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Welcome to Palestine

Press Release 2: “Welcome to Palestine” Organizers decry Israeli propaganda
efforts and threats of mass deportation

Bethlehem and Jerusalem 5 July 2011–The organizers of the “Welcome to
Palestine” initiative decry the numerous attempts by Israeli and other media
to distort our message and planned activities.  There were messages claiming
that we are attempting to reach Gaza by going to Lod Airport (aka Ben Gurion
airport) on July 8. Some claimed that this initiative came after the
flotilla was blocked. Others claimed our visitors want to disrupt things at
the airport and some even claimed they will try to take over planes. These
claims and many others being circulated are false; we urge media not to
disseminate false statements.

As stated in our first press release: we invited international guests,
including families, to visit us in Palestine.  We hope and expect the
Israeli authorities to allow them safe passage in compliance with
International law and normal diplomatic bilateral protocols. We also reject
the Israeli government threat to engage in mass deportation of peace
activists and the apparent attempt justify this unjustifiable action by
using rumors that they spread.

We are accessible to the media and encourage them to speak with the actual
organizers and participants of this peaceful initiative.  Journalists will
be flying with us, and we encourage more  journalists to join us and to
report on what actually happens (without innuendos and propaganda efforts –
Israeli hasbara).

Our visitors are coming to Palestine with a nonviolent approach to peace
building and conflict resolution, with full respect of the universal
declaration of human rights. We urge the Israeli authorities to allow the
journalists to have access to our participants and to report the true story
of “Welcome to Palestine.”

Inviting Palestinians and internationals to join us is our right as people
under colonial occupation who yearn to be free.

Some journalists are flying with our visitors and we invite all journalists
who want to exercise their right to free press to fly in of the 8th of July
to Palestine.

We will have a press conference Friday July 8 at 10 AM at the Bethlehem
Peace Center in Bethlehem.

Contact: info@palestinejn.org
##End###

Press Release from the European group is posted at
http://bienvenuepalestine.com/

نتنياهو في مطار بن غوريون يُعد لخطة احباط وصول نشطاء السلام
http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402801

Xinhua agency Report
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90854/7429516.html
AFP Report
http://beta.news.yahoo.com/israel-readies-pro-palestinian-airport-protest-21
1323198.html

Israel to expel pro-Palestinian airport protesters
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402646

نتنياهو في مطار بن غوريون يُعد لخطة احباط وصول نشطاء
http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402801

الشرطة الاسرائيلية ترفع حالة التأهب في مطار بن غوريون بعد أنباء عن وصول
نشطاء سلام
http://www.alarab.net/Article/382010

جلسة تشاورية للحكومة الاسرائيلية في مطار “بن غوريون” قبل وصول المتضامنين
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2178444
<http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=217844
4&Language=ar> &Language=ar

Challenging Israeli apartheid, starting at Ben Gurion Airport
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/challenging-israeli-apartheid-starting-at-ben-
gurion-airport.html

Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D.
http://qumsiyeh.org

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WELCOME TO PALESTINE

PRESS RELEASE

« WELCOME TO PALESTINE » MISSION FROM 18 TO 16 JULY 2011

Nearly 600 women, men and children, among whom more than 350 French citizens, will fly to the West Bank next Friday 8 July, in answer to the call from 15 West Bank Palestinian civil society organizations.

The aim is to show that, if our governments do not seem to be interested in the fate of these people who have been under occupation for far too long, there are men and women from all countries, who are ready to bring them moral support, using a week of their holidays to go and meet them.

In order to go to Bethlehem, we have no other choice than first landing at Tel Aviv airport, since the only Palestinian airport was destroyed by Israel in the early 2000’s. We know that the internationals who go to Palestine are very often subjected to arbitrary, indeed criminal practices, when they are not turned back, which often leads them to lie on the reasons of their journey.

However, all the French, Belgian, British, German, Italian and American participants decided of one accord that, having nothing to hide, and coming with totally peaceful intentions, they would inform the Israeli authorities of our wish to go to the West Bank immediately after our arrival at Tel Aviv airport.

We then duly informed the French Foreign Office who forwarded the information to the Israeli authorities.

They therefore know perfectly well that we are not coming “to spread chaos at Tel Aviv airport” – contrary to claims by certain agencies, only to pay a visit to Palestinian families, share their daily life for a week, visit the towns, villages and refugee camps, discover the difficulties encountered by their inhabitants, also their culture and their expectations.

