Video of the motion being proposed is above, and full text of the wording that was passed unanimously is below. From CPGB-ML party congress on Saturday 5 June.
Gaza Freedom Flotilla
This congress notes with outrage the massacre of an as-yet-unknown number of peaceful aid volunteers aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010. In an act of piracy that violated international law and the Geneva conventions, as well as all norms of human decency, Israel sent hundreds of fully-armed commandos in a night-time raid to hijack ships that were travelling in international waters and posed no threat whatsoever to Israel’s security.
Congress notes that although the number “nine” has been much publicised as the total of slain victims in this atrocity, many volunteers are still unaccounted for, and organisers believe that the death toll may in fact be closer to 20.
Congress also notes with sadness that it took international peace activists to be killed in large numbers to bring the siege on Gaza into the western media spotlight and make it a high-profile issue on the world political stage, in a way that the deaths of 1,417 Palestinians in the Gaza massacre last year failed to do.
This congress believes that, far from constituting the “provocation” that Israeli zionist politicians have described them as, the volunteers were in fact responding to calls from within the UN itself that, since Israel was not being brought to book for its crimes against Palestine, nor the siege of Gaza being lifted through official channels, then efforts must be made by non-governmental organisations to break the blockade and uphold international law.
This congress further believes that, while this particular aid mission may have been stopped, Israel has utterly failed in its attempt to thereby crush the rising international solidarity movement, but has, on the contrary, only helped it to grow and become more determined. Not only are more ships already being bought and filled, but activists and organisations from all over the world are stepping forward to man them. Far from making itself more secure, Israel’s rabid actions have only succeeded in bringing the day of its own demise closer.
This congress applauds the initiative of Viva Palestina and Free Gaza, who, by land and by sea, have been working to bring the siege to public attention, and who have brought together an international coalition of organisations and activists to further that aim, most notably IHH of Turkey, which made by far the largest contribution to the Freedom Flotilla.
Congress sends a red salute to all those brave volunteers who put themselves in the firing line on every one of the siege-busting missions, and especially to the slain heroes of the Freedom Flotilla, whose names will be recorded in the roll of honour as martyrs not only for Palestine, but for the entire working and oppressed masses of the world in their struggle against imperialist domination. They are the true embodiment of proletarian internationalism.
Congress also welcomes the response of the government of Turkey, which has finally shown the way to other states by offering a naval escort to the next aid ships that sail to Gaza.
This congress resolves to take up the cause of the flotilla martyrs by redoubling its efforts in support of Palestine. We call on all our members to become active in the Palestine solidarity movement: to join PSC and raise awareness of the issue in workplaces, schools, colleges and unions.
This congress calls on the British government and people to demand:
- – the immediate release of all those volunteers still held prisoner by Israel;
– the severing of all diplomatic, financial and military ties between Britain and Israel;
– the complete boycott of Israeli goods and institutions;
– an end to British media complicity in Israel’s war crimes;
– an international tribunal to try Israel’s leaders for war crimes committed during the siege and bombardment of Gaza, as well as against the Freedom Flotilla;
– an end to the siege of Gaza;
– freedom for Palestine.
Via Proletarian
In its desperation to maintain the strangulating blockade on Gaza, Israel’s violent response to a peaceful humanitarian aid mission has instead brought the end of its criminal siege within sight.
Of course, the real trouble for Israel was that it was damned either way. Despite nearly four years of suffocating blockade and daily murder, the Palestinians have not overthrown their elected Hamas leadership in Gaza; a leadership that stands for resistance rather than submission to zionist brutality. Instead, bearing incredible privations with dignity and fortitude, they have held their society together on a shoe-string, shamed Israel and its backers in the court of world public opinion and galvanised the sympathy and solidarity of the world’s people.
As more and more former friends of Israel have fallen away, the chorus calling for an end to the siege has been daily growing, especially since the horrific bombardment of Gaza a year and a half ago.
Allowing the boats to pass would have meant essentially admitting that the siege on Gaza had definitely failed and that the sea was indeed, as humanitarian activists have long pointed out, not Israel’s to control. A regular sea channel into Gaza allowing supplies to come in and out and trade links to be rekindled would drive a final nail into the coffin of Israel’s strangulation policy.
