Cyprus refused to allow a Gaza-bound “all-women’s” ship to dock and Israel is asking France and the United States to help prevent a possible clash on the high seas. Israel warns that Hizbullah-linked elements are behind the proposed sailing.
The women insist they are not affiliated with Hizbullah, but Samar al-Hajj, the organizer of the ship, is the wife of Lebanese general Ali Hajj, who is in a Lebanese jail for involvement with the 2005 assassination of former anti-Syrian Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. She reportedly met with Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah several weeks ago.
"Our position is clear. The arrival and departure of vessels to or from Gaza via Cyprus ports is prohibited and we will implement that decision," Cypriot police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos told Reuters.
The announcement from Cyprus came several days after Gabriella Shalev, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, warned the international body that backers of the all-women "Mariam" boat may be linked with Hizbullah terrorists.
After the announcement, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had appealed to the United States and France to help prevent the boat from trying to challenge Israel’s sea embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza. A confrontation with a boat of women could pose a serious public relations dilemma for Israel, which is determined to prevent opening the sea for Hamas to import more advanced weapons, ammunition and terrorists,
The organizers of the boat have said they want to bring to Gaza books, toys and medicine - all of which are allowed to enter overland, making a flotilla superfluous.
The Mariam was set to sail from Lebanon Sunday night but must dock first in another country, mainly to circumvent a legal problem of traveling directly from Lebanon—a declared enemy of Israel—to Gaza, where Israel maintains sovereignty over its coastal waters.
"Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the aforementioned naval blockade," Shalev wrote the United Nations earlier this month.
Mariam spokeswomen Rima Farah claimed the ship would sail from Tripoli despite the delay posed by Cyprus.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon responded, “If there was a mask of humanitarianism on previous flotillas, the mask has been removed completely from these boats, which are carrying representatives of Hizbullah and Iran.”