Indian aid ship to join anti-Gaza blockade campaign

July 27, 2010

An Indian vessel is set to join a new international campaign named “The Audacity of Hope” to press for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, months after nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in an attack on an aid ship bound for Gaza.

An e-mail circulated by pro-Palestinian activists in the US said an American ship named after US President Barack Obama's autobiography, will join a flotilla of other vessels from Europe, Canada, India, South Africa and the Middle East in an additional attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade in early autumn.

The new campaign comes amid an increased international hue and cry to force the Jewish state to lift its siege of the coastal territory.

The effort is supported by several prominent figures, including Prof Rashid Khalidi, a well-known critic of Israel whose friendship with the US president has raised eyebrows here.

It aims to raise $370,000 next month to obtain possession of a ship that could accommodate between 40 and 60 people, and for operational expenses, the email said.

Right-wing columnists immediately seized on the involvement of Khalidi, whom they portrayed as a friend of Obama who was supporting Hamas.

Khalidi said he does not know what the ship will ultimately be named, but added the White House should not be embarrassed by the name “The Audacity of Hope”, and should instead call for Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory to be lifted, the report said.

The Columbia University History Professor, a US national born to a Palestinian refugee, Khalidi said that although he will participate in the fundraising event for the ship, he will not be sailing in it himself.

"Given the national-religious hierarchy which determines what the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) can do to whom, the fact that the ship is American will make it harder to deal with it as the Mavi Marmara was dealt with," he said referring to the Turkish aid ship raided by Israeli Naval commandos on May 31, on which nine activists were killed in the ensuing fight.

Source:The Daily Star

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