Da: kobrenj
Oggetto: Janet’s Gaza/Palestine digest (7/3/09)
Data: 04 luglio 2009 5:04:36 GMT+02:00
Lots of items today. Remember, it’s about the Palestinians and the people of Gaza. That’s what these boat trips are about…Janet
Free Gaza Boat Hijacking
> Cynthia McKinney
1. Cynthia’s Phone Call from Israeli prison on RunCynthiaRun YouTube Channel
2. Forwarded email from David Josue on Cynthia McKinney
3. Statement from Cynthia McKinney inside prison at Ramle
4. Write to your Congresspeople and Obama
> Protests
5. Protests at Israeli Embassies around the world
6. Statement from ILC Coordinator Daniel Gluckstein
> Photos
7. Photos of “dangerous and illegal contents of the Free Gaza vessel”
Israeli Crimes
8. UN expert says Israeli seizure of aid ship a crime
Palestine Solidarity Actions and BDS
9. Viva Palestine Email Alert
10. The necessity of cultural boycott By Ilan Pappe
11. Jewish Voice for Peace urges writing Letters to the Editor
Commentaries and videos
12. Pirates of the Mediterranean By Yvonne Ridley
13. Finding Fish, But Israelis Too By Eva Bartlett
14. Privately run checkpoint stops Palestinians with ‘too much food’
15. Videos from ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid)
1. Cynthia’s Phone Call from Israeli prison on RunCynthiaRun YouTube Channel
Thursday, July 2, 2009, 11:12 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkPvzSZRuDo
2. Forwarded email from David Josue on Cynthia McKinney
Thursday, July 2 – 7:26 a.m. PST
I just got off the phone with Alisa Green of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. She told me that Cynthia refused to sign the deportation. The order states that she violated the Israeli blockade. The embassy told me that Israeli law requires that inmates that refuse to sign a deportation must be kept in jail for 3 days before they are sent
away. It will be Sunday before we know when and if she will leave Israel.
David Josue
3. Statement from Cynthia McKinney inside prison at Ramle
Thursday, July 2, 2009, 3:35 AM
We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship.
All of us on board were then taken off the ship and into custody, and brought into Israel and imprisoned. Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned. State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama.
4. Write to your Congresspeople and Obama
If you live in Washington, DC:
Dear Congresswoman Holmes Norton,
On Tuesday June 30, 2009, Israel hijacked the ferry boat the Spirit of Humanity on its way from Cyprus to Gaza and kidnapped and imprisoned all 21 passengers and crew who are unarmed human rights international activists who were openly on their way through international waters on a human rights mission with humanitarian aid, to take toys and crayons to the children of Gaza, whose schools were destroyed by Israeli military offensive Operation Cast Lead last December and January. Two of the passengers, Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf, are American citizens and residents of Washington, DC. Although Arraf and another passenger with Israeli citizenship were released on Wednesday, Shapiro and the other 19 still languish in Israeli jails.
Please draft and introduce a resolution to censure Israel for its piracy on Tuesday against the Free Gaza 21.
Thank You.
5. Protests at Israeli Embassies around the world
U.S. cities:
Boston, Massachusetts
The Boston BDS (Boycott Divest and Sanctions for Palestine Movement) called an
Emergency demonstration
JFK Federal Building
Thursday, July 2, 8AM-9AM
New York City
Israeli Mission to the UN
July 2, 2009
Washington, DC
Israeli Embassy
June 30, 2009
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Israeli Embassy
June 30, 2009
European protests called by the European campaign to end the siege on
Gaza (ECESG):
Roma, Italy
In front of the Israeli Embassy
3rd of July 2009
12:30 pm
Copenhagen, Denmark
Embassy of Israel
3rd of July 2009
12:30 pm
Stockholm,Sweden
Israel Embassy, Sweden
3rd of July 2009
12:30 pm
Bern, Switzerland
Embassy of Israel
3rd of July 2009
12:30 pm
The Hague, Netherlands
Israeli Embassy
3rd of July 2009
12:30 pm
6. Statement from ILC Coordinator Daniel Gluckstein
[International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC)]
Free the “Spirit of Humanity” 21 Activists!
Lift the Criminal Blockade Against the People of Gaza!
On June 30, Israeli Defense Forces attacked and boarded a Free Gaza Movement boat, the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapping 21 human rights activists from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
The boat was seized on international waters. Tons of medicine — as well as toys, crayons and olive trees — destined to the besieged people of Gaza were confiscated. The passengers and crew were forcibly taken to Israel, where they remain in detention today.
