Here in New York, survivors of the Israeli assault on the aid flotilla spoke out at a public forum in a Brooklyn church. British organizer Kevin Ovenden, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara ship where Israel killed nine activists, said the siege should be completely lifted.

Kevin Ovenden: “It’s very interesting when you look what they say they’ll allow in now that have not been allowed in for four years. Children’s toys are some of them. But the construction goods and, above all, the free movement of people and of goods and of capital, which is critical for the development of Gaza and Palestine as a free and independent entity, is something that they’re not allowed — prepared to happen. And we need to give a clear answer that nothing less than the full lifting of the siege will do; anything else is a redefining of the prison.”