Boycott Bill Maher -- Zionist Apologist Extraordinaire

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdaNCjp1ni0

"The FBI Knocked on My Door!" -- Palestinian Activist --Know Your Rights!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fct4LIODoM

Palestine/Gaza: The Siege -- The Never Before Campaign (2.5 min)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfEmA4tUNVc

"Democratic Party Defends Israeli Attack" -- Stephen Zunes

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http://www.fpif.org/articles/democratic_party_defends_israeli_attack

EXCERPT:

Accusations of Terrorist Ties

The most dangerous accusation by congressional Democratic leaders involves charges that the activists on board and the organizers of the flotilla had ties to terrorism. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation, and trade, called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute American participants in the flotilla. Because the Gaza Strip is currently ruled by Hamas, according to Sherman, any humanitarian aid to the people of that territory is "clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization." Sherman also announced he would be working with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the more than 700 non-U.S. citizens who took part in the flotilla would be permanently barred from ever entering the United States. This would include European parliamentarians and Nobel laureates, as well as leading writers, artists, intellectuals, pacifists, and human rights activists, virtually none of whom is in the least bit sympathetic with Hamas or terrorism.

A series of Democrats in Congress have joined in insisting that the organizers of the flotilla have, in Sherman's words, "clear terrorist ties." Indeed, Frank insists that these groups are "pro-Hamas people" and that, rather than provide aid to the people of the Gaza Strip, they were actually "seeking to land in Gaza to aid and support Hamas." Engel insisted that the organizers of the flotilla have "links to Hamas and reportedly played a role in the attempted Millennium bombing in Los Angeles." Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) insisted that the United States "must stand up for the right of Israel to defend herself against terrorism — which is what Israel did when she blocked the attempt by the Flotilla to forcefully breach the blockade." And Rep. Ackerman claimed that the humanitarian relief effort was "to provoke a confrontation with Israel for the benefit of Hamas and as part of the international effort to delegitimize Israel's existence."

The very idea that pacifist, feminist, Jewish, and Christian organizations like CODEPINK, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the American Friends Service Committee would ally with a violent, misogynist, Islamic group like Hamas — much less any group that engages in terrorism — should be recognized as absurd on face value. When prominent Democrats — including the head of the House subcommittee on terrorism — imply that leading American and Israeli peace groups are linked to terrorism, it is no longer simply heated rhetoric in defense of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, but a dangerous attack on civil liberties.These congressional Democrats also ignore the fact that the Free Gaza campaign is supported by such Israeli groups such as Yesh G'vul, the Coalition of Women for Peace, New Profile, and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, among others. Such organizations and their members were already being subjected to violent attacks by far right-wing groups, some of whom have openly called for the murder of Knesset members who supported the flotilla. By falsely accusing these groups of being part of an effort that supports Hamas and other terrorist groups, these members of Congress appear to be willing to put the lives of Israeli peace and human rights activists at risk.

Reminder: Vigil for Palestine this Saturday June12

Tweet Please join us for a vigil and protest.

No more Israeli apartheid.
No more Israeli war crimes.
End Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine.
End Israel's illegal siege of Gaza.
Equal rights now.

We'll stand in vigil at Westlake Plaza from noon to 2 pm, and some of us will also walk to several locations downtown and call for a BOYCOTT of Israeli goods.

WHEN: Saturday June 12, Noon- 2:00 PM

WHERE: Westlake Plaza, 4th and Pine, downtown Seattle

see you there

Voices of Palestine
Palestine Solidarity Committee

=================================

VoicesOfPalestine.org
http://www.voicesofpalestine.org
"Do you think you have seen it all?" Click here http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/showme.asp?dif=2&alb=aqsaint&title=Al-Aqsa+Intifadah&start_at=407

Hope and Anxiety at Rafah Crossing -- Rami Almeghari writing from Rafah, occupied Gaza Strip

Tweet http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11334.shtml

Jamila Hammouda, a mother of five small children, hopes that she will be reunited with her family in Cairo, Egypt. Because of closure and travel restrictions, her last visit was 15 years ago.

Hammouda, her husband and their children were waiting on the Gaza side of the Rafah terminal crossing with Egypt, where Palestinians in Gaza have queued up after Egyptian authorities reopened the crossing "indefinitely." Egypt's move follows Israel's deadly raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which aimed to bring world attention to and break Israel's 36-month siege on the Gaza Strip.

Hammouda's family was joined by throngs of other travelers from Gaza who gathered at the border gates. Standing at the crossing, they wait for their names to be called by one of the Hamas authorities, with the hope that they will finally be able to ride the bus to the Egyptian side of the terminal.

"For the first time ever, I am hopeful that I will finally see my dear family in Egypt. For the past couple of years, I have been following the required procedures for travel outside of Gaza but all my attempts have failed; each time I was told that I don't have the required travel permit," Hammouda said, tears trickling down her face.

Surrounded by her family and their luggage in a small rest area at the border, Hammouda expressed mixed feelings. "Who said I am traveling? I may or may not travel; I have heard that a large number of travelers have been turned back by the Egyptian authorities. For almost 15 years now I have not had the freedom to visit my family. In the past, we heard about travelers allowed passage on a humanitarian basis. Am I not a humanitarian case?"

Hammouda's case is similar to that of thousands of other Palestinians from Gaza over the past three years. Like Israel, Egypt sealed off the border crossing with Gaza three years ago, preventing free movement of the territory's 1.5 million residents, for whom the terminal has become the only outlet to the outside world.

Also at the rest stop in Rafah City, Hassan Bayouk was pacing anxiously, waiting for his name to be announced by the border authorities. A 45-year-old with a kidney condition, he has been seeking permission to travel to Egypt for medical treatment.

