EDITOR: How Israel has finally flipped its lid…
Yes. Sometimes whole societies do just that; the US during the McCarhty period; Nazi Germany for 12 years after 1933. There are other examples, of course. Somehow, the connection to real;ity is undermined, and the whole social structure crumbles into a farce, with the elites falling for whatever the propaganda position is.
Israel has flipped, at last. This is no good news, of course; societies flip when the pressure gets too much for them, and then they can persuade themselves into quite bizarre positions; it is also when they are most dangerous – to themselves and to others, of course. In their delusion, the ‘whole world is against them’ – an old Israeli adage, of course, but now given new life and meaning. Everyone is mad but them, everyone is insensitive to their anguished existence as tortured torturers…
Below you can read about the various aspects of this mass hysteria in Israel, and the best evidence of it is the official Israeli propaganda film, dubbed ‘Sex with the Psychologist’ which is so sick on so many levels, that we need not bother to analyse any here. It is evidence for a deep social , cultural and political malaise, one beyond help. The society has lost the ability to look in the mirror, because it does not like what it sees, and the best reaction it found is smashing the mirror. This sick little film is evidence, more than all the murder and subjugation carried out by the Israeli forces, to the irreversible crisis the society is in.
The silver lining – the crisis is speeding up the collapse of the ailing society, its gradual avalanche has now achieved the force of a tsunami, as argued =recently by Chomsky. Of course, this mad bear feels cornered and is capable of much damage and mayhem, but, it is right about one thing – it is threatened, not so much by the outside world, but by its own internal contradictions, its collapsing certainties. This was made more dramatic by the fast social changes now taking place in the Arab world, driving the societies towards increased democracy. At the same time, Israel is on the opposite track – it has lost those few democratic symbols it has so enjoyed manifesting for the benefit of naive foreign supporters of the Jewish mini empire based on militarism, illegal occupation and oppression of the Palestinians under its jackboot. This farce, at least, is spared us now – Israel’s nature is crystal clear for all to see, and abhor.
The more undemocratic legislation is heaped up by the Israeli parliament, the more international action against the bully of the Middle East will be likely and effective. The countdown has now started.
Film production company Zed Films behind “Sex with the Psychologist” hasbara video: Electronic Intifada Blog
Submitted by Benjamin Doherty on Thu, 07/07/2011 – 07:45
On 30 June, a new Israeli video appeared on the internet which used satire to attack and misrepresent the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2. “Sex with the Psychologist” features a young woman seeking treatment for an unspecified but apparently traumatic problem. The psychologist performs a Rorschach test which causes her to tell a story of a young woman who has been abused and harassed.
The video appears to suggest that the woman – and by implication Israel – is the victim of some past sexual assault, and images – related to the flotilla – shown by the psychologist trigger renewed fears and anguish. In line with official Israeli messaging, the video presents the flotilla as a violent provocation, in this case apparently akin to sexual assault, and Israel as a vulnerable woman.
Dimi Reider at +972 Magazine wrote:
Apart from making rather poorly judged use of the experience of real women with real trauma, the July 1st video is also ridiculously sexist; beginning with the cheap camera-pan up the actress’s legs and ending with the fact it was first posted on Youtube a day earlier, under the title “Sex with the Psychologist”.
He identified the actress as Aimee Neistat. Max Blumenthal looked further and found that “Neistat is a Haaretz employee who translates Hebrew content into English.” She also wrote articles for The Jerusalem Post between 2007 and 2010.
The Electronic Intifada has learned that Zed Films produced the short video. Gil Roeh, the founder of Zed Films, wrote the script. The actor in the film is named Björn Nordholm. These facts were on the Zed Films web site as “recent news” on 22 June 2011 but have since been scrubbed. The Google cache of the page states:
“Rorschach test” video
We finished filming to “Rorschach test” video Staring Aimee Neistat and Bjorn Nordholm, Script: Gil Roeh.. Editing now. The video we’ll [sic] be out soon..
EDITOR: The Excellent Jonathan Cook analyses the new low Israel has placed itself with its insane and illegal spate of hysterical legislation!
