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Article, 7 June 2008
Jordan's Islamic party stages mass rally against Gaza blockade by DPA Hundreds of Jordanians staged a rally Saturday to press for lifting of the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip and urged Arab countries, particularly Egypt, to break the siege. The protest was held in front of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest political party and the political arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement. Addressing the audience, the IAF Deputy Secretary General Rhayyel Gharaibeh accused Arab countries of "playing into the hands of the United States and Israel" by failure to take steps to break the Gaza siege. (Read on)

Press Release, 1 June 2008
Setting Sail on August 1, 2008 to Break the Siege of Gaza by Free Gaza Movement We will no longer wait for the United Nations to enforce over 65 resolutions against Israel, or for Israel to come forward and uphold the rights of Palestinians guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention. We choose, instead, to sail to Gaza in August and declare our solidarity with the Palestinians. (Read on)

Press Release, 30 May 2008
The Israeli Siege On Gaza Kills Palestinian Present And Future. No More Scholarships To Students In Gaza by Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament "The Israeli siege on Gaza continue to punish collectively and illegally civil population, killing them together with their hopes of a dignified life and of a better future: of course rocket launched from Gaza to Sderot are illegal and criminal and must be immediately stopped because they hit Israeli civilians, but the fault of some Palestinian extremists groups cannot be paid as reprisal by one million and a half of non-culpable people. Today, more examples of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians took place. Special Israeli Forces raided Khaza'a area, east of Khan Younis, and killed Yosra Qzeih Abu Roq, a 70 years-old woman. Amnesty International in its latest report announced that since the beginning of 2008, "frequent air strikes and other attacks by Israeli forces killed more than 370 Palestinians, including some 50 children, and injured thousands more." (Read on)

Article, 29 May 2008
Tutu: Gaza blockade abomination by BBC News Desmond Tutu was speaking at the end of an official two-day visit to Gaza // Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu has called Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip an "abomination". He strongly condemned what he called international "silence and complicity" on the blockade, which he compared to the actions of Burma's leaders. Speaking at the end of a two day mission to the area, the former archbishop said the humanitarian situation there could not be justified. Earlier, 60 Palestinians were detained in an Israeli raid on northern Gaza. (Read on)

Article, 25 May 2008
Gaza blockade is 'human rights crime': Carter by Yahoo News Former US president Jimmy Carter on Sunday described Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip as "one of the greatest human rights crimes now existing on Earth." In a speech at a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye, in Wales, the 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner said: "There is no reason to treat these people this way," referring to the blockade, in place since the Islamist Hamas movement seized Gaza in June 2007. While president from 1977 to 1981, Carter was the architect of the landmark 1979 peace deal between Israel and Egypt, the first such treaty between the Jewish state and an Arab country. According to Carter, the failure of the European Union to support the Palestinian cause was "embarrassing." (Read on)

Press Release, 26 May 2008
Setting Sail on August 1, 2008 to Break the Siege of Gaza We will no longer wait for the United Nations to enforce over 65 resolutions against Israel, or for Israel to come forward and uphold the rights of Palestinians guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention. We choose, instead, to sail to Gaza in August and declare our solidarity with the Palestinians. Forty to seventy Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals from 15 countries will sail to Gaza during the sixty-year anniversary of the Nakba – the forcible expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands to create Israel –to challenge Israeli control over the open-air prison called Gaza. Israel says Gaza is no longer occupied; yet it denies Palestinians access to jobs, travel, commerce, education, and medical care. Its military has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air concentration camp controlled by land, sea and air. In the past year, the people of Gaza have barely had enough to eat, as Israel withholds food and energy in an attempt to starve them into submission. (Read on)

Article, 18 May 2008
Gaza siege largely destroys commercial fishing industry. Too Quiet in the Harbour by Mohammed Omer GAZA CITY - It's been strangely quiet for some time at the port in Gaza. No clanging of hooks, no sounds of creaking cranes or of thumping of nets upon decks. Boat engines, normally puttering and spewing exhaust, lie entombed under covers. Of the 40,000 fishermen and others who make a living from the catch, only about 700 are still busy, according to the Fishing Syndicate in Gaza. The boats need oil, and Israel will not let the fishermen have it. (Read on)

Article, 02 May 2008
Gaza sewage pumped into the sea over past three months By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent Millions of liters of sewage have been released over the past three months into the Mediterranean Sea from the Gaza Strip, according to a new United Nations report. According to the report, an estimated 50-60 million liters of waste have been pumped into the sea. This was done in an effort to prevent an overflow of sewage in residential areas. Normally, the sewage is pumped to prearranged sites for treatment, but the shortage of fuel in the Gaza Strip has caused disruptions in the supply of electricity. These shortages, lack of sufficient quantities of chemicals necessary for treating sewage, and spare parts, has led the Gaza officials to pump the waste into the sea. (Read on)

