Freedom Flotilla Boats to Gaza will sail in April 2024

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Freedom Flotilla Boats to Gaza will sail in April - 2024

Since 2008 (except for during the Covid years), international activists with what became the Freedom Flotilla have sailed to challenge the illegal and inhumane Israeli naval blockade of the 2.2 million Palestinians who are trapped in Gaza. The years 2008 - 2018 are documented here: [ https://legalcasesagainstisraelattackso ... e-of-gaza/ ]

In May 2010, an international flotilla of 7 boats challenged the Israeli blockade. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid ] Israeli Occupation Forces violently attacked all seven boats, killing nine people on the Mavi Marmara with another passenger dying later, and wounding over fifty. Passengers on all boats were assaulted, kidnapped and taken against their will to Israel where they were interrogated, imprisoned and deported.

Council of Canadians London Chapter co-chair David Heap was on the Canadian boat Tahrir in 2011 when it was captured by Israeli forces, the crew and passengers kidnapped and held for days in an Israeli prison. You can read an account by Zoe Lawlor, who was on the sister ship MV Saoirse, here. Read David's accounts here: [ https://theconversation.com/from-campus ... demic-5327 ] and here: [ https://rabble.ca/human-rights/after-ta ... idnapping/ ]

The Freedom Flotilla was endorsed by the Council of Canadians AGM in 2011. The Canadian Boat to Gaza team, which included CoC campaigner Dylan Penner, organized a speaking tour in 2012 which was co-sponsored by the Council, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Canadian Arab Federation and Independent Jewish Voices. A number of Chapters were involved in hosting David as well as Ehab Lotayef speaking about their experiences and the ongoing Freedom Flotilla campaigns.

Now, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) has announced that they will sail in April "with multiple vessels, carrying 5500 tons of humanitarian aid and hundreds of international human rights observers to challenge the ongoing illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. This is an emergency mission as the situation in Gaza is dire, with famine setting in in northern Gaza, and catastrophic hunger present throughout the Gaza Strip as the result of a deliberate policy by the Israeli government to starve the Palestinian people. Time is critical as experts predict that hunger and disease could claim more lives than have been killed in the bombing."

Read more from the press release here: [ https://freedomflotilla.org/2024/04/04/ ... -flotilla/ ]

Follow Canadian Boat to Gaza on Facebook [ https://www.facebook.com/CanadaBoatGaza/ ], Twitter, and Instagram; follow the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Make a financial donation here: [ https://canadaboatgaza.org/donate/ ]

- Norah Fraser, for London Chapter
Council of Canadians
https://canadians.org/