Alwaght- A member of the Algerian parliament boarded a humanitarian aid flotilla headed for Gaza Strip.
The all-female flotilla is set to leave Italian shore with 30 women on board of the two member boats. The female activists will try to breach the Gaza siege imposed by the Israeli regime since 2007.
Samira Dhouaifia is a member of the Algeria’s leading Islamist party, Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) representing the eastern Algerian city of Tebessa. She left her country on Wednesday to board the flotilla.
Some 20 pro-Palestinian activists gathered in the Algiers Airport to wish good luck for the politician on her quest.
“It’s not a choice. I have to go,” she said before boarding the plane for Italy.
“For me, it’s a question of duty. I am not going to represent my party. I am going as an international activist and a female politician,” she added.
Over the course of the expedition, dubbed the “Women’s Boat to Gaza,” the MP will be met by her fellow countrywoman, award-winning journalist, Khadija Benguena, who will be arriving directly from Mecca to join the crew of the Zaytouna (olive). The second of the flotilla’s boats, the Amal, which means hope, was unable to leave Barcelona due to technical problems and may have to be replaced.
“But most of these women are neither Arab nor Muslim,” Dhouaifia added. The activists include retired US army colonel and ex-diplomat opposed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ann Wright, and the Israeli co-organiser of the expedition, Zohar Chamberlain, as well as a Swedish MP.
back in 2010, a humanitarian ship, Mavi Marmara left Turkey as a part of a six-ship flotilla to deliver humanitarian aids to Gaza shore but Tel Aviv commandos raided the ship and killed nine Turks on the board.