Article, 01 May 2008
Put Your Body Where Your Heart Is - Break The Siege On Gaza! x (Read on)

Announcement, 29 Apr 2008
Celebrating the Life of Riad Hamad See PDF file

Article, 22 Apr 2008
Gaza`s sewage `tsunami` By Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor (From Occupation Magazine: www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=26563)A five-month-old baby lay on a blanket in the shade of a hut made of metal sheets. Thin tree branches, with leaves and twigs intact, were laced around the ends of the hut to insulate it against the hot wind that blows into the sand dunes, rolling away to the border fence and on to Israel. The baby`s mother sat with her legs tucked under her, hiding most of her face behind her black head-scarf. It flapped slightly in the breeze, and she used it to wipe her tears and muffle her sobs. The woman`s name is Aziza Abu Otayek. She wept because she was remembering the death of another baby son, one morning in March last year, just after the older children had gone to school. Until that day their home was just downhill from a deep pond of sewage, pumped into a depression in the dunes and held there by earth walls because the water authorities in the Gaza Strip had nowhere else to put it. (Read on)

Announcement, 20 Apr 2008
In Memoriam Riad Elsohl Hamad, 1952-2008 By PCWF Riad Hamad died on April 14, 2008 in Austin, Texas, a victim of drowning in Lady Bird Lake. He was a tireless advocate for Palestinians, and especially women and children living in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. He created the Palestine Children's Welfare Fund and raised millions of dollars through this organization for schools, charitable organizations, and hospitals. (Read on)

Article, 17 Apr 2008
Carter calls Gaza blockade a 'crime and atrocity' By Reuters (Haaretz) Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip a "crime and an atrocity" on Thursday, and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive. Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death", receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. "It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza.It's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said. (Read on)

Article, 1 Apr 2008
" Egyptian govt blocks solidarity delegation to Gaza" Announcement of the "European campaign against the siege on Gaza", a delegation of 30 people from 15 countries tried to reach Rafah on the 31st March but was stopped by the Egyptian authorities (Read on)

Article, 29 March 2008
A New Crisis in the Making. The Great Lake of Gaza By SUZANNE BAROUD, Counterpunch In a place just a few miles from sandy beaches and soaring sky-scrapers, white stone villas and sky-blue swimming pools, it seems the epitome of irony and injustice that over 1.5 million people would be subjected to drinking sewage-contaminated water. When there is such a fine line bordering wealth and poverty, privilege and need, how unsettling to realize that just a stones throw away, mothers and fathers must nourish their families with poison. As if the occupier could not find one more creative way to torment his victim. (Read on)

Article, 27 Feb 2008
" PCAS calls for More global days of Actions to free Gaza Strip" Friends, brothers, sisters and lovers of freedom in this world; Share us the liberation of Gaza as our big martyr Rachel Corrie did before. Be on the time and participate in 3 days of actions for Gaza, 14th Friday, 15th Saturday, and 16th Sunday of the next March. (Read on)

Interview, 27 Feb 2008
"Israeli poet Aharon Shabtaï boycotts the State of Israel" The Israeli poet Aharon Shabtaï explains why he refused to participate in the "Salon du livre" of Paris and the "Fiera del libro" of Turin, contrary to the 39 Israeli writers who accepted to be part of the Israeli delegation to these two exhibitions (Read on)

Article, 17 Feb 2008
"Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism" An article by Darryl Li, doctoral student in antropology and Middle East Studies at Harvard University and a student at Yale Law School. He spent January in the Gaza Strip (Read on)

Video, 15 Feb 2008 Olive Tree Films
free gaza (1:14) Free Gaza Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dvt2RfgpfU

Appeal, 11 Feb 2008 by intifada.gr
Appeal to Stop Now the Siege of Gaza: the signatories «Intifada» Association has widely distribute the following Appeal to Stop Now the Siege og Gaza. Many organisations, parties, workers union etc. have signed it. Heres the list of signatories till January 19th, 2008 (Read on)

Article, 7 Feb 2008 by Electronic Intifada
Gaza fishermen: "We are ready to work" This report is part of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' Narratives Under Siege series. (Read on)

Press Release, 6 Feb 2008
" PYN, Paz Ahora, and ISM attempt to break the blockade " The Palestinian Youth Network (PYN), together with the Spanish Paz Ahora Association, and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Spain will deliver 50,000 euros worth of medicine to United Nations-operated clinics in Gaza's eight refugee camps. (Read on)

