Flotilla: Even state officials say Netanyahu, IDF spread lies

29 June2011, +972blog http://972mag.com (Israel)

Noam Sheizaf*

According to government sources, the army doesn’t have any evidence that the flotilla activists are planning violent resistance, yet it publicly accuses them of conspiring to murder soldiers

Flotilla activists preparing weapons for their encounter with IDF soldiers (photo: Mya Guarnieri)
The top story in two of Israel’s leading daily papers yesterday was a bombshell: The IDF unveiled plans by flotilla passengers to kill soldiers trying to stop the ships from getting to Gaza.

Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s most widely read paper, ran a headline declaring “Flotilla activists set to kill,” which was attributed to military sources (but only in the fine print). The story declared, “Intelligence information revealed violent plans.” In the inside pages, the headline declared that this flotilla is considered to be “more violent than the previous one.”

Maariv’s top story covered the same topic: “IDF intelligence reveals: Lethal acid on flotilla boats.” The free paper Israel Hayom had a smaller headline in the front page. “Fear: Flotilla activists will try to kill soldiers.” Haaretz is the only paper that didn’t give the story such prominence in its print edition, but it was the top headline on the paper’s website throughout the previous evening. The Jerusalem Post’s headline read “IDF: Some flotilla activists planning to kill soldiers.”

You can view all front pages of the Hebrew papers in this pic, taken from the media blog Velvet Underground. Yedioth and Maariv are the bottom two.

Front Pages of Israeli papares, June 28 2011 (photo: velvet underground blog)

Chemical Weapons? Against the Israel Navy Seals, Air Force and war ships? Even as a suicide mission, it sounded too fantastic. And how could this flotilla be “more violent,” when the notorious IHH, whose members were on the Mavi Marmara last year, cancelled its participation? Who exactly is going to execute the soldiers with the lethal acid, 64- year-old Alice Walker? It was the kind of propaganda no thinking person could believe, yet the entire Hebrew media – even Haaretz! – went for it.

Luckily, it didn’t take Max Blumenthal to debunk this one. The media’s tone today was entirely different. Government sources have told Maariv that the so-called “intelligence information” was a spin by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, reflecting “a Hasbara [propaganda] hysteria.”

“It’s unthinkable that in cabinet meetings we receive information according to which there are no threats of violent actions from the flotilla activists or [indication of] the presence of terror elements on the ships, and that at the same time, senior political sources, including the army, feed the media with information that is the exact opposite of what we were given.”

Information that the media was only to eager to swallow, one should add.
A day too late, Yedioth Ahronoth’s military correspondent was the voice of reason in his paper:

“There isn’t a shred of evidence that extreme elements will initiate resistance against IDF soldiers. There is no knowledge of the existence of firearms on the ships.”

The damage, however, was done. The reports of the murderous intentions of the flotilla activists traveled around the country and across the world. Not for the first time, a group of unarmed European and American activists traveling on old yachts was presented as a threat to the security of the region’s superpower. The only question is: for how long will the world continue to buy these kind of stories?

Maariv’s story today offers a comment from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office, claiming the information that was passed to the media came from IDF spokesperson unit. In response to my question today, the IDF spokesperson’s office made it clear they stand behind the information that was released yesterday.

*Noam Sheizaf:I am an Independent journalist and editor. I have worked for Tel Aviv's Ha-ir local paper, for Ynet.co.il and for the Maariv daily, where my last post was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. My work has recently been published in Haaretz, Yedioth Ahronoth, The Nation and other newspapers and magazines. I was born in Ramat-Gan and today live and work in Tel Aviv. Before working as a journalist, I served four and a half years in the IDF.

CONFERENZA STAMPA FREEDOM FLOTILLA ITALIA

30 giugno 2011, Freedem Flotilla Italia http://www.freedomflotilla.it

COMUNICATO STAMPA

Roma, 30/6/2010

Se l’anno scorso la freedom flotilla partiva accompagnata dalle parole dei genitori di Rachel Corrie, quest’anno ad accompagnare le navi in partenza per Gaza è la lettera dei familiari di Vittorio Arrigoni: l’augurio rivolto alla Flotilla è di arrivare sana e salva in porto per testimoniare al popolo di Gaza che la dichiarazione dei diritti universali dell’uomo vale anche in quella terra, dove troppo spesso “l’altro mondo” ha scelto di stare dalla parte dell’oppressore e non da quella dell’oppresso. Con i versi di Withman “O Capitano! Mio Capitano! Il nostro viaggio tremendo è finito…” Egidia Beretta, Ettore e Alessandra Arrigoni augurano buon vento, con Vittorio nel cuore, alla Flotilla Stay Human.

Accuse infondate di terrorismo, atti di sabotaggio a danno delle navi ferme nei porti greci, denunce pretestuose : sono stati questi i temi affrontati durante la conferenza stampa indetta questa mattina a Roma dal Comitato della Freedom Flotilla Italia. L’intervento in diretta di Vauro Senesi, uno dei passeggeri della nave italiana “Stefano Chiarini”, ha messo in luce il braccio di ferro in corso “tra noi e le autorità greche, sotto ricatto per la situazione economica in cui versa la Grecia, per ritardare o tentare d’impedire la nostra partenza”. Il giornalista italiano ha poi aggiunto: “per quanto riguarda la nave italiana manca solo che procedano all’ultima ispezione. Noi siamo pronti”.

Mila Pernice e Germano Monti, del coordinamento della FF2 Italia, hanno ribadito come siano prive di fondamento le dichiarazioni del governo israeliano secondo il quale non vige alcun blocco in quanto le merci verrebbero lasciate passare regolarmente dai valichi egiziani. In effetti il blocco è tuttora attivo, al punto che ne’ i pescatori ne’ i contadini possono svolgere le loro attività senza essere oggetto dei colpi dei cecchini. I due attivisti hanno ricordato che le rive di Gaza, come il mare di Gaza, “sono”territorio di Gaza e che, se Israele ne blocca l’accesso, l’assedio non può in alcun modo considerarsi interrotto. Inoltre Monti ha ricordato che il valico di Rafah, oltre al fatto di essere soggetto agli umori dell’Egitto, consiste in un semplice cancello di circa tre metri, incapace di consentire un normale flusso di camion.

Per l’Associazione dei Giuristi democratici, Fabio Marcelli, richiamandosi alla normativa sul Diritto internazionale umanitario, ha fatto notare come il blocco di Gaza rappresenti la primaria e gravissima violazione del diritto internazionale umanitario e dei diritti umani.

Il coordinamento della FF2 Italia indice per domani, venerdì 1° luglio alle ore 18, un presidio davanti all’ambasciata di Grecia a Roma , in via Mercadante 36 (zona Parioli) e a Milano in piazza San Babila, per far pressione sulle autorità greche affinchè non cedano al ricatto loro imposto da Israele per ostacolare la partenza delle navi.

Ufficio Stampa Freedom Flotilla Italia
CONTATTI:
333.5601759 - 338.1521278

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Alla FF2 dalla Famiglia di Vittorio Arrigoni

Ai partecipanti la Freedom Flotilla

Crediamo che questa seconda flotilla, che avete voluto chiamare “Stay Human”, viaggerà portando con sé la convinzione profonda di Vittorio che tutti gli sforzi debbano essere fatti per testimoniare al popolo di Gaza che la Dichiarazione dei diritti universali dell’uomo vale anche lì, in quella striscia di terra calpestata, mortificata, isolata dall’assedio israeliano.

Crediamo che questa vostra azione solidale, pacifica, concreta, generosa porterà grande gioia ai suoi abitanti, sollievo alle pene quotidiane e soprattutto speranza, fiducia, certezza di non essere totalmente ignorati e abbandonati da “quell’altro mondo” che spesso ha girato la testa e chiuso occhi e orecchie, che spesso, se non quasi sempre, ha scelto non l’oppresso, ma l’oppressore.

Per questo noi speriamo che arriviate infine al porto e che possiate cantare:

O Capitano! mio Capitano! il nostro viaggio tremendo è finito,
La nave ha superato ogni tempesta, l’ambito premio è vinto,
Il porto è vicino, odo le campane, il popolo è esultante.

Vi saremo vicini, ogni giorno e ogni ora.

Che il buon vento vi porti, con Vittorio nel cuore.

Egidia Beretta, Ettore e Alessandra Arrigoni

Bulciago, 30 giugno 2011

Rumbo a Gaza ante el segundo sabotaje que sufre la Flotilla

30 junio 2011, Rumbo a Gaza http://www.rumboagaza.org (España)

El ataque intencionado sufrido por el barco irlandés obliga a retrasar la salida de la expedición hasta la próxima semana

El sabotaje del ‘Saoirse’ es exactamente igual al que sufrió el barco griego-sueco-noruego ‘Juliano’ la pasada semana

Madrid, 30 de junio de 2011.- La Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad – Seguimos siendo humanos retrasa su salida hasta la próxima semana, según ha comunicado la Coalición Internacional tras diversas reuniones mantenidas en Atenas. El aplazamiento se debe a un nuevo sabotaje sufrido por un barco de la expedición, en esta ocasión el navío MV Saoirse (‘Libertad’) de la campaña irlandesa Irish Boat to Gaza (Barco irlandés a Gaza). Este es el segundo barco del convoy que ha sido saboteado.

La Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad tenía previsto reunirse en aguas internacionales entre hoy y mañana. La misión está formada por una decena de barcos con más 500 personas a bordo y 3.000 toneladas de ayuda humanitaria. Entre los barcos figura el ‘Gernika’, la nave que la campaña Rumbo a Gaza aporta a la iniciativa, con 45 activistas de diferentes partes del Estado.

El sabotaje, realizado en aguas turcas, es exactamente igual que el que sufrió el 27 de junio el barco griego ‘Giuliano’, de la campaña Greek Ship to Gaza (Barco griego a Gaza) en el puerto heleno de Saronic. Ambos han sido llevados a cabo por submarinistas con preparación profesional y materiales de alta tecnología. Los saboteadores colocaron un dispositivo que hendía los ejes de las hélices a medida que el barco avanzaba.

