Israel Matzav

'Internationals' to send boat to break Gaza 'blockade'

Haaretz reports on Monday morning that a group of 'internationals' may be seeking to send a boat to run the Gaza 'blockade.' The boat will likely depart from Cyprus on August 5, although it may also depart from a Turkish or Egyptian port. The boat is being sponsored by the 'Free Gaza Movement' and the International Solidarity Movement, and is supposed to include among its 'passengers' three members of the European parliament, a Holocaust survivor and a survivor of the 'Palestinian' 'naqba.'

According to the Free Gaza Movement's Web site, the activists will include a Holocaust survivor, a survivor of the Palestinian Nakba, as Palestinians call Israel's creation in 1948, and other members of the Palestinian diaspora, in addition to the European parliamentarians.

According to the Web site, the plan is for the boat to enter Gaza's territorial waters - and, more specifically, the "special security zone" that the Israel Navy has declared off-limits to all boats. The organizers thereby hope to provoke a clash with the navy that will end with them being forcibly arrested.

An Israeli government source said that Israel still has little information about the plan, and it is not clear whether it will ever come off. A year ago, he noted, Israel received reports of a similar plan, but due to logistical difficulties, that initiative never got off the ground.

In conversations with their Israeli counterparts, Cypriot officials have expressed concern about the boat departing from their shores, but say they can do nothing to prevent it. According to the information that has reached Israel, however, Cyprus is not the only point of departure under consideration; the ship might also sail from Turkey or from Alexandria in Egypt.

Israel is still trying to discover the ship's exact identity and more details about the organizers' intentions. It is also trying to decide how to respond. One option that has been raised in official discussions is to simply allow the ship to reach Gaza, thereby foiling the organizers' apparent desire for a clash.

By the way, Haaretz says that the group has raised $300,000 to finance this junket, but according to their own page, they have only raised $210,000 of the $300,000 they need. Maybe Israel ought to ask the British how to deal with the 'blockade runners.'

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:37 AM