ACTIVISTS MEET WITH EU AND CALL FOR WIDE INT'L PARTICIPATION TO BREAK THE SIEGE OF GAZA
FREE GAZA MOVEMENT MEETS WITH EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND CALLS FOR WIDE INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION TO BREAK THE SIEGE OF GAZA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date : 09-11-2008
BRUSSELS (11 September 2008) - Today, in a special session of the European Parliament's Delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council (DPLC), Paul Larudee, one of the organizers of the Free Gaza Movement’s successful breach of the Israeli blockade of Gaza in August, called upon the international community to join the Movement’s efforts to lessen the human suffering created by Israeli’s strangulation of Gaza.
“The Israeli siege has produced widespread and needless human suffering in Gaza,” Larudee told DPLC Parliamentarians. “We’ve proved that the sea link to Gaza is viable, but the humanitarian needs in Gaza are overwhelming and our two, small boats cannot even begin to meet those needs. Today we call for a much broader effort; specifically, we are calling on other members of the international community - governments, non-governmental organizations, and others dedicated to protecting human rights - to join us by providing their own ships, humanitarian goods, and human capital to open wide Gaza’s access to the world. This is an opportunity that simply must not be squandered.”
Since Israel imposed the blockade two years ago, malnutrition and unemployment rates in Gaza have soared. In May 2008, several international aid organizations, including CARE International UK, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, and Medecins du Monde UK, stated that, “the stranglehold on Gaza’s borders has made ... the work of the UN and other humanitarian agencies ... virtually impossible. Only a trickle of medicine, food, fuel and other goods is being allowed in. [The Israeli blockade of Gaza] has made people highly dependent on food aid, and brought the health system and basic services such as water and sanitation near to collapse.”
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