The footage is also available for download at:
http://tinyurl.com/flotilla-footage/

Despite the Israeli government’s efforts to confiscate all of the footage taken during the attack, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE filmmaker Iara Lee was able to have one hour of footage smuggled back to the United States and is releasing it raw to the public today.

Yesterday at the United Nations, Ms. Lee presented the footage for the first time to the international press corps after the following statement:

“I want first to thank the United Nations Correspondents Association for organizing this event on such short notice.

“My name is Iara Lee. I am a dual U.S.-Brazilian citizen of Korean descent. I am a filmmaker and a human rights activist.

“I decided to join the Freedom Flotilla after going to Gaza a few months ago and seeing first hand the devastation there. After hearing the pleas of the people living in Gaza to have the blockade lifted, I felt I must do something.

“The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was on a humanitarian mission. We expected to be deterred from delivering our aid to Gazans, but we did not expect to be attacked.

“We started filming from the moment we boarded the Mavi Marmara right through the Israeli assault on the ship. Although all of our equipment was confiscated, we managed to smuggle this footage out.

“Mine is high-definition footage of the Flotilla attack and also the only sustained footage of the ship and its passengers preceding the deadly Israeli commando raid. Watching this raw, unedited footage, you will get a sense of the mood on the ship and of the passengers on it.

“Undoubtedly, many of you will be scrutinizing it for clues to resolve the mysteries that still surround what happened that fateful night.

“During this past week the Israeli government has repeatedly alleged that these passengers — or some of them — laid a trap for Israel, duped the Israeli military, and plotted a lynching. Israel has repeatedly alleged that we were anti-Semitic Muslim fanatics connected to terrorist organizations.

“In fact, the passengers on our mission came from many countries and religious and ethnic backgrounds. Our one common denominator was that we wanted to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by highlighting the injustice of Israel’s blockade.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “This wasn’t the ‘love boat,’ this was a flotilla of terror supporters.” Our footage will help you decide whether we were a love boat or a hate boat. You will see secular and devout passengers. You will see people at prayer and people working at their laptops.

“Was this a lynch-mob moved by hatred of Israelis or was it a cross-section of humanity moved by the plight of Gaza? Did we lay a trap for the Israeli commandos or did they unnecessarily attack us? Did we take them by surprise or did they take us by surprise?

“Do you see a premeditated ambush, or do you see some passengers using items at hand to protect themselves from an unprovoked assault by heavily armed commandos?

“You decide.”

CONTACT:

info@culturesofresistance.org

www.culturesofresistance.org

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000928581236

SOURCE:
http://www.culturesofresistance.org/press-release-flotilla-footage

Later this month, ships from all over the world will converge in the Mediterranean and set sail for the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. This international coalition is called the Freedom Flotilla.

The Free Gaza Movement has sailed eight missions to Gaza in the past three years, five of them successful. The last three were violently stopped by the Israeli Navy; the boat Dignity was rammed three times and the Spirit of Humanity turned back in January 2009, then seized and all aboard arrested.

This time the Freedom Flotilla is upping the ante and instead of one- and two-vessel challenges, will be breaking Israel’s siege with an eight-boat front.

In the past, the Israel Navy could pick us off as individual boats. Now, including Free Gaza’s four ships, 700 passengers and some 5,000 tons of reconstruction materials and medical equipment. This includes Free Gaza’s MV Rachel Corrie, which was purchased through generous donations from Malaysia’s Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

The Israeli government has responded to the “sea intifada” coming its way with saber rattling and accusations of serving Hamas. Israel has proscribed the Turkish human rights and relief group Insani Vardim Vakafi (IHH). IHH is responsible for sending a cargo ship and passenger ship in the Freedom Flotilla. Israel has accused it and Free Gaza of “supporting terrorism.” Half the Israeli navy is set to challenge the mission, with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the helm commanding the operation in person. The air force is on standby and “diplomatic pressure” is being applied behind the scenes. The message is clear from Israel: “We will stop you and we will use force to stop you.”

At no point does the Freedom Flotilla enter Israeli territorial waters. The journey starts in local European or Turkish waters, courses through international waters and ends in Gaza’s territorial waters. No checkpoints interrupt us. No walls daunt our sight. We’ve proven that it’s possible to sail a clear line with no borders, as we want the world to be, until we get to Gaza.

