Gaza's Ark: a bid to break Israel's blockade... From within

Palestinian labourers and foreign activists are working tirelessly to transform a large fishing boat into "Gaza's Ark" with the aim of exporting local produce in the latest bid to break Israel's blockade on the coastal strip.
The Ark, which is being fitted out to carry goods and more than 100 passengers, is near completion and is expected to set sail for Europe in the latest high-profile attempt to challenge Israel's maritime lockdown on the tiny Hamas-run territory.
If they are successful, this will be the first time goods from Gaza have been exported by sea since the signing of the 1994 Oslo Peace Accords.

Significantly, this attempt to alleviate the effects of the seven-year blockade comes from within Gaza, where locals refurbishing the 24-metre-long (78 feet) vessel want to take matters into their own hands, rather than waiting for help from the outside world.
"This will help fishermen, farmers and factory workers in Gaza to market their products," said Abu Ammar Bakr, who was a fisherman for 40 years before turning his hand to repairing boats.
Mohammed Abu Salmi, who owns a furniture shop, was equally buoyed by the prospect of shipping products overseas.

"Export by sea will resuscitate farming and light industry in Gaza and will ease unemployment... And help to lift this oppressive blockade," he told AFP.

"We have great experience and produce great furniture," Abu Salmi boasted.
"We exported to Israel and from there to Europe before the blockade, and people abroad are asking for our products," he said, pointing proudly at the dining tables and chairs fashioned in his workshop.
Among the items which are to be carried on board for export are fruit and farm produce, furniture, embroidery and other crafts, organisers say.
"The aim is not aid or humanitarian like the boats that were coming to Gaza, it's a commercial venture to support the Palestinian economy and pave the way to exporting Palestinian products," project manager Mahfouz Kabariti said.

But a sense of apprehension marks the preparations.
A plaque at the entrance to the quay on which the Ark is being built remembers the nine Turkish activists who were killed in May 2010 during an Israeli raid on a six-ship flotilla trying to reach Gaza in defiance of the blockade.
Although the international outcry which followed the deadly raid forced Israel to significantly ease the terms of its blockade on Gaza, which was first imposed in 2006, tight curbs remain in place on exports and travel.