Statement to Global Community from Free Gaza Campaign

Tweet September 11, 2008
Free Gaza Movement Calls for Wide International Participation to Break the
Siege of Gaza

The Free Gaza Movement calls upon the international community to join the
Movement’s efforts to help end the human suffering created by Israeli’s
strangulation of Gaza.

On August 23, 2008, 44 ordinary people from 17 countries sailed from
Cyprus to Gaza on two small wooden boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS
Liberty. The Free Gaza Movement did what our governments would not do –
take action to defend the health, lives, and dignity of 1.5 million
Palestinians under siege in the Gaza Strip. We proved that Israel cannot
sustain its illegal blockade in the face of widely reported humanitarian
efforts by non-violent activists acting in accordance with international
law. Today we call for a much broader effort; specifically, we are
calling on other members of the international community – governments,
non-governmental organizations, and others dedicated to protecting human
rights – to join us by providing their own ships, humanitarian goods, and
human capital to throw open wide the sea link to Gaza.

Despite its high profile pullout of illegal settlements and military
presence from Gaza in August and September 2005, Israel maintains
“effective control” over the Gaza Strip and therefore remains an occupying
force with certain obligations (1). Among Israel’s most fundamental
obligations as an occupying power is to provide for the health, safety,
and welfare of the Palestinian civilian population. An occupying force has
a duty to ensure the food and medical supplies of the population, as well
as maintain hospitals and other medical services, “to the fullest extent
of the means available to it” (Fourth Geneva Convention, arts. 55, 56).
This includes protecting civilian hospitals, medical personnel, and the
wounded and sick. In addition, a fundamental principle of International
Humanitarian Law, as well as of the domestic laws of civilized nations, is
that collective punishment against a civilian population is forbidden
(Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 33).

Israel has grossly abused its authority as an occupying power, not only
neglecting to provide for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian
population, but instituting policies designed to collectively punish the
Palestinians of Gaza, policies which have created a humanitarian crisis.
From fuel and electricity cuts that hinder the proper functioning of
hospitals to the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid delivery
through Israeli-controlled borders, Israel’s policies towards the Gaza
Strip have turned Gaza into a man-made humanitarian disaster.

When a massive earthquake rocked China and cyclones ravaged Myanmar, the
world responded. Governments and civilians alike rallied to help, as they
did when other recent natural calamities occurred. Yet world governments
have watched a man-made humanitarian catastrophe unfold before our eyes in
Gaza and have remained silent. Karen Koning Abu Zayd, head of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has asserted that "Gaza is on the
threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a
state of abject destitution, with the knowledge, acquiescence and – some
would say – encouragement of the international community."

It’s time to end this silent complicity. On September 22, 2008, the Free
Gaza Movement will once again set sail for Gaza. However, the humanitarian
needs in Gaza are overwhelming, and the continuous operation of our two
small boats cannot even begin to meet those needs. Gazans need medical
supplies and basic life support systems, and hundreds if not thousands
need to leave Gaza for medical care that Israel continues to block. We
have proven that the sea link to Gaza can be viable and should be
available to the Palestinian people. We urge governments,
non-governmental organizations, and any others who are in a position to
alleviate the shameful suffering caused by Israel to provide ships,
materiel, health care professionals, lawyers, and all other forms of
humanitarian aid immediately, and to join us in asserting that the
Palestinian people have a right to access the outside world. The world
cannot stay silent as the Palestinian people are deliberately starved and
humiliated; Palestinians have a right to life with dignity.
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For More Information, Please Contact:
(Brussels) Paul Larudee, Ph.D,+35 799 079 736 / friendsofgaza@gmail.com
(Jerusalem) Huwaida Arraf, Attorney at Law, +972 599 130 426 /
huwaidaa@riseup.net
(USA) Thomas H. Nelson, Attorney at Law, +1 503 709 6397 /
nelson@thnelson.com