{"id":13330,"date":"2010-04-28T13:01:41","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T19:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=13330"},"modified":"2010-04-28T13:01:41","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T19:01:41","slug":"the-freedom-flotilla-sails-to-gaza-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=13330","title":{"rendered":"The Freedom Flotilla Sails to Gaza in May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br \/>\nWednesday, April 28, 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contact: Greta Berlin, +33 63 142 7577, <a href=\"mailto:Iristulip@gmail.com\">Iristulip@gmail.com<\/a><br \/>\nHuwaida Arraf, +970-598-336-215, +972-542-635-936,<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:huwaida@freegaza.org\">huwaida.arraf@gmail.com<\/a><br \/>\nCaoimhe Butterly, +353 876 114 553,  <a href=\"mailto:sahara78@hotmail.co.uk\">sahara78@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(London, UK) On May 24, 2010, the  Freedom Flotilla sets sail for Gaza determined to, once again, challenge  Israel\u2019s blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in an open-air prison.  Under the coordination of the Free Gaza Movement, numerous human rights  organizations, including the Turkish Relief Foundation (IHH), the Perdana Global  Peace Organization from Malaysia, the European Campaign to End the Siege of  Gaza, and the Swedish and Greek Boat to Gaza initiatives will send three cargo  ships loaded with reconstruction, medical and educational supplies. At least  five passenger boats with over 600 people on board will accompany the cargo  ships.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cementing Our Support with Gaza\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yz-LYXV6_t0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/gazafriends#p\/a\/u\/0\/yz-LYXV6_t0\">YouTube &#8211; gazafriends&#8217;s Channel<\/a><\/p>\n<p>These passengers include members of Parliament from around the world, U.N., human rights and trade union  activists, as well as journalists who will document the largest coordinated effort to directly confront Israel\u2019s illegal blockade of Gaza and take in basic supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Said Mary Hughes Thompson, one of  Free Gaza\u2019s co-founders, \u201cAlthough we were happy with the first trips, it was  bitter-sweet, knowing that our small boats and symbolic amounts of relief paled  in comparison to what was really needed in Gaza. Now, we finally feel we are  helping to organize a powerful action, one with the potential to translate into  a sustained campaign of much more effective challenges to Israel&#8217;s brutal  siege.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In the past three months, Israel  has limited fuel to run the power station. Much of Gaza is often in darkness.  There are just enough trucks coming in to barely prevent total starvation, and  Egypt, complicit with the Israeli-US policy of blockading Palestinians, is  building an underground steel wall to prevent people in Gaza from bringing in  vitally needed supplies through tunnels.<\/p>\n<p>A cargo ship sponsored by the  people of Malaysia and loaded with cargo donated from citizens of Ireland,  Scotland, and Britain as well as thousands around the world, will depart from  Ireland the second week of May. When it reaches the Mediterranean, she will be  joined by the other boats and begin the journey to Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Mona El-Farra, Deputy  Director of the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza was pleased to hear we  are coming back. \u00a0\u201cWhen the two boats from Free Gaza entered the  harbor in 2008, it was like a dream, it was historic. And all great things start  with some dreamers who made it true. For us in Gaza, the dream of freedom will  not be lost, and we welcome this next voyage with open hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Free Gaza Movement along with  the partners listed above, are the organizers of this flotilla. However, dozens  of organizations and tens of thousands of people around the world are taking  part to make this voyage a success.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freegaza.org\/\">www.freegaza.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<br \/>\nGreta Berlin<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freegaza.org\/\">www.freegaza.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Contact: Greta Berlin, +33 63 142 7577, Iristulip@gmail.com Huwaida Arraf, +970-598-336-215, +972-542-635-936, huwaida.arraf@gmail.com Caoimhe Butterly, +353 876 114 553, sahara78@hotmail.co.uk (London, UK) On May 24, 2010, the Freedom Flotilla sets sail for Gaza &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=13330\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-3t0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13330"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13342,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13330\/revisions\/13342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}