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Palestine

Jewish Boat to Gaza sets sail from Cyprus

for updates

A boat carrying aid for Gaza’s population and organized by Jewish groups worldwide has set sail from Cyprus today at 13:32 local time.

The boat, Irene, is sailing under a British flag and is carrying ten passengers and crew, including Jews from the US, the UK, Germany and Israel as well as two British journalists.

At crisis point in peace talks, Jews, Israelis, call to lift the siege on Gaza, and to end the occupation.

The boat’s cargo includes symbolic aid in the form of children’s toys and musical instruments, textbooks, fishing nets for Gaza’s fishing communities and prosthetic limbs for orthopaedic medical care in Gaza’s hospitals.

The receiving organization in Gaza is the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, directed by Gaza psychiatrist Dr. Eyad Sarraj.

The boat will attempt to reach the coast of Gaza and unload its aid cargo in a nonviolent, symbolic act of solidarity and protest – and call for the siege to be lifted to enable free passage of goods and people to and from the Gaza Strip.

The boat will fly multicolored peace flags carrying the names of dozens of Jews who have expressed their support for this action, as a symbol of the widespread support for the boat by Jews worldwide.

Speaking from London, a member of the organizing group, Richard Kuper of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said today that the Jewish Boat to Gaza is a symbolic act of protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the siege of Gaza, and a message of solidarity to Palestinians and Israelis who seek peace and justice.

‘Israeli government policies are not supported by all Jews,’ said Kuper. ‘We call on all governments and people around the world to speak and act against the occupation and the siege.’

Regarding the threat of interception by the Israeli navy, Kuper said ‘This is a nonviolent action. We aim to reach Gaza, but our activists will not engage in any physical confrontation and will therefore not present the Israelis with any reason or excuse to use physical force or assault them.’

Passenger Reuven Moskovitz, 82, said that his life’s mission has been to turn foes into friends. “We are two peoples, but we have one future”, he said.

Satellite phone on board for contact to the passengers: 00 8821668610337

Media Contact in London for interviewing the Boat’s organizers: Yosh, 0044 7816 448307 media@jewishboattogaza.org

JNews contact in Israel: Miri Weingarten 00972 549270796

Passengers and crew for interview:

Reuven Moskovitz, from Israel, is a founding member of the Jewish-Arab village Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace) and a holocaust survivor. Speaks German, Hebrew and English.

Rami Elhanan, from Israel, who lost his daughter Smadar to a suicide bombing in 1997 and is a founding member of the Bereaved Families Circle of Israelis and Palestinians who lost their loved ones to the conflict. Speaks Hebrew and English.

Lilian Rosengarten, from the US, is a peace activist and psychotherapist. She was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Speaks English and German.

Yonatan Shapira, from Israel, is an ex-IDF pilot and now an activist for Combatants for Peace. Speaks Hebrew and English.

Carole Angier, from the UK, is the biographer of the renowned author, Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi. Speaks English, French, Italian and German.

Glyn Secker, from the UK, is the boat’s captain and a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Speaks English.

Dr. Edith Lutz, from Germany, is a peace activist and a nurse. She was on the first boat to Gaza in 2008. Speaks German and English.

Alison Prager, from the UK, is a teacher and peace activist. She is media coordinator for the boat. Speaks English.

Itamar Shapira, from Israel, is Yonatan’s brother, and a member of the boat’s crew. Speaks Hebrew, Spanish and English.

Eli Osherov, Israeli reporter from Israel Channel 10 News.

Supporters: Jewish organizations and individuals from UK, Holland, Germany, US, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France, Austria, Australia and Israel.

Organizers and sponsors: European Jews for a Just Peace, Jews for Justice for Palestinians (UK), Juedische Stimme fuer einen gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Germany), American Jews for a Just Peace (USA), Jewish Voice for Peace (USA), Jews Against the Occupation Sydney.

Visit http://www.jewishboattogaza.org and join us on Facebook and Twitter (links on site.)

