A boat carrying foreign activists and three tons of medical supplies was
rerouted Tuesday. Meanwhile, the fishing industry – a key source of jobs
and protein – has been crippled.

Nobel Laureate 'Abducted' by Israeli Navy
By Mel Frykberg

RAMALLAH, Jul 1 (IPS) - Twenty-one international peace activists were
seized by Israeli naval frigates in international waters Tuesday as
their boat 'The Spirit of Humanity' tried to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The activists, including former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and
Irish Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, and nationals from 11 other
countries were part of the Free Gaza Movement (FGM) efforts to break
Israel's naval and border blockade of Gaza.

The activists were taken to Israel's Ashdod port and from there to
detention cells at Ben Gurion international airport in Tel Aviv where
they await deportation.

"They simply kidnapped the passengers," said FGM founding member Greta
Berlin. "I call on the Israeli occupation forces to release our people
immediately. It's funny. What are they going to do? Deport us? The last
place we wanted to reach was Israel."

The Spirit of Humanity left Cyprus Monday after receiving security
clearance from the Cypriot authorities. It was carrying three tonnes of
medical supplies and some toys.

The boat was intercepted by naval gun vessels in the early hours of
Tuesday morning. The crew was warned that if they did not return to
Cyprus they would be fired on. The boat refused to follow the Israeli
order, and continued to make its way to Gaza.

The Israeli navy then jammed the boat's instrumentation, blocking its
GPS, radar and navigation systems. The aid boat was surrounded by
several naval gunboats until armed naval commandos forcibly boarded it
and towed it back to Ashdod port.

"We didn't come with guns and weapons, but just with humanitarian aid,
in an attempt to break the siege of Gaza and to tell the apathetic world
about what is happening in the Strip, especially after the last war,"
FGM chairperson Huwaida Araf said in an interview with the
Nazareth-based radio station Al- Shams.

"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our
boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to
the Gaza Strip," said former presidential candidate McKinney.

"President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and
reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do," she added.

"The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza,
hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to
transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools,
hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of
Operation Cast Lead," said Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize
for her work in Northern Ireland.

"Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them
and that they are not alone," she added.

The U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement has sent a number of siege-breaking
vessels to Gaza with aid supplies in an endeavour to not only deliver
desperately needed goods but also to draw international attention to the
humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released
Monday, Palestinians living in Gaza are "trapped in despair".

Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed during Israel's
December-January war are still without shelter despite pledges of almost
4.5 billion dollars in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and
other building material into the Gaza Strip, the Red Cross report says.

The report says hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their
patients due to Israel's disruption of medical supplies.

Israel allows only a limited amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Items
such as chocolate, cigarettes, fruit juice, pumpkin, schoolbooks,
clothes, toys, seedlings and musical instruments are amongst the many
items banned.

Several of FGM's vessels have managed to reach the stricken coastal
territory with supplies, but others have been forcibly stopped.

The last vessel, also with McKinney on board, was rammed by an Israeli
naval vessel several times. The badly damaged boat was forced to limp to
Beirut port as it began to take water.

While most of the activists aboard Spirit were due be deported, several
of the activists hold Israeli passports, including Huwaida Arraf.

Arraf, a law lecturer, was born in the U.S. to a Palestinian family from
within Israel's Green Line, or internationally recognised borders. She
is also a U.S. citizen.

Deporting her could be problematic, and she may face court for
attempting to enter Gaza. Israeli law bans Israeli citizens from
entering the coastal territory.

Several attempts by IPS to contact Arraf in detention were unsuccessful.
FGM reported that it had also been unable to contact activists on their
cell phones in detention.

Meanwhile, Berlin vows to continue trying to break Israel's siege on Gaza.

"It isn't over till the fat lady sings. They took our boat, so we'll get
a freighter. Israel has no right to keep 1.5 million residents under
siege, to occupy Gaza, and to turn it into one big refugee camp."
(END/2009)
____________________________________


How Israel's naval blockade denies Gazans food, aid


By Mel Frykberg | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor June 30, 2009 edition


Ramallah, West Bank - Bringing fresh attention to its blockade of the
Gaza Strip, Israel on Tuesday turned back a boat attempting to deliver
three tons of medical supplies to Gazans.

