Israeli Navy arrests Gaza-bound French boat

 “We call on the Israeli government to end the siege and blockade of Gaza, treat the people of Palestine in compliance with international law.”

Several Israeli naval ships early today stopped the French-flagged ship Dignite/Al Karama on the last leg of its voyage en route to Gaza. Sixteen people — French, Canadian, Greek, Swedish, Tunisians — were aboard the small boat passing in international waters, approximately 40 miles off the Gaza Strip.

By 6 a.m. the Israeli military had taken control of the boat and was bringing it to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where the people onboard Dignite “would be arrested.”  At the time of the alert, there had been no reports of injuries but “all communication with the passengers on the Dignite had been cut off.”

The Dignite “carried a message of solidarity and human empathy from the people of the world to the people of Gaza, and all of Palestine, that Israel’s violence can never silence. The journey of this small boat is further evidence that the will of global civil society cannot be intimidated.

“As long as the illegal blockade of Gaza remains in place, ships will sail to confront it. As long as Israel continues its occupation, and violent repression of Palestinians and our governments are silent about it, the global solidarity movement will mobilize nonviolently and directly to challenge it.

“The Israeli government’s belief that Freedom Flotilla II can be stopped misunderstands the nature of this non-violent movement and its purpose to end the siege of Gaza. Despite most of the Freedom Flotilla II being unable to leave Greek ports, the flotilla highlighted the vicious nature of Israel’s policy toward Gaza. Israeli leaders showed their willingness to use intimidation, lies, economic blackmail and threats of violence and sabotage to stop boats that Israeli military officials acknowledged would not be carrying weapons. This clearly demonstrates that Israel’s  blockade of Gaza is not based on ‘security’ but is meant to punish the 1.7 million people living in Gaza; deny their freedom; and cut them off from the rest of the world.”

The international community’s failure to take tangible measures to uphold United Nations resolutions and Palestinian human rights makes possible the Israeli government’s continued violations of international law and human rights of Palestinians. “As the American passengers on The Audacity of Hope directly experienced in Greece, some major powers — including the U.S. government and the European Union — have been willing to ignore international law and human rights to appease the Israeli government.  International civil society has no recourse other than to take nonviolent direct action.”

The Dignite is one member of the larger Freedom Flotilla II that had planned sailing together to Gaza in late June. All other ships, including the U.S. flagged ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ were delayed earlier by Greece. The Greek government had refused the boats permission to sail — “an egregious act of complicity in Israel’s policy toward Gaza that the International Committee of the Red Cross has determined to be ‘collective punishment.’”

The Dignite had set out from a French port and the French government refused to interfere with this nonviolent civilian human rights initiative. That government permitted the ship to sail into international Mediterranean waters without problems. The Dignite and its passengers represent the steadfastness and determination of the flotilla movement to sail until the blockade is broken.

Reference/contact

Freedom Flotilla II’s French-flagged Dignite/Al Karama alerts

For information about the Dignite, Huwaida Arraf 202-294-8813

UStoGaza: 

We urge you to contact the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. (202-364-5500) to call for the immediate release of Dignite/Al Karama. We call on the Israeli government to end the siege and blockade of Gaza, and to treat the people of Palestine in compliance with international law. Ustogaza.com

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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No matter what, “We set sail”

“We are coming to Gaza”

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

On Saturday, the French boat ‘Dignity/Karama’ left the port of l'ile Rousse in Corsica, France. It will “meet up with at least nine other vessels — carrying nearly 3,000 tons of aid and hundreds of civilians from dozens of countries, including members of parliament, politicians, writers, artists, journalists and sports figures, representatives of indigenous peoples, various faith groups — sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade.…

“The Freedom Flotilla has set sail,” says a statement issued yesterday from the international steering committee of Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human.

“[D]espite intimidation, pressure, and threats of violence from the Israeli government, which is not ashamed to boast that it will use snipers and attack dogs against unarmed civilians,” the statement said, “we will sail.

“We are part of a growing movement, led by Palestinian civil society campaigning for their freedom that Israel’s strong-arm tactics cannot stop. We call on our governments to do their utmost to protect their citizens as we take to the sea, without weapons or protection or threat of force, in defense of freedom, human rights, and the rule of law.

“Gaza, we are coming.”

Alice Walker spoke from Athens giving her reasons for going to Gaza. Her statement excerpted with minor editing here was rebroadcast today on Pacifica’s Democracy Now.

“I am going to Gaza, the American writer said, “because my government has failed. It has failed us. It has failed to understand or to care about the people of Gaza.

