By John Ballard
Update Friday morning: via Twitter and the Irish Independent, this clarification from a spokesperson on board.
THE Irish campaigners on board a humanitarian aid ship headed for Gaza have vowed to keep going towards an almost certain confrontation with the Israeli military.
The crew of the Irish 'Rachel Corrie' last night said they are "very determined to keep going" as they edged closer to Gaza at the end of a three-week journey to deliver aid supplies.
Confusion emerged yesterday when a board member from the Free Gaza Movement, which is associated with the ship's campaign, said the boat would be turned back and docked to fit surveillance equipment.
However, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, who is on the vessel, said they are "well on their way to Gaza" and would continue.
Yesterday, the 'Rachel Corrie' was some 400 miles off the coast of Gaza.
It was expected to reach the normal point of interception with Israeli forces, some 100 miles off the coast in international waters, this afternoon.
Adam Shapiro, a board member with the Free Gaza Movement, said from New York that a decision had been made to dock the ship at a port, which he refused to locate, in order to fit the surveillance equipment. "This is both a measure of protection for the ship and the people on the ship as well as to make sure that we have the ability to show what happens moment by moment," he told the Irish Independent.
"We are not saying which port it is in because Israel has already sabotaged two of our boats previously and as a means of protecting the ship, we won't say where we are going."
However, Mr Halliday subsequently told the Irish Independent that docking the ship at this stage would be "the death knell" for the project.
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(Original post starts here) The next expected attempt to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza, that of the MV Rachel Corrie (mentioned in a previous post) has been delayed while the vessel gets retrofitted with video equipment.
S.African T&A Workers Union call its members not to allow Israeli ships to dock in SA ports #BDS #Flotilla [via @Remroum @sayedm] about 8 hours ago via Echofon
@dee_fotomafia they are heading to a port where live transmission tools will be boarded. this might take up to one week about 8 hours ago via Echofon in reply to dee_fotomafia
@abeer_dabbas http://bit.ly/cAM2Xo be sure we try to confirm any news, specially if its such critical, before posting about 8 hours ago via Echofon in reply to abeer_dabbas
@dee_fotomafia they are still heading to #Gaza, but with live coverage now about 8 hours ago via Echofon in reply to dee_fotomafia
@abeer_dabbas http://twitter.com/donriddellCNN/status/15334381575 about 9 hours ago via Echofon in reply to abeer_dabbas
Breaking: MV Rachel Corrie has turned around, will be fitted with video / sat transmission. Back on water within a week. #flotilla about 9 hours ago via Echofon
An aid convey sent by Alex. Pharmacists is still waiting on Areish since 8:00 a.m. Egyptian Gov. refuse to pass it to #Gaza #Flotilla about 9 hours ago via Echofon
@Freegazaorg can u please confirm this? http://bit.ly/cAM2Xo #RachelCorrie about 9 hours ago via Echofon
Ecuador withdraws Tel Aviv ambassador http://j.mp/95zbUT [via @AmoonaM @victoriamaryamd] about 11 hours ago via Echofon
#RaedSalah: Rafah crossing should be opened for ever, not until a further notice #Flotilla about 11 hours ago via Echofon
#RaedSalah we were preparing for 7 days arrest at least, the Turkish pressure forced the Israeli gov. to release us today #Flotilla about 11 hours ago via Echofon
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Palestinian freelance journalist Laila El-Haddad, whom I have followed for some time, contributed an op-ed at the Baltimore Sun.
She said, in part...
This is a siege against 1.6 million stateless people � approximately half of them under 18 � who are largely refugees of the 1948 war. They are being blockaded by land, by air and by sea and granted only the right to remain silent in the face of such unfathomable oppression. It is a situation unprecedented in modern history.
This is a siege that has prevented my children and me from visiting Gaza, my home, for more than three years, though I am a Palestinian national.
This is a siege that killed 19-year-old Gaza resident Fidaa Talal Hijjy, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 2007 and was unable to travel to get the bone marrow transplant she so desperately needed.
This is a siege that prevents children's books from reaching Gaza City's largest library, forcing them to resort to smuggling books �yes, smuggling � via Gaza's intricate network of tunnels. A siege that we as American taxpayers support with our involuntary contribution of roughly $500 annually for each man, woman and child in Israel.
Recent statistics from an umbrella of aid organizations are sobering: 70 percent of Gaza's population survives on under $1 a day, and nearly half the population is unemployed. Two-thirds of the population is food insecure, and an equal percentage of babies are anemic. And all this is happening largely in the dark, quite literally: After fuel restrictions, there are now up to 12-hour rotating electricity outages.
These figures are not the result of a natural disaster. They were created through careful planning of a purposeful and sustained policy of punishment. Contrary to what U.S. and Israeli envoys to the U.N. have said, mechanisms to deliver aid to Gaza are a sham. Imports are less than 1 percent of what they were before, and allowable exports are nearly zero. More importantly, Israel crafts a weekly list of hundreds of items it forbids from the Gaza Strip. As congressman Keith Ellison discovered on a fact-finding trip to Gaza last year, this list at times included lentils and pasta.
Check out these videos about the Gaza tunnels produced by this woman. I tracked her futile attempt to spend last year's Passover with her family in Gaza. Here is the narrative in her own words.
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