US Activist Detained in Israeli Jail, Condemns Gaza Blockade

Update: BBS: One Gaza border crossing opened temporarily

Kidnappings, killings, terrorism, piracy, employment of the tools of militarism; all of this is kind of a downer after the election of president-elect Obama.

Bear in mind that these deplorable actions described and committed against real, living human beings are being done by arguably America's closest ally: Israel.

[Pictured above is Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel peace prize laureate, who was part of the recent second breaking of the siege of Gaza, by the Free Gaza movement Ship Dignity.]

It's a story attracting scant attention in the American press, as Israel's blockade of over one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continues obstructing food, fuel and other humanitarian supplies from entering an area Israel decided to cordon off from the world.

Darlene Wallach, an American peace activist, remains jailed in the Masiyahu Prison near Tel Aviv, arrested days ago for fishing off the shores of the Gaza coast that Israel denies is under blockade.

The Free Gaza Movement, a group dedicated to breaking "the siege of Gaza .... (and raising) international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip, ... (and upholding) Palestine's right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, (and) journalists," maintains its mission to break the blockade and bring attention to the routine Israeli kidnappings, killings, and terrorism of innocent Palestinians and international human rights activists.

Israel is currently blocking all journalists from entering Gaza, a move that has drawn the condemnation of free speech and free press organizations. See Foreign Reporters’ Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza (NYT).

Unlike many of the huge problems facing the incoming Obama administration, this problem has an easy solution: Halt the billions in annual subsidies to Israel unless it stops its militaristic enterprise in the occupied territories.

As an anonymous writer commenting on Israeli human rights violations wrote a few years back: ‘Israel cannot be half-humanistic and half fascist.”

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman reports:

"Nam, Nehnu Nastatyeh!" Is Arabic for "Yes, We Can!"

Update: Protest boat arrives in Gaza, despite Israel's vow to block it (Barak Ravid, Haaretz)

The Palestinians in Gaza will not stop believing that they are human beings.

By Ramzi Kysia

GAZA CITY, FREE PALESTINE (29 October 2008) - This morning I walked to the Indian Ocean and made salt in defiance of the British Occupation of India.

This morning I marched in Selma, I stood down tanks in Tiananmen Square, and I helped tear down the Berlin Wall.

This morning I became a Freedom Rider.

The Freedom Riders of the 21st Century are sailing small boats into the Gaza Strip in open defiance of the Israeli Occupation and blockade.

This morning I arrived in Gaza aboard the SS Dignity, part of a Free Gaza Movement delegation of twenty seven doctors, lawyers, teachers, and human rights activists from across the world, including Mairead Maguire - the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

When I close my eyes, I still hear the crash of ocean waves, I still feel the warm sun on my face, and I still taste salt from the sea spray. When I close my eyes, I can still see the Israeli warship that tried to intimidate us when we reached the twenty-mile line outside Gaza, and I can still see a thousand cheering people crowding around our ship when we refused to be intimidated and finally reached port in Gaza City.

Today, the proudest boast in the free world is truly, "Nam, Nehnu Nastatyeh!" - "Yes, We Can!"

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, an independent member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, sailed aboard the Dignity, along with six other Palestinians from the West Bank, from 1948/inside the Green Line, and from countries in Europe. What should have been a ninety-minute drive from Ramallah to Gaza City became a three day odyssey as he travelled from the West Bank to Jordan, then flew to Cyprus, before finally coming aboard the Dignity for the fifteen hour sea voyage to Gaza.

"We're challenging Israel in a manner that is unprecedented, " said Dr. Barghouti. "Israel has prevented me from visiting Gaza for more than two years now. I am so pleased that we managed to defy Israel's injustice so that I can see all the people I love and work with in Gaza. Israel's measures are meant to divide us, but it is our defiance and resistance which unite us. "

This is a resistance which can and should light the fire of all our imaginations, and bring hope not just to Palestinians, but to peoples suffering the terrible tides of oppression and injustice the world around.