Free Gaza is best described as a tactic but in practice, a tactic within a score of tactics active in the global solidarity movement. But it is an expensive one — and many have criticized the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been spent on the missions for boats and finding boats, flagging, registration, legal costs, management costs, port fees, crew pay, mooring fees, repairs, renovation, GPS, warehouses for cargo, crane and forklift hire. Collectively the cost of the Flotilla runs literally into the millions of euros. Some ask: “Isn’t that money better spent on ‘aid’?”

Every Palestinian family we met in Gaza, particularly after Israel’s invasion last winter kept saying to us: “We don’t want aid, we need a political solution; we need our rights. Our issue cannot be reduced or swapped into bags of flour or food parcels. Palestine is not a humanitarian issue — it is a political one.” This reality, of the need for justice, tests the aid industry in Palestine, and the false “objectivity” and lack of political will in the face of human suffering with the claim: “We don’t take sides. We want to continue to keep giving our humanitarian aid.”

Well, we do take sides — that of direct democracy over occupation and apartheid.

This flotilla is an interruption to a discourse of power that says — governments know best, leave it to us to negotiate new “freedoms” and realities; a continuation of not even top-down but top-to-top processes of keeping power out of the hands of ordinary people. Leaders fly from continent to continent, round table discussions go round and round, elephants in the room stamp their feet and roar ignored. This flotilla puts that power back into our hands — to interrupt this ongoing Nakba.

We will not stop. From 1948 until now, history keeps repeating itself, colonies keep expanding, corporations keep reaping the rewards of reproducing repression; daily dispossession and casual killing is normalized, and alienation from the consequences of our work and actions keeps us compartmentalized. The occupation is reproduced on a daily basis in factories, classrooms, courtrooms, cinemas, art galleries, supermarkets and holiday resorts. Radical refusal, radical transgressions can make change happen. Refusing to be alienated from our brothers and sisters and recognizing our community is the essence of solidarity.

This flotilla represents radical solidarity and a force that can be realized when people from all over the world act on their conscience. It’s a force made real through stepping out onto the streets or into occupation-supporting businesses, through speaking out, through fundraising in mosques, churches, synagogues, schools; through writing, singing, sharing, relaying and promoting, and packing and driving boxes of materials and cement, and cheering on and praying for and protesting any attack.

Israel may well succeed in stopping us — but this is an unknown and here is power in that. We can affect that which hasn’t happened yet.

When Rachel Corrie stood in front of the bulldozer driver that killed her, she acted on radical trust — that the soldier would see her humanity. She lost, because the soldier had lost his humanity. Yet Rachel’s faith abides in each of us. Because if our oppressors are losing their humanity then we must never stop showing them that we have it. We are undertaking this mission in the spirit of those who have fought and sacrificed their lives for our collective humanity, and to remind everyone who can see of the need to act on it.

Ewa Jasiewicz is a coordinator with the Free Gaza Movement (http://www.freegaza.org/).

For updates on the Freedom Flotilla, including the Emergency Response Plan (in the event that Israel launches a military attack or naval blockade), please visit Gaza Freedom March’s Freedom Flotilla Support page.

Source: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11266.shtml

The Gaza Freedom March may have passed, but Palestinians in Gaza continue to march for their freedom on a daily basis. They are protesting the illegal, Israeli buffer zone, pretty much every day now. This buffer zone stretches across approximately 300 metres and annexes Palestinians’ land used for agriculture, work, and most importantly, homes. The IDF illegally imposes this buffer zone along the Israeli border in Gaza and claims to reserve the right to shoot at anyone who breaches this arbitrarily annexed land.

For the past months, Palestinians in Gaza, joined by many international activists, have been peacefully and non-violently resisting the buffer zone in what has become almost daily protests at the border. The protests are modeled after the long-standing weekly protests in Ni’lin and Bil’in in the West Bank.

Today, a young man, Ahmed Deeb, 21-years-old, was shot by IDF soldiers with what is called a “dum-dum” bullet, which basically explodes inside your body, on impact. Ahmed was hit in the leg and the bullet severed his femoral artery. He lost a lot of blood and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Ahmed is the latest of too many martyrs who have been killed by the occupation forces. For more information, please visit: http://palsolidarity.org/2010/04/12163

[youtube w1gY4dxqifA]

This incident marks the latest in the cruel and extreme response the IDF exhibits when faced with peaceful, non-violent protesters fighting for the right to live, work, and play on their own land. In the past month alone, 19 Palestinian and international activists and demonstrators have been injured by live ammunition. Three were shot just in the past 5 days. This is more than just some tear gas, which demonstrators have grown accustomed to. These are live bullets, shot at demonstrators, with the intention of injuring them! Why? Because they were throwing rocks, according to soldiers. Rocks vs. Bullets…guess who wins?

