Flotilla Update: Israel Attacks Convoy, Deaths Reported

[Sweejak]

FWIW.
Report: Israel Willing To Allow Gaza Aid Shipments With International Inspections
By Susie Madrak Friday Jun 04, 2010 7:00pm
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/ ... w-gaza-aid

[Username]

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Rachel Corrie Ship Now Boarded, And Under Arrest

Posted on June 4, 2010 by dandelionsalad

5th Jun 10 at 03:44

Rachel Corrie Ship Now Boarded, And Under Arrest

***

Rachel Corrie boarded, equipment jammed

by Free Gaza team
Freegaza
5 June, 2010

Press Release – Wed 5th June, 3.30am

The IPSC has been contacted by the MV Rachel Corrie in the past few minutes. Jenny Graham reported that they had been followed by Israeli ships for about 2 hours, and that in the last few minutes 2 ships were approaching from the port side. Ms Graham said that equipment on board had been jammed by the Israeli navy, and that they expected their satellite phone (number below) to be jammed soon as well. The line was bad, and we were unable to determine the exact location of the Rachel Corrie relative to their destination.

On hearing of the news, Freda Hughes of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) said: “We all hope that those on board the Rachel Corrie will remain safe and that there will be no repeat of Monday’s terrible attack on the Freedom Flotilla. Our hearts are with you.”

The Rachel Corrie is flying their Irish, Malaysian and Filipino flags at half mark as a mark of respect for their murdered comrades from the Mavi Marmama which was hijacked on Monday by Israeli commandos in an attack that left at least 9 people dead.

Speaking about Minister Micheal Martin’s statement earlier in which he said that those on board the Rachel Corrie had rejected a so-called deal that would involve them docking in the Israeli port of Ashdod, Jenny Graham said: “We will have no part in a deal that involves us legitimising the siege of Gaza. We intend to continue on our mission to deliver our cargo of aid and supplies to the people of Gaza. This has always been our intention.”
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[Username]

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I'm deeply disturbed at the amount of coverage this story is not getting in the news since the beginning. Between the oil spill and Natalie fucking Holloway there is absolutely nothing else going on in the world. If anyone out there happens to see Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann you can tell them, for me, they suck, and I am no longer a fan.
__________

The Right To Exist: Who has it? Where is it? Why?

By Gary Corseri
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
June 4, 2010

Does Israel have a “right to exist”? Do we?

It’s a shibboleth of the Zionist entity: “Israel has the right to exist!”

But what is this “Israel”? What is this “right to exist”?

Where is it written? Is it in Holy Scripture? “The Song of Songs”? “The Book of Job”? “Proverbs”? “Ecclesiastes”?

Is it written in stone on two tablets by the finger of God?

What does it mean when a people declare that they have the “right to exist” as they please because they are a “democracy,” but other people have no such right? I solemnly declare my elections legitimate—the will of my people–, but … it is obvious that you people over there (in Gaza, in Turkey, in Iran, etc.) do not have the capacity to choose leaders who can represent your true interests!

What does that mean?

Israel refuses to negotiate with Hamas—will not recognize the political leadership that the Palestinians chose in internationally monitored elections—because, Israel declares, Hamas will not recognize Israel’s “right to exist.”

And why should Hamas recognize that “right”? What is always unspoken are the words, “the right to exist as we are now, as we have been, and as we shall become.” Recognize me, and suffer all my faults! Recognize my right to exist as I am, have been and will be—and forfeit your right to challenge me legally for illegal seizures of property, for expropriations and appropriations, for illegitimate detainments, incarcerations, torture, homicides.

In effect, Israeli commandos unilaterally declared that Aid Activists on a flotilla in international waters had no “right to exist.”

When Ahmadinijead of Iran quoted the Ayatollah Khomeini that the Zionist entity would wither away and disappear from the page of history, the entity and its media stooges in the U.S. and elsewhere accused Iran of threatening to “wipe Israel off the map of the earth.” Israel declared Iran an “existential threat” and threatened, in turn, to destroy the Iranians with the 200 nuclear weapons that they will neither confirm nor deny possessing (even though everyone knows they have them!).

Orthodox Jews, including the ultra-conservative Hasidim, are among those most loudly proclaiming that the state of Israel has “no right to exist.” Their viewpoint is hermeneutical: they believe that Israel will be established among the nations after the Mashiach (the Messiah) comes. They believe it is heretical for politicians to reverse the process. First the Mashiach, then the state. That’s the way they read the Hebrew.