Cynthia McKinney, who in 2005 worked side by side with the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC) in promoting the International Tribunal on Katrina, told the press, immediately after her arrest, “This is an outrageous violation of international law. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. … We’re asking the international community to demand our release so that we can resume our journey.”
The ILC joins its voice in protest against this act of piracy whose sole purpose is to maintain the criminal blockade against the people of Gaza.
According to a newly released report from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Palestinians living in Gaza are “trapped in despair.” Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel’s December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel’s disruption of medical supplies.
The ILC calls upon its supporters worldwide to demand the immediate freedom of all 21 “Spirit of Humanity” activists as well as the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade and embargo against the people of Gaza.
Please send statements of protest to:
Mark Regev in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office at:
tel: +972 5 0620 3264 or +972 2670 5354
Send copies of your statements to:
Greta Berlin
tel: +357 99 081 767
and
International Liaison Committee
87, rue du Faubourg St. Denis
75010 Paris, France
Tel. 011-331-4801-8820
7. Photos of “dangerous and illegal contents of the Free Gaza vessel”
The Mormon Worker
http://themormonworker.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/cynthia-mckinney-kidnapped-by-israeli-navy/
8. UN expert says Israeli seizure of aid ship a crime
02 Jul 2009
* Seizure illegal, Gaza blockade “crime against humanity”-UN
* Israel’s U.N. envoy rejects charges
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, July 2 (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel’s seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip “unlawful” and said its blockade of the territory constituted a “continuing crime against humanity”.
Israeli authorities on Tuesday intercepted the vessel, which was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian activists, and said it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.
Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel’s “cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza” in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against “an occupied people”.
Falk, an American expert on international law, said Israel’s two-year blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to “bare subsistence levels”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report this week that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.
“Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity,” Falk said in a statement released in Geneva.
Prior to leaving Cyprus, the ship was inspected by Cypriot authorities in response to Israeli demands to determine whether it carried any weapons, according to the U.N. investigator. “None were found and Israeli authorities were so informed.”
“Nonetheless, the 21 peace activists on the boat were arrested, held in captivity and have been charged with ‘illegal entry’ to Israel even though they had no intention of going to Israel,” Falk added.
ISRAEL ENVOY SAYS FALK “BIASED”
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks by Falk whom he said was “known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements”.
Israel is allowing relief aid to reach Gaza in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Leshno-Yaar said. “Clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel,” he told Reuters.
Activists from the U.S.-based Free Gaza movement said that Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney were among those aboard.
Falk, who is Jewish, has had his own difficulties with Israeli authorities in trying to fulfil his independent mandate for the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Last December, he was detained and turned back from Israel, forcing him to abort a planned mission to Gaza — a deportation denounced by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In a report last March, Falk said Israel’s year-end military assault on the densely population coastal strip of 1.5 million appeared to constitute a grave war crime.
Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday that Israel inflicted “wanton destruction” in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians [IDnL2307109].
A U.N. inquiry into alleged war crimes by both Israel and Hamas militants in the recent conflict held public hearings in Gaza this week and will also hear testimony in Geneva next week. It is led by former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist.
(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2879277.htm
9. Viva Palestine Email Alert
3rd July 2009
Viva Palestina to lead largest US convoy into Gaza
British anti-war MP George Galloway is to fly out on Saturday 4th July, American independence day, from JFK airport in New York with the first of a group of hundreds of US citizens who are to form the largest ever aid convoy to head into Gaza.
They will be heading off a month to the day from President Obama’s signal speech in Cairo promising a new, more egalitarian US engagement with the Muslim world and a change in policy over Palestine and the Middle East from the disastrous eight years of the Bush administration.
For six weeks the Viva Palestina campaign, launched by Galloway with an earlier convoy in March from Britain in March, has been building support for the mission across the US.
George will be leaving from JFK with the convoy members on Saturday afternoon. They will be landing in Cairo on Sunday at midday.There will be over 200 people participating in the convoy which will assemble in Cairo before heading for the Rafah Crossing. It is hoped to enter Gaza on Sunday 12th or Monday 13th July.
