Aid Ship Organizers: There’s War against Us but We Won’t Give Up!

Sunday 22 August 2010

Aid Ship Organizers: There’s War against Us but We Won’t Give Up!

21/08/2010 A ship carrying women activists and aid will no longer head to break the inhymane siege of Gaza via Cyprus from Lebanon on Sunday, the organizers said, after Nicosia announced it would not allow the vessel to sail from its ports.

“We will not embark tomorrow,” the ship’s coordinator Samar al-Hajj told Reuters news agency. “We are working to find another place (port to sail from). There are obstacles, difficulties. We won't give up easily,” she said.

In other interviews, she said that contacts were ongoing with countries near Gaza in order to acquire permission for the ship to dock at one of their ports. “It seems as if there is universal war against us … We will not allow anyone to cancel the ship's trip,” she pointed out. She added that the ship will not head to Gaza directly from Tripoli, stressing that the ship cannot be the reason for the start of a war.

Women activists had planned to take aid to Palestinians in Gaza aboard their vessel, the Mariam, which was due to set sail from Lebanon's northern port of Tripoli for Cyprus Sunday.

Cypriot police said Friday the arrival and departure of ships to or from Gaza through Cyprus ports was prohibited, prompting the Lebanese transport minister Ghazi Aridi to revoke permission for the ship to sail there, according to the organizers.

Aridi said that the ship would not sail as long as Cypriot authorities have refused to receive it. He added Lebanon would not give permission for sail to an unknown party. He told Lebanese daily An-Nahar that it is logical that the ship seek approval from another country to harbor it, seeing as Cyprus had refused to welcome the ship in its ports. "We will grant the ship the necessary license according to the required legal conditions."

Spokeswoman for the Mariam, Rima Farah, said the trip was not canceled indefinitely but that "it was stalled because we face a reality which imposes that." Farah said there was not enough time between now and 10 p.m. Sunday (1900 GMT), when Mariam was supposed to set sail, to go through the process of finding another port to sail from.

Lebanon does not authorize ships to sail directly to Gaza because it is in a state of war with Israel, which controls Gaza waters. Cyprus was used as a launch pad for activists to reach Gaza by sea from 2008 until mid-2009. Authorities introduced a ban last year, citing the island's national interests.

River to Sea