Tag: Freedom Flotilla

Initial reactions from Gaza on the new Freedom Flotilla

by Radhika S.

3 November 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

Coming back to port

Here in Gaza, people — especially the youth — are really excited about the new flotilla on its way from Turkey.

“I can’t wait to receive my brothers and sisters who share our suffering and who also experience Israel’s apartheid policies and aggression,” said 19-year-old Al-Azher University student Hussien Amody, upon hearing news that a Palestinian from Haifa was on board yesterday evening.   Hussein subsequently stayed up all night making signs and posters for today’s march  in Gaza demanding that the United the Nations and the international community protect the two small boats.

I rose early this morning and head to Gaza’s port to go out on the Oliva, a project run by CPS Gaza to monitor the Israel navy’s treatment of Palestinian fisherman.  I promptly told Salah, our Captain, the news:

“Two boats are coming from Turkey to Gaza right now,” I said, as our small white boat left port.

“Now?” he asked. “Yes right now. They will arrive in Gaza maybe tomorrow morning,” I said in Arabic. The “maybe” was for the morning– I didn’t know how to say “scheduled to arrive.”

“Inshallah,” Godwilling, he said, and then asked where the boats were from and other details.  A tiny boat rowed by two young men balancing delicately on the edges passed by as the Mediterranean undulated below them. Salah shouted to them the news and they exchanged a brief conversation.

“I think the Israeli navy will stop them,” he said as continued out to sea. Indeed, that’s what the IDF spokesperson had declared on Twitter the night before.

Nonetheless, Salah yelled out to a passing yellow and blue trawler the news.  The trawler had eyes with long lashes and a smiley face painted on its wooden bow.  Palestinians on a similar trawler reported being shot at by the Israeli navy when I was out at sea yesterday.  We had heard the automatic gunfire as we were leaving port.  The Israelis have an elite navy and all the Palestinians have are their pink, blue and yellow smiley faced boats, I thought.

I shared with Salah that the boat was bringing Palestinians from outside Gaza, since that was something the youth here were particularly excited about.  A few them had mentioned that because of Israel’s complete closure of Gaza, they hadn’t been able to see their family members in the West Bank or leave Gaza for university in the West Bank or abroad.

Salah only shrugged and said “inshallah,” again, a word I had never heard him use in the past.  He was refusing to get his hopes up about

Palestinian trawler with smiley face

something that, in his mind, Israel would clearly prevent from happening.  I tried to convince him that maybe this flotilla would be different.

“[Prime Minister] Erdogan has promised that the Turkish navy will accompany freedom boats to Gaza,” I said. “And the boats left from Turkey,” I added, attempting to convince Salah, and even myself.  Indeed the Canadian boat tweeted last night that they believed the Turkish Coast Guard was behind them.

“Inshallah,” Salah replied.

Despite Israel’s declarations that it will stop the flotilla, Palestinian civil society groups and even the fisherman have a big welcome in store for Freedom Waves. Why is Israel trying so hard to keep 27 civilians from seeing what life is really like behind the blockade? What is Israel trying to hide?

Check out this solidarity song with Gaza and keep the #FreedomWaves rolling on Twitter.

Rhadhika S is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement

Act now to defend today’s boats to Gaza

2 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Two boats, called “Freedom Waves to Gaza,” are now traveling on the high seas to the besieged Gaza Strip. Their civilian passengers include people from five countries, including Palestinians from 1948. This is another non-violent attempt to break Israel’s siege, an illegal policy that has forced Gaza’s Palestinian residents into subsistence on international aid and subjected them to severe travel restrictions to and from the territory.

“Freedom Waves to Gaza” has been kept secret until now for fear of Israeli sabotage and obstruction, as happened with Freedom Flotilla 2: Stay Human. Now we have to make sure that Israel does not attack “Freedom Waves to Gaza,” preventing its arrival in the Strip, as happened with the first Freedom Flotilla, in open violation of international law and with the silent complicity of the Western world. To avoid this we need your help.

You are asked to act in favor of this initiative in any way you consider effective in your context. In particular, we propose:

  • Spreading the news of this initiative as much as possible, and demand that the media report about it. Israel may act less violently if it feels the world’s eyes fixed upon it.
  • Pressuring the United Nations and the international community, following the example of young Palestinians in the West Bank, who will hold a sit-in at the UN complex in Ramallah, asking the international body “to take urgent action to protect this mission as well as to end its compliance with Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza.”
  • Organizing protests if Israel’s reaction threatens to prevent the activists from reaching the port of Gaza.

We appeal to your humanity to act, and act with urgency.  The boats have already left port and the success of this enterprise, depends on the support they receive from the outside.