The convoy comes at a vital time for the people of Gaza as the International Red Cross report issued earlier this week confirms. There are one and a half million people now living in dire poverty, unable to rebuild after the destruction of the war in January of this year. This is the effect of the siege of Gaza imposed by the Israeli government for the last year. In the latest twist former U.S. Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and other human rights activists were seized by the Israeli navy as they sailed in the Spirit of Humanity with aid for Gaza.
10. The necessity of cultural boycott By Ilan Pappe
23 June 2009
The Electronic Intifada
If there is anything new in the never-ending sad story of Palestine it is the clear shift in public opinion in the UK . I remember coming to these isles in 1980 when supporting the Palestinian cause was confined to the left and in it to a very particular section and ideological stream. The post-Holocaust trauma and guilt complex, military and economic interests and the charade of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East all played a role in providing immunity for the State of Israel. Very few were moved, so it seems, by a state that had dispossessed half of Palestine ‘s native population, demolished half of their villages and towns, discriminated against the minority among them who lived within its borders through an apartheid system and divided into enclaves two million and a half of them in a harsh and oppressive military occupation.
Almost 30 years later it seems that all these filters and cataracts have been removed. The magnitude of the ethnic cleansing of 1948 is well known, the suffering of the people in the occupied territories recorded and described even by the US president as unbearable and inhuman. In a similar way, the destruction and depopulation of the greater Jerusalem area is noted daily and the racist nature of the policies towards the Palestinians in Israel are frequently rebuked and condemned.
The reality today in 2009 is described by the UN as “a human catastrophe.” The conscious and conscientious sections of British society know very well who caused and who produced this catastrophe. This is not related any more to elusive circumstances, or to the “conflict” — it is seen clearly as the outcome of Israeli policies throughout the years. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked for his reaction to what he saw in the occupied territories, he noted sadly that it was worse than apartheid. He should know.
As in the case of South Africa , these decent people, either as individuals or as members of organizations, voice their outrage against the continued oppression, colonization, ethnic cleansing and starvation in Palestine . They are looking for ways of showing their protest and some even hope convince their government to change its old policy of indifference and inaction in the face of the continued destruction of Palestine and the Palestinians. Many among them are Jews, as these atrocities are done in their name according to the logic of the Zionist ideology, and quite a few among them are veterans of previous civil struggles in this country for similar causes all over the world. They are not confined any more to one political party and they come from all walks of life.
So far the British government is not moved. It was also passive when the anti-apartheid movement in this country demanded of it to impose sanctions on South Africa . It took several decades for that activism from below to reach the political top. It takes longer in the case of Palestine : guilt about the Holocaust, distorted historical narratives and contemporary misrepresentation of Israel as a democracy seeking peace and the Palestinians as eternal Islamic terrorists blocked the flow of the popular impulse. But it is beginning to find its way and presence, despite the continued accusation of any such demand as being anti-Semitic and the demonization of Islam and Arabs. The third sector, that important link between civilians and government agencies, has shown us the way. One trade union after the other, one professional group after the other, have all sent recently a clear message: enough is enough. It is done in the name of decency, human morality and basic civil commitment not to remain idle in the face of atrocities of the kind Israel has and still is committing against the Palestinian people.
In the last eight years the Israeli criminal policy escalated, and the Palestinian activists were seeking new means to confront it. They have tried it all, armed struggle, guerrilla warfare, terrorism and diplomacy: nothing worked. And yet they are not giving up and now they are proposing a nonviolent strategy — that of boycott, sanctions and divestment. With these means they wish to persuade Western governments to save not only them, but ironically also the Jews in Israel from an imminent catastrophe and bloodshed. This strategy bred the call for cultural boycott of Israel . This demand is voiced by every part of the Palestinian existence: by the civil society under occupation and by Palestinians in Israel . It is supported by the Palestinian refugees and is led by members of the Palestinian exile communities. It came in the right moment and gave individuals and organizations in the UK a way to express their disgust at the Israeli policies and at the same time an avenue for participating in the overall pressure on the government to change its policy of providing immunity for the impunity on the ground.