Welcoming the solidarity initiative, Hamas leader Ismail Radwan declared that “The occupation’s threat to prevent the Freedom Flotilla from arriving in the besieged Gaza Strip is zionist piracy and a violation of international law … The occupation is concerned about these ships … because they grant legitimacy to engagement with the Palestinian government and confirm that the attempts to isolate Hamas have failed.” (Cited in ‘Hamas accuses Israel of zionist piracy’, 27 May 2010)
And as Jamal Elshayyal pointed out in a blog entry for Al Jazeera, “if this fleet of humanitarians does reach its destination, it could very well set a precedent for others to challenge Israel’s illegal occupation, and the next thing you know Israel’s navy could be confronted by an armada of charities and humanitarian organisations.
“Furthermore, were the Freedom Flotilla to dock in Gaza, Arab governments would be severely embarrassed. After all, if a few hundred people can break the siege and help rebuild Gaza, why can’t some of the wealthiest nations and largest armies?” (‘Israel’s navy will have its work cut out’, 22 May 2010)
This was echoed in Israeli daily paper Yediot Aharonot, which pointed out that “If this flotilla gets through, the way will be open and the closure of the crossings will be meaningless.” (Cited in ‘As aid flotilla approaches Gaza’s shores, Israel takes extraordinary steps to prevent it reaching its destination’, 28 May 2010)
Quite so. But not allowing the boats to pass meant finding some way to stop them that would be acceptable to Israel’s paymasters in Washington. However, perhaps after the ‘Operation Cast Lead’ massacre was allowed to go so completely unpunished, despite arousing the horror of the world’s people and being condemned as a war crime by pro-zionist UN investigator Richard Goldstone, Israel’s leaders have become so used to assuming that the US and Britain will back them whatever, that they have lost their grip on the fact that ultimately, even those governments have to be able to sell their support to a sizeable section of their domestic populations.
The nineteenth century British prime minister Lord Palmerston famously pointed out that ‘Nations have no permanent friends, only permanent interests,’ and this dictum sums up imperialist policy in a nutshell. The zionists have for so long been protected and sheltered behind their masters’ voluminous skirts, they have stopped imagining that they might ever be left to fend for themselves.
But if Israel’s actions are so blatant as to make whitewashing impossible, not only Israel but also the US and British ruling classes stand exposed as war criminals before their angry populations – and if that starts to happen, the imperialists may well decide that support for Israel is no longer the most effective way to secure access to and control of the resources and markets of the Middle East.
The fact that this assault was premeditated became clear as other details emerged. Two of the boats in the flotilla, Challenger I and Challenger II, were simultaneously struck with identical steering problems when they tried to leave their anchorage near Cyprus on the evening of Friday 28 May – obviously the result of a sabotage mission (probably by divers), which Israel has now all-but admitted to.
At the same time, the government of Cyprus regrettably bowed to Israeli pressure and refused at the last moment to allow high-profile European MPs and passengers, including Hedi Epstein, a jewish holocaust survivor, to leave the island from its shores to join the flotilla. (Previous sea missions to break the siege have all left from Cyprus.)
Israeli sabotage and threats delayed the flotilla and caused it to change course several times, but ultimately failed to stop it from trying to carry out its mission. Several ships, including the Rachel Corrie, fell behind, however, so that it was actually only a six-boat convoy that the Israelis ambushed under cover of darkness. The boats were still many miles outside Israel’s ‘exclusion zone’ when the attack took place.
Meanwhile, with customary arrogance, born of 60 years of supremacist racism, and of being not only permitted, but actually assisted in wiping brown faces off the map by its backers in the US and Britain, Israel obviously thought that if only unknown muslim Turks were aboard the main ship, no-one in the West would mind much what happened to them, or question the Israeli version of events.