"I have some kidney problems, but I am aware of the fact that given the [previous] crossings closure I wouldn't have been able to go to Cairo for treatment on my own. This time, now that the crossing has been reopened, I do hope I can find my way out of besieged Gaza," Bayouk said.

Ehab, a young man in his 20s, carried a small handbag, waiting to cross the border for some on-the-job training outside of Gaza. He declined to give his full name, fearful that it would jeopardize his chances of traveling.

"Sorry, I cannot give my name but I can say that I am really hopeful to leave Gaza, at least I am relieved to leave the difficult circumstances here, with Israel imposing a total closure for more than three years," he said tersely.

Subjected to a life of few guarantees, those waiting for travel are experiencing a mix of hopefulness and trepidation. Their ability to travel is dependent on the whim of the Egyptian authorities as Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, like their brethren in the West Bank, don't enjoy sovereignty or freedom of movement outside the tiny territory.

According to the Hamas authorities on the Gaza side of the border, only 500 to 600 travelers are being allowed through the border crossing on daily basis. They also state that the same arrangements that existed before Egypt reopened the border last week are still valid, with only students, medical patients and those with residency permits in neighboring Arab countries allowed to cross the terminal.

Ghazi Hammad, the top authority on the Palestinian side of the crossing, told The Electronic Intifada at his office at the Rafah border terminal: "We have no more details, nor explanations about this opening, maybe it will remain open or will be closed suddenly. We do hope that the crossing remains open forever and we have been in contact with the Egyptian authorities. Unfortunately, Gazans with Palestinian passports cannot go through the crossing and this is of concern to us and we do hope that finally all Gazans can move freely the way [they did] before the blockade was enforced."

Hammad added: "If the crossing is to be opened daily, then first of all, we hope that all people can move freely without obstacles. Second, we wish that the coordination between us and the Egyptians becomes smoother. We have previously suffered some restrictions by the Egyptian authorities as these authorities have sometimes prevented some people like members of political parties or even some patients from traveling."

Asked whether the Egyptian move aims to pressure the Hamas-led government in Gaza to shut down hundreds of underground tunnels on the Gaza side of the border, Hammad said that the tunnels are a last resort.

"If the Rafah crossing is opened for commerce and travelers, then we don't need the tunnels because the tunnels are disastrous. We proclaim loudly that we want to work above ground and not underground."

Since 2007, Egypt has opened the border crossing occasionally for short periods of time. In January 2008, when Hamas forces destroyed Rafah's border wall, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza flooded into nearby Egypt to stock up on essential supplies, including cooking gas and fuel, which Israel's blockade has made scarce.

While the Egyptian Foreign Ministry says it will open the crossing indefinitely, Egypt has colluded with Israel in the siege of the Gaza Strip. The closure was imposed after the democratically-elected Hamas party's takeover of the territory amidst factional fighting with the rival Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007. Abbas's term ended in January 2009 and he has remained in power under controversial emergency powers and has repeatedly blocked attempts to finalize a national unity agreement with Hamas, under American and Israeli pressure and with Egyptian support.

Egypt has previously insisted that in order to fully open the Rafah crossing, Hamas needs to meet the conditions of a 2005 American-sponsored agreement, in which the Palestinian Authority would return to power in Gaza. From 2005 to 2007, Palestinian presidential guards and a group of European observers monitored movement at the Rafah terminal. Now Britain and France are calling for the return of those observers, but that would be difficult to achieve without a unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Fatah and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah have demanded a return to the status quo ante under any unification agreement. For its part, Hamas has called for joint border control with Fatah as part of a comprehensive national unity arrangement.

"We want a compromise between us and our brothers in Fatah in order to share administration of the Rafah crossing terminal. First of all, we have to end the [political] division, restore national unity and achieve conciliation, then the world will respect us. We have to work hard in order to restore conciliation," Hammad explained.

After three years of siege, a great deal is at stake with the opening of the Rafah crossing for the average Palestinian from Gaza. While diplomatic efforts to end or at least ease the siege continue behind closed doors, travelers like Jamila Hammouda wait with uncertainty in the hot dusty air of Rafah's terminal. "I cannot say conclusively that I am traveling; I have to wait until I am already on the Egyptian side of the border [to know]," she said.

The Price Being Paid for BP's CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE Enabled by Our Gov't! Short Video

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJLGV46S8Qw

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/dispatch-from-the-gulf-oil-spill-damage-getting-worse-before-it-gets-better.php?campaign=daily_nl

Israel Right to Self-Defense -- Sameh Habeeb

Tweet http://www.paltelegraph.com/

EXCERPT:

Israeli self-defense

The legal dictionary of Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill
(1981-2005 by) defines self-defense as,” self-defense n. the use of
reasonable force to protect oneself or members of the family from
bodily harm from the attack of an aggressor, if the defender has
reason to believe he/she/they is/are in danger. Self-defense is a
common defense by a person accused of assault, battery, or homicide.
The force used in self-defense may be sufficient for protection from
apparent harm (not just an empty verbal threat) or to halt any danger
from attack, but cannot be an excuse to continue the attack or use
excessive force.”

You only have to look at the last six decades. Before its
establishment; Israel ethnically cleansed more than 800,000
Palestinians. More than 530 villages were viciously destroyed before
it even existed. Wars then were launched against Syria, Egypt, Lebanon
and Jordan. Attacks and military operations of Israel in the name of
self defense reached Tunisia, Iraq, Algeria and Morocco. Add to that,
a hundred or more operations that took place across Asia, Africa,
Europe and North America.

From 1967 to 2008 more than 800.000 Palestinians were imprisoned by
Israel.