After watching the Dignity's arrival, Fida Qishta, the local coordinator for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the Gaza Strip, said "If Gaza is free then it's our right to invite whomsoever we wish to visit us. It's our land and it's our sea. Now more groups must come, not only by sea but also the crossings at Erez and Rafah must be opened as well. This second breaking of the siege means a lot, actually. It's the second time in two months that people have come to Gaza without Israel's permission, and that tells us that Gaza will be free."

For over forty years, Israel has occupied the Gaza Strip. Despite the so-called "Disengagement " in 2005, when they shut down their illegal settlements here, Israel maintains absolute control over Gaza's borders and airspace, severely limiting the free movement of goods, services, and travel. Israel is still an occupying power.

For over two years, Israel has maintained a brutal blockade of Gaza. Less than twenty percent of the supplies needed (as compared to 2005) are allowed in. This has forced ninety-five percent of local industries to shut down, resulting in massively increased unemployment and poverty rates. Childhood malnutrition has skyrocketed, and eighty percent of families are now dependent on international food aid just to be able to eat. An hour after we arrived, I watched a teenage boy digging through the garbage, looking for something he could use.
Israel's siege isn't simply illegal - it's intolerable.

Renowned human rights activist Caoimhe Butterly also sailed aboard the Dignity, and will remain in Gaza for several weeks as Project Coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement. But, said Butterly, "My feelings are bittersweet. Although we're overjoyed at reaching Gaza a second time, that joy is tempered by the fact that the conscience of the world has been reduced to a small boat and 27 seasick activists. This mission is a reminder of not only the efficacy of non-violent direct action, but also of the deafening silence of the international community."

Our first voyage in August, the first voyage of any international ship to Gaza in over forty years, showed that it was possible to freely travel. This second voyage shows that it is repeatable, and this sets a precedent: The Siege of Gaza can be overcome through non-violent resistance and direct action.

Today, the Free Gaza Movement has a simple message for the rest of the world: What are you waiting for?
-------
Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American writer and activist, and one of the organizers of the Free Gaza Movement.

To find out more about Free Gaza and what you can do to help support their work, please visit http://www.freegaza.org/

Will Israel Pirate Human Rights Ship Under Cover of US Campaign

What will Israel do after being embarrassed by human rights workers in August as a similar mission, the SS Dignity, journeys to Gaza to bring needed supplies and break the illegal blockade of Gaza that Israel denies exist?

The 27 unarmed civilians sailing aboard SS Dignity represent 13 different countries. We are doctors, lawyers, teachers, and human rights advocates. We are Christians, Muslims, Jews, and agnostics. ...

This morning, the Free Gaza Movement was informed through the media that the Israeli Navy is threatening to forcibly stop the SS Dignity from entering Gaza tomorrow morning. Israel has not bothered to inform us of a legitimate reason for preventing us from delivering medical supplies, doctors, lawyers, and prominent human rights advocates to the Gaza Strip.

Some militarists, a minority, have seriously suggested that the Israeli Navy kill them. Let's hope more civilized action takes place.

Freedom Sailors Break Gaza Blockade

Update II: Time: Breaking the Gaza Blockade

Update: ABC News: Boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists reach Gaza Strip with humanitarian supplies

As the world press takes in the selection of Senator Joe Biden as Barack Obama's running mate, across the world on the Mediterranean Sea, modern-day freedom sailors are running the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, bringing in medical supplies and calling attention to the illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip.

From the Free Gaza Mission:

Ashdod Marina , Saturday August 23. 15.00 p.m.

Despite all odds, with scrambled radio, jammed phones, ... in rough waves with a storm brewing, ... I hear that 20 boats left Gaza Harbour to welcome FREE GAZA and LIBERTY, but are now doing a U-turn to go back... .

... Palestinians in Gaza said earlier there was NO ISRAELI NAVAL PRESENCE on the horizon, but the U-turn was apparently due to warning shots having indeed been fired.

I received a phone call from Gaza : it’s obvious there’s a demonstration there, with extreme excitement. It gave one goosebumps, feeling freedom beginning to flow.