Palestinian youth join boats set to challenge Israel’s siege of Gaza

2 November 2011 | Freedom Waves

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Palestinian youth join boats set to challenge Israel’s siege of Gaza

  • Irish and Canadian boats in international waters on their way to challenge illegal siege policy
  • Palestinian activists call for end to international complicity in Israel’s crimes
  • Support actions taking place throughout the West Bank and inside Israel

[Ramallah] Two civilian boats, the Canadian Tahrir (Liberation), and the Irish Saoirse (Freedom), carrying 27 people from nine countries, are currently in international waters making their way to the beleaguered Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s ongoing criminal blockade of the territory. A Palestinian youth activist from Haifa has joined this renewed international mission to challenge Israel’s unrelenting stranglehold on Gaza via the sea. The message they carry is one of unity, defiance, and hope, in spite of Israel’s policies that have physically separated Palestinians from each other. The “Freedom Waves to Gaza” organizers chose not to publicize the effort in advance given Israel’s efforts to block and sabotage Freedom Flotilla II last July. The boats, which set sail from Fethiye, Turkey, are expected to arrive in Gaza on Friday afternoon, sailing from international waters straight into Gaza’s territorial waters without entering Israel’s waters. The boats carry symbolic cargo – $30,000 in medicines, along with a diverse group of passengers, all committed to nonviolent defense of the flotilla and Palestinian human rights.

“Israel has caged Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, prohibiting physical contact between us. We want to break the siege Israel has imposed on our people,” said Majd Kayyal, a Palestinian philosophy student from Haifa on board the Tahrir. Kayyal added, “The fact that we’re in international waters is already a victory for the movement. Israel’s siege of Gaza is untenable and it’s a moral responsibility to put an end to this injustice.”

Meanwhile, a statement signed by Palestinian youth urged the international community and the U.N. in particular “to take urgent action to protect this mission as well as to end its compliance with Israel’s criminal blockade of Gaza.” They condemned the U.N. Secretary General’s previous declarations calling for aid to Gaza to go through “legitimate crossings and established channels,” despite the U.N.’s own admission that Israel’s failure to own up to its responsibilities has created an unprecedented crisis of human dignity.

Throughout the week Palestinian activists in the West Bank and inside Israel are organizing solidarity actions with the Freedom Waves mission, including a presence outside the UN compound (Tokyo Street, Ramallah) and rallies across West Bank towns.

This is the 11th attempt to break the siege of Gaza via the sea, with five missions arriving safely in Gaza between August and December 2008 and the remaining violently intercepted by Israel. On May 2010, Israel attacked passengers of the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing nine civilians and injuring over 50. Israel’s actions were widely condemned and led to protests around the world. Efforts to bring a second flotilla to Gaza were foiled by the government of Greece last July following pressure by Israel and Western governments, as well as by acts of Israeli sabotage.

Israel has intensified in the past days its aerial bombardments on Gaza, underlining the need for international initiatives of deterrence similar to this one.

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For more information contact:

+970-592-346-895

FreedomWaves4PAL@gmail.com

 

Note to editors:

For up to the minute information on the Freedom Waves flotilla: http://witnessgaza.com/

Twitter: @PalWaves #FreedomWaves

 

#FreedomWaves launches to bring Gaza humanitarian aid

by Ben Lorber

2 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Wednesday, November 2, two international ships left the Turkish harbor to carry humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The event, called ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’,  unites 27 activists from 9 countries, including America, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Australia, alongside a Palestinian Haifa, in a broad-based international movement to break Israel’s illegal and immoral suffocation of the 1.6 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The Irish yacht Saoirse (Freedom), which carries 15 activists, and the Canadian boat Tahrir (Liberation), which holds 12, will attempt to carry $30,000 in medical supplies beyond the Israeli blockade later this week. ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’ is the 11th attempt by international activists to deliver humanitarian aid through the Israeli blockade of Gaza since 2008.

As the boats navigate international waters, Palestinian youth activists will parade a large wooden effigy of the aid boats through the streets of Ramallah, while distributing white armbands and ribbons emblazoned ‘Freedom Waves for Gaza’. In addition, they will hold a demonstration outside of the UN office in Ramallah on Thursday, demanding that the UN end its compliance with the Israeli blockade and protect the humanitarian mission.

Indeed, in a letter given to the UN on Wednesday, Palestinian youth insisted that “it is incumbent upon the UN to take urgent steps to protect the boats en route to Gaza and all of the humanitarian volunteers aboard, as well as to declare its support for nonviolent, humanitarian action, designed to do what the UN and its members states have thus far failed to do.”

