THE Libyan ship ‘Hope’, a Moldovan-flagged cargo vessel, left a Greek port on Saturday night for Gaza with 2,000 tonnes of supplies, in the main donated by Greek companies and charities to break the siege.
There are 12 crew and 15 volunteers aboard.
The Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said on Saturday morning that the Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas had discussed the ship’s planned trip with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday and had agreed that the ship either would not sail or would head for an Egyptian port.
Youssef Sawani, executive director of the Gadaffi International Charity and Development Foundation, which has organised the aid operation, has condemned this statement saying that the minister was speaking for the state of Greece.
He added: ‘I speak for the NGO. This ship will not be seeking confrontation with Israel.
‘We are going to Gaza. The Israelis need to understand we are not provoking any kind of action, we are not a military group, we are a peaceful, humanitarian organisation.’
The ship is expected to near Gaza early on Wednesday morning.
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials have confirmed that Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman met with the Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas and Moldovan Foreign Minister Lurie Leanca, and that they had agreed that the ship would not sail towards the occupied territories.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the Greek and Moldovan ministers agreed that they would attempt to stop the ship from sailing.
The ministry officials added that their belief was that the ship will not set sail from Greece. If it did, Israel would see to it that it docked in the Egyptian port of El Arish, rather than in Gaza as was planned.
The Israeli ambassador Gabriela Shalev also urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to stop the ship from sailing to Gaza.
An official letter on the matter was submitted to Ban Ki-moon, and to the Security Council president and to the General Assembly president – Ali Treki of Libya.
The Zionist entity clarified in the letter from Shalev that: ‘I write to bring to your attention a developing situation of grave concern to my government. It appears that a Moldovan ship, which has been hired and sponsored by a Libyan organisation, plans to depart Greece this Saturday with the claimed purpose of bringing aid to Gaza.
‘In spite of the stated intention of this mission, we are deeply concerned that the true nature of its actions remains dubious. Israeli has repeatedly given guarantees that humanitarian aid will be delivered securely through its established channels.’
In the letter, Shalev said that the intentions of the mission were ‘questionable and provocative’.
She warned that Israel reserved the right to prevent the boat from violating the naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Shalev called on the international community to exert its influence on the Libyan government and prevent the ship from departing to Gaza, and instructed: ‘Israel expects the international community to ensure that this ship does not sail.’
However, the ship has set sail and the Libyan charity is insisting that it is sailing to Gaza, and not to an Egyptian port, and is seeking to break the siege.
The Turkish and Egyptian governments must insist with Israel that this boat is allowed into Gaza, and that Gaza must become a free Palestinian port through which the State of Palestine will import what it needs and export what it wants, without being hindered from doing so by any other state.
Breaking the siege will be an enormous contribution to the foundation of an independent Palestinian state, as well as a fitting tribute to the eight Turkish and one Turkish-American citizens who were massacred when Israeli troops and gunboats attacked the last ‘Freedom Flotilla’.
The international trade union movement must demand that the ‘Hope’ be allowed to dock in Gaza. If it isn’t, a worldwide trade union boycott must be imposed. on all Israeli goods and services, and be maintained until the Palestinian state is established.