Swim With Gaza
Great opportunity to join our friends in Gaza by swimming on or before August 26th. Take a video of yourself and friends to show your solidarity for human rights for the people in Gaza. Go to swimwithgaza.com to be registered on the world map, get a T shirt, and or donate for swim lessons for children in Gaza.
Handala Completes Its 2023 Sailing
The Freedom Flotilla 2023 took to the seas again in a 58-foot converted Norwegian fishing boat called Handala! Halted by COVID for a few years, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla sailed this summer in northern Europe. With port visits in Norway, the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden the Freedom Flotilla Coalition did educational events with local Palestinian solidarity organizers. In 2024, Handala will sail to Gaza with educational port visits in Europe and the Mediterranean with a final push to Gaza to break the illegal Israeli blockade!
Handala has handled the sea well, coming across the North Sea in high seas from Oslo to Scotland in mid-June. A 200-year old broken bridge in the Caledonian Canal in the Scottish Highlands halted her progress for several days, but the crew was warmly welcomed by all who passed the locks! Unfortunately, the delay caused cancellation of stops in Glasgow, Dublin and Waterford, but Freedom Flotilla members and local Palestine Solidarity groups held wonderful and well-attended events in the other stops.
One silver lining from being stuck at Laggan Locks in Scotland, was meeting a captain from Inverness, more than an hour away. He is a member of a Palestinian solidarity group and was thrilled to meet us. By great fortune, when he learned Handala needed a captain for an upcoming leg of our trip he introduced us to one! He was both an excellent captain and engineer!
So many have supported the journey along the way. A doctor in Fort William, Scotland graciously brought us multiple dinners and groceries. He has done medical training in Gaza, the West Bank, and Rwanda. A merchant along the canal gave crew members free dinners when he learned about Handala and our efforts to break Israel’s illegal blockade.
Four Scottish border police officers came aboard in the middle of Scotland, divided us, interrogated the crew and inspected the boat. A local told us that in all the years he had worked there he’d never seen the border police come. It turned out to be a great way to attract local attention and solidarity!
Throughout the UK, local Palestine Solidarity Campaigns (PSCs) have been great. We were greeted in Liverpool by the local PSC who had organized events where local officials, firefighters, union organizers, and others spoke about their solidarity work for Palestine. We also had an event at the oldest mosque in Britain where Alex McDonald from Houston, a US Boats to Gaza steering committee member spoke after prayers; later we were part of a panel in an event at a local church. The outreach in Liverpool was excellent!
Cardiff PSC also welcomed us as we approached the lock. Seeing banners and Palestinian solidarity signs in both English and Welsh was impressive! As soon as Handala docked, a local TV station interviewed captain Clive Haswell in Welsh and later he had an English radio interview on BBC. Good exposure for the campaign!
Cardiff organized a demonstration downtown in response to the violent attack on the Jenin refugee camp by more than a thousand Israeli troops. We marched with their solidarity group through the town to the BBC offices to deliver a letter condemning their biased coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian situation.
There have been further stops in Bristol and Southampton England as well as Rotterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Halmstad, Gothenburg, and Oslo.
US Boats to Gaza was well represented in the flotilla’s crew. Alex McDonald and Tighe Barry sailed with Handala from Oslo, through Scotland. Alex continued to Cardiff and Bristol. Ann Wright was part of the ground crew in Liverpool. Kit Kittredge and Keith Meyers represented the Freedom Flotilla at the events in Waterford, Ireland. All US Boats to Gaza volunteers paid their own expenses and we have incredible gratitude for their efforts.
Thank you for your continuing support in raising awareness of the situation in Gaza, and in holding our governments accountable for their complicity in the violations of Palestinian human rights! We join together globally to let Palestinians know that they are not forgotten or alone!
You can see more details of each of the port visits (including pictures and videos) at: https://freedomflotilla.org/freedom-flotilla-ports/
or some inspiring photos on the Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FreedomFlotillaCoalition/ and https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla.
Please continue to donate to the 2024 Gaza Flotilla through our US Boats to Gaza donation link.
Holding Our Ground: Resisting Colonialism and Environmental Destruction
Join us Sunday April 3 at noon ET to hear about indigenous peoples in British Columbia and Palestine and how history, culture and needs of the i
ndigenous people take a back seat to the land’s resources for colonizers. More information at: https://mideastcrisis2.blogspot.com/2022/03/zoom-panel-on-holding-our-ground.html.
Register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUucOqgpz4rHN2qPEXaBBHd6xzC38A8N3ug
Event co-sponsored by: Jewish Voice for Peace – Hudson Valley, Middle East Crisis Respons, NYC Veterans for Peace, US Boats to Gaza, Women in Black – New Paltz.
Join us at All The Walls Must Fall March 25-28, 2022
Please join us in “All The Walls Must Fall Conference” https://www.allthewallsmustfall.com/
on March 25-28, 2022, to explore the realities, the struggles, and the vision we must mobilize around, so that walls indeed fall, connecting our lives and similarities despite the thousands of miles of distance.
From the US/Mexico border to the borders around Palestine – walls and militarization, dispossession of lands and cultural genocide, brutality and murder, mass detentions and lack of rights, forced migration and criminalization, environmental damage – these and other shared abuses, have all defined these experiences.
Members of US Boats to Gaza at the “All the Walls Must Fall” action.
US Boats to Gaza Ambulance in Service in Gaza
We are excited to see the ambulance US Boats to Gaza purchased with other Freedom Flotilla Coalition members and coordinated by member Kia Ora Gaza from New Zealand! Thank you to Miles of Smiles whose people were responsible for making this extremely complex process of getting vans converted into ambulances and transported to and allowed into Gaza. And thank you to all who donated to US Boats to Gaza to make this dream become a reality!
More information in The Palestine Chronicle.
Ambulances Arrive in Gaza!
Congratulations to Miles of Smiles and MEDICs Worldwide on such a monumental task of outfitting 37 ambulances and getting them across the Sinai, through the Rafah border crossing…and finally into Gaza!!!
We are so glad our US Boats to Gaza and other FFC national campaigns were a part of this!!
Thank you to all who contributed to this important effort!
Following are some pictures of the ambulances as they arrived.