Our programme includes in particular exchanges with the Al-Rowwad Centre of the Aïda refugee camp (Bethlehem), help with olive tree planting around Ramallah, also a solidarity visit to the organizers of the Jenin Freedom Theatre whose manager, Juliano Meir Khamis, was brutally assassinated recently.

We strongly stress that we campaign for a just peace and for the freedom and security of both the Palestinian and the Israeli people. Such a peace necessarily means the end of the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the respect of international law. There are many Israelis who share this point of view.

We are leaving with our passports in order. We are not carrying anything dangerous. We often come as families and we are ready to submit to the controls in force in all the airports of the world. However, we refuse both arbitrary practices, we mean without any connection with anyone’s security, and humiliation.

More information on :

www.bienvenuepalestine.com

contact@bienvenuepalestine.com

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Freedom for Palestine

Order from here

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The American dream

[youtube http://youtu.be/maVh6zb_GgU?]
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July in Palestine

Hundreds of Internationals and Hundreds of Palestinians Gear-up for July
8-16 activities

Some 40 Palestinian civil society organizations, popular resistance
committees, and political factions announce the “Welcome to Palestine”
initiative July 8-16 where hundreds of Internationals will work with
hundreds of Palestinians for Peace.  The hundreds of men, women, and
children will arrive July 8 at the Lod Airport. The international community
must recognize the basic human right to receive visitors from abroad and
support the right of their own citizens to travel to Palestine without
harassment. Where Israel works to isolate us, we invite all to join with us
openly and proudly. We do not accept the attempts to keep us apart or to
force us to speak less than with full honesty.

This July initiative comes in a planned series of events and follows similar
events carried out in December under the slogan of “ending apartheid and
ethnic cleansing.” The week of activities starts on July 9 because that is
the anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling about the
illegality of the Settlements and the apartheid wall in the occupied
Palestinian Territories and the anniversary of the Palestinian Civil Society
Call to Action: 7/9 Ramallah area, 10/9 Bethlehem area, 11/9 North, 12/9
Hebron and Jordan Valley, 13/9 Neqab, 14-15/9 Jerusalem.

The July “Welcome to Palestine” initiative will take participants
(Palestinians and Internationals) to different parts of Palestine from the
north to the Negev and highlight the power of nonviolence and peace building
efforts. Visitors will be accommodated locally and will enjoy Palestinian
hospitality and a program of networking, fellowship, and volunteer peace
work in Palestinian towns and villages together with hundreds of local
activists.

The full program of activities is available for credentialed media outlets.
Volunteers and participants are needed and welcome.  Some news stories that
already appeared on this are linked below.
Contact: info@palestineJN.org

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Yonatan Shapira, Former Israeli Air Force Pilot, Describes Why He Joined Gaza Aid Flotilla

[youtube http://youtu.be/P26y8SZnQQE?]
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Gaza flotilla ship held by Greek officials

what do we do next?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/07/01/israel.gaza.flotilla/

(CNN) — One of the ships in a Gaza-bound flotilla was stopped Friday by Greek authorities, who warned that other ships headed to the Palestinian territory would also be blocked.

“The Audacity of Hope” — an American vessel — was stopped by the Greek Coast Guard roughly 20 minutes outside the port of Perama, according to CNN reporter Phil Black, who is on the vessel.

Dimitris Delavekouras, a spokesman for the Greek Foreign Ministry, confirmed that the vessel had been detained. Greek authorities warned earlier this week that all ships heading to Gaza would be stopped.

The ten-ship flotilla, which has faced a series of bureaucratic and technical delays, is a commemoration of the one-year anniversary of a similar flotilla that resulted in a clash in international waters with Israeli navy commandos that killed nine people, including an American.

The flotilla is intended to challenge Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza strip.

On Thursday, a flotilla organizer claimed another vessel — the Irish ship Saoirse — was sabotaged while anchored in Turkey’s territorial waters.

The propeller of the Saoirse was damaged by what coordinator Fintan Lane said was plastic explosives.

“We believe that plastic explosives were used to blow and weaken the propel shaft, and this would have sunk the ship in open sea,” said Lane.

Lane said the damage was similar to what happened to another flotilla boat docked in Piraeus, outside of Athens.

He called on the Greek and Turkish authorities to investigate what he called an act of terror.

CNN could not independently verify the claim.

While Lane on Thursday did not outright blame Israel for the alleged sabotage, there have been a number of accusations by organizers about the government’s effort to block its flotilla.

A spokesman for Israel’s foreign minister said he was “not going to get inside accusations. They are vague. There is nothing behind them.”

“We have not concealed our case, our arguments, our diplomatic efforts. It’s all out in the open.”

