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TechnoratiStanding Up for Justice in the Middle East
"Come, my friends
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset..."
—from Tennyson's "Ulysses"
Limassol, Cyprus - In a few, short days, the Free Gaza Movement, a diverse group of international human rights activists from seventeen different countries, will set sail from Cyprus to Gaza in order to shatter the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. I'm proud to stand with them. Over 170 prominent individuals and organizations have endorsed our efforts, including the Carter Center, former British Cabinet member Clare Short, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Desmond Tutu.
Adam Qvist, a 22 year old student and filmmaker from Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the human rights workers sailing to Gaza. He explains his participation in the project in this way:
"I'm interested in telling narratives and advocating people's existent feelings. The idea of sailing to Gaza is kind of crazy, but it's also very straight-forward. The whole idea of having just one Palestinian who's been forced off their land and who is able to return to Palestine - this is something that could demolish the whole Zionist venture. And it just has to be one person. If one person can do it, then others can do it. This project, this boat, is about giving people the freedom to take responsibility. You shouldn't expect something from others if you can't do it yourself, and this is true both on a very personal but also on a political level.
"This mission is an amazing opportunity to have a huge impact on this hard-locked, heart-locked, crisis. I've never been to Gaza, myself, but I know that Gaza is the forgotten little brother of the Middle East, or at least of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Everything about this crisis is clearer in Gaza. The Israeli occupation strategy is much clearer in Gaza, because it's not specifically about taking more land. It's mostly about completely destroying a people."
Over two years ago, in an election process advocated by the United States, the party of Hamas was elected to power in Occupied Palestine. In response, Israel and the United States imposed a near total blockade on the people of Gaza in an illegal act of collective punishment.
For more than two years, Israel has blocked Gaza's access to tax revenues, humanitarian aid, and even family remittances from Palestinians living abroad. Predictably, Gaza's economy has completely collapsed, and malnutrition rates have skyrocketed. Today, because of the blockade, eighty percent of the people of Gaza are dependent on United Nations' food aid just to be able to eat.
This is intolerable.
U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama often speaks about the "audacity of hope." But hope can never be a passive emotion. Centuries ago, St. Augustine wrote that Hope has two, beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. To hope for a better world is to be angry at the injustices that prevent that world from emerging, and it requires the courage to stand up and create newer worlds for ourselves.
Tom Nelson, a lawyer from Welches, Oregon, is sailing to Gaza to seek that newer world. According to Tom:
"Americans are terribly ignorant of the human effects of what they support. I think this boat is one of the most effective means of raising consciousness - particularly American consciousness - about the problems caused by American foreign policy. Americans have to know the consequences of these policies ... I'm sixty-four years old, my children are grown, and my affairs are in order. I think about Rachel Corrie, and about what Israel may do to us. I know it's risky, but I take a risk when I ride a motorcycle, and I think that if we're really going to change things then somebody has to begin putting something on the line for that change to happen."
Eliza Ernshire is a thirty-two year old schoolteacher from London. Her reasons for sailing to Gaza are much the same:
"For years and years - seeing place in the world that were being totally destroyed, and people that were being totally destroyed by other people and governments - I thought there's nothing that I could do. But I realized that we can change things in small ways, and we have a responsibility to do this.
"No one is paying attention to what's happening in Gaza. No one is listening to Palestinians. They are slowly being strangulated by Israel, and no one is even listening. I can't sit outside of this and just let it happen ... We as human beings have an obligation to stand up, and I can't be passive about it. You can't stand up in London and just say that you don't agree. We need to find ways to connect people in the Middle East, particularly young people, to people and groups in wealthier countries. Together we can inspire each other, and together we can be much more than we are alone."
Eliza speaks a powerful truth. Politicians and pundits often complain that the conflicts in the Middle East are complex and intractable, but two things are absolutely clear: One is that the use of violence - and, in Israel's case, overwhelming violence - has not helped any side to achieve peace or security. And the other is that our governments, across our entire world, have completely failed to do anything productive to address this crisis.
It's time we the people stand up for ourselves against unjust laws, wanton violence, criminal blockades, and the hardness of heart that makes these thing possible. It's time we stand against fear-mongering and war-mongering, and build connections, for ourselves, with our sisters and brothers in the Middle East. Our politicians have long since failed us. Now it's our turn to stand up and seek a newer world for ourselves.
Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American writer and activist, and a member of the Free Gaza Movement. You can receive regular updates on their efforts to break the siege of Gaza by signing up for their newsletter. If you'd like more information, or if you'd like to donate to their efforts, please visit their website at FreeGaza.org.
15 Comments so far
Show AllPissantNobody: You state we need to build a political party that will "take the reins of the economy from the murderers," and we need to be "bringing socialism to the belly to the beast."
Question: Do you really believe a political process in the US could redistribute wealth equally? A political process being peaceful?
