US flotilla activists evidently running short of both audacity and hope

H/T Harry’s Place and the nation of Greece

Get the tissues out, for this is a real tear jerker of a press release from the site of US BOAT TO GAZA:

“Athens, July 12, 2011,  At 10 am today, the shore electricity was cut off to the Audacity of Hope, the US Boat to Gaza, leaving us with no power. The boat has been imprisoned at the US Embassy/Greek Coast Guard dock, near Piraeus, Greece, just outside of Athens since we tried to sail to Gaza on July 1 when the Greek Coast Guard intercepted our small boat and hauled us into this compound.

Hmm…can a boat really be imprisoned?  Just asking.  

It’s over 100 degrees inside the boat, and a Russian ship loading grain is spewing grain and dust over the entire area. In addition, the off-loading noise the ship is making is above environmentally acceptable limit, sounding like a bad rock concert playing at the back of the boat!

And, really, other than water boarding, is there a more cruel method of coercion than being forced to listen to a bad rock band?  (Just ask General Noriega!)

Six women are staying on board to protect the boat, since two boats heading to Gaza were already sabotaged in an attempt to prevent us from sailing to Gaza. Four of us are over 60. The Greek naval facility is co-located with a US Embassy compound which has one warehouse exclusively for the U.S. government, as well as a ramp for loading vehicles onto a ship.  It also has a parking area for the wrecked cars of Americans who have been involved in traffic accidents plus a secure warehouse compound behind the ubiquitous high fence topped with razor wire and signs printed in both English and Greek in the US government block style lettering.

The Greek Coast Guard is probably caught in the middle and may be ready to release us, but government politics seems to wants to keep us in port to appease the Israeli government, since the occupation of Palestine has been outsourced to the Greeks.

Boy, those last few words are simply rich.  Gaza is not only, six years after every last remaining Jew was evacuated from the territory, evidently still “occupied” but the Israelis have “outsourced” the work to an independent European country. 

Anyone want to place a wager on how long it takes for some version of this text to find its way onto the Guardian letters page?

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