The Siege will continue until Palestinians Bow To Us

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated Tuesday that Israel will continue its siege on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Helicopter during attack - Still from Russia Today video

He said that the stances of his government never changed and that the siege will not be lifted under any circumstances as long that the Hamas freedom movement still rules Gaza.

Hamas won the vast majority of the Palestinian legislative and local council elections of 2006.

Referring to the deadly attack carried out by the Israeli army against the Freedom Flotilla Ships, Netanyahu described the soldiers who attacked the ships as “heroes”, and described the Freedom Flotilla as “violent and not a flotilla for peace”.

The only “proof” of weapons Israel managed to present was a video of a broken slingshot, as for the claimed knives and axes, it is not out of the ordinary to find them on any ship.

Israel Tows Aid Ships to Ashdod, Holds Hostage 700 Activists Including Foreign Members of Parliament

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

16 hours after the attack on the humanitarian Freedom Flotilla that killed at least 19 or more passengers, Israeli naval vessels towed the convoy's ships to the port of Ashdod. The Israeli military has constructed an extemporaneous jail there to hold the activists until they are deported to their counties of origin.

Israeli forces board aid ship (photo from freegaza.org)

16 activists were taken to Israeli prison for refusing to identify themselves. Another 16 were taken for interrogation, though why they specifically were chosen is unknown.

Dozens of others were taken to a hospital for wounds suffered during the Israeli raid. Each of the Flotilla's six ships was carrying humanitarian aid that had been carefully inspected by Greek and Cypriot authorities. The ships were in international waters when they were attacked by the Israeli military.

Israeli officials tried to make all 700 Flotilla activists to sign orders consenting to their deportation. Only about two dozen of the passengers agreed, according to Israeli media sources. The Israeli government says that it will deport all of the Flotilla's activists and aid workers, warning that anyone who refuses to cooperate will be imprisoned for an indefinite amount of time.

Among those arrested is Edward Peck, a veteran diplomat who has served as the US Ambassador to Iraq and Mauratania.

Another notable American passenger is Joe Meadors, a retired sailor who was aboard the USS Liberty when Israel attacked it during the Six-Day War.

Also detained are 85-year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, and Members of Parliament from the EU, Cyprus, Turkey, and Algeria.

US veteran on board 'Liberty' was flotilla passenger and is missing

Man who served on ship bombed by Israel during 1967 war is missing in aftermath of flotilla massacre, Is Israel now holding hostages or killing innocents?A US Navy veteran who was on board the USS Liberty, which Israel attacked during the Six Day War, is now missing after taking part in the humanitarian effort to help the people of Gaza, US news agencies reported Tuesday.

Sixty-three year-old Joe Miduras, of the Texas town of Corpus Christi, has not yet made contact with his wife, Jean. She has so far remained unconcerned, however, saying she didn't think he had been hurt.


Miduras was a soldier on board the USS Liberty, which came under fire by Israeli warplanes and torpedoes on the fourth day of the 1967 war. As a result, many many crew members were killed. "We have no luck with Israelis," his wife said.


One other American man, a former diplomat, was also on board the flotilla. Eighty-one year-old Edward Peck, of Maryland, was the US ambassador to Mauritania and also served in the State Department during the Reagan presidency.


He is currently on his way home. His wife says she received an email from the Foreign Ministry saying Peck was in good condition, and estimated that he would be home on Tuesday.


On board the Marmara were also two Australian journalists, Paul McGeough and photographer Kate Geraghty. Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Alan Oakley, said the two had been taken to Ela Prison in Beersheba.


He said he had had no contact with the two since Monday's incidents. Oakley added that the Irish and Australian embassies in Israel would take care of the two, who are also Irish citizens.

Oakley said the journalists had participated in the flotilla as part of their jobs as reporters. "I hope the authorities respect their rights," he said.


The Immigration Authority said Tuesday that there had been 679 passengers from 40 different countries on board the boats, most of them Turkish and Greek. The youngest passenger was a two-year old child. Nine were killed and more than 40 injured during the clashes, seven of them IDF soldiers.

Pro-Palestinian activists to make second attempt to break Gaza blockade

By Richard Spencer

Pro-Palestinian activists said they would make a second attempt to break the blockade on Gaza despite the loss of life on Monday.The MV Rachel Corrie, belonging to the Free Gaza Movement, was yesterday off the coast of Italy on its way from Malta stocked with building supplies, cement, medical and educational equipment and wheelchairs.

Among its passengers are Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the Nobel Peace laureate and founder of the Northern Ireland Peace People, Denis Halliday, a retired Irish diplomat who was once United Nations assistant secretary-general, and at least a dozen other activists.

Unlike the Mavi Marmara, the scene of the fighting on Monday, it is not being operated by the Turkish Islamist group IHH, but directly by the Free Gaza Movement which bought it for the purpose in Dundalk, Ireland, in March.

“We are an initiative to break Israel’s blockade of 1.5 million people in Gaza,” its spokesman, Greta Berlin, said. “Our mission has not changed and this is not going to be the last flotilla.”

Israeli defence spokesmen said they were expecting the Rachel Corrie, named after a 23-year-old American activist with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement who was crushed to death by a bulldozer during a protest in Gaza in 2003, to be off the coast by Wednesday.

They pledged to maintain the blockade.”We will not let any ships reach Gaza and supply what has become a terrorist base threatening the heart of Israel,” the deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, said.

The Rachel Corrie was one of two ships that were due to take part in the initial six-boat flotilla but became separated, because it was slower according to one activist. Another ship is currently being repaired in Cyprus after developing engine trouble.

Ms Berlin said that the group was intending to hold up the ship’s progress, and was not intending to challenge the blockade until next Monday or Tuesday – ensuring that the publicity engendered by the flotilla will last into a second week.

Ms Maguire, speaking from the boat, insisted its purpose was purely humanitarian and that there were no arms on board. “Their port has been closed for over 40 years,” she told Irish radio. “1.5 million people, it’s like the population of Northern Ireland, totally cut off from the world by this inhumane illegal siege.

Outcry around the world
Gaza flotilla attack in pictures

A Show Down or Another Massacre?

Israel navy braced to intercept next Gaza aid ship Israel's navy is ready to stop another aid ship headed to Gaza, a commander said on Tuesday, playing down the prospect of his men shying from confrontation after their bloody seizure of a Turkish vessel a day earlier.

Israel's Army Radio reported that the MV Rachel Corrie, a converted merchant ship, would reach Gazan waters by Wednesday.

A marine lieutenant who was not named told Army Radio in an interview that he expected an easy takeover of the ship.

"We as a unit are studying, and we will carry out professional investigations to reach conclusions," the lieutenant said, referring to a skirmish in which his unit shot nine international activists aboard the Turkish ferry.

"And will we also be ready for the Rachel Corrie," he added.

In an Internet posting from Ireland on April 20, the Perdana Global Peace Organisation said the Free Gaza Movement, which opposes an Israeli-led blockade on the Palestinian territory, bought the Rachel Corrie as part of an aid flotilla

First eyewitness accounts of raid contradict version put out by Israeli officials

First eyewitness accounts of raid contradict version put out by Israeli officialsSurvivors of the Israeli assault on a flotilla carrying relief supplies to Gaza returned to Greece and Turkey today, giving the first eyewitness accounts of the raid in which at least 10 people died.

Arriving at Istanbul's Ataturk airport with her one-year-old baby, Turkish activist Nilufer Cetin said Israeli troops opened fire before boarding the Turkish-flagged ferry Mavi Marmara, which was the scene of the worst clashes and all the fatalities. Israeli officials have said that the use of armed force began when its boarding party was attacked.

"It was extremely bad and very tough clashes took place. The Mavi Marmara is filled with blood," said Cetin, whose husband is the Mavi Marmara's chief engineer.

She told reporters that she and her child hid in the bathroom of their cabin during the confrontation. "The operation started immediately with firing. First it was warning shots, but when the Mavi Marmara wouldn't stop these warnings turned into an attack," she said.

"There were sound and smoke bombs and later they used gas bombs. Following the bombings they started to come on board from helicopters."

Cetin is among a handful of Turkish activists to be released; more than 300 remain in Israeli custody. She said she agreed to extradition from Israel after she was warned that conditions in jail would be too harsh for her child.

"I am one of the first passengers to be sent home, just because I have baby. When we arrived at the Israeli port of Ashdod we were met by the Israeli interior and foreign ministry officials and police; there were no soldiers. They asked me only a few questions. But they took everything – cameras, laptops, cellphones, personal belongings including our clothes," she said.

Kutlu Tiryaki was a captain of another vessel in the flotilla. "We continuously told them we did not have weapons, we came here to bring humanitarian help and not to fight," he said.

"The attack on the Mavi Marmara came in an instant: they attacked it with 12 or 13 attack boats and also with commandos from helicopters. We heard the gunshots over our portable radio handsets, which we used to communicate with the Mavi Marmara, because our ship communication system was disrupted. There were three or four helicopters also used in the attack. We were told by Mavi Marmara their crew and civilians were being shot at and windows and doors were being broken by Israelis."

Six Greek activists who returned to Athens accused Israeli commandos of using electric shocks during the raid.

Dimitris Gielalis, who had been aboard the Sfendoni, told reporters: "Suddenly from everywhere we saw inflatables coming at us, and within seconds fully equipped commandos came up on the boat. They came up and used plastic bullets, we had beatings, we had electric shocks, any method we can think of, they used."

Michalis Grigoropoulos, who was at the wheel of the Free Mediterranean, said: "We were in international waters. The Israelis acted like pirates, completely out of the normal way that they conduct nautical exercises, and seized our ship. They took us hostage, pointing guns at our heads; they descended from helicopters and fired tear gas and bullets. There was absolutely nothing we could do … Those who tried to resist forming a human ring on the bridge were given electric shocks."

Grigoropoulos, who insisted the ship was full of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza "and nothing more", said that, once detained, the human rights activists were not allowed to contact a lawyer or the Greek embassy in Tel Aviv. "They didn't let us go to the toilet, eat or drink water and throughout they videoed us. They confiscated everything, mobile phones, laptops, cameras and personal effects. They only allowed us to keep our papers."

