Activists to test Gaza naval blockade
Jul. 24, 2008 Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
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Taking the protest against the Gaza blockade to a new level, two boats
packed with foreign left-wing activists will attempt to sail from Cyprus to
the sealed Gaza harbor in two weeks' time.
The operation is being directed by members of the International Solidarity
Movement and the Israeli Commission against House Demolitions. A Web site,
FreeGaza, has been set up to collect donations and update the public.
The group - which numbers some 40 activists - has purchased two boats, one
called SS Free Gaza and the other SS Liberty, named after the USS Liberty
that was mistakenly bombed by the Israel Air Force during the Six Day War.
Thirty-four American sailors were killed in the bombing.
The boats are scheduled to set sail from Cyprus on August 5 and arrive,
according to organizer Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, at the Gaza coast a day or
two later.
"The purpose is to get into the Gaza harbor and breach the siege,"
Godfrey-Goldstein said Thursday. "The IDF will probably stop us but part of
the point is to show that Gaza is closed off."
She said that if the boats were stopped by the Israel Navy, they would
likely remain at sea for a few days in an effort to get the government to
change its policy and allow free access to Gaza by sea.
Such access is not allowed and the waters off the coast are patrolled by the
navy, mainly due to weapons-smuggling from Egypt and other countries.
In April, The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran was increasing its efforts
to smuggle arms into the Strip by dropping floating devices off the Gaza
coast that are then picked up by Gazan fisherman.
According to defense officials, Iran was sending rockets and other advanced
weaponry to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip via tunnels dug under
the Philadelphi Corridor from Sinai as well as by sea. Officials said the
navy was doing an effective job in curbing the smuggling by sea but that
there were shipments that Israeli forces had not succeeded in intercepting.
The IDF Spokesman's Office would not say what the navy intends to do in the
event that the protest boats try to enter the Gaza harbor.