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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/26/jewish-activists-gaza-israel-blockade
Jewish activists set sail for Gaza planning to break blockade
Voyage by boat carrying supporters of Jews for Justice for Palestinians comes four months after Israeli attack on flotilla
26 September 2010 19.53 BST
Jewish activists aboard the catamaran Irene Four activists board the catamaran, named Irene, before their departure from the port of Famagusta in Cyprus. Photograph: Hasan Mroue/AFP/Getty Images
A boat carrying Jewish activists from Israel, Germany, the US and Britain set sail today for Gaza, hoping to breach Israel's naval blockade there.
Richard Kuper, an organiser with the British group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said one goal was to show that not all Jews supported Israeli policies toward Palestinians. Kuper said the boat, which set sail from northern Cyprus flying a British flag, would not resist Israeli authorities.
The voyage by the 10-metre catamaran Irene comes nearly four months after Israeli commandos boarded a flotilla of Gaza-bound ships, killing eight pro-Palestinian Turkish activists and a Turkish American aboard the Mavi Marmara.
Rami Elhanan, an Israeli passenger whose daughter Smadar was killed in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Jerusalem in 1997, said it was his "moral duty" to act in support of Palestinians in Gaza because reconciliation was the surest path to peace.
"Those 1.5 million people in Gaza are victims exactly as I am," Elhanan, 60, said.
Alison Prager, another organiser from Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said many Jews had been on previous "blockade-busting trips" to Gaza, but this was the first time Jewish groups had banded together to send a boat of their own.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Andy David, called the boat "a provocative joke that isn't funny".
"It's unfortunate that there are all kinds of organisations involved in provocations that contribute nothing and certainly don't contribute to any kind of agreement," he said.
Yousef Rizka, an official with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, said: "The government has received Jewish activists arriving to Gaza before. The government positively views all attempts to break the siege on Gaza."
The voyage came as Israelis, Palestinians and US mediators sought a compromise that would allow talks to continue after an agreement to slow Israeli settlement building expired.
Israel maintains a strict naval blockade on Gaza as part of a wider blockade imposed when Hamas took power.
After the international backlash over the Mavi Marmara attack, Israel eased its blockade on commercial goods, but maintains tight restrictions on construction materials, exports and on the movement of Gaza's residents.
The three-year blockade, which is supported by neighbouring Egypt, has badly impoverished Gaza residents, penned them into the territory and caused one of the world's highest unemployment rates.
Kuper said the activists were not seeking to support Hamas, but to send a message that Gaza civilians should not be punished for the actions of their rulers.
The Irene catamaran, carrying a total of nine passengers and crew members, set sail from the breakaway Turkish north of Cyprus because the internationally recognised Greek south imposed a ban on all Gaza-bound vessels in May, citing "vital interests." Prior to the ban, international activists had used south Cyprus to launch eight boat trips to Gaza over a two-year span.Kuper said the activistswere not seeking to stir controversy by leaving from north Cyprus, but that "practicalities" necessitated the choice.
The Irene vessel plans to deliver children's toys, medical equipment, outboard motors for fishing boats and books to Gaza residents.
Kuper said the voyage was a "symbolic statement" intended todraw attention to what he called Israel's "illegal, unnecessary and inhumane" blockade of Gaza.
"Jewish communities around the world are not united in support of Israel," Kuper said in a telephone interview from London. "Israel's future peace is coming to terms quickly with the Palestinians." The trip was funded entirely by supporters' donations, he added.
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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its full
capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not mean that I
agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe
it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or
do, even when what they think or do is completely stupid and against our
philosophy. When I selected articles in the past about stupid Christian
fundamentalists in America praying for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader
was stupid enough to believe that I was supporting praying to change the
weather. So, when I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic,
anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or
religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It
just means that it is important for all human beings to know about them. Common
sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good enough to
understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug decriminalization, it
is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very
clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed
and sad people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin
their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is any change
to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any drug except for
medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be
absolute. That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
antisemites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies
or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love
and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher
Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it".
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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