From 29/9/200 to 31/12/2008 more than 5901 Palestinians were killed.
The same period witnessed up to 40,000 injured people. On the other
side, around 1000 Israeli were killed. There is a huge and vast gap
between the numbers. Additionally, 1440 Palestinians were killed in
Gaza. The ratio is around 8 Palestinians killed for each Israeli.

Rockets Issue and Self-defense

The official website of the Israeli Foreign Affairs ministry states
that 1,750 rockets and 1,528 mortar bombs fired from the Gaza Strip
struck southern Israel in 2008. This is understandably shocking for
anyone who reads this. The term rocket or mortar or missile induces
fear in any ordinary onlooker. Israel uses such statistics and numbers
to deflect the attention of the international mainstream media and
those who consume it. If we suppose Israel is right about this, then
why don’t we see Israel giving more details about these rockets? Why
does Israel not show the pictures of the victims of these rockets? Why
don’t we see the damaged cities, town, and village?

Clearly these rockets are ineffective and useless. According to the
BBC, since 2001, when the rockets were first fired, more than 8,600
have hit southern Israel, nearly 6,000 of them since Israel withdrew
from Gaza in August 2005. The rockets have killed 28 people and
injured hundreds more.

This is 28 people killed and hundreds injured too many. But note that
there is a huge gap between the number of victims and the number of
rockets. If this leads us to any conclusion, it must be that these
rockets are primitive, inexact and ineffective. The rockets are just
another scapegoat that Israel uses to justify its ongoing attacks
against Palestinian civilians.

Some Palestinian factions have now stopped firing these rockets as
Hamas did, from June to December 2009. What happened? A full- scale
war was launched in late 2009 that took the lives of more than 1440
Palestinians, mostly civilians. The arithmetic is like this: 28
Israelis killed by rocket attacks in nine years while 1440
Palestinians were killed in only 3 weeks in the last war on Gaza.
There is no way to compare the two sides. The self defense argument
deployed by Israel should be renamed its policy of aggression. Self
defense empowers victims to use sufficient power to defend themselves.
But from the Israeli government we only see excessive force used
against civilians.

By Sameh A. Habeeb

The Palestine Telegraph Newspaper

İsraeli soldiers killing Furkan 19 years (The Freedom Flotilla)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlElXOJV4CA

The crimes I saw on the Mavi Marmara -- Lubna Masarwa

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http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/the-crimes-i-saw-on-the-mavi-marmara/

EXCERPT:

We were transferred to the upper deck. We were searched; our hands were tied, and we were forced to sit or kneel on the deck as a military helicopter hovered within meters above our heads. Heavily-armed soldiers with guns and knives strapped to their arms and legs stood guard over us with dogs. They were standing around us with the blood of their victims on their boots, joking and making lewd sexual suggestions to each other about the female prisoners. Then Israeli personell came and strutted around the ship. We were held this way for hours. I was held here until 1:40am on 1 June 2010.

As soon as the Israeli occupation forces learned that I was a Palestinian Israeli citizen, I was treated more harshly and isolated from the rest of the other imprisoned passengers. I was taken to a prison in Ashkelon where I was held in isolation and subjected to humiliations such as strip searches four times a day. The next day we were brought to court, and I was held in a small metal box inside the police car for eight hours with my hands and legs shackled. We were subjected to various accusations, from attacking soldiers to carrying weapons. The judge gave the police permission to extend our detention for another eight days. After international pressure forced the Israeli authorities to release all the foreign prisoners, all the Palestinian citizens of Israel were taken to court again. This time, the judge ruled that we would be subject house arrest and would be forbidden to leave the country for 45 days.

As an occupier and a colonizer, Israel depends on the principle of “divide and conquer” in order to maintain its control. It is especially threatened by people like the Palestinian delegation from 1948 (what is now referred to as Israel) who sailed to Gaza on the Mavi Marmara, because we defy Israel’s attempt to divide us as Palestinians. By struggling with our sisters and brothers under the siege, we also send the message that we are one people and our struggle is one struggle. Israel is threatened by solidarity.

That Israel should murder civilians in international waters is not strange. It is a direct continuation of its policy of targeting civilians with lethal force and deadly policies such as the siege of Gaza, and Israeli policies of occupation and apartheid.

Israel feels entitled to besiege, to kill and to attack civilians in international water. This results from the silence of the world that makes Israel believe it has the right to do so.

This is the time to break the silence and to take action. To say “enough is enough” for Israel. Israel’s impunity must end. Israeli war criminals, such as the ones who committed piracy and murder on the Mavi Marmara and their superiors, must be held accountable for their crimes in international courts.

"They Were Kicking My Wounds and Strapping Me Up" - 3 min. Flotilla Testimony

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZWmWZluknY

from Aletho News

"When Did Resistance Become A Dirty Word?" -- by Robin Yassin-Kassab

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http://pulsemedia.org/2010/06/06/when-did-resistance-become-a-dirty-word

EXCERPT:

What the Western political class and its media demand of the Arabs and Muslims is acceptance of the unacceptable status quo in Israel-Palestine. To resist the status quo is to be troublesome, destabilising and irrationally violent. Resistance arises from the inadequacies of a culture and religion given to antisemitism and hysteria. In order to develop, these backward folk must give resistance up.

For the Lebanese, this means that they must forget the brutal 22-year occupation of their country and the 1982 siege of Beirut as well as the 2006 assault on the country’s civilian infrastructure. They must forget the endless chain of massacres perpetrated by Zionists and their allies on Lebanese territory. They must smile when Israel violates their air space on a daily basis and threatens to send them “back to the stone age” on a weekly basis. They must disarm and label as terrorist Hizbullah, the principled defender of their country.

Syria must smile at the illegal occupation and annexation of the Golan Heights and the theft of its essential water supplies. It must repress the refugees from the Golan and the half million Palestinian refugees and their political organisations. It must not buy or build weaponry that might give it minimum protection from Zionist terrorism. It must grin stupidly when Israel chooses to bomb its territory.

