Turkey’s IHH humanitarian-aid foundation has now announced a plan to help lead a 20-ship siege-busting project for Gaza, to take place most likely in April. The project is called Noah’s Ark, and will set sail from a port in Turkey.
IHH President Bülent Yıldırım said,
- We are planning to go to Gaza with a fleet of 20 ships to be set up in an international organization probably in April 2010… The cargo ships will carry Israeli-embargoed building materials, generators, medication, medical equipment and educational materials. The passenger ships to accompany the cargo ships will carry journalists, human rights advocates, activists and lawmakers from various countries.”
IHH is planning to contribute five ships to the flotilla. I believe contacts are underway with other organizations to contribute the other ships.
This is a great project. Turkey’s moderate-Islamist (A.K. Party) government and many Turkish people and NGOs have all played a great role in supporting the people of Gaza through their many recent woes.
http://www.ihh.org.tr/13572/en/
Where are all the women who are supposed to be planning this fiasco? Are they meeting in another
building?
It’s about time someone did something about this shameful siege of Gaza. The international community would never accept two million Jews living in the same conditions the Palestinians currently live under.
Unfortunately, the “international community” (the US and those it buys, bullies or bribes) not only allows this shameful blockade, they support it. And why? Because Palestinians had the temerity to actually engage in democracy and throw out the rascals(Fatah) at the ballot box and then defend themselves against the US fostered, Dayton/Dahlan led, attempted coup. Hopefully, the number of blockade runners and their supporters will increase and force Israel into embarrassing confrontations.
I applaud this, and hope it comes off. If it does it will shame all of us in the Western World who have stood by and watched the humanitarian suffering in Gaza and done nothing. My husband, Michael Adams, who as a journalist campaigned for the human rights of the Palestinians would support such a project. I hope it succeeds. I wish it well. It is enterprising and brave of the Turks.