'Estelle' leaves Italian port and will be in Gaza waters within days

The Swedish three-masted schooner Estelle arrived in the Italian port of La Spezia on Thursday afternoon, and on Saturday supporters from all over northern Italian came to wish her well on her voyage to Gaza, and fill her sails with the powerful winds of solidarity.

There were greetings from the Mayor of La Spezia as well as from other municipal and regional authorities, including the mayor of Bulciago (a town near Milan), mother of legendary International Solidarity Movement activist Vittorio (Vik) Arrigoni, who was killed last year in Gaza. Next to a banner that reads "With Vittorio for a free Palestine" Egidia Beretta presented the Estelle with an image of her son. Some of dockside greeting for Estelle had strong historical resonances. La Spezia and the region of Liguria suffered heavy losses in WWII: this area was among the hardest hit in Italy in terms of resistance fighters who died for freedom as well as political deportees who were sent to concentration and extermination camps for their politics. So greetings to the Estelle from the partigiani (partisans) association ANPI (which includes the Garibaldi international Brigade to the Spanish Civil War as well as those who fought fascism in Italy) were also very heartfelt. more

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