Planning to launch new Freedom Flotilla to Challenge Blockade
July 28, 2014
for immediate release
For more information: Ehab Lotayef (Gaza’s Ark/Canada) +1 (514) 941-9792 lotayef@gmail.com David Heap (Gaza’s Ark/Canada) +1 (519) 859-3579 david.heap@gmail.com Robert Naiman (Gaza’s Ark/USA) +1 (217) 979-2857 naiman@justforeignpolicy.org James Godfrey (Gaza’s Ark/Australia) +61 0424 340630 freegazaaustralia@gmail.com Zohar Chamberlain Regev (Rumbo a Gaza/Spain) +34 (647) 077-426 info@rumboagaza.org Dror Feiler (StG-Sweden) +46 (70) 285-5777 dror.feiler@gmail.com İzzet Shahin (IHH/Turkey) +90 (530) 341 2134 palestine@ihh.org.tr
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition Condemns Israeli Attacks on Gaza, Ongoing Blockade, and International Complicity Planning to launch new Freedom Flotilla to Challenge Blockade
The international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (with participation from England, France, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, USA, Canada and Australia) condemns the ongoing Israeli military assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, denounces the failure of the international community to stop the assault, and renews its opposition to the Israeli economic blockade on Palestinians in Gaza as well as the collaboration of other governments.
We note that the demand to lift the blockade is a central feature of talks on ending the violence, and urge governments who reject the blockade to use their influence now to ensure that an agreement that ends the violence, also ends the destructive blockade.
We hereby announce that we are planning another flotilla in the near future, to challenge the blockade of Gaza, with participants from around the world. We announce our intention to sail back from Gaza carrying Palestinian exports, continuing the work of Gaza’s Ark.
We are a peaceful civil society initiative, acting out of solidarity with the Palestinian people, independently from any government. Contrary to recent media reports, we have not asked for military escort, have no intention to, and will not sail with a military escort.
The Mavi Marmara – the lead ship in the 2010 Freedom Flotilla, which bore the brunt of the Israeli naval assault and on which nine Turkish citizens and a U.S. citizen were killed by Israel – will soon be ready to join the flotilla with hundreds of peace activists from all around the world on board.
More news on our plans will be available in a few weeks. We urge our supporters around the world to stay alert for updates and to ready themselves to join and escalate our campaign to bring down the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition:
- European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza
- International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG)
- Freedom Flotilla Italia
- Gaza’s Ark
- IHH
- Rumbo a Gaza
- Ship to Gaza Greece
- Ship to Gaza Norway
- Ship to Gaza Sweden