{"id":885,"date":"2016-07-12T19:55:02","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T19:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/?p=885"},"modified":"2016-09-11T15:50:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T13:50:09","slug":"womens-flotilla-towards-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/news\/womens-flotilla-towards-gaza","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Flotilla towards Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Two ships, Amal and Zaytouna, will sail in mid-September in order to reach the Strip on October 1<sup>st<\/sup> and challenge the Israeli blockade.<br \/>\nOn a boat there will be Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>by<strong> <em>Giovanni Vigna<\/em> <\/strong>for<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/nena-news.it\/category\/inglese\/\"><em>NENA News (Near East News Agency)<\/em><\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Mantova, 22th of June 2016<\/em><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Women\u2019s boat<\/strong>\u201d is going to sail in mid-September towards Gaza. They want to reach the Strip on October 1<sup>st<\/sup>. A female crew is going to lead <strong>two boats<\/strong>, \u201c<strong>Amal<\/strong> \u2013 <strong>Hope<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong>Zaytouna<\/strong> \u2013 <strong>Olive<\/strong>\u201d, in order to challenge the illegal blockade that Israel has established on the panhandle where 1.8 million people are trapped. Here Palestinians are living isolated from the world, in a sort of limbo, in humanitarian emergency, without any chance to receive aid from other countries, except what is allowed by Israeli government.<\/p>\n<p>As it has happened during previous Freedom Flotilla\u2019s expeditions, aimed to break Israeli siege and reach Gaza by sea, <strong>\u201cWomen\u2019s Boat to Gaza\u201d project activists are expecting a violent reaction from Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\" align=\"LEFT\"><span lang=\"es-ES\">\u00ab<\/span><em>To be honest, we don\u2019t think Israeli navy will be less aggressive and violent towards a female crew. We certainly hope so, and one of the most important aspects of our project is to emphasize that we are peaceful, but we also know the track record of the IOF and really are awaiting the same brutal treatment as those who have gone before us<\/em>\u00bb, Freedom Flotilla activist Wendy Goldsmith states. Goldsmith is also a member of the International Media Committee and the Canadian Boat to Gaza Steering Committee.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The port the boats are going to sail from has not been disclosed yet but it will be somewhere in the Mediterranean sea<\/strong>:\u00a0<span lang=\"es-ES\">\u00ab<\/span><em>We will stop in several ports before setting sail towards Gaza.\u00a0 We intend to reach the Strip on October 1<sup>st<\/sup>. Two boats will make the final leg towards Gaza.\u00a0 Before that, many ships will sail alongside of us as we raise awareness about Gazans\u2019 condition<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The names of the crew members have not been released yet but the organizers have confirmed that they will have an international representation from women<\/strong>. The crew will be made up of strong sailors and women who oppose the illegal blockade.<br \/>\n<strong>Confirmed delegates include Nobel Laureate (1976) and peace activist from Northern Ireland, Mairead Maguire, and Green Party New Zealander member of Parliament Marama Davidson.<br \/>\n\u00ab<\/strong><em>Other delegates will be announced in the coming weeks<\/em><em>. We will stop in several ports before setting sail towards Gaza. We have not released the names of the harbors where we will dock yet, but we can say that there will be three or four within the Mediterranean sea<\/em>\u00bb, Wendy says.<\/p>\n<p>At every port where the activists dock, they will be collaborating with local organizations, particularly with women\u2019s groups to hold awareness raising activities and to ask people to sail with them to the next harbor.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&#039;Women&#039;s Boat to Gaza&#039;, direct action against the blockade of Gaza\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M9nlMxp9eHU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Women\u2019s Boat to Gaza<\/strong>\u201d project activists organized a competition to name the boats:\u00a0<span lang=\"es-ES\">\u00ab<\/span><em><strong>Amal<\/strong> symbolizes the <strong>hope<\/strong> that we will bring to the shores of Gaza and <strong>Zaytouna<\/strong> refers to the mighty <strong>olive<\/strong>, the tree of life in Palestinian agriculture. \u00a0We intend to carry the spirit of Mother\u2019s Day, originally an anti-war campaign, forward with our mission<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>International public opinion is interested in \u201c<strong>Women\u2019s Boat to Gaza<\/strong>\u201d project. Israeli occupation is an issue that is generally ignored, underestimated and, sometimes, mistaken by mainstream media. Thanks to the combination of global strategies being used to attempt to end the illegal blockade, including <strong>BDS<\/strong> (<strong>Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions<\/strong>) and land actions, activists are raising a collective voice. \u00a0\u00ab<em>Our project <\/em>\u2013 Goldsmith declares \u2013<em> is unique in the sense that it highlights the female role in the Palestinian struggle and connects women in Gaza with other women around the world.