Bianca Zimmit, an international activist from Malta, was also shot just days ago, while demonstrating at the buffer zone. she sums up the situation best when she says, “We were holding Palestinian flags on Palestinian land.” Here is her own footage of her getting shot. For more on her story, you can visit Max Ajl’s blog: http://www.maxajl.com/?p=3489

[youtube b__rZ3yjlW8]

These incidences have been escalating over the past months and it’s becoming very clear that non-violent, peaceful resistance is the “Achilles heel” of the Israeli occupation. Palestinians and internationals alike, neither have let this violent response stop them from what continuing the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Most, if not all, of them plan to return to the next demo, as soon as they are back on their feet. They are not afraid of bullets, they are not afraid of the IDF, they are not even afraid of death, because they know that whatever happens, they’re on the right side of history. Whatever happens, they’re fighting for freedom, justice, and the liberation of an occupied people. And nothing can shake that determination…not even the possibility of death.

We pray for the God’s love and mercy to shower the martyrs and their families, both in this life and in the hereafter. And we pray for Palestine to live and breathe the freedom she has only dreamed of. Ameen.

Also, if you have not yet done so, please consider joining the GFM mailing list for email updates and action alerts.

The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly has a remarkable editorial titled “How to Protest” about the effects of the Gaza Freedom March and the events that unfolded in Cairo after the Egyptian government refused to allow 1362 international delegates to go to Gaza. Please substitute “internationals” for “Europeans” as our delegates represented 44 countries.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/980/op4.htm

How to Protest
By Salama A Salama

European protesters took over our streets last week. In a show of solidarity with Gaza’s inhabitants and to protest against all sorts of injustices and blockades, European demonstrators marched through our streets, picketed our public squares and told us what they thought of the wall we’re building on Gaza’s borders.

Several hundred protesters came from 42 European countries to take part in pro-Gaza protests. So what did we do? We sent our security forces to contain them. We also prevented them from going to Gaza. Interestingly, the protesters refused to be intimidated. Instead, they picketed the French Embassy, they marched around the Giza Zoo, and they even stood guard at the famous steps of the Press Syndicate.

Curiously enough, the police did not prevent them from demonstrating in front of the Israeli Embassy. But clashes took place, and in some instances the Europeans had a taste of what Egyptians regularly experience at the hands of the police and their karate- trained auxiliaries.

During the past few days, Egyptians had proof that our police can act humanely, but only with foreigners. In front of the French Embassy, I saw a foreign man standing alone, surrounded by three circles of policemen. He was carrying a picket sign, but the police refrained from harming him in any way.

The Europeans came all the way to express their views, peacefully and orderly. In doing so, they gave us a rare glimpse into the working of peaceful resistance. And they stood for what they believe in. They vented their anger at a policy of blockade into which some Arab countries have become actively involved, either out of fear or desire to placate the Israelis.

The demonstrators slept in the streets and the squares. They occasionally obstructed traffic. And they sent to the Egyptians, Arabs, and the world a clear message, one which television stations relayed without delay across the world.

In this country, we don’t have a culture of protest. In this country, protest is treated as an act of sabotage, as a challenge to law and order. This is why we missed a rare opportunity to expose Israel’s crimes. How hard would it have been to let the European demonstrators walk into Gaza? Why did we fail to give them the chance to come face to face with an Arab nation living under occupation?

In Egypt, we don’t know how to encourage protest marches against Israel. But we know how to come up with lame excuses for building a controversial wall on our borders with Israel. Are we really worried about our own security, or are we protecting Israel?

In this country, it is wrong to protest. It is even wrong to be different. This is why our government gets so angry when opposition parliamentarians demand an explanation for the wall. Even in a parliament that prides itself on being a leader of all Arab parliaments, the opposition is demonised and abused for asking the right questions.

Worse still, our Islamic Research Council found itself pressured into issuing a statement in support of the wall. You would think that Sharia has nothing to do with security walls, but no. Our leading clergymen have decided to call anyone who opposes the wall an apostate. Don’t ask me why.

Many may ask what’s the point of it all. Did the Europeans achieve anything by marching in our streets? If you ask me, they achieved a lot. For starters, they sounded the alarm bells for the entire world, which is more than what our governments and nations have done so far. The protesters not only put Israeli actions on the line, but also underlined our own failings.

Roughly 1400 activists from 43 countries converged in Cairo on their way to Gaza to join with Palestinians marching to break Israel’s illegal siege. They were prevented from entering Gaza by the Egyptian authorities.