The Israeli military Tuesday claimed flotilla participants had threatened to kill Israeli military personnel should their boats be boarded. They allege sacks of sulphuric acid were being stockpiled on boats to be used in attacks on Israeli commandos.

Flotilla organizer Medea Benjamin dismissed the allegations as ludicrous, saying: “They see this nonviolent, rag-tag group of ships as such a threat they’re using their entire propaganda apparatus, and their diplomatic and economic clout to try to stop 300 peace activists. It’s pathetic.”

In May 2010, the Mavi Marmara — owned by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or IHH — and five other ships were on their way to Gaza with humanitarian aid and about 700 activists from various countries when the Israeli soldiers boarded it.

In clashes with Israeli navy commandos the nine people were killed.

An independent Israeli commission, led by retired judge Yaakov Turkel, later found that the Israeli commandos “acted professionally and in a measured manner in the face of unanticipated violence” when they seized the Gaza-bound aid ship.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters last Friday that she didn’t think the flotilla plan for this year “is useful or productive or helpful to the people of Gaza.”

“We have certainly encouraged that American citizens not participate in the flotilla,” she said, “and we are urging that all precautions be taken to avoid any kind of confrontation.”

Clinton’s comments followed an even harsher statement by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, in which she criticized what she called “irresponsible and provocative actions that risk the safety of their passengers.”

CNN’s Mitra Mobasherat and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report

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SABOTAGE OF M.V. SAOIRSE IN TURKEY ‘AN ACT OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM’