In their usual high-handed and trigger-happy fashion, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, the zionists may well have hoped that clamping down hard on the flotilla would send a message to the increasingly activist solidarity movement: This is what will happen to you if you try to break the blockade! And no doubt troops schooled in the noble art of anti-civilian combat, who are famous for viewing Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular as less than dogs, saw no problem in firing first and asking questions later – just as we know they were specifically instructed to do during the Gaza massacre last year. Especially when most of those facing them would have looked very similar to the Palestinians they murder with sickening regularity in Gaza and the West Bank.
This is an exerpt. Read the full article here
Israel knows that international crime pays
By Dara Mac Neill via Republican News
Errant behaviour and repeated transgressions are not punished. For Israel, the opposite is often the case and the transgressor is rewarded while the victim is doubly punished.
Ultimately, the real surprise was that so many people were surprised, or at least purported to be.
Because it had seemed in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead – the murderous assault on a cornered civilian population in Gaza – that Israel had long since lost its capacity to shock the international community.
But the key feature of modern Israel is that it has absorbed the chief lesson of its short history. And that lesson is simple: crime pays. Errant behaviour and repeated transgressions are not punished. For Israel, the opposite is often the case and the transgressor is rewarded while the victim is doubly punished.
After the murder of over 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – the huge majority civilians, several hundred of them women and children – a UN investigation led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone found the Israeli military guilty of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But as of yet, there have been no moves to instigate legal or other proceedings against either the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) or the state of Israel. And within the international community of nations, the repercussions for Israel have been negligible to non-existent.
There is no single country that has been the subject of a greater number of UN resolutions of censure and condemnation (well over a hundred). In addition, Israel remains famously in breach of longstanding and crucial resolutions: on the Palestinians’ Right of Return to the homes they were expelled from (Resolution 194, passed 1948); on withdrawal from the Occupied Territories (Resolution 242, passed 1967); on the illegality of settlements in the Occupied Territories (Resolution 446, passed 1979).
And so the obvious lesson is learned: as the sanctions and penalties have failed to materialise, so Israel’s capacity to act with utter impunity has simply amplified and expanded.
By comparison, Saddam Hussein’s alleged and unproven breach of UN resolutions brought invasion, regime change and continued occupation.
More recently, we saw the limited fallout from Israel’s illegal use of the passports of other nations to carry out the assassination of a Hamas figure, in Dubai. There has been noise and raised voices, some diplomatic expulsions, but no penalties.
Indeed, Israel’s flouting of international laws and conventions, not to mention its endangering of the citizens of several other countries, had no impact on the members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), which is comprised of 31 of the richest, most powerful nations on earth.
On 27-28 May, Israel was formally accepted into the organisation, along with Estonia and Slovenia. The OECD describes itself as an organisation that brings together “countries committed to democracy and the market economy …”
Obviously, the market economy scores far higher than democratic values, in the OECD entrance exam.
Within 48 hours of that accession ceremony Israeli commandos were storming a flotilla of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded citizenry of Gaza. No doubt their assault was timed to minimise potential embarrassment at the OECD. But as of yet, there have been no calls from fellow members for their expulsion.
Ten, maybe more, unarmed civilians – aid workers or activists – were killed. Murdered.
When you dispatch a heavily armed assault force onto ships in the dead of night, ships that carry humanitarian supplies and civilians and which are sailing in international waters, you must bear the full responsibility for all that follows.
The activities of a small number of Somali pirates – which generated tides of international outrage and led to the dispatch of naval vessels – never came close to the actions of Israel in this case.
If the aim was to take the ships into an Israeli port, as has been claimed, why not approach them in daylight hours, in Israeli waters? And why not ‘arm’ your troops with crowd dispersal and crowd control equipment, as opposed to automatic weapons?
It was said that the civilian death toll in the Gaza offensive was so high because Israeli commanders were anxious to minimise their military casualties, so maximum force was unleashed and Gaza became a virtual free-fire zone. It appears those in charge of the Israeli piracy policy take the same view.
Several months ago, before this latest outrage, the Israeli writer Gideon Levy lamented the state of his nation, believing that no positive change was possible in the “complacent, belligerent and condescending” Israel of today.
In the aftermath of Israel’s venture into piracy, the country’s most prominent peace group, Gush Shalom described the Nethanyahu administration as a “government of pyromaniacs that has set fire to the region”.
