SS Liberty & SS Free Gaza

[Niall]

I've been receiving email updates of the peace pilgrims' voyage. Interesting that Tony Blair's sister-in-law is among the sailors.

She posted a report while they were still in Crete a few days ago:

Bulletin from Lauren Booth
Tuesday 12th August 2008

Well here on baking, blissfully breezy Crete it has been a day of high
expectation and yes, again, disappointment.

I spent my first night on board last night, in water so calm it reminded me of
lake Geneva. Our group had enjoyed a late dinner with sympathetic locals in a
communal dwelling in what was once Chania's law court and prison. A touchingly
run down setting of past grandeur, with a vegan feats thoughtfully prepared.
Music was provided by an elderly man singing in Spanish, accompanied on the
guitar by a young man with dreadlocks n=known only ''citizen of the world'. I
finally arrived back on the boat at 2am certain I could sleep even standing up
(much less lying down on a foam mattress). Chania is a rather lively dock even
on Monday nights. The nearest taverna was hosting a family celebration complete
with Greek musicians, the clink of moonlit glasses and much enthusiastic
chatter. Suffice it to say I decided to find a vacant cabin. These are basic,
unless you lived your life trawling for sardines.

An hour later the alarm on my mobile phone went- time to take guard of the
ships with Jeff Halper, anthropologist and founder of The Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions. The ships are never left vacant the risk of sabotage
being considered too high. Our turn as guardians of the Freegaza and Liberty
consisted of patrolling with a torch and talking noisily about subjects I was
too tired to remember afterwards. However knowing Jeff I'm certain they were
both funny and profound.

The early morning meeting saw most sailors bright eyed and eager to sail,
making plans for the longest leg of the journey to Gaza; the 3 day odyssey from
the legendary isle of Crete to Cyprus. Both ships now have professional
captains. Matthew who arrived this morning fresh from a private tour of the
Greek islands looks very young (I have insisted he grow a beard to look older
than seventeen) he assures us all that over three days his face will age. In
fact Matthew is in this thirties with a wife and children and knows the waters
between the Greek Islands intimately, the groups are very pleased to welcome
him aboard. Having spent the morning studying the charts and the local shipping
forecast (weather report) at 11 am Captain Mat (as he shall now be known)
announced

'Friday night is the perfect time to sail. Before that the journey in these
vessels from Crete to Cyprus is not so much dangerous as suicidal.'

What did we do here in Crete at that announcement? For half an hour nails were
chewed, each person went into a private purdah considering personal situations,
the financial implications of staying longer, the commitment to those hoping
for boats of hope to arrive on their shores. I know that the equally keen
volunteers in Nicosia have important business commitments they have already
delayed time and again for this mission. The news must have hit them hard.

Soon, everyone put the delay aside deciding how best to use this extra time to
prepare. Huwaida and Courtney (please see biogs to find out more about them)
are keen to brighten up both ships. Both locals and tourists who stop in front
of both ships, point to them and saying the word "Palestine' They are unsure
they have found the ships they have either heard of read about. To remedy this,
plans are afoot to paint the wheel houses in the red and green of the
Palestinian flag, interspersed, at Huwaida's suggestion, with lines of poetry
by the recently deceased Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Practical preparations continue, this delay means more funding for the project
to break the siege of Gaza needs an urgent boost. Fifty travelers in two
locations need to be fed and those in Nicosia need the rent for their housing
to be covered. Meanwhile here in Crete, despite the various pressures put upon
them not one single person is leaving the project. How they cope financially
with the pressure put upon them I have no idea. The single principle, the only
thought on the minds of those here this afternoon is that thousands in Gaza are
willing on this small, independent project.

It's the people watching the horizon in Gaza that keeps everyone going here in
Crete.

 

[Niall]

There are several journalists on board the ships.

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:51:02 GMT
By Yvonne Ridley, Press TV

By the time you read this, our two boats, the Free Gaza and SS Liberty should
be sailing from Chania's old port in Crete despite a gloomy forecast of storms
ahead.

Our captains have decided it is time to quit our dock for security reasons and
so we are heading along the Crete coastline on our way to pick up the rest of
our passengers who have been waiting patiently in Cyprus.

We could be in for a rough ride, but without going into too much detail, we
probably are more at risk by not moving.

Israel has a history of using Mossad and Kidon to sabotage and destroy peaceful
operations designed to help or show solidarity towards Palestinians.