Turkey said it was sending three ambulance planes to Israel to pick up 20 more Turkish activists injured in the operation.

Three Turkish Airlines planes were on standby, waiting to fly back other activists, the prime minister's office said.

Mashal: Hamas will end resistance if Israel withdraws to 1967 borders

Hamas will end armed struggle against Israel if it withdraws from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, Hamas chief Khalid Mashal told a US TV station.

In an interview with PBS host Charlie Rose recorded Thursday, Mashal said that Israel started the conflict by occupying Palestinian land, and that resistance broke out in response.

“Israeli occupation was the action, and Palestinian resistance was the reaction, and when occupation comes to an end, resistance will simply stop,” Mashal said. He added that if Israel retreats to the 1967 borders, that action will end Palestinian resistance. “If a real Palestinian sovereign state is established, the nature of future relations with Israel will be determined later by the Palestinians democratically.”

In A State That Calls Itself a Democracy , why does Israel refuse Flotilla Passengers A Lawyer

Detained flotilla activists denied lawyerRights groups have expressed concern over the continued detention of 480 passengers from the six Freedom Flotilla ships, reportedly moved to the Ela Prison in Israel's south.

Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz said Tuesday that so far 50 of the Flotilla passengers had been voluntarily repatriated to their home countries, while some 629 had refused to be deported and would remain in Israeli prison until the nation decided what, if any, legal action would be taken.

Critics say Israel has little ground to lay charges, and by refusing to be deported and demanding to be returned to their ships and proceed to Gaza, activists put Israel in a difficult position.

According to a statement from the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, none of the activists were permitted to meet with lawyers, and Free Gaza updates say no contact with the crew of the ship had been made since 3:30am Monday morning.

As a response, three human rights organizations submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court.

The petition seeks to ensure that the passengers have access to lawyers and proper health facilities, and to ensure that information about the hundreds of men and women is released to their consulates and families.

Israeli media said that the 480 would be questioned Tuesday morning, and investigators would determine whether or not they would be charged or deported. Reports say 48 have already been deported, but there is no information suggesting that any have had contact with either their consulates or the media.

It remains unclear what the activists would be charged with, as lawyers and rights experts say ships in international waters have the right to defend themselves if attacked.

Media outlets also reported that Palestinian citizens of Israel Sheikh Raed Salah, Muhammad Zeidan and Hammad Abu Da'bas will stand in Israeli court later Tuesday, where they will hear charges against them.

Sheikh Raed Salah, Muhammad Zeidan and Hammad Abu Da'bas to stand in Israeli court and hear charges against them Tuesday afternoon, Israeli media says.

Other Palestinian figures whose whereabouts has been reported on include Kamal Khatib, who is reportedly detained at Ela Prison, and Hanin Zubi, who was questioned and released.

A statement from Al-Mezan said that because the flotilla was intercepted in international waters, Israel has no right to detain the passengers of the boats, with the center's lawyer describing the treatment akin to how Israel "treats illegal immigrants; offering them voluntarily deportation from Israel by planes."

The reports said early indicators show that most of the activists have refused deportation and insist on returning to their ships to come to Gaza.

Al-Mezan said it expects all of the passengers to appear before a judge on Tuesday, where their detentions can be extended by 72 hours, adding that 'the situation for a handful of Palestinian citizens of Israel is different. They are detained in Ashkelon prison and are being interrogated."

Activists detained, imprisoned, questioned

Investigations by Al-Mezan revealed that after the passengers of the ships were seized by Israeli officers, they were kept in a detention facility in the port of the town of Ashdod in southern Israel. The port area was declared a closed military zone, a lawyer for the center said, meaning legal council for the foreign nationals was prohibited.

I hope this clears up some of your delusions about the reality of Israel & Palestine

COMPLAINTS ABOUT MY POSITION ON ISRAEL
Razz KhanSome people have complained and said that my comments about israel have been TOO HARSH and that I should go easy on israel and respect the fact that it is a country .. to all those people I’m VERY SORRY .. VERY SORRY THAT YOU PEOPLE ARE DELUDED .. it is NOT israel but is ALL OCCUPPIED PALESTINE.


If those people (Zionist Ashkenazi Israeli Jews) wanted to come and live there, they should have come through the usual Immigration Control and PURCHASED a home in Palestine, and lived in PEACE with the Palestinians Muslims, Christians and Jews.


In fact throughout History Muslims actually PROTECTED the Jews, in fact in the 1490s during the Spanish Inquisition and even in the 1890s when they were being expelled from Greece and Russia, they actually found refuge in TURKEY .. as people of The Book (Abrhamic Faith) we Muslims have a DUTY to protect Jews, if you speak to original Palestinian Jews, they had never felt so SAFE in their History as they did under Muslim rule in Palestine.


People seem to show a lot of concern for the current israeli Jews who are living on STOLEN PALESTINE .. but what about the 4.7 MILLION PLUS Palestinians living in REFUGEE CAMPS? .. you can not expect these people to put up with the current status quo .. especially when they still have KEYS to their original Homes and fond memories prior to the 1948 Nakba. I’m sorry but the Palestinians RIGHTS OVER-RIDE those of the israeli Jews. People need to STOP ACCEPTING ISRAEL ..


For Jews, if you are REAL Jews then you do not need me to tell you about the commandments from God via Moses .. # 6 YOU SHALL NOT MURDER and #8 YOU SHALL NOT STEAL .. now do you think that MURDERING Palestinians (and TURKISH Humanitarian Activists) and STEALING Palestine is the path to salvation? These are directly from God to Moses to the Jewish people and to us all, Christians and Muslims and Humanity .. these are good Laws.


Do you think God would be happy of you? Do you think even Moses would be happy? .. now the only way to remove the sin is to REPENT and REVERSE .. which means to speak and act out AGAINST israel and then HELP REVERSE AND REMOVE israel and RE-ESTABLISH PALESTINE .. this is what you should strive for .. this life is temporary so think about the Next Life, obviously if you believe then you will know this already.


Muslims have got NOTHING against Jews .. but if you do not speak out and act against this idea of israel .. or if you stay silent, this is all complicity and a sin on your heads .. it is your duty to fight against israel and ensure that it comes to an end. The israeli Jews are brainwashed into thinking they are in the right and allowed to MURDER and STEAL .. the illegal israeli state sponsors trips to israel and brain washes them at a young age.


Israel does not want peace, it never has, so please stop fooling yourselves into thinking that a two-state solution is possible, when it is totally unacceptable to the Palestinians in their ever decreasing territories and insane to suggest that they will happily accept the current status quo. The actions of israel BREED HATRED for ALL Jews, so they must ALL UNITE and get their house into order, as must we all, we are responsible for our Families and our People.


I hope that this clarifies the situation, if you have any questions feel free to reply back, or if you want to discuss this further. Thanking you kindly and hoping that you see sense.I hope this clears up some of your delusions about the reality

Israelis celebrating attack on Turkish Aid Ship - infront of Turkish Embassy,Tel Aviv

Israelis celebrating attack on Turkish Aid Ship - infront of Turkish Embassy,Tel Aviv

This Video was filmed by me in the night of 31.5.2010 infront of the Embassy.

Erdogan called the raid a "bloody massacre," and warned "no one should test Turkey's patience."

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called on the international community to punish Israel for storming a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza in an attack that left nine dead.

Israel has detained or deported hundreds of activists who were on the ships which were seized en route to the Palestinian enclave which has been under Israeli blockade since 2006.

He told lawmakers in the Turkish parliament that "this bloody massacre by Israel on ships that were taking humanitarian aid to Gaza deserves every kind of curse and called the Israeli action an attack on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace.

"Israel's behavior should definitely, definitely be punished," a visibly angry Erdogan told the meeting of his parliamentary deputies, adding: "The time has come for the international community to say 'enough'."

Erdogan also urged the immediate lifting of "the inhumane embargo on Gaza."

Israel and Turkey are currently holding diplomatic discussions to coordinate the arrival of three airplanes from Ankara to pick up over 20 Turkish citizens who were wounded during an Israel Navy commando raid on a flotilla transporting humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as the corpses of several of Turkish passengers killed during the raid.

According to a senior Israeli official, the Turks have emphasized that they wish to pick up their wounded and dead as soon as possible and have requested full information about the other Turkish citizens who were detained by Israel. So far, the Foreign Ministry has been unable to supply this information.

It is still unclear whether Israel will allow the non-wounded detained Turks to board the flights.

Obama would rather people just die instead of defending themselves or he's just a puppet for Israel

Israel faced heavy criticism in an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Monday in response to its deadly attack on an aid flotilla trying to breach the Gaza blockade, but attempts to issue a formal statement stalled after the United States rejected the strong condemnation sought by Turkey.

Turkey proposed a statement that would condemn Israel for violating international law, demand a U.N. investigation and demand that Israel prosecute those responsible for the raid and pay compensation to the victims. It also called for the end of the blockade.

The Obama administration refused to endorse a statement that singled out Israel, and proposed a broader condemnation of the violence that would include the assault of the Israeli commandos as they landed on the deck of the ship.

While condemnation of Israel in the Security Council is not uncommon, the criticism at the emergency session by Turkey and Lebanon was notable for both its vehemence and for the broad array of countries demanding an independent investigation into the decision to fire on civilians in what they described as a humanitarian mission.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, whose country's once close relations with Israel have deteriorated markedly since Israel's invasion of Gaza in 2008, called the attack "tantamount to banditry and piracy; it is murder conducted by a state."

George Galloway Speaks Out About Attack On Humanitarian Aid Ships

Update to US activist loses eye after being shot in face with tear gas canister

International Solidarity Movement

1 June 2010

US citizen Emily Henochowicz was shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister as she non-violently demonstrated against the Flotilla massacre

UPDATE 1 June, 8:30PM (GMT+2): Emily is recovering at Hadassah Hospital after two surgeries Monday night. She lost her left eye, three metal plates were inserted into her head/face, and her jaw is wired shut. The bone surrounding her eye socket, cheekbone and jawbone are all fractured. Emily was standing peacefully during a demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint Monday when Border Police fired a large number of tear gas canisters directly at the heads of Emily and another ISM activist.
.

31 May 2010: An American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel’s murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.

21-year old Emily Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.