They went on: “Only a crazy government that has lost all restraint and all connection to reality could do something like that – consider ships carrying humanitarian aid and peace activists from around the world as an enemy and send massive military force to international waters to attack them, shoot and kill.
“This is a day of disgrace to the State of Israel, a day of anxiety in which we discover that our future was entrusted to a bunch of trigger-happy people without any responsibility.”
Over the next 24-48 hours, the crew of the MV Rachel Corrie will come into contact with Israeli forces as they seek to breach the illegal blockade of Gaza. There are five Irish crew aboard.
Their ship is named after the 23-year-old US citizen who was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, as she stood in front of the vehicle to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes. No one was ever charged or held responsible for her death.
Via Republican News
Will the world just stand by as Israel continues with its siege on Gaza and commits international crimes?
As this paper goes to print, the Irish-owned vessel the MV Rachel Corrie is continuing en route to Gaza with its 1,000-tonne cargo of medical supplies, children’s toys, educational and rebuilding equipment. It is continuing on its voyage despite the brutal, calculated attack by Israeli military on another member ship of the Freedom Flotilla last Monday.
The number massacred on the Mavi Marmara is still unknown, though it’s believed to be almost 20. Over 50 people were injured and 680 foreign citizens in total were seized illegally in a despicable act of piracy in international waters.
The Rachel Corrie is due to arrive at its destination by the weekend, though Israel sources say they will intercept it. Speaking from the boat, Irishman Derek Graham said, “If this aid is not delivered, then Monday’s deaths will have been in vain”. He added that if Israeli forces attempted to board the ship, all 15 passengers would sit with their arms in the air so that they would not be attacked.
Shane Dillon, was the first of five Irish deportees to arrive home. He described the horrific drama as the ship was surrounded by blacked-out vessels and helicopters before armed forces launched a close-range assault.
He hit back at accusations about activists wielding weapons.
“The weapons the Israelis displayed were cooking knives, a hammer. This was a big merchant ship, of course it’s going to have a hammer, of course it’s going to have galley knives,” he said.
“There was one girl, she was only young, a Belgian girl, she had a broken nose,” he continued. “One of the leaders from the Free Gaza Organisation, he was beaten on the deck of the ship.
“They smashed our stern door, which is glass, and they beat some of the girls and pushed them around the deck.”
The Israeli government has said the sea blockade of the Palestinian territory will remain and the 1.5 million Palestinian people are to receive no aid.
There are 15 people on board the MV Rachel Corrie. Speaking in the Dáil, Taoiseach Brian Cowen called on Israel to allow the vessel to proceed to Gaza and said there would be ‘serious consequences’ if any harm was to come to Irish citizens. As of now the Israeli ambassador remains in Ireland.
In the meantime, most countries’ governments have issued mild statements about the need for an investigation. Activists on the ships and world observers know there is no need for an investigation. No amount of spin from Israeli PR foot-soldiers will convince them otherwise.
Israel has been allowed to get away with crime after crime against the Palestinian people, but in the last few months it has flouted laws in international jurisdictions also. Its illegal use of forged passports signaled its contempt for the rights of other country’s citizens and governments. That has now been shown in full in its actions of terror against hundreds of foreign citizens.
Will the world just stand by as Israel continues with its siege on Gaza and commits international crimes?
Via Socialist Worker
Kevin Ovenden addresses members of the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza as Egyptian riot cops surround them in El-Arish. January 2010
Photo via joti2gaza on FLickr
Kevin Ovenden, a representative of Viva Palestina, was on the main ship of the Freedom Flotilla when Israeli soldiers descended onto the deck – he spoke from Turkey to Siân Ruddick
“We knew the Israelis were going to attack, or intercept us in some way. At 11pm we had the first contact. A visual warning was that two Israeli warships were approaching us, followed by a third.
“We were 90 miles north of the Israeli coast, and 22 miles away from the buffer zone that Israel has set from its shores.
“We had tight organisation procedures in place and people were prepared.
“The captain and the most experienced activists on board said that people should rest. Many people did while others stayed on the look out.
