NOVANEWS
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Turkish harbormaster let 11 of us sail (and 25 are left behind)
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Students protest Israeli spokesperson at Wayne State University
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UNESCO vote shows the US and Israel represent the 1% against the 99% of world opinion
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The Netanyahu Guide to Middle East Peace
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Goldstone’s major error: By looking for South Africa, he missed Israel’s own brand of apartheid
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‘Freedom Waves to Gaza’ flotilla leaves Turkey headed to Gaza; Organizers: ‘It is time to lift the siege of Gaza which deprives 1.6 million civilians of their rights to travel, work, study, develop their economy and be free.’
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Sadly, Americans need permission from Israeli heroes to stick a fork in Zionism
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Halper: Israel may attack Iran so that we won’t hear the word ‘Palestinian’ for another 5 years
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‘You lost’ — reporters at State say UNESCO vote isolates U.S. from world opinion (and possibly from intellectual property enforcement)
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Israel lobbied Serbians in Bosnia to block Palestinians at Security Council
Turkish harbormaster let 11 of us sail (and 25 are left behind)
Nov 02, 2011
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Mazin Qumsiyeh is part of the ground crew for the latest Gaza flotilla. A letter he just sent out to friends.
Dear friends and colleagues,
This letter was written and rewritten four times as the ups and downs of the last few days. When you get it two boats would have left Turkish waters and I am not on one of them. I finalize this letter from a boat returning to port in Turkey. Tears are dry (of joy at success of our comrades and sadness for not being with them). The will is still there and I promise myself to get to Gaza next time.
The boats now in International waters are named Saoirse (http://irishshiptogaza.org/) and Tahrir (http://www.tahrir.ca), Irish and Arabic for Liberty and Freedom. The Canadian steering committee that invited us to join selected 11 from the 36 slated to go because they were unfairly reduced to that number by the Turkish harbor master. We are very disappointed that 25 of us were left behind. Some of us left behind are trying different ways to catch up and we may still succeed. In fact if you do not hear from me in 24 hours it means most likely I have succeeded to get on a boat. We hope that those who took the boats do arrive to the besieged strip on the Mediterranean where 1.6 million people are held under and immoral and illegal blockade/siege. A small group of us took a small boat to try to meet one of the boats in waters off the coast but that did not work out (Turkish coast guard and timing). But it felt important to try.
I personally wanted so bad to visit many friends in Gaza some of them I have not seen in years. I wanted to visit Hiam and her family. I last saw Hiam and her mother 10 years ago when we brought Hiam to CT (she was then less than 8 years old) to get a prosthetic eye after she was shot deliberately by an Israeli soldier. She is one of hundreds of children who lost their eyes between 2000-2005 (for her story and pictures, see link to qumsiyeh.org). I wanted to visit with friends like Dr.
Heidar Eid whom I saw only when he was able to get out of Gaza and I was able to get out of the occupied West Bank so that we can meet in a faraway country in Europe. I want to look in the eyes of Gaza children and tell them that we, the human family, care about them. We will keep trying. I figure, not trying would be far harder on all of us.
We arrived at Istanbul at the 88th anniversary of proclamation of Turkey as
a republic in 1923. Ataturk’s Turkey evolved quickly into a modern state
at par with other European states. On the news we witness earthquake
destruction in Eastern Turkey and I see a beautiful young girl with casts
on her legs smiling at one point, sad at another and I do not have to
understand the language to understand human tragedy. The damage from this
natural disaster is chillingly similar to the damage of the man-made
disaster in Gaza: collapsed multistory building, burying dead, injured
people. But Gaza is not allowed to recover.
From Istanbul to Dalaman and then to a small lovely town where we stayed
until the launch time. People here are very friendly. They become even
friendlier (if that is possible) when they hear I am from Filistin. But
then the whole place reminds me of Filistin (especially northern Palestine
areas of the Galilee). I take a deep breath and soak the views of Olives,
Citrus, Figs, Almonds, Loquots, mullberies, Jasmine, cactus, old stone
terraces, and old men playing cards or backgammon. The colors are so
bright, the smells so refreshing, the water so abundant. Smiley
comfortable faces with the wrinkles of the hillsides reflected on the faces
of the old people. The shops, restaurants and hotels are family run and
the young are playful and energetic. The evening call to prayer emanates
from the mosque. The bicycles all around are never locked and even our
hotel rooms were left open much of the time. I feel like I am again
visiting North Palestine where my grandmother is from a place that was also
etched in her face and her memory till the day she died.