“They clearly saw us,” said Sören Johanssen, a Swedish ISM volunteer standing with Henochowicz. “They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”

Henochowicz is an art student at the prestigious Cooper Union, located in East Village, Manhattan.

The demonstration was one of many that took place across the West Bank today in outrage over the Israeli military’s attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla and blatant violation of international law. Demonstrations also took place in inside Israel, Gaza and Jerusalem, with clashes occurring in East Jerusalem and Palestinian shopkeepers in the occupied Old City closing their businesses for the day in protest.

Henochowicz lost her left eye after being shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister

Tear gas canisters are commonly used against demonstrators in the occupied West Bank. In May 2009, the Israeli State Attorney’s Office ordered Israeli Police to review its guidelines for dispersing demonstrators, following the death of a demonstrator, Bassem Abu Rahmah from Bil’in village, caused by a high velocity tear-gas projectile. Tear-gas canisters are meant to be used as a means of crowd dispersal, to be shot indirectly at demonstrators and from a distance. However, Israeli forces frequently shoot canisters directly at protesters and are not bound by a particular distance from which they can shoot.

Israeli occupation forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships on the Freedom Flotilla at 5 a.m. this morning, opening fire on the hundreds of unarmed civilians aboard. No-one aboard the ships were carrying weapons of any kind, including for defense against a feared Israeli attack in international waters. At least 9 aid workers aboard the ship have been confirmed dead, with dozens more injured. The assault took place 70 miles off the Gaza coast in international waters, after the flotilla was surrounded by three Israeli warships. The Freedom Flotilla, carrying 700 human rights activists from over 40 countries and 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, was headed for the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade on Gaza, combined with the illegal buffer zone, has put a stranglehold on the territory. 42% of Gazans are unemployed, and food insecurity hovers around 60% according to figures from the Palestine Centre for Human Rights.

Concern grows over the fate of wounded, imprisoned and missing flotilla activists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UK, 2pm, Tuesday 1st June

International Solidarity Movement volunteers today expressed grave concern over the fate of wounded, imprisoned and missing flotilla activists.

The group said, with an information blackout from Israel preventing news of their plight reaching the media, speculation is mounting about the Internationals’ safety.

Theresa MacDermott (Scotland) Ewa Jasiewicz (Britain/Poland) and Caoimhe Butterly (Ireland) along with hundreds of other civilian passengers have not been heard from since before the Israeli attack on Monday morning.[1]

Israel has today refused Free Gaza lawyers permission to make contact with the human Rights defenders.

Sharyn Lock (England), founding member of The FreeGaza Movement and author of Gaza: Beneath the Bombs, said today:

“Through my experience volunteering with ambulances in Palestine, I know Israel regularly lets civilians die without allowing medical aid reach them.”[2]

She went on to say:

“It is deplorable that family and friends are being refused contact or information and we can only speculate as to their whereabouts and injuries.”

“We call on the EU member States to fulfil their obligation to protect the safety of human rights defenders.[3] We demand that Israel allows access to the injured and imprisoned immediately.” added Vittorio Arrigoni (Italy) who was himself injured by Israeli gunboats in 2008.

ISMers and former flotilla passengers Eva Bartlett (Canada) and Alberto Arce (Spain) are also waiting to hear from their missing colleagues.

“All of us are nonviolent activists who have personally come under fire from Israeli forces, and several of us have been wounded or detained. It is common for Israeli forces to open fire with live rounds on unarmed civilians, both Palestinian and Internationals.” said Eva, from Gaza.[4]

Human rights defenders in Gaza are attacked on a daily basis. Amongst them are Bianca Zammit (Malta), who was shot while accompanying farming families in Gaza on April 25th, 2010[5] and Adie Mormech (England),who was kidnapped and imprisoned after the FreeGaza boat The Spirit of Humanity was forcibly boarded by Israel on June 30, 2009.

All the ISMers mentioned in this release are available now for comment.

Contact

• Sharyn Lock (Free Gaza Movement, England) +44 7881651 259
• ISM London, +44 7913 067 189
• Vittorio Arrigoni (Italy, based in Gaza) +972 5977 50820
• Eva Bartlett (Canada, based in Gaza) +972 5987 10648
• Adie Mormech (England, based in Gaza) +972 5977 17696
• Bianca Zammit (Malta, based in Gaza) +972 5975 89688
• Alberto Arce (Spain) +0034 6556 50048

Notes

1. Ewa Jaciezicz is a freelance journalist. She and Caoimhe Butterly have trained as First Responder Medics. Theresa MacDermott is a postal worker.
2. Alongside flotilla passengers Caoimhe and Ewa, Eva Bartlett, Sharyn Lock, Alberto Arce, and Vittorio Arrigoni worked daily with Palestinian medics during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, with Eva and Alberto filming the shooting by an Israeli sniper of medic Hassan as he tried to retrieve a body. The footage taken by Alberto and Mohammed Rujailah became their award-winning film “To Shoot an Elephant” Alongside flotilla passenger Theresa MacDermott in 2008, Vittorio Arrigoni, Eva Bartlett, and Sharyn Lock came under regular fire as they accompanied unarmed Gaza fishermen, who are often shot at not only within three miles of the Gaza shore, but actually on the beach.
3. EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders:

   http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/GuidelinesDefenders.pdf

   With related resources here:

   http://www.ishr.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=189&Itemid=267

   http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/defenders/docs/Frontlinehandbook.pdf

4. Bianca Zammit received a gunshot to the thigh when Israeli soldiers fired on farming families, Gaza, 2010. Vittorio Arrigoni required ten stitches after Israeli gunboats attacked the fishing boats he was accompanying, Gaza sea 2008. Caoimhe Butterly recieved a gunshot to the thigh while rescuing Palestinian children, West Bank 2002. Sharyn Lock was shot in the stomach from an Israeli armoured personel carrier while walking backwards with her hands in the air, one of ten internationals injured, West Bank 2002.
5. Bianca says:
   

   Israeli soldiers fire live ammunition at unarmed civilians, farmers and activists without any inhibition. On the day they shot me soldiers were shooting aggressively at the demonstrators. It was clear they had a policy of at least “shooting to injure”. I was filming and documenting when the bullet struck my leg. For me this was a clear message that Israeli soldiers do not hesitate to shoot at internationals but also that they feel threatened by our work.

Update from Gaza Freedom Movement

Cyprus – 1 June, 2010] The UN Security Council Calls for Impartial, Credible Investigation of Israeli Boat Raid. The raid in international waters, on the aid convoy headed to Gaza left at least 16 civilians dead. After an emergency session wrapped up in the early hours this morning, the council agreed to language condemning the acts that resulted in the deaths and injuries aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara and the European Campaign’s vessel Spendoni.

The council called for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards. The council statement also reemphasized the importance of implementing U.N. resolution 1860, which calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance to Gaza’s 1.5 million residents. The flow of aid has been severely hampered by Israel’s three-year blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, Israeli-licensed attorneys filed two habeas briefs: one is asking for to release the passengers and the boats, so we can continue on our way to Gaza, since it was illegal to stop us in international waters. The other one is asking for information on all of the passengers, because there has been a total blackout on where the passengers are, who was wounded and who was murdered.

Lawyers are only being allowed access for three hours every day from 13:00-16:30. They have the names of three Palestinians still in detention: Sheik Salah, Mohammad Zeidan and Lubna Marsawa.

Haneen Zuabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/31/haneen-zuabi-new-arab-isr_n_181164.html has been released, because she has immunity as a member of the Knesset. She held a press conference this morning in Nazareth to talk about the attack. She was on board the Mavi Marmara.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is comprised of: Free Gaza Movement (FG), European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, The Perdana Global Peace Organization, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza, with hundreds of groups and organizations around the world supporting the effort.

Sheikh Jarrah: Time to act

Today is a difficult day for all of us, for the thousands who have stood over the months in protest in Sheikh Jarrah and to the tens of thousands who support this grave struggle, a struggle for the future of the society in which we live. Today, adding to the physical police barriers in Sheikh Jarrah [the Jerusalem Magistrate/"Shalom" Court] Judge Ziskind added, in her decision, an additional barrier. Through its decision the Court is attempting to prevent core [Sheikh Jarrah] activists from taking part in any public event connected to Sheikh Jarrah for five months and even to issue a sweeping order preventing the activists from even appearing in the neighborhood during this period. With this the Court, in no uncertain terms, stands with the Jerusalem Police and has joined its efforts to repress and crush the struggle. We know now, like in the past, such repression will only strengthen us as we stand in resistance to injustice.

Full Story!
http://coteret.com/2010/06/01/time-to-act/ Continue ►

There needs to be a formation of a global bloc to break Gaza siege

Ahmadinejad urges formation of global bloc to break Gaza siege

TEHRAN – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that an international bloc should be formed to press the Zionist regime to end its siege of the Gaza Strip.

“We should try to form an international front to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip and condemn this action and support Palestinians,” Ahmadinejad said in a telephone conversation with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya on Tuesday.

The telephone conversation came after Israeli forces attacked a civilian flotilla on Monday morning killing 19 civilians. The ships were carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

The president emphasized that Iran will firmly support the Palestinian nation and the countries that support the Palestinians.

Iran will vigorously pursue the punishment of the Zionist regime for attacking the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid convoy, he said.

This criminal action revealed the real nature of the Zionists and now the approach of countries toward this outrageous action is a “test for their honesty”, he opined.

Ismail Haniya, for his part, said that Iran is the only nation that has always been on the side of the Palestinian nation.

Describing Israel’s action as another step toward its final defeat, the Hamas leader said the Zionist regime should face prosecution for its criminal action.

“We should try to revive the Palestinian nation’s violated rights and end the siege of Gaza,” he added.

Haniya also expressed his gratitude for Iran’s full support of the oppressed Palestinian people

Does Israel rule the world?

When much of the western world bows and scrapes in front of the Israeli standard, those aboard ships in the Flotilla should be applauded for risking their lives to do what is right. It's beyond time that the international community grew a backbone and followed suit!By Linda S. Heard

On Monday, the Israeli military attacked and boarded one of the Turkish aid ships sailing to Gaza as part of a flotilla, killing 19 and injuring many more. As this occurred in international waters, it is not only an act of piracy but could also be construed as an ‘act of war'. This attack on unarmed civilian men and women illustrates the moral depths to which Israel has sunk. An Al Jazeera reporter on board the vessel says the Israelis fired live bullets even after a white flag was hoisted. This atrocity and the potential fall-out should merit loud condemnation from the international community ... but don't hold your breath! We have yet to witness the extent of Turkey's response.

