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IPSC: Freedom Flotilla of Aid expected to reach Gaza within 48 hours despite threats from Israeli Navy

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

27th May 2010

The Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, which includes 11 Irish people, expects to arrive at its destination within 48 hours despite Israel’s vow to block the mission from delivering much-needed aid to the beleaguered coastal strip. A forum of seven senior Israeli ministers who met on Wednesday 26th May have decided that the Israeli Navy will enforce a twenty mile exclusion zone around Gaza and will arrest all 800 crew and passengers taking part in the Freedom Flotilla should they pursue their mission to break the ongoing siege of Gaza.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) wishes to express its solidarity with the ‘Freedom Flotilla’, consisting of nine ships, that is currently attempting to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Among the ships heading towards Gaza is the 1,200 tonne Irish cargo ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, which is owned by the Free Gaza Movement. The ship is carrying a cargo of cement and other vital reconstruction materials for the people of Gaza.

Israel has vowed to block the Freedom Flotilla from docking in Gaza. After a hearing from defence officials Israel’s ministerial forum decided on Wednesday not to let the ships dock, but to offer to unload the cargo, inspect it and send it to Gaza via the United Nations. The ministers decided that the ships would be directed to Ashdod by force if necessary. The activists would be arrested and expelled from the country.

Speaking on behalf of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Dr. Fintan Lane (IPSC Media Officer and a ‘Freedom Flotilla’ participant) said: “The siege of Gaza has created a humanitarian and political crisis that cannot be ignored. We are determined to break Israel’s blockade and will not be intimidated. The people of Gaza have a right to access to the outside world and the right to determine their own future.”

Dr. Lane continued: “The siege of Gaza is a collective punishment against the Palestinian people because they dared to resist Israeli apartheid rule. The suffering that Israel is causing is an outrage and the international community must stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Direct action is entirely appropriate and we intend to make it clear that we stand with the Palestinian resistance to oppression and apartheid. We are not neutral in this struggle for human rights and self-determination.”

Aengus O’Snodaigh TD who is also a participant said, “We will not allow our flotilla to be divided. We will stay with our cargo ships – they are the core of the flotilla carrying essential construction materials denied entry into Gaza – cement and steel. This action is not a symbolic gesture but a concrete intervention to allow the people of Gaza to rebuild their lives with dignity.”

In addition to the involvement of the MV Rachel Corrie, a number of Irish politicians and human rights activists will be participating in the flotilla as crew and as passengers. The Irish participants in the flotilla are Denis Halliday (Dublin), Caoimhe Butterly (Dublin/Cork), Chris Andrews TD (Dublin), Fintan Lane (Cork/Dublin), Mairead Maguire (Belfast), Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD (Dublin), Senator Mark Daly (Kerry) and Fiachra Ó Luain (Donegal). The Irish crew members on the MV Rachel Corrie are Derek Graham (Mayo), Jenny Graham (Mayo) and Shane Dillon (Dublin). For further biographical information on the Irish participants, please go to the end of this press release. The participants include members of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Free Gaza Movement.

For further information, contact:
Dr. Fintan Lane (IPSC Media Officer & passenger) – 087 1258325
Niamh Moloughney (Free Gaza Ireland) – 085 7747257 / 091 472279
Crete Free Gaza Movement – 0030 698 377 6683
Cyprus Free Gaza Movement – 00 357 99 18 72 78 or 00 357 96 48 98 05
Freda Hughes (IPSC Spolesperson) – 086 1260359.

