Athens, Greece, some more

Here we are, all fifty of us.  Plus a boat.  In a bit of a holding pattern, for the time being.  Every day we are here longer, the press is heating up.  The US State Department appears to have taken notice of us.  Three warnings have already gone out, and Secretary Clinton, in an interesting recent statement, announced that:

"We think that it’s not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves."

(look at the news tab on the right - I posted some interesting stuff there, including her full statement).

Many very very interesting aspects to this statement.  Not the least of which is referring to anything the Israelis might do to us, some 50 unarmed American citizens carrying letters, as coming under the title of 'the Israelis ... right to defend themselves'.  Going quite the distance beyond the previous position of simply refusing to intercede with Israel to ensure the safety of unarmed Americans, this one actually invites an attack!

Moving right along, 'Israeli waters', now that's an interesting one.  According to Israel, Gaza is not under occupation.  But if so, how are we going into Israeli water?  And suppose Gaza IS under occupation - that would make it Israeli-occupied water.  It would become Israeli water only if Israel were to annex Gaza.  So is the State Department proposing to recognize an annexation of Gaza by Israel?

And finally, would we be creating a provocation if we sailed to Tel-Aviv?  We would certainly be entering Israeli water!

Clinton notes, as well, in the rest of her statement, that "Just this week, the Israeli government approved a significant commitment to housing in Gaza. There will be construction materials entering Gaza."  True.  After refusing cement and construction material into Gaza for years, all of a sudden, change of policy "Just This Week".  Israel also changed its long term policy and allowed, indeed almost invited, a group of European politicians  to Gaza.  "Just This Week".

Of course none of this whatsoever has any relationship to the oncoming flotilla.  We stress that any connection is purely coincidental.  None of it is also related to the Israel's ambassador to the UN telling us that "Israel calls on the international community to do everything in their ability in order to prevent the flotilla and warn citizens of countries of the risks of participating in this type of provocation".

Let's face it folks, they are really anxious about this flotilla.  What, one wonders, are they so anxious about?  And how far will they go to stop us from ever sailing? Several hundred unarmed civilians threatening an unarmed voyage, haven't even left port yet, and we are already doing good by Gaza!  So let it be known for the record - Israel only understands pressure!

In the announcements and requests department - because we are in Athens longer than anticipated (more nights in hotels, more eating in restaurants), some passengers are actually facing some financial problems.  Do let me know if you think you can help?

 

Interactive map of Palestine villages destroyed in Nakba

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/interactive-map-palestine-villages-destroyed-nakba <http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/interactive-map-palestine-villages-destroyed-nakba>
Electronic Intifada
05/15/2011

Interactive map of Palestine villages destroyed in Nakba

by Ali Abunimah

The Electronic Intifada has produced this interactive map that allows
you to see information about any of the more than 400 Palestinian
cities, towns and villages depopulated and destroyed during the Nakba –
the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist and later Israeli forces
from late 1947 into 1948.
The data and images come from the website Palestine Remembered, which used much of the basic research from Walid Khalidi’s seminal reference All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Many individuals have also contributed their own narratives, images and personal discoveries on Palestine Remembered.
The Electronic Intifada acknowledges this work and is pleased to
present and increase access to this important data in a new form.


How to use themap:
Clicking on a dot opens up a pop-up bubble which shows information about that location in Palestine;Zoom in to an area by holding the “Shift” key and drawing a box with
your mouse or trackpad, or use the buttons on the left edge of the map;Click on the “+” sign in the blue tab on the upper right corner of
the map to access more layers of data such as places built up by Israel,
West Bank villages, Gaza places, and communities of Palestinians still
living in what is now Israel;View the map in its own browser window: Interactive map of Palestine villages destroyed in Nakba.

My video is out! Auditioning for Hollywood next!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unm1nzYWiT0&feature=BFa&list=PL5F70010FC2A94EB9&index=15

And don't forget to watch the other passengers speak!

From Athens, First Evening

The true significance of this boat trip, of this flotilla, in conjunction with other world events is coming into focus, having met the passengers, having met the organizers who have worked on making this project come true for some ten months now.  Having met people with a very broad scope of knowledge and understanding.  It fits, as it turns out, into an extremely complex tapestry of world events, becoming a player even where it didn't think itself to be, significant in ways that transcend even its original very significant mission.

The Arab Spring.  Beyond the revolutions and the uprisings in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Baharain, in Yemen, in Lybia, in Syria, there is the profound impact that it has had on how the population of the Middle East and North Africa views itself, and it has had a profound impact on how the world views that population. 

The spread of the Arab Spring.  A brush fire having far exceeded the boundaries of the Arab world.  And now in Greece.  Greece on the verge of an uprising, with massive daily demonstrations against the US, against the EU, against its own government.  Strikes in Greece.  General strike tomorrow, a dock strike on Friday...