Article, 5 Feb 2008 by Counter Punch
" Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair " Tariq Ali, the author of Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, explains. (Read on)

Popular Committee Against Siege
"FREE GAZA" A global day of Protest to End the Gaza Siege! The PCAS call for the 23th of February (Read on)

Video, 26 Jan 2008
"LIFT THE BLOCKADE" International day of action against the siege of Gaza Video on Youtube of London Demo for Gaza on Saturday the 26th January- about 5000 present, as part of the international day of action against the siege of Gaza (Watch Video)

Press Release, 28 Jan 2008
"LIFT THE BLOCKADE" - The Relief Convoy on its way By the Israeli initiative The initiative for the large action that took place today (26.1.08) was joined by 26 Israeli peace groups under the single slogan: "Lift the siege!" (Read on)

Article , 20 Jan 2008
Gaza City plunged into darkness BBC News Gaza's only power plant shuts down, saying it has run out of fuel because of increased Israeli restrictions. (Read article)

Press Release, 20 Jan 2008
"Death and Darkness in Gaza, People are dying, Help us!" By www.freegaza.ps A humanitarian crisis is underway as the Gaza Strip's only power plant began to shut down on Sunday, and the tiny coastal territory entered its third full day without shipments of vital food and fuel supplies due to Israel's punitive sanctions. (Read on)

Article , 17 Jan 2008
Green light for atrocities By Saleh Al-Naami. Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2008 Just weeks after the Annapolis parade, Bush on tour to Israel has given carte blanche to Olmert for whatever level of violence against Palestinians he pleases (Read article)

Article , 12 Dec 2007
A hip hop foreigner in Gaza By Bashar Labad, Menassat.com Gaza Correspondent Our correspondent in Gaza City explores what one group of young Palestinians are doing to express themselves in the face of the daily struggle for survival in the Strip: rap, Gaza style. (Read article)

Press Release, 11 Dec. 2007
"END THE SIEGE ON GAZA" We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, support and uphold the call of a coalition of organizations and individuals in Gaza for an international campaign to end the siege on Gaza. We call on members of Israeli society to join the campaign. (Read on)

Fundraising, 09 Dec 2007
The Free Gaza Movement and the Palestinian Children's Welfare Fund invite you to Help End the Siege of Gaza. A benefit to support the Free Gaza Movement. Fundraiser Dinner, 6:00 p.m., Dec. 9, 2007. Medjool Restaurant, 2516 Mission St., San Francisco (Read all infos)

Article , 07 Dec 2007
Testimony: Israel delays treatment of two Gaza toddlers. Report by B'Tselem. Ashraf Fathi Hussein al-Shanti, 39, married with four children, is a government clerk and a resident of Gaza City. His testimony was given to Muhammad Sabah at the witness's home on 17 October 2007 (Read article)

Article , 06 Dec 2007
No to the apartheid Two states solution. Omar Barghouti: No State Has the Right to Exist as a Racist State. Interview by Silvia Cattori. Omar Barghouti belongs to a new generation of Palestinians who never adhered to the solution of « Two States, Two peoples ». They are advocating, instead, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) of Israel as well as a «secular, democratic state» solution, where Palestinians and Israelis would share equal rights, after historic injustices are redressed and the refugees are allowed to return. (Read article)

Article, 05 Dec 2007
Anarchists post 'power outage notices' By JPOST.COM STAFF. Over 10,000 posters warning of a power outage were plastered over residential doors and public locations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa by left wing activists in protest of the government's decision to cut-back the power supply to the Gaza Strip. The poster which plastered at over 10,000 locations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. Dozens of activists participated in the overnight operation which was organized by "The Front for the Liberation of Gaza", a coalition of anarchist organizations who oppose the government's decision to cut power supplies to Gaza. According to the poster, the power outage is scheduled for next week. "The power outage is a step we must take since there are army headquarters in your city which are responsible for war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza," the poster read. "For humanitarian reasons, the cuts will not be absolute, and we will allow you to use some power for hospitals, the water and sewage systems or residential homes," the poster read. It is believed that the activists do not plan to perform any real power cut in Israel, but rather aim to raise public awareness of civilian life in Gaza. (Read Jerusalem Post article)

Blog, 28 Nov 2007
Hello there, my blog is http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com. I would like to draw your attention to a blog that is new I created. http://stopthesiegeongaza.blogspot.com/ in solidarity with Palestine and other groups and organizations I manage this blog in hope of creating awareness so that the siege will end. More importantly, that the people of Gaza know that they are not forgotten. I have created this site hoping to collect a million messages to stop the siege of Gaza as well as this online petition http://www.petitiononline.com/etgs1/petition.html. Your support would be appreciated if you would do a posting of this on your site. In Peace & Solidarity for a Free Palestine.