Why are so many nations bending to Israel's will or staying silent on its crimes? What is it about this minuscule country that enables it to have so much control on decisions made by larger and more powerful nations? It refuses to abide by international laws and treaties. It illegally occupies great swathes of Palestinian land and it's imposing an illegal blockade on Gaza. Moreover, it is the only country that could get away with assassinating its enemies on foreign soil.

If any other country or territory with a smaller population than New York behaved as outrageously as Israel, it would be isolated, boycotted and, perhaps, even invaded. Yet, Israel gets away with ignoring a long list of UN Security Council resolutions -- as opposed to Saddam's Iraq, which was invaded, plundered and occupied on those same grounds.

Israel has a stockpile of undeclared nuclear weapons and, as documentation recently released by Pretoria confirms, was prepared to sell nuclear warheads and technology to South Africa during apartheid; a reality that counters U.S. claims that Israel is a responsible democracy that would never supply weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to rogue states.

Iran, on the other hand, which does not have nuclear weapons — and, unlike Israel, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — is being subjected to UN sanctions.

Last Friday, all 189 signatories to the NPT — including the U.S. — agreed to hold a conference during 2012 “on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons ...” Sounds good! President Barack Obama has espoused the idea of a nuclear-free Middle East. The entire Arab world has been pushing for a nuclear-free Middle East and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has long called for a nuclear-free region.

But wait! The usual suspect, Israel, is none too pleased because it believes it is being singled out. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the call as “deeply flawed and hypocritical”, while his office has issued a statement that reads: “As a non-signatory state of the NPT, Israel is not obligated by the decisions of this conference, which has no authority over Israel”.

No surprise there! But then Obama promptly does an about-turn, saying, “We strongly oppose efforts to single-out Israel and will oppose actions that jeopardize Israel's security”. His message begs the question, how on earth can the region ever be free of nuclear weapons if Israel is kept out of the equation when it is the only nuclear country in the area?

Change of heart

Now here's a turn of events that makes me wonder whether America's capital city is actually Tel Aviv. When the proposed uranium swap between Iran and Brazil that is slated to take place on Turkish soil was recently announced, the White House dismissed it as a delaying tactic on the part of Tehran and began to pressurize UN Security Council members to agree to a new round of anti-Iranian sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says a proposal that buys time for Iran “makes the world more dangerous, not less”.

In response, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the U.S. and its allies of “lacking a fair and sincere approach”. He is absolutely right and it appears that the Brazilian president agrees with him.

In a break from protocol, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has leaked a letter he received from his U.S. counterpart in April this year in which Obama warmly supported the uranium swap, provided Iran were to agree to Turkey holding its low-enriched uranium “in escrow” for up to a year.

“Iran has never pursued the ‘escrow' compromise and has provided no credible explanation for its rejection,” Obama wrote. Now that Tehran has rubber-stamped the very procedure Obama advocated in the missive, it seems that he is unable to take ‘yes' for an answer. Could it be because Netanyahu has denounced the fuel deal as “trickery” intended to avoid international sanctions?

The U.S. is far from being the only country allowing Israel to call the tune. Greek Cypriot authorities attempted to prevent a group that included 17 Irish, Bulgarian and Swedish members of parliament from traveling on small ferry boats to join the aid flotilla attempting to break the siege of Gaza in order to protect the island's “vital interests”.

When much of the western world bows and scrapes in front of the Israeli standard, those aboard ships in the Flotilla should be applauded for risking their lives to do what is right. It's beyond time that the international community grew a backbone and followed suit!

Does The Flotilla Massacre mean the World will not accept Israel's rule?

Robert Fisk: Western leaders are too cowardly to help save lives It is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events

Has Israel lost it? Can the Gaza War of 2008-09 (1,300 dead) and the Lebanon War of 2006 (1,006 dead) and all the other wars and now yesterday's killings mean that the world will no longer accept Israel's rule?

Don't hold your breath.

You only have to read the gutless White House statement – that the Obama administration was "working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy". Not a single word of condemnation. And that's it. Nine dead. Just another statistic to add to the Middle East's toll.

But it's not.

In 1948, our politicians - the Americans and the British staged an airlift into Berlin. A starving population (our enemies only three years before) were surrounded by a brutal army, the Russians, who had erected a fence around the city. The Berlin airlift was one of the great moments in the Cold War. Our soldiers and our airmen risked and gave their lives for these starving Germans.

Incredible, isn't it? In those days, our politicians took decisions; our leaders took decisions to save lives. Messrs Attlee and Truman knew that Berlin was important in moral and human as well as political terms.

And today? It was people - ordinary people, Europeans, Americans, Holocaust survivors and yes, for heaven's sake, survivors of the Nazis who took the decision to go to Gaza because their politicians and their statesmen had failed them.

Where were our politicians yesterday? Well, we had the ridiculous Ban Ki-moon, the White House's pathetic statement, and dear Mr Blair's expression of "deep regret and shock at the tragic loss of life". Where was Mr Cameron? Where was Mr Clegg?

Back in 1948, they would have ignored the Palestinians, of course. It is, after all, a terrible irony that the Berlin airlift coincided with the destruction of Arab Palestine.

But it is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events. Our politicians are too spineless, too cowardly, to take decisions to save lives. Why is this? Why didn't we hear courageous words from Messrs Cameron and Clegg yesterday?

For it is a fact, is it not, that had Europeans (and yes, the Turks are Europeans, are they not?) been gunned down by any other Middle Eastern army (which the Israeli army is, is it not?) there would have been waves of outrage.

And what does this say about Israel? Isn't Turkey a close ally of Israel? Is this what the Turks can expect? Now Israel's only ally in the Muslim world is saying this is a massacre and Israel doesn't seem to care.

But then Israel didn't care when London and Canberra expelled Israeli diplomats after British and Australian passports were forged and then provided to the assassins of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. It didn't care when it announced new Jewish settlements on occupied land in East Jerusalem while Joe Biden, the Vice-President of its erstwhile ally, the United States, was in town. Why should Israel care now?

How did we get to this point? Maybe because we all grew used to seeing the Israelis kill Arabs, maybe the Israelis grew used to killing Arabs. Now they kill Turks. Or Europeans. Something has changed in the Middle East these past 24 hours and the Israelis (given their extraordinarily stupid political response to the slaughter) don't seem to have grasped what has happened. The world is tired of these outrages. Only the politicians are silent.

Diplomatic storms

*Goldstone report, November 2009

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 with the declared aim of halting rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the three-week conflict along with 13 Israelis. The South African jurist Richard Goldstone's report into the conflict found both Israel and the Hamas movement that controls the Strip guilty of war crimes, but focused more on Israel. Israel refused to co-operate with Goldstone and described his report as distorted and biased.

* The al-Mabhouh assassination, January-May 2010

Britain and Australia expelled Israeli diplomats after concluding that Israel had forged British and Australian passports used by assassins to kill a Hamas commander in Dubai. Israel has neither confirmed or denied a role in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in January. Britain said such misuse of British passports was "intolerable". Australia said it was not the behaviour of "a nation with whom we have had such a close, friendly and supportive relationship".

*Settlements row, March 2010

Israel announces plans, during visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden, to build 1,600 homes for Jews in an area of the West Bank annexed by Israel. The announcement triggers unusually harsh criticism from the United States. Washington said it damaged its efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the project was an insult. Netanyahu said he was blindsided by planning bureaucrats and apologised to Biden. Today's meeting with Barack Obama at the White House, called off by Mr Netanyahu so he could return home to deal with the flotilla crisis, was supposed to be another part of the fence-mending between the two allies.

*Nuclear secrecy, May 2010

Israel, widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has faced renewed calls to sign a global treaty barring the spread of atomic weapons. Signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) last week called for a conference in 2012 to discuss banning weapons of mass destruction throughout the Middle East. The declaration was adopted by all 189 parties to the NPT, including the US. It urged Israel to sign the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under UN safeguards

Of cowardice, dignity, and solidarity

by Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

I personally know over 80 of those kidnapped on the freedom flotilla. It angers us not having any information from all survivors. The only footage received after the vicious attack is brief and released by the Israeli authorities who have otherwise put a complete news blackout. If Israel has nothing to hide, why not allow the kidnapped to talk to the media or at least to lawyers and to their country representatives? In one video, we see three or four recognizable friends escorted by the Israeli pirates; my mind imagines justice prevailing and those Israeli criminals being led in handcuffs to International criminal courts. Our anger increased when Israeli forces attacked unarmed demonstrators near Qalandia yesterday injuring a friend. 22-year-old Emily Henochowicz lost her left eye after being hit with an Israeli gas canister. We met Emily in several events here in Palestine (see story and photos at http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/12604). She is a visual artist who was documenting popular resistance (her art blog is here http://thirstypixels.blogspot.com/, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/people/Emily-Henochowicz/1223820147). A visual artist losing an eye is beyond words.

Each one of the hundreds abducted is a hero for joining the flotilla. Patriarch Hilarion Capuchhi who was jailed in Israel for many years and lived in Italy was one of the abductees. Sheikh Raed Salah, a Palestinian from the areas occupied in 1948 who is head of a branch of the Islamic movement. Hedy Epstein, a 86 year old Jewish women who lost her family in Nazi concentration camps and subsequently came to Palestine and was shocked to see people claiming to represent Jews mimic some Nazi crimes (and for this the Israelis strip-searched and humiliated this elderly woman). There was Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire. There is Joe Meadors, a survivor of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty (on a US ship in International waters that killed many good Americans in June 1967 but that political considerations buried this Israeli crime - see survivor webpage http://www.usslibertyveterans.org/ ). For Israel to repeat its atrocity against US citizens as the US commemorates Memorial Day is unconscionable (see also http://www.freepalestinemovement.org ). For the Obama administration to continue to shield Israel from International law makes us angry.

