Press Statement: Paul Murphy MEP (Socialist Party / United Left
Alliance) 15 November 2011 Press Conference in European Parliament: · Free Gaza MEP demands European response to illegal detention
of EU citizens – calls for European Parliament to revoke credentials
from Israeli embassy · Claudia Saba (Irish Ship to Gaza organiser) details
conditions facing people in Gaza Speaking in Strasbourg at a European Parliament press conference about
his week-long detention in Israel, Irish Socialist Party (GUE/NGL) MEP
Paul Murphy today warned Israel that its attempts to intimidate
anti-Gaza blockade activists would not be successful and called on EU
authorities to respond to such impunity. “I am calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel association
agreement and have written to the president of the European Parliament
to demand the revocation of the credentials of the Israeli embassy
staff from this institution.” Along with other Freedom Wave Flotilla to Gaza activists aboard two
boats, Murphy was arrested on November 4 and finally released last
Friday. “From the moment our boat was violently invaded by Israeli forces in
international waters, we were illegally detained, repeatedly
strip-searched, denied outside contact, sleep-deprived and had our
possessions stolen.” “In prison, the conditions we were kept in were very poor but were
nothing like the conditions faced by the Palestinians who are
incarcerated by the Israeli regime in the open-air prison that is
Gaza,” Murphy said, thanking activists who campaigned internationally
in solidarity protests. Claudia Saba, an organiser for the Irish Ship to Gaza declared that: “We will continue with our campaigning work raising the oppression of
the Palestinian people and highlighting the treatment of the 1.6
million people who are forced to live in an open air prison camp in
Gaza, where over two thirds of people are reliant on aid to survive.
The blockade of Gaza must be broken and the people of Gaza should have
full access to their land, sea and air ports and rights to import and
export goods.”
Alliance) 15 November 2011 Press Conference in European Parliament: · Free Gaza MEP demands European response to illegal detention
of EU citizens – calls for European Parliament to revoke credentials
from Israeli embassy · Claudia Saba (Irish Ship to Gaza organiser) details
conditions facing people in Gaza Speaking in Strasbourg at a European Parliament press conference about
his week-long detention in Israel, Irish Socialist Party (GUE/NGL) MEP
Paul Murphy today warned Israel that its attempts to intimidate
anti-Gaza blockade activists would not be successful and called on EU
authorities to respond to such impunity. “I am calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel association
agreement and have written to the president of the European Parliament
to demand the revocation of the credentials of the Israeli embassy
staff from this institution.” Along with other Freedom Wave Flotilla to Gaza activists aboard two
boats, Murphy was arrested on November 4 and finally released last
Friday. “From the moment our boat was violently invaded by Israeli forces in
international waters, we were illegally detained, repeatedly
strip-searched, denied outside contact, sleep-deprived and had our
possessions stolen.” “In prison, the conditions we were kept in were very poor but were
nothing like the conditions faced by the Palestinians who are
incarcerated by the Israeli regime in the open-air prison that is
Gaza,” Murphy said, thanking activists who campaigned internationally
in solidarity protests. Claudia Saba, an organiser for the Irish Ship to Gaza declared that: “We will continue with our campaigning work raising the oppression of
the Palestinian people and highlighting the treatment of the 1.6
million people who are forced to live in an open air prison camp in
Gaza, where over two thirds of people are reliant on aid to survive.
The blockade of Gaza must be broken and the people of Gaza should have
full access to their land, sea and air ports and rights to import and
export goods.”