I think you are dead wrong. I'm a Relativist-Marxist and believe the 1% will only give it up over their dead and bleeding bodies. And that they absolutely control the political arena. Only violent revolution will cause basic change.
Neverthe GoshDarn Less, Obama '08.
This is just wonderfully inspiring... I wish the Free Gaza movement all the luck in the world.
While the blaockade busters are brave and compassionate, theirs is but a symbolic gesture. Peace and prosperity will not come to greater Palestine until there is a proletarian socialist revolution, fist and foremost in Israel. All other solutions enshrine inequality and exploitation. To achieve this, Americans can best help by bringing socialism to the belly of the imperialist beast, the USA. The strategy must be to first build and hone a political party that has the program to do the deed, and integrate it into key sectors of organized labor; who, in turn can take the reins of the economy from the murderers, and finally bring equality and peace to tour own shamed land. Let's make it happen before the cauldron of the Middle East boils over into a WMD war that sweeps us all onto its fire.
I got the news letter from these brave people in which I was told that they have taken to sea earlier than planned and are moving from port to port in order to prevent mossad taking action to stop them as they have received credible information that mossad is active in Cyprus. If the crew know this then the Cypriot authorities do too and yet turn a blind eye to foreign agents operating on their shores. May the gods of the sea and wind help these sailors and we must ensure they succeed as I feel they could be the last straw on the back of the insane brutal camel, israel.
I am sure many participants will feel "warm and fuzy" for
doing good works. Such ostentatious charity by the rich and
essentially for the rich has been common over the millenia.
Donations and activism should go to the organizations I
listed above (foreignpolicy.org and the national Jewish
Voice for Peace which includes those of many faiths). Effort
should go into detailed study such as the many works of
Noam Chomsky, Gilbert Achcar, Edward Said and others.Read
Congressional proposals as well as more recent changes. Read
the final report of the Democratic Party Platform Committee
(p.34), Ilan Pappe (THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE.
In between, you can all go fishing.
Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live
4thefuture August 17th, 2008 12:30 pm
"Sorry biwee, but the Israelis didn't just start violating international laws in 1967."
You are sooo right.
Between 1955 and 1992 Israel violated {65} UN Resolutions.
I don't have a list from 1992 to now.
I should have added that the crew is in debt, so anything you can send would be appreciated and thanks for spreading the news.
Following this story and more the MSM is ignoring on WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
"We have been invited by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society of Gaza to go to Gaza. The people of Gaza expect us and will come out in their boats to meet us. We will fish together," Greta Berlin, Co-Founder of the Free Gaza Movement announced at the closing of the 27th annual ADC/Arab-American Anti-Discrimination conference in Washington, D.C. June 10, 2007, which preceded a March on D.C. by over 5,000 dissenting American's Against the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
The MSM was MIA at both events, but the March was well attended by USA Security Forces.
In 2007, the plan had been to sail ten boats through international waters to bring food, water, medicine directly to the people of Gaza.
It has been said that you don't make war with the army you wish you had, but the army you have; the army out to change the world consists of two boats- the FREE GAZA and SS LIBERTY and streaming video.
Co-Founder of Free Gaza, is Dr. Paul Larudee, a former Fulbright-Hayes lecturer and piano tuner had scheduled twenty piano tuning appointments throughout the West Bank during the summer of 2006.
Instead, he spent two weeks in a Ben Gurion jail cell fighting deportation because of his NON-VIOLENT activism with ISM against the route of The Wall and his ethical stand against U.S.A. Tax Dollars that Support the Israeli Military Occupation of Palestine.
Larudee explained in 2007, "We are going through international waters; we are not going through Israel. Israel claims Gaza is unoccupied and so, we are going to unoccupied territory…We will embark in Cypress and disembark in Gaza. This can play out in many ways; we may get blown out of the water, we may get towed away, but we will remain nonviolent and exercise the sovereignty of international waters, for we are not going through Israel. We will not allow the Coast Guard to enter onto our boats; we will demonstrate nonviolently our solidarity with the residents of Gaza who invited us. We are taking food, water, medicine, but the issue is solidarity with the people of Gaza. If our rights are denied, we will remain nonviolent."
Also on board is American Israeli Professor Jeff Halper, Founder of Israeli Committee against House Demolitions and famous for his explanation of Israeli democracy, "Israel is not a democracy, but is an Ethnocracy, meaning a country run and controlled by a national group with some democratic elements but set up with Jews in control and structured to keep them in control.
"Missing from Israel's security framing is the very fact of occupation, which Israel both denies exists...and that 'security' requires Israel control over the entire country...rendering impossible a just peace based on human rights, international law, reconciliation."
Sara Roy, is a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and political economist who has worked in Gaza since 1985. She had just returned from there and spoke prior to Greta and Paul at the 2007 ADC Conference:
"There is nothing new in Gaza, just more acute and the internal breakdown due to restrictions and 527 physical barriers and cantonizations make it impossible for Palestinian businessmen to move their goods and they have been forced to hire Israelis as middle men who are able to transport Palestinian goods over the 535 miles of roads that Palestinians have been denied access to. The few Palestinians who are able to access these roads have become a privileged class…This new class is also dependent on international donors who are not building new structures to challenge the occupation and this has resulted in the humanitarization of Palestine; donors and Israelis are not treating them as human beings with political rights.
