Support the Gaza Freedom March!!

Dear friends,
many of you will be aware of the Gaza Freedom March, which is set to take place in January of 2010. It has now been endorsed by Palestinian Civil Society Organisations and they have issued a call for individuals and organisations to endorse and support the March.

Many Palestinian solidarity supporters around the world are planning to join the March in January in person, but many of us may not be able to do so for a range of reasons. If we are not able to join the March in person, solidarity can be show in our home towns and countries by organising solidarity actions to draw attention to the March and the illegal siege of Gaza, demonstrating the world-wide, international support for the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom and the ending of Israel's illegal and brutal occupation and siege.

Please consider how you or your group can support this very important campaign and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

in solidarity,
Kim


***



Dear supporters of just peace and international law,

We are writing to invite you to endorse the Pledge of the Gaza Freedom March, a creative initiative with historic potential organized by the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza. The March is aimed at mobilizing active and effective support from around the world for ending Israel’s illegal and immoral siege on Gaza, currently the most pressing of all Israeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights. To endorse the Pledge, please click here and enter your name -- or your organization’s name -- in the box provided at the bottom.

Also reproduced at the end of this letter, after the Pledge, is the organizers’ Statement of Context which provides the necessary Palestinian context of the siege, namely Israel’s occupation, its decades-old denial of UN-sanctioned Palestinian rights, and Palestinian civil resistance to that oppression.

The Gaza Freedom March has won the endorsement of a decisive majority in Palestinian civil society. Aside from the Islamic University of Gaza, Al-Aqsa University, and tens of local grassroots organizations, refugee advocacy groups, professional associations and NGOs in Gaza, the March was endorsed by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC)*, a wide coalition of the largest Palestinian mass organizations, trade unions, networks and professional associaitions, including all the major trade union federations, the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) and the largest network representing Palestinian refugees. Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations, representing the most prominent Palestinian NGOs inside Israel, has also endorsed.

The March, planned for January 2010, to commemorate Israel's illegal war of aggression against the 1.5 million Palestinians in occupied Gaza, is expected to draw many prominent figures and massive activist participation from across the world. The organizers have shown exceptional moral courage and a true sense of solidarity in drafting the Pledge and the Statement of Context. We salute them all for their principled and consistent commitment to applying international law and universal human rights to the plight of the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza. We deeply appreciate their solidarity with our struggle for freedom and our inalienable right to self determination.

Anchored solely in international law and universal human rights, the Gaza Freedom March appeals to international organizations and conscientious citizens with diverse political backgrounds on the basis of their common abhorrence of the immense injustice embodied in the atrocious siege of 1.5 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the overwhelming majority of whom are refugees.

With massive participation of internationals, led by prominent leaders, alongside Palestinians in Gaza the world can no longer ignore its moral duty to end this criminal siege, and Israel can no longer count on its current impunity to last long. We strongly urge you to endorse the Pledge and to help secure more endorsements.

Haidar Eid (Gaza)

Omar Barghouti (Jerusalem)

* The BDS National Committee, BNC, consists of: Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine (all major political parties); General Union of Palestinian Workers; Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions; General Union of Palestinian Women; Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO); Federation of Independent Trade Unions; Palestine Right of Return Coalition; Union of Palestinian Farmers; Occupied Palestine and Golan Heights Initiative (OPGAI); Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (STW); Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI); National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba; Civic Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ); Coalition for Jerusalem; Union of Palestinian Charitable Organizations; Palestinian Economic Monitor; Union of Youth Activity Centers-Palestine Refugee Camps; among others …

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/9750/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2055

***

Endorse the Gaza Freedom March! Sign the Pledge Below!

Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law that has led to mass suffering. The U.S., the European Union, and the rest of the international community are complicit.

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked. Yet, the siege of Gaza continues. It is time for us to take action! On January 1, 2010, we will mark the New Year by marching alongside the Palestinian people of Gaza in a non-violent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade.

Our purpose in this March is lifting the siege on Gaza. We demand that Israel end the blockade. We also call upon Egypt to open Gaza’s Rafah border. Palestinians must have freedom to travel for study, work, and much-needed medical treatment and to receive visitors from abroad.

As an international coalition we are not in a position to advocate a specific political solution to this conflict. Yet our faith in our common humanity leads us to call on all parties to respect and uphold international law and fundamental human rights to bring an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 and pursue a just and lasting peace.

The march can only succeed if it arouses the conscience of humanity.

Please join us.

The International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza
For more information, please see the Statement of Context

For a list of endorsers, please click here.




http://www.gazafreedommarch.org//article.php?id=5081

STATEMENT OF CONTEXT

Amnesty International has called the Gaza blockade a "form of collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention." Human Rights Watch has called the blockade a "serious violation of international law." The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk, condemned Israel’s siege of Gaza as amounting to a “crime against humanity.”


Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has said the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza are being treated "like animals," and has called for "ending of the siege of Gaza" that is depriving "one and a half million people of the necessities of life."

One of the world's leading authorities on Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University, has said that the consequence of the siege "is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union."

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked.

The Palestinians of Gaza have exhorted the international community to move beyond words of condemnation.

Yet, the siege of Gaza continues.

Upholding International Law

The illegal siege of Gaza is not happening in a vacuum. It is one of the many illegal acts committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories it occupied militarily in 1967.

The Wall and the settlements are illegal, according to the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

House demolitions and wanton destruction of farm lands are illegal.

The closures and curfews are illegal.

The roadblocks and checkpoints are illegal.

The detention and torture are illegal.

The occupation itself is illegal.

The truth is that if international law were enforced the occupation would end.

An end to the military occupation that began in 1967 is a major condition for establishing a just and lasting peace. For over six decades, the Palestinian people have been denied freedom and rights to self-determination and equality. The hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forced out of their homes during Israel’s creation in 1947-48 are still denied the rights granted them by UN Resolution 194.

Sources of Inspiration

The Gaza Freedom March is inspired by decades of nonviolent Palestinian resistance from the mass popular uprising of the first Intifada to the West Bank villagers currently resisting the land grab of Israel's annexationist wall.

