[Peace-discuss] Flotilla to Gaza

[Ron Szoke]

NYTimes online
June 1, 2011
Americans Are Joining Flotilla to Protest Israeli Blockade
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

When an international flotilla sails for Gaza this month to challenge 
Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory, among the boats will 
be an American ship with 34 passengers, including the writer Alice 
Walker and an 86-year-old whose parents died in the Holocaust.

A year ago, nine people in a flotilla of six boats were killed when Israeli 
commandos boarded a Turkish boat in international waters off the coast 
of Gaza. The Israelis said their commandos were attacked and struck 
back in self-defense, but the Turks blamed the Israelis for using live 
ammunition. The raid soured relations between Israel and Turkey and 
intensified pressure on Israel to end the naval blockade.

Organizers said the new flotilla, scheduled to leave in late June from a 
port they would not identify, had at least 1,000 passengers on about 10 
boats. One boat will carry Spaniards, another Canadians, another Swiss 
and another Irish.

The Americans have named their boat “The Audacity of Hope,” lifting the 
title of a book by President Obama to make a point, said Leslie Cagan, a 
political organizer who is the coordinator of the American boat.

“We’re sending a message to our own government that we think it could 
play a much more positive role in not only ending the siege of Gaza, but 
also ending the whole occupation” of Palestinian land, she said. “The 
phrase does capture what we believe, which is that it is possible to make 
change in a positive way, and that’s a very hopeful stance.”

After Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, Israel imposed an embargo on the 
area, with Egypt’s help, essentially trapping the population in an effort to 
enforce security and to squeeze the militant group. Although Israel has 
maintained the sea blockade, it loosened the land blockade after the 
international condemnation that followed the raid on the Turkish boat. 
And last week, Egypt officially reopened the Rafah border crossing, 
allowing more people to pass between Egypt and Gaza.

Noam Katz, minister for public diplomacy at the Israeli Embassy in 
Washington, said in an interview, “We see this flotilla as a political 
statement in order to support Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is a terror 
organization that took control of Gaza and its people and is committed 
to the destruction of the state of Israel. We have a blockade, and we are 
going to enforce this blockade.”

The American passengers say they support the Palestinian people, not 
Hamas. They liken their strategy to that of the Freedom Riders, who 50 
years ago rode buses to the American South to challenge segregation.

Gabriel Schivone, a student at the University of Arizona who is joining 
the flotilla, said, “It’s in the tradition of Dr. King’s direct-action 
principles, to create a situation so tension-packed that it forces the 
world to look and see what’s happening to the Palestinians.”

To explain why she was joining the flotilla, Hedy Epstein, the 86-year-
old, said, “The American Jewish community and Israel both say that they 
speak for all Jews. They don’t speak for me. They don’t speak for the 
Jews in this country who are going to be on the U.S. boat, and the many 
others standing behind us.”

The American boat is owned by a Greek company and registered in 
Delaware, Ms. Cagan said. It will carry letters from Americans to 
Palestinians, not aid. About a quarter of the passengers are Jewish. 
Among the crew is a former captain in the Israeli Air Force who refused 
to fly missions in Gaza.