Greek, Palestinian and other Arab protesters behind a huge Palestinian flag (photo: INTIFADA Association & Palestinian Workers Union) Hundreds of Greeks, Palestinian and Arabs held a protest in front of the Greek Parliament to protest the visiting Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, and demanding his arrest for war crimes against the Palestinian people. Several leftist political groups and coalitions also participated in the protest that was held in front of the parliament despite the cold weather conditions. The protest was organized by several antiwar groups and solidarity movements including the Al-Awda Committee (The Right To Return), the Antiwar Internationalist Movement, the Greek Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Deport Racism Movement, Inclusive Democracy, the Strop the War Coalition, Palestinian Workers Union, and Solidarity Network to the Palestinian Resistance. more

Contact on Dignite: 00870 7764 16715 or 0046 707 229 165 dror.feiler@gmail.com or cleostic@free.fr French boat Dignité of the Freedom Flotilla II leaves Greece The French boat “Dignité/Karama” (Dignity) left the Greek island Kastellorizo around 8:30PM local time on Saturday July 16, 2011, heading south. The ten passengers onboard view themselves as representatives of the whole Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human. The rest of the Flotilla’s ships have been detained in different Greek ports, through bureaucratic obstruction, sabotage, sudden restrictions and withdrawals of flags. The Dignité, sailing under a French flag, left Corsica on June 25th, and has, over the past weeks, been in Greek waters. It has now left– so far without being followed by the Greek coast guard or Navy. Among the delegates on board is Jacqueline Le Corre, member of the French Communist Party, Jean Claude Lefort, former French Member of the European Parliament, as well as representatives of the Canadian, French, Gr...

SOMEWHERE IN THE EAST MEDITERRANEAN – On Saturday evening a Gaza-bound boat left Greek territorial waters. Its 10 participants regard themselves as representatives of the entire abortive flotilla to Gaza, and are determined to exhaust all possibilities in order to reach their destination, or at least carry out the symbolic act of protesting the blockade. They are well aware of the Lilliputian dimensions of their venture, compared with the massive impact organizers had initially planned to have with the 10-odd vessel flotilla. Dignite-Al Karama, one of two yachts purchased by the French delegation in the second Freedom Flotilla, left a port in Corsica on June 25. Thus, it was spared the fate of eight other boats which were supposed to sail out of Greek ports, but were impounded by Greek authorities. Last Wednesday Karama left the port of Sitia in Crete, where it had been anchored for a week, awaiting the other boats in vain. Once it was clear that Greece, under strong Israeli pressure, ...

Athens, July 16, 2011 - Day 16 of the imprisonment of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, at a U.S. Embassy shared pier near Piraeus, Greece, just outside of Athens. The U.S. Embassy has done absolutely nothing to help us in 100 + degree heat at a U.S. Government shared pier! No shore power, no alternatives provided (like another pier). No consular visits to see the conditions for themselves. NOTHING, ABSOULTELY NOTHING!!! This weekend, please call the State Department 202-647-4000 and ask for the 24 hour Emergency Operations Center. Tell them that 3 people are still enduring the inhumane, dangerous conditions on the boat. All are women--2 Americans and 1 UK citizen. They are: Regina Carey (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/06/18683952.php) from San Rafael, California, is a consultant specializing in strategic planning and planned giving. In her lifetime commitment to human rights she has focused her time and energy to the Rights of the Indigenous (original peopl...

The following letter was delivered to the Greek Government on July 12, 2011 making it clear that the people of Gaza seek freedom and respect for their human rights, including their right to lead a dignified life, not charity. Seemingly deaf to their call, yesterday a spokesman for the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Delavekouras, repeated the Greek Government's "generous offer" to deliver limited humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza - instead of helping them gain the freedom that is rightfully theirs. We, members of Palestinian civil society in Gaza, have been watching the actions your government has taken to block Freedom Flotilla 2 from setting sail towards the biggest open air prison - the Gaza Strip - to challenge Israel's criminal blockade. Israel's closure of Gaza has deprived us of things that most people take for granted, first and foremost, our freedom of movement. We are not allowed to pursue adequate health care or educational opportunities bec...

ATHENS, Jul 12, 2011 ( IPS ) - The French vessel Dignité-Al Karama is the only boat from the Freedom Flotilla II actually sailing for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade imposed in 2006. At the same time, six Spanish members of the humanitarian aid mission went on hunger strike in the Greek capital. The hunger strikers, who have occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens since Jul. 5, were travelling on the Spanish ship Gernika (Guernica) that was part of the flotilla carrying 500 activists from 45 different countries, and 5,000 tonnes of aid, bound for the Gaza Strip. Nearly all the ships have been confined to port in Greece for the last 10 days, except for the Dignité-Al Karama which sailed from the French island of Corsica Jun. 25, evaded the Greek blockade on more than one occasion and remains the only vessel of the flotilla still sailing freely. With 10 representatives of several delegations of the humanitarian coalition on board, the Dignité received permission Jul. 9 to...

