As the people of Gaza have fallen under the rule of the militant group Hamas in the newly divided Palestinian Authority, they have become dangerously isolated. Last week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which oversees much infrastructure work in the Occupied Territories, announced that it was halting all construction projects in Gaza because it could not get concrete and other building materials into the area. The United States, which initially suspended Palestinian aid after Hamas’ election win, is now restoring some funds to the Fatah party in charge of the West Bank, which will probably deepen Gaza’s economic stagnation.

Indeed, the situation is now so desperate that Gaza residents are rooting for a 61-year-old piano tuner from California to help re-open Gaza’s main port. The Free Gaza Line —a ferry service that piano tuner Paul Larudee wants to begin this fall with $300,000 in donations from Palestinian sympathizers — would shuttle between Gaza and the port town Larnaca in Cyprus.

But this quixotic crusade also comes with dangers of its own. Larudee is already on a blacklist compiled by the Israeli security force Shin Bet as an anti-Israel leftist. Larudee says he wants to use the ferry project to publicize Israel’s “blockade” of the Gaza Strip. The territory’s port has been closed for security reasons since 2003. Larudee enlisted other foes of the Israeli occupation to join his project, including Mahmood Ibrahim, a Palestinian professor, and Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor. Their informal and not-all-that-catchy battle cry, Larudee says, is “I have the right to tune pianos in Gaza if they want me to.”

He hopes to generate funds by announcing a Sept. 15 maiden voyage and declaring it fully booked. He says he also plans to recruit an as-yet-to-be-named non-governmental organization to run security checks in case Israeli forces seek to block the boat by force.

The Free Gaza Line concedes that it hasn’t secured the proper clearances for the ferry from Cypriot officials. But its business plan takes a generally sunny view of its prospects. Indeed, in a news release, it provides a Web link to an Israeli news report that quotes an unnamed government official saying, “If these people want to take their summer vacations in Hamastan, I say good health to them. They just may get an education in Hamas-style democracy and tolerance that will last them a lifetime.”

In other words, sarcasm doesn’t always travel as readily across the waters as piano tuners can.