Yes the Rachel Corrie has been seized by the Israelis. But, from Ma'an, and at Palestine Libre too:
She will be sailing to Gaza during the second half of July. In order to avoid sabotage, the exact date and name of the port of departure will be announced only shortly before her launch....
[Kate Leiterer:] ''In attacking the Freedom Flotilla, Israel has once again demonstrated to the world a heinous brutality. But I know that there are very many Israelis who compassionately and bravely campaign for a just peace. With broadcasting journalists from mainstream television programmes accompanying our boat, Israel will have a great chance to show the world that there is another way, a way of courage rather than fear, a way of hope rather than hate',' says Edith Lutz, an organizer and passenger on what is being called the "Jewish boat."
''Jüdische Stimme,'' or Jewish Voice for Peace, along with European Jews for a Just Peace in the Near East, and Jews for Justice For Palestinians (UK) are "sending a call to the leaders of the world: Help Israel find her way back to reason, to a sense of humanity and a life without fear."
You poor bastards – don’t you know, commendable as your act of dissent is, it’s just way too late to ‘save’ Israel.
Where the hell have you ‘jewish humanitarian’ groups been for the last forty years?
Taxi, let’s not be unfairly cruel. These people are doing the right thing and they should be commended for it.
I agree. JVP has been doing some great work.
Taxi,
Lipservice, man. Non-Jews do it to avoid the anti-Semitism label, Jews do it to avoid the self-hating label, and human rights groups do it to show they are not “political” or “biased”. I wouldn’t take it at face value.
As for where they’ve been until now, apart from the fact that many westerners – Jewish and non-Jewish – have only “discovered” Palestine in recent years, many European Jewish activists have been fighting for Palestine for decades, but have only recently chosen to do so in the framework of specifically Jewish groups.
The Italian Jews I know who are active in Rete ECO (Ebrei contro l’occupazione) are also active in a zillion other pro-Palestinian groups and initiatives. The Jewish “hat” is sometimes useful, that’s all. The situation is similar in EJJP, Jüdische Stimme, and other affiliated groups. In the case of sending a boat to Gaza, I think it’s a brilliant idea. Inshallah by July, the siege will have been broken and they can devote their efforts to other aspects of the struggle.
It is difficult to keep track, but there have been Jews (many, actually) all over the world attempting to promote Palestinian human rights since 48 (and actually before 48).
Here is a link to a British group, active, as Shmuel says, “for decades”.
link to israelimperialnews.org
thank you Shmuel..European Jewish activists have been fighting for Palestine for decades
when i was on the beach in gaza i spread the ashes of esme, a jewish activist from the UK who spent much of her 80 plus years dedicated to peace in palestine. as the wind took her remains out to sea we promised her we would carry on. her family sent those ashes to california to travel w/me to gaza because this was her life’s work. let’s find solidarity in our struggle no matter our background or how long the road that brought us here and have wide arms for people who join our struggle yesterday today or tomorrow.
God bless her, there is only one way to stop wrongs being done, that is to speak out and face then head on… it is important that Jews who want peace and to live in peace stand up now… the good wishes of many will be with them
I agree wholeheartedly. (I’m thankful for annie, and Shmuel , and avi and danaa’s commentary on this blog).
May God bless her. Thank you for sharing. Moved me to tears.
i love the name of the boat. it brought tears to my eyes.
Lots of possible names come to mind. Maybe the Smadar Elhanan (daughter of Rami Elhanan and Nurit Peled-Elhanan, granddaughter of Mati Peled), or the Emil Grunzweig (Israeli peace activist killed by a grenade thrown at a demonstration in Jerusalem), or perhaps the Folke Bernadotte (particularly apt since some of the organisers are Swedish Jews).
i like the name ‘the jewish boat’. it speaks volumes.
annie,
No matter what they um … christen her, that is what everyone will call her and how she will be remembered.
