The Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May 2010 was the Free Gaza Movement’s ninth voyage. The first undertaken in coalition with NGOs and other activist groups, it was ten times bigger than our previous crossings.
Free Gaza activists first sailed in 2008 in response not to Israel’s tightening of the siege in 2007, but to the brutal Israeli military occupation that has closed Gaza’s port to international shipping since 1967. 44 activists from 17 countries took two small wooden fishing boats and did what had not been done for 41 years: they stood up to Israel’s navy and reached the shores of Gaza. The activist movement successfully made four further voyages through the blockade.
Since 1967 the borders, airspace and sea of the Gaza Strip of Palestine have been under the control of the Israeli military. Two-thirds of the people living in the densely-populated strip of land (1.5 million people in 139 square miles) are refugees from historical Palestine, dispossessed in the creation of Israel in 1948. All import and export of goods and produce, all movement of people from the tiny area are governed and limited by the occupier.
From 2007 Israel imposed a collective punishment on the Palestinians of Gaza for not choosing the ‘right’ party in the election. It closed the borders. Trade has been cut off, devastating the economy. Farmers cannot export their fruit, herbs, flowers and other produce. Academics cannot visit the universities in Gaza; Palestinian students cannot travel to take up university places abroad. Medical treatment is limited. Families are separated. Nearly two years after the 2008-09 assault on Gaza, its victims are still living in tents because Israel will not allow reconstruction materials to enter. Even schools and hospitals were attacked and the infrastructure remains in rubble.
Conditions have continued to deteriorate. Israel has declared a border ‘buffer zone’, 300 metres or more deep along the 25-mile length of the strip, which is only four to seven miles wide. A significant proportion of Gazan farmland is now inaccessible as farmers coming into that range are shot, sometimes by remote-controlled machine guns. Fishermen are shot at, abducted and imprisoned and their boats are seized if they venture as little as a couple of miles offshore. Only 81 different items are permitted to enter and books, paper and sports equipment are not on the list. The majority of the population now lives in poverty, forced to be dependent on aid from the UN, itself restricted by the Israeli forces.
Free Gaza operates in an area where sympathisers understandably want to offer aid. However, we are not an aid organisation. There is no natural disaster: the humanitarian crisis is man-made and it is within human power to overturn it. The use for aid may be clear, but delivering it does not address the problem. We focus on solidarity action. We take passengers to Gaza because sailing is a direct action to break the siege. Our friends in Gaza are denied freedom of movement and the right to be self-sufficient. With direct solidarity actions, they can take back those rights.
Activists from the International Solidarity Movement, many of whom travelled on the Free Gaza boats, regularly accompany farmers who risk being shot to gain access to their land. They have sailed with the fishermen who brave the Israeli gunboats. Free Gaza sails to open the port and demand that people are allowed access to the outside world once more. We sail to shame the governments whose inaction directly supports the occupation. We sail to show that the authority which Israel illegitimately takes, exists only if it is respected.
We are committed to sailing until Palestine is free but now we have another incentive: the Israeli massacre of nine activists on the Freedom Flotilla at the end of May this year. We cannot let their deaths be in vain. We will be sailing again this autumn, this time from our home countries, and we need your support. Boats are being bought by the fundraising efforts of Free Gaza groups and partner organisations across Europe, North America and Asia. The boat from Britain will be named Tom Hurndall, after the British solidarity activist who was shot dead by an Israel soldier in Rafah, Gaza in 2003. Look out for information on the launch of the boat at www.freegaza.org.
Alex Harrison, Free Gaza Movement
FRFI 217 October/November 2010
