STATEMENT ABOUT THE ‘FREE GAZA MOVEMENT’
COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 6 Oct 2008
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
October 1st, 2008
Dear Antonio, please divulge at TRANSCEND Media Service.
The collective punishment of Gaza by Israel is prohibited by international humanitarian law and should end immediately.
On 22nd September, 2008, I flew to Larnaca, Cyprus, at the invitation of the Free Gaza Movement to join them on a mission from Larnaca to Gaza. The purpose of the mission was to break the blockade of Gaza. In Larnaca, I joined a 22-person international delegation of doctors, parliamentarians and human rights workers in the hope of setting sail aboard the SS Hope for Gaza.
This was to be the second mission into Gaza, following upon the very successful sailing on 23rd August, 2008, of the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty, when 42 International delegates broke the siege and landed in Gaza, carrying hearing-aids for children. These were the first boats to dock in the Gaza port in over 40 years, since the start of the military occupation of Palestine by Israel. Over 40,000 Gazans welcomed the boats when they arrived last August, and we were assured that the people of Gaza were preparing a warm welcome for us. The fact that ten Palestinians (five medical doctors) were in our delegation added to the excitement of the Gazan people.
Unfortunately as things turned out, after a holdup of some days, it was decided to delay the return to Gaza for a future date. The problem was that the two original boats were not suitable for another trip, so the Free Gaza Movement decided to buy or lease a sturdier boat. Every time they thought they had reached an agreement with a boat owner, it fell through (they believe due to outside pressure). The second problem was that strong winds on the seas meant we would have to wait for another week before we could even consider sailing. Hence the Free Gaza Movement decided wisely to temporarily delay our voyage.
We will return to sail to Gaza as soon as the boat is ready and bring with us medical supplies. These are urgently needed, as despite unilateral evacuation of 7,000 settlers, the Gaza strip remains an occupied territory. Israel continues to control its six land crossings, (many of which are closed for long periods of time), airspace, territorial waters, population registry, tax system, supply of goods, freedom of movement and access to healthcare.
Israel has military control over 26 percent of the Strip’s total territory as ‘border security zones’. The international community was led to believe that Israel gave back Gaza, but this simply is not true. Israel even prevents fishermen from going to sea in Gazan waters, despite the fact that the Oslo Agreement allows them a fishing area of 20 nautical miles.
Gaza, is like a ghetto, a huge prison, with Israel holding the keys to all the doors. Israel controls everything in the lives of the Gazan people. Many Gazans have been killed, including children, caught in the crossfires of Israeli collective punishment.
Armed Palestinians try to hit back at their occupiers with crude weaponry, such as the qassam rocket attacks on the Jewish town of Sderot, where four Jewish people have been killed, and hundreds injured. Gazan hospitals have been paralyzed, 40 percent of Gaza City residents have been deprived of access to clean water. Children are living in the cold and dark. Gaza pumps 40 million litres of untreated sewage into the sea every day, because of a lack of electricity to run the treatment plant, and lack of pipes to replace old ones (Israel argues they will use the pipes as bombs, so none is allowed into Gaza, nor are they allowed cement and therefore cannot build hospitals, homes, etc.).
I sympathize with Sderot’s residents, exposed to traumatising qassam rockets for the past seven years, but siege and collective punishment are no answer, and denying basic necessities, driven to the edge of starvation, and constant military Israeli offensive (l,000 Palestinians were killed in 2007, including many civilians) is against the Geneva Convention. In the meantime the Israeli government has rejected several Palestinian ceasefire offers out of hand. They are, by their repressive policies, encouraging extremism. Gaza is a traumatized, broken society, where 80 percent is unemployed and 2O percent works for the UN and NGO’s. Therefore 100 percent of Gazans relies on the benevolence of the outside world.
The international community must end its silence on the suffering of the Palestinian people, live up to their obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and take action to challenge Israel’s collective punishment of l.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
They must also insist that Israel end the blockade, end the occupation of Palestine, and implement political solutions to what is a political problem and therefore solvable.
Israel has partners for peace, and the international community must no longer listen to the old mantra, that Israel has no partners for peace. The truth is that Israelis and Palestinians can be friends, and this is not a clash of civilizations, as some would have us all believe. This is a political problem exacerbated by failed and repressive policies of the Israeli government, and as they are the stronger party and occupying power, they have the legal and moral responsibility to end the conflict. Also, an end to violence by all Palestinian armed groups and a Palestinian unity are necessary for peace.
The Israeli/Palestinian peoples are tired of violence and war, they want justice and peace, and it is now up to the political leaders, through unconditional and all inclusive dialogue, to deliver that peace to all the people.
So we will return to Gaza soon and we encourage people from around the world to join us in defying Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
We also invite some country to be the first in the world to join us and send boats or planes of medicines, sewage pipes, etc., to save the children of Gaza. Thank you.
Peace People – 224 Lisburn road, Belfast BT9, Northern Ireland
O7736147713 (M)
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 6 Oct 2008.
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