If I were to decide the name of the boat, I would consider naming it “Jacob Israël de Haan”, who was murdered in Jerualem on June 30, 1924 by the Haganah. Here is an entry in Wikipedia:
link to en.wikipedia.org
It is bad luck to change the name of a ship, otherwise I would suggest Emily Henochowicz.
It is way past time that American Jews in particular, the principal enablers of the monster that calls itself the Jewish State of Israel, begin to be very concerned about the image they are projecting to other Americans. There are many things about Israel that are deeply antithetical to traditional American values, and unfortunately the mainstream American Jewish community permits no daylight between themselves and Israel, nor between the U.S. government and Israel. What many Jews refer to as their commitment to Israel is seen by many non-Jewish Americans as pernicious allegiance to a foreign power that endangers their nation.
If this deplorable situation doesn’t improve fast, it is not going to go nearly so well for American Jews as a group.
Very true, non Jews feel like their government has been taken over by a foreign power, in fact it feels like a totalitarian stateruled by a Jewish Oligarchy sometimes.
Many, many Americans feel this way, but there is a vast wall of resistance to saying so, lest this be perceived as antisemitism.
And, in fact, I think it is realistic to suppose that there would be some anti-Jewish reaction if this circumstance were widely discussed. The Jewish fear is not unfounded.
Yet I have to come to the conclusion that it may be necessary, and worth it, if this stranglehold on our national policies is ever to be broken. And this will be very, very difficult for most Jews to accept. Always, “but this will cause antisemitism” has been an absolute, unanswerable argument. This has to change.
And I desperately don’t want to see the backlash that’s going to result from the American public growing more and more aware that the paralysis in their government comes, in part, from a specific foreign country to which every politician at the national level is compelled to pledge allegiance to in addition to the US.
But I can no longer stop it. The only people who might have stood in the way of such a backlash was the progressive movement, and we’ve been outmaneuvered and hamstrung by the Democratic Party.
And now the Democratic Party itself is at the breaking point. And if you don’t believe me, just wait until after the 2010 elections.
I have to conclude that the backlash will be bad, but the alternative, letting this stranglehold tighten even further, can only be worse.
They’re so in-your-face, everywhere, how can one not notice.
Potsherd and Chaos, I don’t think that the backlash has to be motivated by anti-Semitism. Opposition to excessive Jewish political power need not equate to antipathy toward Jews as individuals, as a religion, or as a “people”. I certainly hope not.
I do recognize that there will be more of that than exists currently in America. But responsible opponents of excessive Jewish political power and media influence will know and remember that the enemy is Zionism, not American Jews or Jewry itself.
It doesn’t make sense to educate people and encourage them to do the right thing if at the moment they do learn and act we sneer at them for the period of time when they didn’t understand or act.
Well said, homingpigeon.
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. The Zionists have been destroying careers since 1900. Have you read “publish it not”, Taxi? It deals with this dirty subject in some depth.
And, BTW, have you Americans been informed of this average American beaten three times after he jumped his flotilla boat when the Israeli navy took it over? link to salon.com
And finally rescued by the U.S. Government.
(Funny that the officials had Greek accents, and flew him to Greece.)
Greeks originally got him out of the clutches of the Israelis, not the US government.
Ok. So we now have confirmation that the governments of Greece and Turkey have helped free American citizens, or their corpses, from Israel. Exactly how many has our own government helped? It will be interesting to see the final tally.
I’ve yet to see Obama on TV talking about the American who was shot point-blank, the other shot in her artistic eye, or the guy referred to above who who was beaten thrice (before the cock crowed?”
any chance phil or adam are going? either way, this is good news.. wish they had have been the first boat to go.. the pressure must continue to be put on israel to end it’s prison camp mentality and ongoing descent into apartheid..
