[HCCN] Boats headed to Gaza today

Thu Nov 3 01:40:59 UTC 2011

[You may have heard today that there are two boats headed to Gaza. The
following is an account from Turkey from one who was there today, Dr. Mazin
Qumsiyeh.
Some on this list will know Dr. Qumsiyeh from his books, or his lectures in
Maine. Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and
Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He has studied and taught in the
US since 1980 and has previously served on the faculties of the University
of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. Links to his blog appear at the
end of his message. -- JR]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mazin Qumsiyeh <mazin at qumsiyeh.org>
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 13:00:38 -0400
To: Judy Robbins <judy at robbinsandrobbins.com>
Subject: [HumanRights] I am not on the boats to Gaza

 Dear friends and colleagues

This letter was written and rewritten four times as the ups and downs of
the last few days.  When you get it two boats would have left Turkish
waters and I am not on one of them.  I finalize this letter from a boat
returning to port in Turkey.  Tears are dry (of joy at success of our
comrads and sadness for not being with them).  The will is still there and
I promise myself to get to Gaza next time.  The boats now in International
waters are named Saoirse (http://irishshiptogaza.org/  ) and Tahrir (
http://www.tahrir.ca), Irish and Arabic for Liberty and Freedom.  The
Canadian steering committee that invited us to join selected 11 from the 36
slated to go because they were unfairly reduced to that number by the
Turkish harbor master. We are very disappointed that 25 of us were left
behind.  Some of us left behind are trying different ways to catch up and
we may still succeed.  In fact if you do not hear from me in 24 hours it
means most likely I have succeeded to get on a boat. We hope that those who
took the boats do arrive to the besieged strip on the Mediterranean where
1.6 million people are held under and immoral and illegal blockade/siege.  A
small group of us took a small boat to try to meet one of the boats in
waters off the coast but that did not work out (Turkish coast guard and
timing).  But it felt important to try.

  I personally wanted so bad to visit many friends in Gaza some of them I
have not seen in years.  I wanted to visit Hiam and her family.  I last saw
Hiam and her mother 10 years ago when we brought Hiam to CT (she was then
less than 8 years old) to get a prosthetic eye after she was shot
deliberately by an Israeli soldier.  She is one of hundreds of children who
lost their eyes between 2000-2005 (for her story and pictures, see
http://qumsiyeh.org/hiamsstory/).  I wanedt to visit with friends like Dr.
Heidar Eid whom I saw only when he was able to get out of Gaza and I was
able to get out of the occupied West Bank so that we can meet in a faraway
country in Europe. I want to look in the eyes of Gaza children and tell
them that we, the human family, care about them.  We will keep trying. I
figure, not trying would be far harder on all of us.

We arrived at Istanbul at the 88th anniversary of proclamation of Turkey as
a republic in 1923.  Ataturk¹s Turkey evolved quickly into a modern state
at par with other European states. On the news we witness earthquake
destruction in Eastern Turkey and I see a beautiful young girl with casts
on her legs smiling at one point, sad at another and I do not have to
understand the language to understand human tragedy. The damage from this
natural disaster is chillingly similar to the damage of the man-made
disaster in Gaza: collapsed multistory building, burying dead, injured
people.  But Gaza is not allowed to recover.

>From Istanbul to Dalaman and then to a small lovely town where we stayed
until the launch time.  People here are very friendly.  They become even
friendlier (if that is possible) when they hear I am from Filistin.  But
then the whole place reminds me of Filistin (especially northern Palestine
areas of the Galilee).  I take a deep breath and soak the views of Olives,
Citrus, Figs, Almonds, Loquots, mullberies, Jasmine, cactus, old stone
terraces, and old men playing cards or backgammon. The colors are so
bright, the smells so refreshing, the water so abundant.  Smiley
comfortable faces with the wrinkles of the hillsides reflected on the faces
of the old people.  The shops, restaurants and hotels are family run and
the young are playful and energetic.  The evening call to prayer emanates
from the mosque. The bicycles all around are never locked and even our
hotel rooms were left open much of the time.   I feel like I am again
visiting North Palestine where my grandmother is from a place that was also
etched in her face and her memory till the day she died.

Before I proceed any further, I pause to tell you who were most on my mind
in the last four days as we went through the ups and downs and countless
meetings to come to this point.  What was on my mind were victims of the
Israeli apartheid state including these US victims:

1) The 34 sailors killed on the USS Liberty attacked deliberately in
International waters in 1967 (http://www.usslibertyveterans.org/,
http://www.gtr5.com/ ) and the survivors who have later died without ever
seeing justice for the murderers.

