Leftist Greek MPs accuse government of caving to Israeli pressure to stop Gaza
flotilla
Greek government says it is preventing
departure of vessels from ports to avoid a 'humanitarian disaster' which
would result from violent confrontation with Israeli navy.
By
Amira Hass
Eight ships in the Gaza-bound flotilla were barred from leaving the
Greek ports where they are anchored in the wake of an order issued on
Friday by the Greek government. Flotilla participants and members of the
leftist opposition in Greece have accused the Socialist government of
caving in to Israeli pressure - a claim rejected by Greek Foreign
Minister Stavros Lambrinidis.
The Greek government is preventing the
departure of the vessels in order to avoid a "humanitarian disaster"
which will result from a violent confrontation with the Israeli navy,
Lambrinidis told Veronique De Keyser, a Belgian member of the European
Parliament. The information was received by a member of the Belgian
delegation on the vessel Tahrir, in an email from De Keyser, who is also
vice chairman of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists
and Democrats.
Greek coast guard vessels escorting the
Audacity of Hope back to port.
Photo by: Reuters
The
foreign minister also promised De Keyser that he will continue to
negotiate with the UN in order to find a solution to the flotilla
crisis.
The ban applies to all Greek and foreign vessels in Greek ports heading
to Gaza.
Meanwhile, some of the participants at the
Socialist International in Athens, presided over by Greek Prime Minister
George Papandreou, were critical of Papandreou's instructions to block
the flotilla, according to flotilla activists. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti,
who heads the Palestinian national initiative movement which
participated in the meeting, described the Greek government's
instructions as a shameful surrender.
The organizers of the flotilla are
considering legal action to cancel the Greek ban on the departure of the
ships. They are also trying to rally members of leftist parties in
various countries and the European Parliament to convince the Greek
government to change the orders.
Most of the approximately 300 activists are
still in the ports where the ships are anchored, in the hope that they
may be able to set sail for the Gaza Strip.
Before the official publication of the
instructions at 4:30 P.M. on Friday, the boat of the American delegation
tried to set sail from the port of Perama without clearance from the
Greek authorities. The ship was carrying 51 passengers, including five
members of the crew and 11 journalists.
According to the flotilla organizers, the
delays by the Greek authorities in granting permission to sail stemmed
from political pressure.
The American ship, Audacity of Hope, named
after the book written by President Barack Obama, was blocked by a
vessel of the Greek coast guard.
After the members of the American delegation
were warned that their ship would be taken over by force they agreed to
sail back to port, shadowed by the coast guard vessel.
At about 8:30 P.M. they were guided to a
navy port. The passengers were allowed to disembark but the crew was
asked to stay on board. The captain, John Kusmir, was arrested. He is to
be charged with defying a ban on Greek or foreign ships bound for Gaza
from leaving Greek ports, and is to face a fast-track trial starting
tomorrow, according to reports.
Activist Vangelis Pissias said the U.S.
vessel had just left the Perama port, near Athens, when it was stopped
by the Greek coast guard.
The journalists accompanying the American
delegation during the past week left Greece on Friday. As of yesterday
afternoon, many of the members of the American delegation were still on
the ship.
On Friday, the Hellenic Coast Guard
headquarters ordered all local coast guard stations to employ the
necessary measures to enforce the orders of the Minister for Citizen
Protection, Christos Papoutsis, including the use of electronic
identification to locate the vessels.
A copy of the written order was delivered on Friday afternoon to the
organizers of the flotilla on the Canadian vessel Tahrir.
The orders apply to eight vessels in Greek
ports: two cargo vessels (carrying almost 3,000 tons of aid, medicine, a
fully equipped ambulance and cement to Gaza ), and those of the
Spanish, Dutch-Italian, Canadian, French, American and
Swedish-Greek-Norwegian delegations.
In addition to the eight vessels in port, there is one French ship that
has been at sea for a week.
An Irish ship canceled its participation after a malfunction was
discovered, which the activists say was due to sabotage.
Israel earlier denied allegations of
sabotaging the Gaza-bound flotilla. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman
Yigal Palmor described the accusations as "ridiculous, paranoid."
"The organizers didn't do the minimum
required in order to prove that there was indeed sabotage; they didn't
even file a complaint with the police," Palmor was quoted as saying.
The activists have rejected Israeli claims
that they are carrying dangerous materials or that they planned to use
violence against Israeli soldiers trying to stop them at sea.
The Turkish daily Hurriyet reported
yesterday that an investigation by Turkish police into the alleged
sabotaging of an Irish ship set to take part in the flotilla revealed
that the damage to the ship occurred before it docked in Turkey and was
most likely not caused intentionally.
Flotilla organizers have claimed that the ship was docked in Turkey's
territorial waters when the alleged tampering occurred.
Mihail Kritsotakis, a Greek parliamentarian
who is part of a leftist coalition, and a resident of Crete, visited
Tahrir at the marina of Agios Nicolaos yesterday.
"The Greek government is obeying the orders
of Israel and that is why the ship is anchored here. Were Greece a
genuine democracy, the ship would have already set sail," he claimed.
Kritsotakis added that the pressure on the Greek government was clear by
the thanks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed to Papandreou
last week.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/leftist-greek-mps-accuse-government-of-caving-to-israeli-pressure-to-stop-gaza-flotilla-1.370939
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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