Release 17 October 2012

Ship to Gaza Sweden

Israel’s UN ambassador Ron Prosor has sent a letter calling on the UN and other representatives of the international community to stop the Ship to Gaza sailing vessel Estelle from reaching its destination. If this means that Israel has decided to leave control over Palestinian territorial waters to the UN it is a fall forward.

The UN and many other representatives of the international community have for years characterized the siege of the Gaza Strip as inhuman and incompatible with international law.

Ship to Gaza Sweden assumes that that UN will not take over the implementation of this policy by preventing a peaceful vessel from delivering humanitarian supplies.

Ship to Gaza and the Freedom Flotilla have never opposed lawful inspections of cargo and vessel from representatives of the UN, or from national authorities in the ports and waters we have passed through and we welcome further inspections of this kind from the UN when we have anchored in Gaza City. What we refuse to accept is something which also the UN and the majority of the international community oppose: the illegal and, in a humanitarian perspective, devastating siege of the Gaza strip.

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