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January 7, 2009<br><br>
Contact:<br>
Huwaida Arraf (Cyprus): +357-96-723-999
<a href="mailto:huwaida.arraf@gmail.com">huwaida.arraf@gmail.com</a><br>
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein (Jerusalem): +972-547-366 393
<a href="mailto:angela@icahd.org">angela@icahd.org</a><br>
Ramzi Kysia (U.S): +1-703-994-5422
<a href="mailto:rrkysia@yahoo.com">rrkysia@yahoo.com</a><br><br>
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We Are Coming Back, And We Are Putting Israel On Notice<br><br>
[Larnaca, Cyprus] Today the Free Gaza Movement put Israel on notice
that<br>
we are sending another emergency boat to Gaza. We will announce our
exact<br>
departure date, time and route in the next few days. We will travel
from<br>
Cypriot waters, into international waters, then directly into Gaza<br>
territorial waters, never nearing Israeli waters.<br><br>
The ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed over 640<br>
Palestinians, including many children and women, and injured
thousands.<br>
These acts by Israel are severe and massive violations of
international<br>
humanitarian law as defined by the Geneva Conventions, both in regards
to<br>
the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the
laws<br>
of war.<br><br>
The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian<br>
population from Israel's massive violations of international
humanitarian<br>
law. Therefore, we concerned citizens from Belgium, Columbia,
France,<br>
Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Kuwait, Scotland,
Spain,<br>
and the United States, feel that it is our moral duty to try to do
just<br>
that.<br><br>
The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the
Free<br>
Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and
medical<br>
supplies to Gaza. In the early hours of Tuesday, December 30, the
Israeli<br>
Navy rammed our boat, the DIGNITY, in international waters. Neither
the<br>
DIGNITY, nor its passengers and crew constituted any kind of threat
to<br>
Israel, and the Israeli government had been alerted to the boat's
mission,<br>
the previous day. Yet we were violently rammed three times on the
side<br>
without any warning from the Israeli Navy, in an obvious attempt to<br>
disable the vessel, jeopardizing the lives of the 16 passengers on
board.<br><br>
We are not deterred by the violence of the Israeli military and intend
to<br>
sail to Gaza again and again. We are physicians, journalists, members
of<br>
parliament, and human rights observers who intend to reach the people
of<br>
Gaza to deliver much needed medical aid and witness the atrocities
being<br>
committed against the Palestinians there.<br><br>
We are willing to put our bodies on the line to stop Israel's
unlawful<br>
massacres of the Palestinian people (we have received death threats<br>
warning us not to repeat our attempt) and bring the attention of the
world<br>
to the war crimes happening in Gaza against 1.5 million
Palestinians.<br><br>
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