Fact Sheet, 23 Nov 2007
Facts regarding Israel's Fuel and Electricity Cuts to the Gaza Strip (Gisha, Legal Center for Freedom of Movement) Gisha calls upon Israel immediately to cancel the fuel cuts, to refrain from implementing electricity cuts, and to open Gaza's borders for the regular and sufficient supply of goods, including spare parts and other supplies necessary to ensure the health and well-being of Gaza residents. (Read fact sheet)

Interview, 13 Nov 2007
"In Gaza there is a lack of everything that is important in life". The consequences of the Israeli siege; food and medical supplies are in short supply, employees receive no salaries. An interview with Maged Abu Ramadan, MD; Mayor of Gaza City by Andrea Bistrich. This interview first appeared on November 8, 2007 in the German newspaper "Junge Welt". The following interview is the English original. Only answer two is a direct retranslation of the German version. Edited for the Freegaza website by Anis Hamadeh, Greta Berlin and Andrea Bistrich. (Read the interview)

Call for Action, November 9, 2007
End Gaza Siege Campaign We have been thinking about the type of activities through which our international supporters and friends could get involved. (Read on)

Press Release, November 2007
"END THE SIEGE" The Palestinian-International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza - The Gaza Strip has two main crossings that connect it to the whole world, i.e. Rafah in the south (To Egypt) and Erez in the north (to Israel) . There are three other crossings that are used to exchange goods and bring in food to the Gaza Strip; Today all are closed partially or completely. (Read on)

Article, 7 Nov 2007
Gaza doesn't need aid: it has a £2bn gas field By Tim Butcher (Telegraph) Excerpt: Instead of checking into their smart Parisian hotels, donors would do better to come to Gaza to help free a Palestinian economic asset so large that it would do away with the need to bleed the international community of millions in aid every year. Twenty miles from the beaches of Gaza, too far for the eye to see but still very much in Palestinian waters, lies a fortune in untapped, off-shore gas. Prospecting vessels sent down two probes seven years ago and what they found got the juices of executives from multinational fuel companies flowing. In one field alone, experts estimated a reserve of £2 billion worth of natural gas. And there is plenty of potential for other fields. (Read the whole article)

Article, 1 Nov 2007
As the world forgets Gaza Hyper-inflation and 80 per cent unemployment are the real target outcomes of Israel's siege on Gaza, writes Saleh Al-Naami (Al-Ahram Weekly) It was an emotional scene. Relief was apparent on the faces of Mohamed Al-Masri and his wife Rania as they followed the nurse transferring their firstborn, 12-year-old Ahmed, from the operating room in Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The medical team had finally been able to perform surgery in Ahmed's ear to recover his hearing after Israel had temporarily barred the import of nitrous oxide, which is used as anaesthesia and is necessary for surgery to be performed. Israel had given permission to import this vital gas to Gaza Strip hospitals only the day prior to Ahmed's operation last week. (Read the whole article)

Article, 14 Oct 2007
"Peace" under Occupation by Kim Bullimore (livefromoccupiedpalestine) This weekend is Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Like Christmas for devote and not-so-devote Christians, it is not only a time for prayer, reflection, forgiveness and to be thankful, but it is also a time for family, joy and celebration. Over this weekend, my Palestinian friends, whether they be Muslim, Christian or secular in their beliefs will spend time visiting each other and their families and loved ones. They will share gifts, delicious food and each others company. They will give to the less fortunate and celebrate the joys of life. However, like so many Eid's that have gone before in Palestine, this year's Eid al-Fitr will be celebrated once again under the shadow of the illegal and sadistic Israeli occupation. (Read on)

Report, Oct 2007
8 Pages Gaza Report from Btselem with pictures Read PDF file

Article, 22 Sep 2007
The war on Gaza 's children. Israel's sanctions are leaving a generation of Palestinian children poorly educated and hungry. by Saree Makdisi (LA Times) An entire generation of Palestinians in Gaza is growing up stunted: physically and nutritionally stunted because they are not getting enough to eat; emotionally stunted because of the pressures of living in a virtual prison and facing the constant threat of destruction and displacement; intellectually and academically stunted because they cannot concentrate -- or, even if they can, because they are trying to study and learn in circumstances that no child should have to endure. Even before Israel this week declared Gaza "hostile territory" -- apparently in preparation for cutting off the last remaining supplies of fuel and electricity to 1.5 million men, women and children -- the situation was dire. As a result of Israel's blockade on most imports and exports and other policies designed to punish the populace, about 70% of Gaza's workforce is now unemployed or without pay, according to the United Nations, and about 80% of its residents live in grinding poverty. About 1.2 million of them are now dependent for their day-to-day survival on food handouts from U.N. or international agencies, without which, as the World Food Program's Kirstie Campbell put it, "they are liable to starve." (Read on)

