July 11, 2011


OPEN LETTER TO

Jose Manuel Barroso
President of the
European Commission

Iraklion, July 10th, 2011

Dear Mr. Barroso,

Squeezed between Scylla and Charybdis, the zionist state of Israel and the "democratic" Greece, our nutshell JULIANO with citizens from the European Union (Sweden, Greece and Austria) on board still tries to gain international waters in order to fulfill its mission of peace and solidarity with the Palestinian people.

In our struggle for the right of self-determination of the people of Gaza we had and still have to face sabotage and aggression from "unknown" agents of political crime as well as never ending bureaucratic obstacles from the Greek authorities. Being citizens of the EU, members of parliament and representatives of social movements and political parties, universities professors we are treated like outlaws and confined to the boarders of the EU as if they were prison-walls like the ones the people of Gaza are suffering every day.

Is this the freedom of the seas, the freedom of expression and the mandate of peace the constitutional treaty of the European Union has prescribed you to fulfill?

We consider it as a shame how the European Union as part of the Near East-Quartet has quite simply become a servant tool to an extra-European power like Israel helping to cover up its constant violations of Human Rights against the population of Palestine.

Is this the understanding of democracy the European Union has opted for in a time when millions of people in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and North Africa are protesting against the unjust measures it has imposed on them?

Every day that we are passing on the Mediterranean we get more and more convinced that you have the power, but we have the right and that the obstacles you impose will never discourage us from the pursuit of our just cause. Don' t forget that history in the long run always has punished those who have allied themselves with the oppressors.

In the name of the same democratic order of the EU you are constantly referring to and in the name of another possible world of global peace and justice we therefore demand:


OUR RIGHT TO SAIL FREE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA WHEREVER WE WANT !


on behalf of the passengers of the JULIANO:

Dr. Leo Gabriel
International Council of the World Social Forum
e-mail: lgabriel@gmx.net

Maria Pia Boethius
Writer from Sweden
- maria-pia.boethius@etc.se

Jabar Amin
Member of Parliament from Sweden
mobile: +46-708250612

Stellan Vinthagen
Associate professor of sociology, Ship to Gaza - Sweden
- stellan.vinthagen@gmail.com

Dr. Takis Politis
Ass. Professor, University of Thessaly, Greece
member of Executive Committee of Hellenic Federation of University Teachers Associations

Orestes Kolokouris
Member of the Greek Parliament


Livestream: www.freedomflotilla.eu