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An Open Letter to Pres. Obama from the Gaza Freedom March delegates

January 22, 2010 By Anonymous 2 Comments

January 14, 2009

Dear Mr. President Barak H. Obama,

We, citizens of 43 countries, gathered in Cairo in December 2009, to travel to the occupied Gaza Strip to show solidarity with Palestinians who endured a massive and inhuman Israeli assault one year ago. We wanted to show them that we, citizens of the world, remember what our governments want us to forget: we remember that human beings live in the Gaza Strip. Men, women and children: mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, grandmothers and grandfathers: people like you and I.

We, citizens of democratic countries from 6 continents, who were forcibly stopped by the puppet Egyptian state from travelling to the Gaza Strip want to tell you that we remember the horror that was unleashed on the Gaza Strip a year ago. This week marks one year since US-ally Israel ended its lethal attack on the Gaza Strip: a year since phosphorus bombs, DIME bombs and other weapons of death and destruction deliberately targeted the defenseless civilian population of Gaza.

In your much quoted Cairo speech, you said,

“Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.”

And yet, Palestinians have seen nothing but more death and destruction since then. Your fine words in Cairo did not even result in Palestinians getting cement to rebuild their homes, mosques and schools.

The siege of occupied Gaza is collective punishment of the entire population, in violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention. As a lawyer, you must know this Convention is binding on all its signatories, including the United States, who are required to ensure the Convention is upheld. Yet, over the last few weeks, the infamy of the Israeli siege has been compounded by the construction of a new wall which will inevitably tighten still further the siege of Gaza and the humanitarian crisis which the siege was always designed to inflict. This new wall is being constructed by the Egyptian government with technical assistance from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Last month, the US authorised $1,040,000,000 in Foreign Military Assistance to Egypt including “border security programs and activities in the Sinai”.

Mr. President,

The collective punishment of occupied Gaza in the name of “border security” – in direct violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention – is the policy of your government.

You must also be aware that in Israel’s war of aggression on the occupied Gaza Strip, many civilians were massacred by Israel’s indiscriminate bombing – an act condemned by UN experts, including the respected South African, Judge Richard Goldstone – and leading human rights organizations, as war crimes and crimes against humanity. And yet you, a lawyer, ignore this incontrovertible evidence and continue to prop up the apartheid Israeli state. The assault in December 2008-January 2009 left over 1,440 Palestinians dead, predominantly civilians, of whom 431 were children. Another 5380 Palestinians were injured. These are not facts that we will forget, as we have not forgotten Deir Yassin, Sabra and Shatila, Jenin, Nablus, Beit Hanoun and over 60 years of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

In your Cairo speech, you acknowledge the Palestinians’ right to nonviolent resistance. You even gave them advice to pursue it like African Americans, Indians, and South Africans:

For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia.

And that is precisely what we wanted to do in the Gaza Strip, Mr. President: We wanted to walk together with the people of Gaza to register our abhorrence of the collective punishment that has been imposed on them; We wanted to demand an end to the hermetic siege that has been imposed on them since the democratic elections of 2006. And yes, we were also citizens from South Asia, from Eastern Europe and from South Africa, all gathered together in Cairo, so we do know both the humiliation of segregation and the power of collective action. And we intend to use that power to support our Palestinian brothers and sisters as they fight to regain their stolen homeland.

We, the undersigned, call upon you to end the siege, Mr. President. It is an ethical and moral responsibility that you cannot avoid. We, 1400 international activists from 43 countries planned to be in Gaza on December 31 to march with the Palestinians of Gaza and demand that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately and permanently. We could not do so because the Government of Egypt, an ally of the US, refused to allow us to cross into the Gaza Strip even as they began construction of a new wall to tighten the siege. We were denied the right to show Palestinians that we support their right to their homeland as guaranteed under international law. We were denied the right to show Palestinians that we remember their pain and suffering.