“At 4.25am the attack began. The warship had neared and commandoes were lowering themselves onto the deck from helicopters. There were two motorised dinghies, carrying 14-20 commandoes, on either side of the boat.
“It was clear they were armed – it was the equivalent to an SAS raid. They were all wearing paramilitary style balaclavas.
“The first soldiers landed on the roof of the ship, people responded instinctively with their bare hands and things you would find on a ship – pieces of wood and piping and so on. No sharp objects were used.
“Two soldiers were overpowered and pushed below deck. They were disarmed to prevent further injury or death.
“The attack opened with percussion grenades.
“These don’t just make a noise but send shockwaves of heavy vibration. They were trying to create terror and panic.
“They also used rubber coated bullets in the earlier stage. But very quickly they turned to live rounds and we were taking heavy casualties.
“Niki Enchmarch was on the top deck standing next to a Turkish man who was holding a camera. An Israeli soldier shot him in the middle of the forehead. It blew off the back of his skull and he died.
“I was on the second deck. A man standing a metre in front of me was shot in the leg, the man to the right of me in the abdomen. There was pandemonium and terror.
“The youngest person on the ship was not yet a year old, the eldest 88. The crew included German and Egyptian parliamentarians, NGO workers and representatives from various charities. This is who Israel was targeting.
“While they opened fire we struggled in our defence and to limit the massacre.
“They attacked with lethal force to terrorise the movement for the end of the siege of Gaza and the wider movement of solidarity with Palestine. They used violence to instill terror for political ends. This is the definition of terrorism.
“But they failed. The people aboard, their families and the people who donated to the €20 million aid, are not afraid – neither are those in the wider movement.
“This must become a turning point in the lifting of the siege and an end to the policies pursued by governments in relation to Israel.
“Israel has completely isolated itself. Around the world we must redouble our efforts and commit to action to end the siege. This is a political opportunity in which big advances can be made.
“The statements of condemnation by David Cameron and William Hague betray how isolated Israel is. These are leaders of a pro-Israeli party, and yet these statements have been more damning than anything Gordon Brown said when Israel was bombing Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.
“Governments claim to recognize the siege is unsustainable. We have to force the UN, the EU and all the other governments to turn their words of condemnation into action.”
First British eye-witness account of Israeli massacre on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Full video of Sarah Colborne’s press conference this morning.
Precis below is via the Guardian
On Sunday 30th we set off together. We had assembled all the boats in international waters. At 11pm that night, Israeli naval boats were detected on the radar and sighted and a decision was made to move further back into international waters, further from Israel.
We managed to get some broadcasts out that we were on a humanitarian mission, that the United Nations had called for ships to be sent with humanitarian aid to break the blockade on Gaza, that we were simply undertaking that goal. An emergency medical room was assembled and we were all told to put lifejackets on to prepare for any attack.
At 2am I went to sleep. At around 4.10am I woke up, went up to the deck where I could see outside and I saw boats, small dinghies but bristling with guns and Israeli military, speeding towards the ship. Helicopters then appeared. Gas and sound bombs were used and the reports from Sydney Morning Herald [a reporter from the newspaper was on Challenger, another boat in the flotilla] were that at 4.20am they reported gunshots, and the Challenger transmitted this information.
We then had the first passenger fatally injured. He was brought to the back of the open deck below. He was shot in the head. I saw him. He was obviously in a very bad way and he subsequently died. There were bullets flying all over the place when I was on the top deck and I took the decision to go downstairs.
It felt a bit surreal. I couldn’t quite believe they were doing what they were doing. There was live ammunition flying around and I could hear the sounds of the bullets flying and the whirr of the helicopter blades as people were dropped down onto the roof. What I saw was guns being used by the Israelis on unarmed civilians.
We asked for the Israelis to stop the attacks. We were asking in English: “We are not resisting, please help the injured.” Instead of helping the injured, the saloon remained surrounded by soldiers targeting individuals with laser sights. I could see the red of the laser sights sweeping over people’s heads.
The captain announced live ammunition was being used, to stop resisting and to go downstairs. At 5.15am we started broadcasting over the Tannoy for help to evacuate the critically injured and for emergency medical assistance.