El ataque –al igual que ocurrió con el ‘Juilano’– también buscaba poner en peligro la vida del pasaje. Si el barco hubiera zarpado rumbo a Gaza, la rotura del eje se habría producido de forma gradual tras varias horas de navegación –ya sin ninguna posibilidad de regresar a tierra–, desequilibrando el barco y provocando su naufragio.

El hecho de que el sabotaje haya sido detectado antes de emprender el viaje a Gaza ha evitado la pérdida de vidas humanas. En ambos casos, los desperfectos fueron advertidos durante una salida de pruebas cerca de tierra, lo que permitió regresar a puerto.

Ante estos gravísimos acontecimientos, desde Rumbo a Gaza queremos manifestar las siguientes consideraciones:
1. La Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad zarpará rumbo a Gaza con el objetivo de romper y poner fin al bloqueo ilegal del Estado de Israel. Los sabotajes, maniobras delictivas, trabas burocráticas y argucias legales no hacen sino reforzar nuestra determinación.
2. Exigimos a los gobiernos de la Unión Europea una respuesta firme y decidida frente a estos sabotajes y otras acciones destinadas a impedir la partida de una expedición no violenta y amparada por el Derecho Internacional. Queremos remarcar el hecho de que tanto el ‘Juliano’ como el ‘MV Saoirse’ son territorio europeo, según el Derecho Público Internacional Marítimo, y los sabotajes constituyen una violación de la soberanía de Grecia e Irlanda en tanto que países soberanos y Estados miembros de la Unión.
3. Exigimos a los gobiernos de los países en los que se han producido estos sabotajes la apertura de una investigación seria, rigurosa e independiente del poder político.
4. Exigimos a todos los países de la Unión Europea que tomen todas las medidas a su alcance para garantizar la seguridad de las personas de los Estados miembros y de las naves, así como para permitir que ejerzan su derecho de navegar libremente y sin incidente hasta el puerto de Gaza.
5. Rumbo a Gaza pide al Gobierno español que fije claramente su posición sobre la Flotilla de la Libertad con argumentos jurídicos sólidos y coherentes y le conmina una vez más a que cumpla con su obligación legal de dar protección a todas las personas con nacionalidad española que forman parte del convoy.

Gaza-bound: A mystery worthy of Henning Mankell

29 June 2011, Canadian Boat to Gaza http://www.tahrir.ca (Canada)
Source: Haaretz.com

Swedish author Henning Mankell, who took part in last year's flotilla and is joining the currently planned one, said that the flotilla was not a declaration of war, but a declaration of peace.

By Amira Hass

GREECE - The organizers of the flotilla to Gaza yesterday remained vague about the date it would set sail and its ports of call. The unexpected delays are worrying the organizers although they are trying not to show it.

At a press conference yesterday in Athens, they promised that despite the open and covert pressure by Israel and other governments, about 10 ships - among them two cargo vessels - will set sail this week to Gaza. They also stressed that the departure of a French ship from the port of Corsica on Saturday is proof that there is a limit to the pressure Israel can exert.

The press conference was held before it became known that Israel had decided to backpedal on the Government Press Office's threat Sunday that foreign journalists who took part in the flotilla would not be allowed into Israel for 10 years. The speakers at the press conference called on the free press to prove that it is indeed free and not to be frightened by Israeli threats.

The uncertainty about the date the flotilla will set sail is not detering hundreds of activists, who are already in various locations throughout Greece and are set to board the ships. Dozens of activists attended yesterday's press conference, armed with well-made signs and rhythmic calls that sometimes turned the press conference into a pep rally.

But the organizers of the briefing did not share the various reasons for the delay. A few days ago, the Greek port authority required the Greek-Swedish cargo ship to undergo repairs, soldering work and the addition of equipment that its crew said were completely unnecessary. As for the American ship, an anonymous complaint had been lodged that it was not seaworthy. According to Army Radio, the group behind the complaint is Shurat Hadin, the Israeli Law Center.

Yesterday, a port authority inspection team checked out the American ship. Also yesterday, a surprise "stricter than usual" inspection was made of the Canadian vessel, the Tahrir. According to information that reached the organizers Sunday, a similar inspection is planned for the Italian ship.

Delaying tactics
Prof. Vangelis Pissias, a member of the flotilla's steering committee, told me that the Greek government has not acceded to the call by an extreme right wing Greek political party, LAOS, to prevent the flotilla to Gaza for reasons of "national interest," but it has meanwhile taken various administrative steps to delay it.

Pissias also said the fact that officials in Israel were able to report "the prevention of the departure of six ships anchored in Greece," even before the organizers of the flotilla knew about it, shows Israel's involvement. The surprise and meticulous inspections of the ships a few days after they had already been inspected and vetted as seaworthy, are the "technical" version of an outright prohibition on sailing.

At the press conference Pissias said the Greek government is under pressure not only from the Israeli government but by other governments as well. But Pissias also said that, at the same time, popular pressure is being applied that's making it hard for Greece to give in to Israel.

Dror Feiler, the spokesman for the flotilla and chairman of European Jews for a Just Peace, explained how popular support is expressed: Today and tomorrow, a general strike will be held in Greece against the austerity steps the government intends to adopt at the behest of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. But the port workers' union announced that in solidarity with the flotilla to Gaza, the stevedores who would be loading the flotilla vessels had been exempted from the strike.

Also, in Syntagma Square in Athens, where daily protests are being held against Greek government policies, the protesters - supporters of direct democracy - voted to support the flotilla and to install a giant screen so they could follow the progress of the ships.

Pissias also said that in the end, the Greek government would not be able to break the law and prohibit the ships from departing. That was also the message the government conveyed indirectly - through members of parliament that support the flotilla - to its organizers.

The French representative at the briefing, Thomas Sommer-Houdeville, said the French government had received "advice" (he did not specify from whom ) on how to prevent the departure of the flotilla. Right wing groups in the Jewish community also demonstrated against the flotilla, he said. Nevertheless, on Saturday the flotilla's French ship set sail for Greece (another French ship is already in Greece ). That is proof, Houdeville said, that there is a limit to Israel's ability to apply pressure, and that Israel cannot decide who has the right to sail the Mediterranean.

A French participant in the flotilla told Haaretz that representatives of the flotilla's organizers had met with government officials who "advised" them on how to hamper the ships by various technical means, but that the advice was rejected.

The African-American author Alice Walker said at the press conference that she would sail on the American ship because, when African-Americans were slaves and during the fight for civil rights, they were helped by outside communities. Walker said this was a noble tradition that defined people as human beings. Walker complained that U.S. President Barack Obama had forgotten this tradition when his government opposed the flotilla.

The Swedish author Henning Mankell, who took part in last year's flotilla and is joining the currently planned one, said at the press briefing he imagined there were people in the room who would report directly to the Israeli government and the Shin Bet security service. He said he asked that the report say that the actions of the flotilla was not a declaration of war, but a declaration of peace.

POR QUÉ ALICE WALKER VIAJA A GAZA

POR QUÉ ALICE WALKER VIAJA A GAZA

30 junio 2011, Rebelión http://www.rebelion.org (México)

John Catalinotto

Workers World/Traducido para Rebelión por Christine Lewis Carroll

En estos momentos, es decir 28 de junio, en el puerto cerrado por huelga de Atenas, hay 350 personas valientes listas para zarpar a bordo de una docena de barcos, con el fin de entregar ayuda y solidaridad al pueblo de Gaza. Los pasajeros, en su mayor parte estadounidenses y europeos, están a bordo de barcos procedentes de Estados Unidos, Argelia, Australia, Bélgica, Canadá, Dinamarca, Gran Bretaña, Francia, Grecia y Noruega.

Muchos integrantes han sido activos en los movimientos de solidaridad y en contra de la guerra. Todos ellos saben que el año pasado, los señores de la guerra israelíes ordenaron a sus soldados saltar el buque turco Mavi Marmara que pretendía entregar ayuda humanitaria a los palestinos que se encontraban asediados en Gaza. Sin provocación, los asesinos israelíes abatieron a nueve personas de origen turco.

Desde entonces, la comprensión sobre el papel opresivo del Estado israelí y su alineación con cualquier ofensiva imperialista reaccionaria en la región y en el mundo se ha extendido y profundizado. Por otra parte, hay reconocimiento y solidaridad con los levantamientos liberadores en el norte de África y el sudoeste de Asia, que derrocan o amenazan los regímenes imperialistas títeres desde Túnez y Egipto a Yemen y Bahrein. La Plaza de Tahrir en El Cairo ha inspirado la lucha desde la Puerta del Sol en Madrid al Capitolio en Madison, Wisconsin.

Entre las personas listas para zarpar, hay escritores e intelectuales conocidos más allá de los círculos progresistas. El autor sueco Henning Mankel, favorito de los aficionados a las historias de misterio, se encuentra en la flotilla, igual que el año pasado. Santiago Alba Rico, autor, filósofo y guionista, es portavoz del Gernika, el buque procedente de España. Y en el barco estadounidense, The Audacity of Hope [Audacia de la Esperanza], se encuentra la autora afro-americana y premio Pulitzer Alice Walker, cuya explicación de las razones para viajar a Gaza merece señalarse aquí:

“Hay, para mí, una percepción de pagar una deuda con los activistas israelíes de derechos civiles que se enfrentaron a la muerte por defender a la población negra del sur de Estados Unidos cuando nosotros lo necesitamos en otros momentos. Estoy especialmente endeudada con Michael Schwerner y Andrew Goodman que oyeron nuestros gritos de auxilio -el gobierno, entonces como ahora, fue glacialmente lento en proteger a los opositores no violentos- y se solidarizaron con nosotros.

Se encontraron con las porras y balas de los ‘muchachos’ del Condado de Neshoba, Misisipi, y fueron apaleados y acribillados hasta la muerte, junto con James Chaney, un joven negro de gran valor que murió con ellos. De modo que, aunque nuestro buque se llama The Audacity of Hope, ondeará la bandera de los Goodman, Chaney y Schwerner en mi propio corazón.

