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Video: Celebrities, artists and activists call for Palestinian freedom in #GazaNames project

The above video was just released at freedom4palestine.org. A press release explains the project:

A diverse group of celebrities, artists, and activists that includes American Jews and Palestinians are speaking out for Palestinian human rights in a video released online today. The video is a first of its kind expression of support for Palestinian freedom, equality and justice and features celebrities such as Chuck DJonathan DemmeGloria SteinemWallace ShawnTony KushnerMira NairRoger WatersBrian Eno, and others holding signs with the names and ages of Palestinian civilians recently killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

“The Israeli leaders seem sincere when they say they believe that their actions are appropriate. Apparently, one of ‘us’ is worth many more of ‘them,’” said actor and playwright Wallace Shawn, who provides the voice-over narration for the video. “American leaders know they are lying when they defend the murder of children in their beds. And we, the public, pay for the bombs, pay for the airplanes, and pretend not to notice what’s going on.”

As Israel continues its assault against the occupied, besieged, and blockaded Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since July 7, most of them civilians, a growing number of global citizens of conscience feel compelled to speak out against Israel’s disproportionate attack on the Palestinian people. In addition to those featured in this video, a growing number of celebrities have been speaking out via social media about the horrors we are witnessing in Gaza, as reported recently by BuzzFeed and The Hollywood Reporter.

“We wanted to provide a platform for the growing list of prominent individuals who are outraged by Israel’s brutal violence against Gaza’s civilian population,” said Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an organization that co-produced the video. “Our message is that securing freedom and justice for Palestinians is the only pathway to a lasting peace.”

“My family was forced to flee our beloved Jerusalem in 1948 and every day since then, we have longed for freedom,” said Nina Saah, an 83-year-old Nakba survivor featured in the video. “What is happening in Gaza breaks my heart all over again. And yet I am so moved by all those who have come together in this video and the outpouring of support I am seeing for Palestinians. It gives me hope that the people of the world will be the ones to change our situation and that freedom and justice will come.”

“This is a scream on paper. This is a wail,” said playwright Eve Ensler, one of the artists featured in the video. “There are no more words. Only this moment where we rise against the illegal and deathly occupation of Palestine, against mass slaughter of the defenseless, against the complicit silence of the international community, against the military might and arrogance of the Israeli and the U.S. governments who choose annihilation over justice and love.”

The fully list of participants is here. You can submit your photo to #GazaNames as well. The information is here.

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Speaking of celebrities and Gaza, Zayn Malik of the boy band One Direction posted a #freepalestine tweet and it got 160k likes and retweets. There has been an Israeli backlash with hashtags like #zaynyouhavefansinisrael which are kind of amusing until you realize that a lot of Israeli kids are more upset about this tweet than 1,000 people being slaughtered a few miles away.

Also, Madonna tweeted of facebooked a picture of flowers and said that they were for the children of Gaza…a statement of support a little more discreet than the display she put on in Israel the last time she was there.

I hope that this proves more powerful than the failing hasbara.

Thank you to the good folks who have stepped and are stepping forward.

U r preaching to the choir. There is no hope for changing support for apartheid
in Israel unless you reach the christian african americans, atinos, and whites. This should be easy if you can overcome the liberal nausea:

Ultra-Orthodox spitting attacks on Old City [christian] clergymen becoming daily
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ultra-orthodox-spitting-attacks-on-old-city-clergymen-becoming-daily-1.393669

On Eve of Pope’s visit to Israel, Radical Israeli Settlers attack Christian Village
http://www.juancole.com/2014/04/settlers-christian-village.html

“Even in our sovereign and independent country, we – as if still living in a shtetl of some bygone age, surrounded by a protective wall called Israel – preserve and foster a pathological view of Jewish-gentile relations. At present, all this trapped energy is directed at our Middle Eastern surroundings.

It’s not only the Arabs we can’t talk to: It’s also the United States, Europe or anyone else. We are a self-absorbed people who live within ourselves. The State of Israel is continuing to employ the strategy of alienation that was always practiced by the Jewish people. We cast all our cumulative historic accounting onto our Palestinian adversaries. They fulfill the present needs; in the past we had Pharaoh, Haman, Antiochus, Khmelnytsky and Hitler. Now it’s the Palestinians’ turn. ”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-peace-conference/1.601971

Brave of these good people to openly show their support for the poor civilians who have lost their lives through no fault of theirs. This is a great effort. Thank you.

It is unbelievable that the majority of celebrities, media personnel, and those who are in the limelight have this wall of silence, and never, ever, has the courage to whisper one negative word about the brutality of Israel, not a murmur about the children being blown apart, or horribly injured, and they are mothers, fathers, and family members. They, like all of us, see the horrible images on our television screens, or on the internet, and yet, there is a silence.
They seem to put their precious jobs and future prospects for lucrative roles and contracts, over showing sympathy for a powerless people, who deserve so much support, and the world to speak out for them. I guess their silence may mean they agree with this massacre in Gaza by Israel. Shame.

It seems evil strikes again, this time a park in Gaza:
Huffpost:
“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Gaza park was attacked Monday, killing at least 10 Palestinians, including children, a Palestinian health official said. Israelis and the Palestinians traded blame for the strike.

Children were playing on a swing when the strike hit the park in the Shati refugee camp on the edge of Gaza City, said Ayman Sahabani, head of the emergency room at nearby Shifa Hospital.

He gave the death toll and said 46 people also were wounded.

The strike on the park occurred a few minutes after the hospital’s outpatient clinic was hit, leaving several people wounded. Camera crews were prevented from filming the area of impact at Shifa.

Gaza’s police operations room, Civil Defense and Sahabani said the deaths and injuries were caused by Israeli airstrikes.”

They are the lowest of the low. Palestinian lives are cheap for them, by the way they keep blasting them with their 500 pound bombs. Must be Israel’s way of defending themselves from children and babies, considering the casualty numbers, they keep wiping out women and children. The cowards.