The Freedom Flotilla Break the Siege is preparing for a mission in mid April. We are looking for individuals who are interested in joining the flotilla as participants, media, or medical staff. The goal of the mission is to deliver aid to the people in Gaza, but more importantly to break the illegal and inhumane siege placed on the people in Gaza by the state of Israel.
If you can get to the Mediterranean by mid April and are available the last half of April, then we invite you to complete the application here.
After 17 years of a brutal blockade and 4 months of genocidal assault, including weaponizing basic necessities, Palestinians in Gaza are facing an unprecedented and catastrophic humanitarian crisis. On 26 January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from the plausible risk of genocide. Amongst six strongly worded measures, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” This decision followed UN Security Council resolutions in November and December 2023 which called for urgent steps to immediately allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded” humanitarian access to Gaza.
Israel’s blatant noncompliance with these orders, and the failure of other governments to pressure the occupying power to comply, motivate us as civil society organisations to take action.
“It is incumbent upon us to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza receive humanitarian aid”, says Ismail Moola of Palestine Solidarity Alliance, South Africa. “We expect that the Security Council will enforce the ICJ ruling, but due to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza we need to act immediately”.
Plans for our Save Gaza Campaign are ongoing, and the FFC calls on the government of Egypt to facilitate the delivery of life-sustaining aid through Rafah into Gaza. FFC’s mission, For the Children of Gaza, led by our boat Handala, will again set sail from Northern Europe to Gaza May 2024.
The FFC gathered in Istanbul to plan these campaigns with representatives from the following organisations: Canadian Boat to Gaza (Canada), US Boat to Gaza (USA), Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa, New Zealand), Free Gaza Australia (Australia), Ship to Gaza (Norway), MyCARE (Malaysia), Ship to Gaza (Sweden), Palestine Solidarity Alliance (South Africa), IHH (Türkiye), Rumbo a Gaza (Spanish State), Mavi Marmara Association (Türkiye) and the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza.
“Where our governments fail, we sail” says Karen DeVito of Canadian Boat to Gaza. “We are charting a course to the conscience of humanity, in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
We call on civil society organisations from around the world who share our values and goals to support and join us.
For more information, including passenger application, contact one of our spokespersons here
Refaat Alareer included in his foreword to the book a tribute to US Boats to Gaza. He wrote:
In 2011, one part of the outpouring of global solidarity activism was the project that a group of US citizens launched, to fill a whole boat with letters written to the people of Gaza by people from around the world who cared about their fate, and then to sail in to Gaza’s sea-lapped shore. They named their boat after the title of a book written (before his election) by President Barack Obama: “The Audacity of Hope.”
Long before the boat could reach Gaza, the government of Greece, under great pressure from Israel, moved in and stopped it completing its mission. But the spirit in which this book has been created and published is a spirit of reciprocity and appreciation of all the efforts made by people outside Gaza (including many very caring and well-known writers), to break through the personal isolation in which Israel has sought to keep us caged. (page 25, Gaza Writes Back, edited by Refaat Alareer)
Following in the footsteps of Ray McGovern, Jeffery Sachs, Max Blumenthal and Randy Credico , Col. Ann Wright was asked to speak Monday, Dec. 11, at the U.N. Security Council on weapons being supplied to conflict areas and their role in preventing resolution of those conflicts. She prepared a statement that focused on the current Israeli assault on Gaza, but two hours before the meeting she was informed that since the meeting was on Ukraine, if she spoke about Gaza instead, the president of the council would cut her off and she would lose the opportunity to speak. She quickly amended her statement to focus more on Ukraine, and you can hear the remarks as she gave them in the video below. We are publishing her statement as originally written.–The editors of Peace & Planet News
On the Issue of Weapons Supplied into Conflict Areas and their Detrimental Effect on the
Prospects for the Settlement of Conflicts
By Ann Wright, U.S. Army Colonel (retired) & Diplomat (resigned)
Mr. President:
I am pleased to address you on the issue of weapons supplied into conflict areas and their detrimental effect on the prospects for settlement of conflicts.
I served 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. While in the U.S. Army, I taught the Law of Land Warfare and the Geneva Conventions at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was in the U.S. Army during the U.S. wars on Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama and the U.S. Central American wars in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
I was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. I was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2001. At the last four Embassies, I was the Deputy Chief of Mission.
