THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to ask the Israeli authorities to allow an Irish ship joining an international flotilla to be allowed access to the port of Gaza.
National co-ordinator of the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign Fintan Lane said yesterday that Israel had no legal or moral right to stop the flotilla.
“Threats of violence, we believe, should be condemned by all right-thinking people and certainly by governments believing in the rule of law,’’ he added.
Twenty-five passengers and crew are scheduled to sail on the Irish-owned MV Saoirse from its point of departure in the Mediterranean on Saturday and join the flotilla on Monday.
Mr Lane said he hoped the Israelis would stand back and reflect on what happened last year, when people died and were injured.
Mr Lane, who is also a member the flotilla’s international steering committee, said they would not allow the Israelis board any ships.
“We have taken a very definite decision that Israeli troops are not welcome on our ships, largely because they killed our colleagues last year, but also because they have no legal right to search the ships in international waters under those conditions,” he added.
“We will have the ships searched at the ports of departure by the local authorities.”
Mr Lane said that while they would not offer any violent resistance to an Israeli boarding party, they would make it clear they were not interested in having them on their ships.
He said the project was a non-violent act of solidarity and empathy between the ordinary people of Ireland and Gaza. Money had been collected across the State to buy a ship, he added.
The passengers and crew will include former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, Dublin Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy, Derry Sinn Féin councillor Gerry Mac Lochlainn, former international rugby player Trevor Hogan, trade union official Mags O’Brien and skipper Shane Dillon.