Then, do Orthodox Jews have the “right to exist”? (At last report, Israel had not threatened them with its nuclear bombs).

“We the people” in the infant republic of the United States, did not think much about the existence of Native Americans, women or slaves. Some three score years after our founding, we did not think Mexico had a “right to exist” north of the Rio Grande. We did not think Hawaii had the right to exist as a sovereign nation. Nor, in spite of promises made at the time of the Spanish-American War, did we think the Philippines had the “right to exist” as anything other than a U.S. colony in Asia (we needed the coaling stations!).

Is it simply power that determines the “right to exist”?

During the Cold War, the US and its allies decided the Soviet Union had no right to exist. We were prepared to obliterate the world to prove our point—certain nutjobs among us were. One of our soldiers, a Lieutenant Calley, thought he was “just following orders” when he decided that hundreds of villagers in a hamlet called My Lai in Vietnam—unarmed men, women and children—had no “right to exist.” He “wasted” them.

Does the U.N. determine who has the “right to exist”? Does Tibet have that right? Does Palestine? Does Kurdistan?

Suppose the good people of Vermont decide that they are sick and tired of bank bail-outs, oligopolies, kakistocracies, phony American elections, our media of the absurd, oil-slick corporations with more legal rights than “persons,” and artery-clogging, greasy fast food? In a sterling, transparent, democratic election, the vast majority of the state elects leadership that claims its place among the nations of the world as “The Glorious, Independent, Technicolor, Outstanding Republic of Vermont” (which a media wag soon dubs the “GIT OUT of “R” Vermont republic). Does the Glorious, Independent, Technicolor, Outstanding Republic of Vermont have the right to exist?

The Zionist state demands the right to exist as a Zionist state—a non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, bristling with nuclear weapons. Did Yahweh come out of the clouds and declare that this state alone can break all the rules of international decorum with impunity, without censure?

When did Yahweh make that announcement? Was it on the Rachel Maddow show? Was it on Larry King?

If there is a “right to exist,” is there not an equal right to resist–occupation, oppression, thievery, rape, duplicity?

Suppose we started from the other end? Suppose we assumed that no one had the “right to exist,” but that everyone—and every species—could enjoy the “privilege” of existence? How would we order the world then?

The Zionist zealots ask, Why don’t the Palestinians produce a Gandhi, a Martin Luther King to lead them? But where is the Zealots’ Martin Buber–a Jew who exhorted the Jews, and all humankind, to live in harmony with others—with different species, too—with God, too—in an “I and Thou” relationship?

The Zealots have raided the Kingdom of Heaven. Like Lucifer, the Angel of Light, they will be transmogrified by their pride and arrogance, and lust for power. And … they will fall, corrupted from within.

Gary Corseri has posted and published articles, fiction, poetry and dramas at Dandelion Salad, Thomas Paine’s Corner, Dissident Voice, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, The New York Times, Village Voice and hundreds of other venues internationally. His books include the novels, A FINE EXCESS and HOLY GRAIL, HOLY GRAIL.
~

[lupercal]

Israeli navy 'intercepts' Rachel Corrie Gaza aid ship
Page last updated at 4:46 GMT, Saturday, 5 June 2010 5:46 UK


Activists had said they would not resist Israeli forces

Israel has intercepted the latest aid ship attempting to break its blockade of the Gaza Strip, activists say.

Israeli officials have not commented on the latest claims, but they had earlier warned they would not let the Irish-owned MV Rachel Corrie reach Gaza.

The confrontation comes days after Israeli troops stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, leaving nine people dead.

That raid brought strong condemnation of Israel, especially from Turkey where most of the victims were from.

The Free Gaza Movement's Mary Hughes Thompson, in Cyprus, told the BBC that Israeli boats were tracking their ship but had not made contact.

She said those on board were feeling "quite euphoric" and were still hoping to go to Gaza.

The activists had earlier said they would not resist any Israeli attempts to stop the ship.

The Rachel Corrie is named after a US college student who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she protested over house demolitions in Gaza.

Continuing outcry

Earlier, Israel told the ship to dock at the Israeli port of Ashdod and promised that the aid will be taken by road to Gaza.

The US urged the activists to do what the Israelis asked. However Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, who is aboard the ship, insisted it would not be diverted.