The Palestinians must be modern and democratic. They must do this by fighting the winner of democratic elections and by supporting an unelected and corrupt bunch of collaborators.

As for Western sympathisers with the Palestinian cause, they must preface their criticisms of Israel with such statements as “Of course, Israel has a right to exist in security,” or “Of course we don’t support Hamas,” or, in the case of the passengers on the Rachel Corrie (whose courage and commitment I salute), “We will not resist.”

It’s time we stopped playing this game. To recognise Israel’s ‘right’ to exist in security is to deny Palestine’s right to exist in security. No state which occupies other states’ territories has a right to security. Did Hitler’s Germany have a right to security once it had invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland? And apartheid states don’t have a right to exist at all. There’s nothing anti-Semitic about this, just as there was nothing anti-white or anti-Afrikaaner in arguing that apartheid South Africa didn’t have a right to exist. A state established by massive ethnic cleansing and perpetuated by occupation and repeated massacres is not a normal state like any other. Israel will earn its right to exist when it allows the refugees to return home and when Jews, Muslims and Christians enjoy equal rights.

"God Bless Helen Thomas" -- Roger Tucker (Political Theatrics Blog)

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As everyone knows, Helen Thomas, the doyenne of the Washington Press Corps, has gone into retirement after making some heretical remarks about Israel and Israelis. The current wikipedia entry reads in part as follows:

“On May 27, 2010, outside a White House Jewish heritage event, Rabbi David Nesenoff asked if Thomas had any comments on Israel. Thomas replied, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine… Remember, these people are occupied, and it’s their land.” She was then asked where the Israelis should go, to which she replied: “they should go home” to “Poland, Germany,… America and everywhere else.” Thomas subsequently issued an apology on her personal web site: “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

She was perhaps the last representative of a proud tradition of American journalism, of calling it like you see it and damn the torpedoes – in a word, of telling the truth. Presidents have either trusted or feared her, depending on their own proclivities for truth telling, hardly a hallmark of politicians of whatever rank. There she always was, up front and center due to her rank as America’s premier representative of the press, ready to ask that one piercing question directed at whatever cover-up, hypocrisy or skullduggery the DC suits were up to at the moment. The most recent example was her pointed question to President Obama, asking President Obama to name all the countries in the Middle East that have nuclear weapons, which was avoided by the President, who claimed to not want to “speculate”. Thomas claims that knowledge of Israeli nukes is very public in DC and Obama’s answer shows a lack of credibility. She explains the importance of this question for U.S. policy in the region. Finally, she confides that she has not been called on by the President since that day, but that if she does, she will ask him whether or not he has found any more information about nukes in the Middle East since their last encounter.

In preparation for my bar-mitzvah I attended Hebrew School at a place called Temple Emeth in Brookline, MA. Emeth is Hebrew for truth, and I was young enough, 11-12, to be curious what that meant. What I mostly discovered was an ancient cult dedicated to telling old wives tales meant to frighten and cajole its adherents into becoming and remaining loyal members of the tribe. The “truth” indeed. But I do remember that some of the old texts frequently mentioned something called “righteousness,” which was somehow supposed to be the bedrock of the whole thing. Of course, no one actually believed in God. The “enlightened” Jews of Europe threw out that retro concept generations ago. Their new faith was Zionism, which can be summed up with the words, “God does not exist, but he gave us the Land.” In replacing the old faith with the new, that old notion of “righteousness” conveniently disappeared – the baby got thrown out with the bathwater. What did remain was the actual faith of the Pharisees going back to biblical times, the worship of the Golden Calf, the belief in and absolute devotion to money and power.

She has seen it all, and if there’s anyone who knows what the truth is, it is Helen Thomas. She saw the pressure and treachery applied by the Zionist mafia that led to the birth of Israel as an American protectorate in the Middle East. She saw her country that she so loved fall prey to a ruthless fifth column that has turned America into an obedient puppet of what a French diplomat once called “that shitty little state.” She watched as the Chicago Jewish political mafia picked out and groomed a nobody for the Presidency, the perfect Uncle Tom with a silken tongue who would smoothly carry out Massa’s orders

Who knows what the “rabbi” said to set her off, but whatever it was, she could no longer contain what she (and hundreds of millions of others who have not been duped or seduced by the Zionist) have felt all along, so she said what is so obvious – a bunch of genocidal settler-colonialist Eastern European fascists have no business being in Palestine in any other capacity than as tourists and should just get the hell out.

God bless Helen Thomas.

Devastation: You Can Smell The Oil From A Helicopter And Birds Are Frying!

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"Victimhood Is Not An Excuse for Israeli Injustice" -- Jonathan Cook

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Jonathan Cook

The National

June 09. 2010

Why are Israelis so indignant at the international outrage that has greeted their country’s lethal attack last week on a flotilla of civilian ships taking aid to Gaza?

Israelis have not responded in any of the ways we might have expected. There has been little soul-searching about the morality, let alone legality, of soldiers invading ships in international waters and killing civilians. In the main, Israelis have not been interested in asking tough questions of their political and military leaders about why the incident was handled so badly. And only a few commentators appear concerned about the diplomatic fall-out.

Instead, Israelis are engaged in a Kafkaesque conversation in which the military attack on the civilian ships is characterised as a legitimate “act of self-defence”, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it, and the killing of nine aid activists is transformed into an attempted “lynching of our soldiers” by terrorists.

Benny Begin, a government minister whose famous father, Menachem, became an Israeli prime minister after being what today would be called a terrorist as the leader of the notorious Irgun group, told BBC World TV that the commandos had been viciously assaulted after “arriving almost barefoot”. Ynet, Israel’s most popular news website, meanwhile, reported that the commandos had been “ambushed”.

