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The Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper revealed that Israel has worries of peace activists' determination to go on a voyage to Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli siege, adding that the IOA is not certain about the seriousness of the organizers.
In a press release received by the PIC, MP Khudari noted that the personalities who will take part in this voyage are insistent on arriving at Gaza, stressing that this voyage is considered a peaceful civil resistance against the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza.
The lawmaker also pointed out that the participants started to arrive in Cyrus in preparation for the sailing venture towards the besieged Strip.
The lawmaker underlined that the committee prepared 15 boats to receive the anti-siege ship and registered the names of journalists and personalities who will be on board of the reception boats, adding the opportunity for registration is still open through the website of the popular committee against the siege.
For his part, Rami Abdo, the spokesman for the popular committee warned the IOF troops of any intentions to attack or intercept the anti-siege voyage.
In a press statement, Abdo said that such a step would have serious consequences especially as the ship will be boarded by a number of European lawmakers, jurists, clerics and peace activists.
The spokesman added that the media outlets will cover every moment of the voyage on air and any Israeli attack on the ship will be watched on TV screens throughout the world.
The anti-siege voyage passengers are from Palestine, Cyprus, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Pakistan, Scotland, Tunisia, the UK, and the USA. Altogether, more than twelve languages will be spoken among them.
Among the participants are sailors, media people, lawyers, engineers, construction workers, nurses, teachers, doctors, speakers, professors, photographers, clerics, scuba divers, and nonviolent organizers. They are Muslims, Jews, Christians and humanists.
Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein is one of those who has courageously agreed to go aboard, seizing what she describes as “an opportunity to make a change for good, both for Palestinians and Israelis. We intend to open the port, fish with the fishermen, help in the clinics, and work in the schools. But we also intend to remind the world that we will not stand by and watch 1.5 million people suffer death by starvation and disease”.
Naim Franjieh, survivor of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), will join Hedy on the boat : “My parents fled Palestine in 1948 when I was three years old,” he says “I want to be there, on the boat, to tell the people of Gaza they are not forgotten by those of us who have left.”
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