Before I proceed any further, I pause to tell you who were most on my mind
in the last four days as we went through the ups and downs and countless
meetings to come to this point. What was on my mind were victims of the
Israeli apartheid state including these US victims:
1) The 34 sailors killed on the USS Liberty attacked deliberately in
International waters in 1967 (http://www.usslibertyveterans.org/,
http://www.gtr5.com/ ) and the survivors who have later died without ever
seeing justice for the murderers.
2) Rachel Corrie, 23 year old American student killed deliberately by
Israeli bulldozer in Rafah
3) Furkan Dogan, 19 y. o. Turkish American citizen, who was executed at
point blank range on the Mavi Marmara ship (see
link to www.globalresearch.ca and smuggled
videos at link to www.youtube.com and
link to www.youtube.com )
I thought of their bravery as I watched fellow human beings from 10
countries try and even compete to get on boats (some have been to Gaza
several times and some tried to get to Gaza several times). Driven only by
belief in our common humanity, I as a Palestinian cannot help but feel a
weight of gratitude for these brave souls. We had lots of glitches in the
past few days here with both bureaucratic and political rollercoaster. I
will spare you the gory details because the ultimate goal is Gaza. Briefly,
we arrived Saturday and were in meetings Sunday when negotiations started s
the boats arrived at docks. Monday we find that we are unable to
accommodate all passengers per the Turkish authorities (who were not told
our destination). Monday night we had a meeting till nearly midnight.
Tuesday was a an emotional rollercoaster as those selected were approached
individually to give their passports. Those of us who were not asked knew
then we were not selected. Passport data went to Ankara and further delays.
Wednesday at 11 AM came back green light to go but a little later, we heard
glitches happening and the authorities were at the doc. When the boats
finally left, five of us “the crazies” raced to our locally chartered boats
to try and meet. The cruise Wednesday did not succeed and we had to go
back, disappointed. But we hope that our colleagues on the Tahrir and
Saoirse will not be intercepted by the navy of the apartheid regime that is
enforcing an illegal and immoral siege on Gaza.
We live in an Orwellian world where humanitarian activists are persecuted
and war criminals get wined and dined in five star hotels. We live in a
world where for seeking membership in a cultural and scientific
organization (UNESCO) and getting it by a democratic vote:
– the organization is punished with losing members withholding dues
– the internet service of 4 million Palestinians under occupation is
targeted by spams and attempts to shut it down (slowed down so far but it
is not clear if the Palestinians will cope with this
– the occupation authority decides to “punish” the Palestinian population
by building more settlements and by withholding Palestinian tax money (this
is Palestinian money from their taxes due to them).
– the US congress cuts humanitarian aid going to the Palestinian people
(not going to the Palestinian authority or even passing through its hands).
It was hard for me to see why we had to be secretive about a humanitarian
operation like this. It is hard for me to see why the Turkish authorities
limited us to 11 passengers on each boat. It is hard for me to see why
activists had hard feelings about each other or why choices were made the
way they were. I had so many questions left on my mind but for now sadness
and anticipation overwhelms everything.
The human language is so limiting in expressing emotions and feelings on
this day. Words like anticipation, exhilaration, hope, fear, love, are all
rather limiting. But there is one thing I think is interesting: when I am
in the Galilee, in Al-Walaja, in Aida refugee camp, in an Israeli holding
cell or jail, or attempting to get to Gaza, it is precisely these times in
my life that I feel most alive and most human because I am having “joyful
participation in the sorrows of this world”. Fellow human beings from
Ireland, Canada, USA, Denmark and elsewhere are inspiring and I quickly
became friends with those I did not know before. They share me these
strong feelings and this makes it even more meaningful. You can see why
Vittorio Arrigoni ended his messages to us with the note “stay human”. May
we all stay most alive and stay most human.
If you want to help, please use all possible communication means (emails,
twitters, facebook, calls) to let all people especially media and
politicians know you support lifting the siege on Gaza and you want our
ships protected from Israeli piracy. It is long overdue.