This strange discourse can only be deciphered if we understand the two apparently contradictory themes that have come to dominate the emotional landscape of Israel. The first is a trenchant belief that Israel exists to realise Jewish power; the second is an equally strong sense that Israel embodies the Jewish people’s collective experience as the eternal victims of history.

Israelis are not entirely unaware of this paradoxical state of mind, sometimes referring to it as the “shooting and crying” syndrome.

It is the reason, for example, that most believe their army is the “most moral in the world”. The “soldier as victim” has been given dramatic form in Gilad Shalit, the “innocent” soldier held by Hamas for the past four years who, when he was captured, was enforcing Israel’s illegal occupation of Gaza.

One commentator in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper summed up the feelings of Israelis brought to the fore by the flotilla episode as the “helplessness of a poor lonely victim, confronting the rage of a lynch mob and frantically realising that these are his last moments”. This “psychosis”, as he called it, is not surprising: it derives from the sanctified place of the Holocaust in the Israeli education system.

The Holocaust’s lesson for most Israelis is not a universal one that might inspire them to oppose racism, or fanatical dictators or the bullying herd mentality that can all too quickly grip nations, or even state-sponsored genocide.

Instead, Israelis have been taught to see in the Holocaust a different message: that the world is plagued by a unique and ineradicable hatred of Jews, and that the only safety for the Jewish people is to be found in the creation of a super-power Jewish state that answers to no one. Put bluntly, Israel’s motto is: only Jewish power can prevent Jewish victimhood.

That is why Israel acquired a nuclear weapon as fast it could, and why it is now marshalling every effort to stop any other state in the region from breaking its nuclear monopoly. It is also why the Israeli programme’s sole whistle-blower, Mordechai Vanunu, is a pariah 24 years after committing his “offence”. Six years on from his release to a form of loose house arrest, his hounding by the authorities – he was jailed again last month for talking to foreigners – has attracted absolutely no interest or sympathy in Israel.

If Mr Vanunu’s continuing abuse highlights Israel’s oppressive desire for Jewish power, Israelis’ self-righteousness about their navy’s attack on the Gaza flotilla reveals the flipside of this pyschosis.

The angry demonstrations sweeping the country against the world’s denunciations; the calls to revoke the citizenship of the Israeli Arab MP on board – or worse, to execute her – for treason; and the local media’s endless recycling of the soldiers’ testimonies of being “bullied” by the activists demonstrate the desperate need of Israelis to justify every injustice or atrocity while clinging to the illusion of victimhood.

The lessons imbibed from this episode – like the lessons Israelis learnt from the Goldstone report last year into the war crimes committed during Israel’s attack on Gaza, or the international criticisms of the massive firepower unleashed on Lebanon before that – are the same: that the world hates us, and that we are alone.

If the confrontation with the activists on the flotilla has proved to Israelis that the unarmed passengers were really terrorists, the world’s refusal to stay quiet has confirmed what Israelis already knew: that, deep down, non-Jews are all really anti-Semites.

Meanwhile, the lesson the rest of us need to draw from the deadly commando raid is that the world can no longer afford to indulge these delusions.

Jonathan Cook is The National’s correspondent in Nazareth and the author of Disappearing Palestine

The One vs The Many - Haneen Zoubi Knesset Member of Paliament in Israel

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Join Us to Banner & Boycott This Thursday, June 10th -- Keep Up the Pressure to End the Siege & Occupation

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Please forward to your list.... BANNER: 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. Denny Street Overpass on I-5 And following bannering, walk or bus to Harvard Exit Theater (807 East Roy at Harvard) to BOYCOTT: 6:15 to 7pm "Blood Relation" (Seattle Int'l Film Festival Movie) Made in Israel http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=41050&FID=166 Let filmgoers know we want real change, not reel change! ================================== Amin Odeh VoicesofPalestine.org "Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone"

Tristan Anderson Returns to U.S. -- Unarmed Man Shot in Face by Israeli Army

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Latest solidarity activist targeted by Israeli Army, Emily Henochowicz, May 31

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012054676_apusisraelamericanwounded.html

With the world's attention again aroused by tensions in the Middle East, Tristan Anderson quietly came home from Israel last week in a wheelchair and without the sight in his right eye, the use of the left side of his body or his short-term memory.

The San Francisco Bay area photojournalist was seriously injured when he was struck in the forehead with a tear gas canister while covering a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the West Bank. After undergoing 15 months of surgeries and rehabilitation for traumatic brain injuries, he returned to his parents' house in Grass Valley on Wednesday, two days after nine activists were killed during a raid by Israeli naval commandos on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

"He is horrified, like any of us are," said Anderson's partner, Gabrielle Silverman, who was steps away from him when he was hurt and is acting as his spokeswoman because his ability to communicate remains compromised. "Tristan was just very upset and worried about the dead and injured. All of this really hits very close to home for us"

The reality is, though, that Anderson, 39, who used to photograph protests for the left wing website indymedia.us, already had enough of his own worries: chronic headaches, an inability to walk or to complete simple tasks. In the week before he left Tel Aviv, accompanied by Silverman, his parents and a medical escort, he started developing seizures.

"The injury still dominates all aspects of life," SIlverman said, noting that Anderson still requires full-time physical and occupational therapy.

Anderson, of Oakland, was critically injured during a Palestinian protest over Israel's West Bank separation barrier in the village of Naalin in March 2009. The Israeli military said at the time that some of the 400 protesters threw rocks at troops who responded with riot gear.

Silverman said she, Anderson and four other people "were relaxing and hanging out away from main body of the crowd" at the tail end of the protest when he was hit by the canister. He did not see who fired it.

