Category: Features - Page 218 - International Solidarity Movement

FGM: Mercy Ship Departs for Gaza, “We are coming in on Tuesday”

For more information, please contact:
(Cyprus/Gaza) Huwaida Arraf, +357 96 723 999 or +357 99 081 767
(Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497
(U.S.) Ramzi Kysia, +1 703 994 5422

UPDATE: The “SPIRIT OF HUMANITY” has returned to port in Cyprus for minor repairs. The crew & passengers plan to depart for Gaza in the morning.

(Cyprus) The Free Gaza Movement ship, “SPIRIT OF HUMANITY,” left Larnaca Port at 3:00 pm, Monday, 12 January, on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza. It is expected to arrive in Gaza at approximately 11am (UST) Tuesday morning. Aboard the ship are 36 passengers and crew, representing 17 different nations. They are doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and five European parliamentarians representing Belgium, Greece, Italy, and Spain (see below for a complete passenger list). The mercy ship also carries desperately needed medical supplies meant for hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

This voyage marks Free Gaza’s second attempt to break through the blockade since Israel began attacking Gaza on 27 December. Between August and December 2008, the Free Gaza Movement successfully challenged the Israeli blockade five times, landing the first international ships in the port of Gaza since 1967.

The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical supplies to Gaza. In the early hours of Tuesday, 30 December, the Israeli navy deliberately, repeatedly, and without warning rammed the unarmed ship, the DIGNITY, causing significant structural damage and endangering the lives of its passengers and crew. The DIGNITY found safe harbor in Lebanon, and is currently awaiting repairs.

Shortly before the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY left Cyprus today, the Cypriot authorities informed the Free Gaza Movement that the Israeli government had officially contacted their embassy in Tel Aviv, and warned them that they felt “justified” in using “any means available” to forcibly prevent the mercy ship from arriving in Gaza. At the request of the ship’s organizers, the Cypriot authorities searched the ship prior to its departure to certify that it only carried medical supplies.

Fouad Ahidar, a member of the Belgian Parliament sailing to Gaza aboard the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, responded to concerns that Israel may attack the unarmed ship by saying, “I have five children that are very worried about me, but I told them: ‘you can sit on your couch and watch these atrocities on the television, or you can choose to take action to make them stop.'”

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have injured thousands of civilians and killed over 900 people, including hundreds of women and children. This ongoing Israeli massacre severely and massively violates international humanitarian law defined by the Geneva Conventions, especially the obligations of an Occupying Power and the requirements of the laws of war.

The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel’s massive violations of international humanitarian law. Israel has closed off Gaza from the international community and demanded that all foreigners leave. But Huwaida Arraf, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movements, stated that, “We cannot just sit by and wait for Israel to decide to stop the killing and open the borders for relief workers to pick up the pieces. We are coming in. There is an urgent need for this mission as Palestinian civilians in Gaza are being terrorized and slaughtered by Israel, and access to humanitarian relief denied to them. When states and the international bodies responsible for taking action to stop such atrocities chose to be impotent, then we – the citizens of the world – must act. Our common humanity demands nothing less.”

Israel has been notified that we are coming. A copy of the notification to the Israeli Authorities is attached. The Free Gaza Movement will hold Israel responsible for any harm that may be done to the ship or its passengers.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Take Action! CALL the Israeli Government and let them know that the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY is coming to Gaza. DEMAND that Israel immediately STOP slaughtering civilians in Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

CALL
Mark Regev in the Prime Minister’s office:
+972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264 / mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence:
+972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148 / mediasar@mod.gov.il

Major Liebovitz from the Israeli Navy:
+ 972 5 781 86248

Official Notification of Intent to Enter

January 11, 2009
To: The Israeli Ministry of Defense, Fax: 972-3-697-6717
To: The Israeli Navy
To: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fax 972-2-5303367

From: The Free Gaza Movement

This letter serves as a formal notification to you as the Occupying Power and belligerent force in the Gaza Strip that on Monday, January 12 we are navigating the motor vessel, Spirit of Humanity, from the Port of Larnaca to the port of Gaza City. Our vessel will be flying the Greek flag, and, as such, falls under the jurisdiction Greece.

We will be sailing from Cypriot waters into international waters, then directly into the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip without entering or nearing Israeli territorial waters. We expect to arrive at the Gaza Port on Tuesday, January 13, 2009.