¿Y qué decir de los niños de Palestina que fueron ignorados en el último discurso de nuestro presidente sobre Israel y Palestina y cuya existencia empobrecida, aterrorizada y segregada fue objeto de burla cuando el Congreso de los Estados Unidos ovacionó recientemente al primer ministro de Israel? Veo a los niños, a todos los niños, como el recurso más preciado de la humanidad, porque es a ellos a quienes dejamos el cuidado del planeta. No se debe poner a un niño por encima de otro, ni siquiera en una conversación informal, y mucho menos en discursos que llegan a todas partes del globo.”
Washington, Tel Aviv y el régimen servil de Grecia están haciendo todo lo que pueden para sabotear la flotilla. La Secretaria de Estado, Hillary Rodham Clinton, ya ha dado su apoyo al uso de la fuerza por parte de Israel. Pero el pueblo reacciona de manera distinta. Los trabajadores griegos, en medio de la huelga general, se han comprometido a cargar los buques de la libertad, y los ‘indignados’ de la Plaza Syntagma siguen el progreso de la flotilla desde grandes pantallas de televisión.

¡Viva la Flotilla de la Libertad II! ¡Viva el Mavi Marmara! ¡Viva el pueblo de Gaza!
Fuente: Workers World (printed edition)

The blockade on Gaza began long before Hamas came to power

The gradual closure of Gaza began in 1991, when Israel canceled the general exit permit that allowed most Palestinians to move freely through Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since then the closure, which may soon be challenged by the second Freedom Flotilla, has become almost hermetic.

29 June2011, +972blog http://972mag.com (Israel)

By Mya Guarnieri*

Athens, Greece – The second Freedom Flotilla is slated to set sail by the end of the month in an attempt to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The act will call attention to the closure that the United Nations and human rights organizations have decried as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the collective punishment of civilians.

According to the Israeli government — and most of the mainstream media — the blockade began in 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The aim of this “economic warfare” was to weaken Hamas, a group that the Israeli government had once supported. Israel also sought to stop rocket fire and to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held in Gaza since 2006.

Four years on, none of these goals have been achieved.

Israel has achieved a minor victory on one front, however. Even critics use 2007 as the start-date of the blockade, unintentionally legitimizing Israel’s cause-and-effect explanation that pegs the closure to political events.

But the blockade did not begin in 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Strip. Nor did it start in 2006, with Israel’s economic sanctions against Gaza. The hermetic closure of Gaza is the culmination of a process that began twenty years ago.

Punitive closures begin
Sari Bashi is the founder and director of Gisha, an Israeli NGO that advocates for Palestinian freedom of movement. She says that the gradual closure of Gaza began in 1991, when Israel canceled the general exit permit that allowed most Palestinians to move freely through Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Non-Jewish residents of Gaza and the West Bank were required to obtain individual permits.

This was during the First Intifada. While the mere mention of the word invokes the image of suicide bombers in the Western imagination, it’s important to bear in mind that the First Intifada was, by and large, a non-violent uprising comprised of civil disobedience, strikes, and boycotts of Israeli goods.

A wave of violence came, however, in 1993. It was then, Bashi explains, that Israel began closing some crossings temporarily, turning away even those who held exit permits. Because a tremendous majority of Palestinians are not and were not suicide bombers, the restrictions on movement constituted collective punishment for the actions of a few — foreshadowing the nature of the blockade to come.

Over the years, there were other suggestions that a hermetic, punitive closure was on the horizon. The beginning of the Second Intifada, in September of 2000, saw Palestinian students “banned from traveling from Gaza to the West Bank,” Bashi says. In general, travel between the Occupied Palestinian Territories came under increasing restrictions, as well.

Exports took a hit in 2003, with the sporadic closures of the Karni crossing. While the 2005 disengagement supposedly signaled the end of the occupation of Gaza, in reality, it brought ever tightening restrictions on the movement of both people and goods. And, in 2006, the few Gazans who were still working in Israel were banned from entering, cutting them off from their jobs at a time when the Strip’s economy was under even more pressure.

Gaza today: the economy has been driven into the ground. The unemployment rate is almost 50 percent and four out of every five Palestinians in Gaza are dependent on humanitarian aid. Hospitals are running out of supplies. The chronically ill cannot always get exit permits, which can lead to access-related deaths. Students are sometimes prevented from reaching their universities. Families have been shattered. Some psychologists say that the intense pressure created by the blockade – which was compounded during Operation Cast Lead – accounts for spikes in domestic violence, divorce and drug abuse.

It doesn’t end at Gaza’s borders
But the consequences of the blockade do not stop at Gaza’s borders. When movement restrictions began in 1991, some Palestinian day laborers were prevented from reaching their jobs inside Israel. And this is about the time that Israel, already hooked on low-cost labor, began issuing work visas to migrants from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Fast forward to Israel, 2009 — the same state that is imposing a severe, hermetic closure of Gaza announces that it intends to deport 1,200 Israeli-born children of migrant workers, along with their parents. NGOs decry the expulsion as inhumane and a gross violation of human rights.

The standard Israeli line is that these people must be deported because they’re “illegal.” (Never mind that the Israeli Supreme Court has recently struck down the policy that made the mothers lose their legal status, calling it a violation of Israel’s own labor laws). Politicians who are more honest about the issue admit that the expulsion is about minimizing the “demographic threat” to Israel.

The message of both the blockade and deportation is the same — both serve to illustrate that Jewish-Israeli privilege comes at the expense of the human rights of anyone who is deemed an “other.”

The refugee crisis
Of course, if you were to ask a Gazan when the restrictions on freedom of movement began, some might go back even earlier. They might point to a 1984 order that forbade farmers from planting commercial quantities of fruit trees without permission of the Israeli military government. In a definitive piece on the economic de-development of the Gaza Strip, published in 1987, Dr. Sara Roy pointed out that it took some Palestinian farmers five years or more to obtain these permits.

While the people of Gaza were still able to move in and out of the Strip at the time, their ability to live freely on their own lands was already severely restricted — as was their economy. According to Dr. Roy, the occupation had rendered the Strip hopelessly dependent on Israel and vulnerable to its economic fluctuations and political whims. It had also created a captive market, a convenient dumping ground for Israeli goods.

But, as Dr. Roy points, Gaza’s economic woes didn’t begin with the occupation. They started with the sudden, unexpected influx of Palestinian refugees in 1948. The Gaza Strip was largely agricultural at the time, she explains, and wealth was consolidated into the hands of a few. Simply said, there wasn’t enough for everyone.

While organizers of the flotilla emphasize that they are attempting to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza, unpacking the blockade itself points to urgent questions that must be resolved: the status of Palestinian refugees; the disastrous and unrelenting effects of over 40 years of occupation; and Israel’s utter lack of respect for the human rights of non-Jews. And that’s the discussion the Israeli government doesn’t want any of us to have.

*Mya Guarnieri is a Tel Aviv-based writer and journalist. She is covering the flotilla for Maan News Agency. Her articles have appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, Tablet, and many other international outlets. Her short stories have been published in The Kenyon Review Online and Narrative Magazine. She is currently working on a book about migrant workers in Israel.

Follow Mya on Twitter: @myaguarnieri

Ex-US Politician Joins Gaza Aid Convoy

28 June 2011, Palestine Chronicle http://www.palestinechronicle.com (USA)

A former US political figure will join a Gaza-bound vessel although the State Department has criticized his act.

Samuel Hart, a former US ambassador to Ecuador, is one of the passengers of The Audacity of Hope, the American-flagged ship that is a part of the Freedom Flotilla II, which will depart Greece for the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

The US State Department warned Americans that the Gaza coast is “dangerous and volatile,” Israel National News reported on Monday.

Hart, who is joining the Free Palestine Movement, said the Israeli blockade “limits food to a little bit better than starvation levels.”

The Israeli Navy has announced that it would confront the Freedom Flotilla II convoy, which will comprise 15 ships, 22 organizations and around 1,500 activists.

In an essay explaining his participation, Hart wrote, “What did the residents of Gaza do to deserve such punishment? The honest answer is that they voted in a fair election in 2006 for Hamas, a political party which also engages in armed resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”

The former US politician says he has always felt that Israel has been “a little bit of a burr in the saddle of US foreign policy.”

On Monday, the international coalition organizing the Freedom Flotilla II held a press conference in Athens with representatives from all of the boats. The US was represented by Ann Wright, a former State Department official, and Alice Walker, an African-American author.

After the press conference, a street demonstration was held in support of the humanitarian move.

Some 1.5 million people in Gaza are being denied their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and the right to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. (Press TV)

Los activistas controlan los barcos ante posibles sabotajes

Rumbo a Gaza contrata a submarinistas para garantizar la seguridad del buque 'Gernika'

29 junio 2011, Público.es(Epaña)

Iñigo Aduriz (Atenas)

Los activistas de la Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad están en alerta máxima ante cualquier contratiempo que pueda retrasar o incluso cancelar la salida de los barcos el jueves o el viernes desde un puerto del Mediterráneo hacia la franja de Gaza.

El "sabotaje", el lunes, del buque en el que tienen previsto viajar eurodiputados suecos, periodistas y activistas griegos, ha obligado a los organizadores de la misión humanitaria a extremar las medidas de seguridad y vigilancia de los barcos que están ya listos para zarpar.

Manuel Tapial, portavoz de Rumbo a Gaza organización que ha impulsado la Flotilla en España anunció ayer que han contratado a submarinistas profesionales para que supervisen día y noche el Gernika, el buque en el que se embarcarán una cincuentena de ciudadanos españoles hacia la franja.

En su opinión, no hay opcióna la duda. El del lunes fue "un sabotaje premeditado, organizado por los servicios secretos israelíes". Tapial se mostró especialmente "preocupado", al tratarse de un barco en el que se subirán periodistas y europarlamentarios.

En la tarde del lunes, desconocidos doblaron los dos ejes de la embarcación. Si hubiera zarpado, podría haber sufrido un naufragio, explicaron los organizadores de la Flotilla. No obstante, añadieron, ya se han comenzado las labores para reparar los desperfectos y "el buque saldrá".

Rumbo a Gaza hizo ayer público un comunicado respondiendo a la ministra de Asuntos Exteriores, Trinidad Jiménez, que el lunes, en una reunión con diputados de IU, ERC, ICV y BNG, sólo se comprometió a hacer "un seguimiento" de la misión.