Press Release, 31 Aug 2007
"We will be commemorating the Nakba in Gaza" Why the boat "Free Gaza" will not sail this summer, but next spring. - The Break the Siege International Initiative has changed the date of the boat trip to Gaza to the spring of 2008 instead of the summer 2007. All of us supporting this initiative want it to be successful, and we did not want to go prematurely just to "stick to the schedule". Three main reasons for the change of schedule are highlighted in this release. (Read on)
In Spanish: "Conmemoraremos el Nakba en Gaza". Porque el barco "Free Gaza" no zarpara este verano, sino la primavera proxima. Article, 13 Aug 2007
Politics Unmercifully Trespass Humanitarian Borders in Gaza by Nicola Nasser (Zmag) Quote: Only an international nonviolent resistance project, “The Free Gaza Movement,” is “taking action” to alert the world public opinion to the threatening status quo in Gaza to hopefully awake to the danger simmering there and defuse the clicking time bomb. Up to 100 international volunteered Palestinian, Israeli, American, European, African and Asian rabbis, imams, Christian and Buddhist clerics, British MPs, entertainment celebrities, and internationally known journalists as well as Nakba and Holocaust survivors will sail from Cyprus to Gaza in 2 to 6 seagoing vessels of 12 to 60 passengers each, prospectively on August 15. (Read the whole article)

Interview, 12 Aug 2007
Interview with Hedy Epstein and Greta Berlin: “We Are Committed to Sailing to Gaza – Ahoy!” by Silvia Cattori Hedy Epstein and Greta Berlin, two among other personalities promoting the project "Sailing a boat to Gaza", explain in the interview they gave to Silvia Cattori why the boat "Free Gaza" will not sail this summer as initially planned, but next spring. Interview in English and French (Read in English) (Read in French)

(Spanish) Article, 4 Aug 2007
Gandhi would have headed for Gaza to free Palestinians had he been alive, says grandson by ANI Correspondent (Daily India) London, Aug.4: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi alias Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Indian Nation, would have headed for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to fight for the freedom of Palestinians had he been alive, says his 72-year-old grandson. According to Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, the son of Devdas Gandhi, the Mahatma's youngest son, "If he (Mahatma Gandhi) was around today, my grandfather would have been in the Gaza Strip, shoulder-to-shoulder with the Palestinians. He would have sympathised with their plight, although he would not have agreed with using violence. Mohandas would never have condoned suicide bombings." (Read the whole article)

Article, 01 Aug 2007
"Mit dem Schiff nach Gaza" by Green Left Weekly, translated by Sophia Deeg (junge Welt) 70 Menschenrechtsaktivisten wollen die Blockade palästinensischen Gebiets gewaltfrei durchbrechen Ihr Ziel heißt Palästina. Sie sagen: "Wir haben versucht, auf dem Landweg dorthin zu kommen. Wir haben versucht einzufliegen. Jetzt machen wir ernst. Wir nehmen ein Schiff." Im Laufe des heute beginnenden Monats August wollen bis zu 70 Menschenrechtsaktivisten aus 13 Ländern versuchen, gewaltfrei den von Israel sowie international verhängten Belagerungszustand des dicht bevölkerten Gazastreifens zu durchbrechen, indem sie mit einem Schiff in die Gewässer vor dem palästinensischen Gebiet vorstoßen. Das Schiff wird Hilfsgüter im Wert von 25000 Dollar mitführen, die dem Palästinensischen Roten Halbmond übergeben werden sollen. ... (Read on...) Article, 30 Jul 2007
"Hamas Shows Gaza to Foreign Reporters" by Steven Gutkin, Associated Press Writer (Guardian) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Never mind the international isolation, growing poverty and reports of violent retribution against its defeated Fatah rivals. In Hamas' own eyes, its takeover of Gaza has made the coastal strip "safe, clean and green." In an attempt to get that message across, Hamas took two busloads of foreign journalists on an air conditioned tour of Gaza on Monday - including a stop in a refugee camp where the deposed prime minister waved from his balcony and a prison visit hosted by one of Hamas' most powerful military men. ... (Read on...)