An aid ship headed for Gaza has left the Greek island of Crete. The Dignité has 10 activists on board and is part of the 10-boat Freedom Flotilla that has tried to leave Greek waters for Gaza over the past week. Coast Guards say the Dignite's papers are all in order and the destination is the island of Rhodes. But the activists on board have different ideas.

From JPost The French flotilla ship Dignity was allowed to leave a Greek port in Crete on Saturday after having been detained by the Greek coast guard while refueling on Thursday. While the Greek coastguard said Dignity's destination was the island of Rhodes, an activist on board said the ship still planned on sailing for the Gaza Strip. "Our final destination is Gaza, we hope that we will reach that destination, but for the time being we are sailing within the Greek waters," one of ten pro-Palestinian activists aboard Dignity said. Dignity had been sitting in international waters all week waiting for the other nine ships in the flotilla to join it. The flotilla ships hoped to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip, but Athens has imposed a departure ban on all Gaza-bound ships on safety grounds. Eight ships remain blocked in Greek ports while a ninth sits in need of repair in a Turkish port after claims of sabotage. more

The Juliano has been repaired following sabotage last week and has just set sail from the Greek port of Piraeus with coastguard in pursuit. Passenger boat "Juliano" (named after Juliano Meir Khamis, the murdered actor and director at Freedom Theatre in Jenin) is owned jointly by the Ship to Gaza organizations in Sweden, Norway and Greece.

The Guardian is reporting that the flotilla's mission to break the siege may be over following the unprecedented lengths the US, Israel and Greece have gone to to stop pro-Palestine activists' boats reaching Gaza. Some activists, including Alice Walker, according to BBC World Service, have returned home and the only boat heading to Gaza has now turned back. The Greek government has a lot to answer for. It is a government hated by its own people and now also by humanitarians and fighters for social justice, and Palestinian liberation in particular, around the world. But even though the flotilla has not reached the people of Gaza it has highlighted the unjust siege and illegal naval blockade in addition to the desperate and duplicitous methods Israel and its supporters will use to keep 1.5 million people trapped in an open-air prison. For the Palestinian people, as always, the struggle continues, and so too does the international campaign of solidarity. From the Guardian Activist...

( Reuters ) - The captain of a U.S. ship arrested for trying to sail to Gaza as part of a flotilla aiming to deliver aid to Palestinians despite a Greek ban was freed on Tuesday, but three other activists were still in custody. Just over a year after nine people were killed when Israeli marines stormed a pro-Palestinian flotilla, authorities last week banned ships destined for Gaza from leaving Greek ports to stop the latest flotilla "for their safety." American John Klusmire, 60, captain of the "Audacity for Hope" ferrying mostly U.S. activists, was charged with breaching the Greek ban and putting lives at risk after being intercepted last week at sea by armed Greek coastguards. "He is released, there is no charge against him. He is free to go," Adam Shapiro, one of the organizers of the Free Gaza Movement told Reuters by telephone from the port of Piraeus. "Our destination remains the freedom of the Palestinian people." more

From Mondoweiss It has been widely reported and speculated that the reason for Greece's participation in the suppression of Freedom Flotilla Two may be found in its own economic situation - that the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou, pushing a devastating IMF/EU austerity plan on the Greek people against their will, is so desperate for international financial and economic support that it is willing to serve as the enforcement arm for Israel's illegal siege on Gaza. Yesterday, in Vancouver, Canada, a Greek consular official, Georgios Ayfantis, confirmed that this is indeed the case. In a conversation with a delegation of activists supporting the Tahrir, the Canadian Boat to Gaza, who entered the consulate demanding a meeting about the Freedom Flotilla, Ayfantis asserted that Greece's economic interests were at stake in stopping the Flotilla, saying that an undersea natural gas pipeline and a natural gas liquidizing plant in Crete were at stake. The offer Neta...

From Al Jazeera English A group of human rights activists from an international aid flotilla bound for Palestine's Gaza Strip but banned from setting sail for by Greek authorities where ships are hoping to leave from, told the AFP news service on Tuesday that they had occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens. Thirty mainly Spanish activists had met with their ambassador to ask Madrid to put pressure on Greece to allow them to sail and had "decided to occupy the rooms," one of the protesters, who called himself Santiago, told AFP by telephone. The occupying group hung a Palestinian flag from the embassy's balcony. Asked by Al Jazeera how long his crew will wait before giving up their mission for Gaza, Alejandro Fierro, a Spanish flotilla activist in Greece said, “We will wait no matter how long it takes. We’ve learned patience from the Palestinian people who have been resisting Israeli occupation for 60 years, so we can wait. We are not going to move until our government...

