The organizers of the humanitarian-aid flotilla are seeking EU diplomatic protection after Israeli commandos killed nine people and injured 52 during their first trip in 2010.
Talking to the Indian Awaaz, Dr T A Rehmani, who heads the Muslim Political Council of India, said the Indian people have been always in forefront for the cause of Palestine and last year they led the first Asian flotilla to besieged people of Palestine. “As a symbolic gesture to express solidarity with the Palestinians, we have planned to take relief material worth Rs 25 lakh to the second flotilla”, he said.
Meanwhile, Claude Leostic from Association France Palestine Solidarite (AFPS) said in Paris that the group has sent letters to top EU officials Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton urging them to warn Israel with economic sanctions if there is a repeat of last year’s violence. The first Gaza flotilla ended in an Israeli commando raid which killed nine people and injured 52.
“The EU has been saying for a long time that the blockade is against international law. It has the means to apply economic pressure, to cancel its economic agreement with Israel. If they are serious about their position, they could send such a message. This would be a really good move,” she explained.
The NGOs behind the project also expect several MPs from EU countries and MEPs from Brussels to join them when they set sail in late May.
Huseyin Oruc from the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a Turkish NGO, said: “There will be many MPs on board. I don’t think Israel will attack us. They did so much damage to their international reputation last time that I don’t think they will repeat the same actions again.”
AFPS and IHH said delegations from around 75 countries numbering two to three people each aim to take part. The new flotilla will carry activists from Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Philippines and Turkey but is to have a more ‘Western’ composition than in 2010. Delegates are also expected from Canada, the US, Switzerland and the Nordic countries, Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. Nobody from the former Communist EU member states or from Iran and Syria will be involved.
Around 15 boats are to set sail from a number of ports in the Mediterranean including Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Turkey and Tunisia. The route will avoid the NATO naval blockade on Libya and Israeli territorial waters, aiming to unload humanitarian supplies in Gaza and, later on, to sell the boats and donate funds to charities working in the strip.
The cost of the French boat alone is around €400,000, with money collected from charity fund-raiser events and internet-based donations.
Dr Rehmani, who is in contact with IHH president Izzat Shahin, told the TIA that European NGOs are in forefront in organizing the flotilla that will force Israel to rethink of its strategy of the attacking the flotilla. He has pointed out that the situation in the Middle East has taken a sea-change since the first flotilla and the whole Arab world is in the grip of political ferment. The first Asian aid-flotilla organized by the Muslim and Left-leaning organizations went to Gaza through land route in last December to Gaza which comprised of delegates from Japan, Thailand, China and other Asian nations.