2) Rachel Corrie, 23 year old American student killed deliberately by
Israeli bulldozer in Rafah

3) Furkan Dogan, 19 y. o. Turkish American citizen, who was executed at
point blank range on the Mavi Marmara ship (see
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19667 and smuggled
videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT5823U5YLc  and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjEJGw7BcMo )

I thought of their bravery as I watched fellow human beings from 10
countries try and even compete to get on boats (some have been to Gaza
several times and some tried to get to Gaza several times).  Driven only by
belief in our common humanity, I as a Palestinian cannot help but feel a
weight of gratitude for these brave souls. We had lots of glitches in the
past few days here with both bureaucratic and political rollercoaster. I
will spare you the gory details because the ultimate goal is Gaza. Briefly,
we arrived Saturday and were in meetings Sunday when negotiations started s
the boats arrived at docks.  Monday we find that we are unable to
accommodate all passengers per the Turkish authorities (who were not told
our destination).  Monday night we had a meeting till nearly midnight.
Tuesday was a an emotional rollercoaster as those selected were approached
individually to give their passports. Those of us who were not asked knew
then we were not selected. Passport data went to Ankara and further delays.
Wednesday at 11 AM came back green light to go but a little later, we heard
glitches happening and the authorities were at the doc. When the boats
finally left, five of us ³the crazies² raced to our locally chartered boats
to try and meet.  The cruise Wednesday did not succeed and we had to go
back, disappointed.  But we hope that our colleagues on the Tahrir and
Saoirse will not be intercepted by the navy of the apartheid regime that is
enforcing an illegal and immoral siege on Gaza.

We live in an Orwellian world where humanitarian activists are persecuted
and war criminals get wined and dined in five star hotels.  We live in a
world where for seeking membership in a cultural and scientific
organization (UNESCO) and getting it by a democratic vote:

- the organization is punished with losing members withholding dues

- the internet service of 4 million Palestinians under occupation is
targeted by spams and attempts to shut it down (slowed down so far but it
is not clear if the Palestinians will cope with this

- the occupation authority decides to ³punish² the Palestinian population
by building more settlements and by withholding Palestinian tax money (this
is Palestinian money from their taxes due to them).

- the US congress cuts humanitarian aid going to the Palestinian people
(not going to the Palestinian authority or even passing through its hands).

It was hard for me to see why we had to be secretive about a humanitarian
operation like this.  It is hard for me to see why the Turkish authorities
limited us to 11 passengers on each boat.  It is hard for me to see why
activists had hard feelings about each other or why choices were made the
way they were.  I had so many questions left on my mind but for now sadness
and anticipation overwhelms everything.

The human language is so limiting in expressing emotions and feelings on
this day. Words like anticipation, exhilaration, hope, fear, love, are all
rather limiting.  But there is one thing I think is interesting: when I am
in the Galilee, in Al-Walaja, in Aida refugee camp, in an Israeli holding
cell or jail, or attempting to get to Gaza, it is precisely these times in
my life that I feel most alive and most human because I am having ³joyful
participation in the sorrows of this world². Fellow human beings from
Ireland, Canada, USA, Denmark and elsewhere are inspiring and I quickly
became friends with those I did not know before.  They share me these
strong feelings and this makes it even more meaningful. You can see why
Vittorio Arrigoni ended his messages to us with the note ³stay human². May
we all stay most alive and stay most human.

If you want to help, please use all possible communication means (emails,
twitters, facebook, calls) to let all people especially media and
politicians know you support lifting the siege on Gaza and you want our
ships protected from Israeli piracy.  It is long overdue.

Now imagine: http://youtu.be/bvFLKyAGzzI

For a previous adventure of the Canadian boat, see

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/07/01/greece-flotilla.html

November anniversaries

2/11/1917 Britain issued the infamous Balfour declaration promising some
one else¹s country to become a national homeland for a racist Zionist
movement

3/11/1956 Khan Yunis massacre by Israeli forces of civilians in Gaza

9/11   International Day of Action Against the wall (coincide with fall of
Berlin wall)

10/11/1975 UN General Assembly resolution condemning Zionism as a form of
racism

13/11/1974 PLO Chairman Address UN General Assembly

15/11/1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence

22/11/1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 "Emphasizing the
inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war" and "achieving a
just settlement of the refugee problem"

29/11/1947 UN GA 181 recommending partition

29/11 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
inaugurated by the UN GA

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Join us in Palestine in December  http://www.palestinejn.org

and the Global March to Jerusalem on March 30 www.globalmarchtojerusalem.org

autonomous North American GMJ group is at www.gmj-na.org

And on April 15, http://www.welcometopalestine.info/ and
http://www.BienvenuePalestine.com <http://www.bienvenuepalestine.com/>**

http://www.qumsiyeh.org
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