From Crete we will head towards larnaca, Cyprus to pick up the rest of our
group and then we are bound for Gaza to break the medieval siege imposed by
Israel.

Media interest is once again gathering momentum and there are those who want to
join us on board while others are considering hiring their own boats ... the
more the merrier. Wouldn't it be great if we had a huge flotilla?

However, there are concerns from the media because Israel has a history of
shooting, killing, and arresting journalists who try to report the truth about
the brutal occupation of Palestine.

I was reminded of this only this morning as I read a release a few minutes ago
from Reporters Without Borders. The human rights group was condemning today's
announcement by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to detain Ibrahim Hamad, a
soundman employed by the Palestinian news agency Ramattan, for six months
without bringing charges and without taking him before any court.

Hamad was arrested by Israeli soldiers at his home in Qalandiyah, near the West
Bank city of Ramallah, on July 15. “The Israeli military may not under any
circumstances arrest journalists or media assistants without giving a
reason,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“If they think a journalist has done something wrong, they must say what it
is and they must explain why they are arresting him. We call for Hamad's
immediate release.”

When reached by Reporters Without Borders, the management of Ramattan firmly
condemned his arrest and called for his release.

They also called on the Israeli authorities to explain why they are holding
him. “This is not the first time that one of our employees has been arrested
by the Israeli military,” the agency said.

Israeli boasts it is a democracy ... these are not the actions of a democratic
state. These are the actions of a brutal state which tries to crush those
dedicated to telling the truth about the full horrors of the Zionist regime and
its determination to see through its deliberate and slow genocide of the
Palestinian people.

We will be able to see in a few days time exactly how the Israelis react to a
group of peaceful activists who want to sail into Gaza armed with nothing more
than love and support for their Palestinian brothers and sisters.

If Israel is really a free and open democracy then its Navy will let us past,
Mossad will stop trying to sabotage our journey and all of the journalists on
board, including myself, will be able to report the truth about what is
happening in the world's largest open air prison called Gaza.

In the meantime, I would urge the IOF to release our brother Ibrahim Hamad and
allow him to continue his media work.

 

[Niall]

I think these people are wonderfully courageous - pioneers, perhaps? Has anything like this ever been done before?

Saturday 16th August 2008

By Ramzi Kysia in Cyprus

“Come, my friends / 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. / Push off, and
sitting well in order smite / The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds / To
sail beyond the sunset…”
--TS Eliot, “Ulysses”

Limassol, Cyprus - In a few, short days, the Free Gaza Movement, a diverse
group of international human rights activists from seventeen different
countries, will set sail from Cyprus to Gaza in order to shatter the Israeli
blockade of the Gaza Strip. I’m proud to stand with them. Over 170 prominent
individuals and organizations have endorsed our efforts, including the Carter
Center, former British Cabinet member Claire Short, and Nobel Peace Prize
laureates Mairead Maguire and Desmond Tutu.

Adam Qvist, a 22 year old student and filmmaker from Copenhagen, Denmark, is
one of the human rights workers sailing to Gaza. He explains his participation
in the project in this way:

“I’m interested in telling narratives and advocating people’s existent
feelings. The idea of sailing to Gaza is kind of crazy, but it’s also very
straight-forward. The whole idea of having just one Palestinian who’s been
forced off their land and who is able to return to Palestine - this is
something that could demolish the whole Zionist venture. And it just has to be
one person. If one person can do it, then others can do it. This project, this
boat, is about giving people the freedom to take responsibility. You
shouldn’t expect something from others if you can’t do it yourself, and
this is true both on a very personal but also on a political level.

“This mission is an amazing opportunity to have a huge impact on this
hard-locked, heart-locked, crisis. I’ve never been to Gaza, myself, but I
know that Gaza is the forgotten little brother of the Middle East, or at least
of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Everything about this crisis is clearer in
Gaza. The Israeli occupation strategy is much clearer in Gaza, because it’s
not specifically about taking more land. It’s mostly about completely
destroying a people."

Over two years ago, in an election process advocated by the United States, the
party of Hamas was elected to power in Occupied Palestine. In response, Israel
and the United States imposed a near total blockade on the people of Gaza in an
illegal act of collective punishment.

