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Freedom Flotilla 2 To Sail To Gaza By The End Of May

The Turkish Humanitarian Foundation (IHH) announced that Freedom Flotilla 2 will be sailing to the Gaza Strip by the end of May this year.

IHH led the Freedom Flotilla that was attacked in international waters last year. In late May of 2010, the Israeli navy attacked Marmara Turkish ship, part of the Freedom Flotilla that was heading to Gaza to deliver humanitarian supplies, and killed nine Turkish activists; dozens of activists were wounded.

The new flotilla is expected to include more than 12 ships and will be sailing to Gaza departing from southern Turkey.

It will be led by Marmara ship, the same ship that was attacked by the Israeli navy leading to the death of the nine activists before the army towed it to Ashdod Port.

Israeli Paper, Maariv, reported that Israel has already started a campaign to stop the flotilla but, so far, the efforts did not lead to any success.

Recently, Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, demand EU Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, to announce that the IHH is an illegal organization.

Meanwhile, IHH reported that European parliamentarians, Arab and Turkish parliamentarians will join the flotilla regardless of the Israeli threats to use force, once again, against the solidarity ships.

In the last Freedom Flotilla, 12 Malaysians were onboard Mavi Marmara when it was attacked by the Zionist naval commando unit, Shayetet 13. (mn)

Frustration for Gazans at Egypt crossing

RAFAH (IRIN) — It is 1pm and the terminal building on the Palestinian side of Gaza’s only crossing into Egypt – Rafah – is empty. The desks at passport control are not even manned.

Outside the terminal, a small group of Palestinians sit on benches shaded by trees waiting for the border to open. They have been waiting for three and a half hours.

Among them is Samer, a pharmacist who works with Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza. Her son Anwar, aged five, has rickets. He has a referral from Gaza’s Ministry of Health to see an orthopedic surgeon in Cairo. The mother explains that the restrictions on the health service imposed by Israel’s blockade mean they have to travel to receive the treatment he needs.

They arrived early in the morning anticipating crowds but found none. They passed through Palestinian passport control quickly and have been waiting for the Egyptian border to open since 8 a.m.

An Egyptian security force operates near a watchtower

“It doesn’t make any difference that I work for an international health organization or that I have a huge file of papers proving that Anwar has referral for treatment in Egypt. I’m still worried we’ll be turned away,” Samer said.

According to a deal brokered by the USA in 2005 when Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza, this crossing should only operate when European Union monitors are present. The EU monitors withdrew when Islamist group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 and the border was closed to Palestinian travelers.

The deaths of nine Turkish activists on board a May aid flotilla to Gaza following an Israeli commando attack on the boat in international waters sparked an international outcry and renewed questions as to the legitimacy of a siege on Gaza. As a partial response to that outcry, the crossing reopened to humanitarian cases on the orders of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Only those with a medical referral outside Gaza, students with places at foreign universities, foreign visa holders and foreign passport holders, have permission to pass. Humanitarian organizations, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, say the border is still effectively closed.

Hamada Al-Bayari, OCHA’s humanitarian affairs analyst in Gaza, said: “Not all medical cases are allowed to cross the border, only those with a thick wad of documents proving they need treatment outside Gaza. And even if they do have referrals from the ministry of health, they can still be turned away. At least 30-50 people are sent back every day.”

“The crossing should be open for all civilians to come and go freely – that is a human right,” Al-Bayari said.

Regarded with suspicion

This is the second time Samer has come to Rafah since it was reopened. The first was to attend a training session for her work in Paris.

During that first crossing, like all Gazans coming into Egypt, she discovered she needed clearance from Egyptian security to enter the country, which she did not have. For 72 hours, from the time she arrived in Egypt until her flight left Cairo airport for Paris, she was held in a “transit room.”

“I said to the Egyptian officials, I’m a Palestinian, I’m a woman, you can’t ask me to stay in this one room with men, without food and water, without a bathroom, with no privacy for days. But they refused to let me pass into Cairo city even for one day. So I sat on a chair for 72 hours. A male guard had to accompany me whenever I needed to use the bathroom or to get water or food,” Samer said.

“Once you pass through to Egypt, every Palestinian is regarded with suspicion. They make you feel like you’re not a human being. The officials are very, very tough,” she added.