Now imagine: link to youtu.be
For a previous adventure of the Canadian boat, see
November anniversaries
2/11/1917 Britain issued the infamous Balfour declaration promising some
one else’s country to become a national homeland for a racist Zionist
movement
3/11/1956 Khan Yunis massacre by Israeli forces of civilians in Gaza
9/11 International Day of Action Against the wall (coincide with fall of
Berlin wall)
10/11/1975 UN General Assembly resolution condemning Zionism as a form of
racism
13/11/1974 PLO Chairman Address UN General Assembly
15/11/1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence
22/11/1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 “Emphasizing the
inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and “achieving a
just settlement of the refugee problem”
29/11/1947 UN GA 181 recommending partition
29/11 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
inaugurated by the UN GA
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
Students protest Israeli spokesperson at Wayne State University
Nov 02, 2011
Adam Horowitz
Student’s silent protest during GIl Hoffman talk. the students walked out en masse. (For more photos see Facebook here)
UNESCO vote shows the US and Israel represent the 1% against the 99% of world opinion
Nov 02, 2011
Adam Horowitz
Phyllis Bennis writing in Salon about the UNESCO Palestine vote:
Apparently the U.S. made the judgment that stiffing the organization, risking the likelihood of being kicked out on its unilateralist behind, is a price worth paying – to make the unsurprising political point that Washington is not happy about Palestinian statehood on any terms other than its own. Palestine’s right to membership in this particular world body means UNESCO can make the determination that Palestine, rather its occupying power Israel, has the right to nominate World Heritage Sites in its own territory, such as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It may not be the “independent and sovereign Palestinian state” the U.S. claims it supports – but it certainly helps achieve a few of Palestine’s long-denied rights. And the 20 years of U.S.-controlled “peace process” has produced nothing for Palestinians except a tripling of illegal Israeli settlers on their land – certainly nothing remotely resembling a Palestinian state.
The decision to withhold the dues was in the interest of the foreign policy 1 percent — Israel and its most hard-line supporters in the U.S. – not in the interest of the rest of us. In fact there are potentially hazardous consequences ahead for a lot of us, including some of those most of the time part of the 1 percent. Because achieving full membership in UNESCO is only the first step in the broader Palestinian plan at the UN.
Other organizations will follow – and one of the first is likely to be WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. WIPO is hardly a household word but it is an important entity. WIPO figures out how to protect patents, royalty arrangements and trademarks, so not only cultural workers but the biggest high-tech industries have a huge investment there too. That’s why the Obama administration convened a high-power meeting of corporate giants – Google, Microsoft, Apple and others – the day before the UNESCO vote, to see if they might have ideas to get out of the impasse.
It’s complicated, because this isn’t just a political decision by the administration to cut the funding. Congress passed specific legislation, dating back to 1991 and 1994, requiring the U.S. government to do just that – to withhold funds from any UN agency that recognizes Palestine on an equal basis with other states. And those laws didn’t include the kind of presidential waiver congress often adds when they know they’re passing really stupid resolutions that are just for domestic political consumption. Like every year when members of Congress demand that the U.S. move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem – something no country in the world does– they always include language that says “unless the President certifies that keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv is in the national security interest of the United States.” That’s the out.
Who pays the price?
This time, there’s no obvious out. The problem is that if the United States has to leave WIPO, a lot of powerful corporations are going to be very unhappy. After WIPO, which UN agencies will be next to be de-funded? Will it be the International Atomic Energy Agency, on whose reports U.S. strategists rely to figure out Iran’s nuclear power program? If an IAEA member state doesn’t pay its dues, will it still have access to the agency’s classified reports? Will it be the World Health Organization, leaving the U.S. Centers for Disease Control outside of the global collaborations it depends on to fight the spread of devastating diseases?
And that’s all just talking about what affects the U.S. and Americans directly. What happens to children – the world’s children, living across the impoverished global South – when UNICEF loses 22 percent of its budget? UNICEF is probably the most popular UN agency in the United States – will this year’s Halloween trick-or-treat Pennies for UNICEF campaign mark the last U.S. money to support the children’s fund?
There has rarely been a clearer example of domestic politics – in this case influence of the pro-Israel lobbies – undermining national interests. Senator Lindsay Graham, one of the most influential Republicans on foreign policy, said “There’s a lot of bipartisan support for cutting off funding to any political U.N. organization that would do this. What you are going to do is eventually lose congressional support for our participation in the United Nations. That’s what’s at risk here. That would be a great loss.” But while claiming to recognize U.S. interests in the UN agencies, Graham still plans to introduce a Senate resolution calling for withdrawal from UNESCO – or any other UN agency recognizing Palestine on an equal basis. Graham is known as the most pro-UN among Republicans (admittedly a low bar). Yet as The Cable reported, “when it comes to the issue of Palestinian recognition, the politics just don’t allow any room for compromise, he said.”
