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Ship to Gaza lawyer to file Israel police report

TT/AFP/The Local
TT/AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Ship to Gaza lawyer to file Israel police report
Green Party MP Mehmet Kaplan in April

Ship to Gaza, the Swedish organisation behind a Gaza-bound aid ship intercepted in May by Israeli commandos, has retained plans to file an official complaint with Israeli police despite the expulsion of two of its members from Israel on Sunday, according to a statement.

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Green Party MP Mehmet Kaplan and Swedish-Israeli artist Dror Feiler have instructed their lawyer to hand over a complaint to the Israeli police alleging armed robbery or theft, kidnapping, illegal detention and assault, after they failed in their attempt to enter Israel in person.

The Israeli interior ministry explained that Kaplan and Feiler had been prevented from entering the country as they had not followed the terms of an agreement signed in order to secure their release from Israeli detention in June.

Israeli commandos on May 31st intercepted an aid flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip and nine Turkish activists were killed when commandos raided the flagship, the ferry Mavi Marmara.

Passengers detained in the raid on the flotilla were later released after signing a letter "in which they pledged to obtain authorisation to enter Israel from Israeli embassies in their respective countries," a spokesperson said.

"They [Kaplan and Feiler] were perfectly aware of these dispositions, but they did not respect them," she said, explaining why the pair were barred from entering Israel on Sunday.

Ship to Gaza Sweden organisers announced in August that they plan to make a new attempt to reach the Palestinian territory before the end of 2010.

"We are going to send a flotilla if the siege is not lifted," Dror Feiler said at the time after a meeting of the group in Stockholm.

Feiler explained that group plan to sail again in an expanded flotilla "before the end of this year."

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