Compelling account of Israeli attack on Rachel Corrie here:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
That woman was on the Turkish ship, Polly. The one w/ the raid.
oops
Interesting post on a major financial cooperative blog Project Syndicate by Fania Oz-Salzberger; interesting so much for its analysis/position but interesting as to who posted it and where,
Fania Oz-Salzberger is Professor at Haifa and Monash Universities and the 2009/10 Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values.
link to project-syndicate.org
The BBC is always flabbergasting. This is from their “Q&A: Israeli raid on aid flotilla”:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
Seriously.
More news. This afternoon, it was decided that a ship with supplies will be leaving Beirut next week for Gaza. Regrettably, the ship can take only 50 passengers and even more regrettably, the places appear reserved mostly for parliamentarians and journalists. The Archbishop of Jerusalem as well as Abbas Nasser (Jazeera) that have just been released by Israel a couple of days ago will be on the ship next week.
The ship will be called the Naji al-Ali after a famous Palestinian cartoonist (drew 40,000 political cartoons and spared no one) that was assassinated in 1987 in London. An unknown youth opened fire on Naji al-Ali outside the London office of Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas on the 22 July 1987, hitting him in the right temple. He remained unconscious until his death on 29 August 1987. Although his will requested that he be buried in Beirut’s Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp beside his father, this proved impossible to arrange and he was buried in Brookwood Islamic Cemetery outside London. It is still not known who was responsible for his assassination. British police investigating the killing arrested a 28-year-old Jerusalem-born Jordanian researcher at Hull University, Isma’il Hassan Sawan, and found a cache of weapons in his apartment that they said were intended for terrorist attacks around Europe; he was only charged with possession of weapons and explosives. Police said Sawan was a member of the PLO, though that organisation denied any involvement.
Under interrogation, Sawan confessed that he worked for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, which he said was aware of the plot to kill the cartoonist. By refusing to pass on the relevant information to their British counterparts, Mossad earned the displeasure of Britain, which retaliated by expelling two Israeli diplomats from London. A furious Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, closed Mossad’s London base in Palace Green, Kensington. (from Wiki)
Looks like Mossad has been doing tricks from way back.
Naji-l-Ali is the creator of the iconic cartoon character “Hanthala” the Palestinian child who’s always represented turning his back hands crossed at the back. This character became the symbolic representation of the uprooted Palestinian thrown into a refugee camp, hopeless, helpless and waiting in despair.
Here:
link to worldbulletin.net
There’s a Facebook site to sign up for the next ship to Gaza–departing from the USA (despite Sherman):
link to facebook.com
Apparently, the Israelis refer to the ‘Rachel Corrie’ as the’ Linda’, its previous name. It seems that the phrase ‘Rachel Corrie’ has some seriously bad juju with the mighty IDF.
link to warincontext.org
I believe that something significant has shifted as a result of Israel’s brutality, blatant disregard for human life and violation of International Law…
Many people have been struggling for Palestinian rights and for many years, including Muslims, Christians and Jews (and others). Let us just call ourselves human beings.
The massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara is a game changer. This was seen by the world, while for so many years, much of the world has turned a blind eye to the Palestinian People and their plight.
We have seen apathy in the anti-war movement, we have been witness to inertia and a near grinding halt to many movements concerned with peace and social justice, since the ‘selection’ of Obama.
What we are witnessing now is a real shift and significant movement with regard to the Palestinian Cause: The world is demanding an end to the siege of Gaza. This is a starting place, much more needs to be done… Walls need to come down.. Borders need to be opened and eventually we need to see a real ‘solution’ to the issues, not meaningless ‘road maps’ which lead to nowhere…
Shifts as significant as this can be dangerous and events can push us even closer to serious conflict…
This battle will be won, ship by ship, country by country and human being by human being and we will come in waves. Waves so strong, they cannot be ignored.
This is where the rubber meets the road, the momentum must be maintained.
This endless name calling and bickering between factions (Jews, Christians, Muslims) distracts us from our true purpose, which should be to Free The People, not only of Gaza, but in all of Palestine.
