Israeli Military boards boat in international waters seeking to break the embargo against Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been suffering under Israel’s iron-fist embargo which controls everything from water, electricity and building materials.
At 9:58 am (EST), the Israeli navy intercepted and captured the Zaytouna-Oliva in international waters. The sailing boat was carrying women, representing 13 countries across 5 continents who were trying to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza. The women included three parliamentarians, an Olympic athlete, former US Diplomat Ann Wright, and Nobel Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire. The interception occurred as Israel was simultaneously bombarding Gaza.
The last message heard from Mairead Maguire stated “We are people of the world, we should be allowed to visit our brothers and sisters in Gaza and not be stopped. We will continue to support the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine until they have their human rights and their freedom.
“It is our belief that no country has the right to isolate a whole people and punish them against international law. So we hope that this trip to Gaza will show to the international community, the UN, the EU , USA, everybody in the world has a responsibility to work to get this blockade lifted and freedom to the people of Gaza who should be allowed to come and go.”
In a video made prior to her kidnapping, Wright encourages Americans to contact her former boss, State Secretary John Kerry, to demand her immediate release from Israel and to end the military blockade on Gaza.
We will insist that Israel stop interfering with our voyages to Gaza, since they do not have the right; legal or moral, to enforce a blockade that collectively punishes 1.9 million Palestinian people.
The Women’s Boat to Gaza is an initiative of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition composed of civil society organizations and campaigns from more than a dozen countries. For more information, vis
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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