Press release 15 May, Nakba Day:

Jewish Boat welcomed in Gaza
by Edith

Eight months after the Jewish boat was kidnapped by the Israeli navy on her way to Gaza, the Jewish boat has arrived in Gaza symbolically on 14 May. Edith Lutz, co-organizer and passenger on the "Irene" brought a photo-collage of the boat to Gaza. "We are still waiting for the return of the real boat", she says, "but it's the arrival of the message that's most important." The message is: There are many Jews opposing the Israeli politics of oppression.

To take the message to Gaza Edith Lutz joined the vik2gaza-group (www.vik2gaza.org), a group of friends of Vittorio Arrigoni, whose murder in Gaza last month devastated many Palestinian and international friends. These friends have come together to commemorate Vittorio's work in Gaza and to assure its people of their solidarity.

Solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians was and is also the mission of the Jewish Boat. Vittorio Arrigoni, along with people in Gaza, had been waiting for the "Irene". "'Yallah, when is the Jewish boat coming?' Vik emailed  me some weeks before our furtive departure from Famagusta", says Edith Lutz. Now the "Irene" has arrived - symbolically at least - in Gaza's small harbour, welcomed by people who are waiting for the actual Jewish Boat to come.