IRISH SHIP TO GAZA CAMPAIGN

The Irish-owned ship, the MV Saoirse, that was meant to take part in Freedom Flotilla 2 has been sabotaged in a dangerous manner in the Turkish coastal town of Göcek, where it had been at berth for the past few weeks. Visual evidence of the undership sabotage, which was carried out by divers, will be presented today at a press conference in Dublin at 11am in Buswell’s Hotel. Photographs and video footage of the damage are available from the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign.
Concerns for the boat first emerged on Monday evening following a short trip near the Göcek marina and an inspection was carried out by divers and by skipper Shane Dillon on Tuesday morning. Evidence was found that the shaft of the starboard propeller has been interfered with and it was decided to take the boat out of the water for a further visual inspection. On Wednesday, the boat was put on land at a local shipyard and the extent of the sabotage was immediately visible.
The propeller shaft had been weakened by saboteurs who cut, gouged or filed a piece off the shaft. This had weakened the integrity of the shaft, causing it to bend badly when put in use. The damage was very similar to that caused to the Juliano, another flotilla ship, in Greece. The consequent damage would have happened gradually as the ship was sailing and would have culminated in a breach of the hull.
The Irish Ship to Gaza campaign believes that Israel has questions to answer and must be viewed as the chief suspect in this professional and very calculating act of sabotage.
Commenting on the attack from Göcek in Turkey, Dr Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza, who own the vessel, said: “This is an appalling attack and should be condemned by all right-thinking people. It is an act of violence against Irish citizens and could have caused death and injury. If we had not spotted the damage as a result of a short trip in the bay, we would have gone to sea with a dangerously damaged propeller shaft and the boat would have sunk if the hull had been breached. Imagine the scene if this had happened at nighttime.”
“Israel is the only party likely to have carried out this reckless action and it is important that the Irish government and the executive in Northern Ireland insist that those who ordered this act of international terrorism be brought to justice. This was carried out in a Turkish town and shows no respect for Turkish sovereignty and international law.”
He continued: “One of the most shocking aspects is the delayed nature of the sabotage. It wasn’t designed to stop the ship from leaving its berth; instead, it was intended that the fatal damage to the ship would occur while she was at sea and this could have resulted in the deaths of several of those on board. This was a potentially murderous act.”
Dr Lane, who was on board Challenger 1 in last year’s flotilla, said: “The Freedom Flotilla is a non-violent act of practical and humanitarian solidarity with the people of Gaza, yet Israel continues to use threats and violence to delay its sailing. They attacked us in international waters last year; now they are attacking us in Turkish and Greek ports. There is no line that Israel won’t cross.”
“We will not be intimidated by attacks like this – it simply highlights the aggression that the Palestinian people of Gaza have to put up with on a daily basis. It strengthens our determination to continue until this illegal and immoral blockade is lifted.”
Calling on the government and northern executive to demand safe passage for Freedom Flotilla 2, Dr Lane said: “The Irish government needs to publicly condemn this dangerous act of sabotage but it also should insist on the flotilla being allowed to make it to Gaza unhindered. Israel has no right to interdict the flotilla and even less right to carry out attacks against vessels in Greek and Turkish ports.”
“It is important that everybody make their voices heard in solidarity with the people of Gaza and in support of the flotilla. The Israeli embassy should become a focal point for street demonstrations. These saboteurs came very close to killing Irish citizens.”
Also speaking from Göcek, the skipper of the MV Saoirse, Shane Dillon, said: “The damage sighted and inspected on the starboard propeller shaft on the MV Saoirse had the potential to cause loss of life to a large number of those aboard. The nature of the attack and malicious damage was such that under normal circumstances the vessel would most likely have sunk at sea. If the ship was operating at high engine revs, the damage done by the saboteurs would have caused the shaft to shear and the most likely outcome would be the rupturing of the hull and the vessel foundering. If, as was intended, the vessel had proceeded to Gaza at reduced revs, the stern tube would have been forced off line and a large and rapid ingress of water would have resulted, sinking the vessel.”
Mr Dillon continued: “The shaft was filmed and photographed when the vessel was lifted from the water on Wednesday afternoon in a shipyard in the Turkish coastal village of Göcek. A local marine engineer inspected the shaft and his opinion was that the interference was the work of professional saboteurs intent on disabling the Saoirse. However, the most shocking aspect of the attack was that its intention was to cause failure of the shaft when the vessel was offshore and this shows a total disregard for human life.”
He ended: “It is also worth noting that the damage inflicted on the Saoirse was identical to that that caused to the Greek/Swedish ship, the Juliano, which was sabotaged in the Greek port of Piraeus a few days ago.”
Pat Fitzgerald, a Sinn Fein member of Waterford County Council and chief engineer on the Saoirse, commented: “We were very lucky to discover this act of sabotage when we did. We felt vibrations from the shaft as we were returning to the berth on Monday evening following a short trip in the bay for refuelling purposes. Close inspection by divers on Tuesday and then on land on Wednesday revealed a large man-made gouge on one side of the propeller shaft. The integrity of the shaft had been compromised and a very serious bend had developed. This could have caused fatalities had we set to sea and almost certainly would have sunk the boat when the engine revs were increased. It was an act of sheer lunacy and endangered the lives of all on board.”
The sabotage has been reported to the harbour master in Göcek and Irish Ship to Gaza are asking for a full investigation by the Turkish police.
The repairs have yet to be fully costed but could be more than E15,000 and they will take some time, meaning that the Saoirse cannot participate in Freedom Flotilla 2.
However, six of the 20 crew and passengers aboard the Saoirse will transfer to another ship in the flotilla. The six Irish who will join the Italian/Dutch ship are Fintan Lane, national coordinator of Irish Ship to Gaza and a member of the Free Gaza Movement; Trevor Hogan, former Ireland and Leinster rugby player; Paul Murphy, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin; Zoe Lawlor of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Hussein Hamed, a Libyan-born Irish citizen; and Gerry MacLochlainn, a Sinn Fein member of Derry City Council.
The MV Saoirse will be repaired and used in future flotillas to Gaza if they are needed.
PRESS RELEASE ENDS
For further information:
IRELAND
Phone Claudia Saba at 086 3938821, or Laurence Davis at 086 3605053
TURKEY
Phone Fintan Lane (Göcek) at 087 1258325, or 537557811 (Turkish number)

—
Niamh Moloughney
Irish Free Gaza Movement Coordinator
085-7747257/091 472279
www.freegaza.org
www.irishshiptogaza.org

— 

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My Syria, Awake Again After 40 Years

Op-Ed Contributor
By MOHAMMAD ALI ATASSI
Published: June 26, 2011
Anna Bhushan

IN 2009, National Geographic published an article on Syria by a special correspondent, Don Belt, who had interviewed President Bashar al-Assad. In 2000, shortly after the funeral of his father, President Hafez al-Assad, the son entered his father’s office for only the second time in his life. His first visit had been at age 7, “running excitedly to tell his father about his first French lesson.” The president “remembers seeing a big bottle of cologne on a cabinet next to his father’s desk,” Mr. Belt wrote. “He was amazed to find it still there 27 years later, practically untouched.”

The bottle can be seen as an allegory for Syria itself — the Syria that has been out of sight for the 40 years of the Assads’ rule, a country and its aspirations placed on a shelf and forgotten for decades in the name of stability.

Now this other Syria is appearing before our eyes to remind us that it cannot be forever set aside, that its people did not spend the decades of the Assads’ rule asleep, and that they aspire, like all people, to live with freedom and dignity.

