Gulf countries come out in full force

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Gulf News

foreign ministry tweets in defence of blockade

Many activists don their national dress

An offer by Israel to accept Gaza-bound aid via its own ports was rejected by the organisers of the Freedom Flotilla on Monday.

It emerged late on Monday that Israel had offered the Freedom Flotilla the option of bringing the 10,000 tonnes of aid to its port of Ashdod instead of sailing to Gaza and breaching Israel’s blockade.

The offer was rejected by the organisers, the most prominent of whom is the Turkish charity IHH. “We know how they [Israel] have behaved in the past,” said Bulent Yildirim, president of IHH. “Why would we believe them?”

Much of the aid that the flotilla is carrying appears on Israel’s list of goods that are banned from entering the strip, such as building material.

It is believed that the Israeli authorities contacted Turkish officials about the offer, who relayed it to the flotilla organisers.

The move is also an indication of the depth of official Turkish involvement in the campaign.

Secret warning

Some of the ships are registered in Turkey and are flying Turkish flags.

Israeli media reported yesterday that Turkey had secretly warned Israel against barring the ships from entering Gaza.

After its offer was spurned, Israeli is said to have turned to the government of Egypt, discussing with it the possibility of bringing the shipments to the Egyptian port of Arish. That offer, too, was rejected. The flotilla now ranks highly on Israel’s agenda as the media across the world and in Israel pick up on the story.

Israel’s foreign ministry has deployed employees to scan social networking sites like twitter in order to present its own stand on Gaza. The ministry’s twitter account has been posting 20 to 30 tweets an hour almost exclusively on the flotilla.

Yildirim told passengers to be ready for a smear campaign by Israel which would focus on selling the story that the flotilla was an effort to strengthen Hamas, which rules Gaza.

“Remember, we are only here to help the Palestinian people, and do not sway towards any group,” he said.

Yildirim urged participants to respect people from other religions on the ship, including Jews and Christians. He said all of them stood “shoulder to shoulder” for the sake of Palestinians.

Ships leaving from Turkey had 2,100 tonnes of cement, 750 tonnes of iron, 50 tonnes of marble, 98 generators, 90 prefabricated homes, 16 full playgrounds and textiles.

Antalya The support of Gulf countries for the Freedom Flotilla has been noticeably visible with many activists from Kuwait and Bahrain coming in their national dress to represent their countries.

The flotilla’s younger participants wore jackets with the flags of their countries prominently displayed on the back. The Kuwaiti team consists of 19 people. One of the flotilla’s ships has been donated by Kuwaitis and is expected to fly the Kuwaiti flag.

Also in the Kuwaiti team is Dr Waleed Tabtabai, a conservative member of the Kuwaiti parliament, who is on his second attempt to break the Israel blockade on the Gaza Strip.

“The role of Gulf countries in Gaza has not been confrontational,” he said, commenting on the participation of Gulf nations.

“It is largely logistical, political and philanthropic, and they would rather see reconciliation between the two sides in Palestine [Hamas and the Palestinian Authority].”

He added, however, that he did not foresee himself entering Gaza.

“Israel might not let us in but that will cost Israel a lot. It’s not in its interest,” he said.

“Our gesture here is not just humanitarian. It is political too. We’re taking a stand against the occupation of Gaza”.

ABBAS AL LAWATI/Gulf News

For a common cause

Participants during a prayer ahead of the meeting at Antalya Sports Hall.

kicker

support

Dummy text dummy dumm dumm dum dummy dum text to be replaced dummy text dummy text dummy dum dummy dum dum dum text replace it.”

Quote Attribution

Quote Title

gulfnews.com