The Netanyahu Guide to Middle East Peace
Nov 02, 2011
Adam Horowitz
(Image: o0Ax0o via Reddit)
(Thanks to Mondo reader James for passing it along)
Goldstone’s major error: By looking for South Africa, he missed Israel’s own brand of apartheid
Nov 02, 2011
Adam Horowitz
Ben White, author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, responds to Richard Goldstone’s recent New York Times Op-Ed:
There are numerous problems with Goldstone’s piece, but I want to highlight two important errors. First, Goldstone – like others who attack the applicability of the term “apartheid” – wants to focus on differences between the old regime in South Africa and what is happening in Israel/Palestine. Note that he does this even while observing that apartheid “can have broader meaning”, and acknowledging its inclusion in the 1998 Rome Statute.
As South African legal scholar John Dugard wrote in his foreword to my book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide, no one is saying the two situations “are exactly the same”. Rather, there are “certain similarities” as well as “differences”: “It is Israel’s own version of a system that has been universally condemned”.
Goldstone would appear not to have read studies by the likes of South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council and others, who conclude that Israel is practicing a form of apartheid. The term has been used by the likes of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem.
Goldstone’s second major error is to omit core Israeli policies, particularly relating to the mass expulsions of 1948 and the subsequent land regime built on expropriation and ethno-religious discrimination. By law, Palestinian refugees are forbidden from returning, their property confiscated – the act of dispossession that enabled a Jewish majority to be created in the first place.
As an advisor on Arab affairs to PM Menachem Begin put it: “If we needed this land, we confiscated it from the Arabs. We had to create a Jewish state in this country, and we did”. Within the “Green Line”, the average Arab community had lost between 65 and 75 per cent of its land by the mid-1970s. Across Israel, hundreds of Jewish communities permit or deny entry according to “social suitability”. Goldstone’s claim that there is merely “de facto separation” rings hollow.
Successive Israeli governments have pursued policies of “Judaisation” in areas of the country where it is deemed there are “too many” non-Jews, i.e. Palestinian citizens. The current Housing Minister has called it a “national duty” to “prevent the spread” of Palestinians. In the Negev, there is a plan to forcibly relocate some 30,000 Bedouin citizens, a population group President Shimon Peres described as a “demographic threat“. A racialised discourse about birth rates is commonplace: In 1998, the mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, told reporters that “it’s a matter of concern when the non-Jewish population rises a lot faster than the Jewish population”.
‘Freedom Waves to Gaza’ flotilla leaves Turkey headed to Gaza; Organizers: ‘It is time to lift the siege of Gaza which deprives 1.6 million civilians of their rights to travel, work, study, develop their economy and be free.’
Nov 02, 2011
Ben Lorber
View Flotilla II from Turkey in a larger map
On Wednesday, November 2, two international ships left the Turkish harbor to carry humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The event, called ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’, unites 27 activists from 9 countries, including America, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Australia, alongside Palestinians from Bethlehem and Haifa, in a broad-based international movement to break Israel’s illegal and immoral suffocation of the 1.6 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The Irish yachtSaoirse (Freedom), which carries 15 activists, and the Canadian boat Tahrir (Liberation), which holds 12, will attempt to carry $30,000 in medical supplies beyond the Israeli blockade later this week. ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’ is the 11th attempt by international activists to deliver humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza since 2008.
For more Democracy Now reporting on the Freedom Waves flotilla see here.
As the boats navigate international waters, Palestinian youth activists will parade a large wooden effigy of the aid boats through the streets of Ramallah, while distributing white armbands and ribbons emblazoned ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’. In addition, they will hold a demonstration outside of the UN office in Ramallah on Thursday, demanding that the UN end its compliance with the Israeli blockade and protect the humanitarian mission.
Indeed, in a letter given to the UN on Wednesday, Palestinian youth insisted that “it is incumbent upon the UN to take urgent steps to protect the boats en route to Gaza and all of the humanitarian volunteers aboard, as well as to declare its support for nonviolent, humanitarian action, designed to do what the UN and its members states have thus far failed to do.”