After a radio message asking the small ferry to turn back was ignored,
the Israeli Navy boarded the boat and redirected the vessel to the
Israeli port of Ashdod. Reuters quoted a police source as saying that
the activists aboard, members of the US-based Free Gaza movement, would
"likely be deported."

"Yesterday evening the Israeli Navy contacted the boat while at sea
clarifying that it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters
because of security risks in the area, and the existing naval blockade,"
the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that humanitarian aid
would be sent to Gaza "subject to authorization."

The naval blockade – part of a wider Israeli effort to seal off the tiny
coastal strip controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas – not only
prevents such shipments, it is also devastating a key Gazan industry and
source of food: fishing.

Citing security concerns and fears of arms smuggling, Israel has
progressively tightened the blockade over the past 15 years. Once a
thriving enterprise, Gaza's fishing industry is now on the verge of
collapse. Fishermen are cut off from the heavily populated shoals, and
have seen total revenue drop by half in less than a decade.

"We are witnessing a huge crisis where the livelihoods of thousands of
fishermen, associated laborers, and their dependents have been decimated
by Israel's blockade and closure," says Erminio Sacco of the United
Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Following the Oslo peace accords, signed in 1994 between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority (PA), Israel permitted the fishermen to go 20
nautical miles (NM) out to sea.

This was restricted to 12 NM in 2002, after the outbreak of the second
Palestinian intifada in 2000.

This area was further limited to the current 3 NM when the Islamic
movement Hamas wrested control of Gaza after an intense fight with its
rival Fatah led to a collapse of a unity government headed by
Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Those fishermen who go further out risk being arrested, shot, and
killed, or having their boats destroyed or confiscated. However, human
rights organizations have reported that fishermen have been attacked
even within the 3-NM zone.

Click here to read about fisherman Mohammed Hassuna, who says he and his
crew were recently surrounded by Israeli Navy boats, shot at, forced to
strip, and swim in frigid water to the Navy gunboat, where they were
handcuffed, blindfolded, and their feet chained.

Catch dropped by two-thirds since 2007

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), Israel's restrictions undermined the sardine season, which
started in March and peaked in mid-April.

The bulk of sardines are located beyond six NM, with the UN estimating
that a distance of 12-15 NM off Gaza is the minimum required to access
the larger shoals of fish for maximum economic benefit. Shoals closer to
shore have been depleted and unable to replenish themselves.

"During March 2007, 248 metric tons of fish were caught. In March 2008
this figure dropped to 121 tons and in March this year, the catch was
only 89 tons," says Mr. Sacco.

A total annual catch of 2,700 tons was caught in 2008, down from nearly
4,000 tons in 1999, according to Gaza's General Syndicate of Marine Fishers.

OCHA states that at the end of the 1990s, Gaza's fishing industry was
worth about $10 million annually. This represented approximately 4
percent of the Palestinian economy.

Nezar Ayyash, from Gaza's fishing syndicate, which has 3,500 registered
fishermen, says this figure was halved between 2001 and 2006.

"It has become too expensive for many fishermen to take the bigger boats
out to sea, so only some smaller boats venture out," says Sacco.

The cost of one fishing trip can vary between $125 and $625, depending
on the size of the vessel, nets, and crew; many fishermen cannot cover
these costs.

Fishing employed 45,000 Gazans

About 45,000 Gazans once worked in fishing and its associated
industries, including repairs, onshore support, or as merchants.

With Gazans having an average family size of seven, the fishing industry
used to help support many times more of Gaza's 1.4 million residents. It
also supplemented a diet critically short of animal protein.

Gaza faces chronic unemployment, poverty, and malnutrition in part as a
result of Israel's blockade, which now allows only food and medicine –
but not as much as aid workers say is necessary to sustain the
population. Everything from pasta to catheters have been turned back,
frustrating aid workers who have been unable to obtain a list of
permitted items. A ban on steel and cement, which Israel says can be
used to fortify tunnels along the Gaza border that are used for
smuggling, has prevented many Gazans from rebuilding after the war, with
some resorting to mud bricks for their homes.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0701/p06s02-wome.html