Going to Gaza
As September approaches, a potentially momentous political event looms before us: the admission – or not – of Palestine as a member state of the UN. There are diverse opinions on whether this is a good or bad thing, but the discussion must be held, and quickly. Those of us concerned with the upholding of human rights and fair play in this world know that we cannot ignore this complicated issue which deserves serious and detailed consideration. The fate of the Middle East…
A year ago, Freedom Flotilla 1 was attacked by the Israeli navy causing the deaths of nine crew members aboard the Mavi Marmara. The new flotilla will consist of 10 boats (two of them cargo ships), supported by campaigns in over 20 countries, including the UK. The Mavi Marmara, however, has pulled out of the flotilla, under pressure from the Turkish government.
On 16 May, a Malaysian ship carrying 7.5km of sewage pipes for Gaza’s shattered sewage system was fired on by Israeli naval…
The El Sueno Existe music festival is held from 11-13 August in Machynlleth in the beautiful Dyfi valley. It is a vibrant fusion of Welsh and Latin American music, dance, poetry, film and political discussion, taking inspiration from Victor Jara, the Chilean theatre director and singer-songwriter who has become a symbol of the struggle for human rights and justice across Latin America.
This year, the festival will feature workshops and talks from on the theme Latin America rising: “…
“Our South Africa moment has finally arrived,” is Omar Barghouti’s rallying call for a global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement to support the struggle for human rights in Palestine. In this book he eloquently and persuasively sets out the arguments for BDS against Israel in order to end its oppression of the Palestinians that is in defiance of both UN resolutions and international law.
Academic and co-founder of BDS, Barghouti draws on the South African anti-apartheid…
Vittorio Arrigoni, an outspoken Italian peace activist, was murdered in Gaza on 14 April, after being abducted by an anti-Hamas, al-Qa’eda-inspired group. Arrigoni arrived in Gaza on a Free Gaza Movement siege-busting boat in 2008.
After Arrigoni’s kidnap by a group known as “Tawhid and Jihad”, a video was posted on YouTube showing the 36-year-old, who was working with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), being tortured and beaten. The group demanded the…
During my time working with the International Women’s Peace Service I have witnessed many human rights abuses in the West Bank, Palestine – house demolitions, settler violence, army and settler destruction of olive trees and fields, army intimidation of workers – the list goes on. But none has been more heart - rending than the Israeli attempt to crush the nonviolent Popular Resistance to the Occupation in the small village of Nabi Saleh. The objectives of the resistance are to end the…
At four in the morning on New Year’s Day 2011, a group of young Afghan peace makers and their much older US colleagues huddled around a laptop computer in Kabul, to begin a 24-hour conversation with people from all over the world: “Dear Afghanistan”.
The effort consisted of an entire day of Skyped-in phone calls, emails, Facebook and Twitter posts, with the goals of providing an opportunity for world citizens to learn about Afghanistan first-hand from experts – people trying to…
Afghan Youth
An excerpt from a conversation between the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (in Kabul) and Noam Chomsky (in the US) on 17 December 2010:
Abdulai: My name is Abdulai. Obama announced in his diagnostic December review that the US is making significant progress in Afghanistan. Could you please comment on this review being a “diagnostic” review rather than a real, evaluative review of facts on the ground?
Chomsky: Well of course you know vastly more about what's…
Asian Gaza convoy
The “Asia 1 solidarity convoy” entered the Gaza Strip on 2 January, to deliver 300 tons of medical and food supplies. The convoy started from Delhi on 2 December, but was refused permission to go through Pakistan, so went by air to Syria before heading to Egypt by sea. The Egyptians excluded Iranian and Jordanian participants.
One of the most poignant moments of the conference so far was Samarendra Das’s cry to the audience: “We do not want your research! It is not useful to us. We have simple questions, such as: what should the price of bauxite be?”
The interesting things here are “useful research” and “we – you”. What is that polarity?
Before talking about that, I should explain about the pricing question.
Bauxite is often found on mountain tops; it’s the raw material for aluminium. In India…
Late news: the latest Viva Palestina convoy, consisting of 43 vehicles with aid for Gaza and 100 internationals, entered Gaza at the end of October, having set off from the Embankment in London on 18 September.
The convoy was joined by vehicles along the way, and in Turkey met families of those killed in May on the Gaza aid flotilla. In Syria, vehicles carrying aid from North African and Gulf states joined them, swelling the numbers to 400 people in 143 vehicles.
Egypt…
The city of Bamiyan, with a population of roughly 60,000, has only one paved street, a wide, two-kilometer road without lanes that is a site of constant activity from 5am to curfew at 10pm, and is referred to as the “bazaar” because it is lined on both sides with shops.
In our short time here, we’ve been struck by how hard people, both in town and in the outlying villages, have to work to make a meagre living. Children clearly work hard, too, seeming to participate fully in the…
Part of the British “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) for Palestine movement attended the British Olympic ball on 24 September, to put pressure on the ball’s sponsor, BT, to cut its ties with Bezeq, supplier of telecommunications services to Israeli checkpoints, bases and illegal settlements.
Among the great and good in the world of sport and sports-sponsorship arriving at the red carpet at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London was a long pink stretch limo.
…
The latest attempt to break the Israeli siege of Gaza was organised by Jewish groups using a Jewish-crewed catamaran. The Irene was stopped and boarded by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on 28 September en route to Gaza with a cargo of aid.
The passengers included 82-year old Holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskowitz; former IDF pilot Yonatan Shapira; and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli who lost her daughter in a Palestinian suicide bombing. The IDF claimed that it used “no violence of any…
“We have been attacked while in international waters…the Israelis have behaved like pirates”. So says Henning Mankell describing the infamous attack by the Israeli army on the Gaza Aid Freedom Flotilla earlier this year. His piece is just one in a fine collection of articles edited by Moustafa Bayoumi, and published with admirable rapidity as a rebuttal to the official Israeli version of events.
This is an excellent resource for activists which provides both eyewitness accounts of the…