In Somalia, I was seconded to the United Nations Mission in Somalia, UNOSOM, in 1993-1994 as the head of the Justice Division with the mission of reconstituting the Somali police, judicial and prison systems.
But, I resigned from the U.S. government twenty years ago in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq, a war that, to its credit, the U.N. Security Council refused to authorize.
I recount my personal history to underscore my thorough familiarity with conflicts in various regions, and to share my view of the futility of relying on military action instead of diplomacy for conflict resolution.
As a retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat, I speak on my own behalf now as a concerned U.S. citizen who as a taxpayer pays for the weapons my country uses and sells to fuel wars that kill innocent civilians.
On the topic of today, there is no doubt that weapons supplied into conflict areas have a detrimental effect on the prospects for settlement of conflicts. In fact, the continued supply of weapons will prolong any conflict.
The important question is, how do you get conflicts to end?
I will begin with a reminder that the process for ending wars begins with a ceasefire. The process can be very long and thousands of people – millions even – can be killed before there is an agreement on a ceasefire.
For example, during the Korean war from 1950-1953, talks between parties to the conflict began in 1951 and finally concluded, after 575 meetings, with an armistice in 1953. During that war, over 4 million Koreans from the North and South, military and civilian, 500,000 Chinese military, 35,000 U.S. military and tens of thousands in the U.N military command were killed.
For our planet’s situation today, on behalf of the millions of concerned citizens worldwide who have been demonstrating over the past two years for a CEASEFIRE in Ukraine, and for the past two and one-half months for a CEASEFIRE in Gaza, I say:
STOP THE KILLINGS! CEASEFIRE NOW! NEGOTIATE !
In the 70 days of the Israeli-Gaza conflict, over 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza have already been killed, 7,000 children and 4,000 women. An estimated 6,000 are still under the rubble of their homes. 43,000 have been wounded. Over 260 Palestinians have been killed and 3,365 wounded during this period in the West Bank and thousands have been arrested and subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment.
The Israeli military has reported that 1,147 civilians in Israel and 418 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the horrific October 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. We now know that the Israeli military knew of the pending attack and did not defend against it.
There has been only one six-day temporary ceasefire in the fighting, to allow for the release of hostages and release of Palestinian young detainees who were jailed without charges or trial.
This temporary ceasefire allowed for a very short time for a minuscule amount of medical, relief and food supplies to come into the Gaza ghetto for the 2.3 million who have been ordered by Israel into one-third of the area of the Gaza in forced displacement. WHO (World Health Organization) reports that Palestinians are starving.
Only 10 percent of the food to feed 2.3 million has been allowed into Gaza by Israel. Israel is again starving the people of Gaza as they did in 2006 when they infamously put “Gaza on a diet” and only allowed into Gaza food of a limited caloric value.
Food items such as pasta, flour, yeast, rice, salt, sugar, chickpeas, lentils, beans, olives, canned tuna and powdered milk were restricted or prohibited.
Sanitary items such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, diapers, baby wipes, detergent and dish-washing liquid were also restricted or prohibited.
A 2012 joint report by Save the Children and UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians revealed that 10% of children under the age of 5 experienced stunted growth due to prolonged malnutrition due to the Israeli blockade and siege on Gaza.
The same study revealed that 58.6% of Gaza’s school children were anemic, as were more than 68% of children aged nine to 12 months and nearly 37% of pregnant women.
There is no safe place left for Palestinians in Gaza from the massive U.S. supplied to Israeli bombs, rockets and other munitions.
The targeting of the general population of Gaza and level of destruction of medical, academic, residential and commercial areas under the guise of eliminating Hamas is a textbook case of genocide and it must end now.
U.N. Secretary General Guterres invoked Article 99 and has warned: “Amid constant bombardment by the Israeli Defense Forces and without shelter or essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.” He also warned of possible epidemics.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said there is a “gap between … the intent to protect civilians, and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground” in Gaza. Yet, three days ago, on Friday, December 8, in this very room, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. security council resolution for a humanitarian pause/ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza which would have protected civilians. This veto was indefensible and wrong.
The U.S. veto of the Ceasefire in Gaza is a moral failure and a dangerous move that ensures continuation of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
That U.S. veto does not reflect the view of the U.S. citizenry who want the killing in Gaza to end. The Biden administration is on thin ice with the American public for its support and protections of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The U.S. speaks of its shared values with Israel.
