Faced with increasing pressure from the U.S. and Israeli governments, the government of Greece has officially prohibited any ships in its harbors fromleaving for Gaza.  This action was directed at the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla, the organizers of which intended to break the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip since June 2007. 

CPT reservist David Milne is among the passengers on the Canadian boat in the flotilla, the Tahrir, as well as Harmeet Singh Sooden, a member of the CPT delegation to Iraq kidnapped in 2005, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who has had extensive contact with CPT’s Hebron team.  On the U.S. ship along with luminaries such as Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, are CPT trainer and colleague, Kathy Kelly and former CPT reservist, Robert Naiman.