June 1, 2010

In the early hours of Monday, May 31, the Israeli military special forces attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a convoy of 7 ships carrying humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, Palestine. The Flotilla came under fire by Israeli navy forces in international waters more than 150km (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza. By attacking the Flotilla in international waters, the Israeli government has actually committed a clear act of piracy and has proved itself more and more to be an illegal outlaw state.

Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) joins peace-loving people around the world in condemning this attack as the latest act of Israeli brutality and criminality against Palestinians. According to the Globe and Mail, as many as 19 international human rights activists were killed in this vicious aggression. The group of over 700 activists from around the world was attempting to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, who have been suffering under a brutal Israeli blockade for nearly four years.

According to the Globe and Mail, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning for those killed in the attack, and called the incident a result of years of “built up aggression”. Also, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, said “This is a historic day… a day of freedom… a turning point in the battle to end the siege of Gaza.” This latest attack is a continuation of suppression of the Palestinian people by the racist Israeli regime. For more than 60 years, Palestinian people have faced the illegal Israeli occupation of their land and a campaign of genocide carried out by the racist Israeli state. The most recent attempt to break the Palestinian people has been the siege and blockade of Gaza which began in 2006, cutting off the people of Gaza from food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is the latest effort by human rights activists to break the siege on Gaza. Participants in the Freedom Flotilla included politicians and peace and human rights activists from Europe and North America, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire.

The attack on the Freedom Flotilla has already been met with international condemnation and protest. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered to protest the attack in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada; in major US cities including Washington DC, Los Angeles and New York, USA; in London, England, Amman, Jordan, Sarajevo, Bosnia; Thessaloniki, Greece and Karachi, Pakistan and hundreds more cities. Many governments around the world have also expressed their anger and concern about this inhuman and illegal military action. The Government of Cuba, in a statement, concluded, “ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its most energetic condemnation of this devious and criminal attack on the part of the Israeli government and calls on the international community and peace-loving peoples to demand the immediate lifting by the Israeli authorities of the illegal, ruthless and genocidal blockade of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”

MAWO calls on all peace and human loving people to continue the protests against this massacre and the ongoing blockade of Gaza. We will not be intimidated by this latest Israeli attack, and must continue our protests to demand an immediate end to the Israeli siege on Gaza!

SELF-DETERMINATION FOR PALESTINE
END THE SIEGE OF GAZA!

Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO)
www.mawovancouver.org