Those of us angry enough to get out and demonstrate here in the West Bank have a problem. In Bethlehem, over 50 members of the Palestinian Preventive Security (as they are called) and police blocked our path to get to the apartheid wall area. We are told we can demonstrate as long as we do not bother those we are demonstrating against! Over the past few years, Palestinian authority heavily armed forces blocking roads had an amazing psychological impact on Palestinians and Internationals. No popular resistance can survive this. Popular resistance by definition involves increasing the cost to the occupiers and acts of civil resistance including disruptions. Popular resistance is not to be reduced to standing at the sidewalk carrying a flag or a sign. They involve daring and risky actions like the ones taken by the thousands of us who mobilized for the freedom flotilla.

Elite 'leaders' in Ramallah and in other Arab cities gave the rhetoric that they support the popular resistance as exemplified by the freedom flotilla. But words are cheap and words spoken in public are not the same as behind closed doors and in corridors of power. Even the rhetoric is not consistent. A key Palestinian leader once stated that such humanitarian boats to Gaza are stunts with no real impact. The Palestinian leadership that promised us no negotiations until there is a settlement freeze has engaged in negotiations while we see continued settlement activities all around us both in East Jerusalem and in other Parts of the West Bank. Instead of closing Israeli embassies in Arab countries, they were heavily protected by Arab security forces from demonstrators. Thus, it is not totally surprising that there was a larger demonstration yesterday in Sweden (7,000 people) than in Ramallah or Amman. But will this attack on the freedom flotilla be the straw that breaks the camel's back? Will it mobilize actions or deter future actions?

In looking at the geopolitical picture today, one can see trends that give us despair and those that give us hope. The political leadership in the fragmented Arab countries and Palestinian authority have convinced themselves that they have no option but to endlessly try to talk to politicians from Tel Aviv and Washington (the latter also Israeli occupied territory) hoping for some gestures. The Israeli thieves who stole a whole country can flaunt international law repeatedly and get away with it. We had a bloody 62 years stretching from over 33 massacres in 1948, to slaughter of infiltrators (villagers trying to return home after the ethnic cleansing) in the 1950s, to massacres across borders (1956, 1970s, 1982, 2006), to the slaughter in Gaza last year. Will Israel be held accountable? Will Netenyahu, Barack, Livini and Olmert be brought before International courts to pay for the massacres? Even according to a report from the Zionist Judge Goldstone, the massacre in Gaza violated international law.

The larger atrocity this year is not the attack on these ships in International waters and the kidnap of 750 peace activists. The larger atrocity is the ongoing murderous siege/blockade on Gaza and the methodical destruction of life for Palestinians in the occupied territories. After the slaughter of 1400 in Gaza and thousands of homes destroyed, there was intensification of the siege that prevented rebuilding and other humanitarian supplies from reaching Gaza. Not able to do so, some money destined for Gaza rebuilding was siphoned off for elite Palestinians who claim to work for the people. Slowly Arab Jerusalem is erased off the map. villages around the city are squeezed (some like Al-Walaja and Wadi Rahhal are targeted for complete ethnic cleansing). What prevents its resolution base on justice to achieve a durable peace is not only the Zionist war machine but the countries that enable this. Turkey recalled its ambassador while Egypt and Jordan kept theirs in Tel Aviv and Egypt shamelessly collaborates in blocking Gaza at the order of Israel and the US administration.

For the sake of balance, the counter argument presented is that opening the borders before reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas will strengthen Hamas and deepen the division between the Fatah dominated West Bank and the Hamas dominated Gaza. To answer this I can only say that collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians is wrong and unacceptable on all grounds: moral, ethical, and legal. It constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity. But even on strictly utilitarian grounds for those who do not like Hamas ideology, what is happening is only strengthening Hamas (which also profits from the tunnel trade with the support of Egyptian elites in Sinai). But Hamas and Hizballah and Turkey and others seem far more responsive to the anger felt in the streets at the endless capitulation to murder and ethnic cleansing. We may disagree with their ideologies but I know many of my own family members who are Christian who cheer at the speech of Hassan Nasrallah (Hizballah leader). Fatah and Hamas need to let go of the trap set for them in Oslo and both dissolve their 'governments' (the quotes are deserved) and go back to being resistance movements. And that which does so first will be more respected among the Palestinian people. There can never be a government under occupation that is not tied in the service of the occupiers (unlike resistance movements, if they step out of line, they have fixed addresses). I wonder also what would happen if secular or non-democratic leaders like Hosni Mubarak or King Abdullah would get the courage to take positions based on principles and not (mis)calculations of US and Israeli imperial powers as omnipotent. My thought is that the US is finished as a superpower (thanks to it being bled dry by the Israel lobby dragging it into endless wars). I know most politicians like to feel 100% safe (mostly for their position of power) and are afraid of any change. But I wish they would realize that daring politicians make the history books and those who hang around trying to protect their seats will be forgotten. Cowardice is never a virtue.

Palestine brings the best in people who have dignity and self respect and brings the worst in others who have tribalism and greed coursing through their veins. There was more dignity in any minute of the short life by Rachel Corrie who stood in front of the Bulldozer in Rafah and lost her life than is represented in lifetimes of by kings, prime ministers, and presidents. There was more dignity in the bloody T-shirt of Basem Abu Rahma when he was shot and killed with a gas canister in Bil'in than among all the palaces of rulers who gather in an Arab summit. And the dignity of one drop of blood shed in the Mediterranean is more than exhibited at the UN Security Council last night. Citizens of Greece and Turkey joined together in the freedom flotilla ships and in the Israeli detention centers. Zionists were out saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and politicians behind closed doors are trying to limit the damage to their reputation instead of asking themselves questions about their direction in life!

If humanity survives the next 100 years it will have been because of those who act with dignity/self respect instead of cowardice and self-interest. Lessons in dignity from those like Rachel, Basem and the freedom flotilla will be required study in the new people's history books, which I am sure will be very different than those we have in schools today. It is thus fitting that one of the freedom ships now kidnapped by the pirate navy was named 'the Rachel Corrie'. As I wrote in a number of articles, I am optimistic despite the challenges. Why: because of Basem, Rachel (the person and the Ship), the thousands of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for freedom and justice, tens of thousands injured, the millions around the world in solidarity, and most of all those Palestinians and other Arabs who have not sold their souls and who maintain the faith in the justice of this cause. In the demonstrations yesterday, a child in Gaza was carrying a sign that says 'we demand freedom' and a child in Cairo that says 'children in Egypt and in Gaza want the siege lifted'. That is our future - not elderly politicians meeting to do media damage control with empty words. Even as we mourn the martyrs, humanity won another victory yesterday.

The Elders group condemned as “completely inexcusable” the deadly Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza

In this photo taken on Saturday, former South Africa president Nelson Mandela is reunited with The Elders, three years after he launched the group, in Johannesburg. Photo: AP.

The Elders group of past and present world leaders, including former South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on Monday condemned as “completely inexcusable” the deadly Israeli attack on a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza.

At least 10 people are reported to have been killed when Israeli commandos raided the boats on Monday in an operation that has drawn international condemnation.

“The Elders have condemned the reported killing by Israeli forces of more than a dozen people who were attempting to deliver relief supplies to the Gaza Strip by sea,” the 12—member group said in a statement issued in Johannesburg, where it met over the weekend.

The group, which was launched by Mr. Mandela on his birthday in 2007 to try to solve some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, called for a “full investigation” of the incident and urged the UN Security Council “to debate the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza Strip.” “This tragic incident should draw the world’s attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, half of whom are children under the age of 18,” the group said.

Israel’s three—year blockade of Gaza was not only “one of the world’s greatest human rights violations” and “illegal” under international law, it was also “counterproductive” because it empowered extremists in the Palestinian territory, they said.

The Elders includes six Nobel peace prize winners — former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former US president Jimmy Carter, detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Mr. Mandela and Tutu.

Norway’s first female Prime Minister Gro Brundtland; former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former Irish president and ex—UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson; Mozambican social activist Graca Machel; Indian women’s rights activist Ela Bhatt; and Algerian veteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi are the other members.

Source: The Hindu

Update on Israeli Attack on Humanitarian Boats

The UN Security Council Calls for Impartial, Credible Investigation of Israeli Boat Raid. The raid in international waters, on the aid convoy headed to Gaza left at least 16 civilians dead. After an emergency session wrapped up in the early hours this morning, the council agreed to language condemning the acts that resulted in the deaths and injuries aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara and the European Campaign’s vessel Spendoni.

The council called for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards. The council statement also reemphasized the importance of implementing U.N. resolution 1860, which calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance to Gaza's 1.5 million residents. The flow of aid has been severely hampered by Israel's three-year blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, Israeli-licensed attorneys filed two habeas briefs: one is asking for to release the passengers and the boats, so we can continue on our way to Gaza, since it was illegal to stop us in international waters. The other one is asking for information on all of the passengers, because there has been a total blackout on where the passengers are, who was wounded and who was murdered.

Lawyers are only being allowed access for three hours every day from 13:00-16:30. They have the names of three Palestinians still in detention: Sheik Salah, Mohammad Zeidan and Lubna Marsawa.

Haneen Zuabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/31/haneen-zuabi-new-arab-isr_n_181164.html has been released, because she has immunity as a member of the Knesset. She held a press conference this morning in Nazareth to talk about the attack. She was on board the Mavi Marmara.

For more information:
Free Gaza Movement – Greta Berlin +357 99187275

Free Gaza Movement – Mary Hughes + 357 96 38 38 09

ECESG – Mazen Kahel +33 1 46 81 12 92

IHH – Ahmet Emin Dag +90 530 341 1934

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is comprised of: Free Gaza Movement (FG), European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, The Perdana Global Peace Organization, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza, with hundreds of groups and organizations around the world supporting the effort.

Greta Berlin, Co-Founder
+357 99 18 72 75
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza

UN Security Council Members: Israel End Your Blockade

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday on Israel's deadly commando raid / Flotilla Massacre on ships taking humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, with the Palestinians and Arab nations demanding condemnation and an independent investigation.

The Palestinians and Arabs, backed by a number of council members including Turkey, also called for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, immediately release the ships and humanitarian activists, and allow them to deliver their goods.