It draws inspiration from the Gazans themselves, who formed a human chain from Rafah to Erez, tore down the border barrier separating Gaza from Egypt, and marched to the six checkpoints separating the occupied Gaza Strip from Israel.

The Freedom March also draws inspiration from the international volunteers who have stood by Palestinian farmers harvesting their crops, from the crews on the vessels who have challenged the Gaza blockade by sea, and from the drivers of the convoys who have delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza.

And it is inspired by Nelson Mandela who said: “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. ... I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”

It heeds the words of Mahatma Gandhi, who called his movement Satyagraha-Hold on to the truth, and holds to the truth that Israel's siege of Gaza is illegal and inhuman.

Gandhi said that the purpose of nonviolent action is to "quicken" the conscience of humankind. Through the Freedom March, humankind will not just deplore Israeli brutality but take action to stop it.

Palestinian civil society has followed in the footsteps of Mandela and Gandhi. Just as those two leaders called on international civil society to boycott the goods and institutions of their oppressors, Palestinian associations, trade unions, and mass movements have since 2005 been calling on all people of conscience to support a non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel fully complies with its obligations under international law.

The Freedom March also draws inspiration from the civil rights movement in the United States.

If Israel devalues Palestinian life then internationals must both interpose their bodies to shield Palestinians from Israeli brutality and bear personal witness to the inhumanity that Palestinians daily confront.

If Israel defies international law then people of conscience must send non-violent marshals from around the world to enforce the law of the international community in Gaza. The International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza will dispatch contingents from around the world to Gaza to mark the anniversary of Israel's bloody 22-day assault on Gaza in December 2008 - January 2009.

The Freedom March takes no sides in internal Palestinian politics. It sides only with international law and the primacy of human rights.

The March is yet another link in the chain of non-violent resistance to Israel's flagrant disregard of international law.

Citizens of the world are called upon to join ranks with Palestinians in the January 1st March to lift the inhumane siege of Gaza.

Why Israel commits war crimes

From Direct Action: Issue 8: February 2009
http://directaction.org.au/issue8/palestine_why_israel_commits_war_crimes

On January 23, just days after the Israeli military finished its 22-day war against the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military censor banned both the Israeli and international media from publishing the names of, or information about, Israeli military officers who participated in the war. The ban came a result of growing calls for the Israeli government and military to be charged with war crimes.

According to the January 23 Tel Aviv Haaretz daily, the Israeli government is fearful that the publication of names, as well as interviews given by Israeli military officers describing the destruction of Palestinian homes or harm inflicted on Palestinian civilians, would be used to prosecute them and the troops under their command.

Israel’s assault on Gaza, which began on December 27, resulted in the deaths of more than 1400 Palestinians. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 90% of those killed were civilians, with at least 400 children. In addition, more than 5300 Palestinians were wounded, many critically.


Israeli bombing of Gaza University


The initial attack by Israeli warplanes took place at 11am Gaza time on December 27, just as Palestinian children were breaking from school. The planes hit more than 40 target areas, killing more than 200 people in 15 minutes. Initial reports in the Israeli and international corporate media carried the Israeli government line that its military had targeted Hamas security compounds and sought to blame Hamas for the civilian deaths, saying that Hamas was using the civilian population as human shields by locating security compounds in civilian areas. The reality, however, is that many of the targets were Palestinian police stations and police training compounds, which like practically all police stations around the world, are located in civilian areas. Dozens of Palestinian police graduates were killed when their graduation ceremony was bombed by Israeli warplanes.

Over the next three weeks, Israeli war planes continued to bomb Gaza’s civilian population, targeting homes, hospitals, ambulances, mosques, government buildings, UN humanitarian facilities, shelters, schools and higher education institutions. At the beginning of third week of its war, Israel launched its ground offensive, sending in hundreds of tanks and thousands of troops.



Palestinian fire fighter reacting the bombing of buildings in Gaza by Israeli military


Palestinian youth fight Israeli military invasion with stones

International human rights observers on the scene reported that there was “no safe space in Gaza”. According to Caoimhe Butterly, a human rights observer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Israel deliberately targeted a UN Relief and Workers Agency school in Beit Lahiya, killing young children. Ewa Jasiewicz, another human rights activist with the ISM, described the attack as a war crime, reporting that despite there being no Palestinian resistance in the area, the UN school was repeatedly hit with white phosphorous.

Under the Geneva Convention on Conventional Weapons, both the targeting of civilian infrastructure, such as schools, and the use of incendiary weapons such as white phosphorous against humans is illegal. White phosphorus causes severe burns and death, because it is easily absorbed into the skin and burns through soft tissue (to the bone) and body organs such as the liver, kidney and heart, resulting in multiple organ failure.

This is not the first time Israel has used white phosphorous in war. On October 22, 2006, the Associated Press quoted Israeli cabinet minister, Jacob Edery, speaking on behalf of then Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz, as saying that during Israel’s 2006 war against Lebanon, which killed at least 1000 civilians, “the Israeli army made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground”.
Amnesty International report

On January 19, one day after the conclusion of Israel’s war on Gaza, Amnesty International issued a report stating that its fact-finding team, which included weapons experts, had found lumps of still smouldering white phosphorous in Gaza City. According to the report, the Israeli military had used the incendiary weapon “in densely populated civilian residential areas”, and “streets and alleyways [were] littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorous including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army”. The places worst affected by the use of the illegal weapon were the UN compound and the al Quds hospital in Gaza City. Donatella Rovera, a member of the four-person Amnesty team in Gaza, noted that the extensive use of white phosphorous by Israel was indiscriminate.

Throughout the three-week war UN officials, along with human rights agencies, repeatedly called for investigations into whether Israel was committing war crimes. On January 9, after Israel shelled a UN school, killing 40 children sheltering there, Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that “incidents such as this must be investigated because they display elements of what could constitute war crimes”. In an interview with Reuters news agency, Pillay, a former International Criminal Court judge from South Africa, noted there was an international obligation on the part of soldiers “to protect civilians, not to kill civilians indiscriminately” and to “make sure that they help the wounded”.

