Israel Attacks Justice Boat, Kidnaps Human Rights Workers, Confiscates Medicine, Toys and Olive Trees

From the Free Gaza movement (see previous post) -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE30 June 2009
ISRAEL ATTACKS JUSTICE BOAT; KIDNAPS HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS; CONFISCATES MEDICINE, TOYS AND OLIVE TREES

For more information contact:Greta Berlin (English) tel: +357 99 081 767 / friends@freegaza.org
Caoimhe Butterly (Arabic/English/Spanish): tel: +357 99 077 820 / sahara78@hotmail.co.uk http://www.freegaza.org/

[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] - Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”
According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released yesterday, the Palestinians living in Gaza are “trapped in despair.” Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel’s December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel’s disruption of medical supplies.

“The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of "Cast Lead”. Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone" said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that: “No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children’s toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters.”0AArraf continued, “Israel’s deliberate and premeditated attack on our unarmed boat is a clear violation of international law and we demand our immediate and unconditional release.”

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WHAT YOU CAN DO!

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Justicetel: +972 2646 6666 or +972 2646 6340fax: +972 2646 6357

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairstel: +972 2530 3111fax: +972 2530 3367

CONTACT Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office at:tel: +972 5 0620 3264 or +972 2670 5354mailto:5354mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights workers and help in securing their immediate release!

Red Cross Israeltel: +972 3524 5286fax: +972 3527 0370tel_aviv.tel@icrc.org
Red Cross Switzerland:tel: +41 22 730 3443fax: +41 22 734 8280
Red Cross USA: tel: +1 212 599 6021fax: +1 212 599 6009

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Kidnapped Passengers from the Spirit of Humanity include:

Khalad Abdelkader, Bahrain Khalad is an engineer representing the Islamic Charitable Association of Bahrain.

Othman Abufalah, Jordan Othman is a world-renowned journalist with al-Jazeera TV.

Khaled Al-Shenoo, Bahrain Khaled is a lecturer with the University of Bahrain.

Mansour Al-Abi, Yemen Mansour is a cameraman with Al-Jazeera TV.

Fatima Al-Attawi, Bahrain Fatima is a relief=2 0worker and community activist from Bahrain.

Juhaina Alqaed, Bahrain Juhaina is a journalist & human rights activist.

Huwaida Arraf, US Huwaida is the Chair of the Free Gaza Movement and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Ishmahil Blagrove, UK Ishmahil is a Jamaican-born journalist, documentary film maker and founder of the Rice & Peas film production company. His documentaries focus on international struggles for social justice.

Kaltham Ghloom, Bahrain Kaltham is a community activist.

Derek Graham, Ireland Derek Graham is an electrician, Free Gaza organizer, and first mate aboard the Spirit of Humanity.

Alex Harrison, UK Alex is a solidarity worker from Britain. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Denis Healey, UK Denis is Captain of the Spirit of Humanity. This will be his fifth voyage to Gaza.

Fathi Jaouadi, UK Fathi is a British journalist, Free Gaza organizer, and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Mairead Maguire, Ireland Mairead is a Nobel laureate and renowned peace activist.

Lubna Masarwa, Palestine/Israel Lubna is a Palestinian human rights activist and Free Gaza organizer.

Theresa McDermott, Scotland Theresa is a solidarity worker from Scotland. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Cynthia McKinney, US Cynthia McKinney is an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice issues, as well as a=2 0former U.S. congressperson and presidential candidate.

Adnan Mormesh, UK Adnan is a solidarity worker from Britain. He is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Adam Qvist, Denmark Adam is a solidarity worker from Denmark. He is traveling to Gaza to do human rights monitoring.

Adam Shapiro, US Adam is an American documentary film maker and human rights activist.

Kathy Sheetz, USKathy is a nurse and film maker, traveling to Gaza to do human rights monitoring.

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Free Gaza ships to sail - posponed a day

Some stories about why the participants are making this potentially dangerous voyage:

(Larnaca, 24 June 2009) As the Free Gaza Movement gets ready to set sail on our eighth mission, many of our passengers are reflecting about why we are sailing to besieged Gaza.

Ahmed is returning to his home in Gaza. Israeli occupying forces will not allow him to see his mum. “I have tried to go home for six years, six years I have not been allowed to see my mother, and she is terribly ill. This is my chance to go home. I must go home.”

Sixteen nations are represented on this voyage. Many of us have traveled thousands of miles to show the world that we will not stand by while the Palestinians of Gaza continue to be violated. Read more.....

