The Free Gaza Movement ship, “SPIRIT OF HUMANITY,” left Larnaca Port at 3:00 pm, Monday, 12 January, on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza.
The Free Gaza Movement ship, “SPIRIT OF HUMANITY,” will leave Larnaca Port at 12:00 noon, Monday, 12 January, on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza.
The Free Gaza Movement takes a stand for occupied Palestine and does not believe that the war on Gaza is a defense or in any way constructive or justified.
There is a time when silence is complicity and inaction is unacceptable. Free Gaza is neither a “protest group” nor an aid agency. Our mission and our work are political. We are a Palestinian and international effort dedicated to the principle of non-violent direct action.
When we left from Cyprus, one reporter asked me “are you afraid?” And I had to respond that Malcolm X wasn’t afraid; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t afraid. But little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be recollecting my life and mentally preparing myself for death.
“The gunboats gave us no warning. They came up out of the darkness firing flares and flashing huge floodlights into our faces. We were so shocked that at first we didn’t react. We knew we were well within international waters and supposedly safe from attack. They rammed us three times, hitting the side of the boat hard. We began taking on water and, for a few minutes, we all feared for our lives. After they rammed us, they started screaming at us as we were frantically getting the lifeboats ready and putting on our life jackets. They kept yelling that if we didn’t turn back they would shoot us.”
The Dignity, on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, was attacked by the Israeli Navy at approximately 6am (UST) in international waters, roughly 90 miles off the coast of Gaza. Several Israeli warships surrounded the small, human rights boat, firing live ammunition around it, then intentionally ramming it three times. According to ship’s captain Denis Healy, the Israeli attack came, “”without any warning, or any provocation.”
A boat carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza has arrived in Lebanon after being turned back by the Israeli navy. The Dignity set off from Cyprus on Monday carrying three tons of emergency and medical aid to the Gaza Strip.
An Israel Navy ship clashed on Tuesday with a small boat carrying international activists with aid destined for Gaza, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
On Tuesday, December 30, at 5 a.m., several Israeli gunboats intercepted the Dignity as she was heading on a mission of mercy to Gaza. One gunboat rammed into the boat on the port bow side, heavily damaging her. The reports from the passengers and journalists on board is that she is taking on water and appears to have engine problems. When attacked, the Dignity was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza.
The boat is badly damaged, and it is, in fact, heading toward Lebanon
The boat arrived this morning at 7:30, schussing through the water, white caps on either side. Osama, Mary and I were at the dock to greet the returnees, again thrilled to see them on deck. This time, 29 people returned, either of them Palestinians from Gaza. Dr. Mona was on board on her way to [...]
“The siege of Gaza is an illegal and immoral act of collective punishment imposed on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip for the ‘crime’ of voting in internationally supervised elections for a party not supported by the Western powers,” said Ms. Short, the former British Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to May 2003.
9:15 am. From a small Palestinian fishing boat, David Schermerhorn watched as Israeli sailors aboard a large Navy Gunboat put on Hazmat suits and masks. Five minutes later, the fishermen and internationals were blasted by water from a cannon mounted atop the gunboat. The water was filthy, with an appalling chemical smell to it.
Vik is yelling at the Israeli gunboat, telling them that three internationals are on board and they are all unarmed and they just want to go fishing. The pleas were met by water cannon so strong that all of the people on board went into the cabin for protection. David is trying to get water samples to bring back and have analyzed.
For Immediate Release
November 8, 2008
Contact: Mary Hughes, Cyprus +357 96 75 00 59
Greta Berlin, Cyprus: +357 99 08 17 67
Osama Qashoo, +44 78 33 38 16 60
Angela Godfrey Goldstein, Jerusalem: +972 547 366 393
Larnaca: The DIGNITY pulled into Gaza at 9:15 a.m. Gaza time after an uneventful trip from Larnaca, Cyprus. The 23 passengers and [...]
6 November, 2008 For Immediate Release
Larnaca: Tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 pm, the DIGNITY leaves for the third time for the shores of Gaza. This time, eleven past and current members of the European Parliament are on board, along with journalists from Al Jazeera English and The Independent.
These dignitaries were among the 53 Parliamentarians denied entrance [...]
On Friday, November 7, the SS DIGNITY leaves at 5:00 pm from Larnaca to Gaza. This time, thirteen members of the European Parliament from the England, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Wales, Switzerland, and Scotland are on board.
The SS DIGNITY arrived at 6:30 this morning as the sun was just splitting the waters of the Mediterranean. I watched the boat come around the corner of the quay, its Palestinian flag flying from one of the masts. Waiting up most of the night worrying about whether they were OK and answering worried callers [...]
28 October, 2008 For Immediate Release
On October 28, 2008 as the sun was setting, 27 passengers on board the SS DIGNITY left for Gaza. It was the second attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to break Israel’s stranglehold on the 1.5 million civilians of Gaza. Although Israel threatened to stop the boat, arrest its passengers [...]
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