We were denied our right to show Israel and the United States that we will not watch what it does to the Palestinians and remain silent. But we refused to be denied the right to walk in solidarity with the oppressed, even if from afar: and we did. We chose to walk and protest in solidarity with the people of Gaza in Cairo.

You, President Barak Obama, choose to walk in solidarity with the oppressor. You choose to ignore the pain and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Like your predecessors, Reagan and Thatcher, who said in 1987 that Nelson Mandela would never be the President of a democratic South Africa, you too, choose to ignore the will of the people.

You are on the wrong side of history, President Obama, because we, citizens of the world, will not accept a Palestine that is occupied.

You are on the wrong side of history, President Obama, because our collective action, together with the action of Palestinians inside and outside Palestine and millions of people who recognise their just cause, will ensure a free Palestine in our lifetime. Of this we are certain.

Signed

1,361 international citizens from 43 countries

“How to protest” from Al-Ahram Weekly

January 11, 2010 By Anonymous 6 Comments

The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly has a remarkable editorial titled “How to Protest” about the effects of the Gaza Freedom March and the events that unfolded in Cairo after the Egyptian government refused to allow 1362 international delegates to go to Gaza. Please substitute “internationals” for “Europeans” as our delegates represented 44 countries.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/980/op4.htm

How to Protest
By Salama A Salama

European protesters took over our streets last week. In a show of solidarity with Gaza’s inhabitants and to protest against all sorts of injustices and blockades, European demonstrators marched through our streets, picketed our public squares and told us what they thought of the wall we’re building on Gaza’s borders.

Several hundred protesters came from 42 European countries to take part in pro-Gaza protests. So what did we do? We sent our security forces to contain them. We also prevented them from going to Gaza. Interestingly, the protesters refused to be intimidated. Instead, they picketed the French Embassy, they marched around the Giza Zoo, and they even stood guard at the famous steps of the Press Syndicate.

Curiously enough, the police did not prevent them from demonstrating in front of the Israeli Embassy. But clashes took place, and in some instances the Europeans had a taste of what Egyptians regularly experience at the hands of the police and their karate- trained auxiliaries.

During the past few days, Egyptians had proof that our police can act humanely, but only with foreigners. In front of the French Embassy, I saw a foreign man standing alone, surrounded by three circles of policemen. He was carrying a picket sign, but the police refrained from harming him in any way.

The Europeans came all the way to express their views, peacefully and orderly. In doing so, they gave us a rare glimpse into the working of peaceful resistance. And they stood for what they believe in. They vented their anger at a policy of blockade into which some Arab countries have become actively involved, either out of fear or desire to placate the Israelis.

The demonstrators slept in the streets and the squares. They occasionally obstructed traffic. And they sent to the Egyptians, Arabs, and the world a clear message, one which television stations relayed without delay across the world.

In this country, we don’t have a culture of protest. In this country, protest is treated as an act of sabotage, as a challenge to law and order. This is why we missed a rare opportunity to expose Israel’s crimes. How hard would it have been to let the European demonstrators walk into Gaza? Why did we fail to give them the chance to come face to face with an Arab nation living under occupation?

In Egypt, we don’t know how to encourage protest marches against Israel. But we know how to come up with lame excuses for building a controversial wall on our borders with Israel. Are we really worried about our own security, or are we protecting Israel?

In this country, it is wrong to protest. It is even wrong to be different. This is why our government gets so angry when opposition parliamentarians demand an explanation for the wall. Even in a parliament that prides itself on being a leader of all Arab parliaments, the opposition is demonised and abused for asking the right questions.

Worse still, our Islamic Research Council found itself pressured into issuing a statement in support of the wall. You would think that Sharia has nothing to do with security walls, but no. Our leading clergymen have decided to call anyone who opposes the wall an apostate. Don’t ask me why.