Israel.  Frantically, for months now, pressuring every single mediteranean country to block the flotilla.  Having succeeded in Turkey, the next target is the Greek government.  The Greek government that may not survive the week, will it succomb to Israeli pressure against the background of massive popular unrest, against the background of massive demonstrations accusing the Greek government of being American stooges?  And wouldn't succombing to Israeli pressure become the ultimate proof to of their complicity?

"I don't think people in the US know what is going on here," the blond, well-dressed Greek woman said to us, in front of the Greek Parliament at Syntagma Square, at 11pm.  "I brought my 9 year old son here with me the other day, and we stood here until three o'clock in the morning, because I think he should know.  Tell them about us.  Don't forget."

"The slogans," the young man answers my question, "that one there says, 'I am going crazy because you cut off salaries and you cut off pensions and  medical benefits but you still haven't cut your own throats.'  That one, it awards Papandereu the badge of 'Goldman Sachs employee of the month'".  The one over the bridge, I can read: "You take the debts, we will take Solidarity: REVOLUTION".  They were all going to stay there, at least 30,000 of them, I would say, through midnight, preventing parlamentrians from getting through for a crucial midnight vote.  The vote, alas, was held, and Papandreou did win, slim margin as it was...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-21/papandreou-wins-confidence-vote-raising-rescue-chances.html

And in the middle of this, the ten boats of the flotilla, the beseiged population of Gaza, the occupation of Palestine, the 50 or so of us on the Audacity of Hope, now attempting to put faces and names and stories together, our personal stories, our personal voyages to this point, our shared voyage beyond this point, I think I have been near history before.  I am not sure I quite got to put a finger in, though, until now.

Israel Defense Force: The Path to Glory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ9BLW2TEw0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFGsbXuxufk

Palestinians are people, too

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/164711-palestinians-are-people-too
By Mustafa Barghouthi- 06/03/11
Every June 5 for the past 44 years of my life has brought back memories of being a 13-year-old facing life under Israeli occupation. Forty-four years ago I saw Israelis for the first time. It took my generation a very long and difficult time to come to terms with accepting the need for peace and compromise with our occupier. That compromise was the two-state solution. Our goal was to end occupation and achieve freedom, dignity, and self-determination.

Last month in the United States, it became clear to me that few Americans fully understand what it means to be under military occupation for 44 years. Imagine a situation where all universities are closed down by a foreign military power for a total of three years. That happened here in the eighties. Imagine a situation in which all elected local municipality councils are dismissed by the military and replaced by foreign officers. That happened to us in the seventies.
And try to imagine how you would feel if you woke up one day and found your business, factory or farm demolished by Israeli bulldozers. That's what happened during the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-09. Imagine a situation in which 40 percent of all adult males in your community and a substantial number of women, including young girls, have been imprisoned for political reasons -- mostly to suppress freedom of expression. That is exactly what has been happening to us for the past 44 years.

In addition, there is harsh restriction of movement with 600 military check points that prevent people in the West Bank from reaching Gaza and Palestinians from reaching Jerusalem to study, pray and even get to hospital for treatment.

Regardless of how hard I try I cannot forget the agony I felt as a medical doctor trying to convince stubborn and unthinking Israeli soldiers to allow Abu Muhammad, a patient suffering a heart attack, or Basem, seriously injured in a car accident, across a check point and into Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem.

Nothing can adequately explain the bitterness and frustration felt when young Israeli soldiers humiliate our fathers and mothers, as well as our sick disabled grandmothers and make jokes about their suffering, while we stand by unable to do anything to stop them.

It is our aspiration to rid ourselves of these injustices and achieve peace through nonviolent and peaceful resistance. We aspire to the same dignity that moved the Arab youth to create the Arab Spring. Our dream is clearly not the same one held by a Congress seemingly mesmerized by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's recent litany of negatives regarding Palestinian rights and aspirations.

Last month, 15 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded, while peacefully commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe," when roughly 725,000 Palestinians were dispossessed during Israel's creation in 1947-8. Carried on the winds of the Arab Spring, the demonstrators used non-violent means to demand freedom and justice. They were met in turn with tear gas and live ammunition from Israeli soldiers.

Regrettably, much of the American media coverage of the protests was devoid of any historical context, portraying Palestinians as being motivated by irrational hostility towards Israel and Jews.

This coming Sunday, June 5, Palestinians plan to march peacefully en masse again to demand our freedom from occupation.
While a recently discovered phenomenon to some in the West, Palestinians have in fact long been using peaceful means to protest Israeli policies and actions. Through general strikes, protest marches, boycotts, and others methods, Palestinians have sought redress through non-violent means for the injustices that have been done to them for over a century.

For much of the past decade, grassroots non-violent demonstrations have been taking place in villages like Bil'in, Nil'in, and Budrus. The courageous people there have struggled desperately to stop the theft of their lands for ever-expanding Jewish-only settlements and the construction of Israel's separation wall, which cuts thousands off from their farmlands and pastures, and severely restricts the freedom of movement of many thousands more.