According to Antony Dworkin, the executive director of the Crimes of War Project for the European Council on Foreign Relations, although Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court, it is still possible for Israeli officers, troops and officials to face charges of war crimes.
Genocide


Palestinian doctor interviewed on Israeli TV collapses after his three daughters were killed by the Israeli military bombing


Palestinian children killed as a result of Israel's bombardment

Dr Fouad Riad, former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes (ICTWC) and a professor of international law at Cairo University, in an interview on January 22 with the Egyptian weekly Al Ahram, noted that Israel can be held accountable for its actions in Gaza via the laws of “universal jurisdiction” relating to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Riad noted that such laws allow a state to try crimes committed outside its borders, regardless of the nationality or country of residence of the alleged criminal.

Riad, who ruled, along with other ICTWC judges, that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was an act of genocide, noted that genocide is the “crime of crimes”. According to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is any of a number of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This can include killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Riad stated that in his opinion Israel had “deliberately killed Palestinian children” and that this had been with the aim of exterminating Palestinians. Riad, however, noted that the acts of genocide and war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza were not something new and that Israel’s atrocities in Gaza should be viewed within the historical context of both Zionist ideology and the Zionist occupation of Palestine since 1948.


Ethnic cleansing

Zionism arose in reaction to the waves of anti-Jewish pogroms and anti-Semitism that spread through central Europe in the late 19th century. At the time, a small section of the European Jewish middle class began to subscribe to the idea that anti-Semitism was not a result of historical developments within capitalism but an inevitable occurrence as long as Jews lived among non-Jews, and that it was therefore necessary to establish an independent state for Jews.

However, in order to establish a Jewish state, it was necessary for the Zionists to ethnically cleanse the inhabitants of any land they wished to colonise, something that was noted by the founding father of Israel, Theodor Herzl, and other leaders of the Zionist movement. While the early Zionist movement attempted to buy up Palestinian land in the first part of the 20th century, it soon became clear that very few Palestinians were keen to sell their homeland. As a result, the Zionists began to plan the expulsion of the Palestinian population.

According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, prior to the establishment of the Zionist State of Israel in 1948, a series of plans had been developed by the Zionist leadership in preparation for a military offensive against the Palestinian civilian population. Pappe noted in his 2007 book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine that one of the plans, known as Plan C, was to kill the Palestinian political leadership as well as Palestinian officials, to kill Palestinian “inciters” and their financial supporters, to damage Palestinian infrastructure including transportation, water wells, mills, meeting places and clubs, and to destroy Palestinian livelihoods. However, within a few months the Zionist leadership developed a new plan known as Plan D or Plan Dalet, which not only incorporated the aims of Plan C but also called for the “systematic and total expulsion [of Palestinians] from their homeland”.


Manshiyya district in Jaffa after Zionist terror gang, the Irgun, bombed the district in April 1948, three weeks before Israel was declared a state.


Grand Saraya district in Jaffa after Zionist terror gang, the Irgun, bombed the neighbourhood in April 1948, three weeks before Israel was declared a state.

In 1947, just months before the official partition of Palestine between a Jewish state and a Palestinian state by the UN General Assembly, the Zionist leaders began preparations to put Plan Dalet into practice and to go to war to “cleanse” Palestine of Palestinians. Under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion, who was to become the first prime minister of Israel, Jewish paramilitary forces and militias, such as the Hagana, Irgun and Stern Gang, began systematic attacks on Palestinian villages and cities, terrorising and massacring hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Palestinian civilians between December 1947 and April 1948. In the wake of these terror attacks, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes, never to be allowed to return.

In an article published on January 2 on the Electronic Intifada website about Israel’s war on Gaza, Pappe drew the link between Zionist ideology, the massacres that took place in 1947-48, Israel’s wars of aggression against both Palestinians and other Arab nations over the last 60 years and the current massacres in Gaza. He wrote: “Zionism is an ideology that endorses ethnic cleansing, occupation and now massive massacres.”

Pappe went on to note that Zionism is similar to the “apartheid ideology” of South Africa and has allowed “all Israeli governments in the past and the present to dehumanise the Palestinians wherever they are and strive to destroy them”. Pappe noted “this may have altered from period to period and location to location”, but Zionism is responsible for “the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the oppression of the Palestinians in Israel during the days of the military rule, the brutal occupation of the West Bank and now the massacre of Gaza”.
US backing


Boycott Israeli apartheid demonstration


Boycott Israeli apartheid demonstration at Soccer match in England.


The Zionist regime’s ethnic cleansing, wars of aggression and the current massacre in Gaza have had the consistent backing of successive US administrations. Since World War II, the US imperialist rulers have sought to control the vast energy reserves (oil and natural gas) that exist in the Middle East. Israel has become US imperialism’s chief ally in the region, the US-Israel alliance being based on shared political interests — opposition to any form of Arab radicalism that would threaten imperialist economic domination of the region.

With the inauguration of Barak Obama as US president, many journalists, commentators and ordinary people have expressed hope Washington’s policy in relation to Israel and Palestine will be reassessed. However, statements by Obama during his election campaign and his initial actions as president reveal that he has no intention of changing US policy.

Obama not only supported the undermining of the Palestinian democratic elections (supporting the Bush administration’s refusal to accept Hamas’ victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections), but also supported Israel’s war in Lebanon in 2006, as well as Israel’s 18-month siege of Gaza. Obama has announced that Washington will continue to protect Israel’s “right” to carry out military aggression in the name of “security”.

The Obama administration will also continue to aid Israel’s war efforts to the tune of US$33 billion over the next 10 years. As Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of the Electronic Intifada website, noted on November 18: “Obama has expressed no support for Palestinian ‘rights’ and has never publicly used the type of effusive emotional language identifying with Palestinian aspirations as he does regarding the Israelis. While repeatedly castigating Palestinians, he has been uncritical of Israel.” Abunimah went on to note that “Obama’s positions are remarkable only for their conformity with long-standing US policies”.

