Alarm goes out for Women’s Boat to Gaza

Campaign material and reports from Code Pink, SOS Women’s Boat to Gaza, Telegraph, Electronic Intifada

Palestinian women waiting on the shore to greet the Women’s Boat to Gaza. Photo by Barcroft Images/ UPI

Illegal boarding of Women’s Boat to Gaza

From Code Pink, by email
October 04, 2016

Yesterday afternoon, we heard that the Women’s Boat to Gaza was making good progress on the Mediterranean and the women on board were excited about meeting the people on the shores of Gaza who were waiting for them. Some Palestinians even spent the night at the beach to greet them.

At 9:58am EDT, flotilla organizers lost contact with the boat, Zaytouna-Oliva. The US Embassy confirmed that the boat was intercepted and Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Zaytouna-Oliva was boarded by members of the Israeli navy. The Israelis took control of the boat and rerouted it – under force – to the Israeli port of Ashdod. We have not had any contact with Ann Wright or the rest of the women on board, and we do not know where our friends are.

Colonel Ann Wright. Where is she now?

It is important to know that this happened in international waters. Not only are Israel’s actions illegal, but they set a terrifying precedent, giving a greenlight for other nations to attack civilian ships in international waters. The Zaytouna-Oliva was carrying no material aid. This was by design because Israel, as a premise for their attacks, would claim that weapons and contraband were on board. The owner of Zaytouna-Oliva is Israeli.

Ann Wright is a decorated former US diplomat and long-time CODEPINK activist. On board with her were three parliamentarians, an Olympic athlete, and Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire. They were committed to nonviolence as much as they were committed to breaking the blockade.

Watch Ann’s video message about this illegal action and then make calls and send emails to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry demanding the release of all the women and their boat!.

Contact President Barack Obama: (202) 456-1111

Contact Secretary John Kerry via his Chief of Staff, Jonathan Finer at FinerJJ@state.gov or (202) 647-4000

Please ask Secretary Kerry and President Obama to call on the Israeli government to immediately release the women, and to launch a US investigation into the seizure of the boat. There are a number of troubling circumstances that are clearly against US and international law! And don’t forget to say that the blockade on Gaza must end!

In solidarity,

Alice, Alli, Aniqa, Ariel, Chelsea, Jodie, Mariana, Martha, Max, Medea, Nancy and Sam

SOS Women’s Boat to Gaza

Palestinian boats go out to meet the vessel but it was intercepted before it could reach shore. Photo by Mahmud Hams /AFP

Israeli navy intercepts all-female flotilla protesting against Gaza blockade

By Raf Sanchez, Jerusalem, The Telegraph
October 05, 2016

The Israeli navy has intercepted a sail boat crewed by 13 women who tried to sail into Gaza to raise awareness of the decade-long Israeli blockade of the Mediterranean enclave.

The “Women’s Boat to Gaza” was boarded by Israeli troops as it neared Gaza’s coast in an effort to break through the blockade imposed by Israel in 2007.

The group of pro-Palestinian activists was headed by Mairead Maguire, a 72-year-old from Belfast who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her efforts to try to end the conflict in Northern Ireland.

A group of Palestinians had gathered on the beach in the hopes of welcoming the boat to shore but the vessel was intercepted before it could reach them.

“In accordance with government directives and after exhausting all diplomatic channels, the Israeli navy redirected the vessel in order to prevent breach of the lawful maritime blockade,” said Lt Col Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

Israeli troops boarded the ship and searched it but Lt Col Lerner called the interception “uneventful”.

Both the sail boat and its crew were taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the activists are expected to be deported back to their home countries.

18h
Raf Sanchez ✔ @rafsanchez
IDF confirms it has intercepted the @GazaFFlotilla. Says the intercept was “uneventful”. pic.twitter.com/fHAc3nyqZ2
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Raf Sanchez ✔ @rafsanchez
The women of @GazaFFlotilla will now likely be brought to the port of Ashdod and deported https://wbg.freedomflotilla.org/participants-on-board-messina-to-gaza …

October 05, 2016

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the Gaza strip by force following their victory in parliamentary elections a year earlier.

Egypt has also closed its land borders with Gaza and helps to maintain the blockade.

The Israeli government says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by Britain and the EU, from gathering weapons.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, and others have criticized the blockade as a form of “collective punishment” which leads to widespread misery in densely-populated Gaza.

There have been many efforts by activists to break the blockade, most famously in 2009 when a Turkish flotilla was intercepted by Israeli commandos and nine Turkish activists were killed.

The killings led to the breakdown of Israeli-Turkish diplomatic relations but ties were restored earlier this year. As part of the reconciliation deal, Israel paid compensation to the families of the dead.

Earlier in the day, Israeli forces carried out airstrikes against Hamas positions in Gaza after a rocket fired from the strip landed in the Israeli city of Sderot.

The rocket did not injure anyone but Israel has a policy of firing back in response to rockets from Gaza, especially when they land in populated areas.

Israeli jets reportedly carried out at least nine airstrikes while an Israeli tank fired on a Hamas position but no injuries were reported.

A small Gazan Islamist group known as the Grandsons of the Companions, which said it was inspired by the Islamic State (Isil), took credit for firing the rocket but their claim could not be immediately verified.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in Gaza since 2009, the most recent and bloodiest in 2014. In the two years since the last round of fighting a ceasefire has generally held despite the occasional exchange of rockets and airstrikes.

Israel intercepts Women’s Boat to Gaza

By Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada
October 05, 2016

Israeli forces intercepted a boat carrying women solidarity activists as it was approximately 40 miles from Gaza’s shore on Wednesday.

Israel said its navy escorted the vessel ashore and that the takeover was brief and “uneventful.”

“The Israeli military said the navy carried out the raid ‘after exhausting all diplomatic channels,’” the Associated Press reported. “It said forces ordered the boat to change course, and when it refused, they boarded and searched it.”

The single-vessel Women’s Boat to Gaza, which set out from Sicily last week, was carrying 13 women activists in a symbolic attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Its passengers included Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire and Ann Wright, a former US Army colonel and State Department official.

“Israeli piracy”

Sondos Ferwana, a spokesperson for the activists, told a Turkish news agency that the capture of the boat was “another act of Israeli piracy.”

The Women’s Boat to Gaza group released a pre-recorded video statement made in case the boat was intercepted.

“If you’re listening to this, then you will know that myself and all the women who sailed on the Women’s Boat to Gaza have been arrested and are in detention in Israel,” Maguire says in the video, which can be viewed above.

Maguire adds that Israel’s actions are “totally illegal.”

The Women’s Boat to Gaza Twitter account published photos of solidarity protests in Spain as news of the boat’s capture reached activists:

Boats intercepted

Previous solidarity boats to Gaza have been intercepted and their passengers detained in Israel and deported.

Eight Turkish nationals and a US citizen were killed in May 2010 when Israeli forces stormed the Mavi Marmara boat that was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

A tenth Turkish victim died from his injuries in May 2014.

In January, four individuals filed a lawsuit against Israel in US federal court over the raid.

The plaintiffs, three of them US citizens, were aboard the US-flagged Challenger I when it was intercepted and raided by the Israeli army.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Israeli forces bombed several areas in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli fighter jets hit a training ground reportedly belonging to the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, as well as a naval police headquarters and agricultural land. A Palestinian health ministry spokesperson said that there were no injuries.

The airstrikes came after a rocket fired from Gaza landed in Sderot, an Israeli town near the northern boundary with Gaza. A Salafist group in Gaza reportedly claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. No injuries were reported.