Greece tries to appease Gaza flotilla activists

AFP/Athens

Activists from the US boat Audacity of Hope demonstrate outside the US embassy in Athens yesterday. The Greek coastguard intercepted the boat as it tried to sail to Gaza in defiance of a Greek ban on Friday

Greece tried to pour oil on troubled waters yesterday, offering to deliver aid “through existing channels” after halting a flotilla bound for Gaza and reaching out to the Palestinian Authority. “Greece... proposes to undertake the task of transporting the humanitarian aid, with Greek vessels or other appropriate means, through the existing channels” as requested by the UN, said a foreign ministry statement. Furious pro-Palestinian activists have accused Athens of complying with Israel’s sea blockade on the tiny Palestinian enclave. Greece was “concerned primarily with the safety of human life”, the ministry statement insisted. Prime Minister George Papandreou spoke to the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to discuss the offer to transport aid, a government statement said. While stressing it would be done “in co-operation with the UN and the competent authorities,” it said the initiative would involve “constant contact with the Palestinian Authority.” Abbas “considered the proposal positive and expressed his support,” it added. Campaigners with the flotilla denounced Papandreou after a Greek coastguard vessel carrying armed, masked men intercepted the US boat Audacity of Hope as it tried to break the Greek ban on Friday. Activists accused the prime minister of having “sold Greece’s soul” by doing Israel’s bidding. Yesterday, they expressed their concern for the plight of the captain of the boat, Captain John Klusmer, who was arrested and charged with leaving the port without permission and endangering the lives of passengers. US activists said his jail conditions were shocking and complained and that neither he nor the US passengers had received any help from the US embassy. Members of the US Boat to Gaza began an open-ended fast outside the embassy, “calling on the US government to defend our right to sail out of Greece.” The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip yesterday repeated its calls for Greece to allow the flotilla to set sail for the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory. “We regret the position of Greece, which has responded to international pressure to stop the Freedom Flotilla from sailing,” Hamas foreign minister Mohamed Awad said. “We call on them to reconsider their ban.” In Athens, Moustafa Barghuti, the head of the Palestinian National Initiative (PLI) and a passenger on the flotilla, said he was “surprised and disappointed not to have received more support from Western countries”. “They claim to support the Arab Spring but don’t support the Palestinian Spring,” he said. “What about human rights for Palestinians?”