MAVI MARMARA Survivors Speaking in New York -- Press Release

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Don’t Let Enemies of Freedom Suppress the Truth About
Israel’s Attack on a Humanitarian Aid Ship!

All Out to the House of the Lord Church 415 Atlantic Ave. Thursday June 17, 7 pm

MAVI MARMARA SURVIVORS HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HEARD!

Two weeks ago Israeli naval commandos stormed a Turkish ship loaded with humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. They murdered 9 unarmed passengers. The oldest, Ibrahim Bilgen, was 61. the youngest, Furkan Dogan, a U.S. citizen born in Troy , N.Y., was just 19.
On Thursday, June 17, two eyewitnesses to this horror, U.S. filmmaker Iara Lee and British political organizer Kevin Ovenden, and Ahmet Unsal, a former Member of Turkey’s Parliament, have been invited to tell their views and stories at a public forum at Brooklyn’s historic House of the Lord Church. The meeting is cosponsored by dozens of organizations.

They come with nothing but words. But words of truth strike fear into the hearts of certain hate-filled New York politicians who have voted time and again to turn U.S. taxpayers’ dollars into missiles and bombs for Israel’s war machine.

On June 14, City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Anthony Weiner, Carolyn Mahoney, Charles Rangel and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer gathered in Times Square at the behest of the so-called “Jewish Community Relations Council.” They shamelessly demanded that the State Department investigate the invited speakers for “ties to terrorism.” They want to prevent or delay their entry the United States. This is a clear attempt to not only deny the passengers’ right to speak but to deny the people of the United States the right to hear their words.

The group of politicians who issued this call have supported every act of terror by the Israeli state against the native people of Palestine and its neighbors. They cheered the 2008-9 terror bombing and invasion of Gaza that slaughtered 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. They applauded Israel’s 2006 mass murder of 900 Lebanese civilians. They hail the cruel blockade that denies food, medicine, electricity and sanitation to the people of Gaza and they dare to support the killing and kidnapping of Turkish, U.S., British and Irish citizens who tried to break that blockade.

These political hacks now attack our very right to learn and discuss the issues involved. They seek to pin the label of “terrorist” on any who oppose the vicious and immoral blockade of Gaza and the endless stream of U.S. guns and dollars to Israel’s brutal war machine. And they want to hide the truth about what happened that bloody night on the Mavi Marmara.

We call upon all people who believe in justice and freedom to resist this attack on our rights. Let your elected representative know that you have the right to hear what the courageous survivors of the Mavi Marmara have to say. And let’s pack the House of the Lord Church Thursday night. Let’s answer this vile attempt at intimidation with a powerful mass meeting.

Sponsors include Muslim American Society, International Action Center, National Lawyers Guild-NYC, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, American Muslims For Palestine, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, NYC Labor Against the War, Arab Muslim American Federation, Labor For Palestine, FIST, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Action for a Progressive Pakistan, ANSWER Coalition, Anakbayan, Bayan USA, Creative Nonviolent Resistance against Injustice, Gabriela USA, International League of Peoples Struggle–NY/LOC, Middle East Crisis Response, El Beireh Society, The Indypendent, Socialist Action, International Socialist Organization, Westchester Peoples Action Coalition, American-Iranian Friendship Committee

LET THE TRUTH BE HEARD! Please Forward Wide