Assistant Secretary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco said in his briefing to the U.N.'s most powerful body that the early morning bloodshed on Monday would have been avoided "if repeated calls on Israel to end the counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza had been heeded,"

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose country had been a longtime Muslim ally of Israel, called the raid "banditry and piracy" on the high seas and "murder conducted by a state." He urged the council to adopt a presidential statement circulated by Turkey. Many of the activists aboard the ships were apparently Turks.

The original draft text, obtained by the Associated Press, would have the council condemn the attack by Israeli forces "in the strongest terms" as a violation of international law, express deep regret at the loss of life and call for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to undertake "an independent international investigation ... to determine how this bloodshed took place and to ensure that those responsible be held accountable" and consider the issue of compensation.

The draft also calls on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and immediately release the ships and civilians it is holding.

Ban condemned the violence.

"I am shocked by reports of killings," he said in a statement. "It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place."

After statements from the 15 council members as well as Israel and the Palestinians, the council moved into closed consultations to consider possible action. The consultations then broke into a smaller group including the U.S., Turkey and Lebanon, which holds the council presidency.

Council members decided to take a brief dinner break nearly seven hours after their meeting began and then resume discussions on the latest draft which calls for "a prompt, independent, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards."

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said he expected further changes to the text. Several diplomats noted that the United States, Israel's closest ally, was waiting for instructions from Washington.

Mansour called the attack on unarmed civilians on board foreign ships in international waters a "war crime," and he declared that "those fleets, one after the other, will be coming until the unethical blockade is put to an end and the suffering stops for our people."

France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud also called for an "independent, credible" investigation that meets international standards, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade.

But U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff, made no mention of an international probe, saying: "We expect a credible and transparent investigation and strongly urge the Israeli government to investigate the incident fully." This of course is for many reasons: 1) The American Government is stacked with people who are dual citizens (Israel/United States) 2) People throughout the American Government are bought and paid for (3 Pressure from the American Israeli Lobby and Zionist Christian Right or they just fear that they might end up like many others murdered by Mossad or some other Israeli Terrorist Cell.

While the Palestinians and Turks insisted that those on the ships were humanitarian and human rights activists, Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador Daniel Carmon of course lied and said "this flotilla was anything but a humanitarian mission."

Fearing unity among several countries and what they may do and also fearing world outrage he called the results "tragic and unfortunate."

Wolff was busy trying to convince everyone the United States is deeply disturbed by the recent violence and regrets the tragic loss of life, and considers the situation in Gaza "untenable" and will continue to urge Israel to expand the scope and type of goods allowed into the territory to meet humanitarian needs.

For A Short Time Only: Egypt Opens Up Crossing

Note to Murad Muwafi:
You are quoted as saying the crossing will be open because you want to "alleviate the suffering of our Palestinian brothers after the Israeli attack" on the flotilla." I would insist on you and others in the Egypt Government not to call the people of Gaza your Brother unless you leave the crossing open for good and have Egypt stop acting like Judas. An Egyptian official says the government is temporarily lifting its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow aid into the area a day after Israel raided an international flotilla carrying supplies to the Palestinian territory and killed as much as 20 activists or more.

The governor of northern Sinai, Murad Muwafi, says President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of the border crossing to Gaza in the town of Rafah for several days.

Muwafi says the opening of the crossing – which Egypt sealed after Gaza was taken over by Hamas freedom fighters in 2007 – is an effort to "alleviate the suffering of our Palestinian brothers after the Israeli attack" on the flotilla.

Thank you for standing up for Gaza!

Thank you for urging the UN to launch an independent investigation of Israel's May 31st attacks on a humanitarian aid flotilla heading for Gaza.

We must not allow this matter to end with an "internal" investigation by the Israeli government. We must also educate the broader world about the terrible suffering caused by the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza.

Please forward this email to your friends, and ask them to join the campaign:

http://freedomforward.org/take-action/

Sincerely,

Sanjeev Bery

Executive Director

Freedom Forward

The Gaza aid attack: Israel Must Be Held to account

Dear friends,

The world is reeling from Israel's assault on an aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza. It's time for a full investigation to begin -- and for the siege of Gaza to end. Sign the worldwide petition, then forward this message:

Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships headed for Gaza has shocked the world.

Israel, like any other state, has the right to self-defence, but this was an outrageous use of lethal force to defend an outrageous and lethal policy -- Israel's blockade of Gaza, where two thirds of families don't know where they'll find their next meal.

The UN, EU, and nearly every other government and multilateral organization have called on Israel to lift the blockade and, now, launch a full investigation of the flotilla raid. But without massive pressure from their citizens, world leaders might limit their response to mere words -- as they have so many times before.

Let's make the world's outcry too loud to ignore. Join the petition for an independent investigation into the raid, accountability for those responsible, and an immediate end to the blockade in Gaza -- click to sign the petition, and then forward this message to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_flotilla/?vl

The petition will be delivered to the UN and world leaders, as soon as it reaches 200,000 names -- and again at every opportunity as it grows and leaders choose their responses. A massive petition at a moment of crisis like this one can demonstrate to those in power that sound bites and press releases aren't enough -- that citizens are paying attention and demanding action.

As the EU decides whether to expand its special trade relationship with Israel, as Obama and the US Congress set next year's budget for Israeli military aid, and as neighbours like Turkey and Egypt decide their next diplomatic steps -- let's make the world's voice unignorable: it's time for truth and accountability on the flotilla raid, and it's time for Israel to comply with international law and end the siege of Gaza. Sign now and pass this message along:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_flotilla/?vl

Most people everywhere still share the same dream: for two free and viable states, Israel and Palestine, to live side by side. But the blockade, and the violence used to defend it, poisons that dream. As a columnist wrote to his fellow Israelis today in the newspaper Ha'aretz, "We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege. The siege itself is becoming Israel's Vietnam."

Thousands of pro-peace activists in Israel today protested the raid and the blockade in demonstrations from Haifa, to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- joining demonstrations around the world. Regardless of which side threw the first punch or fired the first shot (the Israeli military claims it did not initiate the violence), Israel's leaders sent helicopters of armed storm-troopers to raid a convoy of ships in international waters bringing medicine and supplies to Gaza, and some now lay dead.

Their lives cannot be brought back. But perhaps, together, we can make this dark moment a turning point -- if we arise with an unshakable call for justice, and an unbreakable dream of peace.

With hope,

Ricken, Alice, Raluca, Paul, Iain, Graziela and the rest of the Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Live coverage from Al Jazeera:
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/05/31/live-coverage-israels-flotilla-raid

Live coverage from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/may/31/israel-troops-gaza-ships

"The Second Gaza War: Israel lost at sea" - Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/a-special-place-in-hell-the-second-gaza-war-israel-lost-at-sea-1.293246

Analysis of violence from IDF's perspective from Debka, reporters with ties to Israeli intelligence
As they try but can't deceive us with their bullshit!:
http://debka.com/article/8824/

70% of Gazans suffer from food insecurity - 2008 ICRC report, cited by al Jazeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/20105319333613851.html

Analysis of possible political consequences of the flotilla attack:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtowfFjiFD4HYdHuYgxydKNwVRDwD9G2B3880

"The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment," by Peter Beinart, The New York Review of Books,

Here is an extremely well written and thoughtful article on the "Failure" of the American [and Canadian] Jewish establishment." The author Peter Beinart is Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and Senior Political Writer for The Daily Beast. His new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, will be published in June.


Ed Corriganby Peter Beinart

In 2003, several prominent Jewish philanthropists hired Republican pollster Frank Luntz to explain why American Jewish college students were not more vigorously rebutting campus criticism of Israel. In response, he unwittingly produced the most damning indictment of the organized American Jewish community that I have ever seen.

The philanthropists wanted to know what Jewish students thought about Israel. Luntz found that they mostly didn’t. “Six times we have brought Jewish youth together as a group to talk about their Jewishness and connection to Israel,” he reported. “Six times the topic of Israel did not come up until it was prompted. Six times these Jewish youth used the word ‘they‘ rather than ‘us‘ to describe the situation.”

That Luntz encountered indifference was not surprising. In recent years, several studies have revealed, in the words of Steven Cohen of Hebrew Union College and Ari Kelman of the University of California at Davis, that “non-Orthodox younger Jews, on the whole, feel much less attached to Israel than their elders,” with many professing “a near-total absence of positive feelings.” In 2008, the student senate at Brandeis, the only nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored university in America, rejected a resolution commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Jewish state.

Luntz’s task was to figure out what had gone wrong. When he probed the students’ views of Israel, he hit up against some firm beliefs. First, “they reserve the right to question the Israeli position.” These young Jews, Luntz explained, “resist anything they see as ‘group think.’” They want an “open and frank” discussion of Israel and its flaws. Second, “young Jews desperately want peace.” When Luntz showed them a series of ads, one of the most popular was entitled “Proof that Israel Wants Peace,” and listed offers by various Israeli governments to withdraw from conquered land. Third, “some empathize with the plight of the Palestinians.” When Luntz displayed ads depicting Palestinians as violent and hateful, several focus group participants criticized them as stereotypical and unfair, citing their own Muslim friends.

Most of the students, in other words, were liberals, broadly defined. They had imbibed some of the defining values of American Jewish political culture: a belief in open debate, a skepticism about military force, a commitment to human rights. And in their innocence, they did not realize that they were supposed to shed those values when it came to Israel. The only kind of Zionism they found attractive was a Zionism that recognized Palestinians as deserving of dignity and capable of peace, and they were quite willing to condemn an Israeli government that did not share those beliefs. Luntz did not grasp the irony. The only kind of Zionism they found attractive was the kind that the American Jewish establishment has been working against for most of their lives.

Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens. For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.

Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral. If the leaders of groups like AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations do not change course, they will wake up one day to find a younger, Orthodox-dominated, Zionist leadership whose naked hostility to Arabs and Palestinians scares even them, and a mass of secular American Jews who range from apathetic to appalled. Saving liberal Zionism in the United States—so that American Jews can help save liberal Zionism in Israel—is the great American Jewish challenge of our age. And it starts where Luntz’s students wanted it to start: by talking frankly about Israel’s current government, by no longer averting our eyes.

