Israeli blockade of Gaza challenged by Canada’s civil society

Canadians and others demand safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla II

Today prominent Canadians from diverse backgrounds united to demand safe passage for the boat sailing to Gaza (tahrir.ca) this spring as part of the Freedom Flotilla II (freedomflotilla.eu) to challenge the blockade which the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Human Rights Council have called “a crime against humanity.”

Human Rights activist (Independent Jewish Voices & Not in Our Name: Jews Opposing Zionism) Suzanne Weiss offers the following, “I am proud to stand today, as a Jewish holocaust survivor, in solidarity with the Canadian participants in Freedom Flotilla II in its courageous mission to challenge inhuman Israel’s siege of Gaza. We must demand that the Harper government take steps to guarantee the safety of its citizens who are heading to Gaza on a humanitarian obligation.”

James Loney is a Toronto writer and member of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an international violence reduction organization that places teams trained in nonviolence to work in lethal conflict zones. He was kidnapped in 2005 while leading a CPT peace delegation in Baghdad and held for four months. Last month, Loney published a memoir entitled Captivity chronicling his experiences in what is likely the most publicized kidnapping of the Iraq War. Loney states, “When facing injustice, we must choose between the power of violence and the power of nonviolence. Nonviolence leads to a new and transformed social order. The Freedom Flotilla II is nonviolence in action seeking the transformation of the Middle East. We call upon Stephen Harper to support nonviolent change in the Middle East by working to ensure the safe passage of the more than 30 Canadians who will be joining the Freedom Flotilla in late June. One of those Canadians is my friend Harmeet Singh Sooden, whom I was held hostage with for four months in Baghdad. I’m concerned for Harmeet, given what happened on the Mavi Marmara last year.”

Anton Kuerti, renowned classical pianist and human rights activist, states: “I strongly support the attempt by Canadians to send a highly symbolic shipment of medicine and other necessities to the people of Gaza, who have, for so many years, been strangled by Israel’s cruel blockade, making Gaza indistinguishable from a concentration camp. All we hear about from our government is the need to ensure the security of Israel, but there can never be security for anyone in that part of the world as long as the legitimate needs and rights of the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are deliberately ignored. Israel’s arrogance in attacking boats bringing aid to Gaza in international waters can only further inflame the helpless furor of its essentially unarmed neighbour and prolong the debilitating stalemate which has ruined so many lives for so many decades.”

John Greyson, filmmaker, professor and activist who will be among the 32 Canadian delegates on the Tahrir, adds: “I’m getting on the boat because, as a filmmaker, I know how cinema can build bridges between worlds. Cinema can capture the subtleties and contradictions of people’s lives, in ways that illuminate and enlighten, that keep us all in a room together listening and talking to one other. I’m joining the flotilla because artists, like all citizens, have a responsibility to speak out in the face of injustice. I can hopefully use the tools of filmmaking to contribute something meaningful to this global movement to end the Israeli siege of Gaza. I’m getting on the boat because the people of Gaza need cameras, so that they can tell their own stories: their dreams, their realities, what it’s like to live in an open air prison.”

Michael Mandel, Osgoode Law School professor and specialist in international law, explains: “The blockade of Gaza is an act of aggression under international law, as is the continued military and settler occupation of the territory seized in 1967 and the denial for 44 years of the fundamental human rights of the millions of Palestinians living there. The occupation has been condemned by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Security Council and the International Court of Justice. It also clearly constitutes a grave crime in Canada, contrary to the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. I fully support the right of Israel to exist and to defend its legitimate borders within the ample limits of international law, but the blockade of Gaza goes far beyond that and is an integral part of an egregiously illegal occupation that has to end.”

Toronto Quaker and peace trainer Lyn Adamson is Co-Chair of Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and will also be on the Tahrir. She states: “We are extremely concerned about the continuing blockade of Gaza and about its severe impact on the people of Gaza. This blockade is ignored by governments around the world, including our own. We support whole-heartedly the second Freedom Flotilla which seeks to deliver essential aid for the people of Gaza and more importantly to challenge the blockade itself through nonviolent action.”

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize winner (Ireland, 1976), was in Ottawa for the Nobel Women’s Initiative, and commented : “I fully support the call to the Israeli government for safe passage for the Canadian Boat to Gaza. The Canadian boat will join at least ten other boats and another thousand people sailing to Gaza to show the people of Gaza that the world has not forgotten them. I also call on the Egyptian government to allow the Spirit of Rachel Corrie to dock in an Egyptian port for them to deliver the sewage pipe to Gaza.”

David Heap speaks on behalf of the Canadian Boat to Gaza steering committee: “Despite the campaign of intimidation targeting our Freedom Flotilla partners in different countries, and despite the threats of violence by the Israeli government, we refuse to be intimidated. Where our governments have failed the Palestinians of Gaza, civil society must act instead. We will sail to Gaza next month to non-violently challenge this illegal and inhuman blockade. As the captain of one of the boats in last year’s Flotilla replied when hailed and ask to identify their destination: our course is the conscience of humanity. With this in mind, there can be no turning back.”