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solidarity

Israel prepares for protest flotilla


By YAAKOV KATZ
20/05/2010 02:30

9 ships plan to break the Gaza Strip blockade next week.

The IDF is gearing up to stop a flotilla of aid ships that is directed at breaking the blockade on the Gaza Strip next week.

Two ships, one named for international activist Rachel Corrie who was killed in Gaza in 2003, sailed from Ireland to Cyprus where they will join another seven boats scheduled to set sail for Gaza next Thursday.

The ships will carry hundreds of international peace activists as well as some 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment and school supplies. While the Free Gaza movement claims that the flotilla is needed to provide Palestinians in Gaza with basic supplies, the IDF pointed out on Tuesday that it had, in the past week, allowed over 14,000 tons of supplies into the Gaza Strip.

On Monday night, Foreign Ministry officials met with ambassadors from Turkey, Greece, Ireland and Sweden and informed them that the ships would be stopped on their way to the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has instructed the Navy to prepare for the operation, which due to the large number of vessels will require the participation of a large naval force.

The Israeli Navy has in the past stopped international aid ships from reaching the Gaza Strip. Last June, a ship from Cyprus that included a Nobel laureate among its passengers, was stopped en route to Gaza and towed to the Ashdod port.

Meanwhile Wednesday, Hamas sped up work it is doing on the Gaza port to expand it ahead of the flotilla’s arrival.

The project is funded by a Turkish NGO, and according to a report by the Quartet, work is carried out daily by 40 workers who put in 18-hour days. The first phase of the expansion is slated to be completed by the arrival of the ships and includes increasing the depth of the port basin to 8 meters.

The second phase of the project is expected to be completed in two months and includes increasing the depth of the entire port. The third phase will be aimed at turning the Gaza sea port into a tourist attraction for local residents. According to the Quartet report, most of the raw materials for the expansion work comes from recycled rubble of buildings destroyed in the Gaza Strip.

source

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“You Need a Proper Boat … “

By GRETA BERLIN

We’ve all caught the fever, every one of us who works to send boats to Gaza. From August 2006, when a handful of us started the Free Gaza Movement, every one who has joined us has been stricken with a bad case of the disease. It is chronic. It sometimes causes afflicted patients to insist that if just one more voyage can be planned to this small slice of the Mediterranean, we’ll all be in remission. There is no real cure in sight… yet.

Gaza Fever has now attacked thousands of us who have a passionate sense of justice.

The disease began shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, as a group of us were in despair that the Palestinians, once again, were the forgotten symptom of Israel’s grand designs. As the world watched the defeat of Israel by a small band of guerrilla fighters in Lebanon, Israel decided it would take its wrath out on the Palestinians, specifically the Palestinians of Gaza. We watched as Israel, in January 2009, deliberately bombed 1.5 million Palestinians into abject poverty, a man-made catastrophe bordering on genocide.

One man in Australia suggested we sail a boat from New York to Gaza in protest of the closures there. That small idea has grown into a flotilla that leaves at the end of May with 700 people on board nine ships.

read on

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Elvis Costello cancels Israel Tour

It Is After Considerable Contemplation….


It is after considerable contemplation that I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July.

One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament.

Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.

I must believe that the audience for the coming concerts would have contained many people who question the policies of their government on settlement and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.

I am also keenly aware of the sensitivity of these themes in the wake of so many despicable acts of violence perpetrated in the name of liberation.

Some will regard all of this an unknowable without personal experience but if these subjects are actually too grave and complex to be addressed in a concert, then it is also quite impossible to simply look the other way.

I offer my sincere apologies for any disappointment to the advance ticket holders as well as to the organizers.

My thanks also go to the members of the Israeli media with whom I had most rewarding and illuminating conversations. They may regard these exchanges as a waste of their time but they were of great value and help to me in gaining an appreciation of the cultural scene.

I hope it is possible to understand that I am not taking this decision lightly or so I may stand beneath any banner, nor is it one in which I imagine myself to possess any unique or eternal truth.

It is a matter of instinct and conscience.

It has been necessary to dial out the falsehoods of propaganda, the double game and hysterical language of politics, the vanity and self-righteousness of public communiqués from cranks in order to eventually sift through my own conflicted thoughts.

I have come to the following conclusions.

One must at least consider any rational argument that comes before the appeal of more desperate means.

Sometimes a silence in music is better than adding to the static and so an end to it.

I cannot imagine receiving another invitation to perform in Israel, which is a matter of regret but I can imagine a better time when I would not be writing this.

