Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Olmert allows activist boat to dock in Gaza -apparently concerned about the negative publicity

Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 29, 2008
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A boat carrying 27 far-left protesters docked in Gaza Wednesday morning,
after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reversed course and decided against barring
the vessel's entrance.

This was the third small boat chartered by the US-based Free Gaza movement
that has sailed from Cyprus to Gaza to draw attention to the Israeli
blockade of the Strip.

Two other boats that set sail together in August were also let in by the
Israeli authorities, who wanted to deny the protesters publicity.

Government officials said that a decision was taken "at the highest
governmental levels" a number of days ago to stop this new boat and arrest
the protesters.

But Olmert - after consultations with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief
of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi - changed the decision at the last
moment, apparently concerned about the negative publicity.

Representatives of the National Information Directorate, as well as the
media specialists at the Foreign Ministry, who were preparing for the boat
to be intercepted at sea, were not involved in the consultations.

One senior government official said Israel's decision to let the boat pass
was made after it became clear exactly who and what were on the boat.

He also said Israel "wants to keep these agitators guessing, and not play
into their hands."

The official said that the decision to let the boat in Wednesday was made on
a one-time basis, and did not represent a blanket policy. He added that no
decision has been made whether Israel would allow the boat to sail back, as
it did in August.

The boat carried 27 crew and passengers, including Mairead Corrigan Maguire,
who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Catholics and
Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Maguire has been involved in the often violent demonstrations against the
construction of the security fence at Ni'ilin, and was hit there last year
by a rubber bullet.

One of the organizers of the sailing, Huwaida Arraf, said in a
statement,"Once again we've been able to defy an unjust and illegal policy
while the rest of the world is too intimidated to do anything. Our small
boat is a huge cry to the international community to follow in our footsteps
and open a lifeline to the people of Gaza."

Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev, meanwhile, said that the protesters and
organizers of the boat were not the only ones who wanted a "free Gaza."

"We are also interested in freeing Gaza," Regev said. "We want to free the
civilian population of the Gaza Strip from the authoritative, totalitarian,
Taliban-type regime that is oppressing it."