JEWISH FLOTILLA HEADING TO GAZA? THE SHARKS ARE ON THE SHIP….CRUISIN’ FOR CONFRONTATION
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=189317
Israel set to stop Jewish ship en route to Gaza
By YAAKOV KATZ
09/26/2010 14:23
UK pro-Palestinian group organizing mission says goal is to show not all Jews
support Israeli policies on Palestinians; won’t resist boarding.
The navy went on high alert Sunday as a ship carrying Jewish activists set sail
from northern Cyprus with the declared goal of breaking Israel’s blockade of the
Gaza Strip.
Called Irene, the boat is carrying a symbolic cargo of aid for the people of
Gaza under a British flag.
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Organizers from Jews for Justice for Palestinians said that all of the
passengers were Jews from Israel, Germany, the United States or Great Britain.
“Not all Jews support Israel’s policies in Gaza,” said Richard Kuper, one of the
organizers.
“We call on all nations and governments around the world to vocally protest and
take action against the occupation and the blockade.”
Israel’s policy is to prevent ships from reaching the Gaza Strip, but rather
have them undergo an inspection of their cargo at the Ashdod Port. This policy –
that humanitarian aid must enter Gaza by land – was supported by the
international community last week at a donor conference for the Palestinian
Authority in the US.
“We cannot allow ships to sail freely into Gaza, since they could be carrying
weaponry,” one senior defense official said.“If the ships sail into Ashdod, we
will inspect the cargo and then allow it through the land crossings into the
Gaza Strip.”
Kuper said that the passengers would not violently resist IDF soldiers who would
likely board the vessel to stop it from sailing to Gaza. The ship was making its
way to Gaza about four months after navy commandos killed nine Turkish activists
while stopping a Turkish flotilla that was en route to Gaza.
The 10-meter catamaran Irene, carrying a total of nine passengers and crew
members, plans to deliver toys, medical equipment and other supplies to Gaza.
One of the passengers, Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter Smadar was killed
along with four others in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem’s Rehov Ben-Yehuda
pedestrian mall in 1997, said it was his “moral duty” to act in support of
Palestinians in Gaza because reconciliation was the surest path to peace.
“Those 1.5 million people in Gaza are victims exactly as I am,” Elhanan, 60,
said in an interview.
Other voyage organizers included the Amsterdam-based European Jews for a Just
Peace and the Oakland, Californiabased Jewish Voice for Peace.
Another Israeli passenger is Yonatan Shapira, a former Israel Air Force pilot
and a wellknown left-wing activist who refused to serve in the territories.
Another passenger, Reuven Moskovitz, is an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor. He
said his life’s mission has been to turn foes into friends.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=189292
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“We are two peoples, but we have one future,” he said.
Photo by: ASSOCIATED PRESS
UK Labor chief’s mom backs Jewish anti-blockade group
By GIL SHEFLER
09/26/2010 19:22
Group behind boat supported by Miliband’s mother, other prominent British Jews,
uses Rabbi Hillel quote as political slogan.
Talkbacks (94)
Jews for Justice for Palestinians, the British organization which organized the
boat sailing for Gaza on Sunday, has over 1,600 signatories including Marion
Kozak, the mother of recently elected Labor leader Ed Miliband, according to its
Web site.
In an interview over the phone from the UK, Naomi Wayne, a co-founder and acting
treasurer of the left-wing group, confirmed Kozak’s support and laid out her
organization’s manifesto.
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“Our slogan is Rabbi Hillel’s quote that which is hated by you do not do to your
neighbor,” she said. “We want the end of the occupation and for Israel to sit
down and speak with all the Palestinians. We believe the occupation itself is a
violent act…What we are hoping to do by sending the boat is reach Gaza in a
very peaceful and friendly way. We do not believe people should be locked in
without being able to leave.”
Jews for Justice for Palestinians was founded in 2002, at the height of the
Second Intifada. Besides Kozak other well-known signatories include Marxist
historian Eric Hobsbawm, actor and comedian Stephen Fry, and the late playwright
Harold Pinter.
During the interview, Wayne rejected the argument that her organization’s
actions were simplistic and failed to take into account the complexity of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We are all very highly educated, Jewish and very aware of the situation,” she
said. “We understand its a complex issue, but we think that this a very friendly
thing to do and that the people of Gaza should be able to come and leave.”
On the matter of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Schalit, who has been held
by Hamas in Gaza for over four years without being allowed access to Red Cross
representatives, Wayne said her group did not hold the Palestinians to a lower
standard.
“As far as we are concerned there’s no question we are behind Gilad Schalit, we
want him to be released,” she said. “We also want all the Palestinians in
Israeli prisons to be released and allowed access to the Red Cross.”
Wayne said she believed that Israel must talk to Hamas, because “you don’t make
friends with your friends, but with your enemies,” and added that she also had
expectations from the Palestinians.
“We want Palestinians to recognize Israel exists, it is a territory with people
and is not going to go away,” she said.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=189317
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