It is bewildering that this shift of public opinion has had no impact so far on policy; but again we are reminded of the tortuous way the campaign against apartheid had to go before it became a policy. It is also worth remembering that two brave women in Dublin , toiling on the cashiers in a local supermarket, were the ones who began a huge movement of change by refusing to sell South African goods. Twenty-nine years later, Britain joined others in imposing sanctions on apartheid. So while governments hesitate for cynical reasons, out of fear of being accused of anti-Semitism or maybe due to Islamophobic inhibitions, citizens and activists do their utmost, symbolically and physically, to inform, protest and demand. They have a more organized campaign, that of the cultural boycott, or they can join their unions in the coordinated policy of pressure. They can also use their name or fame for indicating to us all, that decent people in this world cannot support what Israel does and what it stands for. They do not know whether their action will make an immediate change or they would be so lucky as to see change in their lifetime. But in their own personal book of who they are and what they did in life and in the harsh eye of historical assessment they would be counted in with all those who did not remain indifferent when inhumanity raged under the guise of democracy in their own countries or elsewhere.
On the other hand, citizens in this country, especially famous ones, who continue to broadcast, quite often out of ignorance or out of more sinister reasons, the fable of Israel as a cultured Western society or as the “only democracy in the Middle East” are not only wrong factually. They provide immunity for one of the greatest atrocities in our time. Some of them demand we should leave culture out of our political actions. This approach to Israeli culture and academia as separate entities from the army, the occupation and the destruction is morally corrupt and logically defunct. Eventually, one day the outrage from below, including in Israel itself, will produce a new policy — the present US administration is already showing early signs of it. History did not look kindly at those filmmakers who collaborated with US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s or endorsed apartheid. It would adopt a similar attitude to those who are silent about Palestine now.
A good case in point unfolded last month in Edinburgh . Filmmaker Ken Loach led a campaign against the official and financial connections the city’s film festival had with the Israeli embassy. Such a stance was meant to send a message that this embassy represents not only the filmmakers of Israel but also its generals who massacred the people of Gaza, its tormentors who torture Palestinians in jails, its judges who sent 10,000 Palestinians — half of them children — without trial to prison, its racist mayors who want to expel Arabs from their cities, its architects who built walls and fences to enclave people and prevent them from reaching their fields, schools, cinemas and offices and its politicians who strategize yet again how to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine they began in 1948. Ken Loach felt that only a call for boycotting the festival as whole would bring its directors into a moral sense and perspective. He was right; it did, because the case is so clear-cut and the action so simple and pure.
It is not surprising that a counter voice was heard. This is an ongoing struggle and would not be won easily. As I write these words, we commemorate the 42nd year of the Israeli occupation — the longest, and one of the cruelest in modern times. But time has also produced the lucidity needed for such decisions. This is why Ken’s action was immediately effective; next time even this would not be necessary. One of his critics tried to point to the fact that people in Israel like Ken’s films, so this was a kind of ingratitude. I can assure this critic that those of us in Israel who watch Ken’s movies are also those who salute him for his bravery and unlike this critic we do not think of this an act similar to a call for Israel ‘s destruction, but rather the only way of saving Jews and Arabs living there. But it is difficult anyway to take such criticism seriously when it is accompanied by description of the Palestinians as a terrorist entity and Israel as a democracy like Britain . Most of us in the UK have moved far away from this propagandist silliness and are ready for change. We are now waiting for the government of these isles to follow suit.
Ilan Pappe is chair in the Department of History at the University of Exeter .
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10614.shtml
11. Jewish Voice for Peace urges writing Letters to the Editor
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12. Pirates of the Mediterranean By Yvonne Ridley
July 1, 2009
THE arrogance of Israel is nothing short of breath-taking.
On the eve of one of the most damning reports ever to be published on human rights abuses and suspected war crimes, Israel committed an act of piracy.
While western naval fleets are patrolling the waters off the coast of Africa, acts of piracy are being carried out routinely in the Mediterranean.
But the international community leaders couldn’t care less because most of those who are kidnapped, shot at and hijacked at sea are Palestinian fishermen from Gaza.
However yesterday Israel crossed a line after firing on and boarding a boat carrying aid and peace activists to Gaza.
The 21 on board included former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, who were taken prisoner by the Israeli navy after gunboats surrounded and seized the Free Gaza Movement relief boat ‘Spirit of Humanity’ on Monday.
The aid was seized, their mobile phones confiscated and no doubt cameras capturing the illegal actions of the Israelis were also removed.
“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 candidate for President of the United States.
“President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”
In the past the Israeli Navy has claimed that boats have entered their territorial waters and breached their part of the sea in the eastern Med.
However, thousands across the world who followed the progress of the Free Gaza Movement boat Spirit of Humanity by internet, GPS, Twitter and various other means of communications over the last 30 hours know for sure that the boat was illegally stopped in international waters.
This is piracy. Nothing more. Nothing less.