—
End the Blockade of Gaza!
Tear down the Apartheid Walls!
End the Israeli collective punishment on the Palestinian people
Free Palestine!

Support the Free Gaza movement & US Boat to Gaza break the siege on Gaza!
http://www.FreeGaza.org
http://www.UStoGaza.org

Support ISM volunteers in West Bank and Gaza Strip!
http://www.palsolidarity.org

Donna Wallach
donna@freegaza.org
Skype: palestinewillbe
(h) 408-293-4774
(cell) 408-569-6608

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A Palestinian Story

I met the family of Mohammed by accident as I offered them a ride back from Gush Etzion colonial offices where they were seeking (unsuccessfully) a permit to enter Jerusalem for medical treatments (and I was called for questioning). What I learned about this family is almost unbelievable and could certainly be material for a whole book or at least a documentary.

The father was 12 year old when Israeli soldiers shot him in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet fragmenting his skull and damaging part of his brain. Ten years later, Israeli army officers severely beat and tortured him.

He got married to his cousin immediately after. The family originally comes from Al-Walaja village, the village was destroyed and ethnically cleansed in 1948. Most of this village land came under Israeli rule. The part that came under Jordanian rule was used to build a new Al-Walaja where some of the relatives returned and built homes in the early 1960s.

After having their first child, the young couple received a blessing in the form of a donation of a very small plot of land from their uncle and they built a humble one room house (literally one room) in Al-Walaja. Both had jobs.

They moved out of the refugee camp and lived in this house for 3 years during which time, they delivered their second child who then died at 18 days of age (by SIDS).

Then the Israeli army demolished the home saying that it was built without permit (Israel gave no permits for any houses in the village since the occupation began in 1967). The family rebuilt the house but Israeli threats forced them to abandon it and not live in it (Israel wants also some NIS 20,000 for the cost of destroying the home and wants to levy other fines on the family). So the young family lived in a small dwelling underground and without windows in the refugee camp of Dheisheh.

There, the third child (second who is alive) was born and they named him Mohammed. He turned out to have Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (a genetic disease characterized by obesity, eye problems, kidney problems, hexadactyly or six fingers and toes, developmental delay etc).

An uncle and an aunt of Mohammed (refugees in Jordan) died before age 20 with this condition). The first snow in years came and the roof collapsed. The husband had developed a psychiatric disorder and was treated at a local hospital. Both he and his wife were unable to hold jobs anymore. They had one more son (healthy) and she is now pregnant.

Thankfully, UNRWA rehabilitated the home in the refugee camp and the home in Al-Walaja remains unoccupied and unfinished (and no water or electricity). The family is loving, hopeful and steadfast (we call it sumud in Arabic). We spent a few hours during Eid Al-Fitr together and visited the home in Al-Walaja. I personally witnessed how the family cares for each other.

Their eldest son Khaled (in 5th grade) is simply brilliant and very loving for his two younger brothers. This is one of millions of Palestinian stories of tragedy and persistence after ethnic cleansing and under colonial occupation.

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Boycott HP Back to School Flash Mob, Emeryville 9-6-2010

Hewlett Packard sells the Basel system technology to the Israeli military, so activists targeted stores in California asking back to school shoppers not to buy HP products.

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SPSC – BOYCOTT ISRAEL GLASGOW 11/9/2010 TheScottishPSC

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Palestinian prisoners denied visits

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The Lamentation of Hadja Hassan Mohammed

"How I envy those of you who were there when my loved ones died. Did they die thirsty? Or were you merciful enough to give them a drink?"

Our doves are still here. Our carnations give fragrance.The sparrows sing their usual songs. Yet Abu Zuhair is nowhere to be found.

Beirut you took all I had. You took my last spark in life and my heart dies dead on your streets.
Full text here

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Jazz festival for Gaza

http://jazzaproductions.squarespace.com/events/

Please circulate this message as far as you can. We want to pack the Scala with
music lovers and people who care.

