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GREECE: Activists Protest Ban Confining Gaza Freedom Flotilla to Port

ATHENS, Jul 6 2011 (IPS) - Some 30 Spanish activists are occupying the embassy of their country in the Greek capital to demand that their government pressure Greece to allow the Freedom Flotilla II – “Stay Human” to set sail for the Gaza Strip.

The Gaza flotilla activists want Spain’s foreign minister, Trinidad Jiménez, to commit herself in writing to press the Greek authorities to lift the Jul. 1 ban on boats heading to Gaza, which the Greek government says is based on security concerns.

The occupation of the embassy is one of several actions being carried out in Greece to protest the ban which is confining to port 10 European, U.S. and Canadian ships carrying some 500 activists from 45 countries, along with 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza, that plan to attempt to breach the blockade of the occupied territory maintained by Israel since 2006.

A little over a year ago, the first Freedom Flotilla, made up of three cargo ships and five passenger boats with more than 700 people on board, was stormed by Israeli naval commandos, who killed nine Turkish activists and injured 30 other passengers, triggering international outrage.

“We have not broken any Greek law or compromised the government of this country, and we have met all of the port authority’s legal, technical and administrative requirements,” the activists declared in a statement to Spanish Ambassador Miguel Fuertes.

“In spite of this, all kinds of obstacles have been thrown in our way to keep us from setting sail, including the confinement of our ship, the Guernica,” in a port in Crete, they added.

Spanish writer and political analyst Santiago Alba Rico, one of the activists in the Spanish embassy, told IPS that “in this irregular situation, basic rights contained in Europe’s legislation have been violated, and we feel completely abandoned by the Spanish government.

“The European governments have demonstrated a shameful relinquishment of their sovereignty, and part of the struggle should now focus on our governments,” he said. “More pressure must be brought to bear on them because they are currently suffering a great lack of credibility due to all of the protest movements in Europe.

“The EU has shown that it does not represent the majority of the people of Europe and that it puts spurious interests before democracy, international legislation and human rights,” Alba Rico said.

Although the Spanish government responded that “in line with the EU” it is “in favour of the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza and reiterates its commitment to the Palestinian people,” it insisted that the best alternative was the offer made to members of the flotilla to get the humanitarian aid to Gaza “through authorised channels.”

It added, in a communiqué issued by the foreign ministry, that the offer had the support of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The only boat in the flotilla that managed to set sail, the French yacht named Dignity that left Corsica 10 days ago, is in international waters on its way to Gaza.

The U.S. delegation reported that the captain of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, who was arrested Jul. 1 in Athens after the ship was intercepted two miles from the port of Piraeus, was released without charges Tuesday.

The Canadian ship Tahrir set out from a port in Crete Monday without a captain, but was intercepted shortly afterwards by the Greek authorities. The three people who were arrested have been released.

The arrests, the blockade of boats and reported incidents of sabotage of ships are, in the view of Spain’s Rumbo a Gaza campaign, violations of the Schengen Agreement signed by 23 of the 25 EU member states, with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom, which guarantees free movement in the European bloc.

The Greek government’s order to prevent the Freedom Flotilla II from sailing is “totally illegal,” Spanish European Parliament lawmaker Willy Meyer, a member of the expedition, told IPS.

“I don’t think the EU has behaved in accordance with international law, and we are hostages of a government that gave in to Israel’s pressure,” said the representative of Spain’s United Left party, who added in a press conference that he would urge the European Parliament and other EU bodies to clarify “this unusual situation.”

He added that the Greek decree that has immobilised the flotilla “is a violation of international law, Europe’s rules on free circulation, and the rights of citizens of the bloc to freely sail in the Mediterranean Sea.”

The Greek government’s argument that the ban is in response to a dangerous situation in a context of conflict “has no foundation,” he argued.

Meyer said “what the Palestinian people of Gaza are suffering is a blockade by Israel that has been condemned by the U.N. Security Council in 2008 and by Ban Ki-moon himself.”

He also criticised “the complicity of the EU and the diplomatic negotiations of its member states with the Israeli government to block the arrival of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“That complicity makes the EU an instrument lacking in the authority necessary to contribute to the creation of a Palestinian state and to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Meyer said.