In order not to pressure or embarrass the new US president, Israel ceased its all-out offensive against Gaza two days before Obama was sworn in on January 20. Since taking office, Obama has appointed a former senator, George Mitchell, as the US “peace” envoy to the Middle East. However, US State Department officials have made it clear that Washington has no intention of holding Israel accountable for its war crimes in Gaza, which included not only mass murder but also the complete devastation of the region’s civilian infrastructure.

According to UN humanitarian workers, more than 100,000 Gaza residents have been displaced from their homes, Israeli bombing has destroyed more than 5000 buildings and partially destroyed 20,000. Hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid will be needed just to help the people of Gaza in the first stages of rebuilding.

In remarks made to State Department officials on January 22, Obama said: “I was deeply concerned by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent days and by the substantial suffering and humanitarian needs in Gaza. Our hearts go out to Palestinian civilians who are in need of immediate food, clean water, and basic medical care, and who’ve faced suffocating poverty for far too long.”

However, the primary concern of the Obama administration is not to aid the occupied Palestinian people. It is to bolster Israel and, as Obama told State Department officials, to establish a “credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime” along the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent the re-arming of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance fighters. While Obama and Mitchell have announced that they will seek to have Gaza’s borders reopened, this will be contingent on installation of the US-backed Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority as Israel’s proxy in the Gaza. In his January 22 remarks, Obama said: “Gaza’s border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating. Relief efforts must be able to reach innocent Palestinians who depend on them. The United States will fully support an international donor’s conference to seek short-term humanitarian assistance and long-term reconstruction for the Palestinian economy. This assistance will be provided to and guided by the Palestinian Authority.”

Despite the devastation caused by Israel’s war, its objectives were not achieved. In launching its war of aggression, Israeli leaders had stated that their primary aim was to crush Hamas, to stop Palestinian rocket fire into Israel and to revive Israel’s power of military deterrence. However, throughout the war and in response to Israel’s repeated violation of its unilaterally declared ceasefire, Palestinians have continued to wage armed resistance against the Zionist forces occupying their national homeland.

Letter from Gaza

Dear friends,

Two days ago, R, a close friend and a wonderful fellow international activist from Australia, who I worked with in 2007/2008 in the Occupied West Bank, managed to make it into Gaza. R spent several days waiting at the border waiting to get in before being allowed through.

With her permission, I am sending out an edited version of the email she send myself and her other friends to let us all know she was okay. In it, R, describes the devastation of Gaza and ongoing assaults taking place despite the “ceasefire” supposedly being in place.

In solidarity,
Kim

***
Letter from Gaza
From R

.... Since then, I've mostly been in Rafah and Khan Younis - following up on stories of devastation and violations of the ceasefire.

It has been a strange time to enter Gaza. There is so much devastation mixed with so much everyday life. Most people just trying to get on with their lives, whilst others sit on the piles of sand and rubble that were once their houses, with nowhere else to go. Re-arranging the rubble to make better seats. "Most days we just sit here in the sun", explained a woman from the Samouni family - who have received a lot of media attention since 29 members of the same family were killed as their houses were destroyed with people inside, but little material assistance. "We don't want to have to go to a neighbour's house. We want our own house".

And whilst many people seem to be coping in a way that is unfathomable to me, recounting their stories for all the journalists and human rights workers who come round, there is so much grief and anger, that, as a foreigner, I magnetise. Not that they are angry with me, but, as a representative of the outside world, which mostly stood by while the Israeli government dealt out their deadly "education" to the Palestnian civilians (educating them not to vote for Hamas; not to allow anyone in their community to resist Israel's occupation and siege), I am an easy outlet for them.

Also, I am witness, apparently, to a level of goods and services that haven't been seen in Gaza for a long time. There are fresh fruits in the markets - Israeli and expensive, but accessible. There is electricity a lot of the time in the places I have been. And water, whilst unsafe to drink from the taps, at least runs. Life seems strangely normal.



It was only last night that I realised this, when visiting the family of a young farm worker who was shot in the neck and killed by Israeli snipers from across the Green Line, whilst he was picking parsley and spinach for a meagre sum of 20 shekels ($6) a day. His mother was trying to explain to us the hardship of their lives. How his father is sick and paralysed. How he has two small children and a young wife left behind. How they have no source of income now. How the one year old baby doesn't crawl properly because they can't feed it well enough. How they had electricity that day, but before that, they were cooking on fires and using kerosene lamps.

This visit came straight after we had been in the village where Anwar was killed - Al Farahin. There it was explained that villagers are drowning economically, as they can't go to their lands near the Green Line. That they've been shot at everyday since the ceasefire. That their radishes are dying from lack of water; that their chickens and pigeons are already dead because it's been so long since they could go to feed them. And even this is not as bad as it was, explained one woman. "We were ready to start eating dirt, and then they stopped the bombing".



A lot of the precarity of the situation here only became real for me when we returned to Rafah last night, to the house that I have been staying in. There was no electricity - hadn't been since the afternoon. And then at 2am, there was a renewed airstrike by the border - about 1 km from here. It sounded much closer. It was only really then that I viscerally understood the oft-repeated cry of so many in Gaza: "Where could we go? There is nowhere that is safe. We would think to go to the school, but they bomb the schools. We would go to the mosque, but they bomb the mosques".

I know a lot of you have expressed worry over my well-being since the war on Gaza started, and were quite relieved to find out I was in the West Bank where there was a relative level of calm. I hope my coming here doesn't cause too much concern. My plan is to be here for ----, before heading to -----, a plan that involves me leaving here in one piece.

Many of you will (hopefully) be pleased to know that this plan also involves me coming home in ----- . I look forward to seeing everyone.

Love love love
R

Two, Three, Many Ni'lins

More than 40 years ago, the Argentinean-born Cuban Revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevara wrote in his message to the Tricontinental that the "forgotten peoples" of the world - the poor, oppressed and exploited – must "create two, three, many Vietnams" [1]. Written at the time when the Vietnamese people were waging their courageous struggle against US imperialism, Che noted that rebellion must flourish across the tricontinent (Asia, Latin America and Africa) and around the world and that it was the duty of the dispossessed and oppressed to "liberate ourselves at any price".