Israel’s war on nonviolent protest: The Electronic Intifada
Jonathan Cook, Nazareth19 July 2011
It was a Palestinian legislator who made the most telling comment to the Israeli parliament last week as it passed the boycott law, which outlaws calls to boycott Israel or its settlements in the occupied territories. Ahmed Tibi asked: “What is a peace activist or Palestinian allowed to do to oppose the occupation? Is there anything you agree to?”
The boycott law is the latest in a series of ever-more draconian laws being introduced by the far right. The legislation’s goal is to intimidate those Israeli citizens, Jews and Palestinians, who have yet to bow down before the majority-rule mob.
Look out in the coming days and weeks for a bill to block the work of Israeli human rights organizations trying to protect Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from abuses by the Israeli army and settlers; and a draft law investing a parliamentary committee, headed by the far right, with the power to veto appointments to the high court. The court is the only, and already enfeebled, bulwark against the right’s absolute ascendancy.
Watershed law
The boycott law, backed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, marks a watershed in this legislative assault in two respects.
First, it knocks out the keystone of any democratic system: the right to free speech. The new law makes it illegal for Israelis and Palestinians to advocate a nonviolent political program — boycott — to counter the ever-growing power of the half a million Jewish settlers living on stolen Palestinian land.
As the Israeli commentator Gideon Levy observed, the floodgates are now open: “Tomorrow it will be forbidden to call for an end to the occupation [or for] brotherhood between Jews and Arabs.”
Equally of concern is that the law creates a new type of civil, rather than criminal, offense. The state will not be initiating prosecutions. Instead, the job of enforcing the boycott law is being outsourced to the settlers and their lawyers. Anyone backing a boycott can be sued for compensation by the settlers themselves, who — again uniquely — need not prove they suffered actual harm.
Under this law, opponents of the occupation will not even be dignified with jail sentences and the chance to become prisoners of conscience. Rather, they will be quietly bankrupted in private actions, their assets seized either to cover legal costs or as punitive damages.
Human rights lawyers point out that there is no law like this anywhere in the democratic world. Even Eyal Yinon, the naturally conservative legal adviser to the parliament, assessed the law’s aim as stopping a “discussion that has been at the heart of political debate in Israel for more than forty years.” But more than half of Israelis back it, with only 31 percent opposed.
A delusional, self-pitying worldview
The delusional, self-pitying worldview that spawned the boycott law was neatly illustrated this month in a short video “ad” that is supported, and possibly financed, by Israel’s hasbara, or propaganda, ministry. Fittingly, it is set in a psychotherapist’s office.
A young, traumatized woman deciphers the images concealed in the famous Rorschach test. As she is shown the ink blots, her panic and anger grow. Gradually, we come to realize, she represents vulnerable modern Israel, abandoned by friends and still in profound shock at the attack on her navy’s commandos by the “terrorist” passengers aboard last year’s aid flotilla to Gaza.
Immune to reality — that the ships were trying to break Israel’s punitive siege of Gaza, that the commandos illegally boarded the ships in international waters, and that they shot dead nine activists execution-style — Miss Israel tearfully recounts that the world is “forever trying to torment and harm [us] for no reason.” Finally she storms out, saying: “What do you want — for [Israel] to disappear off the map?”
The video — released under the banner “Stop the provocation against Israel” — was part of a campaign to discredit the recent follow-up flotilla from Greece. The solidarity mission was abandoned after Greek authorities, under Israeli pressure, refused to let the convoy sail for Gaza.
Israel’s siege mentality asserted itself again days later as international activists staged another show of solidarity — the “Welcome to Palestine” campaign. Hundreds tried to fly to Israel on the same day, declaring their intention to travel to the occupied West Bank. The goal was to highlight that Israel both controls and severely restricts access to the occupied territories and to Palestinians.
Proving precisely the protesters’ point, Israel threatened airlines with retaliation if they carried the activists and it massed hundreds of soldiers at Ben Gurion airport to greet arrivals. Some 150 peaceful protesters who reached Israel were arrested moments after landing.
Echoing the deranged sentiments of the woman in the video, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, denounced the various solidarity direct actions as “denying Israel’s right to exist” and a threat to its security.
Rebellion against ghettoization of Palestine
In reality, however, the surge in flotilla activity reflects not an attack on Israel but a growing appreciation by international groups that Israel is successfully sealing off from the world the small areas of the occupied territories left to Palestinians. The flotillas are a rebellion against the Palestinians’ rapid ghettoization.