Article, 28 Jul 2007
"I pacifisti: sbarcheremo a Gaza" by Mi.Gio. (il manifesto, Italia), 28.07.2007, p.11: www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/28-Luglio-2007/art44.html) Protesta contro l'assedio, ci sarà anche sopravvissuta ad Auschwitz. C'è anche la 82enne Hedi Epstein, un'ebrea sopravvissuta al lager nazista di Auschwitz, tra i pacifisti israeliani e gli attivisti palestinesi che stanno progettando uno sbarco congiunto sulla spiaggia di Gaza, con lo scopo dichiarato di "forzare l'assedio" e il "blocco navale" alla Striscia imposto dall'esercito e dalla marina di Israele. Il progetto, ancora in fase di organizzazione, prevede la partenza dei palestinesi ai primi di settembre a bordo di una nave che da Alessandria d'Egitto farà rotta su Cipro, dove saliranno a bordo i pacifisti israeliani, e subito dopo proseguirà il viaggio verso Gaza. Secondo gli organizzatori, la presenza a bordo di cittadini israeliani (nonché di rappresentanti della stampa) dovrebbe, almeno in teoria, sventare il pericolo che la marina militare apra il fuoco contro l'imbarcazione dei pacifisti, intenzionati a sottolineare la condizione di prigione a cielo aperto di Gaza e le centinaia di pescatori palestinesi ridotti alla fame dalle restrizioni israeliane. Secondo altre fonti l'imbarcazione potrebbe partire dalla Grecia.

Article, 27 Jul 2007
"Palestinians block UN's initiative on Gaza crisis" by Shlomo Shamir (Haaretz): The Palestinian delegation to the United Nations is blocking a Security Council initiative aimed at expressing the organization's concern over the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. (Read on ...)

Article, 26 Jul 2007
"Gaza: a gas for Blair?" by Arthur Neslen (Guardian) Palestine has a major strategic resource in its natural gas reserves off Gaza, but Tony Blair's attempt to use it to glue the PA to Israel is wrong. It's always nice to start a new job with a trick up your sleeve, and the Middle East's new envoy Tony Blair could be forgiven for thinking he has just that. In the near future, a $4bn deal to exploit Gaza's offshore gas reserves will be signed by the Israeli government, Britain's BG Group (BG), the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s investment arm, the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). Environmental considerations notwithstanding, an injection of this kind of capital into the occupied territories could transform the political landscape. By fortune or design, Tony Blair has been crucial to the deal's genesis. ...
(Read on...)

Article, 26 Jul 2007
"The Siege on the Gaza Strip" by B'Tselem In June 2007, Hamas took over power in the Gaza Strip. Since then, the area has been under siege. Following Hamas's takeover, Israel changed the movement arrangements at the five Gaza border-crossing points under its control (Erez, Karni, Nahal Oz, Sufa, and Kerem Shalom), and, except for exceptional cases, again did not permit movement of people or goods between Israel and Gaza . Karni Crossing, "the lifeblood of the Gaza Strip," through which the great majority of goods enters and leaves Gaza , ceased to operate almost completely. As a result, many branches of commerce have been disrupted and the economic crisis in the Gaza Strip has grown. ...
(Read on...)

Article, 20 Jul 2007
"Stranded at the border" by Rami Almeghari, 20 July 2007 (EI Electronic Intifada) My wife and myself, like thousands of other Palestinians, are currently stranded in Egypt since the Rafah crossing to Gaza was closed in mid-June. We are now staying closer to our home of Gaza. The destination this time is not Cairo. Rather, it's the coastal town of al-Arish now that my wife has completed her medical treatment in the Egyptian capital. ...
(Read on...)

Video Link, 18 Jul 2007
"Israel and the Easiest Targets" by IfAmericansKnew (12:49) Five women - Palestinian, American, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish - tell stories of humiliation and harassment by Israeli border guards and airport security officials: http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=2635131669280326809

Press Release, 18 Jul 2007
"We Call on International Agencies to Support the Fishermen of Gaza" by Free Gaza Group In Gaza, fishing is a potentially lethal experience. The Israeli Military ignores the Oslo Agreement that gives the Palestinians of Gaza the right to fish, and international law that designates a 20 naval-mile (NM) zone to the Palestinians. Therefore, the fishermen are constrained to a 6 nm zone for fishing preventing them from earning a living and feeding their families. Even within the 6 nm zone, the Israeli army is firing upon the fishermen. (Read on...)