For more than two years, Israel has blocked Gaza’s access to tax revenues,
humanitarian aid, and even family remittances from Palestinians living abroad.
Predictably, Gaza’s economy has completely collapsed, and malnutrition rates
have skyrocketed. Today, because of the blockade, eighty percent of the people
of Gaza are dependent on United Nations’ food aid just to be able to eat.

This is intolerable.

U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama often speaks about the “audacity of
hope.” But hope can never be a passive emotion. Centuries ago, St. Augustine
wrote that Hope has two, beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. To hope for a
better world is to be angry at the injustices that prevent that world from
emerging, and it requires the courage to stand up and create newer worlds for
ourselves.

Tom Nelson, a lawyer from Welches, Oregon, is sailing to Gaza to seek that
newer world. According to Tom:

“Americans are terribly ignorant of the human effects of what they support. I
think this boat is one of the most effective means of raising consciousness -
particularly American consciousness - about the problems caused by American
foreign policy. Americans have to know the consequences of these policies ...
I’m sixty-four years old, my children are grown, and my affairs are in order.
I think about Rachel Corrie, and about what Israel may do to us. I know it’s
risky, but I take a risk when I ride a motorcycle, and I think that if we’re
really going to change things then somebody has to begin putting something on
the line for that change to happen.”

Eliza Ernshire is a thirty-two year old schoolteacher from London. Her reasons
for sailing to Gaza are much the same:

“For years and years - seeing place in the world that were being totally
destroyed, and people that were being totally destroyed by other people and
governments - I thought there’s nothing that I could do. But I realized that
we can change things in small ways, and we have a responsibility to do this.

“No one is paying attention to what’s happening in Gaza. No one is
listening to Palestinians. They are slowly being strangulated by Israel, and no
one is even listening. I can’t sit outside of this and just let it happen …
We as human beings have an obligation to stand up, and I can’t be passive
about it. You can’t stand up in London and just say that you don’t agree.
We need to find ways to connect people in the Middle East, particularly young
people, to people and groups in wealthier countries. Together we can inspire
each other, and together we can be much more than we are alone.”

Eliza speaks a powerful truth. Politicians and pundits often complain that the
conflicts in the Middle East are complex and intractable, but two things are
absolutely clear: One is that the use of violence - and, in Israel’s case,
overwhelming violence - has not helped any side to achieve peace or security.
And the other is that our governments, across our entire world, have completely
failed to do anything productive to address this crisis.

It’s time we the people stand up for ourselves against unjust laws, wanton
violence, criminal blockades, and the hardness of heart that makes these thing
possible. It’s time we stand against fear-mongering and war-mongering, and
build connections, for ourselves, with our sisters and brothers in the Middle
East. Our politicians have long since failed us. Now it’s our turn to stand
up and seek a newer world for ourselves.

---
Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American writer and activist, and a member of the Free
Gaza Movement. You can receive regular updates on their efforts to break the
siege of Gaza by signing up for their newsletter. If you’d like more
information, or if you’d like to donate to their efforts, please visit their
website at FreeGaza.org.

 

[Niall]

Trouble on the horizon? That's a given, i suppose. The crew and their families have been receiving death threats, but they remain undeterred.

Threats and Intimidation
Ramzi Kysia - Sunday 17th August 2008

Across the world, there are laws against threatening other people. Verbal
threats give rise to great personal and emotional insecurity, and they can be
the midwives to terrible violence. Many of us on board the SS Liberty and SS
Free Gaza have been threatened in these past few days. It’s appalling enough
to receive phone calls, warning us that our boats will be blown up or asking us
if we know how to swim, but when the callers go after our families, then that
crosses the line from adolescent intimidation to psychological terrorism. This
past Thursday, Lauren Booth received one such call.

“On the 14th of August 2008, an anonymous man called my home in France as my
daughters played hide and seek in the garden. This stranger spoke to my
husband, warning him that 'your wife is in great danger. These ships will be
blown up.' My husband asked how it was this person had obtained our private
home number. No response was forthcoming, but the illicit threats carried
on.”

Other members of our nonviolent project have had their families in Occupied
Palestine threatened with violence as well. From these threats, a pernicious
pattern of intimidation is beginning to emerge. The question, of course, is
just who benefits the most by trying to terrorize and stop us from breaking
Israel’s terrible siege on 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza?