Many may ask what’s the point of it all. Did the Europeans achieve anything by marching in our streets? If you ask me, they achieved a lot. For starters, they sounded the alarm bells for the entire world, which is more than what our governments and nations have done so far. The protesters not only put Israeli actions on the line, but also underlined our own failings.

Democracy Now! covers the Gaza Freedom March (VIDEO)

January 8, 2010 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

Check out Democracy Now!‘s amazing coverage of the Gaza Freedom March in Cairo!

In Egypt, hundreds of solidarity activists from around the world are being prevented by the Egyptian government from entering Gaza. Dubbed the Gaza Freedom March, organizers were planning to cross the border last Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of Israel’s assault on Gaza that killed 1,400 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis. We get a report.

Freeing Gaza from the Pyramids (Photos & Video)

January 2, 2010 By Anonymous 2 Comments

Today, for our last day in Cairo, we decided to take a group and head over to the pyramids for one last group activity while doing exactly what Egyptian authorities have been wanting us to do since we’ve been here: tourism! But of course, for GFMers, no activity is complete without a little activism sprinkled in 🙂

So, what we originally planned to do was to go to the pyramids and take a picture in front of it. We intended to just gather as a group at the base of the pyramid, hold the signs, and take the picture. However, in all the excitement and confusion, at the last minute it was just a 4 or 5 of us that spontaneously decided to run up the side of the pyramid, drop the flag, banner, and signs, and pose for the picture. Needless to say, Egyptian cops were NOT happy with this.

After we took the picture (we also had a member of the Egyptian press capturing the moment as well!), we scurried and raced down the pyramid to avoid further complications. As we’re on our way, we realized they had gotten a hold of Basem and his backpack which was packed with the signs we held, as well as many of our valuables, ie: money, laptop, camera, etc. The rest of our group converged on the scene (with our cameras, of course) to dissolve the situation, but the cops were just not having it.

I arrived to the scene yelling and screaming at the cops in Arabic — BIG mistake! Once they saw I spoke perfect Arabic with an Egyptian dialect, their attention shifted from Basem and his bag, to me and my Arabic. They were convinced that I was an Egyptian citizen although I assured them of my American citizenship. Not only this, but they were also sure that I was a journalist too! I can’t even explain the escalated rage they expressed when they heard me speak Arabic and saw my camera…if I really was an Egyptian journalist, the scene would have been unimaginable! Thankfully, the two press people who took the photo were long gone by that point.

As we tried to leave in order to extinguish the situation, we had 3 cops following us asking us to stay with them until their supervisor arrived. We obviously refused and continued walking, explaining to them that we had given them our signs and banners, hadn’t taken any pictures, and would just like to leave the pyramids area since we didn’t appreciate the way we were treated. They followed us all the way from the small pyramid to a small road alongside the large pyramid. Once we got there, the supervisor arrived in and intercepted us in a “Tourism Police” truck. By now, we were surrounded by a group of about 20 different police officers who now wanted us to get into the truck and go God-knows-where! After adimently refusing, I was advised by a member of our group to call the US Embassy to ask for help and assistance with the situation.

I called and spoke to someone at the embassy and when I tried to get any of the cops to speak to her (holding my phone up for them to take and speak into), not one man stepped forward to take the call. I said something along the lines of “Nobody wants to take this? NOW you don’t want to talk? Alright, fine I’m leaving!” I finally got someone to talk to her and when she spoke to me again, it got very…educational…The US embassy told me that I need to cooperate with the cops, that I did something illegal, and that I’m on Egyptian land and must abide by those laws. Of course I interjected after each statement in my defense; afterwhich she was on the phone with a cop again. At this time, I’d started to inconspicuously walk away from the large crowd with Basem and another friend. They were so caught up in their indecisiveness, they didn’t even realize I was gone.