Article, 16 Jul 2007
"Slow Boat to Gaza" by Elaine Monaghan (CQ Weekly) As the people of Gaza have fallen under the rule of the militant group Hamas in the newly divided Palestinian Authority, they have become dangerously isolated. Last week, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which oversees much infrastructure work in the Occupied Territories, announced that it was halting all construction projects in Gaza because it could not get concrete and other building materials into the area. The United States, which initially suspended Palestinian aid after Hamas' election win, is now restoring some funds to the Fatah party in charge of the West Bank, which will probably deepen Gaza's economic stagnation. Indeed, the situation is now so desperate that Gaza residents are rooting for a 61-year-old piano tuner from California to help re-open Gaza's main port. The Free Gaza Line -a ferry service that piano tuner Paul Larudee wants to begin this fall with $300,000 in donations from Palestinian sympathizers - would shuttle between Gaza and the port town Larnaca in Cyprus. ... (Read on...)

Article, 14 Jul 2007
"Palestine: Breaking the siege in Gaza" By Kim Bullimore (Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #717 18 July 2007) In August 2007, up to 70 human rights activists from 13 countries will attempt to non-violently break the Israeli and international siege of the densely populated Gaza Strip by sailing a ship into Gazan territorial waters with US$25,000 worth of humanitarian aid to donate to the Palestinian Red Crescent ... (Read on...)

Article, 12 Jul 2007
"Basic needs reaching Gaza but economy near collapse" (Source: IRIN) JERUSALEM - While humanitarian aid flows into the Gaza Strip are meeting most of the basic needs of the Palestinians, industries are unable to export their goods. This has lead to mass layoffs and unemployment in the already impoverished enclave. Businessmen in Gaza speak of over 30,000 layoffs as a result of the lockdown on the Gaza Strip initiated after fighting between the Islamist group Hamas and Fatah last month, which ended when the former seized control over the strip. ... (Read on...)

Radio Interview, 11 Jul 2007
"Radio Interview with Greta Berlin on the Free Gaza Campaign" By Said (Arab Voices) A U.S. peace activist, member of Women in Black Los Angeles, an Israeli-women's peace group, and volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, who has visited the occupied Palestinian territories several times, and was shot by the Israeli occupation forces. Topic: Greta's upcoming trip to Gaza via a sail boat. Greta's intension is to challenge Israel's claim that "Gaza is no longer occupied and its people are free". We will also talk to her about her experience in occupied Palestine during her past visits. - Click on the date "July 11, 2007" of the following link to listen to the 1 hour show. Greta's interview is at minutes 23:17-58:50. The site: www.arabvoices.net

Article, 11 Jul 2007
"Short-Term Band Aids in a Long-Term Disaster. Submission or Resistance in Gaza?" by Philip Rizk (Counterpunch) There has been an array of commentary on Gaza over the past weeks. Hamas' military takeover of the Gaza Strip brought the malaise of its people, the weakness of Fatah and Hamas' ability to implement law and order into the world limelight. As outside commentators it is quite simple to chose sides in this seeming Fatah-Hamas divide, and yet what is really at stake for Palestinians in Gaza, now governed by a Hamas cabinet sacked by the president, and Palestinians in the West Bank, governed by a Fatah president and his unilaterally determined emergency government? (Read on)

Article, 10 Jul 2007
"A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis" by Stephen Lendman (ZMag) Making Gaza "scream" is same kind of scheme the Nixon administration planned for Chile after social democrat Salvador Allende won a plurality of the votes in September, 1970. Before the Chilean Congress confirmed him as president in October, an infamous Nixon CIA Director Richard Helms handwritten note read: "One in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! ... not concerned with risks involved ... $10,000,000 available, more if necessary...make the economy 'scream.' " By it, he meant saving the country from a socially responsible leader, like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, using his nation's wealth equitably and not just for its privileged elites. "Scream" it did through Nixon's "soft line" scheme "to do all within our power to condemn Chile and Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty," in the words of his Chilean ambassador Edward Korry. (Read on)

Report, 04 Jul 2007
"Commercial Closure: Deleting Gaza’s Economy from the Map" by Legal Center for Freedom of Movement Gisha Israel's closure policy is destroying Gaza's business sector and denying its residents the right to live in dignity. +++ Local production is paralyzed; at least 75% of factories have shut down. +++ 85% of Gaza resident are already dependent on humanitarian aid. +++ The closure is turning 1.4 million people into charity dependents. (Read on)