The Israeli army has used increasingly repressive methods to suppress these demonstrations. Since 2004, 21 Palestinians, approximately half of them children, have been killed by Israeli forces during peaceful protests against the wall and settlement expansion, and between 2004 and 2009, in the four villages of Bil'in, Ni'lin, Ma'sara and Jayyous alone, at least 1,566 Palestinians were wounded.

Since taking office two years ago, President Obama has called on Palestinians to abandon armed struggle completely and embrace the non-violent tactics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. In his address to the Arab and Muslim world from Cairo in 2009, he stated that, for centuries, "black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding."

Yet, when Israeli soldiers on May 15 gunned down peaceful Palestinian protesters demanding freedom and justice, the Obama administration not only refused to condemn Israel's use of deadly force against unarmed demonstrators, but a White House spokesman seemed to justify the killings, stating that Israel had a right to "defend" itself.

For non-violent tactics to be effective, it is essential that there be a public outcry and condemnation if and when they are met with violent repression. By encouraging Palestinians to engage in non-violent protest and then failing to support us or to condemn Israel's violent response, President Obama imperils our success and comes across as offering Palestinians only empty words about freedom and how to achieve it.

The way to peace and security is in many ways simple, but it requires accepting Palestinians as human beings every bit the equals of Israelis.

Mustafa Barghouthi, a doctor and a member of the Palestinian parliament, was a candidate for president in 2005. He is secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party.

A Letter

From: Diane Shammas
Subject: A personal message to all of you on the eve of your departure to Gaza

Dear All,   Above all, I want to thank all of you women for your commitment, dedication, and sacrifice towards breaking the Gaza blockade. As most of you who know me, I am of Lebanese/Arab American heritage. I am reminded by comrades on the left, do not expect us to be interested in the Middle East to the same extent as you are, we have  social, economic, and political injustices in the U.S. All of you have taught me differently, it does not matter what religion,ancestry, political stripe or whatever connection you have to the injustice, in this case, injustice in the Palestinian Occupied Territories,  humanity is your moral compass. I have been to Gaza Strip 3 times, once with the May 2009 Code Pink delegation and the last two times on my own. In the last 15 months I have lived in the Gaza Strip for 6 months. I teach at Al Azhar University  English, research methods, and American Studies.     Prior to your departure, I want to send each of you a personal message.   Medea: Oh my God, we have experienced so much together, the May 2009 delegation to Gaza, the Gaza Freedom March 2009-2010, and the Egyptian Revolution--standing in the freezing cold at the Rafah gate, all of us negotiating with the army to let us in!!!!!!!!!!   Ann: As trite as it might sound, you are our "Rock of Gibraltar".person, having served for 30 years in the armed services and in the U.S. State department.    My first trip to Gaza, I will never forget when I witnessed the destruction of the American School in Beit Lahiya, flashbacks of what Israel did to Lebanon in several occupations, but the most recent war  2006 came back to home. Trying desperately to be stoic, I broke into tears and you were there to hug me. Words cannot describe how deeply I felt  your compassion.   Greta: What a firebrand you are! We were at an academic conference at UCLA, a joint sponsorship of Levantine Cultural Center and UCLA Comparative Literature Department, discussing the 2006 War in Lebanon. It was like a hurricane hit when you approached the Los Angeles Time reporter about their reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Since then I have been in solidarity with the Free Gaza Movement--- from their maiden voyage of breaking the siege of Gaza to the several that have followed.     Ridgely: Looking forward to seeing you on the streets of East Jerusalem (Sheikh Jarrah) and Beit Ummar where we last saw each other after the protest in late April 2011. Your work is immeasurable in the West Bank.   Hedy: What can I say, you give meaning to the word of "survivor". I am honored to have met you once.  We had a shared moment on New Year's Eve, where we embraced each other "Happy New Year 2010" at Mugamma Square (Gaza Freedom March).     Kathy: I have corresponded a few times with you and Steve via email. We were both in Cairo at the Gaza Freedom March. Your dedication and commitment to both Palestine and Haiti is immeasurable. You are a veteran of the flotillas to Gaza and although I am not a religious person, I feel that given your intestinal fortitude this trip you will be there soon.   Hagit: Let me introduce myself. I have taught  as an adjunct professor in the American Studies and Ethnicity Department at USC, and my sister is a retired professor from USC. I thank you as an Israeli born for your sacrifice to joining the flotilla. My deepest wish is on your return to the United States, you can communicate to our USC community what is happening in Gaza. As a professor I received from my students' evaluations that I am quite knowledgeable about my topic, but I am biased when it comes to I/P conflict, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans. Perhaps  you can convey to them it is not a matter of bias, but justice and "being human".   My heart is with you, I will be tracking your voyage to Gaza. My love to all of you.   Diane     Diane Shammas, PhD International Education and Urban Education, Policy, and Planning Lecturer, American Studies and Ethnicity