Biographical Information on the Irish Participants

Denis Halliday was born in Dublin in 1941 and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He is a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him to the post of United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq as of 1 September 1997, at the Assistant Secretary-General level, and he served as such until the end of September 1998. He resigned from the post in Iraq and from the United Nations as a whole effective 31 October 1998 after serving the organisation since mid 1964 – some 34 years. He has been a strong opponent of the US/UK-led war in Iraq.
Mairead Maguire, Nobel peace prize laureate, was co-founder of the Community of Peace People for a peaceful resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict. She has been to Palestine several times defending the human rights. In April 2007, she was wounded by the Israeli army while non-violently protesting with Palestinians against the apartheid wall in the village of Bil’in. This will be her third trip to Gaza on board one of the Free Gaza boats.
Chris Andrews TD (born 25 May 1964) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South East constituency. He was first elected to the Dáil at the 2007 general election.
Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD is a native Irish speaker who was born in Dublin in 1964. Aengus is married to Aisling and has three children. He was first elected in 2002 to the Dáil (Irish parliament) and re-elected in 2007. He is Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on social and family affairs, housing, justice and international affairs. He travelled by boat in November 2008 to Gaza which was (and still is) under siege by Israel.
Senator Mark Daly is a Fianna Fáil member of Senead Eireann from County Kerry. He was elected as one of the youngest members of the 23rd Senate in the 2007 election and has been active in community affairs and local politics since college. He was born in Kerry in 1973 and holds a Diploma in Property Valuation from Dublin Institute of Technology and a B.Sc. in Management from Greenwich University, London.
Dr. Fintan Lane is a writer and historian. He is a member of the National Committee of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Originally from Cork, he now lives in Chapelizod in Dublin. He graduated with a PhD in history from University College, Cork and is the author/editor of seven books on modern Irish history; he has also contributed many articles and reviews to academic history journals. He was the Editor of Saothar, the scholarly journal of Irish labour history, for several years.
Caoimhe Butterly (born 1978) is a Dublin-born Irish human rights activist, who has worked with AIDS victims in Zimbabwe, the homeless in New York, and with Zapatistas in Mexico as well as more recently in the Middle East and Haiti. In 2002, during an Israeli attack in Jenin, she was shot by an Israeli soldier. She spent 16 days inside the compound where Yasser Arafat was besieged in Ramallah. She was described by Time magazine as one of their Europeans of the Year in 2003. Butterly is a pacifist who is a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organisation that seeks non-violent alternatives to armed intifada by mobilising international civil society. She is a coordinator with the Free Gaza Movement.
Derek Graham is from Ballina in County Mayo. He has been a qualified electrician for 20 years. He was a member of the reserve defence forces in Ireland for 21 years and was the first member of the reserves to make the Army sailing team. He has been sailing all of his life and is a crew member on the MV Rachel Corrie. He has participated in many previous Free Gaza boat trips to Gaza and has been on four of the five voyages that landed in Gaza. He is married to Jenny, who is also on the MV Rachel Corrie.
Jenny Graham is from County Mayo and is a member of the Free Gaza Movement. She has participated in previous boat trips to Gaza and is a member of the crew of the MV Rachel Corrie. She is married to Derek Graham.
Shane Dillon is a Dublin-based Irish seafarer who has served as Chief Officer on Irish and British merchant ships. He has sailed on numerous leisure craft on transatlantic trips and in European waters. He is part of the crew of the MV Rachel Corrie.
Fiachra Ó Luain is from County Donegal. He is an Irish peace activist and was an independent candidate in the North-West constituency in the 2009 European elections. He was compelled to become a candidate upon watching the massacres of Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’. He is a member of the Free Gaza Movement.

DCI: Child blown to pieces, one maimed and two injured in drone attack

Defense for Children International

On 7 January 2009, Husam Sobuh (11) decided to bring more food, blankets and clothes to the UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya, where he was taking refuge with his family. On his way, he met with his uncle Osama (36) and his two children, Huda (11) and Luai (9), who were going home for the same reason. During this dangerous journey to their neighbourhood, where combatants were now fighting, Husam sheltered in an empty house with Mahmoud Abu Laila (14) and Luai Sobuh (9). All of a sudden, the building was attacked twice by a drone plane. Husam was blown into two pieces. Luai was blinded, and his body badly injured in the attack. Mahmoud suffered several injuries but recovered, as did Huda, who is badly traumatized by the incident. Osama has heard of treatment to restore Luai’s sight in the United States, but can’t afford the treatment.

