07/31/2011 23:52
Published in the Jerusalem Post
What do ‘Flotilla Folk’ do and why?
By ANN WRIGHT AND HAGIT BORER
In response to a Jerusalem
Being, so to speak, of the “flotilla folk” ourselves, we read with some interest Rothstein and Seid’s idle speculations on who our shipmates might have been, for idle speculations they certainly are, the writers having never contacted any of us. In fact, at least when it comes to the American-flagged boat, The Audacity of Hope, we are not nearly as much of a mystery as one might imagine. Our biographies are all publicly posted at www.ustogaza.org,.
A perusal of our stories would reveal, among other things, that 58 percent of us are women and that our median age is 60.
Similar demographic patterns existed on other boats as well. Many are retired people; most with modest means. We are people willing to spend our savings to fly toAthens and stay there for weeks, doubled or tripled up in hotel rooms, waiting to sail to Gaza
We are people who felt, who still feel, that we must make the time and find the means because struggling for justice is the moral thing to do. Because we have all come to believe, in the words of Howard Zinn, that “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” – all notions, one feels, that Rothstein and Seid view with a mixture of scorn and incredulity.
As Americans, many of us also feel our primary duty is to speak truth to precisely that power that purports to speak on our behalf – a notion that is, likewise, rather alien to most Israeli-Jewish society, although by no means to Jews elsewhere. A third of us, passengers and organizers of The Audacity of Hope, are Jews, representing a long and valiant tradition of Jewish progressive activism in the US, Europe, South America, South Africa and elsewhere.
What Rothstein and Seid have neglected to note (carried away as they were by their enthusiastic description of our Israel-Hating Syndrome) is that many passengers on The Audacity of Hope have a long and distinguished record of anti-war activism.
They have been outspoken opponents of the American war inVietnam ; they have spoken against American involvement in Central America, and in the past decade, against wars the US has waged on Iraq and Afghanistan Baghdad and Afghanistan Iraq Gaza , but also the over 1,000 Palestinian civilians killed by Israel in Gaza West Bank . Unlike folks such as Rothstein and Seid, we refuse to forget that 1.6 million people in Gaza have been living in an open-air prison for five years now, or that 2.6 million in the West Bank have been under military occupation for 44 years – the longest military occupation in modern history, and a situation with absolutely no current parallels! That we have turned our attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and to the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians in particular derives directly from the understanding that these could not have survived without US government support. It is the US government that has directly abetted Israel in its continuing dispossession of the Palestinians, and that has supported and protected Israel
And yes, horrendous things are happening elsewhere in the world. Some on the flotilla have been very concerned about that. The IHH – that organization which The Jerusalem Post links to jihadist groups – has, in fact, interceded to support the Syrian refugees inTurkey , and delivered medicine and medical equipment to hospitals in al-Bayda and Benghazi in Libya
Reading your derisive comments – all intended to belittle the flotilla and its passengers – it strikes us that the main question is not the one you pose, namely, who we are. Rather, a very different question comes to mind. Here we are, by your description – a bunch of pathetic losers, misguided vacationers, professional activists and idealists who ran out of causes.
A grand total of 1,500 – an overestimation to begin with – and in actuality a lot less once the Mavi Marmara withdrew.
And yet, the State of Israel sees fit to keep us in the headlines for months with threats of attack dogs, snipers and anticipated deaths.Israel pulls out all stops in putting pressure on Mediterranean countries in general, and on Greece
A perusal of our stories would reveal, among other things, that 58 percent of us are women and that our median age is 60.
Similar demographic patterns existed on other boats as well. Many are retired people; most with modest means. We are people willing to spend our savings to fly to
We are people who felt, who still feel, that we must make the time and find the means because struggling for justice is the moral thing to do. Because we have all come to believe, in the words of Howard Zinn, that “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” – all notions, one feels, that Rothstein and Seid view with a mixture of scorn and incredulity.
As Americans, many of us also feel our primary duty is to speak truth to precisely that power that purports to speak on our behalf – a notion that is, likewise, rather alien to most Israeli-Jewish society, although by no means to Jews elsewhere. A third of us, passengers and organizers of The Audacity of Hope, are Jews, representing a long and valiant tradition of Jewish progressive activism in the US, Europe, South America, South Africa and elsewhere.
What Rothstein and Seid have neglected to note (carried away as they were by their enthusiastic description of our Israel-Hating Syndrome) is that many passengers on The Audacity of Hope have a long and distinguished record of anti-war activism.
They have been outspoken opponents of the American war in
And yes, horrendous things are happening elsewhere in the world. Some on the flotilla have been very concerned about that. The IHH – that organization which The Jerusalem Post links to jihadist groups – has, in fact, interceded to support the Syrian refugees in
Reading your derisive comments – all intended to belittle the flotilla and its passengers – it strikes us that the main question is not the one you pose, namely, who we are. Rather, a very different question comes to mind. Here we are, by your description – a bunch of pathetic losers, misguided vacationers, professional activists and idealists who ran out of causes.
A grand total of 1,500 – an overestimation to begin with – and in actuality a lot less once the Mavi Marmara withdrew.
And yet, the State of Israel sees fit to keep us in the headlines for months with threats of attack dogs, snipers and anticipated deaths.
BUT IF we are deluded losers, what does that make the State of Israel and its hysterical response? If 16 passengers on a small yacht off the coast of Gaza Israel
While we wanted the plight of the Palestinians to be noticed by the world, we did not set out to have the flotilla become a major world event. That it has become one, however, became patently clear to us once Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saw fit to travel to Greece to deliver her heartfelt thanks to ƒPapandreou for services rendered – the stopping of our flotilla.
Frankly, we are grateful!
While we wanted the plight of the Palestinians to be noticed by the world, we did not set out to have the flotilla become a major world event. That it has become one, however, became patently clear to us once Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saw fit to travel to Greece to deliver her heartfelt thanks to ƒPapandreou for services rendered – the stopping of our flotilla.
Frankly, we are grateful!
Ann Wright is a retired
Boy, I'm glad I'm on YOUR side! Thanks for your passionate, well-reasoned, and ruthless rebuttal and response to the Rothstein, Seid screed.
ReplyDeleteHow fitting that they begin by portraying themselves as Queen Guinevere and King Arthur trying to understand “What do the simple folk do... when they are blue?”! This is exactly the right perspective for their imperial arrogance, which routinely and continuously dismisses and justifies the wholesale expulsion, confinement, deprivation, suffering, and murder directed at the entire Palestinian population.
And how perfect that they decry the "flotilla folk" who MUST NOT have jobs if they spend so much time "hating Israel", when they themselves DO clearly have jobs--running an Israeli propaganda machine that they themselves founded!
Keep up your inspiring work! You are speaking for many, and growing numbers, of us.