As a result, the Freedom Marchers remained in Cairo. They staged a series of nonviolent actions aimed at pressuring the international community to end the siege as one step in the larger struggle to secure justice for Palestinians throughout historic Palestine.

This declaration arose from those actions:

End Israeli Apartheid

Cairo Declaration

January 1, 2010

We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:

In view of:

o Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians through the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza;

o the illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the continued construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and settlements;

o the new Wall under construction by Egypt and the US which will tighten even further the siege of Gaza;

o the contempt for Palestinian democracy shown by Israel, the US, Canada, the EU and others after the Palestinian elections of 2006;

o the war crimes committed by Israel during the invasion of Gaza one year ago;

o the continuing discrimination and repression faced by Palestinians within Israel;

o and the continuing exile of millions of Palestinian refugees;

o all of which oppressive acts are based ultimately on the Zionist ideology which underpins Israel;

o in the knowledge that our own governments have given Israel direct economic, financial, military and diplomatic support and allowed it to behave with impunity;

o and mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007)

We reaffirm our commitment to:

Palestinian Self-Determination

Ending the Occupation

Equal Rights for All within historic Palestine

The full Right of Return for Palestinian refugees

We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the United Palestinian call of July 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law.

To that end, we call for and wish to help initiate a global mass, democratic anti-apartheid movement to work in full consultation with Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for BDS.

Mindful of the many strong similarities between apartheid Israel and the former apartheid regime in South Africa, we propose:

1) An international speaking tour in the first 6 months of 2010 by Palestinian and South African trade unionists and civil society activists, to be joined by trade unionists and activists committed to this programme within the countries toured, to take mass education on BDS directly to the trade union membership and wider public internationally;

2) Participation in the Israeli Apartheid Week in March 2010;

3) A systematic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli products, involving consumers, workers and their unions in the retail, warehousing, and transportation sectors;

4) Developing the Academic, Cultural and Sports boycott;

5) Campaigns to encourage divestment of trade union and other pension funds from companies directly implicated in the Occupation and/or the Israeli military industries;

6) Legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli government war criminals; coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaux to identify, campaign and seek to prosecute Israeli war criminals; support for the Goldstone Report and the implementation of its recommendations;

7) Campaigns against charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

We appeal to organisations and individuals committed to this declaration to sign it and work with us to make it a reality.

To sign the declaration, please visit: http://cairodeclaration.org/sign

Signed by:

(* Affiliation for identification purposes only.)

1. Hedy Epstein, Holocaust Survivor/ Women in Black*, USA

2. Nomthandazo Sikiti, Nehawu, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Affiliate International Officer*, South Africa

3. Zico Tamela, Satawu, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Affiliate International Officer*, South Africa

4. Hlokoza Motau, Numsa, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Affiliate International Officer*, South Africa

