Turkish Flotilla Aims To Relieve ‘Siege’ Of Arabs Under COVID Lockdown In Israel

“Free the Palestinian people from the yoke of Zionist oppression that has raised Arab incomes, life expectancy, and health care, and freedom indicators far beyond those of their neighbors.”

Marmara, Turkey – A group of human rights activists vowed today to break through what they called Israel’s “immoral, illegal, and deadly siege” of Arab homes that the government imposed across the country in an attempt to prevent or slow the spread of a dangerous pathogen.

Humanitarian volunteers from various organizations teamed up for at least the second time in the last fifteen years to conduct a maritime mission to relieve Israeli-imposed restrictions on movement of people and materials, this time vowing not to be thwarted by such obstacles as Israeli naval commandos, the perfect legality of Israeli measures to protect its citizenry, and the fact that no one has asked them to do what they plan to do, nor do they see what constructive purpose it might serve.

Last-minute preparations got underway Tuesday morning as crew and passengers boarded the Mavi Marmara II, named after a vessel that failed to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2010 – this time, with a mission to Israel proper, where the activists hope to release Arabs, mostly Muslims, now homebound or restricted to areas close to home. The pretext that Israeli authorities have invoked this time involves concerns over the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 now ravaging the world. In Israel, the disease has claimed more than 400 lives in Israel and infected tens of thousands, but the activists know the real reason for the restrictions: Israel seeks to oppress its non-Jewish citizens, going so far as to apply the restrictions to its Jewish citizens as well, and even enforcing those restrictions more assiduously in Jewish-majority areas, as if such measures can conceal the true motive.

“We sail with the spirits of those who made a valiant effort toward Gaza ten years ago,” proclaimed self-proclaimed flotilla leader, Dutch BDS activist Klu Liss. “The vicious, immoral, evil response of the Zionist occupation to their, and, we expect, our, humanitarian mission, only underscores the necessity for us to act, for the world to act, to free the Palestinian people from the yoke of Zionist oppression that has raised Arab incomes, life expectancy, and health care, and freedom indicators far beyond those of their neighbors in the region who are free of Zionist persecution.”

“The Apartheid regime will fall,” predicted flotilla volunteer Thinli Veyheld of Belgium. “I realize I have to clarify that, because Israel is actually the least Apartheid-like country in the region by quite a margin, so let’s just pretend it’s the only offender in that respect and we can all go back to our favorite pursuit, that of antisemitism in the guise of human rights activism.”

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