JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
Two South African activists who were aboard the recently-intercepted “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” – which this week attempted to break Israel’s years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip – returned home on Wednesday from Greece to a warm welcome.
“We are disappointed that Israel attacked and intercepted our main vessel, the Marianne,” Ismail Moola, who provided logistical support for the four-vessel flotilla, told Anadolu Agency after arriving at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport.
The flotilla, which set out to Gaza from Greece earlier this week bearing humanitarian assistance and passengers, was led by the Marianne, a Swedish-flagged trawler.
The Marianne was intercepted on Monday morning by Israeli naval forces and towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, after which crew and passengers were taken to Tel Aviv.
The three other boats in the flotilla returned to their ports of origin.
Passengers aboard the Marianne included Arab-Israeli MP Basel Ghattas, former Tunisian President Moncef Marzuki, and Spanish Member of European Parliament Ana Miranda.
Ghattas and Marzuki have since been released by the Israeli authorities, but most of the rest of the Marianne’s crew are still being held in a prison in Israel.
“We are first going to wait for our colleagues to be released from jail; then we will regroup for another campaign,” Moola told Anadolu Agency.
He said the vessel’s interception by Israel would not stop activists from making further attempts to break the siege on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza has remained in place since 2007, when Palestinian resistance group Hamas took over the coastal territory after sweeping legislative elections one year earlier.
“We will continue until we succeed in breaking the siege,” Moola asserted.
Clint Le Bruyns, an academic at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, who had been aboard a standby vessel, said pro-Gaza activists would continue raising awareness about the blockade and Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians.
“We will continue to highlight the plight of Palestinians and create awareness in our country,” he said.
Both Le Bruyns and Moola had represented South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance on the Freedom Flotilla.
Meanwhile, the National Coalition for Palestine (NC4P), a coalition of roughly 40 South African organizations, condemned Israel’s arrest of the Marianne’s crew and passengers.
“NC4P demands that the Israeli government cease and desist the illegal detention of peaceful civilians travelling in international waters in support of humanitarian aid,” it said in a statement, going on to call for their immediate release.
In 2010, a similar Gaza-bound aid flotilla was attacked by Israeli naval forces in international waters, leaving nine Turkish activists – one of whom held U.S. citizenship – dead.