The tahrir docked in Turkey. (Photo: Lina Attalah)
Organizers of the flotilla mission withheld the news from the world until the boats reached international waters, to prevent Israeli or international sabotage that plagued previous aid attempts. Though the humanitarian vessels departed from Fethiye, Turkey, organizers insist that the Turkish government is not involved with Freedom Waves for Gaza. Says Huwaida Arraf, “because Freedom Flotilla 1 was mostly an international effort, and because with the Mavi Marmara Turkish people were killed, it became mainly a Turkish thing…which detracted from the fact that it really was an international effort. So this time we want to show that it’s not just Turkey, its an international effort.” In fact, no Turkish citizens are aboard either of the two ships.
Freedom Waves for Gaza comes at a time when minor improvements to the situation- such as the opening of the Rafah land crossing from Egypt to Gaza in May- or minor concessions by Israel- such as its allowance of minor consumer goods into Gaza in the wake of the Mavi Marmara massacre in 2010, touted internationally as an ‘easing of the blockade’ (though it led led 10-year-old Gaza schoolchild Abed Rahmen Jadee to lament ‘I don’t want any more snacks or coke. I want a new school’)- have done little to meaningfully alleviate the humanitarian crisis that plagues the 1.6 million inhabitants of Gaza, half of whom are under the age of 16.
Organizer Huwaida Arraf, chair of the Free Gaza movement, stresses that “by reaching Palestinians through their own port, the flotilla defies the dehumanization of a whole population and supports the continuing efforts of the people of Gaza to assert their dignity. The Palestinians will accept nothing less than a total end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza and all forms of violence and discrimination against them.”
The most recent figures published by the UN and international humanitarian and human rights organizations confirm that roughly 75 – 80% of the population rely on international aid in order to survive; 65% live below the poverty line; 52% are food insecure; approximately 40% are unemployed; there are no building materials for much-needed schools and hospitals; 90 – 95% of the drinking water is contaminated and unfit for consumption; seriously ill patients cannot get access to the specialist treatment that would potentially save their lives; and children are suffering untreated post-traumatic stress as a result of the white phosphorous shells used illegally in Israel’s invasion in January 2009.
In its declaration to the UN, the Palestinian youth stated that “in our schools, universities and through our organizations, we are taught about human rights and international law, and yet it seems like Palestinians fall into a class of people upon whom these rights don’t apply. Like the blacks in America a half a century ago, or in South Africa two decades ago, we are victims of an exclusivist ideology and those who tolerate and enable it.”
The declaration continues- “Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has been returned to his family, removing one of Israel’s main pretexts, albeit not a justification, for its Draconian closure policy. And while 1027 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for Shalit (although 550 have yet to be released), over 1.5 million Palestinians remain caged in the prison that is Gaza.”
During the campaign, Witness Gaza (witnessgaza.com) will be a central information hub, in contact with representative organizations from activists’ home countries. Palestinian youth representatives will be updating the world via Twitter at #PALWaves, as will international activists aboard the ships- unless Israel jams the communications signal, as has occurred in previous flotilla aid attempts.
In Wednesday’s press release, Majd Kayyal, a Palestinian activist from Haifa aboard the Tahrir, insisted that “Israel has caged Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, prohibiting physical contact between us. We want to break the siege Israel has imposed on our people. The fact that we’re in international waters is already a victory for the movement.”
As new Israeli airstrikes are claiming lives in Gaza, and as Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to intensify the bombardments, it is due time to once again bring to the world’s attention what the UN in 2009 called the ‘protracted human dignity crisis’ caused by Israel’s closure of Gaza. Says Huwaida Arraf, “the people of Gaza have called on the peoples and governments of the world to challenge an illegal, immoral, and irrational Israeli naval blockade that has caused, and continues to cause, incalculable human suffering. We are responding to that call. Our primary aim is to overcome the continuing blockade of Gaza through civil resistance and non-violent direct action, and to establish a permanent sea lane between Gaza and the rest of the world.”
For up to the minute information on the Freedom Waves flotilla: http://witnessgaza.com/
On Twitter: @PalWaves #FreedomWaves
Ben Lorber is an American activist with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank and a journalist with the Alternative Information Center in Bethlehem. Visit his blog at freepaly.wordpress.com.
Editor note: Below is a press release and call to action that was sent out today:
For immediate release, November 2, 2011
TWO BOATS WITH PASSENGERS FROM 5 COUNTRIES (INCLUDING THE U.S.)
HAVE SET SAIL TO GAZA
Organizers say: “It is time to lift the siege of Gaza which deprives 1.6 million civilians of their rights to travel, work, study, develop their economy and be free.”
