Joint (Arab) List backs Gaza flotilla-bound MK
Party comes out in support of member Basel Ghattas, says residents of coastal enclave living in a ‘massive prison’
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The Joint (Arab) List party said on Monday that it supports its member MK Basel Ghattas, who declared that he would sail with a flotilla hoping to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“We support the humanitarian flotilla with the participation of MK Basel Ghattas, which is intended to put on the agenda the terrible suffering of the residents of Gaza, who live in a massive prison,” Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh said in a statement.
“It is our duty to support the struggle to end the blockade and to enable the reconstruction of Gaza after the immense destruction wrought by Israeli airstrikes,” Odeh continued. “The Israeli blockade of Gaza is a great crime, like the war and the killing of civilians.”
The party said the “freedom flotilla” proves that the international community supports ending the blockade on Gaza “and the rights of the Palestinians to live honorably, in liberty and peace.”
Earlier this week, Ghattas sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon urging them to let the flotilla reach the Palestinian coastal enclave or else face an international backlash.
The Marianne of Gothenburg, a Scandinavian fishing boat, traveled from Sweden through the waters of Norway, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal before reaching Messina, Italy, last week.
The boat was making its way to Crete, Greece, before attempting to breach the blockade and reach Gaza. Along the way it was to meet up with at least two other boats that make up the flotilla.
The activists say the vessels are carrying a cargo of solar panels and medical supplies for Gaza residents, who are still recovering from last summer’s conflict, and are slated to reach the Strip by the end of the month, unless they are intercepted.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2007 when the Islamist Hamas group took control of the Strip in a bloody coup, ousting the Palestinian Authority leadership.
Both countries say the blockade is meant to prevent Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel, from importing weaponry into Gaza.
The IDF has intercepted a number of civilian ships carrying weapons headed for Gaza in recent years. It has also turned away attempts by activists to break the blockade.
The Times of Israel Community.