And if you are Jewish, Muslim, Christian or other, then you are welcome to the cause!
And if we can do this thing, that seems so huge, so insurmountable, what might we do next?
We just might be able to get the anti-war movement off of its collective arse and move on to more pro-active solutions to ending the plethora of illegal wars, plaguing our planet.
Our strength and our safety is in our numbers and in our unity, this includes those beyond the left-right political paradigm.
If you are anti-war Libertarian, you are welcome, if you are anti-war Republicans, you are welcome, if you are true anti-war Democrats, welcome. Third party? Welcome. No party? Welcome…
It is time to grab our boot straps and get our heads out of the sand. Shake off these ridiculous paradigms and rise to the cause.
If we don’t, it won’t just be the Palestinians who are done for, it will be all of us.
We are standing on a dangerous precipice… If we do not mobilize now, if we do not unite now, under one common banner for peace, we may yet be witness to global war and quite possibly nuclear war.
These flotillas, trying repeatedly to break the blockade and siege of Gaza, time and again, have given us collective strength and purpose.
This should galvanize all of us who support Peace and Social Justice.
Do not let all those innocents who have sacrificed their lives, on ships and on land, in Gaza, in all of Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, sacrifice for nothing.
Make peace happen!
In peace and in solidarity-
Peace, Salaam, Shalom
THIS would be interesting!
link to haaretz.com
Europe is complicit in the torture of Gaza. Without tacit EU support the siege would never have got off the ground. Israel is the leader but has been supported throughout , shamefully, by Europe.
Swedish dockworkers will launch a weeklong blockade of Israeli ships and goods arriving in the Nordic nation to protest Monday’s attack on a Gaza-destined aid lotilla.
Swedish Port Workers Union spokesman Peter Annerback says workers will refuse to handle Israeli goods and ships during the June 15-24 blockade. The union has some 1,500 members and supports Ship to Gaza, which took part in the flotilla
2 positive developments. Once the workers get onside Israel has no chance.
link to haaretz.com
Representatives of the trade union movement said positive action was now needed as a result of Israeli action saying workers around the world were developing a boycott programme of Israeli goods that was now gathering momemtum as a way of supporting the Palestinian people.
link to rte.ie
Why not a ship from New York?
Brad Sherman would throw them all in jail for treasonous terrorism.
There’s a Facebook site to sign up for the next ship to Gaza–departing from the USA (despite Sherman):
link to facebook.com
Prime Minister Erdogan may himself be on the next Turkish flotilla to Gaza. Erdogan plans to sail to Gaza. What a man! If only we had leaders like that.
A lot of Arabs are today wishing the same thing, Lysias.
Turkish Prosecutors Open Investigation into Israeli Attack on Mavi Marmara:
Report: Turkish PM May Sail to Gaza Himself
Erdogan Would Bring New Flotilla, Turkish Navy With Him
by Jason Ditz, June 05, 2010
link to news.antiwar.com
According to this, The Turks are considering another convoy, but this time with a naval escort and the PM aboard.
I guess I should read over the comments more closely next time. :D Sorry Lysias, I didn’t realise you had already posted the information.
I don’t mind. The more often an important story is posted, the better.
And I think I discovered, after having posted this news myself, that somebody else had posted it on this forum before me. As I’m sure I must have done with other stories in the past.
>> ”Jüdische Stimme,” or Jewish Voice for Peace, along with European Jews for a Just Peace in the Near East, and Jews for Justice For Palestinians (UK) are “sending a call to the leaders of the world: Help Israel find her way back to reason, to a sense of humanity and a life without fear.”
Now that sounds like “nurturing” and a “better argument”! I’m surprised that RW hasn’t chimed with condemnations, caveats and several paragraphs of bafflegab. Perhaps he’s still discombobulated at being a victim of “divide and conquer”… ;-)
It would be nice touch if they coordinate with Iranian aid flotilla…