“Worse than that: our government is ignorant of our own history in the United States.… [W]hen black people were enslaved for 300 years, it took a lot of people from outside of our communities to come to help free us. … [D]uring the [1960s] civil rights movement … it took people from outside our own communities to come and help us free ourselves.

“This is a fine tradition of going to people who need us wherever they exist on the planet. This is our responsibility. This is what we are here for as human beings.…

“So [to] Gazans — especially to the children — we are on our way. We hear you. We are coming.”

“… Hillary Clinton may put up all the protests she likes. She may say that we should not travel, that it is dangerous. We know it is dangerous. …

“[W]hen the U.S. government in the person of our president makes a speech about [the Middle East] and really speaks only to Israelis and not to Palestinians — this is unacceptable.

“We cannot accept this. We look at what has happened to the Palestinian people for all of these decades and see it is insufferable.…

“We will not accept it. We will not.

“As Americans, with our history of enslavement of people, of segregation, of apartheid, of brutalization, of lynching — we will not accept this.…

“This is our present. This is our future.… [I]f we work on these issues … we are beginning to see, we are freeing ourselves of the myths that have crippled us, beginning to see what is the truth. [I]f we can see what is the truth in this situation, we will free ourselves to work on the real issue for humanity, protecting earth.”

Sources and notes

“Despite pressure and threats of violence, flotilla will sail —This statement was issued earlier today from the international steering committee of Freedom Flotilla II - Stay Human” (on rabble.ca), June 27, 2011, http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/canadianboattogaza/2011/06/despite-pressure-and-threats-violence-flotilla-will-sail#comment-1266502; http://rabble.ca

“It Takes People On the Outside: Prestigious Author Alice Walker to Confront Israeli Naval Blockade of Gaza on U.S. Aid Ship.” http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/28/it_takes_people_on_the_outside

Alice Walker is one of the United States’ celebrated authors, poets and activists.

News World Organizers say Israel pressuring Greece to halt departure of flotilla to blockaded Gaza

http://www.1310news.com/news/world/article/246253--organizers-say-israel-pressuring-greece-to-halt-departure-of-gaza-flotilla

Alice Walker, June 10, 2011, Mendocino, Ca, “That is why I sail,” .http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/canadianboattogaza/2011/06/alice-walker-why-i-am-sailing-gaza-freedom-flotilla

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/canadianboattogaza/2011/06/despite-pressure-and-threats-violence-flotilla-will-sail

Canadian Boat to Gaza Canada4Gaza FF2StayHuman flotilla2 Gaza rabblers Gaza

Source URL (retrieved on June 28 2011 - 2:22pm): http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/canadianboattogaza/2011/06/despite-pressure-and-threats-violence-flotilla-will-sail

Links: http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/canadianboattogaza/2011/06/despite-pressure-and-threats-violence-flotilla-will-sail#comment-1266502

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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Middle East, Africa, U.S. reeling

Under U.S. Occupation, Threat, War

Compiled and Edited by Carolyn Bennett

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting June 26, 2011

(Accurate totals unknown)

Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20,

2009: 237] Information out of date

•

Wounded 33,080-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: June 26, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

•

Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

101,426 – 110,810

Full analysis of the WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs may add 15,000 civilian deaths.  http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

•

ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN:

1,637 United States

2,552 Coalition

IRAQ:

4,463 United States

4,781 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, U.S. Threatened

Following major delays in deliveries of medical supplies from the West Bank, a medical crisis is unfolding, health authorities in the Gaza Strip are warning. Medical shortages, says Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba in Gaza, “have increased calls for an end to Israel’s blockade and Palestinian disunity.”

Freedom ships, Free press

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has branded freedom ships to Gaza a  ‘provoking act’— “‘We do not believe that the flotilla is a necessary or useful effort to try to assist the people of Gaza.’”

Press TV reports, “Israel and the United States have threatened journalists and human rights campaigners against taking part in a Gaza Strip-bound aid mission.”

Reuters reported the director of Israel’s Government Press Office today saying that joining the Freedom Flotilla II convoy could “‘lead to participants being denied entry into…Israel for ten years, to the impounding of their equipment and to additional sanctions.’”

The Foreign Press Association responded, saying, “The government’s threat to punish journalists covering the Gaza flotilla sends a chilling message to the international media and raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment to freedom of the press.”

Nevertheless, the second Freedom Flotilla — ten ships carrying 1,000 activists from 20 countries — readies sail for the besieged Gaza Strip; and, Israeli daily Haaretz, has “revealed that the Israeli military held a large drill for special commandos and snipers to prepare to intercept the flotilla.”