Since the 1990s, journalists and scholars have been describing a bifurcation in Israeli society. In the words of Hebrew University political scientist Yaron Ezrahi, “After decades of what came to be called a national consensus, the Zionist narrative of liberation [has] dissolved into openly contesting versions.” One version, “founded on a long memory of persecution, genocide, and a bitter struggle for survival, is pessimistic, distrustful of non-Jews, and believing only in Jewish power and solidarity.” Another, “nourished by secularized versions of messianism as well as the Enlightenment idea of progress,” articulates “a deep sense of the limits of military force, and a commitment to liberal-democratic values.” Every country manifests some kind of ideological divide. But in contemporary Israel, the gulf is among the widest on earth.

As Ezrahi and others have noted, this latter, liberal-democratic Zionism has grown alongside a new individualism, particularly among secular Israelis, a greater demand for free expression, and a greater skepticism of coercive authority. You can see this spirit in “new historians” like Tom Segev who have fearlessly excavated the darker corners of the Zionist past and in jurists like former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak who have overturned Knesset laws that violate the human rights guarantees in Israel’s “Basic Laws.” You can also see it in former Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s apparent willingness to relinquish much of the West Bank in 2000 and early 2001.

But in Israel today, this humane, universalistic Zionism does not wield power. To the contrary, it is gasping for air. To understand how deeply antithetical its values are to those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, it’s worth considering the case of Effi Eitam. Eitam, a charismatic ex–cabinet minister and war hero, has proposed ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the West Bank. “We’ll have to expel the overwhelming majority of West Bank Arabs from here and remove Israeli Arabs from [the] political system,” he declared in 2006. In 2008, Eitam merged his small Ahi Party into Netanyahu’s Likud. And for the 2009–2010 academic year, he is Netanyahu’s special emissary for overseas “campus engagement.” In that capacity, he visited a dozen American high schools and colleges last fall on the Israeli government’s behalf. The group that organized his tour was called “Caravan for Democracy.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman once shared Eitam’s views. In his youth, he briefly joined Meir Kahane’s now banned Kach Party, which also advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israeli soil. Now Lieberman’s position might be called “pre-expulsion.” He wants to revoke the citizenship of Israeli Arabs who won’t swear a loyalty oath to the Jewish state. He tried to prevent two Arab parties that opposed Israel’s 2008–2009 Gaza war from running candidates for the Knesset. He said Arab Knesset members who met with representatives of Hamas should be executed. He wants to jail Arabs who publicly mourn on Israeli Independence Day, and he hopes to permanently deny citizenship to Arabs from other countries who marry Arab citizens of Israel.

You don’t have to be paranoid to see the connection between Lieberman’s current views and his former ones. The more you strip Israeli Arabs of legal protection, and the more you accuse them of treason, the more thinkable a policy of expulsion becomes. Lieberman’s American defenders often note that in theory he supports a Palestinian state. What they usually fail to mention is that for him, a two-state solution means redrawing Israel’s border so that a large chunk of Israeli Arabs find themselves exiled to another country, without their consent.

Lieberman served as chief of staff during Netanyahu’s first term as prime minister. And when it comes to the West Bank, Netanyahu’s own record is in its way even more extreme than his protégé’s. In his 1993 book, A Place among the Nations, Netanyahu not only rejects the idea of a Palestinian state, he denies that there is such a thing as a Palestinian. In fact, he repeatedly equates the Palestinian bid for statehood with Nazism. An Israel that withdraws from the West Bank, he has declared, would be a “ghetto-state” with “Auschwitz borders.” And the effort “to gouge Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] out of Israel” resembles Hitler’s bid to wrench the German-speaking “Sudeten district” from Czechoslovakia in 1938. It is unfair, Netanyahu insists, to ask Israel to concede more territory since it has already made vast, gut-wrenching concessions. What kind of concessions? It has abandoned its claim to Jordan, which by rights should be part of the Jewish state.

On the left of Netanyahu’s coalition sits Ehud Barak’s emasculated Labor Party, but whatever moderating potential it may have is counterbalanced by what is, in some ways, the most illiberal coalition partner of all, Shas, the ultra-Orthodox party representing Jews of North African and Middle Eastern descent. At one point, Shas—like some of its Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox counterparts—was open to dismantling settlements. In recent years, however, ultra-Orthodox Israelis, anxious to find housing for their large families, have increasingly moved to the West Bank, where thanks to government subsidies it is far cheaper to live. Not coincidentally, their political parties have swung hard against territorial compromise. And they have done so with a virulence that reflects ultra-Orthodox Judaism’s profound hostility to liberal values. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas’s immensely powerful spiritual leader, has called Arabs “vipers,” “snakes,” and “ants.” In 2005, after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed dismantling settlements in the Gaza Strip, Yosef urged that “God strike him down.” The official Shas newspaper recently called President Obama “an Islamic extremist.”

Hebrew University Professor Ze’ev Sternhell is an expert on fascism and a winner of the prestigious Israel Prize. Commenting on Lieberman and the leaders of Shas in a recent Op-Ed in Haaretz, he wrote, “The last time politicians holding views similar to theirs were in power in post–World War II Western Europe was in Franco’s Spain.” With their blessing, “a crude and multifaceted campaign is being waged against the foundations of the democratic and liberal order.” Sternhell should know. In September 2008, he was injured when a settler set off a pipe bomb at his house.

Israeli governments come and go, but the Netanyahu coalition is the product of frightening, long-term trends in Israeli society: an ultra-Orthodox population that is increasing dramatically, a settler movement that is growing more radical and more entrenched in the Israeli bureaucracy and army, and a Russian immigrant community that is particularly prone to anti-Arab racism. In 2009, a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 53 percent of Jewish Israelis (and 77 percent of recent immigrants from the former USSR) support encouraging Arabs to leave the country. Attitudes are worst among Israel’s young. When Israeli high schools held mock elections last year, Lieberman won. This March, a poll found that 56 percent of Jewish Israeli high school students—and more than 80 percent of religious Jewish high school students—would deny Israeli Arabs the right to be elected to the Knesset. An education ministry official called the survey “a huge warning signal in light of the strengthening trends of extremist views among the youth.”

You might think that such trends, and the sympathy for them expressed by some in Israel’s government, would occasion substantial public concern—even outrage—among the leaders of organized American Jewry. You would be wrong. In Israel itself, voices from the left, and even center, warn in increasingly urgent tones about threats to Israeli democracy. (Former Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak have both said that Israel risks becoming an “apartheid state” if it continues to hold the West Bank. This April, when settlers forced a large Israeli bookstore to stop selling a book critical of the occupation, Shulamit Aloni, former head of the dovish Meretz Party, declared that “Israel has not been democratic for some time now.”) But in the United States, groups like AIPAC and the Presidents’ Conference patrol public discourse, scolding people who contradict their vision of Israel as a state in which all leaders cherish democracy and yearn for peace.

The result is a terrible irony. In theory, mainstream American Jewish organizations still hew to a liberal vision of Zionism. On its website, AIPAC celebrates Israel’s commitment to “free speech and minority rights.” The Conference of Presidents declares that “Israel and the United States share political, moral and intellectual values including democracy, freedom, security and peace.” These groups would never say, as do some in Netanyahu’s coalition, that Israeli Arabs don’t deserve full citizenship and West Bank Palestinians don’t deserve human rights. But in practice, by defending virtually anything any Israeli government does, they make themselves intellectual bodyguards for Israeli leaders who threaten the very liberal values they profess to admire.

After Israel’s elections last February, for instance, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Presidents’ Conference, explained that Avigdor Lieberman’s agenda was “far more moderate than the media has presented it.” Insisting that Lieberman bears no general animus toward Israeli Arabs, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “He’s not saying expel them. He’s not saying punish them.” (Permanently denying citizenship to their Arab spouses or jailing them if they publicly mourn on Israeli Independence Day evidently does not qualify as punishment.) The ADL has criticized anti-Arab bigotry in the past, and the American Jewish Committee, to its credit, warned that Lieberman’s proposed loyalty oath would “chill Israel’s democratic political debate.” But the Forward summed up the overall response of America’s communal Jewish leadership in its headline “Jewish Leaders Largely Silent on Lieberman’s Role in Government.”

Not only does the organized American Jewish community mostly avoid public criticism of the Israeli government, it tries to prevent others from leveling such criticism as well. In recent years, American Jewish organizations have waged a campaign to discredit the world’s most respected international human rights groups. In 2006, Foxman called an Amnesty International report on Israeli killing of Lebanese civilians “bigoted, biased, and borderline anti-Semitic.” The Conference of Presidents has announced that “biased NGOs include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, [and] Save the Children.” Last summer, an AIPAC spokesman declared that Human Rights Watch “has repeatedly demonstrated its anti-Israel bias.” When the Obama administration awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson, former UN high commissioner for human rights, the ADL and AIPAC both protested, citing the fact that she had presided over the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. (Early drafts of the conference report implicitly accused Israel of racism. Robinson helped expunge that defamatory charge, angering Syria and Iran.)

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are not infallible. But when groups like AIPAC and the Presidents’ Conference avoid virtually all public criticism of Israeli actions—directing their outrage solely at Israel’s neighbors—they leave themselves in a poor position to charge bias. Moreover, while American Jewish groups claim that they are simply defending Israel from its foes, they are actually taking sides in a struggle within Israel between radically different Zionist visions. At the very moment the Anti-Defamation League claimed that Robinson harbored an “animus toward Israel,” an alliance of seven Israeli human rights groups publicly congratulated her on her award. Many of those groups, like B’Tselem, which monitors Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories, and the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, have been at least as critical of Israel’s actions in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank as have Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

All of which raises an uncomfortable question. If American Jewish groups claim that Israel’s overseas human rights critics are motivated by anti- Israeli, if not anti-Semitic, bias, what does that say about Israel’s domestic human rights critics? The implication is clear: they must be guilty of self-hatred, if not treason. American Jewish leaders don’t generally say that, of course, but their allies in the Netanyahu government do. Last summer, Israel’s vice prime minister, Moshe Ya’alon, called the anti-occupation group Peace Now a “virus.” This January, a right-wing group called Im Tirtzu accused Israeli human rights organizations of having fed information to the Goldstone Commission that investigated Israel’s Gaza war. A Knesset member from Netanyahu’s Likud promptly charged Naomi Chazan, head of the New Israel Fund, which supports some of those human rights groups, with treason, and a member of Lieberman’s party launched an investigation aimed at curbing foreign funding of Israeli NGOs.

