Activists mull new Gaza flotilla

STOCKHOLM - Some of the activists who took part in an aid flotilla that in May attempted to break Israel’s maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip said Wednesday that they are mulling the possibility of launching a new flotilla later this year.

In a statement issued after a meeting in the Swedish capital Stockholm, the activist umbrella group Freedom Flotilla Coalition said plans had been discussed “to enlarge our coalition to include the various groups around the world that want to join us, as well as intensify our efforts to mobilise a new flotilla.”

Members from one of the coalition’s groups, the Ship to Gaza-Sweden network, said a new flotilla could set off before the end of the year if Israel does not lift its blockade.

This flotilla would feature more ships than the six that were intercepted by Israel forces in May, one of the participants in the initial flotilla, Dror Feiler, told the online edition of the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet.

An Israeli raid on one of the May flotilla’s vessels, the Mavi Marmara, had left nine Turkish activists dead.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition also questioned the appointment earlier this week of outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to one of two United Nations panels investigating the incident, citing his government’s military relationship with Israel and Uribe’s “own human rights record in Colombia”.