"La protección a los ciudadanos y ciudadanas de nacionalidad española que participen en la Flotilla no es una opción para el Gobierno, sino una obligación política para dar respuesta a un derecho de estas personas", dicen en el texto.

Reunión con el embajador
Los representantes públicos que participarán en la acción humanitaria se reunieron ayer con el embajador español en Atenas, Miguel Fuertes, para exigirle protección para los participantes en la expedición. El eurodiputado de IU, Willy Meyer, la diputada de EUPV en Les Corts valencianes, Marina Albiol, y la parlamentaria navarra de NaBai, Nekane Pérez, le expresaron al diplomático su intención de embarcarse en la Flotilla a pesar de la recomendación del Gobierno de no participar en la misión. Además, consideraron "inaudito" que a la hora de hacer llegar un cargamento pacífico, el Ejecutivo "no trate de aplicar el derecho internacional".

Willy Meyer explicó, en declaraciones a este diario, que durante el encuentro también le pidieron al embajador que traslade "a quien considere oportuno", que no quieren un "trato discriminatorio" respecto al de los activistas en caso de detención.

Noticias relacionadas
Comandos israelíes ensayan un asalto 'limpio' contra la Flotilla
Lieberman: "La Flotilla sólo busca el enfrentamiento y la sangre"

The PA's Historic Mistake - and Opportunity

27 June 2011, Palestine Chronicle http://www.palestinechronicle.com (USA)

By Jeff Halper*

No one knows the precise plans of the Palestinian Authority vis-a-vis September: will Mahmoud Abbas declare a Palestinian state within recognized borders and ask that it be admitted as a full member of the UN – or not? Perhaps Abbas himself does not know. Now political leaders often make decisions alone or in consultation with a small group of advisors. As in so many matters political, however, the Palestinian leadership finds itself in a unique situation. Its main allies are not governments, and certainly not the American government, whose support for some inexplicable reason has constituted the Palestinians’ default position for the past forty years. Rather, the Palestinians’ most loyal and powerful ally is civil society. And yet, this most solid base of support remains unappreciated, unutilized, and ignored.

Three circles of popular support radiate out into the wider world, able to mobilize millions of people to the Palestinian cause. First, of course, is the Palestinian people itself. Displaced, scattered, oppressed, occupied, struggling for its national rights and very cultural identity, this “little grain of sand,” as it has been called, continues generation after generation to jam not only the vaunted Israeli military machine but that of its main supporter, the United States, who for decades has used Israel as its forward position in the Middle East.

To oppressed people everywhere, the Palestinians have become an inspiration, almost their surrogate. Their ability to remain steadfast (sumud) is proof that injustice, even when supported by the most advanced weaponry of the most powerful super-powers, can be resisted. But Israel, helped by time and geography, has succeeded in fragmenting the Palestinians. The refugees in the camps are almost completely excluded from political processes, but it is the exclusion of the Diaspora that is especially problematic. Highly educated for the most part, fluent in all the European languages, they could play a major role in promoting the Palestinian cause abroad. Indeed, a few individuals have carved out influential positions despite being excluded, even resisted, by the West Bank leadership. Instead, the Palestinian Authority has fielded, with a couple notable exceptions, a most inept and inarticulate corps of diplomats. Rather than using their greatest asset, their own people abroad as well as the legions of articulate spokespeople at home, including younger people, the Palestinian Authority has tied its own hands diplomatically just when Israel is mounting a major international offensive against it. Just recall one astounding fact: during the entire year that saw the Obama Administration taking office and the invasion of Gaza, there was no official Palestinian representative in Washington!

The second circle of civil society support for the Palestinian cause is, of course, the Arab and wider Muslim worlds. While each uprising of the “Arab Spring” has its own reasons and dynamics, the Palestinian struggle provided the inspiration. The Arab peoples came to realize that the same forces oppressing the Palestinians – militarism designed to thwart democracy and ensure neo-colonial control over their lands and resources – are at the source of their own oppression as well.

Indeed, the Palestinians possess one source of tremendous clout: they are the bone in the throat of the global powers that prevent them from completing their imperialist plans. The Palestinian struggle is not simply a local one between Palestinians and Israelis; it has become global on the order of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. It cannot be by-passed. Even though there are larger and bloodier conflicts in the Middle East, until the Palestinians signal the rest of the Muslim world that they have arrived at a political settlement with Israel and the time has come to normalize relations, the conflict is not over. A solution cannot be imposed, and the Palestinians are the gatekeepers. Nothing can happen without them, and until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is indeed resolved, the US and Europe will be unable to pursue their interests unencumbered in an empowered Middle East.

The third circle of civil society just waiting to be mobilized are the millions of ordinary people the world over whose have devoted enormous energy and resources towards the realization of Palestinian national rights. The Palestinian struggle has indeed assumed the proportions of that against apartheid. It is one of the two or three leading issues in the world. Churches, trade unions, university students, political and human rights organizations, prominent intellectuals, performers, and even key politicians have all mobilized in support of the BDS movement (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel). They are evident in the repeated attempts to break the siege of Gaza by sending international flotillas.

But they, like Palestinian civil society and that of the Arab and Muslim worlds, wait to be mobilized by the Palestinian leadership. According to newspaper accounts – unfortunately, the Authority leadership has never conducted an open discussion of the crucial September initiative and has never shared its deliberations – the two main objections to seeking membership in the UN are fear of upsetting the American administration and failure to obtain the required number of votes. The first is ridiculous. Does anyone still believe the Palestinians will gain anything by pursuing American-led “negotiations”?

The second objection, that not receiving the required votes for admission to the UN constitutes a “failure,” exposes a key flaw in the strategic thinking of the Palestinian leadership. If Abbas approaches the UN in a docile and half-hearted way, appearing more to be pushed by an Israeli refusal to negotiate than by his people’s own just cause and urgent need for independence, the Palestinian struggle will certainly suffer. Many other countries that would otherwise support the Palestinian initiative will indeed waiver, giving in to US and Israeli pressure because it seems the Palestinian themselves are not serious about it. But if he goes into the UN as the head of a national unity government with the support of the world’s peoples, Mandela-like, he could decisively change the course of events forever.

To pull off his September initiative, Abbas must reject the go-it-alone approach that the Palestinian leadership has followed fruitlessly for so long. He must recognize that civil society the world over – and in the Muslim world and Europe in particular – is the Palestinians’ most important ally. The issue is not whether the initiative “succeeds;” it is clear that the US will cast a veto. The true struggle is to pull out all the stops to show the world just how strong the Palestinian movement is. If mobilized, the collective power of the grassroots who have for years labored on the Palestinian issue will generate a momentum that will be hard to stop.

Time is of the essence. Mobilization must begin immediately. The elected representatives of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territory, joined for the first time by Palestinians of the refugee camps, inside Israel, and the Diaspora, should issue a joint “Call for Support.” Immediately following the Palestinian Call, grassroots activists would issue a Civil Society Call to support the Palestinian initiative, which would be signed by tens of thousands of people from all over the world and delivered to the UN in September. If a campaign for public support begins now, if the political leadership works intensively and closely with its own civil society to garner widespread support, more than 100,000 people can be gathered at the UN in New York in September in a mass rally for Palestinian independence. (And believe me, Israel will mobilize its own supporters!)

Inside the UN, Abbas would present Palestine’s compelling case for independence and UN membership, as he did in his New York Times piece of May 16. He would also reframe the conflict. It is not specious security issues that lay at the roots of the conflict, but Israel’s refusal to respect Palestinian national rights and to end the Occupation. As he also did in the New York Times article, Abbas must also make it clear that recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in no way compromises the right of refugees to return to their homes, a key point of future negotiations with Israel. He should also state up front that the establishment of a Palestinian state does not end the Palestinian quest, through peaceful means, of an inclusive single-state solution.

If international mobilization is pursued vigorously and Abbas exudes a genuine determination to see a Palestinian state established and recognized, more than 130 countries, including many of the leading European ones, will vote to accept Palestine into the UN. Even if this does not overrule the US veto in the Security Council, it is far more than a merely symbolic achievement and certainly cannot be considered a failure. Such a massive expression of support would demonstrate the inevitability of Palestinian statehood. It would signal the beginning rather than the end of an international campaign for Palestinian rights, one now joined by governments as well as civil society.

We, the people who have pursued Palestinian rights over the decades, Palestinians and non-Palestinian alike, are an integral part of the struggle. We have earned the right, all of us, to have our voices heard in September. Indeed, I would argue that if September comes and goes without any breakthrough due to the acquiescence and weakness of the Authority leadership, civil society support might well dissipate. The people can bring the struggle to a certain point; we cannot negotiate or pursue initiatives at the UN. If the leadership fails us then we truly have nowhere to go. All those Palestinians who have suffered, resisted and died over the past decades cannot be let down at this historic moment by a vacillating political leadership. We call on you to mobilize us. Together we shall succeed, and sooner rather than later.

* Jeff Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). Contact him at: jeff@icahdusa.org. (This article was contributed to PalestineChronicle.com)

Breaching Gaza's Siege Update

25 June 2011, MWC Media with Conscience http://mwcnews.net (USA)

By Stephen Lendman

Suffocating besieged Gazans, Israel is committing slow-motion genocide. Global activists are determined to stop it and hold Israeli officials accountable for decades of crimes of war and against humanity - unspeakable atrocities financed by criminal co-conspirators in Washington.

In May 2010, Israeli commandos illegally interdicted six Freedom Flotilla ships in international waters, massacring nine activists aboard the Mavi Marmara mother ship.
Nonetheless, global activists are determined to break Gaza's siege, the first step to ending it altogether and freeing nearly 1.7 million people, isolated in the world's largest open-air prison.

They're coming, Freedom Flotilla II, heading to Gaza with vitally needed humanitarian aid. Planning more high seas barbarism and piracy, Israel will again interdict. In preparation, mobilized reserve combatants held drills, focusing on riot-control measures, including brute force and "surprises" if needed.
On June 19, Israeli Admiral Eliezer Marom said:

"The Navy has prevented and will continue to prevent the arrival of the 'hate flotilla' whose only goals are to clash with (Israeli) soldiers, create a media provocation, and delegitimize the State of Israel."