The following information is based on an affidavit taken by DCI-Palestine from Husam Sobuh’s father, Osama Rajab Mohammad Sobuh, on 11 November 2009.

When the ground offensive stage of Operation Cast Lead saw an escalation in the bombing and shelling of Beit Lahiya, Osama Sobuh decided to take his family and flee. He brought his wife, nine children, two daughters-in-law and one grandchild to the UNRWA run Abu Hussein School in Jabalia Camp. It seemed all of Beit Lahiya was there seeking shelter in the school. Conditions were bad, not enough food, blankets or mattresses for the overcrowded population.

On 7 January, Osama decided to return to his house in al-Amal, Beit Lahiya, to collect some clothes, food and blankets for himself and his family. He decided to bring the two youngest children, believing the soldiers wouldn’t shoot at him if he had young children with him. Luai (9) and Huda (11) were scared, but he reassured them that they would be safe. On their journey, they met their relatives Mahmoud Abu Laila (14) and Husam Sobuh (11), who were going home for the same reason. Reaching al-Amal, they found all the residents had fled: “We reached the neighbourhood at around 7:45am and found it completely empty. No one was there except for some fighters in the alleyways, side-roads and under trees. An Israeli drone plane was circling overhead; I felt it was flying above us and watching us.” Osama remembers.

Having reached their houses, they gathered what they needed and reconvened to start the journey back to the school together. Osama made a white flag for Luai to wave as they walked, and they set off around 8:00am. Only 150 metres from the house, Osama got a phone call: “As we were walking back, my son Rajab called me to ask me to bring the small cooker to boil milk for his little son Raed because there was no gas in the school.” He tried to convince Luai to go back but he refused, so he installed the children in the empty house, fearing the drone plane overhead would launch an attack if they stayed on the street. “I left the children and told them I wouldn’t be long. I left the bags with them. Huda followed me. I had walked for about 30 metres when I heard a huge explosion from the drone plane. I turned around and saw thick white smoke coming from the house … where the children were. Huda was thrown to the ground…”

As he tried to run back to Huda and the rest of the children, an Apache helicopter overhead started firing, forcing him to run in the opposite direction. He took shelter in a neighbour’s house: “I stood at the door and looked at my daughter whose left arm had been injured. She was crawling towards me. She was shouting; “Please help me father,” but I couldn’t do anything except wait for her to crawl to me because the Apache helicopter was still hovering in the sky and firing on the street.” Huda managed to reach the house, where she was taken inside and treated by the women of the house.

Osama waited by the door for the Apache helicopter to stop firing and leave, so he could go to his children in the empty house, 50 metres away. As he waited, the drone plane attacked again: “I saw something flying in the air and falling on the street. I looked at the street and saw thick smoke coming out of the house; a few seconds later, as the smoke started to clear and I saw a half body of one of the children thrown on the street.”

An hour after the first attack, the Apache left and Osama managed to reach his children: “Once I entered the first floor, I saw my son Luai on the floor. He wasn’t moving. His face, eyes, chest and left arm were bleeding. His left arm was completely blown off. Mahmoud was beside him. He was also unconscious and his stomach was bleeding. I saw legs beside them and I assumed they were Husam’s legs. The rest of Husam’s body was on the street. The stench of smoke, explosives, and burned flesh filled the air. I saw small pieces of flesh and bones glued to the walls and the ceiling. They were pieces of flesh and bones of Husam’s dismembered body.”

Osama and other neighbours gathered the children and found an ambulance to rush them to hospital. Luai was transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, and later to a Saudi hospital for treatment. He was left completely blind and is in need of plastic surgery for injuries to his arm. Huda also sustained injuries to her. Husam was brought directly to the morgue.