5. George Mahlangu, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Campaigns Coordinator*, South Africa

6. Crystal Dicks, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Education Secretary*, South Africa

7. Savera Kalideen, SA Palestinian Solidarity Committee*, South Africa

8. Suzanne Hotz, SA Palestinian Solidarity Group*, South Africa

9. Shehnaaz Wadee, SA Palestinian Solidarity Alliance*, South Africa

10. Haroon Wadee, SA Palestinian Solidarity Alliance*, South Africa

11. Sayeed Dhansey, South Africa

12. Faiza Desai, SA Palestinian Solidarity Alliance*, South Africa

13. Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada*, USA

14. Hilary Minch, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee*, Ireland

15. Anthony Loewenstein, Australia

16. Sam Perlo-Freeman, United Kingdom

17. Julie Moentk, Pax Christi*, USA

18. Ulf Fogelström, Sweden

19. Ann Polivka, Chico Peace and Justice Center*, USA

20. Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation*, USA

21. Elfi Padovan, Munich Peace Committee*/Die Linke*, Germany

22. Elizabeth Barger, Peace Roots Alliance*/Plenty I*, USA

23. Sarah Roche-Mahdi, CodePink*, USA

24. Svetlana Gesheva-Anar, Bulgaria

25. Cristina Ruiz Cortina, Al Quds-Malaga*, Spain

26. Rachel Wyon, Boston Gaza Freedom March*, USA

27. Mary Hughes-Thompson, Women in Black*, USA

28. David Letwin, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)*, USA

29. Jean Athey, Peace Action Montgomery*, USA

30. Gael Murphy, Gaza Freedom March*/CodePink*, USA

31. Thomas M^cAfee, Journalist/PC*, USA

32. Jean Louis Faure, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)*, France

33. Timothy A King, Christians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East*, USA

34. Gail Chalbi, Palestine/Israel Justice Project of the Minnesota United Methodist Church*, USA

35. Ouahib Chalbi, Palestine/Israel Justice Project of the Minnesota United Methodist Church*, USA

36. Greg Dropkin, Liverpool Friends of Palestine*, England

37. Felice Gelman, Wespac Peace and Justice New York*/Gaza Freedom March*, USA

38. Ron Witton, Australian Academic Union*, Australia

39. Hayley Wallace, Palestine Solidarity Committee*, USA

40. Norma Turner, Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign*, England

41. Paula Abrams-Hourani, Women in Black (Vienna)*/ Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East*, Austria

42. Mateo Bernal, Industrial Workers of the World*, USA

43. Mary Mattieu, Collectif Urgence Palestine*, Switzerland

44. Agneta Zuppinger, Collectif Urgence Palestine*, Switzerland

45. Ashley Annis, People for Peace*, Canada

46. Peige Desgarlois, People for Peace*, Canada

47. Hannah Carter, Canadian Friends of Sabeel*, Canada

48. Laura Ashfield, Canadian Friends of Sabeel*, Canada

49. Iman Ghazal, People for Peace*, Canada

50. Filsam Farah, People for Peace*, Canada

51. Awa Allin, People for Peace*, Canada

52. Cleopatra M^cGovern, USA

53. Miranda Collet, Spain

54. Alison Phillips, Scotland

55. Nicholas Abramson, Middle East Crisis Response Network*/Jews Say No*, USA

56. Tarak Kauff, Middle East Crisis Response Network*/Veterans for Peace*, USA

57. Jesse Meisler-Abramson, USA

58. Hope Mariposa, USA

59. Ivesa Lübben. Bremer Netzwerk fur Gerechten Frieden in Nahost*, Germany

60. Sheila Finan, Mid-Hudson Council MERC*, USA

61. Joanne Lingle, Christians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CPJME)*, USA

62. Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children’s Alliance*, USA