Besides interdiction, imprisonment awaits participants, Israeli authorities saying blockade violators will be arrested and jailed, treated harshly, then deported. All of it, of course, is lawless, including seizure of humanitarian supplies and personal belongings like Flotilla I was pillaged, the way pirates have done it for centuries.

Israel is a rogue terror state. Activists know the risks. They're coming anyway and will keep coming, no matter what Israel plans.

A June 23 "Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human" press release headlined, "Sailing to Gaza," saying:

Within days, 10 participating ships will sail. Two carry cargo. Hundreds of activists from 20 countries are aboard the others, including politicians, writers, religious figures, journalists, TV crews from major broadcasters, doctors, lawyers, holocaust survivors, artists, and various other distinguished and ordinary committed activists for justice.

On June 18, Turkey's IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation pulled out, yielding to government pressure at a time Israeli and Ankara officials are holding secret rapprochement talks.

Despite Israeli threats, lies, pressure, blackmail, and governments not supporting their own citizens, preparations are nearly complete to sail.

A June 24 Free Gaza.org press release headlined, "Israel proves that Flotillas work," saying:

Israel's recent authorization of token aid amounts, including construction materials for 1,200 homes and 19 truckloads of medicines, shows pressure works even though not enough. Key is stiffening it until Gazans and all Palestinians are free. It's coming because global millions support it. For now, "Freedom Flotilla 2: Stay Human" sails for Gaza next week. "(O)ur destination is freedom."

Organized by 14 national groups and international coalitions, a US Boat to Gaza is included, named "The Audacity of Hope." Participants call this "an important moment in history." They're defying Israeli US ambassador Michael Oren describing organizers as "radical anti-Israel organizations known also for anti-American activities," and Netanyahu saying the mission is a "provocation." Earlier, he told European ambassadors in Jerusalem, "This flotilla must be stopped." Responding to it, he mounted a PR stunt to pretend Gaza's siege is eased.

Like other global activists, Americans are determined to help, despite Washington's efforts to deter them. On June 14, passengers wrote Obama, saying:

"We are writing to inform you that 50 unarmed Americans will soon be sailing....to Gaza....challeng(ing) Israel's (illegal) blockade (in) friendship (and solidarity) in support of the Palestinian people and their human rights."

Telling Gazans they're not alone, "it will call attention to the morally and legally indefensible collective punishment of a population of civilians....As US citizens, we expect our country and its leaders to help ensure the Flotilla's safe passage (and) demand that the Gaza blockade be lifted. This should begin by notifying the Israeli government in clear and certain terms that it may not physically interfere with" any participating vessel. We "expect no less from our President and your administration."

On June 24, Audacity of Hope participants "expressed profound disappointment" by the State Department's June 22 response, issuing a scandalous "travel advisory," advising Americans against coming by sea or other means. Saying previous attempts were "stopped by Israeli naval vessels and resulted in the injury, death, arrest, and deportation of US citizens," it didn't warn Israel that interdiction won't be tolerated, especially if on board activists are harmed.

Participating in the mission, University of Southern California Professor Hagit Borer said:

"Apparently, the State Department subscribes to the view that Israel's anticipated violence against unarmed protesters is an immutable act of nature. This is a remarkable attitude, coming from a government that provides the Israeli government with billions of dollars in military aid and routinely uses its veto to protect (its) government from censure of its occupation policies by the UN Security Council."

In fact, Washington officials are legally bound to protect US citizens. Nonetheless, they plan nothing to do it, effectively green-lighting Israeli commandos to lawlessly interdict, brutalize, and kill again if if they choose, perhaps with funding, weapons and munitions America supplies for that purpose.

A Final Comment
On June 24, Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor said:
"Israel is determined to stop the flotilla. Israel has the right to self-defense. The flotilla has nothing constructive. There is nothing humanitarian in the shipments," calling the mission a "provocation."

In fact, it's bringing vital humanitarian aid Israel lawlessly restricts or blocks entirely for nearly 1.7 million besieged people, ruthlessly persecuted for not being Jewish and electing the wrong government. Abhorrent by any standard, under international law it's illegal but continues because global leaders are complicit for doing nothing to stop it.

In America's Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson endorsed citizen action against destructive government policies. Flotilla participants are acting in the best tradition of his message, challenging Israeli repression for justice.

Breaching Gaza's Siege Update
Israel keeps exerting pressure to block humanitarian efforts to deliver vital to life and other essential aid to besieged Gazans.

Endorsing Israeli lawlessness, the State Department issued a June 22 "Travel Warning - Israel, the West Bank and Gaza," saying in part:

"The Department of State warns US citizens of the risks of traveling to Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and about threats to themselves and to US interests in those locations," adding "avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip."

Access the full statement through the following link:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5511.html

On June 23, Secretary of State Clinton added:

"We do not believe that the flotilla is a necessary or useful effort to try to assist the people of Gaza. And we think that it's not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves."

Defend against whom she didn't explain or that Gazan waters belong to Palestine, not Israel. Moreover, delivering humanitarian aid is essential until Gaza's blockade is ended, a crime against humanity Washington funds and supports.

This week, "Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human" sails to Gaza. Neither Israel nor Clinton will stop it, but they're trying by blocking its departure or planned interdiction surprises if it comes.

The US Boat to Gaza (The Audacity of Hope) is one of 10 participating ships, now blocked by Greek officials, saying the vessel is unseaworthy, a spurious claim with no validity.

A June 26 US Boat to Gaza press release asked "Greek government officials to clarify whether (their leased boat) is being blocked....because of an anonymous request of a private citizen....or whether (Greece) made a political decision....in response to US and Israeli" pressure.

Specifically they want to know if bailout help is contingent on succumbing to blackmail, besides Greece already surrendering its sovereignty to foreign bankers.
On June 27, a US Boat to Gaza press release responded to reports that an Israeli "Lawfare" group (Shurat HaDin) complaint is delaying the boat's departure.

Israel, Washington, AIPAC, and the Shurat HaDin Law Center (SH) are directly involved. In fact, SH's web site claims it's "bankrupting terrorism one lawsuit at a time," adding on June 19:

"I am happy to report that we have achieved some important victories in the struggle to block the anti-Israel Flotilla from 'smuggling contraband' to the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip."

Specifically, it referred to a French insurance company succumbing to intimidation not to cover a French boat from Marseilles, and the Turkish ship pressured by Ankara to cancel its participation.

On June 15, SH announced a Manhattan federal court lawsuit to "confiscate 14 ships outfitted with funds unlawfully raised in the United States by anti-Israeli groups, including the Free Gaza Movement."

SH, the Obama administration, AIPAC and other Israeli Lobby members clearly support state terrorism in violation of international, US and Israeli law. Nonetheless, America's "Audacity of Hope" is confident it will sail, saying:

SH is notorious for filing "frivolous legal complaints against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. We reiterate that the boat we are leasing....was surveyed by a professional surveyor and successfully completed its sea trials."

At noon Athens time June 27, a press conference will announce its readiness to sail, but expect continued pressure to stop it - criminal co-conspirators determined to lawlessly suffocate besieged Gazans.

On June 27, a Haaretz editorial headlined, "Let the flotilla go," saying:
Israel equates "flotilla" with terrorism or "a declaration of war," no matter that cargo includes food, medicines, educational materials and other humanitarian aid raised by private donations.

Nonetheless, Israel "seems to be as frightened of the flotilla as one would think it would be of an attack by an armed naval fleet." As a result, it's "preparing to fight an enemy" comprised of unarmed, nonviolent men and women who care enough to risk their safety to deliver vital aid and symbolically oppose Israeli lawlessness.

Thirteen months after the Mavi Marmara massacre, "Israel is showing that it has learned just one lesson: the military lesson....The country is not willing to give up a display of power, thereby no doubt contributing to inflating the flotilla's importance" and Israel as a rogue terror state. "From Israel, we can at least demand that it let the flotilla get through....without once again endangering the country's position in the world."

On June 27, Israel National News said former US Ecuador ambassador Samuel Hart (a 27-year Foreign Service veteran) will participate in the Flotilla mission.

In a 1992 Foreign Affairs Oral History Project for the Association for Diplomatic Studies interview, Hart said:

"I've always felt that Israel has been a little bit of a burr in the saddle in our foreign policy. Here is a small country with no particular interest to us in any real strategic terms, yet it sort of jerks us around because it has not only a very vocal Jewish population, but also supporters of Israel from non-Jewish groups."

He also once wrote an essay calling Israel "an exhausting place to live (because) the tension, anxiety and intensity wear you out."

Now aged 77, he told a Jacksonville, FL newspaper he joined the Flotilla because he "missed" participating in the 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement to end segregation. "I see great similarities between this and the civil rights movement," he said. "I am pleased to be part of it."

He also asked, "What did the residents of Gaza do to deserve such punishment? The honest answer is they" elected Hamas in 2006 democratically and now suffer lawlessly.

On June 26, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner headlined, "Avoid Gaza Flotilla, Israel Warns Foreign Journalists," saying:

"Israel threatened Sunday to bar for up to a decade any foreign journalist who boards a flotilla seeking to challenge an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza."
Moreover, Israel's Government Press Office director Oren Helman said their equipment will be impounded and they'll be subjected to "additional sanctions." He sent a warning letter to registered foreign correspondents, stopping short of saying they'll be arrested and jailed.

Perhaps all Flotilla participants will be mistreated, imprisoned, their personal possessions confiscated, then summarily deported the way Flotilla I activists were treated after being attacked, beaten and otherwise abused, besides nine on board massacred in cold blood.

On June 26, Israel's Foreign Press Association responded, saying:

Journalists "covering a legitimate news event should be allowed to do their jobs without threat and intimidation. (Helman's letter) sends a chilling message to the international media and raises serious questions about Israel's commitment to freedom of the press."

Bronner said an unnamed New York Times journalist would participate, joining other international correspondents.