With the hope for peace and understanding. Elvis Costello

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Join the GLOBAL INTIFADA

Popular resistance to Israel’s apartheid is growing globally! In Palestine, non-violent resistance to land confiscation and settlement expansion is gathering momentum.

Weekly non-violent demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza have tripled since January, and continue to increase in size and number. The tents are standing strong in Jerusalem’s threatened communities of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, and resistance to settler attacks and land grabs in the Jordan Valley is also building.

The International Solidarity Movement is committed to supporting these communities in their struggle for justice and freedom. We stand alongside Palestinians in demonstrations, stay in the tents and homes of threatened areas, and walk with farmers to their land. By documenting and helping to resist the evils of apartheid, ISM projects the Palestinian struggle to a global audience, and shows Israel that the world is against its actions.

Come and join the Global Intifada in Palestine! Committed volunteers are needed in the West Bank this summer. This new wave of unarmed resistance is exciting and powerful, and it needs your support. Whether for 2 weeks or for 3 months, your contribution is needed. See www.palsolidarity.org for more information, or email us at palreports@gmail.com.

From abroad: Under the banner of “Global Intifada”, solidarity actions are needed worldwide. Please consider organizing an action in your hometown.

The growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is crucial, and is a great way for you to get involved in your own country. Similar tactics were used in ending South African apartheid. For more information, go to bdsmovement.net

Please join the Global Intifada. We look forward to seeing you here.

ISM Palestine

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Nakba Commemoration May 15th, 2010 Washington DC

Taytaba2 — 16 mai 2010 — Nakba, Palestinians catastrophe of 1948, commemorated in Washington DC May 15th, 2010. Nakba survivors honored with a boat ride in solidarity with the Free Gaza Movement “Freedome Flotilla” that will be sailing on May 24th along with the MV Rachel Corrie to break the siege of Gaza.

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Video of supermarket action, 15th May, London

See here :

http://blip.tv/file/3630761

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BOYCOTT ISRAEL! ACTION RUE NEUVE.wmv

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Deputy Israeli Ambassador’s Visit to Manchester University.

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hurrah for John Ging

I tutor a girl at the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Every Wednesday, I see John: tallish black-haired Irish guy walking around the space near the picnic tables where staff (generally Gazan) have coffee. Tomorrow maybe I will go shake John’s hand. Why? Because of this:

Israeli sources have confirmed that Israel will make an official request to the United Nations for clarification of how an official representative of the United Nations could call for European countries to send ships to Gaza without authorization and prior coordination with Israel. John Ging, the Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), has called upon the international community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded with desperately-needed supplies to the beleaguered territory.

In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper, Mr. Ging said, “The international community must take responsibility on this issue and embrace practical ways to break the siege, because it is possible to break it.” In urging the world to send ships to the shores of Gaza, he added, “We believe that Israel will not intercept these vessels because the sea is open, and human rights organizations have been successful in similar previous operations proving that breaking the siege of Gaza is possible.”

According to Mr. Ging, Egypt and Israel are responsible for the continuation of the blockade. “How could Israel evade responsibility for the siege, and how could Egypt not agree to show flexibility in order to bring aid to Gaza?” he asked. “It is time for the international community to facilitate assistance by sea as it did in Haiti.”

Officials in Israel were taken aback by the statements and noted that they are unprecedented and very serious. Hebrew radio reported that several overseas aid organizations have taken John Ging’s statement to heart and preparations are already being made to send ships carrying food supplies to Gaza.

I think Ging probably snapped. The Gazan economy is shuddering. There’s too little of the lubrication that normally enables economic systems to run smoothly. Not enough cash, inflated prices, no jobs, no raw materials. And the additional Hamas taxes–necessary, because there’s a dearth of hard cash, a perennial problem that is now at a crisis point–will make the lives of the petty capitalist service providers and merchants that are what’s left of Gaza’s economy much harder. I’m sure Ging knows this and he is probably sick of UN strictures that suggest that he clamp his mouth shut vis-a-vis the illegal siege. Only suggest. Here is the spin: Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman, said, “The United Nations has no plans to use sea routes in Gaza, but will consider all legal options available to bring in assistance and commercial supplies.” Ging didn’t suggest using the sea route, he endorsed it. By endorsing it, he contributed to the flotilla’s symbolic legitimacy. By strengthening the ships’ symbolic legitimacy, Israel will look sillier and sillier when it makes its habitual threats against those amazing ships. Anyway, there are activists on those ships who will be quite willing to sail them into the Israeli bullets that will cross in front of their bows.

source

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