Interview, 13 Jun 2007
"Israel: 'I was not prepared for all the horrors that I saw'. An Interview with Hedy Epstein" by Silvia Cattori (Global Research) Hedy Epstein, 82, was born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1924 and lived in Kippenheim, a village located approximately 30 km north of Freiburg. She was the only child of parents who died in the Nazi extermination camps. She is a tireless worker for human rights and for the dignity of all people. Hedy decided to visit Palestine in 2003. She returned terribly shocked with what she had seen there, women and children defenceless, Palestinians locked up into ghettos, an entire people brutalized. She had learned to love the people that she met, and was determined to tell the world of the injustices she had seen. Palestinians were being dispossessed of their land, removed from the homes that they had lived in for centuries. Nothing that anyone has done, no protests that have been made, has made Israel stop its treatment of the Palestinians. In fact, it has become worse every time Hedy has returned. So, she is joining other human rights advocates who are sailing to Gaza on the boat, FREE GAZA to demand justice for the Palestinians, and a correction of 60 years of oppression by the Israelis... (Read on...) • Other languages and more related contributions in Silvia's Room

Article, 27 May 2007
"Caged in Gaza" By John Pilger ASSAULT: Young Palestinians fleeing a missile strike from an Israeli fighter plane, one of the many psychologically scarring events faced daily by youth in the besieged Gaza Strip. ISRAEL is destroying any notion of a state of Palestine and is being allowed to imprison an entire nation... (Read on...)

Press Release, 25 March 2007
"Break the Siege of Gaza: London launch of campaign to challenge Gaza closure" In London today participants in a courageous attempt to sail to Gaza, carrying international, Palestinian and Israeli civilians, as well as $25,000 in medical and food aid, will launch their campaign. The public launch will take place at 13:00 at Old Court Place in London W8. Israel says Gaza is no longer occupied, yet it denies Palestinians access to jobs, travel, visitors, commerce, education, health and medical care. Its military has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air prison...
The Morning Star, Friday 25 May 2007, by Louise Nousratpour PALESTINE solidarity campaigners decended on the Israeli embassy in south London on Friday to announce a courageous plan to set sail for beleaguered Gaza this summer to "break the siege." Standing firm in the face of constant police harassment, Free Gaza activists launched their campaign outside the embassy in Kensington, west London, to break the year-long international blockade on Palestine. They held a banner bearing the image of a boat to demonstrate how they will brave the sea in August... (Read on...)

Article, 21 Mar 2007
"For Gaza, a Question of Responsibility. Israel, at High Court, Argues That Strip Is No Longer Occupied" By Scott Wilson, Post Foreign Service GAZA CITY - The Israeli government is arguing in domestic courts that it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, a designation that under international law holds the Jewish state responsible for the welfare of Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinians... (Read on...)

Press Release, 20 March 2007
"IOF escalate violations of fishermen's rights; Al Mezan calls for international protection of Palestinian civilians ..." At app. 2am on 19 March 2007, four Israeli military boats blocked and rounded 14 Palestinian fishing boats and forced to sail deep in sea. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) tied the boats and forced the fishermen to jump in the water and swim individually towards the military ships. Orders were given to fishermen by mega phones. IOF arrested 56 Palestinian fishermen in this operation... (Read on...)

Article, 23 Feb 2007
"IDF prohibits fishing off Gaza coast and abuse fishermen" By B'Tselem B'Tselem's research indicates that, since the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, on 25 June 2006 , Israel has forbidden boats, including fishing boats, to sail off the Gaza coast. The prohibition has struck a severe blow to the fishing sector, which provides a livelihood for tens of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip. Lacking other means... (Read on...)

Article, 16 Feb 2007
"What a strange 'abroad'" By Amira Hass Now it is official: The Gaza Strip is "abroad." As of February 1, the few Israelis whose entry into the Strip is approved by the army have had to present a passport at the Erez crossing, and they are listed on the Interior Ministry's computer as having crossed the country's borders... (Read on...)

Article, October 2006
"Ramallah Friends School Hit by Denial of Entry Policy" By Paul D. Pierce, Quaker International Affairs Representative - Jerusalem When Renee Bowyer left Ramallah for Jordan at the beginning of October, she thought she would spend a couple of days in Amman, Jordan and return to teaching English at The Friends School in Ramallah the following week. Unfortunately, when she tried to re-enter Israel and renew her three-month visa at the Allenby Bridge in the middle of October, she was denied entry. Her 7th grade students at the Friends School would have to do without their teacher as a result... (Read on...)


Videos:


Occupation 101: Gaza's Realities




Occupation 101: Gaza's Realities




Cease-Fire. Uneasy Truce In Mid-East, 1967/06/13 (1967)




This is footage of Israeli airstrikes against political targets in Gaza. Note the use of guided missles in public places.




Destiny's Child: 24 Hours in Gaza



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