Further updates will follow, highlighting courageous activism against lawless Israeli brutality, complicit with its Washington paymaster/partner.

La Flotilla de la Libertad se reunirá en aguas internacionales entre el jueves y el viernes

27 Junio 2011, Rumbo a Gaza http://www.rumboagaza.org (España)

En la expedición participa el barco de Rumbo a Gaza ‘Gernika’ en el que viajan aproximadamente 45 activistas del Estado español

Dror Feiller (Suecia), Vangelis Pissias (Grecia) y Ann Wright (EEUU), durante la rueda de prensa

Atenas, 27 de junio de 2011.- La Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad – Seguimos siendo humanos se reunirá en aguas internacionales entre el jueves, 30 de junio y el viernes, 1 de julio de 2011, para dirigirse desde allí a la Franja de Gaza con el objetivo de romper y poner fin al bloqueo ilegal israelí a este territorio palestino. Así se ha anunciado hoy en Atenas en una rueda de prensa en la que han participado miembros de las diferentes organizaciones que forman la coalición internacional de la Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad. El escritor Santiago Alba Rico participó en la rueda de prensa en representación de Rumbo a Gaza.

Los barcos zarparán desde diversos puertos del Mediterráneo. Estos puntos de partida no se desvelarán por motivos de seguridad. En la expedición participan 45 personas del Estado español, principalmente activistas aunque también hay entre ellas personalidades representativas del mundo de la política, como el europarlamentario Willy Meyer o las diputadas autonómicas Marina Albiol y Nekane Pérez, o de la cultura, como el escritor Santiago Alba Rico o el actor Guillermo Toledo. Además, también viajan periodistas de distintos medios de comunicación españoles.

Estas personas embarcarán en el buque ‘Gernika’, el barco que desde el Estado español aporta la campaña Rumbo a Gaza a la Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad. En total, la expedición aglutina a una decena de barcos de organizaciones de una veintena de países, mientras que el número de internacionalistas se acerca a 500 procedentes de unos 45 países.

Manuel Tapial, miembro de Rumbo a Gaza, señaló tras la rueda de prensa que la campaña española ha invitado a varias personas turcas de la organización no gubernamental IHH a viajar en el ‘Gernika’ como muestra de solidaridad “con nuestros compañeros que no han podido viajar en el Mavi Marmara”.

Entre las personas turcas que subirán al barco español se encuentra el representante legal de los familiares de los nueve activistas asesinados por el Ejército de Israel el pasado año en el abordaje ilegal de la embarcación turca. En este sentido, Tapial señaló que el ‘Gernika’ “llevará el espíritu de nuestros compañeros asesinados”.

En el convoy irán, además, 50 periodistas de distintos medios internacionales. El Gobierno de Israel, en una clara vulneración de la libertad de información, ha anunciado que prohibirá la entrada en su territorio durante 10 años a los y las profesionales la prensa que embarquen en la Flotilla. Ante esto Manuel Tapial declaró que existe el temor fundado “de que Israel haga una brutalidad como el año pasado y no haya prensa para informar”.

Los barcos de la Flotilla de la Libertad llevarán hasta la Franja de Gaza más de 5.000 toneladas de ayuda humanitaria, principalmente material sanitario, educativo y de construcción. Desde la campaña española Rumbo a Gaza se ha aportado ayuda humanitaria valorada en 600.000 euros.

La Premio Nobel de Literatura estadounidense Alice Walker, durante la rueda de prensa. La escritora afroamericana viajará en la Segunda Flotilla de la Libertad: Fotos: Nacho Prieto


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FLOTILLA DE LA LIBERTAD II

• Bateau suisse pour Gaza (Suiza)
• Belgium to Gaza (Bélgica)
• Canada Boat to Gaza (Canadá)
• Deutch initiative zum bruc des gazablockade (Alemania)
• European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza
• Free Gaza Movement
• Free Gaza Scotland (Escocia)
• IHH The Fundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (Turquia)
• Irish Ship to Gaza (Irlanda)
• Italia Freedom Flotilla (Italia)
• Lifeline 4 Gaza (Malasia)
• Nederlands Boat to Gaza (Holanda)
• Rumbo a Gaza (España)
• Ship to Gaza Greece (Grecia)
• Ship to Gaza Norwey (Noruega)
• Ship to Gaza Sweden (Suecia)
• U.S. Boat to Gaza (Estados Unidos)
• Un bateau pour Gaza (Francia)

A limpeza étnica dos palestinos, ou Israel democrático em acção

26 Junho 2011, ODiario.info (Portugal)

Gideon Levy

“Enquanto ainda estamos desesperadamente ocultando, negando e reprimindo nossa principal limpeza étnica de 1948 – mais de 600.000 refugiados, alguns dos quais fugiram pelo temor às Forças Armadas de Israel e suas antecessoras, e outros que foram expulsos pela força – a realidade nos demonstra que 1948 nunca terminou, que seu espírito continua connosco”.

Ocorreu no dia seguinte ao Dia da Independência, quando Israel estava imerso quase que ad nauseam em loas a si mesmo e a sua democracia, e nas vésperas do (virtualmente fora da lei) Dia da Nakba, quando o povo palestino rememora a “catástrofe” – o aniversário da criação de Israel. Meu colega Akiva Eldar publicou o que sempre soubéramos, mas ignorávamos as chocantes cifras reveladas: No momento dos Acordos de Oslo, Israel tinha derrubado a residência de 140.000 palestinos da Cisjordânia. Em outras palavras, 14% dos residentes da Cisjordânia que ousaram viajar ao exterior tiveram seu direito de retornar a Israel e aqui viver negado para sempre. Em outras palavras, foram expulsos de suas terras e de seus lares. Em outras palavras: limpeza étnica.

Enquanto ainda estamos desesperadamente ocultando, negando e reprimindo nossa principal limpeza étnica de 1948 – mais de 600.000 refugiados, alguns dos quais fugiram pelo temor às Forças Armadas de Israel e suas antecessoras, e outros que foram expulsos pela força – a realidade nos demonstra que 1948 nunca terminou, que seu espírito continua connosco. Ainda continua connosco o objectivo de limpar esta terra de seus habitantes árabes o máximo possível, e até um pouco mais. Afinal, é a solução mais encoberta e desejada: a Terra de Israel para os judeus e só para eles. Algumas pessoas se atreveram a dizê-lo abertamente - o rabino Meir Kahane, o ministro Rehavam Ze’evi e seus discípulos, os quais merecem alguns elogios por sua integridade. Muitos aspiram a fazer o mesmo sem admiti-lo.

A revelação da política de negar a residência provou que este sonho secreto é efectivamente o sonho secreto do establishment. Não se carrega os árabes em caminhões como era feito antes, mesmo depois da Guerra dos Seis Dias; não se dispara sobre eles para afugentá-los - todos esses métodos são politicamente incorrectos no mundo novo. Mas, de facto, este é o objectivo.

Algumas pessoas pensam que é suficiente tornar miserável a vida dos palestinos nos territórios para forçá-los a irem embora, e muitos deles, com efeito, foram embora. Um êxito de Israel: de acordo com a Administração Civil, cerca de um quarto de milhão de palestinos abandonaram voluntariamente a Cisjordânia nos sangrentos anos 2000 – 2007. Mas isto não é suficiente. Portanto, vários e diversos outros meios administrativos foram acrescentados para transformar o sonho em realidade.

Qualquer um que diga que “não é apartheid” está convidado a responder: Por que um israelense tem permissão de sair de seu país pelo resto da vida e ninguém sugere cassar-lhe a cidadania, enquanto um palestino, um filho nativo, não tem essa permissão? Por que um israelense pode casar-se com uma estrangeira e esta recebe uma permissão de residência, ao passo que um palestino não tem permissão de se casar com sua ex-vizinha que mora na Jordânia? Isto não é apartheid? Através dos anos, documentei intermináveis e lamentáveis tragédias de famílias que foram separadas, cujos filhos e filhas não recebiam permissão de viver na Cisjordânia ou em Gaza devido a regras draconianas - só para os palestinos.

Vejamos o caso de Dalal Rasras, por exemplo, uma menina de Beit Omar com paralisia cerebral, que foi separada de sua mãe durante meses porque sua mãe nasceu em Rafah. Somente depois de que seu caso se tornar público é que Israel permitiu que ela regressasse para sua filha “apesar da letra da lei”, a cruel letra da lei que não permite que os residentes de Gaza vivam na Cisjordânia, mesmo se ali tiverem feito suas casas.
O clamor dos despossuídos agora foi traduzido em números: 140.000, apenas até os Acordos de Oslo. Estudantes que saíram para estudar em universidades estrangeiras, homens de negócios que foram tentar a sorte no exterior, cientistas que viajaram ao exterior para sua formação profissional, jerusalenses nativos que se atreveram a mudar-se temporariamente à Cisjordânia, todos correram a mesma sorte. Todos foram levados pelo vento e foram expulsos por Israel. Não puderam regressar.

O mais surpreendente de tudo é a reacção dos responsáveis pela política de limpeza étnica. Eles não sabiam. O major-general (na reserva) Danny Rothschild, ex-governador militar com o título eufemístico de “coordenador das actividades governamentais nos territórios”, disse que leu pela primeira vez sobre o procedimento no jornal Haaretz. Acontece que a limpeza étnica não apenas continua, senão que também continua sendo negada. Toda criança palestina sabe, só o general a desconhece. Até mesmo hoje ainda há 130.000 palestinos registados como “NLR”, um comovedor acrónimo das IDF (Israeli Defense Forces – Forças Armadas de Israel) para definir aos “já não residentes”, como se fossem voluntários, outro eufemismo para denominar aos “expulsos”. E o general, que se considera relativamente bem informado, não tinha conhecimento.

Há uma recusa absoluta em permitir o regresso dos refugiados - algo que poderia “destruir o Estado de Israel”. Também há uma recusa absoluta em permitir o regresso das pessoas recentemente expulsas. Para o próximo Dia da Independência provavelmente inventaremos mais regulamentações para a expulsão, e nas próximas férias conversaremos sobre “a única democracia”.

