What YOU can do:

1. Contact the Greek embassy or consulate nearest you.  The number for the embassy in Washington DC is 202-939-1324. You can find contact info for the nearest Greek consulate to you here. Tell them to release the ship's captain and let the Audacity of Hope leave Athens safely to sail to Gaza.

2. Call the State Department: Dial 202-647-1300 and urge the State Department to push Greece to let the boats sail.

3. Get involved in local actions: Check the Gaza Freedom March website and post your action to spread the word. Solidarity events are also listed on the US Boat to Gaza website add your action or event by emailing ustogaza@gmail.com.

4. Make a contribution. We need your financial support to help CODEPINK participate in the Freedom Flotilla. Your contributions will help us with travel costs, media work, outreach and other expenses associated with this massive undertaking. Click here to make a contribution.

Read CODEPINK blog entries and the most recent news coverage of the flotilla here!

CODEPINK on a boat to Gaza: this is an important moment in history.

In the aftermath of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre last year and increased world-wide scrutiny of Israel's blockade of Gaza, the Israeli government has mounted a huge public relations campaign spreading the lie that by letting a few more items into Gaza, the blockade has been lifted. This is not the reality. Gaza is still under siege, vital building materials and other supplies are banned, exports of goods from Gaza are denied, and neither ships nor people can travel without permission from Israel, permission which Israel will not give. Gaza is essentially an open-air prison under a U.S.-backed Israeli blockade.

After last year's flotilla disaster, a group of concerned American citizens came together to launch a U.S. boat to Gaza called The Audacity of Hope. Five of the women aboard are our very own CODEPINKers, Medea Benjamin, Ridgely Fuller, Kit Kittredge, Ann Wright, and Paki Weiland, and well as CODEPINK supporter and renowned author Alice Walker.
You can read their full bios here.

The Audacity of Hope was originally scheduled to sail from a Greek port to join the rest of the international flotilla, but first it was faced with a series of bureaucratic obstacles meant to prevent them from sailing. Rejecting state claims about the boat's "unseaworthiness," those aboard Yhe Audacity of Hope decided to leave anyways. Only twenty minutes into their journey, the Greek Coast Guard stopped the ship, forced it to return, impounded it in a Greek military port, and threw the captain in jail. The other flotilla ships planning to leave Greek ports are being detained as well. This is clearly the result of Israeli and American pressure on the Greek government.

Currently, ship passengers and Greek activists are rallying in front of the American embassy in Athens, many of them on hunger strikes. We need your help now and throughout this holiday weekend to put pressure on Greece and the United States to allow the U.S. Boat to Gaza to sail and fulfill its mission of delivering thousands of letters of solidarity from the U.S. to the people of Gaza.