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For Immediate Release
June, 20 2011, 11:36am EDT
Contact:
Robert Naiman, 217-979-2857 (U.S. Mobile), +870772381047 (satellite phone)
Kate Gould, (202) 657-4882, kate@justforeignpolicy.org
JFP Policy Director to Board Gaza Flotilla, Available by Satellite Phone
The Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy, Robert Naiman, will be available for interviews via satellite phone aboard the U.S. Boat to Gaza. He will remain available if the flotilla reaches Gaza, or until Israeli authorities block communications. Naiman will join other passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza at a press conference in New York City on Monday, June 20, before departing for Greece. The U.S. Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope, will set out from Greece during the week of June 20 after several days of participant training.
WASHINGTON
The Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy, Robert Naiman, will be available for interviews via satellite phone aboard the U.S. Boat to Gaza. He will remain available if the flotilla reaches Gaza, or until Israeli authorities block communications. Naiman will join other passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza at a press conference in New York City on Monday, June 20, before departing for Greece. The U.S. Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope, will set out from Greece during the week of June 20 after several days of participant training.
Naiman said: "We're sailing to break the blockade on Gaza, which has subjected 1.6 million people to collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law, as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Oxfam have stated. Israeli authorities continue to deny Gazans the right to farm, fish, and export, and access to medical care and work, and study in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. President Obama said last June that external restrictions on Gaza's commerce should be 'narrowly focused on weapons shipments.' If President Obama's policy had been enacted, the Israeli government would not threaten us as unarmed peace activists seeking to visit Gaza."
Just Foreign Policy is a nonpartisan U.S. membership organization that works for foreign policy based on diplomacy, law and cooperation. Naiman, a Jewish-American from Urbana, Illinois, has family living in Israel, and has traveled throughout Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
In his article "Why We Must Sail to Gaza" on The Huffington Post, Naiman argues the importance of sailing to Gaza to break the blockade: https://huff.to/iGhcSR
Details for Monday, June 20:
11:00 am Press Conference with Passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, including Robert Naiman, at Church Center for the United Nations on 44th Street & First Avenue, New York, NY.
Details for June 20 - July 6:
Robert Naiman will be in New York through Monday, June 20, then in Athens, Greece, then at sea, until the boat reaches Gaza or is intercepted. He plans to perform media work throughout this period.
He can be reached via his U.S. mobile phone at: (217) 979-2857 until the ship sets sail from Greece.
After the ship sets sail, he can be reached on his satellite phone at: +870772381047.
Kate Gould, from Naiman's support team at Just Foreign Policy, can be reached at: (202) 657-4882.
Just Foreign Policy is an independent and non-partisan membership organization dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy by mobilizing and organizing the broad majority of Americans who want a foreign policy based on diplomacy, law and cooperation.
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— Democracy Forward (@democracyforward.org) February 5, 2026 at 5:37 PM
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