Crowds gather at Brighton Marina wall to welcome 'Freedom' boat to Gaza as it sails in “Freedom”, one of the vessels of a flotilla traveling from Sweden to Palestine to break an 11-year blockade by Israel on Gaza, arrived in the British port of Brighton yesterday.

The boat was welcomed by a group of activists who blew horns as the boat approached Brighton Marina before making its way to a harbour in Shoreham, where it will remain anchored for the next three days.

 

Zaher Birawi, chairman of the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza, said all of the boats of the flotilla left the Dutch capital of Amsterdam a few days ago and are visiting various ports across Europe.

 

“‘Freedom’ came to Brighton. We are here to salute it,” said Birawi.

 

The boats will regroup in Spain at the end of June to set sail for Gaza, where they will attempt to break the illegal naval blockade.

 

“We, British people here, and the different communities support the Freedom Flotilla, and we ask our government in the UK to stop supporting Israelis and stand with the oppressed people, the Palestinians,” Birawi added.

 

“It is important to highlight the British government’s complicity in the blockade of the 2 million Palestinian people in Gaza,” James Godfrey, spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told the Anadolu Agency.

 

As part of this year’s campaign launched by the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition, six boats set sail heading to Gaza on 15 May, which also marked the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the “Catastrophe” which saw nearly a million Palestinians expelled from their homes to make way for the formation of the state of Israel.

 

 

Source: Middle East Monitor