Organizers of the flotilla mission withheld the news from the world until the boats reached international waters, to prevent Israeli or international sabotage that plagued previous aid attempts. Though the humanitarian vessels departed from Fethiye, Turkey, organizers insist that the Turkish government is not involved with Freedom Waves for Gaza. Says Huwaida Arraf, “because Freedom Flotilla 1 was mostly an international effort, and because with the Mavi Marmara Turkish people were killed, it became mainly a Turkish thing…which detracted from the fact that it really was an international effort. So this time we want to show that it’s not just Turkey, its an international effort.” In fact, no Turkish citizens are aboard either of the two ships.

Freedom Waves for Gaza comes at a time when minor improvements to the situation- such as the opening of the Rafah land crossing from Egypt to Gaza in May- or minor concessions by Israel- such as its allowance of minor consumer goods into Gaza in the wake of the Mavi Marmara massacre in 2010, touted internationally as an ‘easing of the blockade’ (though it led led 10-year-old Gaza schoolchild Abed Rahmen Jadee to lament ‘I don’t want any more snacks or coke. I want a new school’)- have done little to meaningfully alleviate the humanitarian crisis that plagues the 1.6 million inhabitants of Gaza, half of whom are under the age of 16.

Organizer Huwaida Arraf, chair of the Free Gaza movement, stresses that “by reaching Palestinians through their own port, the flotilla defies the dehumanization of a whole population and supports the continuing efforts of the people of Gaza to assert their dignity. The Palestinians will accept nothing less than a total end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza and all forms of violence and discrimination against them.”

The most recent figures published by the UN and international humanitarian and human rights organizations confirm that roughly 75 – 80% of the population rely on international aid in order to survive; 65% live below the poverty line; 52% are food insecure; approximately 40% are unemployed; there are no building materials for much-needed schools and hospitals; 90 – 95% of the drinking water is contaminated and unfit for consumption; seriously ill patients cannot get access to the specialist treatment that would potentially save their lives; and children are suffering untreated post-traumatic stress as a result of the white phosphorous shells used illegally in Israel’s invasion in January 2009.

In its declaration to the UN, the Palestinian youth stated that “in our schools, universities and through our organizations, we are taught about human rights and international law, and yet it seems like Palestinians fall into a class of people upon whom these rights don’t apply. Like the blacks in America a half a century ago, or in South Africa two decades ago, we are victims of an exclusivist ideology and those who tolerate and enable it.”

The declaration continues- “Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has been returned to his family, removing one of Israel’s main pretexts, albeit not a justification, for its Draconian closure policy.  And while 1027 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for Shalit (although 550 have yet to be released), over 1.5 million Palestinians remain caged in the prison that is Gaza.”

During the campaign, Witness Gaza (witnessgaza.com) will be a central information hub, in contact with representative organizations from activists’ home countries. Palestinian youth representatives will be updating the world via Twitter at #PALWaves, as will international activists aboard the ships- unless Israel jams the communications signal, as has occurred in previous flotilla aid attempts.

In Wednesday’s press release, Majd Kayyal, a Palestinian activist from Haifa aboard the Tahrir, insisted that “Israel has caged Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, prohibiting physical contact between us. We want to break the siege Israel has imposed on our people. The fact that we’re in international waters is already a victory for the movement.”

As new Israeli airstrikes are claiming lives in Gaza, and as Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to intensify the bombardments, it is due time to once again bring to the world’s attention what the UN in 2009 called the ‘protracted human dignity crisis’ caused by Israel’s closure of Gaza. Says Huwaida Arraf, “the people of Gaza have called on the peoples and governments of the world to challenge an illegal, immoral, and irrational Israeli naval blockade that has caused, and continues to cause, incalculable human suffering. We are responding to that call. Our primary aim is to overcome the continuing blockade of Gaza through civil resistance and non-violent direct action, and to establish a permanent sea lane between Gaza and the rest of the world.”

Ben Lorber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement and writer for the Alternative Information Center.

Demand Greece allow the Flotilla to sail!

2 July 2011 | Free Gaza Movement

Following the intense pressure from the United States and Israeli governments, Greece has announced that they will prevent the sailing of Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human boats to Gaza.

Israel has exported the blockade of Gaza to Greece and the Greek government must be reminded that the people of the world want an end to the siege of Gaza. Join us in calling on the Greek government to allow the passage of the Flotilla to the shores of Gaza by calling your local Greek embassies and consulates. Find a local Greek representative.

In addition to calling to remind the Greek government that helping Israel maintain a naval blockade and illegal siege on the Gaza Strip is against international law and humanity, we urge you to show them by holding vigils and demonstrations. Find a demonstration in your area or organize one and register it.