Over 15,000 sign petition addressed to Eamon Ryan for the Freedom Flotilla sail under the Irish Flag

A recent petition to allow the Freedom Flotilla fly under the Irish Flag has amassed over 15,000 signees in less than three days.

The petition, addressed to Minister for transport Eamon Ryan, asks the Green Party TD "to Register the Freedom Flotilla ships as an Irish ships and allow it to sail to Gaza under the Irish Flag".

Last week, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition was contacted by the Guinea Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR), requesting an inspection of the group's lead ship – Akdenez.

Organisers describe this as a "highly unusual request" as the shipping question had already passed required inspections.

The following day, the Freedom Flotilla allege that before the inspection was completed, the GBISR had withdrawn the Guinea Bissau flag from two of the Freedom Flotilla’s ships, one of which is a cargo ship loaded with over 5000 tons of aid for Gaza.

The group considered this to be a highly unusual request national flagging authorities primary concern is safety and related standards on vessels bearing their flag, and are not concerned with the destination, route, cargo manifests or the nature of a specific voyage.

The petition explains: "Like when you register your car, the authorities don’t require you to detail to them every place you are going to go with the car".

In a statement on the issue the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said: "Guinea-Bissau has allowed itself to become complicit in Israel’s deliberate starvation, illegal siege and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is showing the world the extent to which it will go to deny Palestinians the aid they need to stay alive, in direct contravention of International Humanitarian Law, UN Security Council resolutions, and two orders of the International Court of Justice".

Without a flag, the Freedom Flotilla cannot sail. As a result, the group have written to the Minster to ask Mr Ryan to register the Freedom Flotilla under "The Mercantile Marine Act, 1955, as amended by the Merchant Shipping (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1998, and Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 2006"  as an Irish ships and allow it to sail to Gaza under the Irish Flag.

Currently sailing with the Freedom Flotilla is Irish Brazilian filmmaker Fellipe Lopes who is on special report for Hot Press.