Although Netanyahu’s comments sound delusional, there may be a method to the madness of measures like the boycott law and the hysterical overreaction to the flotillas.
These initiatives, as Tibi points out, leave no room for nonviolent opposition to the occupation. Arundhati Roy, the award-winning Indian writer, has noted that nonviolence is essentially “a piece of theatre. [It] needs an audience. What can you do when you have no audience?”
Netanyahu and the Israeli right understand this point. They are carefully dismantling every platform on which dissident Israelis, Palestinians and international activists hope to stage their protests. They are making it impossible to organize joint peaceful and nonviolent resistance, whether in the form of boycotts or solidarity visits. The only way being left open is violence.
Is this what the Israeli right wants, believing both that it will confirm to Israelis’ their paranoid fantasies as well as offering a justification to the world for entrenching the occupation?
Netanyahu appears to believe that, by generating the very terror he claims to be trying to defeat, he can safeguard the legitimacy of the Jewish state — and destroy any hope of a Palestinian state being created.
Jonathan Cook won this year’s Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.
A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi.
Video shows IDF officer pointing loaded gun at unarmed Palestinian: Haaretz
YouTube video uploaded by B’Tselem shows an IDF officer cocking his gun and pointing it at a Palestinian man during an IDF operation in the West Bank; IDF says will open investigation into the matter.
A video uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday showed an IDF officer pointing a loaded gun at an unarmed Palestinian in the West Bank village of Beit Ummar, near Hebron, last month.
According to B’Tselem, a human rights organization that uploaded the video, on June 18 IDF forces came to arrest a youth from the village for allegedly throwing stones when his cousin stopped the IDF officer to try to prevent the arrest.
The video shows the IDF officer, a First Lieutenant, shouting and pushing the Palestinian man and then immediately cocking his loaded gun into the man’s face. When the man continued to fight with him, the IDF officer again pointed the gun at him.
The IDF Spokesperson said in response, “On the surface this looks like a serious incident. The incident will be brought to the attention of the commanders and simultaneously an investigation will be opened on the matter.”
Jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti calls for mass rallies to back UN statehood bid: Haaretz
Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned for the murder of Israelis during the Second Intifada, says UN move part of a new strategy that will open door to ‘peaceful, popular resistance’.
Jailed leader Marwan Barghouti has called on Palestinians to stage mass rallies in September in support of a diplomatic bid to gain UN membership for a state of Palestine.
Barghouti, a figure widely respected among many Palestinians, said taking the statehood quest to the United Nations was part of a new strategy that would open the door to “peaceful, popular resistance”.
Barghouti was convicted of murder for his role in attacks on Israelis during the Second Intifada and was sentenced to life in jail by Israel in 2004.
“I call on our people in the homeland and in the diaspora to go out in a peaceful, million-man march during the week of voting in the United Nations in September,” Barghouti said in a statement written from his jail cell in Israel.
With the Middle East peace process at a standstill, the Palestinians, backed by the Arab League, have decided to seek full admission to the United Nations as part of what they are describing as a new approach to their national struggle.
Israel is wary that the September bid could serve as a trigger for protests inspired by uprisings across the region.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli military commander said on Tuesday Israel would reinforce its border defenses in anticipation of such protests.
The United States, the main sponsor of the two-decade-old peace process, has objected to the Palestinian diplomatic offensive, instead calling for a resumption of negotiations that
were derailed by an impasse over settlement construction in the West Bank. Israel says the Palestinians aim to isolate and delegitimize it.
A U.S. veto at the Security Council is likely to thwart the Palestinian bid for full UN membership for a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
“Advancing our cause”
In such a scenario, the Palestinians have indicated they will table a UN General Assembly resolution that would elevate their status to that of “a non-member state” from an “observer”.
They expect such a move to succeed, thanks to the support of 120 countries – a number they expect to grow to at least 130.
Barghouti, a leading member of the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, called on all Palestinian parties to back the diplomatic offensive and “to confront the American-Zionist veto”.
For many Palestinians, Barghouti remains a symbol of their national struggle. His supporters portray him as a Palestinian Nelson Mandela – a charismatic figure who could unite Palestinians and galvanize their quest for statehood.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, said an upgrade of the Palestinians’ UN status to “non-member state” would bring with it benefits including allowing the Palestinians full membership of UN agencies.