//“For the musicians who support the long suffering people of
Palestine, silence is simply not an option.”  Robert Wyatt 2010//

Jazza Music Festival 12th & 13th October 2010

@ The SCALA (http://www.scala-london.co.uk/scala/)
275 Pentonville Road
London, N1 9NL 
Tel 020 7833 2022

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LAST CHANCE TO USE THE WALL AS A MESSAGEBOARD

Dear Sendamessage customer,

Three years on and 1,489 messages covering a distance of 9.5 kilometres,
the Sendamessage project is coming to an end. We are closing the shop on
1st October 2010. 

However, all orders received before this date will be
sprayed and delivered.

So if you know anyone that might find this a cool idea, or anyone who'd
be grateful for the tip, tell them to visit www.sendamessage.nl before
1st October 2010.

We would like to thank you as a customer for your support, trust and for
the inspiration you gave us. You made a miracle happen. The Wall project
was listed by Time Magazine as ‘most influential graffiti art'. Through
the media, the project and the Palestinians trapped behind the Wall,
reached an audience of over 550 million. 

We will always remember this story: Caspar from Holland is celebrating
his honeymoon in Indonesia. Sitting next to him is his wife, to whom he
proposed with a message on the Wall, and they are watching a clip about
the Wall project on an international news channel. Then, as the camera
zooms in, it points directly at Caspar's marriage proposal on the Wall
in Palestine. 

Finally, thanks again for giving Palestinians new hope by showing them
they have not been forgotten. That message certainly came through. 

Justus van Oel, Ben Melis, Pete Mulder, Anna Bartak (Sendamessage Holland)
Faris Arouri, Yusef Njim, and supporting members of PFF (Bir Zeit, Palestine) 

PS. If you want to send us a message, other then ordering, before 1st
October 2010, send a mail to info@sendamessage.nl. After that we'll be
very busy with our new project.
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Palestinian woman prevented from visiting imprisoned son for 14 years

Middle East Monitor

MEMO, September 6, 2010

A Palestinian human rights worker has reported that Israeli forces continue to prevent, Umm Ibrahim, an elderly woman in her 70s, from visiting her son after 14 years on the pretext that she poses as security threat to Israel. Umm Ibrahim had no choice but to find a Palestinian family from neighbouring area to adopt her son and visit him on her behalf, as she has previously done with other Arab prisoners.

Abdel Nasser Farwana who is a researcher specialising in prisoner affairs added that Umm Ibrahim Baroud, from Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, is one of thousands of Palestinians barred from visiting their sons who are being detained in Israeli jails on various pretexts. These include so-called security reasons that are used by the Israeli authorities to punish prisoners and their families.

Farwana stressed that the security-related measure of banning visits to prisoners is no longer an exceptional practice and constitutes a worrying phenomenon since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising).

This measure has become an established policy through which the families of thousands of detainees are denied the right to visit their sons. The pretext given has been “security reasons” and that families’ access to prisons constitutes a threat on Israeli security. Therefore, nearly one third of Palestinian prisoners are banned from family visits for various excuses.

Farawana also said that Umm Ibrahim is a witness to this unfair policy that has nothing to do with security. Rather, it is a policy that in its essence and implementation reflects the Israeli Occupations mentality of revenge which is clearly manifested in the way that it deals with prisoners and their families. These policies aim at punishment, preventing family reunions and communication and making things as difficult as possible to maximise suffering.

Farwana appealed to all international organizations, with the International Committee of the Red Cross at their forefront, for urgent intervention to lift the security ban on prisoners’ relatives in general, and with the aim of ensuring the resumption of the visits schedule and allowing all families to visit their sons in prisons.

He also mentioned that Umm Ibrahim’s eldest son, Ibrahim Baroud, 48, had been arrested on the 9th of April, 1986 and sentenced to 27 years – so far he has served 24 years, during which he was moved between several prisons. He is currently held in the Ashkelon prison.

www.uruknet.info?p=69548

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