Marin activist
recounts 'Free Gaza' voyage
08/29/2008
A Marin woman was
making a triumphant voyage back to Cyprus this week after members of the Free
Gaza movement sailed from Cyprus to Gaza to break an Israeli blockade.
Kathy Sheetz, 61,
a retired nurse, was among 46 human rights workers aboard two small boats - the
70-foot SS Free Gaza and the 60-foot SS Liberty - who were greeted by thousands
of joyous Palestinians when they reached Gaza on Aug. 23.
Until that
moment, Gaza had been virtually closed off from the rest of the world by Israeli
controls of its borders.
Sheetz and
daughter Courtney, a student at City University of New York, plan to make a
documentary about the voyage, which was two years in preparation.
Jane Jewel of San
Rafael, 58, a music teacher, was among many Bay Area supporters of the event,
organized by piano tuner Paul Larudee of El Cerrito and other members of the
Free Gaza movement.
Jewel founded her
own organization, 14 Friends of Palestine, in December 2004, to raise funds in
Marin for Free Gaza organizations elsewhere in the Bay Area.
The activists
raised $250,000 to purchase the boats and finance the voyage. Protesters from
several nations - including Germany, Spain, Scotland and Greece - were among
those who sailed.
Steve Greaves of San Rafael, a
high school teacher and close friend of Sheetz, spent two weeks in Cyprus
helping prepare the expedition. He said participants received numerous death
threats, and experienced what may have been sabotage when navigational gear
failed
while the boats were en route.
Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas seized
control of Gaza in June 2007, routing forces loyal to moderate Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas.
Gaza's
1.4 million Palestinians are already largely confined to their narrow strip of
land by Israeli and Egyptian border closures. A trickle of people are still
allowed to leave for medical care, jobs abroad and for the annual Muslim
pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
Israel
and Hamas have observed a fragile truce since June. Israeli officials have said
the delivery is illegal because Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which it considers
a terrorist group.
Jewel said the
boats involved in last week's voyage carried 200 hearing aids, a symbolic
contribution to the thousands of children who have lost their hearing during
Israeli bombings.
The boats
traveled through international waters, she said. Though the activists feared
intervention from Israeli patrol boats, none occurred.
Sheetz expects to
return to San Rafael in a few weeks after visiting a son in Barcelona and
working with her daughter in New York.
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_10337510
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