Tradução: Jair de Souza/Carta Maior
Publicado originalmente no jornal Haaretz

Os israelís que soñaban con ver o mar de Gaza

27 junio 2011, Xornal.com http://www.xornal.com (Galicia)

Varios cidadáns hebreos desafían o bloqueo de Israel á Faixa dende barcos da Frotiña

Ricardo Rodríguez

Amira Hass, a única xornalista israelí que informou durante a segunda Intifada dende territorio palestino, que viviu en Gaza e Ramala durante anos –entre 1993 e 2000– e que acabou sendo expulsada da Faixa por Hamás pouco antes da operación Chumbo Fundido de 2008, viaxará a bordo do Tahrir, un dos barcos da Frotiña da Liberdade que se fará ao mar nuns días dende un porto grego non especificado. Hass (Xerusalén, 1956), filla de superviventes do Holocausto –os seus pais estiveron recluídos no campo de Bergen-Belsen–, escribe decote para o xornal israelí Haaretz. Das súas vivencias nos territorios ocupados e en Gaza saíron un par de libros. É amais unha das poucas voces críticas –de esquerdas– dentro de Israel coa ocupación. Ten comparado as políticas do goberno israelí cara aos palestinos coas de Sudáfrica durante a época do Apartheid. E mesmo desafiado o bloqueo a Gaza, como cando en decembro de 2008 conseguiu chegar á Faixa a bordo dun barco. Desta volta tentarao de novo nun buque da Frotiña bautizado co símbolo da nacente democracia exipcia, Tahrir, xunto cun feixe de cidadáns israelís que soñan con ver o mar de Gaza.

Nun artigo publicado onte en Haaretz, a xornalista israelí debullaba os detalles da viaxe que comezará nos vindeiros días. Serán tres xornadas de travesía dende Grecia a Gaza. No mellor dos casos, os activistas e xornalistas canadenses, dinamarqueses ou belgas que viaxan a bordo do Tahrir serán quen de acadar as costas da Faixa. No peor, acabarán sendo detidos polos comandos israelís. E para esa situación estanse a preparar. Os tripulantes do Tahrir, escribe Hass, estanse a adestrar emocionalmente para un asalto no que terán que facer fronte a altas doses de estrés. Saben que os soldados apuntarán as súas armas cara eles, que os helicópteros voarán por riba das súas cabezas, que haberá canóns de auga, que se lanzarán gases lacrimóxenos e probabelmente granadas de son. E tamén haberá insultos, empurróns, algún que outro lapote, cans e soldados con pasamontañas. “Os activistas sacaron en limpo deste exercicio que deberían recoñecer os seus medos e que coma un grupo –no que todos e cada un son responsábeis dos demais– deberían aprender a confrontalos”, afirma.

O Tahrir está fretado por activistas canadenses que recadaron fondos durante un ano para adquirir o barco e poñelo a punto para a súa navegación. Foi mercado por 500.000 dólares e as doazóns chegaron dende cidadáns, non desde organizacións, de varios países. O Goberno de Canadá non apoia a acción humanitaria, á que cualifica de provocación a Israel. É unha postura que asumiron moitos outros gobernos, incluído o español, que desaconsellou aos seus nacionais participar na travesía a Gaza polos perigos que entraña a través dunhas declaracións da ministra de Exteriores, Trinidad Jiménez, e sen que houbese unha declaración oficial ao respecto. O único país polo momento que demandou a Israel que evite calquera acción violenta contra a frotiña foi Irlanda.

Un feixe de cidadáns israelís embarcarase xunto con Hass nunha ducia de buques que levan nas súas adegas axuda humanitaria para os cidadáns da Faixa. Algúns deles farano no American, algúns de cuxos delegados son estadounidenses e outros israelís. O pasado xoves, asegura Hass, as autoridades portuarias gregas recibiron unha denuncia consonte o buque non estaba en condicións para facerse ao mar. Os organizadores da Frotiña cren que detrás desa denuncia hai motivacións políticas. E, polo momento, mentres negocian coas autoridades gregas, non está claro se o buque poderá acabar uníndose ao resto rumbo a Gaza.

Pero mentres os preparativos continúan nos portos gregos –un dos cinco activistas galegos que participa na expedición confirmou onte a partida do primeiro navío– a diplomacia turca move ficha para tentar restabelecer as relacións rachadas con Israel despois do asalto ao Mavi Marmara o pasado ano. As presións israelís á organización IHH, que tiña previsto participar na expedición con ese buque– sinálanse como a razón de fondo para retirarse da expedición. Haaretz publicou onte que Erdogan está moi preocupado polas fondas críticas contra Turquía contidas no relatorio do secretario xeral da ONU sobre a matanza do Mavi Marmara e que pretende rebaixar o ton dese informe para atallar as liortas diplomáticas. Un borrador, entregado aos dous países, subliña as relacións entre o IHH e o Goberno turco, mantén que o bloqueo é legal, que acción para deter a frotiña foi acertada e que os soldados israelís actuaron en defensa propia.

EL HOMBRE QUE SABÍA DEMASIADO

26 Junio 2011, TeleSUR http://www.telesurtv.net (Venezuela)

Meir Dagan, quien durante los últimos ocho años dirigió las operaciones secretas de Israel, está en el ojo de la tormenta por haber formulado declaraciones que el gobierno considera inconvenientes. El gobierno de Israel le ha solicitado que devuelva su pasaporte diplomático inmediatamente

Por: Pierre Klochendler

Según informó el domingo el Canal Dos de Israel, se ha pedido al extitular de la agencia de inteligencia Mosad, Meir Dagan, que devolviera su pasaporte diplomático inmediatamente. El informe sugirió que el espía habló demasiado sobre asuntos delicados como la carrera nuclear de Irán y la campaña palestina para que la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) apruebe la declaración de su Estado.

La crónica televisiva presumió que el pedido puede apuntar a un deseo de “vengarse” de Dagan, un manifiesto crítico del primer ministro Benjamín Netanyahu. En reacción al informe, la oficina del primer ministro declaró con total naturalidad que “los pasaportes diplomáticos se extienden a funcionarios para que los ayuden en sus responsabilidades. Según la regulación, cuando un individuo ya no asume un puesto oficial se le requiere renunciar a su documento”.

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, agregó el comunicado, permitió que Dagan conserve su pasaporte diplomático para viajes inminentes. A su regreso del exterior deberá devolverlo inmediatamente. Sin embargo, la decisión es inusual. Se acostumbra a que una persona a la que se le extendió ese tipo de pasaporte y ya no cumple responsabilidades oficiales pueda usarlo hasta su expiración.


Dagan ha formulado varias controvertidas declaraciones públicas en las últimas semanas y meses. En mayo, durante una conferencia en la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén, declaró sin rodeos que una acción militar contra Irán sería “una idea estúpida”. Luego, a comienzos de este mes, Dagan dijo en la Universidad de Tel Aviv que un ataque a Irán “significaría una guerra regional y en ese caso se le estaría dando a Irán el mejor motivo posible para continuar con el programa nuclear. El desafío regional que enfrentaría Israel sería imposible”, enfatizó.

Dagan también advirtió que Israel podría resultar aislado a consecuencia de la falta de una iniciativa de paz con los palestinos. Se lamentó de que sucesivos líderes hubieran descartado la iniciativa de paz saudita de 2002, que se comprometía a mantener vínculos diplomáticos plenos con Israel a cambio de una retirada total de los territorios palestinos ocupados. En los últimos meses se retiraron otros altos jefes de seguridad. Ellos son el jefe de las fuerzas armadas Gaby Ashkenazi; el director de los Servicios de Seguridad (conocidos por sus siglas en hebreo Shin Bet) Yuval Diskin, y and Amos Yadlin, jefe de inteligencia militar.

Los analistas de temas de seguridad consideran que ellos tres, junto con Dagan, son fuerzas moderadas dentro del proceso de toma de decisiones. En contraste con Dagan, los otros jefes retirados se han abstenido ampliamente de expresar en público sus puntos de vista personales, manteniendo una fachada de oficialidad. Pero la controversia en torno al pasaporte de Dagan llevó a Ashkenazi a romper su silencio, aunque de manera cauta. ”Confío en que los nuevos jefes de seguridad no dudarán en expresar sus posiciones en los foros adecuados”, declaró.

Lo que parece haber puesto fin a la tolerancia de Netanyahu ante las críticas de Dagan fueron las recientes entrevistas que el segundo concedió a periódicos israelíes y en las que cuestionó la decisión del primer ministro y de su ministro de Defensa, Ehud Barak. “Decidí hablar porque, cuando estaba en el cargo, Diskin, Ashkenazi y yo podíamos bloquear cualquier aventura peligrosa… Ahora temo que no haya nadie que detenga a Bibi (apodo de Netanyahu) y a Barak”, dijo Dagan a la prensa.

Dagan es admirado por varios israelíes por su desempeño como jefe del Mosad durante los gobiernos de tres primeros ministros. Según informes de medios extranjeros, estuvo al frente de varias osadas operaciones que se consideraron importantes logros en materia de seguridad. Entre ellas, retrasar por lo menos tres años el programa nuclear de Irán cooperando con el sabotaje de las computadoras que regulan sus centrifugadores y comandando la eliminación de científicos iraníes.

También se le acredita haber preparado el terreno para el bombardeo, en 2007, del reactor nuclear sirio de Deir al-Zor, y haber planificado el asesinato de Imad Mughniyeh, jefe de operaciones del movimiento chiita libanés Hezbolá, ocurrido un año después en Damasco. Una de las últimas operaciones conocidas cuyo presunto estratega fue Dagan fue el asesinato de Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, un integrante de alto rango de Hamás (acrónimo árabe del palestino Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica) involucrado en la compra de armas a Irán y en su posterior contrabando hacia Gaza. Su muerte tuvo lugar el año pasado en Dubai.

Irónicamente, la investigación de la policía de Dubai demostró que durante la operación se usaron pasaportes extranjeros falsificados de varios países con los que Israel tenía relaciones amistosas. La revelación causó vergüenza e ira en esos países. Gran Bretaña y Australia expulsaron a diplomáticos israelíes. Pero lo que vuelve a estas declaraciones escandalosamente perturbadoras, y al mismo tiempo fidedignas, es que Dagan no es una paloma de la paz, ni en sus opiniones ni en los hechos. No es un gran creyente en lograr la paz con los palestinos y se opone fuertemente a un Estado palestino delimitado por las fronteras de 1967.