At this time, the embassy called my phone back and Basem spoke to her. The only thing that came out of that conversation? That if I wanted help from the embassy, they couldn’t do anything until I offically filed a police report!!! Do you know where I could be by then? God only knows, but this really taught me a real lesson in not being too trusting or depending too much on the “power” of the US embassy to save me when I need them to. Basem even asked them if they could send someone to where we were in order to help alleviate the sitation, but they refused.

With the help of some amazing new friends, we were able to make it out of the Pyramids compound and meet at a cafe across the street. The second I walked in, I noticed the secret cop sitting in the back corner looking a his “phone” which happened to make a camera sound just as I’d turned around a few minutes later. I swear, these guys are so not good at what they do, lol! The cafe owner later referred to him as his “son” which was just laughable. Later on, the restaurant owner ordered us a minibus which he said would take us all the way downtown. I thought this was sketchy, but didn’t want to say anything since I’m obviously not an objective voice.

When we all went downstairs, the same cop from upstairs was waiting downstairs and the guy asking us to get into the bus looked like one of the guys from inside the pyramids area! I got really scared and told everyone that we’re not getting in the bus and we refused the offer. We walked all the way to the main road and took a public bus (which was crawling with secret police) to the metro station and back to Tahrir Square.

Later that night, we found out that a small group of Canadian GFMers also went to the pyramids that day, wearing their GFM shirts. They were spotted immediately and yelled at by the tourism police. To learn more about their experience, go here:

[youtube v6x-gtnDCWc Egypt pyramids Gaza Action to Open Borders]

Video: Ziyaad Lunat

[youtube hnulP_ng0jg Egyptian police have run-in with GFMers]

[youtube kV8WKXJt0No Egyptian police escort GFMers out of pyramids]

Photo: Danah Abdulla

I called and spoke to someone at the embassy and when I tried to get any of the cops to speak to her (holding my phone up for them to take and speak into), not one man stepped forward to take the call. I said something along the lines of “Nobody wants to take this? NOW you don’t want to talk? Alright, fine I’m leaving!” I finally got someone to talk to her and when she spoke to me again, it got very…educational…The US embassy told me that I need to cooperate with the cops, that I did something illegal, and that I’m on Egyptian land and must abide by those laws. Of course I interjected after each statement in my defense; afterwhich she was on the phone with a cop again. At this time, I’d started to inconspicuously walk away from the large crowd with Basem and a new friend, Ziyaad. The police were so caught up in their indecisiveness, they didn’t even realize I was gone.

When we all went downstairs, the same cop from upstairs was waiting downstairs and the guy asking us to get into the bus looked like one of the guys from inside the pyramids area! I got really paranoid and told everyone that we’re not getting in the bus and we refused the offer. We walked all the way to the main road and took a public bus (which was crawling with secret police) to the metro station and back to Tahrir Square. The public bus ride experience deserves a whole blog post in itself! 🙂

Photo: Ziyaad Lunat

Our story was covered by Al-Shorouk newspaper and can be viewed here (in Arabic):
http://www.shorouknews.com/ContentData.aspx?id=168212

Note: This post would not be complete without mentioning the inspiration for our actions at the pyramids today. Earlier in the week, members of the French delegation visited the pyramids, created a diversion to detract attention from themselves (someone “fainted” to bring police attention to her instead), then quickly climbed about half-way up the small pyramid and hung a 30 foot Palestinian flag down the side. The sight was absolutely amazing; the image became an icon of our week in Cairo and the French immediately made a name for themselves! Below is some video and photos of this awesome action in Cairo:

[singlepic id=1125 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[youtube gUNUMHCyhT4 French hang Palestine flag on Pyramids]

Where are the buses?!?! (GFM Update 12/30)

December 31, 2009 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

Good morning all,

It is 5am here on Thursday morning and we are waiting to begin our march here in Cairo. A lot has happened in the last couple days but the fact still remains that the Egyptian government has still refused to let us into Gaza for the Gaza Freedom March.

