ISRAELIS TO LAUNCH ‘COUNTER’ FREEDOM FLEET BOAT

Ma’an News Agency
x?ID=285888
May 20 2010
Palestine

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Two Israeli boats will lift anchor on Saturday
from northern Israel, in response to the upcoming arrival of the
Freedom Fleet in Gaza’s port, bringing humanitarian aid and some 600
peace activists, Israeli media reported.

According to the Hebrew online news site Yedioth Aharonoth, the
two vessels will wave banners describing "barbaric Hamas" and the
Armenian genocide, allegedly in response to Turkish involvement in
the nine-boat convoy.

"The [Israeli] fleet will go to confuse those who are coming to
confuse Israel," the daily wrote.

The two fleets will not encounter one another as Israel’s navy is
set to declare the area south of Ashdod a closed military zone to
prevent the Freedom Fleet from weighing anchor.

The MV Rachel Corrie, which raised anchor on Saturday, headed to the
Mediterranean port of Cyprus, where it will join the Rachel, three
Turkish ships and five from Greece all heading toward the Gaza port.

All nine boats are set to cast anchor at Gaza City’s docks on 27 May,
Palestinian lawmaker Jamal Al-Khudari said, following their rendezvous
in Cyprus on 25 May.

The flotilla, organized by a coalition of groups from around the
globe, will bring some 10,000 tons of reconstruction material, medical
equipment and school supplies to the coastal region under siege.

Hundreds of activists protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza will also
be aboard the vessels, which will reportedly face a bevy of Israeli
naval ships enforcing the Gaza blockade, though UN official in Gaza
John Ging told a Norwegian paper that he saw no reason that a flotilla
will be opposed.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress