1 June 2011, Alternative Information Center http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)
Edith Lutz, initiator of the 2010 Gaza-bound Jewish boat Irene that was captured by the Israeli navy, has won the Rheinland-Pfalz peace prize. Lutz notes that Irene was a bridge of solidarity and calls on all governments to speak out against occupation and siege, and to act accordingly.
Edith Lutz has won the Rheinland-Pfalz peace prize for her initiation of the Jewish boat Irene that set sail to break Israel’s siege of Gaza, but was instead captured by the Israeli navy in September 2010.
Irene had been sailing under a British flag and carried nine passengers and crew, including Jews from the US, the UK, Germany and Israel, as well as two British journalists. Prior to its launch, organizers had announced that “the boat will attempt to reach the coast of Gaza and unload its aid cargo in a nonviolent, symbolic act of solidarity and protest -- and call for the siege to be lifted to enable free passage of goods and people to and from the Gaza Strip."
Eight months after the Jewish boat was captured, the Irene arrived in Gaza symbolically on 14 May when Lutz brought a photo-collage of the boat to Gaza. "We are still waiting for the return of the real boat", she says, "but it's the arrival of the message that's most important." The message is: There are many Jews opposing the Israeli politics of oppression.
To take the message to Gaza Edith Lutz joined the vik2gaza group, a group of friends of Vittorio Arrigoni, whose murder in Gaza in May shocked many Palestinian and international friends..
Fellow passenger and Holocaust survivor, 83 year old Reuven Moskovitz, won the Amos Prize earlier this year. Moskovitz, a founding member of the Jewish-Arab village Neve Shalom said that his life's mission has been to turn foes into friends. "We are two peoples, but we have one future", he said prior to the voyage.
Below is the Rheinland-Pfalz prize acceptance speech of Edith Lutz
Dear attendants of the prize giving ceremony,
I give my thanks to the ‘Rheinland-Pfalz Working Groups for Peace’ for awarding me this peace prize, and to Clemens Ronnefeldt for his words of praise.
No work for peace – no work of any kind – can be done by a single person. I am honoured to accept this prize on behalf of all the people who have been working together on the peace boat mission.
I have often been asked, "How did you get the idea of a Jewish Boat to Gaza?" There is no simple answer. It wasn’t one person’s idea, but a slow development. This development began - to pick a beginning - in August 2009, with the search for a boat to join a planned anniversary trip of the freegaza movement, along with a German delegation. The year before, two boats of the freegaza movement had managed to break the siege on Gaza for the first time. After a stormy night journey, we were welcomed by an overwhelmingly joyful crowd. After more than 40 years, at last a ship had arrived. During our short stay, we saw the destruction, the poverty and despair of Gazans, but also their hospitality, hope and a longing for peace.
The planned anniversary trip did not come about - the flotilla was postponed. During the long period of preparation, more and more Jewish people expressed their interest in partaking, and understanding of the political and ethical importance of a Jewish delegation grew. The majority of the people in Gaza have known Jews, and still know them, only as attackers. In everyday language these attackers are not "Israeli soldiers", but "Jews". Our boat would carry musical instruments, instead of instruments of war. Music is a universal language, connecting rather than dividing people.
The Jewish boat was meant to be just such a connecting bridge, a mission of solidarity to Palestinians living under occupation, and a mission of support to Israelis striving for peace and justice. From this bridge we called on, and are still calling on, all governments to speak out against occupation and siege, and to act accordingly.
Dr. Eyad Sarraj, the renowned Psychiatrist from the ‘Gaza Community Mental Health Programme’, awaiting the arrival of our boat, wrote in September:
"I have helped and worked with and received other boats, but this is the most significant one for me, because it carries such an important message. It brings us the message and tells the world that those we Palestinians should hate as enemies can instead arrive as our friends, our brothers and sisters, sharing a love for humanity and our struggle for justice and peace. I wait with eagerness to shake hands with them and to hold them dear in close embrace."
Irene, our small boat of peace, was not able to reach Gaza. She was intercepted by Israeli marines, and is still illegally impounded in an Israeli harbour. But her message is on its way to Gaza, has recently reached the harbour, and is about to be disseminated across the land. This was made possible by the photo-collage of the Irene’s journey that I took to Gaza recently, when I travelled there together with friends of the murdered activist Vittorio Arrigoni. The symbolic arrival of the Irene was warmly welcomed by many people in Gaza.
A lot of work still remains to be done before a new Jewish Peace Boat can reach Gaza and her population. I envision her, as in the medieval German Advent carol, "loaded up to her highest board" with tokens of friendship, art and music; with love as her sail and the High Spirit as her mast.
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