Last night we got word that organizers from CodePink met with Mrs. Mubarak and negotiated a deal to allow 100 people and 2 buses leave for Gaza the next morning. We were given just one hour to make the very tough decision of choosing 2 people from each delegation (more or less, depending on proportion) to send on those buses. After submitting the names, the Canadian delegation met and decided that this deal was just one big slap in the face. 100 people on 2 buses is NOT the Gaza Freedom March! This back-door deal ultimately dilutes our message, divides our groups, and really affects our morale. Because of this, we decided that if all of us don’t go, then NONE OF US will go!

We, as Canadians, told other countries’ delegations and succeeded in getting many others on board including Sweden, Italy, France, and the New York groups. Later that night at a meeting, Wendy Goldsmith, leader of the London (Ontario) delegation, announced our decision to boycott the decision to allow just 100 people to enter Gaza. This sparked a whole debate and discussion in the meeting showing us that we had support from many more delegations than we’d expected. Scotland, South Africa, New York state, and others were among the supporters of our decision.

This did of course cause divisions and rifts within our group but we all believed that this was the right thing to do in order to keep our message and our purpose for this march focused and clear: we want to break the siege on Gaza, not simply provide a humanitarian aid convoy. The people of Gaza receive aid convoys all the time and while we fully support those convoys, the Gaza Freedom March was never a humanitarian effort; it has always been a political mission since the start. To accept the Egyptian government’s bread-crumbs offer would be a huge blow to our mission and an even larger victory to the corrupt regime that is the Egyptian government.

Basem (Bassem Omar) was quoted by the AFP as saying:

“This just gives the Egyptian government a photo-up and the chance to say we allowed people through,” said Bassem Omar, a Canadian protester.

Furthermore, the governments decision to allow 100 people into Gaza on two buses shows very clearly that all the excuses that they have been providing about why they cannot let us in (dangers and tensions on the border) are completely unfounded and absolutely ridiculous! If you can allow 100 people in through the Rafah border, then what’s to say you cannot also allow the rest of the 1,360-strong delegation? This was clearly a strategic move by the Foreign Ministry to trap us into accepting a token gesture based on lies and deceit. To illustrate just how deceitful it was, Ahmed Aboul Gheit held a press conference in which he said that the 100 people allowed to go on the buses were hand-picked by the Egyptian government as the 100 most peaceful delegates in Cairo, referring to the rest of us as members “from organizations that are only interested in subversion and acting against Egyptian interests, to sow havoc on the streets of Egypt” referring to the continuous protests and actions we have had over the past week.

[singlepic id=1061 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=1095 w=320 h=240 float=center]

This morning at 7am the buses were to depart for Gaza carrying the 100 delegates as well as the aid and supplies that were brought in to Cairo with all 1,360 marchers. The 100 chosen people to go on the buses were at the bus stop as early as 6am. The rest of the delegates who were not going also showed up with their bags packed, ready to board the buses, but with one message in mind: “Where are the rest of the buses?” We came to show our support and solidarity for those going, but wanted to make it clear that this was in no way a victory for the Gaza Freedom March, nor was it something to celebrate!

[singlepic id=1068 w=320 h=240 float=center] [singlepic id=1084 w=320 h=240 float=center]

As delegates began boarding the buses, the rest of us begged and pleaded with the chosen ones to get off the bus, and ensure our entire group was united. We chanted slogans such as “Don’t go!” “Where are the buses?” “Please don’t go!” and “The people united, will never be defeated!” Eventually, some people began to get off the buses, and were welcomed by our shouts and screams of support for their decision to get off. Unfortunately, there was some back and forth yelling between those on the bus and those of us begging them to get off. Later on, Ehab Lotayef, international steering committee member, made a phone call to his counterpart in Gaza, put him on speaker phone for the bus to hear, and asked him if the 100-person convoy should still come despite the missing 1200 delegates; he said no! So basically, Gaza said no don’t send the 100 people because it just wouldn’t be the same march as that which was planned for the past several months.