63. Josie Shields-Stromsness, Middle East Children’s Alliance*, USA

64. Anna Keuchen, Germany

65. Judith Mahoney Pasternak, WRL* and Indypendent*, USA

66. Ellen Davidson, New York City Indymedia*, WRL*, Indypendent*, USA

67. Ina Kelleher, USA

68. Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (Chicago)*, USA

69. Brad Taylor, OUT-FM*, USA

70. Helga Mankovitz, SPHR (Queen’s University)*, Canada

71. Mick Napier, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign*, Scotland

72. Agnes Kueng, Paso Basel*, Switzerland

73. Anne Paxton, Voices of Palestine*, USA

74. Leila El Abtah, The Netherlands

75. Richard, Van der Wouden, The Netherlands

76. Rafiq A. Firis, P.K.R.*/Isra*, The Netherlands

77. Sandra Tamari, USA

78. Alice Azzouzi, Way to Jerusalem*, USA

79. J’Ann Schoonmaker Allen, USA

80. Ruth F. Hooke, Episcopalian Peace Fellowship*, USA

81. Jean E. Lee, Holy Land Awareness Action Task Group of United Church of Canada*, Canada

82. Delphine de Boutray, Association Thèâtre Cine*, France

83. Sylvia Schwarz, USA

84. Alexandra Safi, Germany

85. Abdullah Anar, Green Party – Turkey*, Turkey

86. Ted Auerbach, USA

87. Martha Hennessy, Catholic Worker*, USA

88. Louis Ultale, Interfaile Pace e Bene*, USA

89. Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation*, USA

90. Emma Grigore, CodePink*, USA

91. Sammer Abdelela, New York Community of Muslim Progressives*, USA

92. Sharat G. Lin, San Jose Peace and Justice Center*, USA

93. Katherine E. Sheetz, Free Gaza*, USA

94. Steve Greaves, Free Gaza*, USA

95. Trevor Baumgartner, Free Gaza*, USA

96. Hanan Tabbara, USA

97. Marina Barakatt, CodePink*, USA

98. Keren Bariyov, USA

99. Ursula Sagmeister, Women in Black – Vienna*, Austria

100. Ann Cunningham, Australia

101. Bill Perry, Delaware Valley Veterans for Peace*, USA

102. Terry Perry, Delaware Valley Veterans for Peace*, USA

103. Athena Viscusi, USA

104. Marco Viscusi, USA

105. Paki Wieland, Northampton Committee*, USA

106. Manijeh Saba, New York / New Jersey, USA

107. Ellen Graves, USA

108. Zoë Lawlor, Ireland – Palestine Solidarity Campaign*, Ireland

109. Miguel García Grassot, Al Quds – Málaga*, Spain

110. Ana Mamora Romero, ASPA-Asociacion Andaluza Solidaridad y Paz*, Spain

111. Ehab Lotayef, CJPP Canada*, Canada

112. David Heap, London Anti-War*, Canada

113. Adie Mormech, Free Gaza* / Action Palestine*, England

114. Aimee Shalan, UK

115. Liliane Cordova, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)*, Spain

116. Priscilla Lynch, USA

117. Jenna Bitar, USA

118. Deborah Mardon, USA

119. Becky Thompson, USA

120. Diane Hereford, USA

121. David Heap, People for Peace London*, Canada

122. Donah Abdulla, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights*, Canada

123. Wendy Goldsmith, People for Peace London*, Canada

124. Abdu Mihirig, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-UBC*, Canada

125. Saldibastami, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights-UBC*, Canada

126. Abdenahmane Bouaffad, CMF*, France

127. Feroze Mithiborwala, Awami Bharat*, India

128. John Dear, Pax Christi*, USA

129. Ziyaad Lunat, Portugal

130. Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)

131. Labor For Palestine

132. Basem Emara & Sarah Mahmoud, Canada

It is 5am here on Thursday morning and we are waiting to begin our march here in Cairo. A lot has happened in the last couple days but the fact still remains that the Egyptian government has still refused to let us into Gaza for the Gaza Freedom March.

Last night we got word that organizers from CodePink met with Mrs. Mubarak and negotiated a deal to allow 100 people and 2 buses leave for Gaza the next morning. We were given just one hour to make the very tough decision of choosing 2 people from each delegation (more or less, depending on proportion) to send on those buses. After submitting the names, the Canadian delegation met and decided that this deal was just one big slap in the face. 100 people on 2 buses is NOT the Gaza Freedom March! This back-door deal ultimately dilutes our message, divides our groups, and really affects our morale. Because of this, we decided that if all of us don’t go, then NONE OF US will go!

We, as Canadians, told other countries’ delegations and succeeded in getting many others on board including Sweden, Italy, France, and the New York groups. Later that night at a meeting, Wendy Goldsmith, leader of the London (Ontario) delegation, announced our decision to boycott the decision to allow just 100 people to enter Gaza. This sparked a whole debate and discussion in the meeting showing us that we had support from many more delegations than we’d expected. Scotland, South Africa, New York state, and others were among the supporters of our decision.

This did of course cause divisions and rifts within our group but we all believed that this was the right thing to do in order to keep our message and our purpose for this march focused and clear: we want to break the siege on Gaza, not simply provide a humanitarian aid convoy. The people of Gaza receive aid convoys all the time and while we fully support those convoys, the Gaza Freedom March was never a humanitarian effort; it has always been a political mission since the start. To accept the Egyptian government’s bread-crumbs offer would be a huge blow to our mission and an even larger victory to the corrupt regime that is the Egyptian government.

Basem (Bassem Omar) was quoted by the AFP as saying:

“This just gives the Egyptian government a photo-up and the chance to say we allowed people through,” said Bassem Omar, a Canadian protester.

Furthermore, the governments decision to allow 100 people into Gaza on two buses shows very clearly that all the excuses that they have been providing about why they cannot let us in (dangers and tensions on the border) are completely unfounded and absolutely ridiculous! If you can allow 100 people in through the Rafah border, then what’s to say you cannot also allow the rest of the 1,360-strong delegation? This was clearly a strategic move by the Foreign Ministry to trap us into accepting a token gesture based on lies and deceit. To illustrate just how deceitful it was, Ahmed Aboul Gheit held a press conference in which he said that the 100 people allowed to go on the buses were hand-picked by the Egyptian government as the 100 most peaceful delegates in Cairo, referring to the rest of us as members “from organizations that are only interested in subversion and acting against Egyptian interests, to sow havoc on the streets of Egypt” referring to the continuous protests and actions we have had over the past week.

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This morning at 7am the buses were to depart for Gaza carrying the 100 delegates as well as the aid and supplies that were brought in to Cairo with all 1,360 marchers. The 100 chosen people to go on the buses were at the bus stop as early as 6am. The rest of the delegates who were not going also showed up with their bags packed, ready to board the buses, but with one message in mind: “Where are the rest of the buses?” We came to show our support and solidarity for those going, but wanted to make it clear that this was in no way a victory for the Gaza Freedom March, nor was it something to celebrate!

