Gaza's Ark is an international grassroots civil society campaign challenging the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip (which was found to be legal by the UN's Palmer report, but which has been declared illegal by the International Committee of the Red Cross and by a number of other international bodies) through nonviolent direct action, by sailing from Palestine with export products.
The campaign's goals include empowering Palestinians through a focus on the export economy and trade rather than a dependency on aid. The campaign funded the rebuilding of a former fishing boat in the port of Gaza to enable it to undertake a sea voyage from the only Mediterranean port closed to commercial navigation. At the same time, Gaza's Ark arranged sales contracts for Palestinian export products, whereby buyers in Europe, North America and Australia paid Palestinian producers in Gaza for their export products.
The initiative includes participation from Palestinian civil society in Gaza as well as international solidarity activists from Free Gaza Australia, the Canadian Boat to Gaza, and Americans affiliated with the organizing committees for the US Boat to Gaza and the Gaza Freedom March. Gaza's Ark is part of the ongoing international Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which sends boats to challenge the blockade of Gaza from the outside.
Accordign to Gaza's Ark, their actions have been endorsed by a number of internationally prominent figures including Alice Walker, Desmond Tutu, Vandana Shiva and Noam Chomsky as well as hundreds of other individuals and organizations.