To their credit, Foxman and other American Jewish leaders opposed the move, which might have impaired their own work. But they are reaping what they sowed. If you suggest that mainstream human rights criticism of Israel’s government is motivated by animus toward the state, or toward Jews in general, you give aid and comfort to those in Israel who make the same charges against the human rights critics in their midst.

In the American Jewish establishment today, the language of liberal Zionism—with its idioms of human rights, equal citizenship, and territorial compromise—has been drained of meaning. It remains the lingua franca in part for generational reasons, because many older American Zionists still see themselves as liberals of a sort. They vote Democratic; they are unmoved by biblical claims to the West Bank; they see average Palestinians as decent people betrayed by bad leaders; and they are secular. They don’t want Jewish organizations to criticize Israel from the left, but neither do they want them to be agents of the Israeli right.

These American Zionists are largely the product of a particular era. Many were shaped by the terrifying days leading up to the Six-Day War, when it appeared that Israel might be overrun, and by the bitter aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, when much of the world seemed to turn against the Jewish state. In that crucible, Israel became their Jewish identity, often in conjunction with the Holocaust, which the 1967 and 1973 wars helped make central to American Jewish life. These Jews embraced Zionism before the settler movement became a major force in Israeli politics, before the 1982 Lebanon war, before the first intifada. They fell in love with an Israel that was more secular, less divided, and less shaped by the culture, politics, and theology of occupation. And by downplaying the significance of Avigdor Lieberman, the settlers, and Shas, American Jewish groups allow these older Zionists to continue to identify with that more internally cohesive, more innocent Israel of their youth, an Israel that now only exists in their memories.

But these secular Zionists aren’t reproducing themselves. Their children have no memory of Arab armies massed on Israel’s border and of Israel surviving in part thanks to urgent military assistance from the United States. Instead, they have grown up viewing Israel as a regional hegemon and an occupying power. As a result, they are more conscious than their parents of the degree to which Israeli behavior violates liberal ideals, and less willing to grant Israel an exemption because its survival seems in peril. Because they have inherited their parents’ liberalism, they cannot embrace their uncritical Zionism. Because their liberalism is real, they can see that the liberalism of the American Jewish establishment is fake.

To sustain their uncritical brand of Zionism, therefore, America’s Jewish organizations will need to look elsewhere to replenish their ranks. They will need to find young American Jews who have come of age during the West Bank occupation but are not troubled by it. And those young American Jews will come disproportionately from the Orthodox world.

Because they marry earlier, intermarry less, and have more children, Orthodox Jews are growing rapidly as a share of the American Jewish population. According to a 2006 American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey, while Orthodox Jews make up only 12 percent of American Jewry over the age of sixty, they constitute 34 percent between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. For America’s Zionist organizations, these Orthodox youngsters are a potential bonanza. In their yeshivas they learn devotion to Israel from an early age; they generally spend a year of religious study there after high school, and often know friends or relatives who have immigrated to Israel. The same AJC study found that while only 16 percent of non-Orthodox adult Jews under the age of forty feel “very close to Israel,” among the Orthodox the figure is 79 percent. As secular Jews drift away from America’s Zionist institutions, their Orthodox counterparts will likely step into the breach. The Orthodox “are still interested in parochial Jewish concerns,” explains Samuel Heilman, a sociologist at the City University of New York. “They are among the last ones who stayed in the Jewish house, so they now control the lights.”

But it is this very parochialism—a deep commitment to Jewish concerns, which often outweighs more universal ones—that gives Orthodox Jewish Zionism a distinctly illiberal cast. The 2006 AJC poll found that while 60 percent of non-Orthodox American Jews under the age of forty support a Palestinian state, that figure drops to 25 percent among the Orthodox. In 2009, when Brandeis University’s Theodore Sasson asked American Jewish focus groups about Israel, he found Orthodox participants much less supportive of dismantling settlements as part of a peace deal. Even more tellingly, Reform, Conservative, and unaffiliated Jews tended to believe that average Palestinians wanted peace, but had been ill-served by their leaders. Orthodox Jews, by contrast, were more likely to see the Palestinian people as the enemy, and to deny that ordinary Palestinians shared any common interests or values with ordinary Israelis or Jews.

Orthodox Judaism has great virtues, including a communal warmth and a commitment to Jewish learning unmatched in the American Jewish world. (I’m biased, since my family attends an Orthodox synagogue.) But if current trends continue, the growing influence of Orthodox Jews in America’s Jewish communal institutions will erode even the liberal-democratic veneer that today covers American Zionism. In 2002, America’s major Jewish organizations sponsored a large Israel solidarity rally on the Washington Mall. Up and down the east coast, yeshivas shut down for the day, swelling the estimated Orthodox share of the crowd to close to 70 percent. When the then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told the rally that “innocent Palestinians are suffering and dying as well,” he was booed.

America’s Jewish leaders should think hard about that rally. Unless they change course, it portends the future: an American Zionist movement that does not even feign concern for Palestinian dignity and a broader American Jewish population that does not even feign concern for Israel. My own children, given their upbringing, could as easily end up among the booers as among Luntz’s focus group. Either prospect fills me with dread.

In 2004, in an effort to prevent weapons smuggling from Egypt, Israeli tanks and bulldozers demolished hundreds of houses in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Watching television, a veteran Israeli commentator and politician named Tommy Lapid saw an elderly Palestinian woman crouched on all fours looking for her medicines amid the ruins of her home. He said she reminded him of his grandmother.

In that moment, Lapid captured the spirit that is suffocating within organized American Jewish life. To begin with, he watched. In my experience, there is an epidemic of not watching among American Zionists today. A Red Cross study on malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, a bill in the Knesset to allow Jewish neighborhoods to bar entry to Israeli Arabs, an Israeli human rights report on settlers burning Palestinian olive groves, three more Palestinian teenagers shot—it’s unpleasant. Rationalizing and minimizing Palestinian suffering has become a kind of game. In a more recent report on how to foster Zionism among America’s young, Luntz urges American Jewish groups to use the word “Arabs, not Palestinians,” since “the term ‘Palestinians’ evokes images of refugee camps, victims and oppression,” while “‘Arab’ says wealth, oil and Islam.”

Of course, Israel—like the United States—must sometimes take morally difficult actions in its own defense. But they are morally difficult only if you allow yourself some human connection to the other side. Otherwise, security justifies everything. The heads of AIPAC and the Presidents’ Conference should ask themselves what Israel’s leaders would have to do or say to make them scream “no.” After all, Lieberman is foreign minister; Effi Eitam is touring American universities; settlements are growing at triple the rate of the Israeli population; half of Israeli Jewish high school students want Arabs barred from the Knesset. If the line has not yet been crossed, where is the line?

What infuriated critics about Lapid’s comment was that his grandmother died at Auschwitz. How dare he defile the memory of the Holocaust? Of course, the Holocaust is immeasurably worse than anything Israel has done or ever will do. But at least Lapid used Jewish suffering to connect to the suffering of others. In the world of AIPAC, the Holocaust analogies never stop, and their message is always the same: Jews are licensed by their victimhood to worry only about themselves. Many of Israel’s founders believed that with statehood, Jews would rightly be judged on the way they treated the non-Jews living under their dominion. “For the first time we shall be the majority living with a minority,” Knesset member Pinchas Lavon declared in 1948, “and we shall be called upon to provide an example and prove how Jews live with a minority.”

But the message of the American Jewish establishment and its allies in the Netanyahu government is exactly the opposite: since Jews are history’s permanent victims, always on the knife-edge of extinction, moral responsibility is a luxury Israel does not have. Its only responsibility is to survive. As former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg writes in his remarkable 2008 book, The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes, “Victimhood sets you free.”

This obsession with victimhood lies at the heart of why Zionism is dying among America’s secular Jewish young. It simply bears no relationship to their lived experience, or what they have seen of Israel’s. Yes, Israel faces threats from Hezbollah and Hamas. Yes, Israelis understandably worry about a nuclear Iran. But the dilemmas you face when you possess dozens or hundreds of nuclear weapons, and your adversary, however despicable, may acquire one, are not the dilemmas of the Warsaw Ghetto. The year 2010 is not, as Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed, 1938. The drama of Jewish victimhood—a drama that feels natural to many Jews who lived through 1938, 1948, or even 1967—strikes most of today’s young American Jews as farce.

But there is a different Zionist calling, which has never been more desperately relevant. It has its roots in Israel’s Independence Proclamation, which promised that the Jewish state “will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew prophets,” and in the December 1948 letter from Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and others to The New York Times, protesting right-wing Zionist leader Menachem Begin’s visit to the United States after his party’s militias massacred Arab civilians in the village of Deir Yassin. It is a call to recognize that in a world in which Jewish fortunes have radically changed, the best way to memorialize the history of Jewish suffering is through the ethical use of Jewish power.

For several months now, a group of Israeli students has been traveling every Friday to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where a Palestinian family named the Ghawis lives on the street outside their home of fifty-three years, from which they were evicted to make room for Jewish settlers. Although repeatedly arrested for protesting without a permit, and called traitors and self-haters by the Israeli right, the students keep coming, their numbers now swelling into the thousands. What if American Jewish organizations brought these young people to speak at Hillel? What if this was the face of Zionism shown to America’s Jewish young? What if the students in Luntz’s focus group had been told that their generation faces a challenge as momentous as any in Jewish history: to save liberal democracy in the only Jewish state on earth?

“Too many years I lived in the warm embrace of institutionalized elusiveness and was a part of it,” writes Avraham Burg. “I was very comfortable there.” I know; I was comfortable there too. But comfortable Zionism has become a moral abdication. Let’s hope that Luntz’s students, in solidarity with their counterparts at Sheikh Jarrah, can foster an uncomfortable Zionism, a Zionism angry at what Israel risks becoming, and in love with what it still could be. Let’s hope they care enough to try.

Peter Beinart is Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and Senior Political Writer for The Daily Beast. His new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, will be published in June.