Watch a video about the group--meet the peace activists who are sailing and hear their stories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1n_8U9Xkg

Thursday's sailing postponed because of fears on the part of the Cypriot authorities

(25 June 2009, LARNACA)--...We had hoped to announce that our two ships, the Free Gaza and the Spirit of Humanity, departed from Larnaca Port on a 30-hour voyage to besieged Gaza, carrying human rights activists who have travelled to Cyprus from all across the world for this journey, 3 tons of medical supplies, and 15 tons of badly needed concrete and reconstruction supplies.

Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, returning for her second trip to Gaza aboard one of our ships, said "[The people of Gaza] must know that we have not and will not forget them."
That was our hope, but that is not what happened.

Instead, our ships were not given permission to leave today due to concerns about our welfare and safety. Our friends in Cyprus tell us that the voyage to Gaza is too dangerous, and they are worried we will be harmed at sea. Read more...

Food for Gazans: how the occupation works

The suffering continues in Gaza. An article in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz last week tells about the process by which Israeli securit forces restrict the goods that are allowed into Gaza. It is clear the embargo of goods continues and that the people of Gaza continue to suffer because their needs for food are subordinate to other considerations, like Israeli growers' needs, the stabilization of market prices for food in the Israeli towns north of Gaza, and on and on. In the article, the Israeli rationale for the restrictions is connected to the imprisonment of Gilad Shalit, the soldier detained by Hamas in a cross-border raid from Gaza in 2006, and held hostage ever since. Gilad Shalit must be released, but it is important to remember that, while Hamas holds one Israeli prisoner, 7669 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails, 449 of these held under adminsitrative detention, held without charges, deemed to be a threat to Israel's security (like the people held at Guantanamo). One of the 449 administrative detainees is the brother of a woman I met in Jayyous, Ghassan Knaled, professor of law at the univeristy in Nablus. Read his story in one of my previous posts.

Bribes are also an important part of the decision-making when goods are allowed or banned from Gaza. Read the article: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1092186.html.


This week the Free Gaza movement is sending more boats bringing humanitarian aid to break the continuing blockade of Gaza. Read about their work and support them: http://www.freegaza.org/ .

Israeli Independence Day, April 29

On Saturday night we went to a concert at Temple Micah, a benefit for Open House, organized by Rabbi Adam Morris. Last summer Rabbi Morris traveled to Israel with a group of high school students who had been studying the conflict between Jews and Palestinians. He and his family have strong ties to Israel, but this trip was different.

He discovered on this trip that his story - the story of his family's ties to Israel and their hopes and dreams for the future - was not the story of all of the residents of Israel. As he met Palestinians who told a different story, his own story was forever changed. He discovered that his own story needed to be retold.

He was also inspired by his meeting with Dalia Landau, whose story is told in the book, The Lemon Tree. In 1948, after her family came to Israel from Bulgaria, they moved into the house in al-Ramle, the house with the lemon tree in the back yard. They were told the Arab owners had abandoned the house. Then in 1965 she met Bashir, whose family had been forced to leave the house in 1948. Her journey of understanding is the story of "The Lemon Tree." She eventually founded Open House, a center created to bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together, to hear one another's stories.

As Rabbi Morris prepared, with the rest of his community, to celebrate Israeli Independence Day on April 29, he realized that he needed to find a way to celebrate that honored his new understanding of Israel's existence. He wrote about his ambivalence and his decision to plan this concert to benefit Open House:

"This year I am planning to do something with this ambivalence! I havedrawn such great inspiration from Dalia Landau<http://www.sandytolan.com/the-lemon-tree> and Open House<http://friendsofopenhouse.org/> - the community center she opened inRamla, Israel to promote co-existence and tolerance between Israeli Jewsand Palestinians. So, at the beginning of the week of IsraeliIndependence Day (April 25th @ 7:30pm), Temple Micah will be hosting aconcert to benefit Open House. Our resident musicians, David Ross and Hal Aqua will lead the concert band in an evening of music of peace,hope and justice."

Rabbi Morris's Yom Kippur sermon in the fall of 2008, is a letter to his two children, telling them what he learned, his message to them about his experience in Israel. He concludes: "the moment that we who were strangers in Egypt, forget how to treat the stranger; the moment that we who have been abused by those in power, become abusers to those over whom we have power; the moment that we create within another human being an inkling of the humiliation, subjugation or despair that Jews have known through the course of history than we betray the very essence of what we are called to be as Jews."

And so, as the Jewish community celebrates Israeli Independence Day, Rabbi Morris encourages Jews to travel with him the journey of getting to know the other. The concert on Saturday was a beginning.

Read some of his journey on his blog: http://www.rabbimo.blogspot.com/

The lyrics of one of the songs we heard Saturday night, "Two Thousand Years," by singer/songwriter David Ross, speak eloquently to the struggle of the Jewish community:

In the beginning, there was the cold and the night,
Prophets and angels gave us the fire and the light.
Man was triumphant, armed with the faith and the will,
That even the darkest ages couldn’t kill.

