A French boat, as part of an international aid flotilla II, is on its way to the Palestinian territories while other activists are determined to get to the blockaded Palestinian enclave by air.
This comes as Greece has blocked the international flotilla II from leaving its ports.
Press TV interviewed Joe Catron, who is with the International Solidarity Movement, to shed light on Israel's aggressive nature in its efforts to stop activists from reaching the impoverished Gaza Strip.
Press TV: The Israeli argument is that the sea blockade stops weapons from reaching Hamas...and both the US administration and Israel have said the Freedom Flotilla is a "political provocation". What is your take on that?
Catron: Well I am on the record as saying that it is in fact a political provocation, people can call it a propaganda ploy as well if they want to. Knowing something about the fundraising that I wish it had been cheaper than it actually was.
Efforts to claim that is unnecessary because of aid coming to Gaza are cheap contemptible efforts to change the subject and reframe the debate.
Off course Gaza is seeing a massive international aid. That is not the issue. This flotilla has never been about the international aid, it's never claim to be about international aid, and the Zionists who pretend otherwise are making fools of themselves publicly.
The goals of the flotilla are to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are resisting the Israeli colonialism and occupation, that is the mission and that is our goal.
Press TV: Joe you are in Gaza, let's talk about what Israelis like [Richard Hellman] are saying about Hamas government in Gaza, and that Israeli are protecting the people of Israel form Hamas' rockets, and also that blockade of Gaza is legal, tell us about what do you think about that?
Catron: Well Richard is doing what Zionist do trying to sneak in an assumption into the debate, he is claiming that Israel has every right to import billions of dollars in advance weaponries every year, much of which I as a US taxpayer help to subsidize.
While the people and the government of Palestine have no right to arm themselves against Zionist aggression this is frankly absurd.
Richard claims that while the problem here is the leadership as if sixty three years of ethnic cleansing, dispossession, occupation, and apartheid have nothing to do with it. There just small complications, which would otherwise be a rosy scenario if it weren't for the currently elected government.
Finally, he would have us believe that Israel withdrew from Gaza, but somehow still maintain complete control over air, sea, and land...thirty five percent of farm lands and the population registry.
To say nothing about the imports and exports which prevent any kind of redevelopments form occurring and yet somehow, it is the fault of the government here, that hasn't turn Gaza into the Rivera of the Middle East, using what kind of construction martial... I don't know, since Israel won't allow any of it in.
Press TV: We have seen the Palestinian in one way getting back together, and try to have unity government, which has been opposed by the US and Israel. Joe, with all that, do you think that the negotiations is the way forward for the peace in the Middle East?
Catron: Absolutely not. The Palestinians have been negotiating since 1993, and absolutely nothing has come off of it. And frankly, I do not see any reason to believe that anything would happen, going forward. Zionist would have us believe that Palestinians are required to obtain... they [Israel] required Palestinians to renounce their rights, the universally recognized rights under international laws, such as the right of return.
The point is that these rights are the goal of the Palestinians' struggle; the goal is not to stand still demilitarized, surrounded on every side by a hostile nuclear power.
It's very much like an Indian reservation, in the US, whose inhabitants, unlike those Indian reservations, in the US have no rights to vote, in the national elections, or no right to use national passports, that's what the Zionist is advocating when they talk about two state solutions. They have no interest in a viable Palestinian state.