From ekathimerini.com Activists who were planning to sail from Crete to Gaza with aid for Palestinians are refusing to leave the Canadian boat that the Coast Guard intercepted on Monday. The Tahrir was stopped a few nautical miles from Crete and was escorted back to port but the activists on board, including Canadians and Australians are refusing to disembark the vessel. “Greece has no right to hold us here,” David Heap, one of the Canada Boat to Gaza organizers, told the Globe and Mail newspaper. “We wanted to at least show the world the Greeks are helping Israel enforce an illegal blockade of Gaza.” Heap said that locals have expressed sympathy for the activists and have criticized Greece’s decision to block all the Gaza-bound boats leaving Greek ports. Greece has offered to transport the aid they are carrying in its own ships instead. “It’s terribly sad,” Heap, a professor of French at the University of Western Ontario, said. “The people here [in Crete] tell us they are ashamed of ...

Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian for The Movement, is the first MP from any country to visit the Gaza Freedom Flotilla this year. She went aboard a ship called ‘The Audacity of Hope’ — which was turned round and sent back to port on Saturday by an armed Greek coastguard patrol. The ship is docked in Athens, where Birgitta Jonsdottir is currently visiting, Visir.is reports. The ship was on its way to the Gaza strip hoping to distribute aid in defiance of the Israeli blockade. Jonsdottir released a statement on her website encouraging her political colleagues all across Europe to travel to Greece, where civil unrest continues over the country’s severe economic problems. She also called upon the Greek foreign minister to stand up to Israel. more

(pic: The canadian boat The Tahrir being towed back to port by the Greek coastguard) From the Jerusalem Post ATHENS - The Greek coastguard on Monday intercepted a Canadian ship which had set sail for Gaza carrying medicine and pro-Palestinian activists who had defied a ban by the Athens government, an activist said. The boat, named "Tahrir", had left a port in Crete, a Reuters witness said. Greek authorities have said that ships carrying activists destined for Gaza with aid for Palestinians were prohibited from leaving Greek ports. The activist told Reuters that the crew of nearly 50 people was comprised mostly Canadians. There were no further details immediately available. More detail on Al Jazeera A Canadian boat taking part in a planned aid flotilla to Gaza has been boarded by Greek coast guards after attempting to break out of Crete harbour, according to activists aboard the vessel. Most of the boats which hoped to sail to Gaza in an effort to break Israel's blockade ...

ATHENS (AFP) -- The captain of a US vessel intercepted after it tried to defy a ban and sail for Gaza from Greece was being held in "shocking conditions" Sunday and has not received consular assistance, a lawyer said. Captain John Klusmer was arrested when the US boat Audacity of Hope -- the flagship in a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists -- attempted to leave Greek waters on Friday after Athens banned all Gaza-bound ships from setting sail. Klusmer was charged with two felonies and ordered to appear in court Tuesday. The US Boat to Gaza organization said he was being held in jail in "shocking conditions" and as far as it was aware, had not yet received consular assistance. New York lawyer Richard Levy -- a passenger on the boat who has visited Klusmer in jail in a port town near Athens -- told enraged US activists that "he had no bed or toilet in his cell, and is receiving no food or water". more

(pic: Greek commandos boarding The Audacity of Hope) (Reuters) - Greece offered to ferry humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Authority on Sunday after banning a pro-Palestinian flotilla bound for Gaza from departing from its ports and arresting the captain of one of the boats. The convoy of cargo and passenger boats carrying volunteers from countries including the United States, Canada, France and Spain was due to depart at least a week ago. In a telephone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou offered to ferry the humanitarian aid, mainly food and medicines, to Gaza in cooperation with the United Nations. more

Freegaza.org British Peace groups to deliver letter to Greek Ambassador demanding the release of the Freedom Flotilla boats to Gaza London, 3 July 2011 - On Monday the 4th of July at 12:30 activists from Free Gaza, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al Aqsa, Britain to Gaza, Palestine Forum in Britain, and Action Palestine will go to the Greek Embassy, 1A Holland Park, London W11 3TP with a request to see HE Mr Aristidis C Sandis. We will deliver a letter from the above groups demanding the release of the Freedom Flotilla boats to Gaza. Organisers of the Gaza-bound flotilla said Sunday in Greece they have not abandoned their plans to breach Israel's sea blockade of the territory despite a Greek government ban on their vessels leaving the country's port. The organisers of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2 have called on world citizens to request their governments advocate for the release of the boats and their safe passage to Gaza. A call has also been put out for citizens to p...

[July 4 2011 -all the detained have been released - none were arrested] From US Boat to Gaza Just got word from Athens: the 8 people who were fasting in front of the U.S. Embassy have been arrested. They are Ken Mayers, Carol Murry, Medea Benjamin, Paki Wieland, Ray McGovern, Brad Taylor, Kit Kitteridge and Kathy Kelly. We will not have any more news until the morning. In the meantime, let's keep the pressure on Washington. They need to pressure the Greek government to release our captain, our boat and now these 8 people as well! Let them sail to Gaza!!! Throughout this country people have responded to our call to contact the U.S. State Department to demand that they take the steps necessary to ensure that the Greek authorities immediately release the captain and let our boat sail to Gaza. In fact, there has been such a strong response that we are hearing their voice mailboxes are full! That's great, but of course frustrating for those of you trying to make those calls. Here ar...