It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to the Humanity’s cargo of medical supplies, cement, olive trees, and children’s toys.
But what we need from Barak Obama and Gordon Brown (there are at least half a dozen Brits on that boat) is strong leadership in which Israel apologises and allows the boat and its passengers to continue the journey into Gaza.
The G8 leaders all know what the Israeli Army did in Gaza and the war crimes that were carried out making it impossible for the Zionist military to travel into most European countries for fear of being arrested.
And in the next 24 hours Amnesty International will spell out exactly what was done on the ground during that 22-day war.
We know that the fourth largest military in the world, a military given weapons by Britain and the US, destroyed 50,000 homes, 800 industrial
properties and 200 schools.
During a recent trip to Gaza with the Viva Palestina convoy, I saw the scores of mosques bombed – even orphanages had been targeted. The net result was the slaughter of more than 1,400 civilians, including hundreds of children.
How long is Israel going to be allowed to behave as it wants … and even likes?
I saw, with disbelief, some of the taunting, sadistic messages scrawled on lounge walls in bombed out homes by departing Israeli soldiers – one even left his email for “any complaints”.
I remember when Tony Blair, called the Taliban the most evil, brutal regime in the world and he justified this statement because he said they didn’t even allow children to fly kites.
He wondered at the mentality of a regime which could be so cruel to children.
That was way back in November 2001. Well I wonder what he would think of a regime which blocks cherries, kiwi fruit and chocolate from reaching the hand s of the children in Gaza? Yes, that’s how evil this Zionist regime is … it can’t even bear the thought of these poor kids receiving a few tasty treats.
Every week, about 10 officers from the Israel Defense Force’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit meet to decide what sort of food the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip can eat.
Let’s name and shame the men this gruesome threesome – Colonel Moshe Levi, Colonel Alex Rosenzweig, and Colonel Doron Segal. All three decided a few days back that apricots, plums, grapes, avocados, cherries, kiwi fruit, green almonds, pomegranates and chocolate were “delicacies” and therefore expressly prohibited.
I will return to these three shameful soldiers at a later date, but let’s return to today’s events which has, in my view, reconfirmed Israel as a rogue state by launching into international piracy yet again.
You will notice the top of this story is called Pirates of the Mediterranean II – that’s because I wrote an article in December revealing how another free Gaza Movement boat, t he SS Dignity, was rammed by an Israeli naval gunboat.
The act of aggression on a peace mission was launched in international waters 90 miles off Gaza, without any warning to the captain of the Dignity or the crew. Israel claimed the incident was an accident and that its naval officers had made numerous attempts to communicate with the Dignity. The israelis ‘accidentally’ rammed the boat no less than three times.
The Israelis accused the international activists then of “seeking provocation more than ever.” Isn’t it amazing how the Zionist State suddenly goes belly up and adopts a victim mentality?
Exactly what the hell is Israel up to by banning or trying to prevent boats from entering waters not in its territory? This is the Mediterranean. Just when did Israel assume complete authority of the Med?
Israel’s deplorable attack yesterday, and its previous one on the unarmed Dignity is a violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states, “the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes.”
Delivering aid to the needy is just such a “peaceful purpose.” Deliberately ramming or hijacking mercy ships and endangering its passengers is an act of terrorism and piracy.
I say Western fleets should now head to the Mediterranean to crack down on this breed of pirates who make the Somali gangs look like Captain Pugwash and co.
The Somali pirates are motivated by money – that makes them criminals. The Israelis commit these acts out of sadistic pleasure … what does that make them?
And if they are allowed to continue, what will that make the likes of Obama, Brown and the other cabal of foreign leaders who look the other way?
Enough is enough. The time has come to acknowledge that Israel is a failed project, a rogu e state – and a danger to ordinary, decent, law-abiding members of the public.
Until it comes to heel the international community needs to impose sanctions, freeze its assets, stop selling arms and installing a UN peacekeeping Force to bring it under control bvecause it is a menace to its neighbours and the wider world.
For more information and updates, see the Free Gaza Movement web site (http://www.freegaza.org), including the latest release on the seizure
of the relief boat (http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/hope-fleet-news/976-israel-attacks-justice-boat-kidnaps-human-rights-workers-confiscates-medicine-toys-and-olive-trees).
For communications and updates from Cynthia McKinney, visit her Green Party page (http://www.gp.org/cynthia/index.php) and blog
(http://dignity.ning.com).