The media boat was not far from the FREE GAZA and LIBERTY, but relayed co-ordinates (they couldn’t make contact with each other) show that for the FREE GAZA and LIBERTY to have met the press, the two boats would have had to turn round: inadvisable, if they’re to make land in daylight.

If the radio had been working. If the satellite phones were unjammed. These are regrets, but the fact is that the boats are now about to turn into Gazan waters, and may God speed them safe to land.

Please alert your correspondents in Gaza to cover the arrival… insha’allah it will take place. How they then get out? -- Chapter Two of this ongoing saga. Online talkbacks wish them to stay in Gaza and join the freedom fight, where they belong! The online words far more explicit.. as is the hate mail. (And so the oppressor is oppressed.) But maybe today freedom and justice will warm a few Palestinian hearts. The Free Gaza Movement will be in great danger of too many cups of tea. And of being swamped by the 200,000 people whom, we’re told, will be on the beach to welcome them. And the Israeli Government must now be on warning that yes, indeed, the World cares. That civil society has a voice. And that voice is saying NO. Human beings have sacred rights, and people are ready to defend them, wherever they may be. Even in the prison that is Gaza.

Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
Media Team

www.freegaza.org
www.anis-online.de/office/events/FreeGazaSong.htmwww.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/

Threats and Intimidation Against Free Gaza Freedom Sailors

Update: Israeli Government Recognizes “Humanitarian” Mission to Break the Siege of Gaza

The Free Gaza Movement, modern-day freedom riders of hues and persuasions, is sailing towards its objective in the Mediterranean Sea, approaching the Gaza strip that remains blockaded, the object of often savage Israeli occupation, starving and preventing the lives of the 1.4 million human beings living there.

The Free Gaza Movement movement is attempting to ship medical supplies in two boats, the Free Gaza and the Liberty, as they challenge the illegal Israeli occupation of what should be this sovereign land, the Gaza strip.

The Free Gaza Movement movement is not counting on the Israeli government's commitment to human rights during it voyage, and is prepared to die in its cause, though the mission is so well covered in the British press that Israel risks pariah status should its military kill the members of this mission.

One gets a flavor of rightwing reaction supporting Israeli militaristic policy (by no means enjoying majority support in Israel) by reading the commentary to the mission's coverage in the Jerusalem Post.

An update from Free Gaza Movement:

Across the world, there are laws against threatening other people. Verbal threats give rise to great personal and emotional insecurity, and they can be the midwives to terrible violence. Many of us on board the SS Liberty and SS Free Gaza have been threatened in these past few days. It’s appalling enough to receive phone calls, warning us that our boats will be blown up or asking us if we know how to swim, but when the callers go after our families, then that crosses the line from adolescent intimidation to psychological terrorism. This past Thursday, Lauren Booth received one such call.

“On the 14th of August 2008, an anonymous man called my home in France as my daughters played hide and seek in the garden. This stranger spoke to my husband, warning him that 'your wife is in great danger. These ships will be blown up.' My husband asked how it was this person had obtained our private home number. No response was forthcoming, but the illicit threats carried on.”

Other members of our nonviolent project have had their families in Occupied Palestine threatened with violence as well. From these threats, a pernicious pattern of intimidation is beginning to emerge. The question, of course, is just who benefits the most by trying to terrorize and stop us from breaking Israel’s terrible siege on 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza?

In April, 2008, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel released a report stating, “The illegal exploitation of family members, who, in most instances, are not suspects themselves, has on many occasions caused severe psychological suffering to interrogees and to their innocent relatives. In more extreme cases, this method takes the form of psychological torture of a detainee rendering him a victim of a cruel psychological manipulation via the illegal exploitation of a close relative.”

