Handala Ship Starts Sailing for the Campaign to Lift the Blockade of Gaza

Liverpool, MINA – The Norwegian ship “Handala” started sailing from the port of Liverpool in northwestern England on Thursday. Handala’s departure was organized by the “Fleet of Freedom” coalition, a global solidarity movement, with the aim of increasing the awareness of the world community about the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.

According to the initiators, the ship voyage also aims to increase people’s pressure on the occupied country, and seek the support of the European community for the purpose of breaking the sea blockade of Gaza which is also still happening.

The “Handala” is heading to the “Wales” area in southwest Great Britain, where it will stop in the port of Cardiff (the capital of Wales) until next Monday. A number of solidarity and awareness activities with the participation of Palestinian supporters and activists from the solidarity movement will be carried out while in Wales.

After that, the ship will sail to the city of “Bristol” in southwest England, which will host, for ten days, a program full of cultural events and seminars, as well as artistic and musical activities in support of the Palestinian right. The activity aims to show the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip due to the blockade that has been imposed on them for more than 15 years.

The event will also include a screening of a documentary on efforts to lift the siege, and a political symposium on the importance of the efforts of the peoples of the world to lift the siege.

Chairman of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza, Zaher Birawi (founding member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition) said that the new campaign to break the sea blockade on Gaza, and the operation of the “Handala” ship departing from Norway, came in response to calls from civil society organizations in Gaza Strip.

In his press statement quoted by Quds Press, he indicated that the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and all activists and solidarity activists around the world, are still loyal to Gaza, and are ready to repeat their efforts to sail to challenge the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, and to expose racism and injustice. occupied country.

Birawi emphasized that the “Handala” ship will continue to sail to several European ports for two months, aiming to raise awareness of the suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation and siege. Increase the degree of interest and solidarity action in European society, and increase pressure on European governments to carry out their duties of ending the evils of the blockade.

He pointed out that the “Freedom Flotilla” coalition would later announce its plan to sail towards the eastern Mediterranean, to implement new efforts to end the unjust siege on Gaza.

It is noteworthy that the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a people’s solidarity movement consisting of a number of solidarity organizations from more than 12 countries around the world, and its efforts focus on efforts to break the illegal sea blockade on Gaza, and expose the ugliness of Israeli crimes that have continued since 2006.

The coalition organized many campaigns to break the maritime blockade, most notably the Turkish ship “Mavi Marmara” and its international sister ship, which were attacked and attacked by the Israeli navy in 2010. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)