This call for action was issued on Sept 11, 2008 by the Free Gaza Movement:
Urging the international community to follow up with major humanitarian intervention.
The Free Gaza Movement reported that it will once again set sail for Gaza on September 22, 2008 in order to continue its protest against the inhumane siege that Israel is imposing on Palestinians living in Gaza. Today they are calling for broader efforts from other members of the international community including governments, NGOs, and individuals dedicated to protecting human rights, who might be able to provide their own ships, humanitarian goods, and volunteers to open up the illegal siege being perpetrated against the people of Gaza.
That would include Americans who might disagree with our complicity in a human rights injustice against the Palestinian people that is contrary to our values and traditions.
Jimmy Carter’s view of the Gaza siege is that it is “a human rights crime.”
The Free Gaza Movement calls upon the international community to join the Movement’s efforts to help end the human suffering created by Israeli’s strangulation of Gaza.
On August 23, 2008, 44 ordinary people from 17 countries sailed from Cyprus to Gaza on two small wooden boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty. The Free Gaza Movement did what our governments would not do – take action to defend the health, lives, and dignity of 1.5 million Palestinians under siege in the Gaza Strip. We proved that Israel cannot sustain its illegal blockade in the face of widely reported humanitarian efforts by non-violent activists acting in accordance with international law. Today we call for a much broader effort; specifically, we are calling on other members of the international community – governments, non-governmental organizations, and others dedicated to protecting human rights – to join us by providing their own ships, humanitarian goods, and human capital to throw open wide the sea link to Gaza.
Despite its high profile pullout of illegal settlements and military presence from Gaza in August and September 2005, Israel maintains “effective control” over the Gaza Strip and therefore remains an occupying force with certain obligations. Among Israel’s most fundamental obligations as an occupying power is to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of the Palestinian civilian population. An occupying force has a duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population, as well as maintain hospitals and other medical services, “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” (Fourth Geneva Convention). This includes protecting civilian hospitals, medical personnel, and the wounded and sick. In addition, a fundamental principle of International Humanitarian Law, as well as of the domestic laws of civilized nations, is that collective punishment against a civilian population is forbidden (Fourth Geneva Convention).
Israel has grossly abused its authority as an occupying power, not only neglecting to provide for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian population, but instituting policies designed to collectively punish the Palestinians of Gaza, policies which have created a humanitarian crisis. From fuel and electricity cuts that hinder the proper functioning of hospitals to the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery through Israeli-controlled borders, Israel’s policies towards the Gaza Strip have turned Gaza into a man-made humanitarian disaster.
In the meantime, Karen Koning Abu Zayd, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), asserted that “Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and – some would say – encouragement of the international community.”
For More Information on how to get involved in the next Free Gaza excursion, contact any of the following:
–Brussels: Paul Larudee, Ph.D,+35 799 079 736 / friendsofgaza@gmail.com
–Jerusalem: Huwaida Arraf, Attorney at Law, +972 599 130 426 / huwaidaa@riseup.net
–USA: Thomas H. Nelson, Attorney at Law, +1 503 709 6397 / nelson@thnelson.com
OTHER NEWS from the FREE GAZA MOVEMENT (use the links for the full stories):
09-11-2008
BRUSSELS (11 September 2008) – Today, in a special session of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council (DPLC), Paul Larudee, one of the organizers of the Free Gaza Movement’s successful breach of the Israeli blockade of Gaza in August, called upon the international community to join the Movement’s efforts to lessen the human suffering created by Israeli’s strangulation of Gaza. “The Israeli siege has produced widespread and needless human suffering in Gaza,” Larudee told DPLC Parliamentarians. “We’ve proved that the sea link to Gaza is viable, but the humanitarian needs in Gaza are overwhelming and our two, small boats cannot even begin to meet those needs. Today we call for a much broader effort; specifically, we are calling on other members of the international community – governments, non-governmental organizations, and others dedicated to protecting human rights – to join us by providing their own ships, humanitarian goods, and human capital to open wide Gaza’s access to the world. This is an opportunity that simply must not be squandered. “Since Israel imposed the blockade two years ago, malnutrition and unemployment rates in Gaza have soared. In May 2008, several international aid organizations, including CARE International UK, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, and Medecins du Monde UK, stated that, “the stranglehold on Gaza’s borders has made … the work of the UN and other humanitarian agencies … virtually impossible. Only a trickle of medicine, food, fuel and other goods is being allowed in. [The Israeli blockade of Gaza] has made people highly dependent on food aid, and brought the health system and basic services such as water and sanitation near to collapse.”
ISRAELI MILITARY GUNBOAT RAMS UNARMED PALESTINIAN FISHING VESSEL
09-10-2008
(GAZA COASTAL WATERS) 10th September 2008 – An Israeli military gunboat rammed an unarmed Palestinian fishing vessel today at high speeds. The gunboat smashed through the upper hull of the fishing boat, careened over the top, and landed on the other side. Extensive damage was caused by the impact to the fishing boat. The hull was badly damaged, and virtually the entire deck area, all the equipment on it, and the canopy above the deck were severely damaged. Unusually, all of the crew happened to be in the cabin or at the fore at the time. Had they been on deck they would have had little chance of survival. Via a megaphone, the Israeli military aboard the gunboat then made the threat that: “When the internationals leave Gaza, you will all be made to pay.”
ISRAEL BANS TRAVEL OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS. Report from Al Mezan,
11 September 2008
On 9 September 2008, Israel informed European diplomats that it rejected the applications for permission to exit Gaza submitted by three human rights defenders, including two winners of human rights awards. The applicants were Issam Younis and Mahmoud Abu Rahma of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Raji Sourani of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The activists had applied for permits to take part in human rights events relevant to their work on human rights in Europe.
The human rights defenders have been invited by the Swedish organization Diakonia and the Belgian organization Avocats Sans Frontiers to take part in a conference on the enforcement of the international humanitarian law with regard to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The conference is scheduled to take place on 13 and 14 September 2008. In addition, they have been invited by the Irish organization Trocaire to take part in a review on its work on Israel and the OPT, scheduled to take place between 14 and 19 September. The human rights defenders were also scheduled to meet officials from the European Union (EU) and member states, including cabinet members in Belgium, and raise human rights issues with them.