U.S. values do not include the bombing, shelling, destruction of hospitals, schools, universities, residential areas, water supplies, electrical networks, sewage networks, degrading behavior towards those who are still alive, and making return of 75% of Gazans to their homes purposely impossible—the genocide in the Gaza Ghetto.
U.S. values do not include [13,981 120mm high-explosive] tank shells worth $106 million to be immediately sent to Israel for shelling Palestinians civilians, bypassing any congressional oversight.
Somehow the U.S. government, the President, White House, State Department, Congress seem to have forgotten that everyone has the right to “Self-Defense.”
Israel is not the only country that can use that term.
Palestinians have the right of self-defense against 75 years of occupation, blockade, siege, quarantine, theft of lands, bombing of homes, hospitals, universities, schools, imprisonment without charges.
My remarks are not anti-semitic. They are honest assessments of the actions of the State of Israel and my own government, the United States.
This is not anti-semitism; it’s the description of the criminal actions that Israel and the United States are perpetrating on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Today, the United States is providing weapons to two major conflicts: the one between Israel and Gaza, and the one between Russia and Ukraine.
The U.S. provides $3.8 billion annually to the Israeli government for Israeli military use.
Now, the Biden administration has asked the U.S. congress to approve another $14 billion with virtually no restriction on their use against the people in Gaza
On December 7, 2023, only four days ago, in a press conference with the new UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that over the last two years, the United States has provided $70 billion to support Ukraine and European allies have provided more than $110 billion. Biden said, “If you look at the investments that we’ve made in Ukraine’s defense
to deal with this aggression, 90 percent of the security assistance we’ve provided has actually been spent here in the United States with our manufacturers, with our production, and that’s produced more American jobs, more growth in our own economy. So this has also been a win-win that we need to continue,” Blinken said.
This is not a “win-win” for civilians in conflict areas.
The win-win is for the military industrial complex and the politicians and retired government officials who receive senior positions in the weapons industry after their retirements!
In closing, I will read part of a poem that describes how some parents in Gaza have resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they, the parents, or the children be killed in Israeli bombing.
It was written for the children of Gaza but is applicable to children in all conflict areas:
+++++++++++++
Write My Name on My Leg, Mama.
By Zeina Azzam
Write my name on my leg, Mama
Use the black permanent marker
with the ink that doesn’t bleed
if it gets wet…
Write my name on my leg, Mama
and on the legs of my sisters and brothers.
This way we will belong together
This way we will be known as your children.
Write my name on my leg, Mama
When the bomb hits our house
When the walls crush our skulls and bones
our legs will tell our story, how
there was nowhere for us to run.
On behalf of the people of the world who want to live in peace and safety, I say again:
Ann Wright is a 29-year U.S. Army/Army Reserves veteran, a retired U.S. Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She is a member of the Veterans For Peace Advisory Board. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Wright was also a passenger on the Challenger 1, which along with the Mavi Marmara, was part of the 2010 Gaza flotilla. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book Dissent: Voices of Conscience. She has written frequently on rape in the military.
Join the International Campaign to Send Ships With Medical and Relief Assistance to Gaza
November 25, 2023
The horrific 49-day Israeli attack on the civilian population of Gaza continues with over 15,000 Palestinians dead, including more than 6,150 children, and more than 36,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip. Virtually all of the 2.3 million residents of Gaza have been forced into the southern half of the tiny enclave. Two-hundred and twenty-six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israeli attacks have put 27 of 35 hospitals across Gaza out of operation, according to the World Health Organization.
Bakeries, grain mills, agricultural land, water and sanitation facilities have been destroyed by Israeli attacks.
The U.N. estimates that across all parts of Gaza, over 41,000 homes — 45% of Gaza’s total housing stock — are too damaged by Israeli forces to be lived in.
We need your donations to purchase these supplies and to operate the ships. A donation is tax-deductible through our 501(c)(3) partner Nonviolence International, EIN 52-1645787.
There will be an opportunity for a limited number of passengers to be on the ships. We encourage members of the medical professions to be on board. To apply to be a passenger please fill out this form or email us and we will contact you.
If you would like to be known as a participant in “Save Gaza” but can’t be on the boats, consider donating the amount of a round-trip ticket to Istanbul ($1000) and we will place your name on a plaque that will sail on one of the boats.
