The Blockade
Since June 2007, Israel has imposed a near total closure on the Gaza Strip. This violates the right to freedom of movement for 1.5 million Palestinian residents - including hundreds of students, who consequently lose their chance to study abroad.
The people of Gaza are struggling to survive under this illegal siege. The border closures by Israel and more recently Egypt have effectively created the largest prison camp in the world. Palestinian citizens in Gaza, the majority of whom are children, receive only the most basic humanitarian items through their land borders. Virtually no exports are permitted to leave, paralysing the economy. All this whilst reduced fuel supplies and the lack of spare parts for machinery have impacted on sewage treatment, waste collection, water supply and medical facilities.
The people of Gaza are being suffocated, they can’t breathe,they are being denied the oxygenof freedom.
More than three-quarters of Gaza’s residents are forced by the illegal closures to rely on food aid. Aid agencies report that transporting even these basic supplies is becoming increasingly difficult due to the bureaucratic demands made by the Israeli government.
Every aspect of life is affected by this restriction of movement on goods and people. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) say the health system is “collapsing” and has suffered a “severe deterioration” under the pressure of shortages of equipment and spare parts, fuel and trained staff. Since the siege began, 200 patients have died waiting for travel permits that would have allowed them life saving treatment outside Gaza. The very first Aloha Palestine voyage will mark the beginning of the end of this reality, we will save lives from the outset.
Former American president, Jimmy Carter has said that Palestinians in Gaza are being “starved to death,” receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.
"It’s an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It’s a crime... I think it is an abomination that this
continues to go on." Jimmy Carter
University students are among roughly 6,400 Gazans who possess foreign citizenship, permanent residency, work permits, student visas or university admissions abroad, who have been trapped in Gaza since June, 2007 when Hamas took control of the territory, and Israel and Egypt sealed their borders.
As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: