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For Immediate Release
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Ann Wright
US Boat to Gaza "Audacity of Hope"
Athens, Greece
+30 694 165 7310

US Boat to Gaza passengers Kathy Kelly & Missy Lane go from Gaza Flotilla to Airtilla to Challenge Israeli Government Policies

WASHINGTON

With very few Americans in the 500+ international citizen activists in the "Airtilla" to challenge Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank, Gaza Flotilla / US Boat to Gaza "Audacity of Hope" (www.ustogaza.org) passengers Kathy Kelly and Missy Lane decided yesterday afternoon to fly from Athens to Tel Aviv to join the "Airtilla."

They were to have arrived at Ben Gurion airport at 4 AM this morning.

News articles state that all flights from Europe into Ben Gurion are to be sent to a special terminal and all passengers will be given special interrogation. Seven journalists from Europe were not allowed to board flights to Ben Gurion yesterday--the long arm of the Israeli government stretches into European airports!

"We have not heard from Kathy or Missy yet to find out whether they were immediately deported or have been placed in the Ben Gurion airport detention facility, " said Ann Wright, US Boat to Gaza organizer who is still aboard the Audacity of Hope in Athens, Greece.

Free Gaza is a human rights group founded in 2006. Our mission is to break the Israel's illegal siege on Gaza's 1.8 million civilians, since it inflicts collective punishment on the Palestinians who live there and has destroyed its economy. Free Gaza believes in direct action in confronting Israel's abuse of Palestinians using non-violent means and has found these voyages to be one of the most effective ways to alert the world to the prison-like conditions of Gaza. Ultimately, there is no better example of direct action than Free Gaza's sustained attempts to break the siege on Gaza which Israel claims it no longer occupies