[PAA-Discuss] FW: How Could I Not Go? - An American Jew Sails to Gaza; Alice Walker video; State Dept Tells Flotilla Passengers Not to Go

[Lee Loe]

 Moving, comprehensive statement from Jane Herschmann. HPN nick? Lee

-----Original Message-----
From: Portside Moderator [mailto:moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG] 
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 9:13 PM
To: PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: How Could I Not Go? - An American Jew Sails to Gaza; Alice Walker
video; State Dept Tells Flotilla Passengers Not to Go

How Could I Not Go? - An American Jew Sails to Gaza; Alice Walker video;
State Dept Tells Flotilla Passengers Not to Go


1. How Could I Not Go? - An American Jew Sails to Gaza (Jane
Hirschmann)
2. New video statement from US BOAT TO GAZA passenger Alice Walker 3. U.S.
State Dep't to American flotilla passengers: Drop dead

==========

How Could I Not Go?
An American Jew Sails to Gaza

By Jane Hirschmann

CounterPunch

June 20, 2011

http://www.counterpunch.org/hirschmann06202011.html

People often ask me why I am part of a team to organize a U.S. Boat to Gaza
that will be sailing this month with the next International Flotilla to
break the siege of Gaza. They often make clear they are asking because I am
an American Jew, whose family survived the Holocaust with some surviving
family members ending up in Israel. And my only answer is:
How could I not?

My parents raised me with stories about what happened in Germany and their
family's escape. I came to see that Israel represented for them a safe haven
should there be another attempt at annihilating Jews. And yet, at the same
time, they worried it was not so safe a haven given the animosity and
physical threats and violence in the area.

But no one ever mentioned the displacement of 750,000 Arabs that was the
result of the creation of Israel. I vaguely knew there were people living
there, but I was never curious about who these "others" were. All I took
away from my family's history and the atrocities endured was that this
should never happen again to anyone, anywhere.

Growing up in the '60s, I became active in opposition to the war in Vietnam,
the anti-apartheid struggle and the women's rights movement and later became
involved in opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a social worker, I
was focused on social justice issues but never questioned the relationship
between the U.S. and Israel and their policies regarding Palestinians.

Then came the war on Gaza and a real political awakening for me. Operation
Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report were the catalysts. In November 2008, the
ceasefire ended: Israeli soldiers broke it in a cross-border raid killing
six members of Hamas and, in response, rockets were launched into Israel.
Israel, fortified with American weaponry, attacked the people of Gaza.
Approximately 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed compared to
13 Israelis. Gaza was pulverized. Judge Richard Goldstone and his team did a
thorough report of the causalities on both sides. There was no doubt that
the people of Gaza were disproportionally affected.

Right after the invasion in Gaza I realized I could no longer remain silent.
I became one of the organizers of a group called Jews Say No! in New York
City. We wanted to speak out and to make clear that the Israeli government
did not speak in our name as they claimed. I began reading about the
occupation, settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the building of
the separation wall, Jewish-only streets for Israeli settlers, special
identity papers for Palestinian citizens of Israel (one step away from
wearing a yellow star) and the other indignities endured by the people of
Palestine on a daily basis. And I saw the total collusion by the U.S.
government - its unconditional support no matter what the Israeli government
did, including giving them 30 billion dollars over a 10-year period for
weaponry (F16s, Apache helicopters, white phosphorous, Caterpillar
bulldozers used to destroy homes in Bedouin encampments) used ruthlessly
against the Palestinians. This was intolerable for me.

I understand the fears and frustrations of Israelis being fired upon by
rockets and the resultant deaths and injuries.
But what about the thousands of Palestinians being killed and whose homes,
schools, hospitals, farms, mills, factories and infrastructure are being
destroyed? What about a people living under a brutal occupation who are
being denied the right to live with dignity in their own homeland?

The siege and blockade of Gaza continue. The Israeli government controls the
land, sea and air of this small area
(25 miles long and roughly six miles wide) where 1.6 million people live.
There has been no movement in recent years unless Israel allowed it.
(Egypt's partial opening of the Rafah gate to human traffic, though not to
commerce, is a positive sign if it is allowed to grow). Most people cannot
travel in or out of Gaza because of continuing restrictions,
61 percent of the population is food insecure, the unemployment rate is
around 45 percent, one of the highest in the world, and exports remain
banned with the exception of limited items like strawberries and carnations
for European markets. Gaza is called an open-air prison even by England's
Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Given all this, I can remain silent no longer. Every day Palestinians are
confronting the Israeli government at the wall, at check points, at
demolition sites. They risk their lives. Like the Freedom Rides our boat is
sailing to call attention to the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza.

My humanity and my Jewishness - Jewish history - demand my being part of an
organizing effort to end the inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. The
U.S. Boat, called The Audacity of Hope, will sail in late June to Gaza as
part of the Freedom Flotilla 2-Stay Human. We will be approximately 50
individuals from across the U.S. committed to non- violence, human rights
and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.