A statement issued by the Rumbo a Gaza [trans. Sailing to Gaza] Spanish civil society initiative says, “Israel has warned foreign diplomats in Tel Aviv to get ready to ‘face the consequences.’”

Thousands of personalities from around the world are supporting the second flotilla and calling on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to urge governments to take necessary measures to guarantee the safety of people taking part in the mission.

Among the prominent peace and human rights activists calling on the UN secretary general are Nobel Peace Prize-winners Rigoberta Menchú of Guatemala, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, Jody Williams of the United States, and Shirin Ebadi of Iran.

U.S.-War, Occupied AFGHANISTAN

Six (est.) Afghan police died Wednesday in an assault at a checkpoint. Another four officers died when a roadside bomb exploded as the officers travelled to the scene in Ghazni province’s Qarabagh district, about 120km southwest of Kabul.

The deputy governor of Ghazni, Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, is reported to have said, “‘Probably one of the police officers at the checkpoint had a previous deal with the insurgents and cooperated with and facilitated the assault.’”

In a similar attack on their checkpoint in that district earlier this month, three more police officers died.

Around 130,000 international troops occupy Afghanistan under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Among them are an estimated 90,000 forces from the United States.

U.S.-War PAKISTAN

Displaced by conflict, war, occupation

More people have been displaced by recent operations in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area. The route via Afghanistan [and the border region where foreign forces transport materiel into Afghanistan] has been closed, limiting the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to civilians.

Pakistan’s tribal northwest is said to be under siege. The only road connecting the Parachinar district bordering Afghanistan to the rest of Pakistan has been blocked by Taliban fighters since 2007.

In March, more than 40 people traveling on the Thal-Parachinar road were kidnapped. Women and children were freed, seven men died, 30 remained in captivity for nearly three months. After negotiations involving tribal elders, the Pakistani government, and varying Taliban factions, 22 of the captives were set free on June 21.

Of $6.6 billion in U.S. military aid to Pakistan during 2003-2009 for ‘counter-terrorism’ measures, “only $500 million had been used for that purpose,” this according to two Pakistani generals’ statements to the Associated Press in 2009. “The rest of the funds went to Pakistan’s ‘defense against India.’”

U.S. War LIBYA

A speaker for NATO again has denied civilian killings or that the alliance “[targeted] buildings in an abandoned area of Brega.” However, “Libyan state TV reported that at least 15 people were killed in strikes on civilian sites in this eastern city.”

Witnesses reportedly heard loud explosions in the Libyan capital Tripoli as jets flew over the city. On Saturday, a Reuters correspondent reportedly heard four explosions in Tripoli as jets flew overhead on two occasions. The blasts appeared to have come from the eastern suburb of Tajura. Libya’s state TV “referred to a NATO ‘war of extermination’ and ‘crimes against humanity.’”

U.S.-Occupied Iraq

More than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business.

Currently about 50,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in Iraq. This month has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces in this country since May 2009.

Today two U.S. soldiers reportedly died in northern Iraq. The soldiers were said to have been “conducting operations.”Since the start of June, approximately 11 U.S. soldiers have died. “Sunday’s casualties,” according to icasualties.org, “raise the death toll for U.S. forces in Iraq since March 2003 to 4,465.

Earlier in the day, there had been an attack on Kirkuk. No casualties or damage was reported but the report said unidentified gunmen had launched a mortar attack on a U.S. military airbase in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Sources and notes

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, U.S. Threatened

“Blockaded Gaza Strip nears ‘medical crisis’— Territory running out of medical supplies due to major delays in West Bank deliveries,” June 24, 2011,  

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/06/20116248514672596.html

“Israel, U.S. declare war on flotilla,” June 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186351.html

“Flotilla II prepares to sail for Gaza — Freedom Flotilla II, comprising ten ships carrying 1,000 activists from 20 countries prepares to sail to Gaza,” 24, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011623152134419503.html

U.S.-War, Occupied AFGHANISTAN

“Police killed at Afghanistan checkpoint — Taliban claims responsibility for attack killing six officers, as the US prepares for a troop withdrawal,” June 22, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/201162216912642382.html

U.S.-War PAKISTAN

“A community under siege in tribal Pakistan — As U.S. prepares troop withdrawal, Taliban’s strong hold on border regions reveals Pakistan's vulnerability, June 25, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011622182410260797.html

U.S. War LIBYA

“NATO denies killing civilians in Libya strike  — Capital Tripoli hit in fresh raid as state TV reports that 15 people were killed in Brega,” June 25, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/201162513183844244.html

U.S.-Occupied Iraq

“Two U.S. soldiers killed in northern Iraq,” June 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186379.html

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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