[singlepic id=1068 w=320 h=240 float=center] [singlepic id=1084 w=320 h=240 float=center]

As delegates began boarding the buses, the rest of us begged and pleaded with the chosen ones to get off the bus, and ensure our entire group was united. We chanted slogans such as “Don’t go!” “Where are the buses?” “Please don’t go!” and “The people united, will never be defeated!” Eventually, some people began to get off the buses, and were welcomed by our shouts and screams of support for their decision to get off. Unfortunately, there was some back and forth yelling between those on the bus and those of us begging them to get off. Later on, Ehab Lotayef, international steering committee member, made a phone call to his counterpart in Gaza, put him on speaker phone for the bus to hear, and asked him if the 100-person convoy should still come despite the missing 1200 delegates; he said no! So basically, Gaza said no don’t send the 100 people because it just wouldn’t be the same march as that which was planned for the past several months.

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A couple hours later, we were barricaded off by some light-security riot police.

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We had signs and banners voicing our pleas and to the press, the 100 on board the buses, as well as the Egyptian locals and police. By the time the buses left, there were 60 people on-board (many of whom were replacements for those who decided not to go). Unfortunately, there were 2 Canadians on the bus, but they did not go as part of the Canadian delegation, nor did the 100-person convoy go as the “Gaza Freedom March.” So, as of this writing, the 60 people are on their way to Gaza with 2 bus-loads of aid and donations. Of those, about 15 people were of Palestinian descent and had family in the strip with whom they had hoped to be united. We support them on their independent, personal missions but cannot support them as the Gaza Freedom March or as part of any type of political effort.

If governments don’t want peace in the Middle East Gaza Freedom Marchers Do

Later this morning the Gaza Freedom Marchers will attempt to walk to Gaza for peace and to stop the siege. They are organizing at a level of cooperation that represents the new world of people’s assemblies. People all over the world are losing faith in their governments to seek peace and dialogue. It is becoming clearer that governments and their hidden masters do not desire peace and dialogue in the Middle East but more of the same. There is an inhuman siege on Gaza that some would like the world forget while keeping the Palestinian people in their Middle Eastern jail surrounded on all sides.

Last night, in a most vibrant and grass roots process imaginable, the people, in the absence of any official support decided to walk to Gaza to break the siege. As the lifeline to Gaza and the tunnels that keep food, water, and medicine flowing are cut off with the help of the U.S. army corps of engineers, the Gaza Freedom Marchers have grown stronger daily and will march to open the border as the state refuses buses to carry them or to open the border.

The claim of the authorities is that the closure of tunnels must be done to cut off arms. The official border crossing is closed or occasionally opened to allow token passage. An open border would permit food, people, and necessities to enter and would allow screening for undesired weapons. But this is not in the interest of those that would maintain a military solution for Gaza. There is but one army in Palestine, and it is an Israeli one, proven to be capable of using widespread lethal force on civilian populations, including massacres from bombs and chemical weapons, and pure economic strangulation. Everyday Palestinians are harassed for living. Toxic waste is dumped on Palestinian land while the theft of water and other resources, and the destruction of livelihoods and lives continue.

But massacres of innocent people no longer occur in silence. A French astrophysicist said yesterday that a colleague had his home targeted and shot up when the Israelis unleashed their firestorm on innocent people last year resulting in the death of his son. Ibrahim, far from being a “terrorist”, was a boy of ten with a lifetime ahead of him. He reported that last year the Israeli forces deliberately attacked the homes of the educated class in order to cripple Palestinian society even further. These attacks were not random acts.

Later this morning in Cairo people will march to Gaza. Undercover police and state agents are everywhere but this protest has never been about the Egyptian state. The state has now created conditions that appear to be running interference on behalf of Israeli and U.S. government objectives and therefore have created their own public crisis.

What compels people to accept the role their governments will not? Olivia Zenor, representing Euro Palestina, and blockaded at her own embassy by riot police (three rows deep twenty four hours a day), said that as a result of the terror of the Second World War we now ridicule those that remained silent. They were complicit in crimes against humanity and are labeled cowards for their unwillingness to act before it was to late. Today, those trying to prevent clear and unacceptable murder of civilian populations are stropped from acting on those important lessons of history.

Sixty one years ago and Israeli state was created. How perverse that the Palestinians and the decedents of a people who have lived in the region thousands of years are not only prevented from having the same but punished for living.

