More than 60 Italian and Spanish vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla will set sail from the port of Augusta, Italy, for Gaza today in a mission aimed at breaking the blockade on the Palestinian territory.
KUALA LUMPUR: More than 60 Italian and Spanish vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), currently docked at the port of Augusta, Italy, will set sail for Gaza today in a mission aimed at breaking the blockade on the Palestinian territory.
GSF said in a statement today the flotilla would sail “with a clear objective to break the blockade” and reaffirm the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, while pushing for a permanent humanitarian corridor into Gaza.
It said the mission also sought to mobilise sustained international action and expose what it described as complicity in maintaining the blockade.
Referring to the Brussels Declaration adopted at the first Parliamentary Congress of the Global Sumud Flotilla on April 22, GSF said “mere denunciation” of Israel and its allies was no longer sufficient amid continued occupation, the closure of land routes and the denial of humanitarian access to Gaza.
“It is necessary to act in an integrated and differentiated manner,” it said, adding that an international front must be built to challenge what it described as the system sustaining the blockade.
GSF said such efforts include boycotts, internal political pressure, trade union mobilisation, general strikes and acts of non-violent civil disobedience as part of a common strategy to uphold peoples’ right to self-determination.