I remember my father, Nureddin al-Atassi, who himself had been president of Syria before he was imprisoned in 1970 as a result of Gen. Hafez al-Assad’s coup against his comrades in the Baath Party. I was 3 years old then, and it took me a while to understand that prison was not only for criminals, but also for prisoners of conscience. My father would spend 22 years in a small cell in Al Mazza prison, without any charge or trial. We counted the days by the rhythm of our visits to him: one hour every two weeks. At the end of a struggle with cancer, for which he had been denied medical treatment, he was finally released. He died in Paris in December 1992, a week after arriving there on a stretcher.

For the great majority of Syrians, the forgotten Syria meant a police state, a country governed with an iron fist. It meant a concerted international effort to keep a dictatorial regime in power in the name of regional stability — preserving the security of Israel and maintaining a cold peace on the Golan Heights, like the snow that covers Mount Hermon.

The forgotten Syria meant thousands of political prisoners packed for decades inside the darkness of prisons and detention centers. It meant disappearances that left families without even a death certificate. It meant the tears of mothers and wives waiting since the 1980s for their sons and husbands to return, even if wrapped in a shroud. It meant daily humiliation, absolute silence and the ubiquity of fear. It meant networks of corruption and nepotism, a decaying bureaucracy and a security apparatus operating without control or accountability. It meant the marginalization of politics, the taming of the judiciary, the suffocation of civil society and the crushing of any opposition.

A terrifying slogan, “Our Leader Forever Is President Hafez al-Assad,” emblazoned at the entrance to every city, and on public buildings, told Syrians that history ended at their country’s frontiers.

History did not end, of course, and occasionally it peeked in on Syrian life. But the regime buried its head in the sand, living the delusion that it could keep history out — if only it abused its people enough. This happened in the 1980s, with the bloody massacres in Hama. It happened in the early 1990s, after the Soviet bloc collapsed while the Syrian regime kept its one-party state. It happened in 2000, with the death of Hafez al-Assad and the transfer of power through inheritance — as if the regime could defeat even the certainty of death. And it happened in the year that followed, when the Damascus Spring was buried alive, its most prominent activists arrested after they called for Syria and its new president to turn the page and proceed toward democracy.

All through the past four decades, the regime refused to introduce any serious political reform. But meanwhile Syria witnessed great demographic, economic and social transformation. The population became larger and younger; today, more than half of all Syrians are not yet 20 years old. Enormous rural migration to the cities fueled a population explosion at the outskirts of Damascus and Aleppo. With unemployment widespread, wealth became concentrated more tightly in the hands of a small class of regime members and their cronies.

 Many Western diplomats and commentators expressed doubts that the Syrian people might one day rise up to demand their rights and freedoms. But those skeptics consistently understated the depth of resistance and dissent. It was no surprise that at the moment of truth, Syrians opened their hearts and minds to the winds of the Arab Spring — winds that blew down the wall that had stood between the Arabs and democracy, and had imposed false choices between stability and chaos or dictatorship and Islamic extremism.

History did not leave behind that other, real Syria. Syria returns today to demand its stolen rights, to collect on its overdue bills. Compared to the other Arab uprisings, Syria’s has been perhaps the most arduous, considering the regime’s cruelty and the threat of civil war. At the same time, the people’s unity and their determination to remain peaceful will ultimately enable them to win their freedom and build their own democratic experience. Our exceptionally courageous people, their bare chests exposed to snipers’ bullets, understand the meaning of this freedom; it has already cost them dearly, in the lives of their sons and daughters.

In his interview with National Geographic, Bashar al-Assad did not say what he had done with the big bottle of cologne. It’s a moot point. The regime’s response, and President Assad’s last three speeches, indicate that no one in the presidential palace, not even the president, can move the glass bottle of despotism that has held Syria’s future captive.

My own father governed Syria for four years, but I inherited from him neither power nor fortune. What I inherited was a small suitcase, sent to us from the prison after he died. It held literally all of his belongings after 22 years in confinement. All I remember from this suitcase today is the smell of the prison’s humidity that his clothes exuded when I opened it.

The next time I visit my father’s grave, I will tell him that freedom is reviving again in Syria. I will reassure him that the Syrian people have finally succeeded in breaking this big bottle of cologne, that the scent of freedom has finally been dispersed, that it cannot be drowned by the smell of blood.

Mohammad Ali Atassi is a journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on June 27, 2011, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: My Syria, Awake Again After 40 Years.
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