The Joint Arab List rallied Monday around MK Basel Ghattas, who announced Sunday he would be on board the Freedom Flotilla III, which will attempt to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in the last week of June. 

“Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a great crime, as was the war and the killing of civilians,” party chairman Ayman Odeh said at the beginning of the Joint Arab List’s faction meeting. 

“We support the participation of MK Basel Ghattas on this humanitarian flotilla, which will raise the agenda of the terrible suffering of Gazans, who live in a large prison,” Odeh added. 

At the conclusion of the meeting, party MKs stressed “it is our duty to support the struggle to end the blockade and allow for the reconstruction of Gaza in the wake of great destruction by Israeli bombings.”

The “Freedom Flotilla” proves “that the international community supports an end to the blockage and the right of the Palestinian people to live freely, in peace and dignity,” they added. 

The Joint List also condemned the “campaign of incitement and vilification” waged against Ghattas after his announcement that he intended to board the flotilla.

MKs from both the Left and Right expressed condemnation of Ghattas’ plan, calling it a “political action” that will “provoke trouble.”

“The incitement waged by a number of MKs from the extreme right and other politicians against MK Ghattas,” the Joint Arab List asserted, “is a cheap populist attempt to accumulate points from the public and suppress any struggle or voice calling to break the siege and release two million Palestinians living in Gaza, the largest prison in the world.”