June, 25 2009, 08:02am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Greta Berlin, Cyprus: +357 99 08 17 67
Angela Godfrey Goldstein, Jerusalem: +972 547 366 393
Mile by Mile
As the Free Gaza Movement gets ready to set sail
on our eighth mission, many of our passengers are reflecting about why
we are sailing to besieged Gaza.
Ahmed is returning to his home in Gaza. Israeli occupying forces will
not allow him to see his mum. "I have tried to go home for six years,
six years I have not been allowed to see my mother, and she is terribly
ill. This is my chance to go home. I must go home."
LARNACA, Cyprus
As the Free Gaza Movement gets ready to set sail
on our eighth mission, many of our passengers are reflecting about why
we are sailing to besieged Gaza.
Ahmed is returning to his home in Gaza. Israeli occupying forces will
not allow him to see his mum. "I have tried to go home for six years,
six years I have not been allowed to see my mother, and she is terribly
ill. This is my chance to go home. I must go home."
Sixteen nations are represented on this voyage. Many of us have traveled
thousands of miles to show the world that we will not stand by while the
Palestinians of Gaza continue to be violated.
"I've flown in from Bahrain to tell my sisters in Gaza that we will
never rest until the world knows what has happened to them," stated
Juhaina, a young woman from Bahrain.
"When we left last August, I told the people of Gaza we would come back,
and I've flown 5000 miles to keep that promise," said Mary Hughes
Thompson, one of the co-founders of the movement.
"I am returning to the friends that I made when I went in October," said
Mairead Maguire, Nobel peace laureate. "They must know that we have not
and will not forget them."
The 15 tons of cement that our small boats carry are just a token of
what is needed to rebuild the Gaza strip, but the hope in the hearts of
the passengers cannot be measured by weight. Miles and miles they have
traveled to get to Cyprus, miles more they will travel tomorrow to get
to Gaza. Both the FREE GAZA and the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY will proudly fly
the flags of 16 nations, the flags of people who are determined not to
forget the horror of an occupation that has lasted 41 years.
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
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Watch Khanna's remarks:
Trump has launched an illegal regime change war in Iran with American lives at risk. Congress must convene on Monday to vote on @RepThomasMassie & my WPR to stop this. Every member of Congress should go on record this weekend on how they will vote. pic.twitter.com/tlRi3Vz849
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