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Banned by the Lebanese authorities, the Peace Cruise must change the itinerary of its second session. The ship will now set sail again on 21 August from Larnaca (Cyprus). It will head for Gaza, where it will make a second attempt to meet Palestinian young people.
Contrary to plans prepared many months ago, the Black Knight will no longer be making a port of call in Beirut on 22 August. The Lebanese decision was taken at the highest levels of the Lebanese state, and took the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) by surprise, as it did the other partners and co-organisers of the project - the European Union, North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and UNESCO. The arrival of the ship and of the Peace Sailors was negotiated last November with representatives of both the former government and of the current administration.
The organisers also reported that they had proposed inviting the Damas-based Arab Youth League to join the project.
This U-turn deprives ten Lebanese young people, who were due to join the boat in Larnaca and in Antalya, of participating in an enriching project to promote peace and reconciliation. It also deprives Lebanese youth organisations of their Peace Event, which was due to take place around Beirut harbour on 23 August.
Unofficial sources in Beirut report that the refusal to welcome the boat by the Lebanese authorities is based on its visit to "enemy territory" (Israel), even though this took place before the first session even arrived in Larnaca.
The Lebanese Government also rejected the organisers' counter-proposal, which was transfer the Peace Sailors into Lebanese boats at the limits of their territorial waters.
The Cruise also ran into problems on 11 August, when the ship was preparing to enter Gaza, prior to the formalities to enter Israeli waters at Ashdod. Representatives of the Israeli Government indicated that the Peace Sailors would be forbidden from entering Gaza by sea, even though this had been foreseen in the old fishing port, where everything had been made ready to welcome the ship. The Israeli authorities had not had enough time to take a decision on WOSM's counter-proposal, which was to take the ship to the edge of the fishing zone from where the Peace Sailors would disembark into Palestinian boats.
The organisers then proposed to the Palestinian authorities in Gaza that the young people could travel there from Ashdod by bus. However, this proposal was also rejected, undoubtedly because of the disappointment felt in Gaza in the wake of the earlier Israeli decision.
WOSM and its member associations in Lebanon, Israel and in the Palestinian Authorities have enjoyed extremely strong support to reverse these decisions from the official partners of the Peace Cruise: the European Union, UNESCO, North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, and the European Youth Forum.
In fact, these refusals are seen to be even more regrettable, considering that the Peace Cruise is part of two official programmes, the first being the European-Mediterranean Youth Action Programme, developed within the Barcelona Process (a declaration signed by the EU and 12 Mediterranean countries, including Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Authority) and of which it is a flagship project. The other is the International Year of the Culture of Peace, launched by the United Nations, and run by UNESCO, under whose flag the Peace Cruise is sailing.
World Scouting and its partners have expressed their regret and disappointment at these two bans, but they remain optimistic that they will be able to leave Larnaca for Gaza, and so make the planned port of call in the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authorities. Talks are under way with both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to reach agreement on the most appropriate way of reaching Gaza on 24 August. | 
