Protests in USA Say 'End The Blockade On Gaza'
Reageer (0)7-6-2010
Every time Israel invents a new way to oppress the Palestinians, American peace and justice organizations stand at the ready to organise protests. With established newsletters and email lists, the dedicated members of pro-justice organizations are able to respond with lightening speed to incursions, attacks and other atrocities.
But when the Freedom Flotilla was attacked - when Israel was willing to kill to prevent Gazans from receiving even the most basic aid - humanity as a whole stood up in outrage.
In Kansas City, Missouri, humanity took the form of one college student. Sara Jawhari, a journalism major and member of last December’s land convoy to Gaza, contacted local organisations to see if a protest was being planned. When one responded that there was no Israeli consulate in KC and therefore no need to protest, she jumped onto Facebook. From there she organised Kansas City’s first public response to Israel’s latest illegal action.
"This is the most important time to protest," Jawhri said. "The eyes of the world are on us."
The three-hour demonstration on one of Kansas City’s main thoroughfares has been incorrectly portrayed in some media as a gathering of "several Palestinian Americans". In fact, it was a rousing outcry from an estimated 200 Kansas Citians of all stripes, whose reasons for being there were just as varied. Shelagh Brown said she was there to stand up for the rights of those who are oppressed. "Everyone deserves the same basic rights, and when others don’t have them, I don’t either." Brown wanted Israel to understand that it is not acceptable to sustain one’s own society by killing others. "It is not OK to violate the Geneva Conventions, the Oslo Accords and international law. If any other country did this, the US would respond very differently."
Andrea Whitmore, past president of Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, was at the rally and emphasised the fact that Israel was not allowing any access to the illegally detained activists. "Israel is controlling all the news and information. We need to listen to what the people on the boats have to say."
CJME is dedicated to educating the American public about the Palestinian issue and is a member organisation of Sabeel International and the US Campaign to End the Occupation. CJME hosts events and speakers such as Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions Jeff Halper, holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and human rights activist Anna Baltzar. Their next event will feature David Wildman and is scheduled for July 22. "Every little thing we do helps get the word out," Whitmore said.
Ian Huyett of Kansas City said he was there as an American. "This happened in international waters," Huyett said, "and this is not the first time." He advised Americans to educate themselves about the USS Liberty and the rest of Israel’s history. "We are being used," he said.
Others related to the Palestinians’ plight in a more direct way. Melissa Franklin, a Native American, stressed that the fight against colonisation is all one struggle. "They’re experiencing the same things we did: separation, broken treaties, refuge camps (which in our case were called reservations)." Franklin recently joined an indigenous delegation on a trip to the West Bank, where she taught workshops on magazine layout and media usage. A film about the delegation is currently being edited by Franklin’s group, 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries.
In addition to the people who came out specifically for the protest, several passers-by and a few local residents joined in spontaneously.
Similar protests are being held in Boston, Boulder, Cleveland, St. Louis and Houston, among other cities around the globe, and an International Day of Action was scheduled for June 5 by organizations calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel.
When asked if this was a unique moment in the struggle of the Palestinians for freedom and self-determination, many of the protestors responded that they believe the momentum created by this incident and the size of the global response offer hope that more people will begin to work in earnest for a just resolution. Sara Jawhari sees it as a unique moment because the US is finally seeing how low Israel is willing to go to protect its power. "It took 9-plus people to be martyred for the world to wake up, but they won’t have died in vain. They set out to raise awareness and in their deaths they have done so. They will forever be remembered as the heroes who woke the world."
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