In January, Israel's Justice Ministry decided that no indictments would be filed against police in the case because an investigation determined there was no criminal intent to harm Anderson. His family has filed an appeal on his behalf.

The family also has filed a civil lawsuit against the Israeli military to cover his medical care and lost wages, Silverman said.

"Tristan, at times, is very insightful and really the best person to ask, and sometimes it's very difficult to get anything coherent out of him," she said. "If you ever tried to work with a television blaring nearby, this is a little how I imagine life is for him all the time."

Silverman said it is too soon to know whether Anderson would use his experience to speak out against Israel's military blockade of Gaza and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

"We feel like he is ready to re-enter the world again," she said. "It's not going to be easy for any of us, specially for Tristan, but it is going to be a life and we are going to try to make a go of it. Some things are going to have to happen in baby steps.

Stand With Us -- A Classy Act!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mqf5caEh00

Nazi, Nazi, Nazi!” - this done as a group chant
“You’re all being identified, every last one of you…we will find out where you live. We’re going to make your lives difficult..we will disrupt your families…”, all on above video.
“You’re not a Jew! you gave up your Jewishness!”
“Witches in black! Bitches in black!” (hard to tell which one it was, or whether they alternated the chant)
“You fucking…!”
“Bin Laden loves you! you support terrorism!”
“Is there a coroner in the house? Women in Black are dead!”
“Is there a doctor in the house? Women in Black are sick!”
“End the occupation of our sidewalk.”
“Remember 9/11, they were dancing in the streets.”
“Asshole!”
“Anti-Semite!”
“Bigot!”
“Sharmuta!” this was chanted for a while (means “slut” or “whore” in Arabic)
“Commit suicide!”
“Anti-women, anti-gay, why support Hamas today!”

An 88-year-old woman reported being told, “You’re halfway in your grave already’.
“Jihad!” chanted repeatedly at Muslim peace activists.

They also had signs that read, “JVP cons the world”, etc.

One woman waved the end of the large stick of her Israeli flag in a very threatening manner, as if to hit one of us (it happened to me several times as i walked by her), directed especially to those of us who carried signs identifying ourselves as Jews.

FROM MUZZLEWATCH: http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2010/06/07/stand-with-us-members-shout-pigs-for-palestine-threaten-activists-in-san-francisco/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Muzzlewatch+%28MuzzleWatch%29

Ending the Siege -- Hold the Celebration?

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http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/07/israel-navy-kills-4-palestinian-militants-off-gaza/

EXCERPT:

Egypt’s measures up to now constitute an incremental change rather than a radically different approach to the border closure. It appeared aimed, in part, at defusing some of the anger in the Arab and Muslim world over Egypt’s role in maintaining the blockade.

For the time being, Egypt is only allowing a very restricted group of Gazans to leave the territory, including medical patients, students attending foreign universities and those with residency abroad. In keeping the passenger terminal in the border town of Rafah open continually, rather than sporadically as before, Egypt is helping reduce the backlog of Gazans with the required permits waiting to get out.

Egypt and Israel have maintained the blockade since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, with Israel describing it as an essential measure to stop weapons from reaching Hamas militants, who have hit southern Israel with rockets and in past years killed hundreds in suicide bombings.

The Egyptian security official said, however, that the closure has failed to achieve its goals, including the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006. Israeli airstrikes and Egyptian security efforts have also yet to choke off a bustling smuggling trade that uses hundreds of tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, though the official said Egypt is determined to shut them down.

Under the restrictions at the Rafah crossing point, Egypt is letting in some humanitarian aid but will not transfer large cargo shipments or construction material because the terminal is designed primarily as a crossing for travelers, said the Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Hamas welcomed the Egyptian move but said it hoped all Gazans would soon be able to travel freely without restrictions.

“We have said since the first day that the blockade on Gaza will end and we can see that on the ground right now, and we voice our hope that all other restrictions will be removed,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

"Egypt says siege 'failure;' opens Rafah indefinitely" -- Maan News

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http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=290326

By Ma'an News |

June 07, 2010

Gaza - Ma'an - An Egyptian security official declared the blockade on Gaza a failure and announced its borders indefinitely open, the Associated Press reported on Monday, as Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad said he would "stand by every decision" Turkey made to lift the siege.

Egypt opened its crossing with Gaza shortly after a deadly Israeli attack on an aid fleet en route to the coastal enclave, which left at least nine activists dead.

Palestinian officials called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to open the sole border indefinitely, as Gaza residents remained stranded on either side of the terminal, awaiting Cairo's green light to travel.

Cairo's decision comes after US Vice President Joe Biden met with Mubarak in Sharm Ash-Sheikh to discuss ways to partially lift the blockade, as humanitarian groups in Gaza point to increased food insecurity, the destruction of the fishing and farming industry as a result of the siege, and the un-repaired damage caused to homes and vital infrastructure by Israel nearly 16 months ago.

Palestinian crossing liaison chief Salam Barakeh told Ma'an that both sides were coordinating to ensure the Rafah crossing remained open "until further notice," as Gaza residents stranded on either side transit for seventh consecutive day.

Israel imposed a blockade on the coastal enclave shortly after Hamas' takeover in 2007, which saw Egypt further restrict Palestinian movement, operating the Rafah crossing on an ad hoc basis, largely under US pressure as brief openings saw floods of Gaza residents breach the border in search of basic needs in winter 2008.

The acknowledgment of the siege's failure follow global condemnation of Israel's flotilla attack, with governments calling on Israel to end its blockade.

Turkey's premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that his government was prepared to supply the Gaza Strip with "everything it needs," on Monday as he met with Assad in Istanbul, Israeli media reported.