The Canadian ship Tahrir and the Irish ship Saoirse have successfully reached international waters, initiating the “Freedom Wave to Gaza.” The boats have embarked from Turkey and are on the Mediterranean Sea. In all, the 2 boats carry 27 passengers from Canada, Ireland, U.S., Palestine, and Australia.
Kit Kittredge on board the Tahrir was previously a passenger on the American ship, The Audacity of Hope, which attempted passage to Gaza last July. Kittredge says, “ The only obstacles in our way are Israel’s military and the complicity of the Obama administration but in our sails is the wind of worldwide public opinion which has turned against the illegal blockade.”
Ann Wright retired US army Colonel and former US Diplomat says, “We carry inspiration from the Arab Spring and the worldwide “Occupy” movements that are demanding freedom and justice. Where governments fail, civil society must act. As Americans we are fed up with our government’s unquestioning support of Israel no matter how violent, illegal and oppressive its actions. We will not stand by and watch $30 billion of our tax money committed to buying Israel weaponry used to carry out this illegal occupation of Palestine including the blockade of Gaza.”
Jane Hirschmann added, “Our sailing coincides with UN agency UNESCO’s recognition of Palestine as a member state, defying US threats to cut off $80 million of US funding in retaliation. This shows the growing strength of opposition by the international community to U.S. and Israeli policies in Palestine. We call on the international community to go further and take effective action to lift the siege of Gaza. Hirschmann was one of the organizers this past summer of the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope which is still captive in Greece.
Act now!!
BOATS SAILING NOW TO GAZA! SPREAD THE WORD.
Israel and the US outsourced the siege of Gaza to Athens last summer by preventing 8 boats in the Freedom Flotilla 2-Stay Human from sailing from Greek ports to Gaza. Despite this we were able to bring world-wide attention to the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Our efforts in Greece only fueled our determination to challenge the imprisonment of the people of Gaza. We said we would continue to sail and so we are!!!
At this moment, two boats are in international waters in the Mediterranean heading to Gaza. One boat, the Saoirse from Ireland, includes parliamentarians among its passengers. The other, the Tahrir, carries representatives from Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Palestine. The U.S. Representative on the Tahrir, Kit Kittredge, was a passenger on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope mission in Athens in July. A journalist from Democracy Now is on the Tahrir also. Civil society organizations in Gaza await their arrival, and look forward to the delivery of letters collected from thousands of U.S. supporters in the To Gaza With Love campaign.
We need your help to make this mission a success. Please take these actions immediately.
1. Check these websites for updates: US to Gaza, Irish Ship to Gaza and Canadian Boat to Gaza, watch or listen to Democracy Now for live coverage from the Tahrir.. Look for twitter hashtag #Freedomwaves.
2. Spread the word far and wide – send this alert to your contacts.
3. Call the State Department and the White House- demand that they take immediate action to ensure the safe passage of these boats and to put an end to the siege of Gaza.
Call the State Department:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 202-647-5291
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro 011-972-3-519-7575
Office of Israel/Palestinian Affairs Paul Sutphin 202-647-3672
Office of Consular Affairs, Kim Richter 202-647-8308
and the White House: 202-456-1414
email President Obama at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Here are some talking points or suggested messaging:
Gaza has been under siege since mid-2006, depriving 1.6 million people of their liberty and basic human rights. Although the siege has been condemned by the United Nations, the Red Cross, and many national governments, nothing has been done to ease the plight of these civilians. Civil society has had to act where governments would not. Two ships with 27 passengers from 5 countries are sailing to Gaza to confront the Israeli naval blockade, and to bring medical supplies and letters of support.
As Americans we insist that our government (which sends Israel $3 billion in military aid every year), demands that Israel insures the ships’ safe passage and ends its illegal blockade of Gaza. There is absolutely no excuse to subject 1.6 million people to collective punishment. Ask your local press to cover this story. Up-to-date information will be available at www.ustogaza.org, www.irishshiptogaza.org and www.tahrir.ca
FORWARD THIS ACTION ALERT TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS, PLEASE INCLUDE THE PRESS RELEASE.
THANKS
FELICE GELMAN, JANE HIRSCHMANN AND ANN WRIGHT
Update:
The Center for Constitutional Rights issued this statement:
Two boats carrying twenty-seven human rights activists from five countries, including the United States, have made it to international waters and are headed to Gaza. Today, the flotilla set sail unannounced from Turkey with the aim of ending the siege and isolation of Gaza. The boats are carrying letters from people in the United States to the people of Gaza, as well as medicine. This latest attempt comes less than six months after the “Stay Human Flotilla” was detained and sabotaged in Greece by local port authorities in response to mounting pressure from the United States and Israel.