Journalist Yvonne Ridley and film-maker Aki Nawaz sailed to Gaza with the FGM on the first mission to break the siege in August 2008. Ridley was given a media award at the annual Muslim News awards. Her website iswww.yvonneridley.org
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22965.htm
13. Finding Fish, But Israelis Too By Eva Bartlett
July 1, 2009
GAZA CITY, Jul 1 (IPS) – “They told us ‘go west or we will shoot you’,” says Ashraf Sadallah. “Initially, we refused, so they began shooting very close all around our boat.”
At 6am on Jun. 16, Sadallah and his brother Abdel Hadi Sadallah, in their early twenties, went roughly 400 metres out to sea off the coast of Sudaniya in Gaza’s northwest. “We wanted to bring in nets we had left out the night before,” says Sadallah.
Their small fishing boat, known as a hassaka, was in Palestinian fishing waters when three Israeli navy boats approached the brothers.
“After they opened fire on us, we paddled about three kilometres west where a larger Israeli gunboat was waiting. When we were about 30 metres from the gunboat, Israeli soldiers ordered us to take off our clothes, jump into the water, and swim towards them.”
The gunboat, Sadallah said, moved half a kilometre away after the two fishermen had jumped into the water. “We swam for about 15 minutes to reach it,” he said. “Then they took us aboard and handcuffed and blindfolded us.” In illegal detention later in Israel’s Ashdod port, the two were interrogated, but not charged. They were released at the Erez crossing more than 14 hours after their abduction.
The Sadallahs’ hassaka remains in Ashdod, along with what Palestinian fishermen attest are an increasing number of their fishing vessels.
The hassaka will cost 4,000 shekels (about 1,000 dollars) to replace, double the normal price because of the siege on Gaza. The missing nets cost more: 6,000 shekels. “And fishing is our only source of income,” the now jobless Sadallah says.
Jihad Sultan, also from Sudaniya, spoke of his abduction by the Israeli navy a month earlier, on May 27.
“It’s the third time I was abducted,” he said. “The Israelis accused me of crossing into the ‘no-go zone’, but I didn’t.” In Ashdod, Sultan said he saw “a building filled with nets which I’m sure are stolen Palestinian nets.”
Zaki Taroush and his 17-year-old son Zayed were fishing 600 metres off the coast and 200 metres south of the closed zone the same day Sultan was abducted. They were likewise forced under the live fire of Israeli soldiers to paddle their hassaka west to a waiting Israeli gunboat where they underwent the same, standard, procedure: strip, swim, abduction, handcuffing and blindfolding.
In detention, they were accused of being in off-limits waters, in what is known as the ‘K’ zone. Tarroush had been abducted along with seven other fishermen just three months earlier, on Mar. 13, under similar circumstances, also losing his net when Israeli soldiers cut the ropes. Following that abduction, the Israelis kept his hassaka, returning it nearly two months later, the 150 shekels transport of which he had to pay.
Under the Oslo interim agreement, Palestinian fishermen were accorded a 20 nautical mile fishing limit, one which Israel has since repeatedly, unilaterally, downsized to as little as three miles.
In Sudaniya, Jihad Sultan explains his work on a beached, broken hassaka. “This was taken by the Israelis. When it was returned to us, it had been badly damaged. I’m certain it was dropped on cement,” he said, pointing to long splits in the wood. “It needs to be entirely rebuilt.”
One of the problems now, Sultan explained, is the lack of materials for repairing the boat. “It will cost nearly 3,500 just to repair the boat.” Fishing nets also are comprised of several unavailable or highly expensive parts.
“The steel bits on the netting cost 15 shekels a kilo, versus six shekels before the siege. But they are very hard to find now. Rope used to cost 20 shekels per 100 metres, but now it’s 50 shekels and completely unavailable. Sometimes it is brought through the tunnels, but the quality is poor. Even the buoys which hold the nets up are triple the price, at two shekels apiece, and can’t be found in Gaza.”
With so many parts unavailable in Gaza, Sultan said that to make a ‘new’ net fishermen sew together bits from old nets. To worsen matters, “when the Israeli soldiers don’t find any fishermen to arrest, they often cut or take our nets.”