We made two attempts to get the message across in the written form as well as the many announcements over the Tannoy. We wrote a sign in Hebrew saying: “SOS! Need medical assistance. People are dying. Urgent.”
It wasn’t until 7am that the Israelis started allowing the first critically injured people off and they were delivered into Israeli hands. An attempt was made to send a medic with each of the critically injured people. Instead, the medics were cuffed and put on the deck.
I saw four dead bodies in the saloon laid out on the floor. All passengers were removed on to the deck. As we were moved out we were all cuffed with cable ties. All our phones and cameras were removed. We were made to sit or kneel in lines on the deck. The sun was quite strong and I was aware that people were starting to get dehydrated.
We were kidnapped, we were deprived of our liberty and our belongings. People were illegally held against their will, taken to Israel from international waters. In terms of treatment, in terms of our basic rights they were completely and totally violated.
We are hoping that the deaths, the horrific deaths, of the people will not be in vain. We are hoping that this will act as a wake-up call internationally, including our own government, that the siege on Gaza must end. It is illegal, inhumane and immoral. Israel has been used to acting with impunity. That situation has changed now.
We can’t sit by and watch Israel violate international law every day. We want the British government to take action, ensure there are no future attacks on humanitarian aid convoys, to ensure there is a search carried out for those that remain missing, to ensure that those people who have been detained illegally will be released and most importantly to end the siege of Gaza.
Protestors voice their anger over Israel's attack on an unarmed aid flotilla. London, 31 May 2010.
The rising tide of anger and the demand for international action by the British people against the Israeli government’s assassination of peace activists onboard the Marvi Marmara and their continued illegal blockade of Gaza will result in a MAJOR NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION THROUGH CENTRAL LONDON on SATURDAY 5 JUNE 2010.
Assemble at Downing Street, 1.30pm and march to the Israeli Embassy in Kensington, where there will be a rally.
The demonstration has been called by six of the largest organisations in the UK who campaign for peace and justice for the Palestinian people: Palestine Solidarity Campaign, CND, Stop the War Coalition, Viva Palesina, British Muslim Initiative and Friends of Al-Aqsa.
Speaking ahead of the demonstration, Betty Hunter General Secretary of PSC said:
“The barbaric acts carried out by the Israeli army on the peace flotilla have galvanised ordinary British people into showing their opposition to the actions of the Israeli government. This national emergency demonstration is an opportunity for everyone to show that people across this country oppose the illegal blockade of Gaza and the murder of innocent people.”
Long standing partner of PSC and the country’s leading anti-war organisation Stop the War will be supporting the demonstration. Lindsey German, National Convenor of STW said:
“If there is one lesson that all governments should have learnt by now it is that the use of illegal military force does not and can not deliver peace or justice. The actions of the Israeli government including the murder of innocent peace activists and the inhumane blockade of Gaza only create the conditions for violence. There is only one solution to the conflict – a free Palestine.”
CND has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government’s nuclear weapons and their indiscriminate use of force against the Palestinian people. Chair of CND Kate Hudson said:
“A major obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East is Israeli refusal to disarm their nuclear weapons, which increases the danger of nuclear proliferation across the region, and those dangers are massively increased by the Israeli government’s failure to deliver a peaceful and just settlement for the Palestinian people.”
The British Muslim Initiative, the UKs independent political voice of Muslim community said:
“The massacre that happened in international waters against civilian activists who where on a humanitarian mission is a war crime. This Israeli criminal regime should be isolated in the same way the former apartheid government was. We demand that those responsible for these war crimes are brought to justice immediately.”
Viva Palesina, who have taken tens of tonnes of aid by land to Gaza, said:
“Israel’s attack on the flotilla was a bloody massacre. This is a watershed, like Sharpville and Soweto. The siege on Gaza must end.”
Friends of Al-Aqsa, whose Chairman Ismail Patel was on the Mavi Marmara, issued the following statement in support of the demonstration:
“The attack on the Gaza flotilla was horrific. There has to be international accountability for those who have been killed and injured and we call upon the British government to lead the way.”
