ATHENS, Greece (Ma'an) -- The captain of a US boat carrying activists who tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza was jailed Saturday in Athens, organizers of the flotilla said. John Klusmer is being charged with two felonies, organizers of the boat told reporters at a news conference in the Greek capital. The investigation will begin Tuesday, they said. Klusmer was handcuffed and jailed Saturday afternoon. He and the organizers initially understood the charges to be misdemeanors. They later discovered the charges to be felonies upon arrival at the station.
US Boat to Gaza organizer Jane Hirschmann told reporters the captain was charged with disobeying a police order not to leave the port and disturbing sea traffic.
The captain's four-member crew is being detained on the boat. While passengers are free to go, they are staying on the Audacity of Hope as a show of solidarity with their captain and crew.
Hirschmann said the second charge was the result of a complaint lodged against the US Boat to Gaza by Shurat HaDin, an Israeli law center which is funded by American activist and pastor John Hagee. Hagee is a fundamentalist Christian who operates a pro-Israel group in the US.
Hirschmann called the charges "bogus" and added that "We hope to move on this before Tuesday and try to make sure that that [our captain] gets out."
She says the flotilla is not seeking a new captain for the Audacity of Hope. Passengers "are very worried about the captain and feel responsible for the captain. But they're also very determined people on the boat. They chose to stay on the ship," Hirschmann said.
Hirschmann and other organizers said the ships that make up the flotilla would not sail alone. When asked if the US boat had been effectively sidelined, Hirschmann responded, "We don't know, we're the Audacity of Hope and the audacity of hope triumphs over the audacity of violence and the audacity of threats. And our boat has not been impounded. Yet."
Also in Athens, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti remarked that "We consider this boat, this flotilla, one part of peaceful non-violent resistance, one part of peaceful non-violent struggle."
| Boilerplate follows: |
| True, for a very specific definition of violence and peace that mean the exact opposite |
Barghouti called on the Greek government to allow the US Boat to Gaza and all other ships to sail, adding that the flotilla and other acts of non-violent resistance that are happening in the occupied Palestinian territories resemble "the best traditions of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi."
| While the latter two are proclaimed for their saintly peacefulness, there has been a great deal of violence associated with their movements -- Gandhi was fond of advising Nazi-era German Jews and Hindus in Pakistan to stay put and allow themselves to be killed in order to shame the killers, and encouraged the murder of Muslims fleeing north during the division. |