We will be keeping you informed of the status of this appeal and details of the sailing of the ships on our U.S. Boats to Gaza website and by weekly newsletter updates.
Read the Strategic Objectives and the Policies and Guiding Values of the international “Save Gazza” campaign here.
Please donate to the “Save Gazza” through U.S. Boats to Gaza here.
Free, Free Palestine! End the Blockade of Gaza!!
Alex, Kit, Ellen, Ann, and Sherri Steering Committee, US BOATS TO GAZA
Image: Palestinians inspect the ruins of Watan Tower destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza city, on October 8, 2023. Photo: Wafa
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.
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!
Handala, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s 2023-4 boat has been sailing throughout northern Europe since April. She officially left on her journey on June 16, 2023 after introductory stops at ports throughout Norway. She then sailed across the North Sea to Scotland and down the Caledonial Canal.
Freedom Flotilla events were held in Glasgow and Inverness Scotland. Then she sailed down the Irish Sea to Liverpool and an event occurred also in Waterford, Ireland. Cardiff was her port visit in Wales before returning back to England in Bristol.
Join the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in Northern Europe!
We are looking for activists interested in being part of our ground crew, passenger delegation or boat crew (with proper experience) in Scotland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany and/or Sweden.
Want to be part of the 2023 Gaza Freedom Flotilla? Join us this summer in northern Europe to mobilize and educate communities about the criminal actions by the state of Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.
Ground crew prepare for the boat’s arrival to a port and work with local activists to put on events and talk with the public.
Passengers travel on the boat between ports and participate in local port events.
Boat crew assist the captain in the operation of the boat.
In all cases participants need to provide their own transportation to the port(s), whether on ground crew, boat crew, or a passenger, and pay for ground expenses such as hotels and meals.
Join the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice Thursday January 26 @ 7pm PT for a presentation featuring Dr. Yasser Abu-Jamei, psychiatrist and Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.
TRAUMA & HOPE TOUR
Continuous Trauma and Social Devastation, or Caring for All?
Featuring Dr. Yasser Abu-Jamei,
Psychiatrist and Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
Thursday, January 26, 7 PM Pacific Time
St Mark's Episcopal Cathedral (Bloedel Hall)
1245 10th Ave. E., Seattle
And ONLINE. Register at: http://bit.ly/3k1AflvDr. Abu Jamei will be joined by these local panelists discussing social division and racisms globally, in the Gaza Strip, and in Washington, as well as anti-racism, equality and respect as core values going forward for all peoples—“no exceptions!”:
Imraan Siddiqi, Executive Director, Council of American-Islamic Relations (Washington Chapter)
The Honorable Damon Shadid, Seattle Municipal Court Judge
Dr. Jonathan Kanter, Director, Center for the Science of Social Connection (University of Washington)
Dr. Brian Baird, psychologist and former U.S. Congressman
This free event is organized by the Massachusetts-based Gaza Mental Health Foundation, the primary sponsor of Dr. Abu-Jamei’s national tour, with support from the following regional cosponsors:
WA Physicians for Social Responsibility Council on American-Islamic Affairs – WA Bishop’s Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land – Episcopal Diocese of Olympia Jewish Voice for Peace – Health Advisory Council Jewish Voice for Peace – Seattle Jewish Voice for Peace –Tacoma Kairos Puget Sound Coalition Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice St. Mark’s Cathedral Mideast Focus Ministry Students United for Palestine Equality and Return – UW USA Palestine Mental Health Network US Boats to Gaza
Dr. Abu-Jamei has steered the GCMHP through devastating times. For 15 years, an Israel-imposed blockade has cut its two million people off from the wider world and all but destroyed the local economy. During that time the Gaza Strip has endured five major Israeli military attacks that have had a severe impact on the physical and psychological health of children and their caregivers. Save the Children International reports, “four out of five children in Gaza say they are living with depression, grief and fear.”
On July 21, 2014, Dr. Abu-Jamei lost 28 members of his extended family – including 19 children – in a single missile strike, and other GCMHP staff members have also suffered terrible losses.
As the leading Palestinian non-governmental organization providing mental health services to the Gaza Strip, the GCMHP works at the nexus of mental health and human rights, to alleviate trauma and instill hope.
In Dr. Abu Jamei’s words, “It is a joy to us when we see children recovering and able to go back to school. We are doing our best to ensure the children can be our future. We are calling for help from the international community to say these children need a future.”