Activists said there were 20 people on board the Rachel Corrie, including five Irish nationals, six Malaysians and nine crew members.

The ship had been a part of the previous flotilla, but was delayed by technical problems.

The international outcry over Israel's actions when it intercepted the last flotilla has still not died down.

Accounts differ as to what happened when Israeli soldiers abseiled from helicopters on to the Turkish passenger ship Mavi Marmara in the early hours of last Monday.

Israel says their commandos were attacked with sticks and knives and used their weapons in self-defence. Activists say troops opened fire without provocation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle ... 244301.stm

[Simulist]

Not only does this board have a significant number of intelligent people who post regularly, it has many intelligent readers also, people who read Rigorous Intuition almost daily, but who either normally do not post or are people who do not post at all.

Someone emailed me this afternoon, asking me to respond to some of the remarks that were made earlier in the day, remarks that "demand a response" the letter said. I consider this person to be not only extraordinarily intelligent, but someone who also has a depth of understanding in these matters that I can only hope someday to acquire. Rather than to feign this depth of knowledge (I don't "feign" well, and wouldn't be inclined to try...), I've decided to post portions of this letter verbatim, but without attribution as was requested.

I found the responses to the following quotes to be informative and deeply thought provoking. My hope is that others here will benefit from reading them also.

In 1962 John F Kennedy did the same thing Israel is doing today against Cuba: imposing a blockade tp prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.

A hostile state, you say? Yes, Hamas is a SELF PROCLAIMED enemy of Israel and their official mission statement even vows that there will NEVER be peace until every Jew is removed from the region, killed or run into the Med Sea. They made this vow and have made no secret of it and they have backed up that declaration by firing over 6000 rockets in to Israel since 2007 when they took control of the Gaza. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas and the rest of the world claim they are victims when Israel tris to protect itself from yet more rockets.

The Response:

The two situations are not remotely comparable. First, Gaza is not a "state" -- it is a territory ILLEGALLY occupied by Israel, and its population of this severely overcrowded strip of land is over 90% refugees who were stripped of all their property and human rights so that foreign colonists could set up a racist "Jewish state" on Palestinian land. The people of Gaza are the destitute victims of Israeli ethnic cleansing, theft and terrorism from 1948 onward. Given the statistics about toxic dumping in Gaza and deliberately induced malnutrition, not to mention the denial of clean water and adequate medical equipment and services to this imprisoned population of refugees, they are the victims of de facto genocide, as well. Under international law and ALL relevant UN resolutions, Israel is the aggressor and the Palestinians are the victims of its belligerency, racism and greed.

But, you say, these ships meant no harm, they were carrying humanitarian relief for the people of the Gaza.

No.

The organizer of the flotilla itself, Greta Berlin, admitted that it was NOT about humanitarian relief or the people of the Gaza, it was about getting international attention for an attempt to BREAK THE BLOCKADE, in other words they manufactured and staged and provoked this confrontation to get more attention to their cause de jour, break the blockade and end Israel's inspection regime which would mean unlimited shipping in to the Gaza resulting in unlimited arms supplies to Hamas militants.

If this flotilla was really about humanitarian relief, and we NOW KNOW it was not from the comments of the organizer herself, Greta Berlin, all they had to do is do what HUNDREDS of other ships WEEKLY do, offload at the nearest Israeli port for inspection and then be on their merry way.

The Response:

It is not the cause "du jour" for individuals of conscience to heroically attempt to do what many governments are too cowardly to do: break a siege that is being imposed in violation of the law and all norms of human decency by a rogue, racist, terrorist state, in violation of more international laws and UN resolutions than any other state on the planet. Israel receives billions of dollars' worth of advanced weaponry annually from the world's biggest military superpower and uses it primarily and overwhelmingly against a captive population of civilian victims of its own ethnic cleansing. If there were any justice at all, it would be the massive shipments of weapons to Israel that would be stopped, not shipments of food and medicines and construction materials and schoolbooks for children to the Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza.

In fact EVERY WEEK Israel ITSELF delivers 10,000 TONS of food and water and other supplies to the people of the Gaza and this even after those very people continue to support a self proclaimed and sworn enemy of Israel and its people (Yes JEWS).