Today, the rebellion advocated by Che Guevara can be found in the many courageous struggles of the oppressed around the world for liberation, freedom and justice. In Palestine, this rebellion is evident in the brave struggles of the Palestinian villages, towns and cities throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza, who oppose the brutal Israeli occupation and the erection of the illegal apartheid wall.

Since 2002, when Israel began the construction of its illegal wall, Palestinian villages, towns and cities have been engaged in non-violent struggle against all odds to defend their culture, land and livelihood. In 2003, villages such as Budrus, Al Midya, Deir Qadddis and Kharbata in the Ramallah district of the Occupied West Bank led the struggle in non-violent resistance against the wall, holding daily and/or weekly demonstrations. Budrus became one of the first villages to successful win an Israeli court order for the apartheid wall to be pushed back to the Green Line. In 2004, the village of Bil'in took up the baton of struggle and in the last three years has become the model for joint Palestinian-Israeli and International non-violent struggle throughout the occupied West Bank, inspiring other Palestinian villages and supporters of social justice and freedom all over the world.

As the village of Bil'in continue their struggle, they have been joined by the residents of another small Palestinian village, whose non-violent struggle is also inspiring Palestinians throughout the Occupied West Bank and making headlines throughout the world.


Nilin Village's Non-violent Struggle Against the Wall

In May, Ni'lin village, located just 10 kilometres from Bil'in village and on the 1948 Green (armistice) line became the latest Palestinian village to begin organising demonstrations against the building of the illegal apartheid wall and the stealing of their farm land by the Israeli state. In 1948, with the creation of the Israeli state, Ni'lin village lost more than 40,000 dunams (4000 hectares) of its land. Today, with the construction of the wall, the village will stand to lose a further 2500 dunams (250 hectares) of its agricultural land [2]

For the last two months, the villagers of Ni'lin, have been courageously holding 3 to 4 demonstrations a week against the destruction of their land and livelihoods. At each demonstration, they have also been joined in their struggle by Israeli and International peace activists, echoing Che's words that solidarity is "not a matter of wishing success to the victim of aggression, but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory".




July 10: Villagers of Ni'lin, along with Israeli and international anti-occupaiton activists march to village fields to oppose confisication of land by the Israeli state for the apartheid wall.

The joint Palestinian-Israeli-International demonstrations have been so successful that the village has been able to disrupt and halt temporarily, three times, the construction work being carried out illegally on their land. This is the first time in several years that a Palestinian village has been able to successful halt the Israeli bulldozers and push back construction crews destroying their lands.

Because the village has refused to quietly accept the confiscation of their land, the Israel military retaliated by attempting to intimidate and to collectively punish (which is illegal under international law) the 5000 residents of the township. On July 4, Israel's occupation forces imposed a 4 day siege on the village, preventing the residents of Ni'lin from leaving and entering the village, as well as food and medical supplies from entering the village.



Al Jazeera report on the Israeli military siege of Ni'lin - 6 July, 2008

According to the Ni'lin Popular Committee Against the Apartheid Wall during the four day siege, Israeli occupation forces injured more than 50 villages with rubber coated-steel bullets, while three people were seriously injured by live ammunition [3]. In addition, hundreds of people suffered from respiratory problems to teargas inhalation when the Israeli military shot teargas at and into residential homes. More than 20 homes were invaded by the Israeli military during the siege, breaking personal property and beating the residents of the houses, including women, children and the elderly. During the siege, the Israeli military also dug up newly paved roads, wrecking parts of the municipal sewage system and also entered the local girl's schools breaking down doors and smashing windows.

One female Ni'lin resident was force to give birth at home without medical assistance, as the Israeli military refused to allow her to leave the village to go to hospital in Ramallah. During the first three days of the Israeli siege, ambulances and medical crews were unable to enter the village and as a result the injured remained untreated. Palestinians, Israeli and international peace activists who attempted to deliver food, milk and medicine to the besieged village were also prevented from entering, with the Israeli military using force – including beatings, teargas and rubber bullets - to prevent them carrying out their humanitarian mission. In addition, during the four day siege, the Israeli military also prevented the family of a deceased villager from entering the village, with the body of their deceased family member. As a result, the family was unable to bury their family member within the time prescribed within their religion.


Israeli soldier attacks non-violent Palestinian demonstrator
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)


Joint Palestinian-Israeli-International opposition to the apartheid wall
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

Palestinian new agency, Maan News also reported on the fourth day of the curfew, that the Israeli military violently attacked village residents as they attempted to demonstrate against the illegal curfew imposed on their village [4]. According to Maan, Jamil Srur, an electrician from the village, who did not participate in the demonstration was hit by a live bullet in the stomach when he was watching the demonstration from his door way. According to Maan News, "the bullet lodged itself into Srur's back" and "doctors were unable to remove the bullet, for fear that the damage to his spine will cause paralysis". Maan also reported that Mutia' Amira, a 32 year old construction worker whose family will lose approximately 9 dunums of land to apartheid wall was also hit in the knee with live ammunition fired by the Israeli military as he took part in the demonstration.


Palestinian, Israeli and international anti-occupations activist march from the village of Budrus (next to Ni'lin) in an attempt to deliver urgently needed supplies and to break the siege. 7 July, 2008

According to the Popular Committee, since demonstrations began in late May, to date more than 160 people, including children, have now been injured by rubber coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli military, while hundreds of non-violent protesters have been brutally beaten by the Israeli military during the protests and more than 26 people have been arrested.

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society who provides medical assistance to villagers during the demonstrations have also reported the Israeli military have fired indiscriminately on their health workers and vehicles, with one ambulance being hit at least 15 times by bullets fired by the Israeli military [5]. According to the 29 year old PMRS health worker driving the ambulance and who was trying to reach an injured youth, "This is not a one-off incident, but it's part of a wider series of attacks against medical staff. I have been attacked three times before under similar circumstances in Bil'in village". The driver noted that the attack by the Israeli military was "deliberate" and a "targeted act of violence".