\u00a0 There is a great and often untapped wisdom in the connectivity of women and this project will emphasize and foster these connections long after the boats have sailed<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWomen\u2019s Boat to Gaza\u201d project aims to break the illegal blockade of Gaza<\/strong>.\u00a0 The organizers believe they can do it. Beyond that, their desire is to create connections, share their hope, their resolve and their commitment with the resilient people in Gaza, while raising awareness about how Western governments are complicit in the ongoing destruction of an entire population.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Many activists and scholars believe that Israeli occupation is comparable to the apartheid policies of pre-1994 South Africa<\/strong>.\u00a0<span lang=\"es-ES\">\u00ab<\/span><em>If you look at the origins of the word \u201capartheid\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Goldsmith explains \u2013 <em>you will note that it means a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. The apartheid wall between Palestine and Israel is a clear indication that Tel Aviv government has created an apartheid state. <strong>Desmond Tutu<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/South_Africa\">South African<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anglicanism\">Anglican<\/a>\u00a0bishop, Nelson Mandela\u2019s friend and\u00a01984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, says of the Palestinian struggle for liberation: \u201c<strong>Since 1967 Israel has arrested over 850,000 Palestinians in the most striking example of mass arbitrary arrest in contemporary history. It has arrested leaders, militants, academics, journalists, children, women, the elderly and human rights defenders in an attempt to break the will of an entire people striving for freedom and independence<\/strong>\u201d<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-violent international campaigns such as Freedom Flotilla and \u201cWomen\u2019s Boat to Gaza\u201d project are effective in the struggle against Israeli occupation because they show the world that there is another way, beyond violence, to speak truth to power and show solidarity with the oppressed<\/strong>: \u00a0\u00ab<em>When we act this way, we are operating outside of the dominant paradigm of control and coercion and we are saying that acceptance and understanding are the true path to save this planet from self-destruction<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Some weeks ago \u201c<strong>Women\u2019s Boat to Gaza<\/strong>\u201d activists held a meeting at European Parliament in Brussels and planned their next steps in the mission: \u00ab<em>Details regarding delegates and route itinerary will be made public shortly. \u00a0We were thrilled to meet many members of European Parliament who fully support our efforts.\u00a0 We have asked them to speak about our project within their constituencies, we will ask them to sign on to a declaration of support and some of them will join us on the boats<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nena-news.it\/category\/inglese\/\"><em>Nena News <\/em><\/a><br \/>\nThe original article <a href=\"http:\/\/nena-news.it\/womens-flotilla-towards-gaza\/\">here<br \/>\n<\/a>In italiano <a href=\"http:\/\/nena-news.it\/video-la-flotilla-delle-donne-verso-gaza\/\">qui<br \/>\n<\/a>Photo by Kevin Neish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two ships, Amal and Zaytouna, will sail in mid-September in order to reach the Strip on October 1st and challenge the Israeli blockade. On a boat there will be Nobel Prize winner<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/news\/womens-flotilla-towards-gaza\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3],"tags":[5,8,7,9],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaza-facts","category-news","tag-palestine","tag-freedom-flotilla","tag-gaza","tag-womens-boat"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"it","enabled_languages":["en","es","ar","fr","it"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ar":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"fr":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"it":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":905,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbg.freedomflotilla.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}