May 31, 2010: in the pre‐dawn darkness, three cargo ships and three passenger ships, together called the Freedom Flotilla, motored south from Cyprus across the Mediterranean, their destination a narrow, 40‐kilometre‐long coastal plain wedged between Israel and Egypt known as the Gaza Strip. Their mission: to break an Israeli‐imposed blockade that effectively makes 1.5 million people prisoners in their own homes.
Some hours earlier, from the deck of Challenger I, a 25‐metre cruiser in the flotilla from which I was observing events, a dozen or more Israeli vessels had revealed themselves, first as mere pinpricks of light, appearing and disappearing as allowed by the ocean swell. The Israelis had announced their presence by the reading of a terse radio message to each of the ships' captains in the flotilla. "Challenger I, you are hereby ordered to change course," the crackle‐trimmed voice had begun. "If you ignore this order and attempt to visit the blockaded area, the Israeli Navy will be forced to take all the necessary measures in order to enforce this blockade."
Huwaida Arraf, the 34‐year‐old US‐born, Ramallah‐based lawyer and leader of the Free Gaza Movement (FGM), the humanitarian organisation behind the flotilla, had been cool in her response. "Israeli Navy, this is Challenger I. We are unarmed civilians making our way to the Gaza port. We do not constitute a threat to the state of Israel or to its armed forces. You are not justified in using force against us."
Good Weekend / Sydney Morning Herald, 06 Nov 2010
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