Los Angeles, Alta California
June 25, 2010
Nuns to join the all-women 'Mariam'
aid ship to Gaza
Pending final approval by the Vatican, a small group of nuns will be joining approximately 50 Muslim and Christian women on an aid ship to Gaza that has been christened 'Mariam' in honor of the Mother of Jesus. The Mariam is expected to sail within the next few days from Lebanon to Cyprus, where the nuns are expected to board, and then on to Gaza.
Semir El-Hajj, an organizer of the aid mission said from Lebanon, "We have diapers, a lot of diapers, we have milk, we have treatments for cancer in children and medical supplies and clothes. If they fight we will not defend ourselves.” Another spokeswoman for the group, Rima Farah, said "Faith would be the only weapon on board the ship." Semir El-Hajj and Rima Farah made the comments because on May 31 Israeli pirate commandos attacked the aid ship Mavi Marmara in international waters carrying essential aid supplies to Gaza and murdered 9 Turkish humanitarian volunteers.
The inclusion of the nuns is not 100% certain because the Israeli criminal regime has been exerting great pressure on Vatican officials to stop the nuns from boarding the Mariam in Cypress. Essentially they communicated that their commandos will not stop in killing the nuns and the other women if it became necessary.
Recently the group of women gathered in the southern Lebanese town of Maghdushe and prayed together for the safety of the Mariam. The women prayed in the cave where the Virgin Mary awaited for Jesus while he was preaching in Sidon. The Virgen Mary is known as Mariam among Muslims.
Expected to be aboard the Mariam is a young Palestinian woman refugee in Lebanon. Mona Kayal is 22 years old and just graduated from the American University of Beirut with a triple major in Business, Economy and Finance. She will be the only Palestinian girl aboard the Mariam. “I know I might not come back to Lebanon because I am Palestinian, and I might be sent to jail by the Israelis, but I still want to go,” Kayal told a Lebanese newspaper. “I know that this is the way to show the world the true face of Israel.”