We will be carrying urgently needed medical supplies in sealed boxes, cleared by customs at the Larnaca International Airport and the Port of Larnaca. There will be a total of 30 passengers and crew on board, among them members of various European Parliaments and several physicians. Our boat and cargo will also have received security clearance from the Port Authorities in Cyprus before we depart.

As it will be confirmed that neither we, the cargo, any of the boat’s contents, nor the boat itself constitute any threat to the security of Israel or its armed forces, we do not expect any interference with our voyage by Israel’s authorities.

On Tuesday, December 30, an Israeli Navy vessel violently, and without warning, attacked our motor vessel Dignity, disabling the vessel and endangering the lives of the 16 civilians on board. This notice serves as clear notification to you of our approach. Any attack on the motor vessel, Spirit of Humanity, will be premeditated and any harm inflicted on the 30 civilians on board will be considered the result of a deliberate attack on unarmed civilians.

The Steering Committee of the Free Gaza Movement

PASSENGERS & CREW OF THE SPIRIT OF HUMANITY

Abufalah, Othman Mohammad, Journalist with Al Jazeera Television (Jordan)
Ahidar, Fouad, Member of Parliament (Belgium)
Arraf, Huwaida, human rights lawyer and Delegation Leader (Palestine/USA)
Bitsanis, Konstantinos, human rights worker and crew (Greece)
Bolos, Nikolas, human rights worker and crew (Greece)
Bowden, David, Journalist with SKY TV (UK)
Caruso, Francesco, former Member of Parliament (Italy)
Dabbagh, Ali, Doctor (UK)
Dritsas, Theodoros, Member of Parliament (Greece)
Gentile, Alessandro, Journalist with CNN (Italy)
Gezelius, Mats, Journalist (Sweden/Finland)
Giannopolis, Nikolaos, human rights worker (Greece)
Jacquier, Gilles, Journalist with France Channel 2 (France)
Kampani, Chalent, Orthopedic Surgeon (Greece)
Kanellakis, Yiannis, Journalist with Greek Mega TV (Greece)
Karatzias, Petros, Journalist with the Associated Press (Cyprus)
Kawkuby, Jasir, Doctor and Pediatric Intensive Care specialist (Germany)
Klontzas, George, Ship’s Captain (Greece)
Muncie, Andrew, human rights worker and crew (Scotland)
McLuckie, Garwen, Journalist with SKY TV (UK)
Mourad, Maimouni (Belgium)
Muir, Alistair, Journalist with the BBC (UK)
Nuet, Joan Josef, Member of Parliament (Spain)
Papachristopoulos, Athanasios, Surgeon (Greece)
Pissias, Vangelis, University Professor (Greece)
Pratt, David, Journalist with the Sunday Herald (UK)
Prieto, Monica, Journalist with El Mundo (Spain)
Rahali, Hassan, Journalist (Belgium)
Robbins, Sonia, Surgeon (UK)
Sakorafa, Sofia, Member of Parliament (Greece)
Shakir, Thair, Journalist with Al Jazeera television (Iraq)
Synodynou, Melina, Journalist with Ethnos (Greece)
Tsatsis, Angelos, Journalist with MEGA TV (Greece)
Vinci, Alessio, Journalist with CNN (Italy)
Yvon, Xavier, Journalist with RTL Radio (France)
Zdoukos, Theodoros, Doctor (Greece)

Free Gaza to Israel: “We are coming in on Tuesday”

The FGM will sail to Gaza with humanitarian supplies on Tuesday

For Immediate Release:

(Cyprus, 11 January 2009) – The Free Gaza Movement ship, “SPIRIT OF HUMANITY,” will leave Larnaca Port at 12:00 noon, Monday, 12 January,
on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza. The ship will carry desperately needed doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and members of several European parliaments as well as medical supplies. This voyage marks Free Gaza’s second attempt to break through the blockade since Israel began attacking the Gaza Strip on 27 December. Between August and December 2008, the Free Gaza Movement successfully challenged the Israeli blockade five times, landing the first international ships in the port of Gaza since 1967.

The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical supplies to Gaza. In the early hours of Tuesday, 30 December, the Israeli navy deliberately, repeatedly, and without warning rammed the unarmed ship, the DIGNITY, causing significant structural damage and endangering the lives of its passengers and crew. The ship found safe harbor in Lebanon, and is currently awaiting repairs.