They are not alone anymore. People will do what their governments won’t.

Dave Bleakney is a national union representative of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers currently in Cairo.

After three days of vigils and demonstrations in downtown Cairo, Suzanne Mubarak’s offer to allow just 100 of 1,300 delegates to enter Gaza was rejected by the Gaza Freedom March Coordinating Committee as well as many of the larger contingents – including those from France, Scotland, Canada, South Africa, Sweden and New York State (U.S.).

The Canadian delegation voiced their decision the night the offer was made, at the Netanyahu protests being held on the steps of the Journalist Syndicate, to a crowd of 500 strong composed of Egyptian activists and Gaza Freedom Marchers. Here’s Basem Emara sharing the sentiments of the Canadian delegation:

[youtube eP0590Qm48A Journalist Syndicate]

“We flatly reject Egypt’s offer of a token gesture. We refuse to whitewash the siege of Gaza. Our group will continue working to get all 1362 marchers into Gaza as one step towards the ultimate goal for the complete end of the siege and the liberation of Palestine” said Ziyaad Lunat a member of the march Coordinating Committee.

The morning the buses were to leave with the 100 people, the rest of the delegates showed up to the bus stop with their backpacks to protest and boycott the decision and ask the question, “Where are the rest of the buses?” Basem Emara speaks to the crowd:

[youtube 4a9mpCHxuc4 Bus Boycott]

The Gaza Freedom March was organized to focus attention on the one-year mark since Israel’s 22-day assault, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, injured more than 5,000. Although the invasion technically ended, the effects on the ground have only worsened in the past 12 months. No re-building materials have been allowed in and more than 80 percent of Gazans are now dependent on handouts for food.

The marchers had planned to enter Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah Crossing on Dec. 27, then to join with an estimated 50,000 Palestinian residents to march to Erez Crossing into Israel to peacefully demand an end to the siege. However, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced just days before the hundreds of delegates began arriving in Cairo that the march would not be allowed to go forward. It cited ongoing tensions at the border. When marchers demonstrated against the decision, the government cracked down, often using heavily armed riot police to encircle and intimidate the nonviolent marchers. Egypt’s decision to allow 100 people into Gaza shows that the “security” argument is bogus.

Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy, led by British MP George Galloway, was still stranded in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba on Saturday for a second day, following a dispute with Egypt over the caravan’s point of entry.

The convoy, which includes over 200 cars and trucks laden with medical supplies and other human assistance and accompanied by over 450 activists from across the world, was scheduled to leave Aqaba on Thursday to Egypt to cross into the besieged Gaza Strip on December 27th.

However, Egypt’s foreign minister said in a statement posted on its website last week that the entry point for the convoy should be El Arish on the Mediterranean sea, while the convoy insists that Egypt allows them to enter through Nuweiba Port so as to enter Gaza through the Rafah Crossing Border, saying goring to El Arish port will delay the whole convoy.

“We are stuck here for two days because the Egyptian authorities want us to enter Egypt through El Arish port and that will delay the whole convoy and make the process very difficult and complicated,” Zuheir Birawi, the convoy’s spokesperson and member, told Xinhua from Aqaba.

“To go to El Arish means we have to cross the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean and we will have to enter the Israeli waters and have to coordinate the entry with the United National Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and that will delay us,” Birawi added.

The convoy, which started its trip on December 6th from London, has already crossed several European countries including France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy as well as Turkey, Syria and Jordan, hopes to enter Gaza on Dec. 27th on the anniversary of the passage of one year since the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Birawi added that dozens of activists taking part in the convoy will hold a hunger strike on Sunday in front of the Egyptian consulate in Aqaba, some 340 kilometers to the south of the Jordanian capital of Amman.

“The activists seek to place pressure on Egypt to allow the entry of the convoy through Nuweiba so that we get to Gaza soon. They also want to urge Egypt to accept mediation efforts underway to speed up the entry of the convoy through Nuweiba,” said.

They are calling on you to contact the Egyptian Embassy and demand that we be allowed to enter Gaza, and deliver our aid.

The contact details for the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin are: +353-1-6606718 / +353-1-6606566 / consular@embegyptireland.ie

The contact details for the Egyptian Embassy in London are: 0044-20-7499-3304 / eg.emb_london@mfa.gov.eg

Please contact them, and express your outrage at their refusal to allow Humanitarian Aid into Gaza, and to let them know that you will never travel to Egypt again, as long as they are the lap dogs for Israel/US.