Monday, October 8, 2012

A sinking feeling

If history tends to repeat itself at all, a ship called Estelle is on its way to some not-so-smooth sailing. Operated from our Western neighbor Sweden by an organization called ”Ship to Gaza”, the ship sailing under Finnish flag has left Italy and is now heading to its final destination - hoping it to be Gaza but the destination might as well be the bottom of the sea.

Due to the fact that the ship sails under our blue-white colors, the Foreign Ministry wants to make it clear that the Republic of Finland is in no way involved in this mission. It also warned the two Finns (among Israelis, Swedes, Canadians, Americans and Norwegians) on board that if a military conflict persists, there's little hope for them to get any consulate help from Finland.

Everyone has their own way of pushing through an agenda, but is this kind of operation truly peace – or actually a form of provocation? It is a well known fact that the waters around Gaza are blocked, and any foreign ships without permission trying to enter may not be greeted in a friendly way.

Quoting the mayor of the Italian city of Naples visited the ship on Friday: “This is not an initiative in favor of Hamas but in favor of Palestine, of the Palestinians who live in Gaza, and in favor of two states living as neighbors in peace and security”. This is understandable, but isn't there any other way of doing it than sailing in such dangerous waters?

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