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46 activists from 17 nations - Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, farmers, fishermen, officials, language teachers, piano technicians and one 85-year-old Holocaust survivor – are right now sailing to Gaza, united in their determination to break the inhumane Israeli siege and shed light on the slow-motion Genocide taking place before the eyes of an indifferent world. They left Cyprus yesterday morning with a cargo of 200 hearing aids for a school for the deaf in Gaza and 5000 balloons for Gaza’s children. One passenger, Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian with Israeli and US citizenship, said: “The siege that the Israelis have imposed on Gaza is not only illegal in terms of international law, it is also immoral. Global institutions and the governments of the world know what is happening and are not doing anything about it.” The UN has called the situation in Gaza a humanitarian disaster, but the inhumanity goes on. More than 240 civilians have already died as a result of this medieval siege on us. We in Gaza and the One Democratic State group take heart from this courageous mission by ordinary people from all corners of the globe. Their brave and direct action will remind the world of our incarceration and force the eyes of the world to look in our direction once more. We will be waiting anxiously for their safe arrival and look forward to meeting them and thanking them for their amazing action. Actions such as theirs shame governments and multilateral organisations which have stood by silently, and worse, even supported the barbaric Israeli siege on Gaza’s 1. 5 million people. Today it is just two boats that are trying to reach us, but we know that if we remain steadfast - and the people of the world stand by us - some day soon, thousands of boats will reach our shores. The One Democratic State Group |