[singlepic id=1077 w=320 h=240 float=center]

A couple hours later, we were barricaded off by some light-security riot police.

[singlepic id=1098 w=320 h=240 float=center]

We had signs and banners voicing our pleas and to the press, the 100 on board the buses, as well as the Egyptian locals and police. By the time the buses left, there were 60 people on-board (many of whom were replacements for those who decided not to go). Unfortunately, there were 2 Canadians on the bus, but they did not go as part of the Canadian delegation, nor did the 100-person convoy go as the “Gaza Freedom March.” So, as of this writing, the 60 people are on their way to Gaza with 2 bus-loads of aid and donations. Of those, about 15 people were of Palestinian descent and had family in the strip with whom they had hoped to be united. We support them on their independent, personal missions but cannot support them as the Gaza Freedom March or as part of any type of political effort.

SILENCE NO MORE

December 30, 2009 By Anonymous 1 Comment

By: Dave Bleakney

If governments don’t want peace in the Middle East Gaza Freedom Marchers Do

Later this morning the Gaza Freedom Marchers will attempt to walk to Gaza for peace and to stop the siege. They are organizing at a level of cooperation that represents the new world of people’s assemblies. People all over the world are losing faith in their governments to seek peace and dialogue. It is becoming clearer that governments and their hidden masters do not desire peace and dialogue in the Middle East but more of the same. There is an inhuman siege on Gaza that some would like the world forget while keeping the Palestinian people in their Middle Eastern jail surrounded on all sides.

Last night, in a most vibrant and grass roots process imaginable, the people, in the absence of any official support decided to walk to Gaza to break the siege. As the lifeline to Gaza and the tunnels that keep food, water, and medicine flowing are cut off with the help of the U.S. army corps of engineers, the Gaza Freedom Marchers have grown stronger daily and will march to open the border as the state refuses buses to carry them or to open the border.

The claim of the authorities is that the closure of tunnels must be done to cut off arms. The official border crossing is closed or occasionally opened to allow token passage. An open border would permit food, people, and necessities to enter and would allow screening for undesired weapons. But this is not in the interest of those that would maintain a military solution for Gaza. There is but one army in Palestine, and it is an Israeli one, proven to be capable of using widespread lethal force on civilian populations, including massacres from bombs and chemical weapons, and pure economic strangulation. Everyday Palestinians are harassed for living. Toxic waste is dumped on Palestinian land while the theft of water and other resources, and the destruction of livelihoods and lives continue.

But massacres of innocent people no longer occur in silence. A French astrophysicist said yesterday that a colleague had his home targeted and shot up when the Israelis unleashed their firestorm on innocent people last year resulting in the death of his son. Ibrahim, far from being a “terrorist”, was a boy of ten with a lifetime ahead of him. He reported that last year the Israeli forces deliberately attacked the homes of the educated class in order to cripple Palestinian society even further. These attacks were not random acts.

Later this morning in Cairo people will march to Gaza. Undercover police and state agents are everywhere but this protest has never been about the Egyptian state. The state has now created conditions that appear to be running interference on behalf of Israeli and U.S. government objectives and therefore have created their own public crisis.

What compels people to accept the role their governments will not? Olivia Zenor, representing Euro Palestina, and blockaded at her own embassy by riot police (three rows deep twenty four hours a day), said that as a result of the terror of the Second World War we now ridicule those that remained silent. They were complicit in crimes against humanity and are labeled cowards for their unwillingness to act before it was to late. Today, those trying to prevent clear and unacceptable murder of civilian populations are stropped from acting on those important lessons of history.

Sixty one years ago and Israeli state was created. How perverse that the Palestinians and the decedents of a people who have lived in the region thousands of years are not only prevented from having the same but punished for living.

They are not alone anymore. People will do what their governments won’t.

Dave Bleakney is a national union representative of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers currently in Cairo.