“You are automatically allowed to become a full member of all the agencies: WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, etc,” he told journalists during a briefing in Ramallah on Wednesday.
He said September’s UN General Assembly would mark a historic moment in the Palestinian struggle. “We are going to accomplish certain things in this coming session that will be extremely significant to advancing our cause,” he said.
Gaza fishermen defy naval blockade: Al Jazeera English
Israel responds with water cannons and live fire when Gazans try to fish beyond Israeli-imposed limit.
Emboldened by the ‘Freedom Flotilla’s’ attempt to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, some Gazan fishermen have been trying to sail beyond the three nautical mile limit imposed by Israel.
The Oslo Accords allowed fishermen to work within 20 nautical miles of the coast, but Israel later reduced the limit on the premise that allowing more space will potentially allow Gazans to receive smuggled weapons.
Israel responds to the fishers’ actions with water cannons, and sometimes with live gunfire.
Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston reports from Gaza.
EDITOR: The Pirates of the Med strike again!
It seems that the Somali pirates are getting all the attention, leaving the pirates of the Mediterranean to their illegal raids, with the world media being totally averse to reporting their deeds!
Gaza protest boat forced into Israeli port
French yacht made to dock at Ashdod after it was boarded by Israeli naval commandos.
Israeli naval commandos seized control of a French ship attempting to break its blockade of the Gaza Strip and towed it into Ashdod port, reporting no resistance during the takeover in international waters.
The ship Dignite-Al Karama was brought into Ashdod on Tuesday by Israeli naval ships, Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley reported from the Israeli harbour.
“They apprehended the boat about 40km off the coast of Gaza. They [the Israelis] conducted what they called a “calm boarding”. No violence, no resistance, everything was peaceful.
“Now, the activists are held in a building in the port where they are going through various interviews. Their boat is going to be thoroughly checked for weapons and cargo, which the Greek captain said he did not have on board.
“Then they will presumably be handed over to the Israeli immigration department and then presumably be deported,” our correspondent said.”
Earlier, Israeli naval vessels had told activists they would take control of the boat unless it left the area.
The Israeli navy had said it was in a dialogue with the activists on board in an attempt to dissuade them from continuing on their route.
“In accordance with Israel government directives, and as previously stressed, the Israel Navy will allow the organisers and passengers to re-track at any point, prior to the boarding of Israel Navy soldiers,” the statement said.
The 17-passenger boat had declared an Egyptian port as its destination when it left Greek waters on Sunday, but activists on board later said they were redirecting towards the Gaza Strip and hoped to arrive by Tuesday afternoon.
“This ‘little’ boat symbolises the determination of the international solidarity movement to break the blockade on Gaza and express its support for the 1.6 million Palestinians imprisoned there since 2007,” a statement released from the boat said.
“We’re cleaning ourselves up a little bit before arriving. Morale here is like the sky and sea – very good,” wrote French activists on board, adding in English: “Gaza, off we go, stay connected!!!”
‘Message of peace’
The boat was originally part of a 10-ship flotilla which had been due to sail for Gaza at the end of June.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 when the Palestinian group Hamas seized power in the territory. Israeli says the siege is intended to prevent Hamas from receiving arms and funds.
But Palestinians and their supporters consider the blockade illegal and say it has stunted the economic development of the territory, most of whose 1.5 million residents rely on aid to survive.
On Monday, Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said Israel would prevent any attempt to breach the naval blockade on Gaza.
“If this boat is on its way to Gaza, which is a breach of international maritime law, and tries a provocative act – yes, we shall intercept it,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
“But I assure you we shall try our best to make those on board very comfortable.”
Thomas Sommer-Houdeville, a French activist who spoke to the AFP news agency from on board the boat on Monday evening, said the vessel was only carrying a “symbolic message of peace and hope and love”.
Israel, he said, had no reason to intercept it.
“We hope that they will not, we don’t have a plan but we have a peaceful humanitarian mission. We are a peaceful boat flying a French flag,” he said.
Hamas condemned the seizure with spokesman Ismail Rudwan describing it as “piracy, a war crime and a violation of the principles of human rights”.
Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists when they stormed a Gaza-bound flotilla in the Mediterranean last year.