The Response:

Who you gonna believe, Israel or independent organizations on the ground? Malnutrition is skyrocketing and children, who make up more than 50% of Gaza's population, are suffering from stunted growth, anemia and PTSD, according to all independent observers on the ground. Why does Israel prevent lentils, tea, macaroni, shoes, clothing, school-books, paper and cement for reconstruction? Children need homes to live in, and schools to study in, but instead they get to live in cloth tents or the bombed rubble of their homes, eating food that is often spoiled due to lack of refrigeration, or cooked on fires made with salvaged wood, courtesy of Israel's "humanitarianism". By destroying Gaza's only power plant and water purification plant, Israel prevents access to clean drinking water or even toys for the children of Palestinians in Gaza, while ILLEGAL Jewish colonies on the Palestinians' stolen land are equipped with swimming pools and playgrounds, subsidized by American "aid". Your self-pitying whines are obscene.

As has been recently said, the aim, the whole point of this relentless international campaign against Israel and its LEGAL blockade is to ultimately deprive Israel of any legit means of defending itself against this self proclaimed enemy and internationally designated terrorist organization, the Hamas. The Israelis, my own people, are constantly demonized and ghettoized and villified even as states such as Iran and others, including Hamas, are preparing yet another FINAL SOLUTION.

The Response:

It is not a LEGAL blockade, it is a war crime, just as the Apartheid Wall that surrounds Palestinians in the West Bank was declared illegal by the International Criminal Court at the Hague. It is the Palestinian people who need defending from their Israeli tormentors and killers and jailers. As prisoners of a brutal military occupation, they need the rest of the world to grow some balls and enforce the Palestinians' legitimate HUMAN rights, including the right of return and reparations for the horrors they have been subjected to for over 60 years, for the sole reason that they are NOT Jewish.

[Sweejak]

Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of Turkish council of forensic medicine, quoted saying 9 men were shot a total of 30 times. #Gaza #Flotilla

19 year old Furkan Dogan, US citizen of Turkish descent, shot x5 from less than 45cm in face, back of head, x2 in leg x1 in the back #Gaza

NY Times chief confirms Israel fired first http://cli.gs/0M520s #flotilla

"Five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back” The Guardian http://bit.ly/ax1SfO #Flotilla #Israel

Via Mondoweiss:
RT @IDFSpokesperson: Update: Rachel Corrie has now rejected 2nd call from IDF navy to dock at Ashdod Port

[smiths]

although there are some similarities with other situations,

i would say the most similar situation is the muppets,

a load of talking heads with someone elses hand up their arse giving them movement and lines to say

personally, i have no time for these apologists, they are either stupid or hopelessly biased and one-eyed

israels right to exist as a question was irrelevant at least 30 years ago in the affirmative
the only people undermining it are its politicians and the IDF

[compared2what?]

Some of the most decent people I have ever met.

The Satmars? Really?

I mean....You don't have a problem with the rampant Satmar yeshiva pedophilia problem that the sect refused to address itself in Rabbinical court for years before it started refusing to address it in the New York court system as it's now been doing for some time? Or the (not-unrelated) charges that sexual abuse of female children in the homes is both a common and commonly tolerated thing in Satmar communities?

Because that's not decent by my standards.

[American Dream]

I don't think that the assumption that the people in the photo above depicts Satmars is necessarily accurate at all.

I think that they may actually be Neturei Karta- not sure...

[lupercal]

ISRAELI MILITARY FORCIBLY STOPS AID BOAT TO GAZA - AGAIN
Written by Greta Berlin | 05 June 2010

(Off the Gaza coast, 5 JUNE) - Just before 9am GMT this morning, the Israeli military forcibly siezed the Irish-owned humanitarian relief ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, from delivering over 1000 tons of medical and construction supplies to besieged Gaza. For the second time in less then a week, Israeli naval commandos stormed an unarmed aid ship, brutally taking its passengers hostage and towing the ship toward Ashdod port in Southern Israel. It is not yet known whether any of the Rachel Corrie's passengers were killed or injured during the attack, but they are believed to be unharmed.

The Corrie carried 11 passengers and 9 crew from 5 different countires, mostly Ireland and Malaysia. The passengers included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, Parit Member of the Malaysian Parliament Mohd Nizar Zakaria, and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday. Nine international human rights workers were killed on Monday when Israeli commandos violently stormed the Turkish aid ship, Mavi Marmara and five other unarmed boats taking supplies to Gaza. Prior to being taken hostage by Israeli forces, Derek Graham, an Irish coordinator with the Free Gaza Movement, stated that: "Despite what happened on the Mavi Marmara earlier this week, we are not afraid.

