putnici sabotiranog irskog broda za Gazu SaoirseANN WRIGHT AND HAGIT BORER: What do 'Flotilla Folk' do and why?
As Americans, many of us also feel our primary duty is to speak truth to precisely that power that purports to speak on our behalf – a notion that is, likewise, rather alien to most Israeli-Jewish society, although by no means to Jews elsewhere. A third of us, passengers and organizers of The Audacity of Hope, are Jews, representing a long and valiant tradition of Jewish progressive activism in the US, Europe, South America, South Africa and elsewhere. What Rothstein and Seid have neglected to note (carried away as they were by their enthusiastic description of our Israel-Hating Syndrome) is that many passengers on The Audacity of Hope have a long and distinguished record of anti-war activism. They have been outspoken opponents of the American war in Vietnam; they have spoken against American involvement in Central America, and in the past decade, against wars the US has waged on Iraq and Afghanistan. Many have traveled numerous times to war-ravaged Baghdad and Afghanistan. Kathy Kelly, one of our passengers, traveled to Iraq 26 times! NO, WE are definitely not like other folks, if by “other folks” Rothstein and Seid refer to themselves. Unlike Rothstein and Seid, we insist on remembering not only the 23 people killed by rockets from Gaza, but also the over 1,000 Palestinian civilians killed by Israel in Gaza in Cast Lead. And the scores killed in Jenin, and those shot routinely in demonstrations in the West Bank. Unlike folks such as Rothstein and Seid, we refuse to forget that 1.6 million people in Gaza have been living in an open-air prison for five years now, or that 2.6 million in the West Bank have been under military occupation for 44 years – the longest military occupation in modern history, and a situation with absolutely no current parallels! That we have turned our attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and to the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians in particular derives directly from the understanding that these could not have survived without US government support. It is the US government that has directly abetted Israel in its continuing dispossession of the Palestinians, and that has supported and protected Israel through its decades of refusal to enter meaningful negotiations. Insofar as we are Americans, and insofar as our action is fundamentally political, it is intended to raise the awareness of our own people and to pressure our own government to change its course. And yes, horrendous things are happening elsewhere in the world. Some on the flotilla have been very concerned about that. The IHH – that organization which The Jerusalem Post links to jihadist groups – has, in fact, interceded to support the Syrian refugees in Turkey, and delivered medicine and medical equipment to hospitals in al-Bayda and Benghazi in Libya. How inconvenient for your case! But not to worry. One would be hard-pressed to find any trace of these facts in the mainstream Western or Israeli press. Reading your derisive comments – all intended to belittle the flotilla and its passengers – it strikes us that the main question is not the one you pose, namely, who we are. Rather, a very different question comes to mind. Here we are, by your description – a bunch of pathetic losers, misguided vacationers, professional activists and idealists who ran out of causes. A grand total of 1,500 – an overestimation to begin with – and in actuality a lot less once the Mavi Marmara withdrew. And yet, the State of Israel sees fit to keep us in the headlines for months with threats of attack dogs, snipers and anticipated deaths. Israel pulls out all stops in putting pressure on Mediterranean countries in general, and on Greece in particular, to make sure we don't leave port. The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, on June 22, called on the international community “to do everything in their ability in order to prevent the flotilla and warn citizens of their countries of the risks of participating in this type of provocation.” BUT IF we are deluded losers, what does that make the State of Israel and its hysterical response? If 16 passengers on a small yacht off the coast of Gaza are bored vacationers with a mental disorder, what does that make the four fully armed gunboats confronting them? The fact of the matter is that Israel, without any aid from us, provided our otherwise symbolic and rather small-scale effort with the overwhelming amplification that made it headline news in the rest of the world, and most crucially, it would appear from your article, an ongoing Israeli obsession. While we wanted the plight of the Palestinians to be noticed by the world, we did not set out to have the flotilla become a major world event. That it has become one, however, became patently clear to us once Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saw fit to travel to Greece to deliver her heartfelt thanks to Papandreou for services rendered – the stopping of our flotilla.
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Freedom Flotilla II: No to a Kinder, Gentler Siege
Beyond drawing the world's attention to the obscenity that is the siege of Gaza, the Flotilla has shown the peoples of the Arab world, engaged in their own quest for dignity and rights, that there are two kinds of Americans and two kinds of Jews. Not just those in power in the U.S. and Israel who are widely seen to subvert human rights throughout the region, but also those determined to uphold human rights. By so doing, the Flotilla has contributed to an eventual era of mutual respect between Arabs, Americans, and Jews. ... Even as Israel tightens its control over Palestinian lives it faces a growing global movement armed only with the tools of non-violent civil resistance and a powerful story of justice. Soon, as two former premiers acknowledge, Israel will be universally seen as the ugly face of apartheid in the 21st Century. And the world has ways to deal with apartheid states and their enablers.
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Empathy toward the Palestinian side invokes hatred and distrust
We, the Jews who live in Israel, participate each day, each hour, in the denial of basic rights to Palestinian citizens, in the perpetuation of the settlements and the occupation. We're in a similar position to that of many whites in the United States in the 1960s. Most of us find it hard to support the Palestinian struggle for independence, whether out of laziness, indifference or a basic loathing of those we've been told all our lives are a necessary enemy. Most of us find it hard to stand up to the story told by the government and most of the media that the Palestinian declaration of independence is a disaster for Israel, exactly as most whites in the South saw the granting of voting rights to blacks as the end of civilization. ... The march supporting the Palestinian declaration of independence is a golden opportunity for change. It's the moment we can say to ourselves, to our Palestinian neighbors and the entire world that we too can be freed from the chains of hatred, fear and the racism that grips the State of Israel. This is the time to show that we too are capable of seeing beyond the paranoia that paralyzes us, that blocks all possibility of reaching a solution. In how many years will people look back on us, the Israelis, as people who couldn't grasp reality, who waged a useless war against others' legitimate aspirations?