In light of Israel’s attack on the May 2010 flotilla, which killed nine civilians including 18-year old U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) calls on the international community to ensure the safe passage of the ships through international waters into Gaza and prevent a repetition of last year’s lethal assault by Israeli forces.
Said CCR senior staff sttorney Maria LaHood, “CCR applauds the persistence of civil society to break the siege on Gaza, where Palestinians remain imprisoned and isolated, without access to the supplies necessary to sustain and rebuild their lives.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights also denounced the introduction in early October of House Bill H.R. 3131, in which the sponsors “express gratitude to the government of Greece for preventing the [July 2011 Freedom Flotilla II-Stay Human] from setting sail” and “direct the Secretary of State to…report on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the [flotilla] should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization.” The Freedom Flotilla II was a July 2011 attempt by human rights activists to break the Israeli blockade and deliver aid to the Gaza Strip. As the International Committee of the Red Cross recently stated, “the easing of the closure inJune 2010 has had little impact on the daily lives of the residents in Gaza,” and “Israel retains effective control over the Gaza strip, in particular the movement of persons and goods.”
CCR issued the following statement:
“The Center for Constitutional Rights denounces H.R. 3131 as another example of the increasing use of the word ‘terrorism’ to create fear and stoke irrational response to activism, including the growing use of ‘material support’ charges to punish people for humanitarian activity and expressions of international solidarity or dissent. The Center for Constitutional Rights has long called for the end of the siege of Gaza and has supported the flotilla efforts, which, at their core, seek to end the isolation of Palestinians living in Gaza. In May 2011, CCR filed a lawsuit against numerous government agencies, including the Defense, Justice, and State Departments, seeking the release of documents regarding the U.S. government’s knowledge of, and actions in relation to, the May 31, 2010 attack by Israel on a six-boat flotilla in international waters, resulting in the death of nine civilians, including a 18-year old U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan. It is Israel’s illegal blockade and the May 2010 killing of unarmed flotilla participants by Israeli commandos that should be condemned and for which accountability should be sought, rather than the victims’ attempts to break the siege on Gaza.”
“H.R. 3131 is a disgrace and an attempt at fear-mongering based on the libelous assertion that if you are against the illegal blockade of Gaza, you are a terrorist. This is yet another attempt to silence the voices of ordinary citizens acting in good conscience. We will continue to organize and send boats in order to show our support for the imprisoned population of Gaza. We will not be silenced,” said Jane Hirschmann, one of the organizers of a U.S. boat with the Stay Human flotilla to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope.
The July 2011 flotilla was not the first aid attempt to be stopped. On May, 31, 2010, more than 700 civilians from nearly 40 countries on the Freedom Flotilla I sought to bring aid and supplies to the Gaza Strip, but Israeli commandos intercepted the six-boat flotilla in international waters, killing nine passengers, including one U.S. citizen, Furkan Doğan. There had been five successful voyages to Gaza in 2008, and all four attempts to reach Gaza in 2010 were forcefully blocked.
Also, Monday, UNESCO voted to recognize Palestine as a full member of the organization, which Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys said demonstrates that the international community increasingly rejects the United States’ isolation of the Palestinian people, and is a small step toward their self-determination. Because of the vote, the United States is cutting funding to UNESCO.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is engaged in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation seeking information about the U.S. knowledge of, and response to, the attack on last year’s flotilla. For more information, please see our case page. For a factsheet about the illegality of the blockade of Gaza and the attack on the Gaza flotilla, please click here.
Sadly, Americans need permission from Israeli heroes to stick a fork in Zionism
Nov 02, 2011
Philip Weiss
Our own State Department said 64 years ago that establishing Israel would just create one war after another in the region. Yes, right up to the Iraq war. Moshe Dayan’s widow Ruth, 95, says the same thing, speaking to Rula Jebreal, at the Daily Beast: (thanks to Nima Shirazi):
“I am a proud Israeli. I’ve lived through every war, endured every moment of suffering, but I never stopped believing in peace. I lost friends and family members. I’m a peacemaker, but the current Israeli government does not know how to make peace. We move from war to war, and this will never stop. I think Zionism has run its course.”