PA Donor Countries Suggest No Flotilla To Gaza

Donor countries to the Palestinian Authority requested last week at a meeting in Brussels that all countries and parties sending aid to the besieged Gaza Strip do so by land.

The call was directed at the aid flotillas, sailing as the Freedom Flotilla II, next month.

According to the Israeli news daily Haaretz, the conference called on all parties to use land terminals to the Strip and avoid provocations. The statement was signed by the chairman of the conference, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

Israel has been actively trying to stop the flotilla in recent weeks, urging the United Nations Secretary General to do something, calling on Turkey to stop involvement, and asking European countries to also discourage participation.

Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gaby Levy, asked the Turkish government this week to help stop the activists, saying sending humanitarian aide to Gaza outside legal channels was a "provocation," an Israeli diplomatic official told Reuters.

Asked about the request, a Turkish foreign ministry official told Reuters: "We listened to the message given by the Israeli side and told them this is an initiative by civil society."

The IHH, the Turkish NGO that owned the Mavi Marmara ship that was raided by the Israeli commandos in international waters leaving nine activists dead, has said it will also be joining the "Freedom Flotilla II."

An IHH official told Reuters the group has not been approached by the Turkish government over its plans to send another flotilla and added: "In Turkey governments don't tell NGOs what to do and what not to do."

The Free Gaza movement, which organized the first boat to Gaza, has also said they will not back down.

"If Israeli authorities thought that their attack on Freedom Flotilla 1 last year would break our momentum and scare us away from sailing to Gaza again, they were wrong," Free Gaza said in a statement on its website.

“We are now organizing Freedom Flotilla 2, scheduled to set sail in late May 2011, with twice as many vessels as we had last year."

Israeli Special Forces attacked the Freedom Flotilla convoy in May 2010, boarded the Turkish ship the Mavi Marama, and killed 9 Turkish citizens and injured dozens more. The harsh attack on activists attempting to deliver aid prompted much international criticism.

The situation in Gaza, which has been dire for some time due to the Israeli military blockade, significantly worsened following Israel’s military attack Operation Cast Lead. The 22-day military strike reduced much of Gaza's infrastructure and homes to rubble, and killed some 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians. The population is still reeling and in desperate need of supplies.

Activist groups from more than 10 countries have said they are sending at least 15 vessels to join the Freedom Flotilla II: Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece,Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey.

The International Coalition of the Freedom Flotilla II met in Madrid, Spain from the 4-6th of February to discuss the upcoming journey. The meeting, organized by the host delegation Rumbo a Gaza, was attended by delegates from organizations in Algeria, Canada, Scotland, Spain, France, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.