"Palestine and Gaza are a giant prison and this situation cannot continue," Erdogan told reporters during a joint news conference. "We can no longer remain silent and we will not be silent anymore regarding anything having to do with Gaza," the premier was quoted as saying by Israeli daily Haaretz.

Assad said Syria would “support every decision and every step that Turkey requests in order to break the blockade, including support of an international inquiry,” referring to Israel’s rejection of an international probe into the flotilla attack, proposed by the UN.

"We are not just people who talks and issue declarations of condemnation. We are in favor of actions, and we declare that we will," Assad said.

In Defense of Helen Thomas -- Paul Jay

Tweet Helen Thomas has been forced to quit and is under attack (although many of the comments in NYTimes are pretty good so far -- http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/white-house-blasts-reporters-remarks/?scp=3&sq=thomas&st=cse)

BUT PAUL JAY'S GREAT ARTICLE IS HERE:

http://communities.canada.com/shareit/blogs/reality/archive/2010/06/07/in-defense-of-helen-thomas.aspx

EXCERPT:

Thomas was not talking about Jews that lived in the region from Roman times. If she had been given more of a chance to explain herself, rather than the 30-second sound bite traveling around the web, she might have made it clear that she also wasn't referring to the thousands of Jews who lived in Palestine prior to 1948.

What Thomas clearly did say she was talking about was Jews that had come from Germany, Poland and America. Now it's likely that most of the Jewish refugees that came to Palestine from Europe just after the War, did so not because they "belong to the land of Israel", but due to fact that the American, Canadian and British governments wouldn't drop their anti-Jewish quotas even after the horrors of the genocide were fully exposed (let's talk about some real anti-Semites).

I don't know of any opinion polls taken at the time, but if those refugees had a real choice to go to some impoverished potentially war-filled land in the Middle East or join the Jewish community in New York, I know what I would have chosen.

The American Zionist organizations at the time did not fight for a more open immigration policy to allow Jews into America; they lobbied furiously for the Jewish refugees to go to Palestine as part of a move towards the founding of a Jewish state.

As is well known, this state was created in the process of expelling thousands of Palestinians from their lands, people who had nothing to do with the European genocide against the Jews. You cannot say the same about the Anglo-American countries that for much of the '30s were quite happy to equip Hitler with cars and machinery. Quite content to shut their mouths as Hitler began an ethnic cleansing that would end in barbaric genocide.

As far as the American Jews that went to live in Israel after 1948, it's difficult to believe they went to escape persecution, as many of the Jews from other places that went to Israel, in fact did. So, one can understand a certain specific resentment against American Jews who decided that it was ok, at someone else's expense, to work out their identity crisis and pick up some free airline tickets to boot.

Lanny Davis statement continued, "If she had asked all blacks to go back to Africa, what would White House Correspondents Association position be as to whether she deserved White House press room credentials -- much less a privileged honorary seat?"

Our defender of illegal coups knows very well this is not analogous. The obvious comparison is asking all European Americans to "get the hell out", and leave the land to its rightful owners, Native Americans. One could argue Mexican Americans might have an argument to stay in certain parts of the country.

The European migration to America isn't such a stretch if one thinks about it. Colonialism makes use of people fleeing religious persecution to populate their new possession . . .

At any rate, we all know what's going on here. The hyper-pro-Israel lobby, in both parties, hasn't much liked the fact that Helen Thomas dares to speak up and question that most sacred of topics, and right from the front row of the White House Press Gallery. Heck, she had the gall to ask President Obama about Israel's "secret" nuclear weapons. She even asked the current White House spokesman why the US had not condemned the Israeli attacks on the aid flotilla. No wonder they want her the hell out.

Latuff -- The Arab Response So Far

Tweet http://latuff2.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1tefdb

Roger Waters - "[Palestine] We Shall Overcome -- End the Blockade of Gaza"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMMHepfYVc

Roger's message:

"Over the new year 2009-2010, an international group of 1500 men and women from 42 nations went to Egypt to join a Freedom March to Gaza. They did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison. To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes, hospitals, schools, and other public buildings, they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed. The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the US tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza. How lame is that? And how predictable! I live in the USA and during this time Dec 25th 2009-Jan 3rd 2010 I saw no reference to Gaza or the Freedom March or the multi national protesters gathered there. Anyway I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of " We shall overcome". It seems appropriate.

Roger Waters

Many thanks to G.E Smith: lead guitar and Thor Jonsson, drum programming and whatever. Thanks guys!!!

PS. 3rd June 2010

And now piracy!!!!!!

David Schermerhorn Returns to Seattle from Occupied Palestine

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David Schermerhorn arrives at SeaTac to a rousing welcome
by the local Palestine Solidarity community and many local press
people. He was on one of the boats attacked by Israel while
trying to break the siege on Gaza and bring the people there some aid.

9 activists were killed by Israel on the MAVI MARMARA.

Photo credit goes to Linda Frank, Gaza alumni

"You Will Have No Protection" -- The Great Alice Walker on Palestine

Tweet http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=66662&s2=05

June 4, 2010

You will have no protection

-- Medgar Evers to Civil Rights Activists in Mississippi, shortly before he was assassinated, 12 June, 1963

My heart is breaking; but I do not mind.

For one thing, as soon as I wrote those words I was able to weep. Which I had not been able to do since learning of the attack by armed Israeli commandos on defenseless peace activists carrying aid to Gaza who tried to fend them off using chairs and sticks. I am thankful to know what it means to be good; I know that the people of the Freedom Flotilla are/were in some cases, some of the best people on earth. They have not stood silently by and watched the destruction of others, brutally, sustained, without offering themselves, weaponless except for their bodies, to the situation. I am thankful to have a long history of knowing people like this from my earliest years, beginning in my student days of marches and demonstrations: for peace, for non-separation among peoples, for justice for Women, for People of Color, for Cubans, for Animals, for Indians, and for Her, the planet.

