Sailing for the Right to a Just Future for Palestine
Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in Wilhelmshaven, May 26-28. UPDATE: the boats will enter the port May 27 in the morning.

Sunday 13:00 arrival, official welcome with music flag-waving.​ Short communication with chief organizers from the boats, with time for interviews with media if present.

Contacts in Germany:
Annette Groth, +49 176 7047 6563, [email protected]
Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy (US, currently in Germany): +1-217-979-2857 / [email protected]

Contact on boat (Al Awda)
Zohar Chamberlain Regev: +34 647077426 or +34 674640483 / [email protected])

The Freedom Flotilla ship Al Awda (The Return), together with Ship to Gaza Sweden vessels Hurriya (Freedom), Falestine (Palestine) and Mairead (named for Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire who previously sailed against the blockade) arrive in Wilhelmshaven from Brünsbuttel on Saturday May 26 and will be in port in Wilhelmshaven May 26-28. Expected arrival in Wilhelmshaven is 21:00 on May 26. A reception with local activists is expected on Sunday morning May 27.

The boats will visit many European ports on their way to challenge the illegal and unjust Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in late July.

The Freedom Flotilla is sailing in 2018 for the right to a just future for Palestine. We challenge the blockade of Gaza and demand an end to our governments’ complicity with the blockade, which has created a humanitarian crisis, with civilians lacking clean water, electricity, and medical care. For more information about our mission and about the blockade of Gaza, see our website: jfp.freedomflotilla.or g/about-just-future-palestine

Participants on board Al Awda include Zohar Chamberlain Regev, Israeli Spanish resident and Freedom Flotilla Coalition boat leader; Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer from the United States; Mikkel Grüner, Danish national and city councillor in Bergen, Norway; indigenous activist Heather Milton-Lightening from Canada, professor of Business Nazari Ismail and CEO of MyCARE Malaysia Kamarul Zaman, both from Malaysia; sailor and human rights advocate Charlie Andreasson from Sweden.

On Monday, May 28, around noon, in Wilhelmshaven, the boats will be met by former German parliamentarian Annette Groth, who will travel with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla from Wilhelmshaven to Amsterdam. Groth says: “The blockade of Gaza, biggest outdoor prison worldwide, is a violation of Human Rights and International Law! Not even severely injured people may leave Gaza for urgent medical treatment. The Hospitals are in dire need of medicines  and supplies, the stocks are depleted as more than 10 000 Palestinians are injured. The soil and water is contaminated from chemicals in the bombs Israel used during its last attack on Gaza in 2014. I call upon the German Government to put pressure on the respective governments of Israel and Egypt, to lift the blockade of Gaza, following the motion adopted by the German Parliament back in June 2010!”

Groth’s own rendition of her comment in German: “Die Blockade von Gaza, das größte Freiluftgefängnis weltweit, ist eine Verletzung der Menschenrechte und des Internationalen Völkerrechts. Selbst Schwerverletze dürfen Gaza für dringend erforderliche medizinische Behandlung nicht verlassen.Die Krankenhäuser brauchen dringend Medikamente und  andere medizinische Versorgungsgüter,  denn durch die Versorgung von über 10 000 Verletzten sind alle benötigten medizinischen Hilfsmittel aufgebraucht. Boden und Wasser sind durch die Bomben mit chemischen Substanzen verseucht,  die Israel während des letzten Krieges gegen Gaza 2014 abgeworfen hat. Ich fordere die Bundesregierung auf, Druck auf die Regierungen Israels und Ägyptens auszuüben,  um die  Blockade Gazas aufzuheben. Dies hat der Bundestag bereits im Juni 2010 gefordert.”

For more information about the Freedom Flotilla 2018:

Website: jfp.freedomflotilla.org
Twitter @GazaFFlotilla
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreedomFlotillaCoalition/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gazafreedomflotilla

Flotilla vessels Freedom, Al Awda (The Return), Mairead, in Varberg, Sweden
Flotilla vessels Freedom, Al Awda (The Return), Mairead, in Varberg, Sweden

2 COMMENTS

  1. Greetings to the whole crew! So nice to see you making a stopover in the Wilhelmshaven port of my county of origin in Frisia,Germany on your way to Gaza,Palestine.Thank you for your courage to go into action on behalf of the Gazans. So sorry not to be able to welcome you in Wilhelmshaven personally, the submarine harbourwhere my mother spent the war years- under British air raids in the bunkers still visible in the city today….So be aware of the intense emotion connected to the port of Wilhelmshaven, a place your crew must visit to get an historical and political feeling of the place and its -sometimes nasty- role in German and European history also against the backdrop of the Palestinian cause we fight for, in one way or the other.
    Bye,bye and I wish you good luck and all the best.
    Tony Janßen

  2. like Annette Groth, I call upon our government to put pressure on the respective governments of Israel and Egypt, to lift the blockade of Gaza, following the motion adopted by the German Parliament back in June 2010. Further, I too want to specifically call out the failure of Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Kamala Harris to speak out against the Gaza blockade. Respect and protect all living creatures, especially the innocents in a war zone -and remember to in order to stop war, ban all guns: disarm cops & military.

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