Today in the Israeli newspaper, Haartez, Amos Harel writes:

“Defense officials favor forcefully blocking two boats, which a group of U.S.-basedactivists plan to sail to Gaza ... A position paper by the Foreign Ministry's legal department says Israel has the right to use force against the demonstrators as part of the Oslo Accords ... the Foreign Ministry's paper means that security forces could detain the vessels upon entry to Gaza's territorial waters, arrest the passengers and haul the ship to Israel, where the detainees could be interrogated.”

The Oslo accords expired in 1999, but even when they were in place they never advocated or allowed Israel to use deadly force against nonviolent human rights workers. However, Israel has decided to interpret the now-defunct accords as giving them permission to act violently against us.

Given this situation, we, the members of the Free Gaza Movement, would like to make two things very clear to the government of Israel:

1) We are nonviolent human rights activists and we have vowed to take nonviolent action, in either word or deed, against any other human beings -including against Israeli government and military officials who, apparently,wish us harm.

2) The threats and intimidation that we have received these past few days,though disturbing, do not even come close to the suffering imposed on 1.4million Palestinians through the illegal and immoral Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Given the enormity of this crisis, we will not be deterred.

We will sail to Gaza, and this siege will be lifted.

- Members of the Free Gaza and Liberty, setting sail this week.

Free Gaza Freedom Sailers on Open Sea, Seeks More Funding

An Appeal from the Passengers and Crew of the SS FREE GAZA and SS LIBERTY

Two years ago, about a dozen human rights activists devised a plan to sail a
boat to Gaza in order to break the siege. We rejected a plan to rent a boat as
impractical because a similar venture in 1988 failed when the Israelis disabled
the boat before it sailed and the three organizers were killed. Thus no boat
owner would willingly risk his craft. We ultimately decided to purchase two
small boats that could carry 44 passengers,crew and media.

Each of us contributed what we could, and we also received thousands of
dollars from individual supporters, most of whom used the Paypal link on our
website. We also held fund-raising events, received a few thousand dollars
from small grants, and several “angels” helped us along the way. Each
passenger has paid his/her own way to get here, and many have raised additional money through their groups, worked extra jobs, and asked family and friends to donate. The passengers also paid an additional 600 Euros each for lodging in Cyprus and to cover the cost of supplies and food on land and sea.

Through these efforts we have raised $300,000, which we thought covered our
costs.(Some of the photos of the boats are on the IMAGE GALLERY page on our website. More will come.)

But the eroding dollar/Euro exchange rate seriously drained our funds. All of
our planning did not anticipate this contingency.

We are now in Cyprus awaiting our boats’ arrival from Crete. When they come
in, we will fuel up (with very high-cost diesel) and stock necessary food and
supplies. We hope to cast off for Gaza this weekend. We are told that
hundreds of thousands of Gazans will greet us on arrival.

Many people thought we’d never come this far. But here we are and we firmly
intend to set sail regardless of some recent staggering debts. Frankly, we
have spent much more than we raised; here are just a few of our recent
expenses:

•Two Sailor 250 FleetBroadband systems to allow us to stay in electronic
contact and to send streaming video in real time, $16,000 each, or $32,000;
•Repairs required to make the boats seaworthy, $25,000-$30,000;
•Electronics, wiring, connections, satellite uplinks, SPOT Trackers to make
the system work, $5000-$8000. (Most of the labor on the electronics and boats has been donated by the Greek crew and technicians.)
•Forty-four life jackets and two hand-held GPS units, $8000;
•Paint & banners for the boats, and balloons & toys for Gaza children, $2000
•Diesel fuel for both boats, both ways, $15,000 to $25,000.

Except for part of the diesel fuel, we have already paid these costs by running
our personal credit cards to the limit, borrowing money, and asking some of the
Greek crew to help. Frankly, we’re tapped out.

We need your help so that we sail on the Mediterranean Sea but not on a sea of
debt.

Please . . . donate through the Paypal account on our website
(http://www.freegaza.org/), send a tax-deductible check to the US address on the website, and/or send a check to the address in the UAE. Every donation, large or small, will help keep us afloat.

And, finally, thanks for your interest, support, and prayers!

The Passengers and Crew on FREE GAZA and LIBERTY