Según las leyes, un funcionario que se retira de un alto puesto de seguridad no puede postularse a la elección durante los tres años siguientes. La medida busca crear una mayor separación entre el Poder Ejecutivo y las fuerzas armadas. Pero ninguna ley prohibe a los funcionarios que estuvieron en el centro de las decisiones del gobierno manifestar sus puntos de vista luego de años de silencio disciplinado.

Por esto, muchos coinciden en que no se trata simplemente de que Dagan esté preocupado. Creen que está preparando el camino para dedicarse a la política, como muchos otros exgenerales. El propio Barak fue comandante en jefe de las fuerzas armadas a comienzos de los años 90. Algunos altos asesores de Netanyahu se apresuraron a acusar a Dagan de participar en un complot político diseñado para derrocar al primer minsitro. Dagan actuó sin “responsabilidad nacional”, afirman, y sus declaraciones “debilitan la democracia de Israel”.

Sin embargo, la tesis del golpe de Estado fue descartada por Nahum Barnea, uno de los más destacados columnistas de Israel. ”No se trata de una junta militar que ha conspirado contra la dirigencia elegida”, escribió Barnea en el periódico Iediot Ajronot. ”Éstas son personas que, por sus puestos, estuvieron expuestas a los secretos mejor guardados del Estado y participaron en las discusiones más íntimas con el primer ministro y el ministro de Defensa. No se trata tanto de que su opinión sea importante como civiles; su testimonio es importante porque son personas que estuvieron allí. Y su testimonio es perturbador“, sostuvo.

Fuente: http://periodismohumano.com/sociedad/el-hombre-que-sabia-demasiado.html

Harassment of left activists at Ben-Gurion University

22 June 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) demands that Ben-Gurion University investigate and possibly take disciplinary action against security personnel, who harassed left students, among them Hadash activists, distributing leaflets on campus, and retract earlier statement of support for actions discriminating against freedom of speech of students affiliated with the left.

Arrest of protestor at Ben-Gurion University (photo: Activestills)

The letter to Prof. Rivka Carmi, President of Ben-Gurion University, was sent following a June 15 news report on Israel’s Channel 2. In the televised report, Ben-Gurion University’s security division personnel are seen harassing students who stand at the gates of the university distributing leaflets supporting the establishment of a Palestinian State. This harassment occurred in the exact same place and under the same circumstances that other students were allowed, without interference, to hand out posters condemning the evacuation of Jewish settlements from the West Bank and to distribute leaflets calling for student participation in the “Jerusalem Unification Day Flag Parade.”

In the letter, ACRI Attorney Avner Pinchuk writes: “This is not the first time that the Ben-Gurion University Security Division has flagrantly and egregiously squelched free political speech, especially against ideas that are outside the greater national and public consensus. […] Nevertheless, in last night’s news broadcast, we witnessed a new low. In the university’s official aired response to the news item, it gave full, unqualified backing to the Security Division and to its actions.

“Of course we have no complaint against the University for allowing right-wing activists to distribute posters on university grounds. This is an exercise par examplar of ‘freedom of speech, enabling intellectual pluralism and the free exchange of ideas, which is essential for the flourishing of scientific and academic thought.’ But for this very reason, we must vigorously protest the discriminatory approach of the university against the free speech of its leftist students.

“We are concerned that you have not even denounced the profanities shouted by some of these security officials when dispersing demonstrations of Arab students, such as: 'Bust his skull', 'Fuck him', 'Leftist ass hole'. We call on you to retract your support for this ongoing harassment, in favor of the values of democracy and fundamental protected freedoms.”

To read the full letter (in English), click here.

For further Background on “Restriction of Demonstrations and Harassment of Protesters” (published by ACRI’s “Project Democracy”), click here.

A moment before boarding the next flotilla

24 June 2011, Haaretz הארץ (Israel)

I’d rather use my influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies I consider abominable.

By Gabriel Matthew Schivone*

You might wonder what would motivate a Jewish American college student to participate in what may be the most celebrated - and controversial - sea voyage of the 21st century, one that aims to nonviolently challenge U.S.-supported Israeli military power in the occupied territories. I simply cannot sit idle while my country aids and abets Israel's siege, occupation and repression of the Palestinians. I would rather use my personal influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies that I consider abominable. So, next week, I and more than 30 other American civilians will be sailing on the U.S. ship the Audacity of Hope, to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

I am one of a growing number of young American Jews who are determined to shake off an assumed - and largely imposed - association with Israel. Prominent advocacy organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee, which proudly proclaim their unconditional support of Israel, for several years have been declaring their "serious concern" over the increasing "distancing" of young American Jews from the state.

But what Israel apologists like the AJC view as a crisis, I see as a positive development for American Jews, who, like other parts of U.S. society, are shifting from blind support for Israel to a more critical position that reflects opposition to our country's backing for Israel's policies.

If Israel's apologists in the U.S. are alarmed by a falling off in unconditional support for Israel, they should be even more concerned that such a diverse range of youth - especially young Jews - are joining up with constituencies that actively organize against America's role in the occupation. Today, the so-called crisis has expanded from the coasts to such places as Arizona. It probably was just a matter of time before a Jewish anti-occupation group emerged in my home state, given that a fairly substantial portion of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on the University of Arizona campus (in Tucson) were Jewish. For our part, we Jews launched an initial chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace at the UA campus in spring 2010 - one of nearly 30 JVP chapters throughout the country, which has a mailing list of 100,000 - and thereafter branches in the general Tucson and Northern Arizona communities, and at Arizona State University, in Phoenix.

Through JVP, I discovered there were a great many others like me, who were experiencing profound internal conflicts regarding Israel. They included people who had been intimidated from expressing public criticism of Israel, and others who were afraid to speak out in defense of Palestinian rights for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.

It was clear that a campus JVP opened up a powerful, organic outlet through which Jewish students could safely exchange and process - without fear, intimidation or a need for self-censorship - their critiques, concerns, ideas, knowledge, questions, discoveries and plans to promote achievement of a genuinely mutual peace in Palestine/Israel. Before JVP came along, it wasn't possible to have an open discussion, or feel that we as Jews had an alternative to either unquestioning support of Israel (the status quo) or staying silent and thus supporting it by default. I myself was silent and timid for much too long.

We are committed to acting out of Jewish ethical traditions, while holding Israel to the same standard as any other state in the international system - no more, no less. Before JVP, there was nothing on my campus that was critical of Israel from an American Jewish perspective. Zero. The group's success demonstrated that young Jews - moved by their cultural or religious values, which include a belief in universal human rights - have been on campus all the while, ready and willing to join a human rights-based cause for justice in Palestine/Israel. All it took to gain support on campus and elsewhere in the state was a potent sprinkling of opportunity, initiative and political will.

In Athens, as I write, waiting to board the Audacity of Hope, I am wearing a Star of David amulet around my neck, which was given to me the night before I left Arizona by a dear friend and fellow JVP organizer. She got it from a silversmith in Haifa while on a "Birthright" trip as an adolescent. For her, it had always been the reminder of the crude brainwashing she felt she had encountered on that trip. But when she came across the star recently, she decided it might be put to good use if I were to wear it on my journey. And so that's what I'm doing.

I wear it as a symbol of the basic values of Judaism that I feel are not emphasized sufficiently today: the imperative to welcome the stranger as you would want to be welcomed; and of helping to free the slave from a bondage that you would not wish to suffer.

As a consequence of various nonviolent actions undertaken all over the world, led crucially by Palestinians on the ground, the Israeli occupation will one day end. Those of us who face up to the unavoidable choice of either tolerating or resisting these crimes will determine how long the death and suffering of mainly Palestinian noncombatants continues, and how long a lasting peace in Palestine/Israel remains out of reach.

*Gabriel Matthew Schivone is a Chicano-Jewish American from Tucson, and coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Arizona.

Communiqué - Le second bateau pour Gaza est parti de France, coup d’envoi de la seconde Flottille de la liberté

25 juin 2011, Un Bateau pour Gaza http://unbateaupourgaza.fr (France)

Le « Dignité-Al Karama[1] » est parti ce matin des eaux de l’Ile Rousse en Corse. Il rejoindra dans quelques jours le « Louise Michel » actuellement en Grèce.

Les 40 Français qui embarqueront à bord des deux bateaux en Méditerranée orientale sont prêts. Le rendez vous est donné à Athènes. Dans moins d’une semaine, ils seront en route vers la bande de Gaza. Plusieurs milliers d’euros de matériel seront achetés par la campagne « Un bateau français pour Gaza » et acheminés sur un des deux cargos internationaux de la Flottille.

Les deux bateaux français vont se joindre à la douzaine de bateaux qui ont répondu présents pour cette initiative internationale. Ils apporteront 5 000 tonnes de matériel dans la bande de Gaza.

Ce sont ainsi 300 à 400 personnes venus du monde entier qui monteront à bord pour clamer l’urgence de la fin du blocus de la bande de Gaza et le respect du droit international.

Face à cette action citoyenne historique, nos Etats doivent être à la hauteur. Ils doivent agir pour qu’Israël laisse passer les bateaux. La Fédération Internationale des Droits de l’Homme a réaffirmé dans un communiqué de presse la « responsabilité de la communauté internationale de prendre toutes les mesures nécessaires pour assurer l’accès de l’aide humanitaire à la population civile dans la bande de Gaza ».

Nous faisons ce que la communauté internationale devrait faire. Notre pression porte déjà ses fruits. A quelques jours du départ de la Flottille, Israël a autorisé l'ONU à importer les matériaux nécessaires à la construction de 1 200 logements et de 18 écoles dans la bande de Gaza.

Ce que nous voulons est la fin totale du blocus de la bande de Gaza et que soit enfin respectés les droits fondamentaux et la dignité des Palestiniens.

(1) « dignité » en arabe.