Despite four days of siege, the villagers of Ni'lin emerged defiant. In a statement released on July 8th, the day following the lifting of the Israeli siege, the Ni'lin Popular Committee Against the Apartheid Wall said "the people of Ni'lin will not give up their right to defend their basic human, economic and social rights and therefore will not relinquish their right to protest against the confiscation of their land. The people of Ni'lin are also not willing to give up their right to stand up against the construction of a Wall that has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice" [6]

On July 9 and 10, the village organised two more demonstrations. On July 9, the villages, joined by Israeli and international anti-occupation activists were again able to reach the wall construction area and temporarily stop construction work pushing back a bulldozer and preventing it from continuing its work.

The following day, hundreds of villagers were joined by other Palestinians from nearby villagers, as well as around a hundred Israeli and international activists. The peaceful rally was brutally attacked by the Israeli military. While the Israeli occupation forces were able to successfully split the demonstration, preventing half of the demonstrators from getting from the side of the wadi (valley) closest to the village to the other side where the construction work was talking place, at least a hundred demonstrators were able to make it that side of the wadi. Demonstrators on the village side of the wadi were prevented by teargas and rubber bullets from entering the wadi.


Palestinian-Israeli-International non-violent demonstrators attempt to get to construction site to stop the destruction of Ni'lin's land.


Injured Israeli anti-occupation activist

From our vantage point at the top of the wadi, we were able to witness the Israeli military severely beating Palestinian, Israel and International non-violent demonstrators on the other side of the wadi. At least 8 Palestinian villagers, 6 Israeli anti-occupation activists and at least two international activists were seriously injured. Several villagers and Israeli anti-occupation activists received rifle butts to the head, causing severe bruising and cuts to their eyes, while others were badly beaten around the legs, arms and hands resulting in many of them not being able to walk without considerable pain for at least a week. One Israeli activist was injured when he was hit in the head with a teargas canister fired directly into the unarmed demonstrators, while an elderly female international activist was injured when hit with a rubber coated steel bullet.


Injured Israeli anti-occupation activists
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)


Injured Israeli anti-occupation activists
Photograph by Oren Ziv, ActiveStills (published with permission from ActiveStills)

As the demonstration drew to a close and the injured were attended to in the small village medical clinic, Palestinian Prime Minister, Salaam Fayyad surrounded by an entourage of cars and security barreled into the village. But despite all the trappings of leadership, today, in Palestine, the true leadership of the people lies not within the sterile and quisling parameters of the Palestinian Authority lead by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas and his unelected and appointed Prime Minister, Fayaad. Instead, it is in the Palestinian villages, townships and cities, where rebellion and struggle has not been forsaken. As Che noted in, "the active mobilisation of the people creates its new leaders" because it is in the framework and hardship of real struggle, that "the people create their warriors and leaders…" who will be the ones to win their people's liberation as they create two, three, many Ni'lins.

As the village of Ni'lin takes up the leadership of the non-violent resistance to oppression and occupation, the courage of its villagers and the courage of their brothers and sisters in Bil'in, Al Masra, Umm Sulummuna, Azzoun Atma, Al Khader and other villages throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza deserve no lesser words then those reserved by Che for the Vietnamese people in 1966: "what greatness has been shown by this people! What a stoic and courageous people! And what a lesson for the world their struggle holds".


Non-violent demonstration in Ni'lin on July 13.


[1] Guevara, E., Message to the Tricontinental – Create two, three many Vietnams. http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ww/guevara/1967-mtt.htm

[2] McCarthy, R., (8 July, 2008) We have no alternative than peaceful protest. The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/08/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

[3] and [6] Statement from the Ni'lin Popular Committee against the Wall (9 July, 2008) International Solidarity Movement http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/07/09/statement-from-the-nilin-popular-commuttee-against-the-apartheid-wall/

[4] Maan News (12 July, 2008) Many injured or detained at Ni'lin march

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30495

[5]Palestinian Medical Relief Society (26 June, 2008) Israeli Soldiers Deliberately Attack PMRS Health Worker http://www.pmrs.ps/last/etemplate.php?id=247

As the lights go out in Gaza

END THE SIEGE OF GAZA NOW! FREE PALESTINE!

Even the dead cannot rest in peace in Gaza. As the world sits by and does nothing, Gaza enters its 85th day under complete siege since Israel began “phase I” of its illegal collective punishment of the people of Gaza on October 28, 2007. Not only have almost a million people been plunged into complete darkness as a result of fuel reserves disappearing, food and other basic necessities have become scarce, as have medical supplies and the death toll continues to rise. Last Tuesday (15/01) another 19 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces in less then 3 hours, their death bringing the total killed in the Gaza to 113 in the 48 days since the Annapolis peace conference on November 28 (with 52 killed in the first 15 days of the new year) [1]. But still for those who died, there is no peace.

On Saturday (19/01), Israel’s leading Hebrew newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its online news site, YNet, that Palestinian health officials in the Gaza are reporting, as a result of the siege and growing death toll, there is a shortage of burial shrouds and that cement for burial tombs is scare [2]. What there is available, is only available at exorbitant prices on the black market and according to YNet, the dead are being buried, draped in flags and bed sheets.

And while the dead can find no peace, the 1.5 million living in the most densely populated region in the world are condemned to suffer. One million men, women and children (around 80% of the civilian population in the Gaza) continue to barely survive with the help of food aid from UN agencies. Israel, however, has sealed off all entrances to the Gaza - no food, medicine or humanitarian supplies have been able to enter Gaza without Israeli say so. On Friday, January 18, Israel prevented UN humanitarian aid (including food and medical supplies) from entering the Gaza, stating that the only humanitarian aid allowed to enter will be on a case-to-case basis with the explicit and personal approval of Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak [3].

