The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood website has reported that 220 Swiss NGO’s and unions have expressed support for the second Gaza flotilla which is expected to sail by the end of the year. According to the report:
220 NGOs and unions have expressed support for the Freedom Flotilla 2 which is slated to sail to the Gaza Strip before the end of the year, by participating in one of its ships, the Swiss ship. The head of the Swiss “rights for all society”, Anwar Gharbi, said in a press release “Political parties of significant weight announced its support for the flotilla providing 450 activists to participate in it.” Gharbi, who is also a member of the European campaign to end the siege on Gaza said that his organisation fully supports the Swiss ship which will participate in the flotilla. He also said that some Swiss parliamentarians had called for organising flights to the Gaza Strip to break the siege.Gharbi said that Swiss civil society is positively engaged in all activities to break the siege and that thousands of activists have expressed interest in participating in the Freedom Flotilla 2, including some well known athletes and artists. He added that over the past three weeks the Swiss media has covered the preparations of the ship and interviewed a number of participants.
An earlier post had reported that preparations were underway for a Swiss vessel to participated in the next flotilla.
A report from a Union of Good website identifies Anouar Gharbi as one of the founders of the freedom fleet’s coalition. Mr Gharbi is known to have been an officer of the Association de Secours Palestinien in Switzerland, the Swiss member of the Union of Good which is a coalition of charities headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi which helps to raise funds for Hamas. The Union of Good was banned by Israel in 2002 and was recently designated a terrorist entity by the United States, although neither Youssef Qaradawi nor any of the Trustees were similarly designated.
An earlier post discussed both the Global Muslim Brotherhood ties of the European Campaign to End the Siege On Gaza (ECESG) as well as the significant role played by the Global Muslim Brotherhood in the recent Gaza flotilla crisis.