Speaking to DCI the following November, Osama explains that Luai has changed a lot. He has been enrolled in a school for the blind and his grades have been badly affected. He is angry all the time and fights with everyone. Osama is finding it hard to fund his treatment. He has heard of a procedure in the United States that could restore his sight. He hopes some organisation or individual will donate the money to help his son. Huda and Mahmoud have recovered physically, but Huda has been badly traumatized by the event.

FGM: We will resist Israel’s attempts to stop us

Free Gaza Movement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As Israel continues to insist it will stop the seven-ship international Freedom Flotilla, two more ships departed from Greece to Gaza today.

A 2000 ton cargo ship and fifty-person passenger ship owned by the European Campaign Against the Siege of Gaza, and Swedish/Greek Ship to Gaza campaigns left Athens to meet the Freedom Flotilla in international waters.

They follow hot on the trail of the cargo ships of Insani Yardim Vakafi (IHH’s) and Free Gaza’s MV Rachel Corrie. IHH’s remaining 1100 capacity passenger ship and cargo ship are to sail shortly from Turkey.

In Crete, the Free Gaza Movement is readying its two passenger boats for their imminent departure. ‘Al Samoud’ (The Steadfast) and ‘Al Haya’ (The Ship of Life) were named by children from schools in occupied Gaza and Jerusalem.

Reports coming from the Israeli Navy say they will jam the flotilla’s signals and communications, isolating those on board the ships, and barring the world from witnessing what could become a confrontation or prolonged naval stand-off.

The strategy of the Freedom Flotilla, however, is to resist any attempts by the Israeli Navy to hijack its ships or to divide cargo ships from passenger vessels.

“The message from Israel is clear: ‘We will stop you. And no-one can prevent us from stopping you.’ said Free Gaza chair, Huwaida Arraf.

“However, we will non-violently resist Israeli attempts to seize our boats. Thousands of people have contributed to making this flotilla a reality, and the people of Gaza are expecting us.

“We will not allow our flotilla to be divided. We will stay with our cargo ships – they are the core of the flotilla carrying essential construction materials denied entry into Gaza – cement, steel, and houses. This action is not a symbolic gesture but a concrete intervention to allow the people of Gaza to rebuild their lives with dignity’, emphasized passenger, Aengus O’Snodaigh, TD Sinn Féin party, Ireland

Ewa Jasiewicz added, “We are not breaking the law, we are upholding it. We are acting out of necessity to prevent a greater crime from taking place – the collective punishment of 1.5 million people imprisoned in Gaza. The international community is complicit in this collective punishment and must break its silence. Respect for international law is not optional, it is obligatory.’

Contacts
Crete Free Gaza Movement: 0030 698 377 6683
Cyprus Free Gaza Movement: 00 357 99 18 72 78 or 00 357 96 48 98 05

May Is About Memories

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

25 May 2010

Mohammed Tooman and Hammad Awadallah, Nakba survivors from Isdud, share memories of their destroyed village. Credit: Eva Bartlett, IPS

This is the month for Palestinians to remember their Nakba, or “catastrophe”, in which more than 700,000 women, men and children were pushed off their land and rendered homeless refugees by the Zionist attacks before, during and after the founding of Israel in 1948.

Isdud, a farming community to the north of Gaza’s current border, was ethnically cleansed, in the months after the expulsions began in May 1948. It was one of over 530 villages razed and destroyed after the residents were forced out by Zionist attacks.

After three nights of Israeli air bombardment, more than 5,000 Palestinian residents here were forcibly expelled from their houses and land. Most resettled in what are now overcrowded refugee camps in Gaza.

“Most of the houses have been destroyed; the rubble is covered with grasses and thorns,” wrote Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi.

At a Gaza City Nakba commemoration displaying the clothes, agricultural equipment and tools of Palestinian daily life, Mohammed Tooman, 83, wearing the traditional robes of Isdud, spoke of village life and their forced expulsion.

