Off to Gaza

Hello Friends,

The Swedish ship to Gaza, the “Marianne av Goteborg” sails tomorrow, Sunday night, with me as engineer. I will be busy all day tomorrow doing last minute stowing of donations and various preparations until the lines are cast off. Next stop is Malmo Sweden and then Copenhagen Denmark, and then France and then various ports on route to Gaza. We should be sailing into Gaza City in about 6 weeks or so, or into a racist Israeli prison. I might not have much access to the internet during this trip, so if you want to keep track of our progress please watch our website https://shiptogaza.se/en/.

I see that the Canadian government has posted a very specific travel advisory, warning all Canadians to not join the flotilla to Gaza. Here is the text-

“The security situation along the coast of Gaza remains dangerous and volatile. In May 2010, an attempt to breach the naval blockade along the coast of Gaza was intercepted by Israeli security forces and resulted in deaths, injuries, arrests and deportations. Similar attempts to breach the naval blockade have taken place since. You are strongly advised against participating in any attempt to break the naval blockade. Canadian officials may not be able to provide you with consular assistance if you choose to participate in the flotilla. Participants may be detained by Israeli officials prior to their deportation. In cases of deportation, local authorities are not obliged to notify the Canadian embassy.”
(Source: http://travel.gc.ca/…/israel-the-west-bank-and-the-gaza-str…)

I find it interesting to note that the Canadian Conservative government in 1936 gave a very similar warning to all Canadians to not travel to Spain to fight against Franco’s fascists in their civil war. And now Spain is on the verge of electing a socialist government. All evil will eventually pass, we just need to work at it together, to help speed it along a little faster.

The Swedes have often asked why am I, a Canadian, on a Swedish ship to Gaza. Of course the first answer is that I am an internationalist, like the Canadian MacKenzie-Papineau volunteer battalion fighting in Spain in 1936. But of course I have a very solid Scandinavian connect, with my Communist red Finnish great Grandparents on my Mom’s side, so I’m a 4th generation red Finn. There is even some speculation that my Lenin looks somehow come from Finland, as he spent time there before the Russian revolution. Food for thought.

So bye for now, and I am looking forward to seeing my friends in Gaza very soon.

Kevin Neish