By Medea Benjamin Today we had a great international press conference. There were representatives from Greece, Sweden, France, Norway, Canada, Spain, Turkey and of course, the U.S. The room was packed with press and passengers; there was really a feeling that we are part of something historic. Our US speakers were Ann Wright and Alice [...]
Monday, June 27, 2011
by Medea Benjamin Today we had a long meeting about whether or not we should do some visible protests against the Greek government for holding up our ship and if so, where we should do the actions. We even had a scouting team go out, which brought back all kinds of ideas. My favorite was the “choo-choo trail option” of renting a tourist trolley, and jazzing it up with our banners, lifejackets and other paraphernalia from the boat. But in the end, the folks in the international flotilla—especially the Greeks—recommended that we lay low for a few days to see if the complaint against our boat is lifted quickly[...]
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The 50 passengers and crew on the U.S. boat to Gaza have converged in Athens, Greece, ready to head out to sea to join an international fleet of ships that will challenge the Israeli-imposed naval blockade of Gaza. But on Thursday, June 23, when the boat was scheduled to leave its port outside Athens and move closer to an international meeting point, the boat’s owner was suddenly served with a complaint by an unknown individual that the boat was not seaworthy. The captain, convinced that the complaint was bogus, was nevertheless told by Greek authorities that he could not set sail until they did a thorough inspection[...]
Saturday, June 25, 2011
State Department Officials Have an Obligation to Speak Out Against Israeli Threats to Attack U.S. Boat to Gaza Athens, June 24, 2011 – U.S. peace activists preparing to set sail on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, expressed profound disappointment over a statement issued by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday, June 22, 2011. Instead of calling on the Israeli government to let a flotilla of unarmed civilians sail to Gaza, the United States government is pressuring its own citizens to refrain from legal acts[...]
Friday, June 24, 2011
We started out this morning with a political briefing from our intrepid retired Colonel Ann Wright, who has been busting her butt on this project for the past year! Ann told us that the Greek Foreign Ministry came out with a statement that the flotilla is “not helpful” and encouraged Greek citizens as well as [...]
Thursday, June 23, 2011
It’s nice that we now start out our training sessions with song. I love how it changes the energy in the room and puts a smile on our faces. Instead of doing our training at the hotel, where the room is cramped, we went to a gym nearby. It was actually a boxing workout room, [...]
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
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