The importance of going to the UN General Assembly: Ahram Online
Recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the UN General Assembly will be a great achievement and a step towards Palestinian membership of the UN
Emad Gad , Monday 18 Jul 2011
As the date of the opening session of the UN General Assembly in September approaches, there is growing debate over whether the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) should seek recognition of an independent Palestinian state, or if this is a futile move and that efforts should focus on building statehood through negotiations. More than 100 countries around the world have already recognised the Palestinian state and therefore it is not a matter of lack of recognition, but rather building a state on the ground and achieving national conciliation among various Palestinian factions. Some believe that the PNA should seek out the UN Security Council not the General Assembly since the former recommends countries to join the UN.
A distinction must first be made between recognising a country and granting it membership in the UN. The former is a very important process. It is true that a large number of countries have already recognised the future Palestinian state, but it is also true that securing the support of the majority of the UN General Assembly is also critical. In such a case, recognition will be through a decision by the General Assembly, which includes all member states based on complete equality among countries. All countries are equal and each has one vote; the smallest country is equal to the largest and most powerful.
At the same time, a resolution by the UN General Assembly recognising a new state with a sweeping majority is a political and moral gain that paves the way for this country to become a member of the UN, after a recommendation by the Security Council. This could take a long time because under current circumstances, such a recommendation would not pass, and Washington – or someone else – would use their veto power to block the recommendation. Accordingly, there is no logical reason to go to the Security Council in order to avoid the US veto, which would complicate matters further.
I believe that proposing a draft resolution for recognition of an independent Palestinian state at the General Assembly will secure the necessary majority, which would result in a decision by this body recognising the state of Palestine. We should not forget that Israel itself came in existence by a resolution by the General Assembly – Resolution 181 of 1947 – and then a separate process would begin to make Palestine a member of the UN. It’s only a matter of time.
A resolution by the General Assembly recognising an independent Palestinian state is an immense achievement for the Palestinian cause, and would change the nature of negotiations with Israel from talks between an authority representing a people under occupation and the occupying state, to talks between two countries, where one country is occupying the other.
It is important that the PNA does use the General Assembly mission as a tool to pressure Israel to activate negotiations. It is very clear that the incumbent Israeli government refuses to re-launch talks to reach a political settlement. Accordingly, this government wants to waste time and manipulate inter-Palestinian divisions, but will not begin any serious discussions that would lead to political settlement. If the PNA views the mission at the General Assembly as pressure on this government, it will benefit Tel Aviv because Israel will render this pressure useless by immediately agreeing to launch talks in return for the Palestinians abandoning going to the UN. This will be followed by many details that result in more compromises that would prevent the restart of talks, or render them superficial and merely a ruse while reality is changing on the ground.
Going to the UN General Assembly will be a great achievement for the Palestinian cause, namely securing a resolution by the General Assembly that recognises an independent Palestinian state. This may not grant Palestine membership of the UN, but it will be a critical step on the road of Palestine’s membership in the global organisation. It is vital to build on the success of the General Assembly’s recognition of an independent Palestinian state.
EDITOR: They are now beyond belief…
To fully appreciate the mad parallel universe Israeli society seems to be suspended in, read this hysterical piece by Moshe Arens, published, of all places, in Haaretz… he may even believes what he writes. He is just missing the main point – no one could ever de-legitimize Israel more than it de-legitimizes itself…
Israel facing new wave of Arab aggression: Haartez
As it has become clear that Israel is able to overcome military aggression, its enemies chose another direction: a worldwide campaign to delegitimize the state.
By Moshe Arens
Three waves of aggression have been launched against Israel during the last 63 years, in attempts by Israel’s enemies to destroy the Jewish state. The first wave, an attempt to defeat the Israeli army on the battlefield, began in 1948 and continued, with interruptions, until 1973. The Yom Kippur War, which was launched with simultaneous assaults by Syria and Egypt, from the north and the south, respectively, caught Israel by surprise, before it had a chance to mobilize its army reserves, and these armies initially made substantial advances on both fronts. However, this was to be the last Arab attempt to challenge Israel on the battlefield. Within three weeks the Israel Defenses Forces, having called up its reserve units, crossed the Suez Canal, cut off the Egyptian Third Army and stood 101 kilometers from Cairo; in the north, Israeli forces were within artillery range of Damascus.
