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Last Updated: Oct. 11, 2016
from The Real News Network on Oct 5, 2016
Col. Ann Wright was among 13 female activists that were part of the Women’s Boat to Gaza.
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Mairead Maguire, Northern Ireland
Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Oct 5, 2016
Mairead is a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She became active with the Northern Ireland peace movement after three children of her sister, Anne Maguire, were run over and killed by a car driven by a member of the Irish Republican Army. She co-founded, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Women for Peace, which later became the Community for Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Mairead and Betty were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize In June 2010, Mairead went on board the MV Rachel Corrie as part of a flotilla that unsuccessfully attempted to breach the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
QUOTE: “Today this collective punishment by Israeli Government policies goes on. Why has it lasted so long? The Palestinians have been most cruelly punished by Israeli policies of occupation, war and destruction. They say that ‘silence’ is golden, but regarding the plight of Gazans and Palestinians the ‘silence’ of the world, especially concerning their little children, shows a lack of moral and ethical leadership from the international Community. It behooves us to ask, “Why is President Obama not saying: ’70 years of Israeli occupation is enough – it is time for Peace for the Palestinians?’”
Video by Yudit Ilany, Israel Social TV
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“Women’s boat to Gaza” surrounded by Israeli navy
PressTV News Videos on Oct 5, 2016
A boat of activists seeking to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip has been surrounded by the Israeli navy as it headed to the Gaza coast. The Zaytouna-Oliva boat with 15 women on board was surrounded in the Mediterranean Sea. Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire is among the activists aboard the boat dubbed Women’s Boat to Gaza. It set sail from Barcelona in September to break the eight-year Israeli blockade on Gaza. Israeli authorities had earlier announced plans to intercept the ship and divert it to the port of Ashdod. Israel has so far prevented all pro-Palestinian ships seeking to break the Gaza blockade from reaching the coast. Back in 2010, Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists onboard the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla.
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Israeli navy to intercept Gaza-bound female flotilla
Al Jazeera English on Oct 4, 2016
A boat with female activists heading towards the Gaza Strip is about to be stopped. Israeli armed forces told Al Jazeera that their navy is on course to intercept the ship. It set sail from Barcelona last month, with the aim of breaking the Gaza blockade, which has been in place since 2007. The Israeli navy says that after stopping the flotilla, the women on board will be deported.
Al Jazeera’s Mina Harballou reports from the activists’ boat.
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Updated: Oct. 8, 2016
From Codepink‘s email, Oct. 7, 2016
Ann Wright arrived safely back into the US this morning. She flew into JFK airport after being released from Israeli custody and was greeted by friends and taken to breakfast.
Ann had set sail with the Women’s Boat to Gaza in an effort to break the Israeli naval blockade that holds the people of Gaza in an open air prison. The boat, Zaytouna-Oliva, was intercepted by the Israeli navy a few miles of the coast of Gaza where people were waiting on Gaza’s shores to greet Ann and the other women on board. The Israeli navy took the boat by force and rerouted it to the Israeli port of Ashdod where the crew, including Ann, were taken into Israeli custody.
Ann Wright is a decorated former US diplomat and long-time CODEPINK activist. On board with her were three parliamentarians, an Olympic athlete, and Nobel Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire. They were committed to nonviolence as much as they were committed to breaking the blockade. Ann and the other women of the Zaytouna-Oliva are saddened that they were not able to reach their friends in Gaza. But they have not given up their hope that soon the blockade will end and Gaza will be free.
Support Ann’s mission to free Gaza by signing our petition to Secretary of State John Kerry. Tell Kerry that he must stop enabling the blockade with US military assistance.
Sign the petition to Secretary Kerry
The people of Gaza do not deserve to live in an open-air prison. The must have the right to fish in their waters, travel freely, and receive adequate food, medicine, and other supplies. The siege on Gaza must end!
In solidarity,
Ann, Alli, Ariel, Nancy K., and the entire CODEPINK team
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Updated: Oct. 11, 2016
from the archives:
Abby Martin: Inside Palestine’s Refugee Camps
Abby Martin: How Palestine Became Colonized
Chris Hedges and Miko Peled: Boycott Israel
Chris Hedges and Amira Hass: Inside the Occupied Territories
Dandelion Salad 
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An international peace keeping force needs to go into Israel to insure that the Occupied Territories are returned to Palestine.
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