BEIRUT – Another blockade-busting ship with activists and aid on board could embark within days on a new attempt to reach Gaza after Lebanese authorities granted permission Monday for it to sail first to Cyprus.
Israeli navy commandos raided a blockade-busting international flotilla bound for Gaza on May 31, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists. An international outcry over the raid pressured Israel to ease its three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory.
"We have been granted permission to go to Cyprus and we are now in the process of making final preparations," said Yasser Kashlak, a 39-year-old Syrian of Palestinian origin who heads the group organizing the trip_ the Free Palestine Movement. He said the ship plans to sail in the next few days, but did not give an exact departure date because of security concerns.
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The Free Palestine Movement, which is organizing the ship from Lebanon, also participated in the international flotilla involved in the deadly raid. Asked about the Israeli warnings, the organizer Kashlak said: "The dogs that bark don't bite."
He was speaking in an interview with The Associated Press.
"I urge them (the Israelis) to leave my land and my country ... and ... to return to the countries that they came from," Kashlak said. "(Israel) is a human monster. This is not my enemy. This is the enemy of humanity," he added. "No other people in history have killed as many children as this terrorist enemy has. They are the remains of Europe's trash."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100621/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gaza_blockade
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