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Israel expropriates Palestinian land in order to legalize West Bank settlement
Izrael izvlastio palestinsku zemlju kako bi „legalizirao“ kolonističko naselje na Zapadnoj obali (8. srpanj 2011.)
Izrael je konfiscirao neobrađenu zemlju na Zapadnoj obali koju namjerava iskoristiti za „legalizaciju“ obližnjeg ilegalnog divljeg kolonističkog naselja. Civilna uprava je, u skladu s naredbama izraelske vlade, 198 dunuma zemlje koja pripada palestinskom selu Karyut proglasila „državnom zemljom“, kako bi se retroaktivno „legalizirale“ kuće i ceste izgrađene u četvrti Hayovel u ilegalnom izraelskom kolonističkom naselju Eli, izgrađenom na Zapadnoj obali, okupiranom palestinskom teritoriju, u suprotnosti s međunarodnim humanitarnim pravom. Četvrt Hayovel izgrađena je na palestinskoj zemlji koja pripada palestinskom selu Karyut 1998. godine kao „privremeni položaj“, a kasnije su tamo izgrađene kuće i prilazna cesta. U izvještaju koji je 2005. godine izradila odvjetnica Talia Sasson zaključuje se da je Hayovel izgrađen na palestinskoj zemlji u privatnom vlasništvu. Ovo je prvo ovakvo izvlaštenje zemlje na okupiranoj palestinskoj Zapadnoj obali koje je provela trenutna izraelska vlada. Prije toga, posljednji put je izvlašteno 20 dunuma zemlje u blizini ilegalnog izraelskog kolonističkog naselja Betar Ilit na okupiranoj palestinskoj Zapadnoj obali, koje je Izrael proglasio „državnom zemljom“ u studenom 2008. godine, kako bi omogućio izgradnju benzinske postaje.
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Gideon Levy: Twilight Zone / Separation anxiety
Iako izraelsko ugnjetavanje Palestinaca ima nebrojeno mnogo nehumanih aspekata, onemogućavanje zajedničkog života i razdvajanje članova palestinskih obitelji zasigurno je jedan od najnehumanijih.
Since the current right-wing government took power in Israel, family unifications in the West Bank have stopped. Hardly anyone writes about this, no one takes an interest, but under cover of that lack of public interest, this draconian measure has sealed the fate of many families: to be torn apart. There are no statistics on the subject, because families have simply stopped applying, knowing there is no chance the application will be granted. Some families have abandoned their homes and relatives in the West Bank and moved to Jordan; the others continue to live a fragmented life in the West Bank, mothers and fathers cut off from their partners and from their children. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that the right to family life is a basic right and an integral element of human dignity, but that fundamental declaration crashes on the rocks of Israeli occupation policy.
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Breaking the Siege and the Diplomatic Impasse: An Interview with Huwaida Arraf
Intervju s Huwaidom Arraf o proboju izraelske opsade Gaze Flotilom slobode 2 (28. srpanj 2011.)
Huwaida Arraf je predsjednica Pokreta za slobodnu Gazu i suosnivačica Međunarodnog pokreta solidarnosti s Palestincima. U organizaciji Flotile slobode 2 sudjelovale su 22 inicijative, pri čemu je svaka od njih imala stotine, ako ne i tisuće, ljudi koji su htjeli biti na brodovima i ploviti u Gazu. Samo za turski brod Mavi Marmaru prijavilo se gotovo pola milijuna osoba. Na početku su organizatori očekivali da će u Gazu ploviti 1000 putnika, no sredinom lipnja se pokazalo da Mavi Marmara neće biti spremna za plovidbu do datuma za kad je flotila bila planirana. Zbog toga je flotila ostala bez više od polovice mjesta za putnike. Na preostalih 10 plovila ima mjesta za oko 350 putnika. Među putnicima su bile i neke slavne i poznate javne osobe, uključujući američku književnicu i dobitnicu Pulitzerove nagrade Alice Walker, švedskog pisca kriminalističkih romana Henninga Mankella, 87-godišnju preživjelu žrtvu holokausta Hedy Epstein, irskog umirovljenog ragbijaša Trevora Hogana, bivšeg poglavicu zajednice kanadskih Indijanaca Ardoch Algonquin First Nation Roberta Lovelacea, nekoliko europskih parlamentarnih zastupnika i druge. Osim administrativnih prepreka koje je postavljala flotili, grčka je vlada izdala zabranu isplovljavanja iz grčkih luka za sve brodove koji putuju u Gazu. To je strašno, ne zbog praktičnih implikacija (jer aktivisti ne moraju izjaviti da je odredište na koje putuju njihovi brodovi Gaza), već stoga što se na taj način kodificira grčko priznanje jedne nezakonite politike i suučesništvo Grčke u međunarodnom zločinu. Što se planova za budućnost tiče, najvjerojatnije će biti organizirana i Flotila slobode 3, a u najmanju ruku planira se Flotila slobode 2.1. Aktivisti trenutno rade na izvlačenju brodova iz Grčke, regrupiraju se i planiraju slijedeće poteze. Flotile brodova za proboj opsade Gaze su samo jedna od taktika, a ne same sebi cilj. Ono što je sigurno je da tako dugo dok Izrael nastavlja okupirati, kolonizirati i nasilno ugnjetavati Palestince, a ostale vlade o tome šutjeti, Palestinci i globalni pokret solidarnost mobilizirat će se kako bi se izravno suprotstavili takvoj politici i postupcima. Cijeli intervju možete na engleskom pročitati na linku.
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