In April, 2008, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel released a
report stating, “The illegal exploitation of family members, who, in most
instances, are not suspects themselves, has on many occasions caused severe
psychological suffering to interrogees and to their innocent relatives. In more
extreme cases, this method takes the form of psychological torture of a
detainee rendering him a victim of a cruel psychological manipulation via the
illegal exploitation of a close relative.”

Today in the Israeli newspaper, Haartez, Amos Harel writes: “Defense
officials favor forcefully blocking two boats, which a group of U.S.-based
activists plan to sail to Gaza ... A position paper by the Foreign Ministry's
legal department says Israel has the right to use force against the
demonstrators as part of the Oslo Accords ... the Foreign Ministry's paper
means that security forces could detain the vessels upon entry to Gaza's
territorial waters, arrest the passengers and haul the ship to Israel, where
the detainees could be interrogated.”

The Oslo accords expired in 1999, but even when they were in place they never
advocated or allowed Israel to use deadly force against nonviolent human rights
workers. However, Israel has decided to interpret the now-defunct accords as
giving them permission to act violently against us.

Given this situation, we, the members of the Free Gaza Movement, would like to
make two things very clear to the government of Israel:

1) We are nonviolent human rights activists and we have vowed to take no
violent action, in either word or deed, against any other human beings -
including against Israeli government and military officials who, apparently,
wish us harm.

2) The threats and intimidation that we have received these past few days,
though disturbing, do not even come close to the suffering imposed on 1.4
million Palestinians through the illegal and immoral Israeli blockade of the
Gaza Strip. Given the enormity of this crisis, we will not be deterred.

We will sail to Gaza, and this siege will be lifted.
Members of the Free Gaza and Liberty, setting sail this week.

http://www.FreeGaza.org

You can join their mailing list and donate money by going to the above website.

 

[Alana]

Well, apart from the threats, there is the Israeli "defense" forces, waiting to "welcome" all of them, as we read today:

A position paper by the Foreign Ministry's legal department says Israel has the right to use force against the demonstrators as part of the Oslo Accords, which names Israel as responsible for Gaza's territorial waters.

An official in Jerusalem said the Foreign Ministry's paper means that security forces could detain the vessels upon entry to Gaza's territorial waters, arrest the passengers and haul the ship to Israel, where the detainees could be interrogated.

I have been following their journey also, and there's a lot of blogs calling the whole thing anti-Israeli (not surprised!) and propagate the "Israel needs to defend itself" lie.

an example: -http://www.theisraelsituation.com/2008/07/anti-israel-group-free-gaza-to-attempt.html

 

[Nienna]

[quote author=Smaragde]I have been following their journey also, and there's a lot of blogs calling the whole thing anti-Israeli (not surprised!) and propagate the "Israel needs to defend itself" lie.[/quote]

Yes, I have been reading the articles on SotT, too.

It just turns the stomach to read the lies that Israel has to defend itself from peaceful demonstrators who are trying to point out just how terribly the Palestinians are being treated and to break the blockade that these same poor Israelis are using to keep the Palestinians starving and dying in droves - all also as a defense in case one of the Palestinians might just get healthy enough to try to throw more rocks at their pathetic wall.

I really fear for these peace activists. There is no doubt in my mind that the heartless, ponerized military of Israel will fire on these ships and try to sink them. It will be reported as an act of self-defense or a mistake - it was only a warning shot that actually hit type of thing.

Hopefully I am way off of the mark. I am just going by past operations of the Israelis.

 

[Alana]

I understand where you are coming from Nienna Eluch. But reading what the people onboard the ships say, it seems to me that they are fully aware of what CAN happen. And of what i remember, one even said something to the effect: "the worst they treat us, the more they will reveal their true face", regarding the IDF.

So, they go in knowing. :)

 

[Nienna]

I understand where you are coming from Nienna Eluch. But reading what the people onboard the ships say, it seems to me that they are fully aware of what CAN happen. And of what i remember, one even said something to the effect: "the worst they treat us, the more they will reveal their true face", regarding the IDF.

So, they go in knowing. :)

This is true, and I had thought of that. But also we must face the fact that Israel has "shown its face" over and over again with no consequences whatsoever.

I hope for the sake of those on the ships that Israel also realizes just how much they will show if they attack. However, this is the government that tortures and kills children who are merely walking too close to the military troops, or the wall, or going to school, or playing in the streets. And then saying they were doing it in self-defense.

So let us hope that there will be a small bit of rational thinking in those who are in command.