And while nothing can enter the Gaza, no one can leave. Since September last year, almost 75 people – men, women, children and babies, all terminally ill and/or in dire need of medical treatment - have died at the Gazan borders denied entry to Egypt, Jordan, Israel and/or the West Bank by the Israeli secret police. Israeli based human rights group, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in mid January told Ramallah- based RAMFM radio, that the Shabak (Israeli secret police) have been using “medical blackmail” against terminally sick Palestinians. According to PHR coordinator for projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Miri Weingarten, the Shabak have called patients to underground rooms at Erez Crossing and told them to either become collaborators and provide them with information on other Palestinians or be denied travel permits. Weingarten told RAMFM that this “form of medical blackmail is to be condemned. In fact, we believe it is torture to deliberately withhold medical care for non-medical reasons”. Weingarten went on to say that as a result the Shabak’s refusal to allow Palestinian patients to receive medical treatment and the refusal of Israeli courts to address the situation that “one can only compare this to Nazi practices in the concentration camps during World War II” [4].

The situation for Gazans worsened further on Sunday as the only power plant in the Gaza, which the Israeli military had previously bombed in 2006, was forced to shut down due to a shortage of fuel. According to the General Director of the plant, more than 800,000 Palestinians living in the Gaza are now in darkness. The closure of the plant has not only affected the electricity supply but also the water supply and the disposal of sewage, as fuel and power is needed to pump and filter drinking water and to run sewage treatment plants. The Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility announced on January 20 that if the fuel supply did not resume by the following Tuesday (22/01) that all sewage treatment plants and the 130 water wells operated by the Utility would cease to function throughout the Gaza Strip. Currently, less then 37 water supply pumps are running in the Gaza and 600,000 residents (40% of the population) is currently without running, drinkable water. According to Oxfam, if the Gaza sewage and sanitation system closes down, the population is in danger of being exposed to water borne diseases [5]

As the cold winter nights wear on, Palestinians in the Gaza must also now survive without heating and with limited fuel reserves to cook and prepare food. Stores whose shelves are increasing empty, now cannot even open due to the fact they have no electricity, bakeries have had to close unable to bake bread due to shortage of flour and electricity. Businesses, across all industries, have been forced to close due to the shortage of goods, products and now electricity. As a result, unemployment is spiraling out of control. With the ongoing siege and closure of the plant, the entire infrastructure of the Gaza Strip has come crashing down.

As the siege deepens, hospitals in Gaza are barely managing to function. For patients with life threatening illnesses, whether they live or die, now rests not in the hands of the skilled doctors who care for them but on whether or not the hospitals generators can produce enough electricity to survive the blackouts. The generators, however, are designed for emergency use only, not for everyday continuous use and electricity is needed for everything – to run the kidney dialysis machines, to run the incubators in the infant care ward in order to save the lives of tiny babies and to run the operating theatres to carry out life saving surgery.

Under international law (article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention which Israel is a signatory too), collective punishment against a civilian population such as this is illegal but Israel it seems has been written a blank cheque by international community and allowed to carry out heinous war crimes with impunity. In September 2007, John Dugard, the UN Special Rappoteur for the human rights in the OPT and one of the lone voices in the UN refusing to fall into wishy washy servitude to Israel and the USA, noted that the Palestinian people, particularly those in Gaza, were being punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the US and EU. Dugard, a South African human rights lawyer and activist who campaigned against his own country’s former Apartheid regime, noted that for the first time ever, an occupied people were being subject to sanctions [6]

Even as the so-called “leader of the free world” arrived on Israel’s doorstep in order to supposedly facilitate “peace” between the Palestinians and Israelis, the Israeli siege deepened as “phase II” kicked in and Israeli war planes and gunships continued to bombard the Gaza. Even as Bush made distasteful and sickening jokes about the occupation as he entered into the Occupied West Bank to visit the quisling, Abbas, in Ramallah, Israel took the lives of dozens more Palestinians.

As the Israeli government tightens its noose on the Gaza, Abbas and his unelected Prime Minister, Salaam Fayyad, continue to attend tea parties hosted by Olmert and his cronies, more interested in maintaining power and retaining their “30 pieces of silver” (US $7.4 million) thrown their way at the Paris Donors Conference on December 17, then defending the lives of their people. Unable to accept political defeat at the 2006 elections, Abbas and the corrupt inner circle that runs Fatah has sought to overturn the democratic will of the Palestinian people by undermining and ousting the democratically elected Hamas. Declaring a state of emergency in June 2007, Abbas and his corrupt inner circle began to flaunt their open collaboration with the Israeli occupiers to the entire world. Now as the Gaza crisis deepens, their betrayal of the Palestinian people is complete. Not only are they now openly collaborating with the Israeli occupiers and their security forces (and the US) to destroy their political rivals and the Palestinian resistance, they have now completely abandoned the citizens of Gaza.

However, with every step Fatah, Abbas and Fayyad take towards collaboration, the Palestinian people take a step away. On Tuesday (21/01), Palestinian media began reporting that crowds of Palestinians including lawmakers, clerics, scholars and medical patients in ambulances began an open-ended sit the previous day in at the Rafah border, located between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in the hope to put pressure on both the Abbas based Ramallah government and the Egyptian government lead by Hosni Murburak. According to Maan News, the protesters were calling for the border to be opened, for Egypt to give aid to the Palestinians and for Abbas to end any further negotiations with Israel until the siege is lifted. Today, hundreds of Palestinian women joined the sit-in, storming and breaking through the Rafah border demanding an end to the siege. The women were beaten by Egyptian riot police, who used water cannon, dogs and clubs against the women. Earlier in the week, school children and youth also protested at the border demanding a lifting of the siege

In the Occupied West Bank, Palestinians have also began to organize protests in solidarity with their brethren in the Gaza, with protests either taking place or scheduled to take place in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and East Jerusalem. Brutalised by Abbas’ Fatah controlled PA security forces for holding anti-Annapolis rallies in November last year and for staging anti-Bush rallies earlier this month, the Palestinian people continue to defy Abbas and the unelected Fayyad PA. On January 26, Israeli anti-occupation activists will also stage a humanitarian convoy to the Gaza border in order to attempt to break the siege and deliver supplies to the abandoned in Gaza. When they reach the border, Palestinians in Gaza will also amass at the border to also call for the blockade to be lifted. As the UN, the EU and the Bush offer nothing but meaningless words, internationally protests have also started to be organized in Italy, France, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.

