[News] Gaza emergency boat - We Are Coming Back, And We Are Putting Israel On Notice

[Anti-Imperialist News]

January 7, 2009

Contact:
Huwaida Arraf (Cyprus): +357-96-723-999 
<mailto:huwaida.arraf at gmail.com>huwaida.arraf at gmail.com
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein (Jerusalem): +972-547-366 393 
<mailto:angela at icahd.org>angela at icahd.org
Ramzi Kysia (U.S): +1-703-994-5422 <mailto:rrkysia at yahoo.com>rrkysia at yahoo.com


We Are Coming Back, And We Are Putting Israel On Notice

[Larnaca, Cyprus] Today the Free Gaza Movement put Israel on notice that
we are sending another emergency boat to Gaza. We will announce our exact
departure date, time and route in the next few days. We will travel from
Cypriot waters, into international waters, then directly into Gaza
territorial waters, never nearing Israeli waters.

The ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed over 640
Palestinians, including many children and women, and injured thousands.
These acts by Israel are severe and massive violations of international
humanitarian law as defined by the Geneva Conventions, both in regards to
the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws
of war.

The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian
population from Israel's massive violations of international humanitarian
law. Therefore, we concerned citizens from Belgium, Columbia, France,
Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Kuwait, Scotland, Spain,
and the United States, feel that it is our moral duty to try to do just
that.

The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free
Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical
supplies to Gaza. In the early hours of Tuesday, December 30, the Israeli
Navy rammed our boat, the DIGNITY, in international waters. Neither the
DIGNITY, nor its passengers and crew constituted any kind of threat to
Israel, and the Israeli government had been alerted to the boat's mission,
the previous day. Yet we were violently rammed three times on the side
without any warning from the Israeli Navy, in an obvious attempt to
disable the vessel, jeopardizing the lives of the 16 passengers on board.

We are not deterred by the violence of the Israeli military and intend to
sail to Gaza again and again. We are physicians, journalists, members of
parliament, and human rights observers who intend to reach the people of
Gaza to deliver much needed medical aid and witness the atrocities being
committed against the Palestinians there.

We are willing to put our bodies on the line to stop Israel's unlawful
massacres of the Palestinian people (we have received death threats
warning us not to repeat our attempt) and bring the attention of the world
to the war crimes happening in Gaza against 1.5 million Palestinians.



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