In Gaza: Continuing through tragedies
By a Gaza blogger, via In Gaza
Palestinians are expert at this, with over six decades of practice at getting on with life after tragedies.
As I’m riding in a taxi two days ago after sunset, the Israeli massacre of flotilla passengers on every radio and tv channel, the driver starts to chat.
“Allah yerhamum, God bless their souls,” he begins. He is friendly but expressionless, doesn’t smile and has fatigue written on his face.
“I’ve got nine martyrs in my family,” he states, same voice, same expression, barely glancing my way.
“Allah yerhamum,” I reply, and begin to learn the details.
He lives just before Deir al Balah, the cental coastal town, and his loved ones were murdered in the brutal ways so many perished from during the Israeli massacre on Gaza last year.
Mohammed (45) and his son Suheil (14) and daughter (18) were the first killed, although the nine were all slaughtered in the same period of time.
“We live near the coast, there was heavy shooting and shelling from the sea,” he explains. I remember it well, remember that all along Gaza’s coast homes, hotels, restaurants (mostly empty anyway) were evacuated. Many were bombed, by F-16s, drones, or from gunboats on the sea.
“After the first missile killed Mohammed and his kids, more missiles fell.”
The driver lost many of his brothers and first cousins in the bombings. He lists their names and ages, carefully, staring ahead.
“After they were killed, ambulances couldn’t reach us. When I tried to go out to collect the injured or the dead, the Israelis shot at me. It was over three hours before an ambulance could get to us.”
He describes one brother who is living, but just barely. Shrapnel to the head and arm, he motions how his brother’s head was torn open. The shrapnel to his wife’s face disfigured her, but she has undergone plastic surgery and healed well.
At no point does he implore for help or ask for anything. He just talks, tells me what I’ve heard from so many Palestinians over the last year and a half.
Why we sailed to Gaza
By Lauren Booth, via Guardian
I was a passenger on the first effort to break the Gaza blockade. Our mission was to show that normal people cared.
Since the military attack on a fleet of civilian ships in international waters, Israel’s well oiled spin machine has imposed a total news blackout about the survivors, taking their phones and denying them access to consular representation. The void has instead been filled with disinformation about the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara ferry. For those of us with colleagues and loved ones of whom we still have no clear news, such lies only exacerbate our anxiety and fury. So, before I have to read another weasel word from politicians about inquiries into the motives of the flotilla, let me shed some light on the kind of people either hospitalised or being illegally held in prisons in the south of the country.
In 2008 I was a passenger on the first ever effort to break the Gaza blockade in a peaceful, non-violent, but very direct way. Tired of the international community’s refusal to act while 1.8 million Palestinians were being systematically denied their human rights on a daily basis, 46 people from all walks of life prepared to sail from Cyprus to Gaza. Kathy Sheetz, a nurse from the US, Therese McDonald, a Scottish postal worker. and Osama Qashoo, a Palestinian film-maker now resident in the UK, were on board then as now. And we too were called “provocateurs” by the Israeli media, “leftwing radicals” and “terrorist sympathisers”.
Our mission was simply to show the population of Gaza that normal people cared about their plight; that we saw their hunger, their fear, their imprisonment, their struggle; and that we – everyday folk with good hearts – would do what we could to bring their plight to the eyes of the world.
Then, as now, our intention was never to go anywhere near Israel’s shores, nor its waters, nor its military. Then, as now, the cargo on our ships was rigorously checked by European port authorities and stamped as free from any weapons whatsoever. We believed, back in those innocent days, that this would not furnish Israel with even the most vapid excuse to board or attack us on the pretext that we were a security threat. Then, they did not. This week, they did.
Let me ask you one final question that’s been troubling me, as sympathy for those apparently fragile Israeli commandos continues to pour in. If you were on a boat in the Mediterranean and hundreds of the world’s most notoriously violent soldiers started falling from the sky, wouldn’t you defend yourself? The brave human beings on the Mavi Marmara were acting in self-defence. And because of this many died. Something of the hopeful child in me died with them.
Joti's journey to Gaza 