On the beach near Sultan’s broken hassaka, Awad Assaida’s bullet-latticed hassaka sits unused, waiting for repairs. “I was in the boat when the Israelis attacked,” said Salim Naiman. “They shot at me for around 30 minutes, from all around me.” Naiman said that when the Israelis finally left, a Palestinian fishing launch nearby towed the boat to shore. Over 50 bullet holes punctured the sides, top and interior of the hassaka. The attacks are by no means limited to the northern areas, but occur all along Gaza’s coast. Nor are the attacks limited to recent times – they go at least a decade back. The Israeli navy’s policy of assault and intimidation has killed at least six fishermen in the last four years, including Hani Najjar, shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in October 2006 while fishing roughly 2.5 miles off the coast of Deir Al-Balah.
Since Jan. 18 this year when the assault on Gaza ended, five fishermen are known to have been wounded at sea, five more injured on the shore, more than 40 abducted, at least 17 boats taken, and dozens more damaged. Of the boats that have been returned, all have suffered damage or theft of equipment while in custody of the Israeli authorities.
Sultan believes one reason for the severe attacks on Palestinian fishermen is political. “The water near the ‘K’ area is rich in fish. The Israelis know this and don’t want Palestinian fishermen benefiting from it. It’s part of the siege.” (END/2009)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47482
14. Privately run checkpoint stops Palestinians with ‘too much food’
By Amira Hass
6/26/09
A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food items, Haaretz has learned.
MachsomWatch discovered the policy, which Palestinian workers confirmed to Haaretz.
The Defense Ministry stated in response that non-commercial quantities of food were not being limited. It made no reference to the issue of water.
The checkpoint, Sha’ar Efraim, is south of Tul Karm, and is managed for the Defense Ministry by the private security company Modi’in Ezrahi. The company stops Palestinian workers from passing through the checkpoint with the following items: Large bottles of frozen water, large bottles of soft drinks, home-cooked food, coffee, tea and the spice zaatar. The security company also dictates the quantity of items allowed: Five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one small bottle or can of beverage, one or two slices of cheese, a few spoonfuls of sugar, and 5 to 10 olives. Workers are also not allowed to carry cooking utensils and work tools.
MachsomWatch told Haaretz that Sunday, a 32-year-old construction worker from Tul Karm, who is employed in Hadera, was not allowed to carry his lunch bag through the checkpoint. The bag contained six pitas, 2 cans of cream cheese, one kilogram of sugar in a plastic bag, and a salad, also in a plastic bag.
The typical Palestinian laborer in Israel has a 12-hour workday, including travel time and checkpoint delays. Many leave home as early as 2 A.M. in order to wait in line at the checkpoint; tardiness to work often results in immediate dismissal. Workers return home around 5 P.M. The wait at the checkpoint can take one to two hours in each direction, if not longer.
The food quantities allowed by Modi’in Ezrahi do not meet the daily dietary needs of the workers, and they prefer not to buy food at the considerably more expensive Israeli stores.
MachsomWatch informed the Israel Defense Forces about the new bans but received no response, the organization said. Modi’in Ezrahi issued a statement saying questions should be directed to the Defense Ministry’s crossings administration.
MachsomWatch activists said a security guard on duty told them the food restrictions were imposed due to “security and health risks.” However, at the nearby Qalqilyah checkpoint, which is still run directly by the IDF, workers have been allowed to carry through all the food items banned at Sha’ar Efraim.
However, responsibility for the Qalqilyah checkpoint is supposed to be transferred to a private company this week, and workers voiced concerns that similar restrictions might be imposed there.
The IDF Spokesman’s office said in a statement: “There are no limits on food quantities. They may take through food necessary for personal consumption during a day’s work. When a worker arrives with a large quantity of goods intended for sale rather than for personal use, he is asked to pass through the goods crossing instead, where the goods are handled appropriately and with the appropriate customs checks. This crossing is intended for pedestrians and not for goods.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096322.html
15. Videos from ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid)
Living in graves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NN1_u6QSYU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fanera%2Econvio%2Enet%2Fsite%2FPageServer%3Fpagename%3DGazaReality%5Fliving%5Fconditions&feature=player_embedded
Living in tents again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJr_6u-Wvc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fanera%2Econvio%2Enet%2Fsite%2FPageServer%3Fpagename%3DGazaReality%5Fliving%5Fconditions&feature=player_embedded
ANERA – Poultry project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H6yzX_Nd3c&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fanera%2Econvio%2Enet%2Fsite%2FPageServer%3Fpagename%3DGazaReality%5Fchickens&feature=player_embedded
See http://www.anera.org/index.php