At this stage, both Egypt and Syria began pleading for a cease-fire to be put in place. After launching the war under optimal conditions and being totally defeated within three weeks, it had become clear to Israel’s enemies that beating the IDF on the battlefield was not an option. Throughout the 38 years that have elapsed since, Israeli deterrence has been effective.
With the deployment of their armies no longer a viable option, Israel’s enemies decided to use the weapon of terror. That was the second wave of aggression against Israel. The terror weapon was twofold: rockets launched from a distance against Israeli population centers, and suicide bombers. With the arrival of the suicide bombers – a precision weapon that the terrorist intent on suicide was able to place in buses, restaurants and wedding halls – the terror weapon, which until then had not been considered a major threat to Israel’s existence, began to tear away at the fabric of Israeli society.
The terrorists claimed that what could not be achieved on the battlefield could be achieved in the streets of Israel’s cities. Many in Israel insisted that terrorism could not be defeated militarily. The IDF and the security services proved them wrong with Operation Defensive Shield, in April 2002, when the army entered Palestinian cities and suppressed the terrorist menace. The terror-rocket threat, from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has not been eliminated but Israel is capable of dealing with it at a time of its choosing.
As it became clear that Israel had overcome both waves of aggression, its enemies chose another direction. This time it was a worldwide campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel, an attempt to make Israel an outcast among the nations, subjecting it to boycotts, disinvestment and sanctions. This campaign is gaining momentum.
The first wave of aggression naturally had the support of the Arab world. The second wave was also supported by Europe’s far left and various fringe terror organizations. But the global campaign for the delegitimization of Israel will need much broader support if it is to succeed. It is not very difficult to mobilize such support, starting with the United Nations. Nearly one third of UN member states are Muslim countries, assuring an automatic majority for any anti-Israel resolution at the General Assembly. Any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council can veto a resolution by the council; Russia and China are disinclined to veto anti-Israeli resolutions, each for its own political and economic reasons.
The Quartet, a relatively new forum consisting of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the UN, has become another source of pressure against Israel. Add to all these the many Muslims living in Western Europe, the well-meaning “liberals” who are convinced that they know more about what is good for Israel than the democratically elected government of the state – a pressure group that includes a good number of Jews and even Israelis – and it is clear that a formidable coalition against Israel already exists. Although not all of the components of this coalition seek the destruction of the State of Israel, its more extreme elements have everyone else in tow.
Fortunately, Israel has grown strong economically and militarily over the years and should be able to overcome this third wave of aggression, as it has the first two.
A Graeco-American opera: Al Ahram Weekly
The struggle to free Palestine took on epic dimensions this summer, writes Kathy Kelly from Athens
Click to view caption
Palestinians take part in a rally to show solidarity with the “Freedom Flotilla II” at Gaza seaport
It looked like a scene from Verdi: the dashing young troubadour declaiming from a balcony of a palace in Athens, defying the angry gods in the Parthenon above. Stage left, his fellow revolutionaries entered, hung banners and flashed peace signs. Together they sang a rousing chorus, resolutely refusing to end their occupation of the Spanish embassy until their government assured them that their boat “The Guernica” (recalling Pablo Picasso’s 1937 mural excoriating fascism) could sail to relieve the suffering of besieged Gazans.
Like other boats in the “Freedom Flotilla II” aiming to end the naval blockade of Gaza, the Spaniards’ boat was blocked from sailing by bureaucratic measures imposed by the Greek government. This was unacceptable to the activists. On 4 July, the Spanish ambassador to Greece agreed to meet with only four of the Spanish activists, but at a pre-arranged time, one of the four had gone downstairs, opened the door and ushered in 17 others to help them occupy the embassy. Three days later, they issued an eloquent statement explaining why they still refuse to leave. They call for an end to the illegal blockade of Gaza and for immediate release of their boat so that it can soon reach Gazan shores.
I came to Greece as an activist passenger on the United States flotilla boat The Audacity of Hope, also blocked by the Greek government. We tried to escape to international waters but were towed back to dock by heavily-armed boats of the Greek Coast Guard. Referring to the valiantly Spaniards, one of our comrades grumbled, “That’s what your group should be doing.”
