http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=21658
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the second son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and president of the Gaddafi Foundation revealed that a deal has been struck with Israel to allow previously banned building material and pre-fabricated houses, in addition to $50 million in aid, into the Gaza Strip for the purposes of reconstruction. This came after the Gaza-bound Amalthea aid ship, which was carrying around 2,000 tons of aid and a number of Libyan, Arab, and foreign activists, diverted from its original route to land at the Egyptian port of al-Arish.
[Gaddafi] Perhaps…I played my part amidst these conditions. I see this as a lesson for the Arabs, it was also revealing about the true position of the Palestinian officials…for they let us down. There are conflicts between them taking place at the expense of ordinary Palestinians; everybody wants to see a show or spectacle or confrontation, rather than help…they all want to kill the vineyard guard at the expense of getting the grapes.
That's right, unfortunately all of our Palestinian brothers failed to approach this problem correctly. We would love to help them, but we were surprised to see that each party was trying to politically exploit the situation in the context of the inter-Palestinian conflict. We are not a party of this conflict. In truth, I am very displeased about this issue.
Initially, when I first thought about the [Libyan aid] ship operation, many Libyan officials warned me [against this], telling me that I would be entering the treacherous ground of the inter-Palestinian conflict, and that everybody would try to control the [aid ship] operation to achieve their own political goals because nobody wants to help the Palestinian people in a serious manner, and part of the Palestinians suffering and problems is because they are victims of this conflict. Unfortunately, this is what we saw with regards to the Amalthea [aid] ship.
As for the Palestinian politicians, may God guide them to the righteous path; they are fighting with each other and trying to exploit this initiative to serve their own political goals with regards to the inter-Palestinian conflict. We avoid this and do not have anything to do with it.
Firstly, we were honest in our intention to help the Palestinians, and we did not have any kind of political agenda, and even the Israelis knew that our mission was purely humanitarian and not political. Our slogan was "we want to get the grapes, not kill the vineyard guard". We were not a warship or army to enter into a confrontation with the Israeli army. The Arabs always want to kill the vineyard guard, and this is the difference.
We believe that without work such as that which we are undertaking, the Gaza blockade would continue forever because all Palestinian factions are content with the status quo and the blockade will not be lifted when all Palestinian parties are seeking to exploit the suffering of their people to serve their own political agendas. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has practically ended today; building materials and funds will enter, and work will begin. There is no longer a ban, and the reconstruction process that the Arabs promised to initiate has now become real.