As Israeli continues to wage war, while talking fake peace, it time for all of us to take a stand in solidarity with the abandoned in Gaza, for not only an end to the siege but also for an immediate and unconditional end to the Israeli occupation of both the Gaza and West Bank. Only when this happens can there be any talk of real peace.


[1] Sutherland, K., (15 January, 2008) Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 113 since Annapolis, Palestinian National Initiative

[2] Waked, A., (19 January, 2008) Growing Distress, YNet News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3496252,00.html

[3] UN warns of humanitarian crisis as Israel seals Gaza crossings (19 January, 2008), Ha’aretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/946066.html

[4] Houk, M., (10 – 16 January, 2008), Turning the Screws, Al Ahram Weekly, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/879/re2.htm

[5] see Al Haq (21 January), Media Release – End the Siege of the Gaza Strip
http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=345 and;
Gaza Strip's water, sewage systems to shut down 'within hours', (21 January, 2008), Maan News Agency, www.maannews.net/en

[6] UN says Gaza crisis ‘intolerable’ (26 September, 2007), BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5382976.stm

We’ve tried to enter Palestine by land. We’ve tried to arrive by air. Now we’re getting serious. We’re taking a ship!

BREAKING THE SIEGE IN GAZA

Dear friends and supporters,

please find below a copy of an article with information and interviews about the Break the Siege/Free Gaza campaign. The below article is an attempt to raise awareness and support for the campaign and includes a link to the campaign website.

Break the Siege needs your support - you can support the campaign in a variety of ways, including financially, but also by publicising of the campaign and organising solidarity events to coincide with the ship's departure to and arrival in Gaza.

Please feel free to distribute the article to your networks. Please consider talking to your social justice networks and the Palestine solidarity groups in your town, city or country about how they can support the campaign.

You can checkout the campaign website at www.freegaza.org

in solidarity, Kim
*******************************

Palestine: Breaking the siege in Gaza
Kim Bullimore

14 July 2007

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/717/37247


"We've tried to enter Palestine by land. We've tried to arrive by air. Now we're getting serious. We're taking a ship".


In August 2007, up to 70 human rights activists from 13 countries will attempt to non-violently break the Israeli and international siege of the densely populated Gaza Strip by sailing a ship into Gazan territorial waters with US$25,000 worth of humanitarian aid to donate to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel has prevented the activists — who include teachers, students, musicians, politicians and holocaust survivors — from carrying out humanitarian work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The campaign aims to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and to pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation.

Green Left Weekly spoke to three activists involved in the campaign.

Sharyn, who lives in Britain, gained the dubious distinction in 2002 of becoming the first international peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to be shot by the Israeli military, just four days after she arrived in the OPT. Despite this, Sharyn returned a further five times to carry out human rights work in the OPT before she was placed on the Israeli government's official blacklist of individuals prevented from entering Israel and the OPT.

Fellow Australian activist Michael, who was the ISM's media officer in 2003 when US activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death while trying to prevent an Israeli armoured bulldozer from demolishing a home in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, has also been blacklisted by Israel. When Michael tried to return to Palestine in 2004, he was detained for a week as a "security risk" and deported without ever leaving Israel's Ben Gurion airport.

According to Sharyn, "this blacklist has been [Israel's] plan B after plan A of simply shooting us drew international condemnation". Both Michael and Sharyn told GLW that the idea for the Break the Siege campaign was born in November 2006 because so many human rights and peace activists had been prevented from entering the OPT.

According to Michael, "The original idea was for these peace activists to arrive simultaneously at Ben Gurion airport and demand admittance to the OPT. However, it was soon decided that the real story was not Israel's treatment of internationals, but of the Palestinians themselves, and that we needed to focus on Israel's siege of Gaza." This led to the plan to charter a boat.

"Israel claims that since it pulled its settlers out of Gaza, the strip is a 'foreign country' that is no longer under Israeli occupation. If this is the case then its total control over Gaza's air space, territorial waters and border crossings [including those into Egypt] is a gross violation of international law", Michael said.

"The purpose of the mission is to draw attention to the fact that Israel is using its illegal choke hold on Gaza to wage economic warfare on an already desperately impoverished population by arbitrarily closing the strip's border crossings to exports, restricting the supply of food and medicines, closing offshore fisheries to Palestinian fishermen and brazenly stealing customs duties that belong to the Palestinian people."

According to Sharyn, Break the Siege is about showing "solidarity with people who are living under terrible conditions" and letting the "Palestinians know they are not forgotten", as well as placing international pressure on Israel.

Should they make it to Gaza, Sharyn expects "to be given gallons of sugary tea and have multiple families attempt to feed me their entire week's food supply in one sitting". However she doesn't expect the same welcome from the Israeli military, which is likely to "make it very evident" that it holds Gaza "in an iron grip" and "will attempt to stop our boat reaching the port. Since our Israeli colleagues will be on board with us, I hope the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will decide a violent attack wouldn't be a good idea."

Also travelling on the ship will be 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, whose parent's perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Hedy told GLW she received "a wake up call" about Israel and Palestine in 1982 when she learned "about the massacres in the two refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon".

"I needed to find out what and why it happened; what preceded it, what had taken place since 1948. The more I learned and the more I understood, the more I began to speak out publicly against the policies and practices of the Israeli government and military."

Hedy hopes that the Break the Siege campaign will also serve as a "wake up call" for others and will contribute to a sustained global campaign to educate people about the reality of what is going on in the OPT.

Michael said the activists hoped that the campaign would assist in "mobilising people against Israeli apartheid" and that people would not only publicise and help finance the campaign, but also organise solidarity actions around the world to coincide with the ship's departure and its arrival in Gaza.

"The Israel-Palestine conflict has become the defining struggle between racism and justice in the world today. It is impossible to support justice, human rights and democracy without opposing Israeli apartheid", Michael said.

The Break the Siege campaign needs your support. Visit http://www.freegaza.org.

From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #717 18 July 2007.