He’s right. And yet, crucial and telling differences exist between the Embassy of Spain in Athens, where I counted exactly one security guard nonchalantly keeping watch on the first afternoon of the Spanish activists’ demonstration, and the Embassy of the US in Athens, which takes up about four square blocks of land. Nondescript, boxy white buildings are surrounded by spiked fences of battleship gray. Embassy employees arrive at a checkpoint and are subjected to search routines that include examining the base of their vehicle as it drives over a pit. Dozens of guards maintain round-the-clock security.
What necessitates such elaborate security measures? Is it simply that US lives are more precious than the lives of others and therefore must be intensely safeguarded, or might it be that menacing economic and military policies enforced by the US have caused antagonism and rage sufficient to endanger official representatives in any part of the globe?
Several of us who were quietly fasting across the street from our embassy earlier this week called upon the US to help free Gaza, free our ship from a Greek port, and free, or at least visit, our captain who was, at the time, detained in a Greek jail. When we politely declined to end our fasting presence, we were loaded into Greek police squad cars and held for several hours. The next day, the Greek police again detained six US activists, this time for sitting on a park bench across from the home of the US ambassador to Greece.
Had we attempted to occupy the embassy, we surely wouldn’t have been filmed waving and draping banners from open air balconies. I shudder to think how such an adventure might have ended.
And, of course, the plight we wanted to make visible was not ours but rather that of the Palestinians in Gaza who rarely have an opportunity to raise or amplify their voices. Our guiding question, our rudder, as we contemplate next steps, asks to what extent we can focus world attention on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. A few days ago, I read an article by Noam Chomsky in which he asked Chris Gunness, a spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, to describe the humanitarian crisis Gazans face. “If there were no humanitarian crisis, if there weren’t a crisis in almost every aspect of life in Gaza, there would be no need for the flotilla,” said Gunness. “95 per cent of all water in Gaza is undrinkable, 40 per cent of all disease is water-borne… 45.2 per cent of the labour force is unemployed, 80 per cent are dependent on foreign aid, there has been a tripling of the abject poor since the start of the blockade. Let’s get rid of this blockade and there would be no need for a flotilla.”
And so it goes. Our formation as peace and anti-war activists should be guided by focussing on the most impoverished people who bear the brunt of our economic and military warfare. We, US activists, must continue to learn from the durable actions and plans of the Spaniards and numerous other internationals gathered here in Athens, many of whom are facing draconian economic policies in their home countries as financial institutions hold sway over governments and demand new austerity measures.
Greek activists who assemble every night in Athens’ Syntagma Square have constructed an inspiring, effective means for developing free speech and determined, risk-taking action in a setting that has evolved to emphasise simplicity, sharing of resources and a clear preference for service rather than dominance.
I leave Greece tonight with sincere regret that I didn’t spend more time learning from these sturdy activists. I am accompanying another US Boat to Gaza campaign member, Missy Lane, to Tel Aviv, where we plan to be part of a “flytilla”, a new campaign which will bring hundreds of activists together in Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport, all of us intent on reaching Palestinian refugee camps and/or visiting Gazan families.
Earlier this evening, a group of US activists who have been able to remain longer here in Athens, demonstrated at each of the heavily guarded streets leading to the residence of the US Ambassador to Greece. The ambassador is hosting a huge festival tonight in celebration of US Independence Day.
Several Greek people passing us read our signs seeking freedom for Gaza and asked us to understand that as recently as one year ago, the government of Greece showed no sign of submitting to Israeli or US pressure and allowed international flotilla boats to sail. But, now. they are dependent on the whims of financial elites around the world. The IMF is prescribing draconian measures which will wreck their economy and make them subservient to the dictates of foreign multinationals. What would happen if the government defied the masters?
The Greek government has been told to bend down and kiss the dirt, and if it doesn’t do so it will be told to bend down and eat the dirt.
So far, the government has complied, and one instance of galling obeisance is their cooperation with Israeli and US governmental insistence that no boats bound for Gaza be allowed to depart from Grecian ports.
The flotilla may not leave Greek ports this month, but the idea and practice of dissent surely will. The Arab Spring has planted seeds throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and heralds a European Summer. US citizens must join in — take the stage in Act III — and bring about an American Autumn. Our struggles are one.
The writer co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence and author of Other Lands Have Dreams.