“We were farmers and grew grains, fruits and had orange and palm orchards. Isdud had a large market every week and people from neighbouring towns came to buy from us.

“With every sunrise, I expect to return to my home in Isdud. And as the sun sets, I tell my grandchildren about our home and village, to which they will return.”

Hammad Awadallah, 70, also from Isdud, keeps this call for justice alive. “My right is passed down to my sons and daughters and their children. We will not forget our villages and our history. They are instilled in our memories.”

Since 1948 the United Nations (UN) has reiterated over 130 times its Resolution 194 calling for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. The 1974 UN Resolution 3236 specified “the inalienable right of Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return.”

Roughly another four kilometres east of Isdud, East Sawafir (al Sawafir al Sharqiyya) was ethnically cleansed of its thousand residents on May 18, 1948. The village had a mosque and shared a school with two other villages.

“No village houses remain on the site,” wrote Khalidi. “But some traces of the former village are still present on the surrounding lands.”

Abu Fouad was born in 1930, before East Sawafir was intentionally disappeared. After the forced expulsion from his village, he ended up in the tents which eventually became the tiny, poorly-built, maze-like concrete houses of a Palestinian refugee camp.

“My father was a farmer and had 35 dunums (a dunam is 1,000 square metres) of land, on which he grew wheat and vegetables. We had 50 sheep which I used to herd.”

East Sawafir shared a primary school with two neighbouring villages. “We didn’t go to school after 4th grade because there were no secondary schools in our area,” says Abu Fouad. “We only learned to write our name and studied religion a little, but nothing much more.”

Life was simple as were the houses. “Ours had two rooms,” Abu Fouad says, “but no bathroom: we would bathe outside. Even though we didn’t have money or the conveniences of today, we lived well, people were happy.”

Like most Palestinians, Abu Fouad has relatives spilled around the world from whom he is cut off.

“We have family in Jerusalem, Libya and Hebron. We don’t know them. And I haven’t seen or spoken with one of my brothers since he left for Libya decades ago.”

His wife Umm Fouad comes from the same East Sawafir community. Born in 1948, she was just four months old when her family fled.

“My father was a tailor and grandfather a farmer. He grew cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and other vegetables. We hand-washed our clothes and cooked food over a fire or a kerosene stove (baboor) and baked bread in the wood oven (taboon).”

Although just an infant at the time of expulsion, Umm Fouad has been told the history of her family’s land and home so much that she has internalised it as her own memory.

“We fled because the Israelis were firing on us. My grandmother couldn’t walk properly, so in the panic we had to leave her there. She must have died in the house. We left walking, carrying only a few possessions as we didn’t have cart or horse. It was days of walking until we reached Gaza.”

And dispossessions continue. Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 24,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, says the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD).

“I still come back to the house to work a small piece of my land that is 700 metres from the border. But even then I get shot at by the Israelis,” says Jaber Abu Rjila. His home and poultry farm east of Khan Younis lie just under 500 metres from the border. They were destroyed in a May 2008 Israeli invasion into the farming community. Soon after, the family fled, renting a house to escape the regular Israeli attacks.

On May 18, Israeli soldiers set land near Rjila’s fields on fire, burning the wheat crops of the Abu Tabbash family. The Nakba is not just about memory.

Gaza’s virtual connection to the rest of the world

Electronic Intifada

23 May 2010

Eva Bartlett

The Gazan skyline reveals a particular need to link with the outside world. (Emad Badwan/IPS)

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) – “I’ve learned most of what I know about photo editing and graphic design via the Internet,” says Emad, 27-year-old filmmaker and editor. In Gaza, this sort of thing has become usual in a different way.

“This program isn’t available here,” he says, smiling triumphantly as he finishes downloading the latest edition of an advanced video editing program. “Even if it was, I can’t afford to pay $600 for it, not even if I worked for two months. But I need this for my work, so I looked for a free online version.”