Too many kingdoms; too many flags on the field.
So many battles, so many wounds to be healed.
Time is relentless, only true love perseveres.
It’s been a long time and now I’m with you,
After two thousand years.

This is our moment, here at the crossroads of time.
We hope our children carry our dreams down the line.
They are the vintage—what kind of life will they live?
Is this a curse or a blessing that we give?

Sometimes I wonder, why are we so blind to fate?
Without compassion, there can be no end to hate;
No end to sorrow, caused by the same endless fears.
Why can’t we learn from all we’ve been through,
After two thousand years?

There will be miracles, after the last war is won.
Science and poetry rule in the new world to come.
Prophets and angels, gave us the power to see,
What an amazing future there will be.

And in the evening, after the fire and the light,
One thing is certain: nothing can hold back the night.
Time is relentless, and as the past disappears,
We’re on the verge of all things new.
We are two thousand years.

Tuesday, May 5, 7 pm, in Denver, we will be discussing Dalia Landau's story, the "Lemon Tree." If you'd like to join us, please email me: janlmiller@qwest.net

JERUSALEM, April 26, 2009 (AFP) - Israel will seal off the occupied West Bank for three days beginning at midnight on Sunday ahead of its annual Independence Day celebrations, the army said.

The Palestinian territory will be sealed until midnight on Wednesday, an army spokesman told AFP.

During that time, entry into Israel from the occupied West Bank will be severely limited to urgent humanitarian cases and journalists, he said.

Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, Israel has usually sealed off the West Bank ahead of major holidays, saying the move is necessary to prevent attacks.

The Jewish state marks its 61st anniversary on Wednesday, in accordance with the Jewish calendar.
Copyright (c) 2009 Agence France Presse: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/RMOI-7RGHR5?OpenDocument

Soldier's Aunt Struggles, Shares Her Own Pilgrim's Tale

From the aunt of an IDF soldier, worries what the occupation is doing to him. She read an article in March 21 Haaretz and shares her concerns with the broader Jewish community, through Jewish Peace News.

Dear all...

My nephew, whom I greatly love, was conscripted not long ago into the IDF after a year of national service, and chose to join a combat unit. To my knowledge, I am the only one in the family who is unhappy about all of that (except the national service part, when he worked with disadvantaged urban youth).

However, this is not my child, but my sister's child. Since I am not the parent, what could I have said? How much could I have interfered?

I sent him an email when he was inducted, saying, basically: "Sometimes after people get in the army, they discover that it is not what they thought it would be and they are troubled when they learn how it really is. If this happens to you, there are resources -- people you can talk to, outside of the army"-- and I gave him some suggestions.... names of organizations he can contact. --Meantime he has finished basic training and is in an officer's course. I wonder what slogan will be on the T shirt someone in his unit will print to mark the end of the course (see below)?

Will I be sorry later that I did not dare to interfere more vocally? I think about what he will almost certainly be required to inflict on others, including noncombatants, including children, unless he opts out somewhere along the way, a choice requiring a very strong resistance to groupthink and to a lifetime of brainwashing, a choice grounded in a profound inner conviction that the IDF is wrong, wrongly deployed, an instrument of a criminal and oppressive national policy, massively transgressing the norms we are supposed to hold dear -- a conviction which I can't see how he can possibly have developed, all of a sudden. And, since we become what we do, I think also about what this behavior of his will be doing to him. When he comes home on leave, surely he will be treated like a good son, a good brother. No one will ask for details of what he has been doing since his last leave. How is he to know he is doing wrong if everyone around him acts like all is well? That vacuum, that silence, seems to me to be criminal. That silence makes the families of IDF occupation soldiers into accessories to the murder of noncombatants. Doesn't it?

Today, after reading Uri Blau's "No Virgins, No Terror Attacks" in Haaretz, I sent my nephew another email - pasted below. I try to be gentle with him because I keep reminding myself that this is not a volunteer army. My nephew was conscripted, and if all the brainwashing he has been subjected to, and his misplaced patriotism, made him a willing conscript into an army of occupation, still he was a conscript, nonetheless. That distinction, of course, will have no bearing on his culpability for any war crimes he may commit while in uniform.... Not even the Qassams fired from Gaza at civilian populations in Israel will have a bearing on his culpability for any war crimes he may commit while in uniform...

Dear G.,

I hope you are well and doing OK, hon...

When I saw this article (below), I immediately thought of you. You are the one I worry about these days, for a lot of reasons. What they talk about in this article is one of the reasons...
Try to take care of yourself somehow in the midst of all the insanity.

Read the Haaretz article online: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html
I rest my case.
--Deb