Commentary by Chippy Dee, Photos © by Bud Korotzer
Within the past week there have been 2 reports from people that participated in the Gaza Freedom March that took place, so to speak, in Cairo a month ago. The first took place on January 14th and was sponsored by Brooklyn for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Peace and Social Action Committee of the Brooklyn Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and took place at their Meeting House. The purpose of the Gaza Freedom March was to bring Israel’s siege of Gaza, which is killing the people there, to the attention of the world, and in so doing, try to end it. It was also to be a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Ted Auerbach from Brooklyn for Peace was the first speaker and he also presented a slide show. He said that all arrangements had been made to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza well in advance of the march. However, 3 days before Egypt announced that they wouldn’t allow them to pass through – the crossing was being closed. When the 1,460 marchers arrived in Cairo they spent the first few days trying to get Egypt to change their policy. When it became clear that Egypt would not relent, the people there dealt with the new situation with creativity, solidarity, and courage. Demonstrations are forbidden in Egypt but the participants, determined to make the world aware of the siege, braved the riot police and demonstrated all over Cairo. They were joined by brave Egyptians who faced arrest or worse. Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old holocaust survivor, went on a hunger strike along with 30 others. Several French delegates climbed up a pyramid and unfurled a huge Palestinian flag. When Egyptian security chased after them they escaped by climb up over the top escaping down the other side.
The second speaker, David Letwin, also from Brooklyn for Peace, gave an excellent report on the Cairo Declaration – the political document that was a product of the events in Cairo. The South African delegation sent out a call for people to gather and, by consensus and collaboration, came up with a political plan for the immediate future.
The Declaration first lists the grievances and injustices the Palestinians suffer at the hands of Israel: collective punishment, illegal occupation, the apartheid wall, the deep wall being constructed between Gaza and Egypt, war crimes, discrimination and repression against Palestinian citizens within Israel, and the exile of millions of Palestinian refugees. The repressive acts are, it says, based on the Zionist ideology. The Declaration then reaffirms a commitment to Palestinian self-determination, ending the occupation, equal rights for all within historic Palestine, and the full right of return for Palestinian refugees. To that end, the declaration calls for a global mass democratic anti apartheid movement to work in consultation with Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. This will include visits and speeches from South African and Palestinian trade unionists to unions all over the world. Participation in Israeli Apartheid Week (March 2010), a systemic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli products, developing the Academic, Cultural, and Sports boycott, and campaigns to encourage divestment of trade unions and pension funds from companies directly implicated in the occupation or in the Israeli military industries. There would be legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli war criminals, coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaus, support for the Goldstone Report, and campaigns against the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Individuals and organizations are invited to sign the declaration at http://cairodeclaration.org/lang/en-us/sign/
Letwin quoted Bishop Tutu saying, “We don’t want the crumbs from the table, we want the whole menu.” Letwin added, the civil rights movement in the US was not about getting a seat in the front of the bus. It was about ending white supremacy in the south. Operation Cast Lead was a result of the people of Gaza refusing to accept Israeli supremacy. The Cairo Declaration reflects what the Palestinian people want and is being highly praised by Palestinian civil leaders.
Letwin ended his report by saying that all movements start out with a small group sticking to their beliefs and turning it, in time, into a mass movement. He noted that truth goes through 3 phases: ridicule, attack, and self evident.
The final speaker was Adam Shapiro from the Free Gaza Movement. He announced that they will send several boats, at least 6, including a cargo ship, full of building supplies to Gaza from Cyprus in March.
They are challenging the siege by sea. Israel must be directly confronted. He said that more people are getting involved than ever before and Free Gaza needs help and support from all of us. The ships will constitute a nonviolent confrontation. He praised the Gaza Freedom Marchers and the Cairo Declaration because it presented a plan for sustained direct action and it moves the plan away from peace and towards justice. He concluded by suggesting that when activists discuss the Palestinian/Israel issue with others they stick with the principles of human rights and international law.
The 2nd report was on January 21st at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. The huge space was filled beyond capacity. It was estimated that over 400 people were there. Much that was said there had already been reported at the meeting in Brooklyn. Jenna Bitar, from Hunter College High School, was in Cairo with her family. She learned a lot and was very excited by the international solidarity, and by being able to bring attention to the siege.
Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights was also there with his family. When they saw that they wouldn’t be allowed into Gaza they remained in Cairo for a few days participating in the intense demonstrations and then they flew into Israel to spend some time in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank. While in East Jerusalem, Section C, they saw how Palestinians are being evicted from their homes there and are living on the streets while Jews take over their houses. There is no legal justification for these evictions, he said. One elderly Palestinian man pointed to his former home and told Ratner that he was made a refugee twice. He was one of those evicted in Israel’s early history and again now. The Ratner family joined a march of Jewish Israelis opposing the evictions. Apples and water were thrown at them in West Jerusalem but they were welcomed in East Jerusalem. He said that there are very few Israeli Jews opposing the actions of their government – their numbers are small and are shrinking. When passing the Eretz crossing they saw 2 huge 15 foot photos of Shalit, the young soldier captured by Palestinians (and being held waiting for a prisoner exchange). At one point the Ratners were able to look across a valley on the West Bank. On the top of a hill they could see a settlement (colony) for 50,000 Jews. The scene made the “noxious architecture of apartheid” very clear. Visible was the dual system of roads, walls surrounding little Palestinian villages, or bantustans, olive trees uprooted, the open stealing of land. The Jewish colony was all lush and green, 400 year old olive trees were planted everywhere, and there was a huge swimming pool. Ratner said that his children were also stunned by the sight and asked how this could be going on and nobody is doing anything about it. They also visited a Palestinian family in Hebron. While on the roof of their house they were pelted by stones thrown by Jewish settlement children and were surprised by how empowered the children felt to throw the stones. The Ratners left the area with a sense that a terrible crime was going on and that changing the situation was in the hands of militant activists everywhere.
The final speaker was Ali Abunimeh, a Palestinian American, and co-founder of Electronic Intifada. Primarily he discussed the current situation in Gaza calling the 1.5 million people there “political prisoners.” They have no way of changing their situation. They are defenseless. He said that “terrorism is defined as violence against civilians to create change by non-state actors.” If the words ‘non-state’ were taken out it would describe what Israel was doing to Gaza. But the world is coming to see that the blockade of Gaza, and the attack on the area, targets the children there. Half the schools were bombed during Operation Cast Lead and 20% of the children suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with 90% of them having at least one criteria of PTSD. Israel is no longer able to present the image of itself as a liberal democracy. There is a severe and systemic repression against non-violent Palestinian protesters, and yet they continue to protest. Israel is not renewing visas held by international solidarity workers, in fact they are deporting them. Yet the worldwide movement against Israel’s policies keeps growing – rapidly. Abunimeh expressed optimism that the opposition shown by the Gaza Freedom Marchers in Cairo will grow and spread.
When the meeting concluded representatives of the many organizations opposing Israel’s policies came forward and introduced themselves and their organizations. They included AdalahNY, Brooklyn for Peace, CodePink, Jews Say No, Jewish Voice for Peace, Gaza Freedom March, Free Gaza, Wespac, Al-AwdaNY, Committee for an open Discussion of Zionism, Women in Black, and Middle East Crisis Response. Contact information was collected from all people attending the event and it will be used if there is another attack on the Palestinian people.
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