Isolated under a siege which began shortly after Hamas was elected in 2006 and heightened severely in mid-2007, Palestinians in Gaza have suffered the effects of such alienation in all aspects of their lives. The economy has been destroyed both by the prolonged and choking siege and the 2008-2009 Israeli assault on Gaza, leaving unemployment hovering near 60 percent.

Aside from denying Palestinians in Gaza an astonishing number of the most basic of daily items, as well as material vitally needed for reconstruction or in the health sector or for schools and universities, the siege is a psychological attack and strangulation which has pronounced affects on Palestinians dreams, hopes and daily realities.

“I’ve tried on various occasions to leave Gaza, for workshops abroad and for study,” says 24-year-old Majed. “But even when I’ve secured visas and invitations, the closed Israeli and Egyptian borders have prevented me from leaving.”

Likewise, Hatem has held a number of scholarships to study in the US and Europe, all of which have been lost to the whims of the Israeli and Egyptian officials imposing the siege.

Defiant despite the worst of obstacles, Palestinians continue to seek ways to educate themselves, as well as to feel connected to the outside world.

“The Internet is the most helpful thing right now,” says Emad. “For example, I’d like to study lighting in university, but it isn’t possible. Those type of programs, or anything on filmmaking and photography, are not available in Gaza. And since I cannot leave, I look online.”

Artists and musicians, as well as independent filmmakers, have virtually no market in Gaza for their work.

“Because of the siege and closed borders, the Internet is vital for promoting my work,” says Emad. “Someone anywhere in the world can see my photography, designs or videos and contact me about them. But for me, the most important is constantly sending a message about the reality of Palestine, whether it’s about the lives of children, or about the war, or the hardships under siege.”

Mahdi Zanoon keeps busy volunteering and filming with an organization in Gaza’s northern Beit Hanoun. But when not working, he too longs for contact with the world outside. “I chat with friends in other parts of Palestine and in countries abroad,” he says. “It is a small means of escape, when we always feel choked.”

Denied the opportunity to leave and visit family and relatives outside of Gaza, the Internet fulfills another vital role. “It’s too expensive to call people outside Gaza, but using Skype or a messenger program, I can keep in touch with friends and family abroad.”

Activists and educational groups also make the most of the Internet and technology. Satellite-enabled video conferences and Skype hook-ups allow university students in Gaza to connect with those in the occupied West Bank and with universities outside of Gaza working to break the siege on education.

The annual Bilin conference on 21 April this year included a satellite hook-up with academics and activists in Gaza, as well as residents in one of the hardest hit areas during the Israeli war on Gaza.

Ezbet Abed Rabbo, which had 372 homes destroyed, 333 partially damaged and suffered some of the worst human rights violations and war crimes at the hands of Israeli soldiers, played host to the conference, enabling the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem activists to show their solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The conference also enabled continued dialogue between Gaza and the West Bank, something that the siege and Israeli policies works to severe.

But for many in Gaza, the Internet and television are less political and academic, and more about killing time. In a Strip where time is the only thing in abundance, lack of work and leisure activities leads more people to surf the net or watch television.

Turkish dramas have gained a wide audience in Gaza. “I like to see something different. Their clothes, their customs, their surroundings,” says Umm Fadi. “When the power cuts, I get so anxious because I don’t want to miss an episode of the drama.”

The programs provide a means of escaping the daily reality of life in Gaza, where many feel tomorrow will be no different from today or yesterday. “Nothing changes, every day is the same,” says Mohammed. “There’s no work, no freedom, nothing to do.”

“You know, we watch television for the news, but also see how life is in other countries,” says Mahfouz Kabariti. “My kids see ‘normal’ life in other countries and ask me why our lives are so different.

“Can you imagine, this is the 21st century and my kids have never seen a real train. They live by the sea and only dream of sailing.”