July 3, 2009
KIDNAPPED PASSENGERS OF HUMANITARIAN AID SHIP TO GAZA CHARGED WITH 'ILLEGAL ENTRY INTO ISRAEL’
Israel has a way of twisting the facts…. in the same manner that they twist their traditional Sabbath bread…. one is called 'Challah', the other is called 'Chutzpah'!
Commentary by Chippy Dee, Photos by Bud Korotzer….
On Wednesday afternoon, July 1st, hundreds of people gathered in NYC outside the Israeli Consulate to protest an act of piracy by the Israeli Navy. The navy attacked the Spirit of Humanity, a small boat flying the flag of Cyprus, in international waters, which was loaded with humanitarian supplies for the people of Gaza. The 21 aide workers were kidnapped and taken to Israel where they are still being held. One of the aide workers was Cynthia McKinney, former representative to the House of Representatives from Georgia and candidate for president on the Green Party ticket. The demonstration was called by NYC Councilmember Charles Barron and supported by several groups that oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestine and want justice for the Palestinian people.
There were many speakers. All decried the acts of piracy and kidnapping, demanded the release of all aide workers, and expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza. Israel’s refusal to allow aid to reach Gaza was considered an act of genocide. It was pointed out that when a similar act occurred by young Somalis US Navy SEALS were sent in and they were shot. But the acts of Israel are being ignored by the US government and the press.
One of the speakers was Yonatan Shapira, a former captain and pilot in the Israeli Air Force. He called the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) a terrorist organization and urged the crowd to work for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. Using a megaphone he addressed the people in the consulate in Hebrew. The time for meetings and talks are over, he said.
Other speakers, Shaka Shakur, NYC chair of the New Black Panther Party and Roger Wareham of the December 12th Movement Blacks Against Genocide said that the Black community here had much in common with the Palestinians in that they had a common enemy – racism.
As the demonstration was about to conclude Councilman Barron led the crowd across the street to the doors of the consulate. Many police stood between the doors and the crowd. He said he was taking this step to drive home the point that Israel must release all the kidnapped workers, including Cynthia McKinney, and they must allow humanitarian aid to reach the devastated people of Gaza. Israel has turned Gaza, the most densely populated spot on earth, into a huge prison. The people there are in a desperate situation without homes, fuel, food, and medicine after the brutal Israeli attacks this winter when about 1400 people were killed, mostly civilians, including 400 children. If our demands are not met, he said, we will return again and again. Charles Barron will be part of the huge humanitarian aid convoy led by British MP, George Galloway, and Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic ("Born on the 4th of July") that will be leaving for Egypt, en route to Gaza, on the 4th of July.
This morning we heard one of the aides talking to Amy Goodman by phone from her cell. She said that they were all charged with illegal entry into Israel! That is the best example of chutzpah that I have ever heard. They seize these people on the high seas, haul them to Israel against their will, and then charge them with being in Israel illegally. If it wasn’t such an outrage it would be funny.
Photo identifications: YONATAN SHAPIRA Former captain in the IDF Air Force. Shaved head – black T shirt with We Will Not Be Silent written in German. CHARLES BARRON Black shirt, open collar, tan pattern on shirt. COURTNEY SHEETZ – Her mother Katherine is one of the kidnapped aide workers. Young woman, long brown hair, white shirt with green underneath, holding mike in left hand. SHAKA SHAKUR – white cap and green dashiki, NYC Chair of New Black Panther Party. FRED GOLDSTEIN – Worker’s World newspaper. Black T shirt, baseball cap, glasses BRENDA STOKE a/k/a Nsia – N.E. Regional organizer Million Worker March Movement Light skin Black woman in a purple dress. NAYO SIMMONS – Co-chair of Operation P.O.W.E.R. – Going to Gaza with the Galloway-Kovic convoy. Young black woman wearing a white blouse and a scarf. CORINNE WILLINGER – with Women In Black and Raging Grannies. Older woman wearing a black T shirt with We Will Not Be Silent on it. LEONARD WEINGLASS – Prominent civil rights/civil liberties lawyer. Defended many from the Chicago 8 to the Cuban 5. Older man in yellow short sleeved shirt. JOYCE CHEDIAC – Lebanese-American activist in the Palestinian cause. Dark hair, sleeveless black dress, holding mike in left hand.
Photos © by Bud Korotzer
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Jewish UN official: IDF seizure of Gaza-bound ship is 'criminal’
By Reuters
A United Nations human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel’s seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip "unlawful" and said its blockade of the territory constituted a "continuing crime against humanity".
Israeli authorities on Tuesday intercepted the vessel, which was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian activists, and said it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.
Richard Falk, an American Jew and the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel’s "cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza" in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against "an occupied people".
Falk, who is an expert on international law, said Israel’s two-year blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to "bare subsistence levels".
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report this week that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.
"Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity," Falk said in a statement released in Geneva.
Prior to leaving Cyprus, the ship was inspected by Cypriot authorities in response to Israeli demands to determine whether it carried any weapons, according to the UN investigator. "None were found and Israeli authorities were so informed."
"Nonetheless, the 21 peace activists on the boat were arrested, held in captivity and have been charged with 'illegal entry’ to Israel even though they had no intention of going to Israel," Falk added.
Israel envoy calls remarks’biased’
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks by Falk whom he said was "known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements".
Israel is allowing relief aid to reach Gaza in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Leshno-Yaar said.
"Clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel," he told Reuters.
Activists from the U.S.-based Free Gaza movement said that Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney were among those aboard.
Falk has had his own difficulties with Israeli authorities in trying to fulfill his independent mandate for the UN Human Rights Council.
Last December, he was detained and turned back from Israel, forcing him to abort a planned mission to Gaza — a deportation denounced by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In a report last March, Falk said Israel’s year-end military assault on the densely population coastal strip of 1.5 million appeared to constitute a grave war crime.
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Also see…..
Emergency Email To Obama Re Gaza , Israel`s Act Of Piracy
By Cindy Sheehan
Dear President Obama,
My friend, Cynthia McKinney and Nobel laureate, Mairead Maguire and 20 other people were trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, which, as I understand, is something that you have encouraged Israel to allow.
The Honorable Cynthia McKinney served six terms in the US Congress and she was the Green Party candidate for the office that you eventually won. It is an outrage that the Israeli Navy would block the boat that she and 21 others were on in international waters and board the boat and kidnap the crew and humanitarian aid workers.
President Obama, when an American captain was kidnapped by Somali `pirates` US Navy SEALS were sent in to rescue him. He was the captain of a private, for profit, ship and the US military was used to rescue him.
What Israel did, outside of its waters, to an unarmed boat filled with aid for Gazans who have been trapped in a concentration camp by Israel, is an act of international piracy and you must demand that Israel release Ms. McKinney and her fellow captors with all haste.
I just received word that the illegally detained captives have been moved to another prison and may be charged with trying to enter Israel illegally, when they were trying to get aid to Gaza and were not even in Israeli waters.
I can`t even express my immense outrage at this overt breach of international law that has been perpetrated by Israel.
Use your influence as the greatest dispenser of military aid to Israel to force that rogue state to release Ms. McKinney et. al., then we can talk about their immoral occupation of Palestine and the inhumane blockade of Gaza.
With urgency,
Cindy Sheehan
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