The 1200-ton cargo ship was purchased through a special fund set up by former Malaysian Prime Minister and Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. The ship was named after an American human rights worker, killed in 2003 when she was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. Its cargo included hundreds of tons of medical equipment and cement, as well as paper from the people of Norway, donated to UN-run schools in Gaza.

According to Denis Halliday: "We are the only Gaza-bound aid ship left out here. We’re determined to deliver our cargo.” The Rachel Corrie had been part of the Freedom Flotilla, a 40-nation effort to break through Israel's illegal blockade, before being forced to drop off late last week due to suspicious mechanical problems.

The attack on the Rachel Corrie may spell trouble for Israel's relationship with Ireland. The Irish government had formally requested Israel allow the ship to reach Gaza. On 1 June, the Irish parliament also passed an all-party motion condemning Israel's use of military force against civilian aid ships, and demanding "an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza."

Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire summed up the hopes of this joint Irish-Malaysian effort to overcome Israel’s cruel blockade by saying: "We are inspired by the people of Gaza whose courage, love and joy in welcoming us, even in the midst of such suffering gives us all hope. They represent the very best of humanity, and we are all privileged to be given the opportunity to support them in their nonviolent struggle for human dignity, and freedom. This trip will again highlight Israel’s criminal blockade and illegal occupation. In a demonstration of the power of global citizen action, we hope to awaken the conscience of all."

---

Passengers aboard the Rachel Corrie include:

Ahmed Faizal bin Azumu, human rights worker, Malaysia

Matthias Chang, attorney, author & human rights worker, Malaysia

Derek Graham, Free Gaza Ireland

Jenny Graham, Free Gaza Ireland

Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General, Ireland

Mohd Jufri Bin Mohd Judin, journalist, Malaysia

Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal, PGPO representative, Malaysia

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ireland

Abdul Halim Bin Mohamed, journalist, Malaysia

Fiona Thompson, film-maker, Ireland

The Hon. Mohd Nizar Zakaria, Parit Member of Parliament, Malaysia

http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/press-r ... gaza-again

[Searcher08]

I don't think that the assumption that the people in the photo above depicts Satmars is necessarily accurate at all.

I think that they may actually be Neturei Karta- not sure...

Thank you, c2w? and A D. I had not come across Satmars; I was aware of some long standing allegations of pedophilia in some Hasidic communities in upstate New York (from memory).

It was the Neturei Karta people I have often talked to...

[American Dream]

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11319.shtml

You will have no protection

Alice Walker, The Electronic Intifada, 4 June 2010



You will have no protection

-- Medgar Evers to Civil Rights Activists in Mississippi, shortly before he was assassinated, 12 June, 1963


My heart is breaking; but I do not mind.

For one thing, as soon as I wrote those words I was able to weep. Which I had not been able to do since learning of the attack by armed Israeli commandos on defenseless peace activists carrying aid to Gaza who tried to fend them off using chairs and sticks. I am thankful to know what it means to be good; I know that the people of the Freedom Flotilla are/were in some cases, some of the best people on earth. They have not stood silently by and watched the destruction of others, brutally, sustained, without offering themselves, weaponless except for their bodies, to the situation. I am thankful to have a long history of knowing people like this from my earliest years, beginning in my student days of marches and demonstrations: for peace, for non-separation among peoples, for justice for Women, for People of Color, for Cubans, for Animals, for Indians, and for Her, the planet.

I am weeping for the truth of Medgar's statement; so brave and so true. I weep for him gunned down in his carport, not far from where I would eventually live in Mississippi, with a box of t-shirts in his arms that said: "Jim Crow Must Go." Though trained in the United States Military under racist treatment one cringes to imagine, he remained a peaceful soldier in the army of liberation to the end. I weep and will always weep, even through the widest smiles, for the beautiful young wife, Myrlie Evers, he left behind, herself still strong and focused on the truth of struggle; and for their children, who lost their father to a fate they could not possibly, at the time, understand. I don't think any of us could imagine during that particular phase of the struggle for justice, that we risked losing not just our lives, which we were prepared to give, but also our children, who we were not.

Nothing protected Medgar, nor will anything protect any of us; nothing but our love for ourselves and for others whom we recognize unfailingly as also ourselves. Nothing can protect us but our lives. How we have lived them; what battles, with love and compassion our only shield, we have engaged. And yet, the moment of realizing we are truly alone, that in the ultimate crisis of our existence our government is not there for us, is one of shock. Especially if we have had the illusion of a system behind us to which we truly belong. Thankfully I have never had opportunity to have this illusion. And so, every peaceful witnessing, every non-violent confrontation has been a pure offering. I do not regret this at all.

When I was in Cairo last December to support CODEPINK's efforts to carry aid into Gaza I was unfortunately ill with the flu and could not offer very much. I lay in bed in the hotel room and listened to other activists report on what was happening around the city as Egypt refused entry to Gaza to the 1,400 people who had come for the accompanying Freedom march. I heard many distressing things, but only one made me feel, not exactly envy, but something close; it was that the French activists had shown up, en masse, in front of their embassy and that their ambassador had come out to talk to them and to try to make them comfortable as they set up camp outside the building. This small gesture of compassion for his country's activists in a strange land touched me profoundly, as I was touched decades ago when someone in John Kennedy's White House (maybe the cook) sent out cups of hot coffee to our line of freezing student and teacher demonstrators as we tried, with our signs and slogans and songs, to protect a vulnerable neighbor, Cuba.

Where have the Israelis put our friends? I thought about this all night. Those whom they assassinated on the ship and those they injured? Is "my" government capable of insisting on respect for their dead bodies? Can it demand that those who are injured but alive be treated with care? Not only with care, but the tenderness and honor they deserve? If it cannot do this, such a simple, decent thing, of what use is it to the protection and healing of the planet? I heard a spokesman for the United States opine at the United Nations (not an exact quote) that the Freedom Flotilla activists should have gone through other, more proper, channels, not been confrontational with their attempt to bring aid to the distressed. This is almost exactly what college administrators advised half a century ago when students were trying to bring down apartheid in the South and getting bullets, nooses, bombings and burnings for our efforts. I felt embarrassed (to the degree one can permit embarrassment by another) to be even vaguely represented by this man: a useless voice from the far past. One had hoped.

The Israeli spin on the massacre: that the commandos were under attack by the peace activists and that the whole thing was like "a lynching" of the armed attackers, reminds me of a Redd Foxx joke. I loved Redd Foxx, for all his vulgarity. A wife caught her husband in bed with another woman, flagrant, in the act, skin to skin. The husband said, probably through pants of aroused sexual exertion: All right, go ahead and believe your lying eyes! It would be fun, were it not tragic, to compare the various ways the Israeli government and our media will attempt to blame the victims of this unconscionable attack for their own imprisonment, wounds and deaths.

So what to do? Rosa Parks sat down in the front of the bus. Martin Luther King followed her act of courage with many of his own, and using his ringing, compassionate voice he aroused the people of Montgomery, Alabama to commit to a sustained boycott of the bus company; a company that refused to allow people of color to sit in the front of the bus, even if it was empty. It is time for us, en masse, to show up in front of our conscience, and sit down in the front of the only bus we have: our very lives.

What would that look like, be like, today, in this situation between Palestine and Israel? This "impasse" that has dragged on for decades. This "conflict" that would have ended in a week if humanity as a whole had acted in defense of justice everywhere on the globe. Which maybe we are learning! It would look like the granddaughter of Rosa Parks, the grandson of Martin Luther King. It would look like spending our money only where we can spend our lives in peace and happiness; freely sharing whatever we have with our friends.

It would be to support boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and by this effort begin to soothe the pain and attend the sorrows of a people wrongly treated for generations. This action would also remind Israel that we have seen it lose its way and have called to it, often with love, and we have not been heard. In fact, we have reached out to it only to encounter slander, insult and, too frequently, bodily harm.

Disengage, avoid, and withhold support from whatever abuses, degrades and humiliates humanity.

This we can do. We the people; who ultimately hold all the power. We the people, who must never forget to believe we can win.

We the people.

It has always been about us; as we watch governments come and go. It always will be.



Alice Walker is a poet, novelist, feminist and activist whose award-winning works have sold over ten million copies.

Image: Israeli soldiers stand guard as the Israeli navy raids one of the ships in the Freedom Flotilla. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

[Sweejak]

Gaza in Plain Language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFK5TNcmEmg

[sunny]

Lovely Alice Walker piece. Thanks AD.

[chiggerbit]

With regards to all the video, if the Israelis weren't hiding anything, they would have released the entire shebang.

Justin Elliot has posted this at TPM:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... hp?ref=fpa