Protesters greeted by Hamas men; navy ignores boat despite Israel's initial promise to intervene.
By HERB KEINONfree gaza II 224.88(photo credit: AP)
A boat carrying 27 far-left protesters docked in Gaza Wednesday morning, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reversed course and decided against barring the vessel's entrance.
This was the third small boat chartered by the US-based Free Gaza movement that has sailed from Cyprus to Gaza to draw attention to the Israeli blockade of the Strip.
Two other boats that set sail together in August were also let in by the Israeli authorities, who wanted to deny the protesters publicity.
Government officials said that a decision was taken "at the highest governmental levels" a number of days ago to stop this new boat and arrest the protesters.
But Olmert - after consultations with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi - changed the decision at the last moment, apparently concerned about the negative publicity.
Representatives of the National Information Directorate, as well as the media specialists at the Foreign Ministry, who were preparing for the boat to be intercepted at sea, were not involved in the consultations.
One senior government official said Israel's decision to let the boat pass was made after it became clear exactly who and what were on the boat.
He also said Israel "wants to keep these agitators guessing, and not play into their hands."
The official said that the decision to let the boat in Wednesday was made on a one-time basis, and did not represent a blanket policy. He added that no decision has been made whether Israel would allow the boat to sail back, as it did in August.
The boat carried 27 crew and passengers, including Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Maguire has been involved in the often violent demonstrations against the construction of the security fence at Ni'ilin, and was hit there last year by a rubber bullet.
One of the organizers of the sailing, Huwaida Arraf, said in a statement,"Once again we've been able to defy an unjust and illegal policy while the rest of the world is too intimidated to do anything. Our small boat is a huge cry to the international community to follow in our footsteps and open a lifeline to the people of Gaza."
Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev, meanwhile, said that the protesters and organizers of the boat were not the only ones who wanted a "free Gaza."
"We are also interested in freeing Gaza," Regev said. "We want to free the civilian population of the Gaza Strip from the authoritative, totalitarian, Taliban-type regime that is oppressing it."
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