Hossan Zaki, a spokesperson for Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denies Egypt is failing to meet the humanitarian needs of Gaza residents attempting to cross through Rafah: “The data demonstrates very clearly that the crossing has been an open valve for the population of Gaza. Since June 2010 when the president of Egypt decided to open it indefinitely, a little less than 200,000 people have crossed. If one or more people don’t like the way the crossing is operating on the Egypt side, that is their problem.”

“Any claim that there should be free movement for all Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt is a joke. People speaking in these terms must have no idea of the background to this issue,” Zaki said.

According to data collected by OCHA, 60,139 people have passed from Gaza through Rafah since June this year, and 63,323 have crossed into Gaza from Egypt, making a total of 123,462.

People wait for hours

Like Samer, Husam Abadin is hoping to travel to Egypt to seek medical treatment for a ruptured disk that presses on his spine. He also works for an NGO. He has been waiting for the crossing to open for three hours.

“Can you call this crossing open?” he asks, nodding in the direction of Egypt. “Things just aren’t moving on that side. There’s a four-month old on a bus over there who has a face like a tomato he’s so hot. He and his mother have also been waiting since early this morning.”

Listening to Abadin describe his experience, a Gazan border official smiles ruefully. He is familiar with the story. “It’s better here now the border is open but every day people wait for hours. Sometimes it’s because they [Egyptian officials] are praying, sometimes they’re having lunch and sometimes they just close the border without giving any reason at all,” he said.

“After people have waited here for hours they often get turned away. Sometimes the Egyptians say it’s because there is no security coordination; sometimes they say they suspect the referrals are fake. There’s never any way of knowing whether you will make it through to the other side,” he said.

According to Zaki, Egypt runs Rafah crossing according to the country’s rules and regulations. “Not every single case that applies for crossing from Gaza into Egypt will be automatically accepted. This is our sovereign right,” he said.

New Yorkers protest Gaza blockade

New York, Jan 10 -The freezing cold weather did not keep away hundreds of New Yorkers from taking to the street to speak out against Israeli aggression on Palestinians.

This protest is to mark the 2nd anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s most-recent all-out war on Gaza which left at least 1400 Palestinians, mainly women and children.

Protesters want to bring to attention the illegal Israeli blockade on Gaza that began long before Hamas took office after winning the Palestinian elections.

The war has taken a heavy physical, emotional and mental toll on the people of Gaza. As a result , many still need professional help to come to terms with the war.

Palestinian men have been hit especially hard. Many of them have spent the last two years struggling to find work under the blockade and the horrors of the war have made things harder and more traumatic.

Malsin is an American and is Ma’an News Agency’s former chief editor until Israel barred him from entering the occupied territories. He has just returned from Gaza.

Israel suffered from international criticism because of its last war on Gaza but the Israeli leadership did not learn anything from the former leadership experience. The siege continued around Gaza and Israel went into confrontations with other actors in the region such as Turkey.

Protesters and activists say their efforts won’t stop here. They promise to keep applying pressure on Israel and their US government to bring Justice to Palestine. (Agencies)

‘Israel Navy chasing Gaza-bound Asia 1′

Two warships with Israel’s Navy are reportedly chasing a vessel from Asia 1, an Asia-sourced Gaza-bound aid ship in international waters.

The ship, named Salam, is allegedly carrying tons of medical and food supplies for the Tel Aviv-blockaded Gaza Strip as well as eight human rights activists as part of the sizeable relief mission, which is also known as Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan.

According to a PressTV report, the Israeli forces have contacted the ship’s captain, demanding the names of the activists, who are reportedly from Azerbaijan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan.

The activists say they want to display solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance against Israel.

Tel Aviv has been enforcing an all-out land, aerial and naval blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinians in the enclave since mid-June 2007.

Salam left the port of Latakia in the northwest of Syria for the northeastern Egyptian port of el-Arish on Saturday, defying the prospects of an Israeli assault.

Israel’s military, killed nine Turkish activists aboard Freedom Flotilla, an Ankara-backed humanitarian convoy, on May 31.

The Asian convoy, which is joined by activists of 18 different nationalities, has traveled through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon. It was forced to remain in Syria for a week, awaiting Cairo’s authorization to dock at its port.

A seven-member delegation of Iranian lawmakers joined the mission while it was in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

In this regard, an Indian activist on the mission told Press TV last month, “We are completely non-violent. We do not have weapons.”

In case of an attack, “We will face it with non-violence. We’ll face it with a prayer in our hearts,” he added. (pressTV)

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