A new flotilla set sail near the Gaza coast Monday morning. Unlike recent activist ventures, these boats were not aimed to challenge the IDF, but rather, to raise awareness of the humanitarian plight of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
MK Orit Zuaretz of Kadima organized the event along with the organization 18 Mothers. The purpose was to call on the international community not to differentiate between the rights of Gaza residents and those of Shalit, and to call for Shalit's freedom and human rights just as they would for an Arab resident of the area.
The flotillas that headed to Gaza in a public display of disregard for Israel's naval blockade were not truly interested in human rights, Zuaretz said, because they had no interest in Gilad Shalit. Activists aboard the ships refused to bring anything to Shalit.
"This is the way that a peace flotilla is supposed to look,” she said of the ships launched Monday. The Shalit flotilla seeks peace not only for Israel, but for the entire world, she added.