"This has caused fragmentation, isolation, cantonization which will soon become worse. The physical impediments, roadblocks and required permits have caused most of the people to give up, for their efforts to move their goods increases their costs so much and since there is no guarantee that their efforts will result in them being able to transport their wares, many have given up.
"There is a great sense that the people are robbed of their space and time and this has resulted in a de-development of the human being…The issue is no longer occupation but sovereign control...All vestiges of Palestinian presence is being destroyed by Israel."
On two small boats, 40 global citizens from 16 countries, [the oldest will celebrate her 84th birthday on board and the youngest is a 22-year-old student from Denmark] on their way to Gaza, will be freely streaming reality video with hope to nonviolently defeat the Israeli Navy and begin the End of the Occupation.
"We learned our lessons from the USS LIBERTY."-Greta Berlin
The USS LIBERTY was attacked while in international waters not far from Gaza by the Israeli Navy and Air Force on June 8, 1967:
"It is time to speak openly and honestly about Israel. But, in American politics, that is still forbidden…Pity that we cannot seem to shed our fear of Israel. We are afraid to speak out on Capitol Hill, for fear of losing the next election. They are more like trained poodles jumping through hoops than leaders! Why this fear? How did we get here?
"Forty years ago to this day, June 8, 1967 the change occurred, the floodgates opened and money poured into Israel as never before. When President Johnson heard about the U.S.S. Liberty being attacked by Israel he ordered the rescue fighter planes to return to the deck. The rescue mission was aborted and the survivors have said they heard LBJ's voice tell Admiral Giess, 'Get those planes back on deck. I don't care if the ship sinks, I will not embarrass Israel.'
"LBJ also threatened to court martial anyone who reported what had happened. Johnson accepted Israel's false claim of "mistaken identity" and he knew it was a lie. That is when the change began and Israel learned they could get away with murdering U.S.A. soldiers."-Congressman Paul Findley, June 8, 2007, 27th annual American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Washington, D.C.
May God keep the SS LIBERTY and FREE GAZA afloat and freely streaming video of the fearless crew who just maybe harbingers of new 'birth-pangs' of a New Middle East;
One based on Justice which is the only way to Peace.
Please make a donation if you can and thanks for spreading the news:
http://www.freegaza.org
Following that story and more the MSM is ignoring on WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
I wish I believed that this attempt to show one's own
moral superiority (often a part of the pride of charity)
was a solution. Unfortunately, it is not.
Work to persuade your Senator or Congressman against
H.Con.Res. 362, S.Res.580, for a recognition of a sovereign,
independent State of Palestine, for the recognition by the
US and Israel of international laws (against threats,torture, etc.), for the right of return of Palestinians, against descrimination against Palestine
in housing and labor, for a totally nuclear-free Israel
under random IAEA inspections, against Israeli sites
manufacturing WMDs, Chemical warfare...Against false
use of victimhood (Holocaust) as a free excuse to victimize
others, against "eretz Israel"...These would be worthwhile
goals.
Not all at once. Better than boatrides.
Knowledge and determination would serve us better than
public shows of our self-proclaimed "valour".
Join Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org
Join the national Jewish Voice for Peace www.jvp.org
Why not 1,000 private boats? What would israel do?
Ramzi Kysia, this is an excellent news report! Safe travels to you and the other human rights activists.
Good review of the 2006 Gaza elections. In a closely-monitored democratic election, Hamas won. Gaza is a democracy!
What a beautiful reminder from St. Augustine on Hope, whose daughters are Anger and Courage, and your accompanying explanation.
This is how Obama should be explaining Hope!
Though too many Americans are too intimidated or too distracted or too ignorant to be angry enough to stand up to obvious injustices and also lack the courage to "create newer worlds for ourselves," so the same stump speech will suffice.
Sorry biwee, but the Israelis didn't just start violating international laws in 1967. They started well before then. Ask UN mediator Count Bernadotte, oh wait, you can't, because they killed him.
The author can start out by giving her support to Ralph Nader. At least he'll be far more honest than Mccain or Obama.
In 1967 the Israelis deliberately and repeatedly attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 and wounding 170. The Israelis LIED, saying they mistook the Liberty for a 1925 vintage
Egyptian ship. DCIA Helms stated in public that the Israeli attack was deliberate. The US did NOTHING except accept the Israeli lie. Since that day in 1967, the Israelis have violated international laws, UN Security Council resolutions and basic common humanity with the illegal expansion into the West Bank. The persecution and
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from their land continues to this day. WHY? Because the Zionists who run America and control the US Congress have NO regard for JUSTICE. There will be NO justice for the MidEast.