Fouad Ahidar, a member of the Belgian Parliament sailing to Gaza aboard the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, responded to concerns that Israel may attack the unarmed mercy ship by saying, “I have five children that are very worried about me, but I told them, you can sit on your couch and watch these atrocities on the television, or you can choose to take action to make them stop.”

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have injured thousands of civilians and killed over 800 people, including scores of women and children. This ongoing Israeli massacre severely and massively violates international humanitarian law defined by the Geneva Conventions, especially the obligations of an Occupying Power and the requirements of the laws of war.

The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel’s massive violations of international humanitarian law. Israel has closed off Gaza from the international community and demanded that all foreigners leave. But Huwaida Arraf, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, stated that, “We cannot just sit by and wait for Israel to decide to stop the killing and open the borders for relief workers to pick up the pieces. We are coming in. There is an urgent need for this mission as Palestinian civilians in Gaza are being terrorized and slaughtered by Israel, and access to humanitarian relief denied to them. When states and the international bodies responsible for taking action to stop such atrocities chose to be impotent, then we–the citizens of the world–must act. Our common humanity demands nothing less.”

Israel has been notified that we are coming. A copy of the notification to the Israeli Authorities is attached.

The media is invited to the Larnaca Port at 10:00am to for final preparations and a press conference before departure.

What you can do:

Take Action! CALL the Israeli Government and let them know that the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY is coming to Gaza. DEMAND that Israel immediately STOP slaughtering civilians in Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

CALL
Mark Regev in the Prime Minister’s office: +972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264

mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence: +972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148

mediasar@mod.gov.il

Major Liebovitz from the Israeli Navy: + 972 5 781 86248

Official Notification of Intent to Enter

January 11, 2009

To: The Israeli Ministry of Defense, Fax: 972-3-697-6717

To: The Israeli Navy

To: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fax 972-2-5303367

From: The Free Gaza Movement

The Steering Committee of the Free Gaza Movement

Six members of the same family killed by Israeli shell in Jabaliya

10th January 2009 – Jabaliya, Gaza:

An international Human Rights Activist, working with medical teams in northern Gaza, today assisted in the collection of six members of the same family killed by an Israeli shell.

British citizen Ewa Jasiewicz, a co-ordinator for the Free Gaza Movement, said, “This morning at 11:40 at Mahmat Street in West Jabaliya. I accompanied an ambulance to pick up members of the Abu Rabu family after six of them had been killed by an Israeli tank shell. Many others had been injured. While we were picking up the family and injured I saw a donkey cart full of dead bodies.

Everyone we meet has lost someone., whether it be a family member, friend or neighbour. It’s getting closer.” Ewa Jasiewicz (Britain/Poland) – Free Gaza Movement

Those of the Abu Rabu family killed were;

Yusri Abu Rabu (30)

Sufian Abu Rabu (22)

Randa Abu Rabu (38)

Sameed Abu Rabu (20)

Sami Abu Rabu (25)

Ramz Abu Rabu (30)
“In the past few days the horrors I have seen include a hospital being shelled, a medic being shot and visiting schools housing refugees after these were shelled. What I see here is nothing short of a massacre. By agreeing to upgrade relations with Israel despite it’s genocidal policies European governments have given Israel a green light for this mass murder.” Alberto Arce (Spain) – International Solidarity Movement

International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists have also been active with Red Cross evacuation teams.

“I was working from Al-Quds hospital during the ‘ceasefire’. We traveled a few hundred metres into a known ‘no-go’ zone because of the ceasefire. We called for people to come out and over forty did while we collected three dead bodies. Immediately as the ceasefire ended the Israelis fired a shell directly over our heads. People started to panic.

We only managed to evacuate four houses as the Israelis have not allowed us to access more people.” Sharon Lock (Australia) – International Solidarity Movement

“They massacred two year old Amal, four year old Suad and and six year old Samer with their tanks during what they call a ceasefire. We do not believe them and their ceasefire” Natalie Abu Shakra (Lebanon) – International Solidarity Movement

South African citizen, Dr. Haidar Eid, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies at Al Aqsa University Gaza, commented on the failed UN Security Council resolution;

“What was needed from the UN Security Council was a demand that Israel abide by international law and international humanitarian law, with a demand for the withdrawal of Israeli troops at least to the 1967 borders. Instead the resolution ignored the occupation and siege, which are the true root of the problem, and treated the resistance to the occupation as the root of the problem. The resolution equates the victim and the victimiser, the oppressor and the oppressed.”

