September 7, 2010 by politicaltheatrics Israel is preparing for what is being described in Tel Aviv as the “mother of all flotillas,” which could include up to 20 different ships planning to set sail for the Gaza Strip in the coming months to break the seige, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The flotilla is being organized by a coalition of NGOs from Europe and the United States, including a group calling itself European Jews for a Just Peace.
“We hope to have a broad coalition from European countries, and also maybe the United States,” Dror Feiler, an Israeli-Swedish musician and artist who lives in Stockholm – and one of the organizers behind the flotilla – told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “We would like it to be double the size of the last flotilla, with at least a dozen ships and more than thousand people.”
The Israeli occupation forces said it is closely tracking the planned flotilla and is preparing for a wide-range of scenarios, including the possibility that due the large number of ships, it will need to stop the flotilla far from the occupied Palestinian shores.
“The Israeli army can stop 12 or 50 ships if it wants,” Feiler said. “There are so many ships since so many people want to get together to stop the siege, which is a collective punishment of the people of Gaza and is unacceptable.”
The coalition behind the new blockade-busting effort includes the Turkish IHH and the Free Gaza Movement, both of which were involved in the May flotilla. It is demanding “an immediate and complete lifting of the closure, including a lifting of the travel ban as well as the ban on exports from Gaza.”
The last flotilla to Gaza was stopped by the navy at the end of May martyring nine Turkish passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara passenger ship.
Turkey renewed threat of severing its relations with Israel, should Tel Aviv fail to redeem itself over its bloody attack the Mavi Marmara ship.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that “Israelis have three options: They will either apologize or acknowledge an international-impartial inquiry and its conclusion. Otherwise, our diplomatic ties will be cut off,” Turkish daily Hurriyet reported.
The United Nations has launched a probe into the incident. A report by the Israeli website Ynetnews, however, has pointed to Tel Aviv’s intentions to prevent the international team from questioning Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have insisted that Tel Aviv will not be apologetic about the attack.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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