of the illegal halt of passage. The second possibility envisioned by the organizers is that the ship will be allowed to pass into the area, and will be stopped in the territorial waters. In this eventuality the crew expects to be arrested, and the ship dragged to shore.

A third possibility is that the ship will be sunk by the navy.

The final option is that the ship actually makes it through to the Gaza port near Gaza City in the north of the Strip.

According to Holocaust survivor and crew member Hedy Epstein, in the event that they can get through to Gaza they will "open the port, fish with the fishermen, help in the clinics, and work in the schools."

What Epstein hopes to do on this journey is to "remind the world that we will not stand by and watch 1.5 million people suffer death by starvation and disease."

Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Palestinian Legislative Council member and lawyer Jamal Al-Khudari said that he hopes the arrival of the ship in Gaza will mean an end to the siege. He emphasized that the ship has a right to enter the local waters and Gazans have the right to host their guests without Israeli intervention.

Opening a port in Gaza would allow residents to export agricultural products, and gain control over the goods and material brought into the region. Currently, all crossing points are controlled by Israel and Egypt. The truce between Hamas and Israel was supposed to see the blockade and restriction on essential goods lifted, but food, medical supplies, cement and fuel are still only trickling in.

The ship was invited to Gaza by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, and support for the initiative was provided in part from Carter Center in the US and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

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http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=39987

Text: Press release describing plans to send ship to Gaza and claim the Carter Center "backing our effort"

Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: What better way to encourage peace than to open up the Gaza Port so that Hamas can accelerate its already massive smuggling of weapons.

That's "peace" as in "rest in peace".

#1: Group website: " Backing our Effort The Carter Center, www.cartercenter.org " www.freegaza.org/index.php?language=EN&module=endorse

#2: Group press release:

For Immediate Release Contact: The Free Gaza Movement FriendsofGaza@gmail.com

Setting Sail on August 1, 2008 to Break the Siege of Gaza www.freegaza.org/uploads/image_gallery/june2008.pdf

We will no longer wait for the United Nations to enforce over 65 resolutions against Israel, or for Israel to come forward and uphold the rights of Palestinians guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention. We choose, instead, to sail to Gaza in August and declare our solidarity with the Palestinians.

Forty to seventy 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 -to challenge Israeli control over the open-air prison called Gaza.

Israel says Gaza is no longer occupied; yet it denies Palestinians access to jobs, travel, commerce, education, and medical care. Its military has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air concentration camp controlled by land, sea and air. In the past year, the people of Gaza have barely had enough to eat, as Israel withholds food and energy in an attempt to starve them into submission.

We choose nonviolent civil resistance against the unjust policies of occupation to show that everyone of conscience can participate in resisting injustice.

If you are media, please email us to reserve a place on the boat or boats; we intend to have satellite capabilities onboard; we will keep you posted on dates and locations over the next two months.

The Free Gaza Movement 405 Vista Heights Road El Cerrito, CA 94530

[parthian shot]

John D

I heard what your saying from another source. He was also a pilot shot down and in the Hanoi Hilton the same time McCain was there. Where did you get your info?

[DoughtyOne]

I agree. I just pray Carter is on board when they do.

[John D]

I heard what your saying from another source. He was also a pilot shot down and in the Hanoi Hilton the same time McCain was there. Where did you get your info?

Here are a couple.
On October 27, 1967, four days after being shot down, McCain called for a North Vietnamese guard. He told the officer, "O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital." -U.S. News and World Report, May 14, 1973 article written by former POW John McCain http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcainmdl.htm
Eventually, I gave them my ship's name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant." Pages 193-194, Faith of My Fathers, by John McCain. http://www.usvetdsp.com/mar08/mccain_manchurian.htm

[chris_bdba]

I’ve often wondered that myself! I plead that I was only 16 when he was elected so therefore it wasn’t my fault. :D

[Slings and Arrows]

Better bring a killer rabbit, just in case.

[gogogodzilla]

I say that Israel needs to stop the ship, search it, and then let it pass.

But if weapons, explosives, rocket fuel, or any other substance that could be used to attack Israel is found on the ship... sink it with all the crew and passengers onboard.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I have a dream...

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

And what will happen if days before it sets sail, the ship sinks in the port at Cyprus? No casualties, just poor maintenance to blame so that the insurance underwriters balk at paying for the accident.

Otherwise, perhaps several adult North American skunks could take up residence on the still functional ship, feeding on the copious amounts of fetid pork grease scattered liberally about the inner decks.

And then, of course, there are the bedbugs ‘n’ crab lice, the special light bulbs whose light makes you queasy, and the repeated and unexplained engine malfunctions that perplex the chief engineer.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Classified tactical information is invalid after 48 hours, so POWs are free to talk after that time without recrimination.

[TrueKnightGalahad]

Mr. Trebek, I believe the answer is, “What is sink the ship?”

[SJackson]

I say that Israel needs to stop the ship, search it, and then let it pass.

There's a blockade on sea traffic to Gaza, so Israel should turn it away, not let it pass. And shame on Jimmy Carter for his interference.

[happygrl]

Rachel Cory comes to mind....