“In March 2008 Matan Vilnai, the Israeli minister of war, threatened the people of Gaza with a holocaust. Because there was no outcry from the international community at the time this is now what is taking place.

However I believe from the reaction of the people around the world, this atrocity will in fact lead to the end of the despotic regimes in the Arab world, the end of Israeli apartheid and the creation of one secular, democratic, multi-national state.” Dr Haidar Eid (South Africa/Palestine).

ISM and Free Gaza Movement activists are currently working night shifts with Palestinian medics.

The Gazan Holocaust: Bil’in demonstrates in solidarity with Gaza

As a gesture of solidarity, residents in the West Bank village of Bil’in demonstrated against the current holocaust on Gaza in outfits symbolic of the clothing worn by victims of the Nazi holocaust.

The Israeli army used several new weapons, one of which is a bullet filled with an unknown chemical substance, against the demonstrators. Five individuals, including a member of Bil’in’s popular committee, were arrested and later released.

“Stop the holocaust,” chanted the residents of Bil’in during today’s protest, held in solidarity with the Gazan people. After the Friday prayer, Palestinian, international and Israeli activists gathered to voice their opposition to the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

Wearing clothing similar to prisoners in Nazi camps, protestors traded the Star of David badge for a Gaza Strip badge.

“The outfits and insignia are a visual remembrance to the parallel conditions of the Jewish holocaust and the Gazan holocaust. Indiscriminate killing of members belonging to an ethnic group that was put and is trapped in a ghetto: Gaza is the present day concentration camp,” stated Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a member of Bil’in’s popular committee. Protesters hoped to send a message to the world: the international community is ignoring another holocaust.

Israel uses the 'scream' weapon on Bil'in demonstration in solidarity with Gaza

The demonstrators marched through the streets of the village, towards the Apartheid Wall. An effort to condemn Israeli war crimes against the population of Gaza was met with tear gas, new bullets containing an unknown chemical substance and new bullets termed “0.2”, from Israeli soldiers. The new bullets that contain an unknown chemical substance are round and green and explode upon impact. Several protesters were injured including Muhammad Nabil Abu Rahmeh who had to be taken to Ramallah Hospital for treatment after he was shot at with the new 0.2 bullet. The small bullet went through his leg, causing great damage to muscle. Also injured by rubber bullets were a photographer from Al Jazeera International, Yase Ashal Mahmud Yasen and a child named Nashmi Aburahma.

Soldiers also entered through a road gate into Bil’in and arrested Muhammed Khatib, a member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee, Ashraf Abu Rahma, Samer Ataya and two Israeli activists. They were released later in the day.

The ongoing siege on Gaza, illegal under international law, was intensified when Israeli occupation forces began attacking Gaza with air strikes, shelling from the navy and a ground invasion. The military incursion on Gaza has already led to the death of over 781 people and injury of another 3,300.

Israel continues to indiscriminately attack on the densely populated Gaza Strip: a 40km by 7km remnant of historical Palestine with 1.5 million residents. Even Israeli officials are drawing comparisons to the Nazi inflicted holocaust.

Speaking to Israeli army radio, the Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai said, “the more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.” Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Jewish holocaust.

Today’s action was a reminder to the international world about the consequences of letting Gazan massacres go unnoticed. As proven by a history that was constructed because of willful ignorance during the Nazi inflicted holocaust, ignoring the Israeli inflicted holocaust on the Palestinians of Gaza is not an option.

Israeli air-strike destroys Gazan medical centre

In the early morning of January 5th, Israeli F16 planes bombed a medical center for the Union of Health Care Committees in Gaza City. The attack completely destroyed the two-story building along with three trucks equipped as mobile clinics that were parked nearby. These mobile clinics had operated as field hospitals for the northern and central areas of the Gaza Strip and they were being used to treat the mass casualties from the ongoing Israeli air-strike and invasion.

The cost of the mobile clinics exceeded 1.5 million USD, which was funded by the Spanish organization Asecop. The attack on the UHCC medical center has followed the pattern of Israeli targeting medical teams in Gaza. Over the past nine days, at least six medics have been killed and several others injured. Ambulances have also been fired on or completely destroyed by Israeli shelling.

In response to this recent attack, the UHCC has stated, “we request from the entire international humanitarian and organizations to take a serious action to stop this massacre and protect the civilians and medical crews, and work for bringing the Israeli criminals to international trial for what they are committing against Gaza.”