To date, tens of thousands of individuals and over 80 organizations have
endorsed this U.S. campaign and each day more sign on to travel with us in
name. We travel in peace for justice, and I am proud to be part of this
international effort.

[Jane Hirschmann is a member of Jews Say No! in New York City and one of the
national organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. Hirschmann has been active in
anti-war efforts for the past four decades. She is a psychotherapist and the
co- author of three books. More information about the The Audacity of Hope
is available at www.ustogaza.org ]

==========

New video statement from US BOAT TO GAZA passenger Alice Walker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W_mzsjYelQ&feature=BFa&list=PL5F70010FC2A94E
B9&index=17

June 22, 2011

0:32

Passenger Alice Walker talks about why she is going aboard the US Boat to
Gaza with the Stay Human Flotilla at the end of the month.

Bio: Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated author, poet and activist
whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four
children's books, and volumes of essays and poetry. She's best known for The
Color Purple, the 1983 novel for which she won the Pulitzer Prize-the first
African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction-and the National
Book Award. The award- winning novel served as the inspiration for Steven
Spielberg's 1985 film and was adapted for the stage, opening at New York
City's Broadway Theatre in 2005, and capturing a Tony Award for best leading
actress in a musical in 2006.Walker has written many additional best
sellers; among them, Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), which detailed the
devastating effects of female genital mutilation and led to the 1993
documentary "Warrior Marks," a collaboration with the British-Indian
filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, and We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For:
Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. (2009). Her work has been translated into
more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen
million copies. Along with the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award,
Walker's awards and fellowships include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a
residency at Yaddo. In 2006, she was honored as one of the inaugural
inductees into the California Hall of Fame. In 2007, her archives were
opened to the public at Emory University. In 2010 she presented the key note
address at The 11th Annual Steve Biko Lecture at the University of Cape
Town, Cape Town, South Africa, and was awarded the Lennon/Ono Peace Grant in
Reykjavik, Iceland. (Walker donated this latter award to an orphanage for
the children of AIDS victims in East Africa.)

Walker's most recent works are: Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters
the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Palestine/Israel; Hard Times Require
Furious Dancing; The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker; and
The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting With the Angels Who Have Returned With My
Memories, a Memoir. She also writes regularly on her blog site at
www.alicewalkersgarden.com

Walker has been an activist all of her adult life, and believes that
learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work
available to all. She is a staunch defender not only of human rights, but of
the rights of all living beings. She is one of the world's most prolific
writers, yet tirelessly continues to travel the world to literally stand on
the side of the poor, and the economically, spiritually and politically
oppressed. She also stands, however, on the side of the revolutionaries,
teachers and leaders who seek change and transformation of the world. Upon
returning from Gaza in 2008, Walker said, "Going to Gaza was our opportunity
to remind the people of Gaza and ourselves that we belong to the same world:
the world where grief is not only acknowledged, but shared; where we see
injustice and call it by its name; where we see suffering and know the one
who stands and sees is also harmed, but not nearly so much as the one who
stands and sees and says and does nothing."

==========

U.S. State Dep't to American flotilla passengers: Drop dead

by Philip Weiss 

Mondoweiss - The War of Ideas in the Middle East June 22, 2011

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/u-s-state-dept-to-american-flotilla-passengers
-drop-dead.html

The State Department has issued a new travel advisory for Gaza warning
Americans not to go there by sea because Israel might try and kill them.
With impunity.

Three dozen Americans are now preparing to travel to Gaza by sea on the
flotilla. But the State Department warning says:

    The security environment within Gaza, including its
    border with Egypt and its seacoast, is dangerous and
    volatile. U.S. citizens are advised against traveling to
    Gaza by any means, including via sea. Previous attempts
    to enter Gaza by sea have been stopped by Israeli naval
    vessels and resulted in the injury, death, arrest, and
    deportation of U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens
    participating in any effort to reach Gaza by sea should
    understand that they may face arrest, prosecution, and
    deportation by the Government of Israel... On May 31,
    2010, nine people were killed, including one U.S.
    citizen, in such an attempt.

That U.S. citizen was of course Furkan Dogan, a 19 year old permanent
resident of Turkey who witnesses said was shot repeatedly as he attempted to
photograph the commandos on the Mavi Marmara. Ali Gharib says, "if you try
to travel to Gaza, Israel might kill you." And:

    During his recent visit to Washington, Israeli Prime
    Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked that "America has
    no better friend than Israel." As Matthew Yglesias
    pointed out , the statement is "absurd." This seems
    borne out by a travel warning that tells citizens not to
    try to get to Gaza by sea so that they don't risk
    getting shot by their country's "best friend."

Oh and here's Tablet echoing the State Department:
"Supporters of the blockade should be untroubled by the prospect of Israel
enforcing it with precision and compassion." Huh?

==========

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that
will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

Submit via email: portside at portside.org

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate