The Australian captain of a women-crewed boat, which tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza last month, firmly believes the mission was worthwhile.
“The Women’s Boat to Gaza managed to reignite the spotlight on Gaza and on the terrible conditions that the Gazan people suffer”, Madeline Habib told Green Left Weekly.
“It is so easy for the plight of Palestinians to be forgotten in the face of the war in Syria. But the truth is that there is more than one way to wage a war,” Habib said of the giant and illegal concentration camp into which Israel has turned Gaza.
Among the 13 women on the Zaytouna-Olive were Irish Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Maguire, New Zealand Greens parliamentarian Marama Davidson, Algerian MP Samira Douaifia and former US Army Colonel Ann Wright.
The boat was 35 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza when Israeli naval gunships intercepted it on October 5. It was towed to the port of Ashdod, and the women jailed and then deported.
Read the article by Pip Hinman in the Green Left Weekly.