Algerian MP joins flotilla in bid to break Gaza blockade

Supporters sang the national anthem, ululated in joy and embraced each other warmly. Some 20 pro-Palestinian activists were at Algiers Airport on Wednesday to bid farewell to Samira Dhouaifia.

Dhouaifia is a member of Algeria’s leading Islamist party, Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), and is an MP from Tébessa, in eastern Algeria. She is one of 30 women setting forth on two sailboats to breach the Gaza siege. Since 2008, vessels from around the world have unsuccessfully attempted to break the land, air and sea blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, following the takeover of Gaza by Hamas.   

Before boarding the plane for Italy, Dhouaifia posed for a few photographs brandishing the campaign’s posters, the Algerian flag and a Palestinian keffiyeh.

“It’s not a choice. I have to go,” she told the Middle East Eye. “For me, it’s a question of duty. I am not going to represent my party. I am going as an international activist and a female politician.”

Over the course of the expedition, dubbed the “Women’s Boat to Gaza,” the MP will be met by her fellow countrywoman, award-winning Al Jazeera journalist, Khadija Benguena, who will be arriving directly from Mecca to join the crew of the Zaytouna (olive). The second of the flotilla’s boats, the Amal, which means hope, was unable to leave Barcelona due to technical problems and may have to be replaced.

Translation: “Activists stand in solidarity with blockaded Gaza #Gaza #WomenToGaza”

“But most of these women are neither Arab nor Muslim,” Dhouaifia added. The activists include retired US army colonel and ex-diplomat opposed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ann Wright, and the Israeli co-organiser of the expedition, Zohar Chamberlain, as well as a Swedish MP.

Mavi Marmara

The campaign, an initiative of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an alliance of humanitarian aid organisations against the blockade of Gaza, is also supported by Christiane Hessel, widow of the former French Resistant member, Stéphane Hessel, who was an outspoken advocate of the Palestinian cause and the author of the 32-page booklet "A Time for Outrage!"

On 14 September, the flotilla set sail from Barcelona, which has been twinned with Gaza since 1999 and is the home of “Barcelona Peace Park,” inaugurated in 2005. It is expected to arrive off the coast of Gaza in early October.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli authorities are preparing yet again to thwart the flotilla in its bid to break the maritime blockade.

In May 2010, Israeli commandos intercepted the Mavi Marmara in international waters, killing ten Turkish activists on board the ship and wounding dozens of others. Following an international outcry, and under pressure from the Turkish government, the Israeli Prime Minister was forced to apologise.

“We are preparing for any eventuality,” Dhouaifia told MEE. “Our goal is to bear a message of love and peace, but also to raise awareness of the fact that the laws protecting women and children are not being enforced. In any case, if we are in fact able to land, the first thing I’m going to do is to raise the Algerian flag to express the Algerian people’s full solidarity with the suffering of the people of Gaza. I can’t wait to meet them. I know they are expecting us!”

This article originally appeared on Middle East Eye's French site.