I am weeping for the truth of Medgar's statement; so brave and so true. I weep for him gunned down in his carport, not far from where I would eventually live in Mississippi, with a box of t-shirts in his arms that said: "Jim Crow Must Go." Though trained in the United States Military under racist treatment one cringes to imagine, he remained a peaceful soldier in the army of liberation to the end. I weep and will always weep, even through the widest smiles, for the beautiful young wife, Myrlie Evers, he left behind, herself still strong and focused on the truth of struggle; and for their children, who lost their father to a fate they could not possibly, at the time, understand. I don't think any of us could imagine during that particular phase of the struggle for justice, that we risked losing not just our lives, which we were prepared to give, but also our children, who we were not.

Nothing protected Medgar, nor will anything protect any of us; nothing but our love for ourselves and for others whom we recognize unfailingly as also ourselves. Nothing can protect us but our lives. How we have lived them; what battles, with love and compassion our only shield, we have engaged. And yet, the moment of realizing we are truly alone, that in the ultimate crisis of our existence our government is not there for us, is one of shock. Especially if we have had the illusion of a system behind us to which we truly belong. Thankfully I have never had opportunity to have this illusion. And so, every peaceful witnessing, every non-violent confrontation has been a pure offering. I do not regret this at all.

When I was in Cairo last December to support CODEPINK's efforts to carry aid into Gaza I was unfortunately ill with the flu and could not offer very much. I lay in bed in the hotel room and listened to other activists report on what was happening around the city as Egypt refused entry to Gaza to the 1,400 people who had come for the accompanying Freedom march. I heard many distressing things, but only one made me feel, not exactly envy, but something close; it was that the French activists had shown up, en masse, in front of their embassy and that their ambassador had come out to talk to them and to try to make them comfortable as they set up camp outside the building. This small gesture of compassion for his country's activists in a strange land touched me profoundly, as I was touched decades ago when someone in John Kennedy's White House (maybe the cook) sent out cups of hot coffee to our line of freezing student and teacher demonstrators as we tried, with our signs and slogans and songs, to protect a vulnerable neighbor, Cuba.

Where have the Israelis put our friends? I thought about this all night. Those whom they assassinated on the ship and those they injured? Is "my" government capable of insisting on respect for their dead bodies? Can it demand that those who are injured but alive be treated with care? Not only with care, but the tenderness and honor they deserve? If it cannot do this, such a simple, decent thing, of what use is it to the protection and healing of the planet? I heard a spokesman for the United States opine at the United Nations (not an exact quote) that the Freedom Flotilla activists should have gone through other, more proper, channels, not been confrontational with their attempt to bring aid to the distressed. This is almost exactly what college administrators advised half a century ago when students were trying to bring down apartheid in the South and getting bullets, nooses, bombings and burnings for our efforts. I felt embarrassed (to the degree one can permit embarrassment by another) to be even vaguely represented by this man: a useless voice from the far past. One had hoped.

The Israeli spin on the massacre: that the commandos were under attack by the peace activists and that the whole thing was like "a lynching" of the armed attackers, reminds me of a Redd Foxx joke. I loved Redd Foxx, for all his vulgarity. A wife caught her husband in bed with another woman, flagrant, in the act, skin to skin. The husband said, probably through pants of aroused sexual exertion: All right, go ahead and believe your lying eyes! It would be fun, were it not tragic, to compare the various ways the Israeli government and our media will attempt to blame the victims of this unconscionable attack for their own imprisonment, wounds and deaths.

So what to do? Rosa Parks sat down in the front of the bus. Martin Luther King followed her act of courage with many of his own, and using his ringing, compassionate voice he aroused the people of Montgomery, Alabama to commit to a sustained boycott of the bus company; a company that refused to allow people of color to sit in the front of the bus, even if it was empty. It is time for us, en masse, to show up in front of our conscience, and sit down in the front of the only bus we have: our very lives.

What would that look like, be like, today, in this situation between Palestine and Israel? This "impasse" that has dragged on for decades. This "conflict" that would have ended in a week if humanity as a whole had acted in defense of justice everywhere on the globe. Which maybe we are learning! It would look like the granddaughter of Rosa Parks, the grandson of Martin Luther King. It would look like spending our money only where we can spend our lives in peace and happiness; freely sharing whatever we have with our friends.

It would be to support boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to End the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and by this effort begin to soothe the pain and attend the sorrows of a people wrongly treated for generations. This action would also remind Israel that we have seen it lose its way and have called to it, often with love, and we have not been heard. In fact, we have reached out to it only to encounter slander, insult and, too frequently, bodily harm.

Disengage, avoid, and withhold support from whatever abuses, degrades and humiliates humanity.

This we can do. We the people; who ultimately hold all the power. We the people, who must never forget to believe we can win.

We the people.

It has always been about us; as we watch governments come and go. It always will be.

Absolutely Humoungus London Demo for Palestine & Gaza Boats

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr8CgUn2w1Y

Putting Names To Faces -- People Killed by Israel on Gaza Boats -- from Lawrence of Cyberia

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http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/06/putting-names-to-faces.html

A brief introduction to the nine Turkish people shot dead on 31 May 2010, by Israeli soldiers who attacked the Turkish vessel M.V. Mavi Marmara, as it attempted to transport humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip.

1. Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, an electrical engineer from Siirt. Member of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey. Married with 6 children. (link - link - link - link)

2. Ali Haydar Bengi, 39, from Diyarbakir. Graduate of Al-Azhar University, Cairo (Department of Arabic literature). Married with 4 children. (link)

3. Cevdet Kiliçlar, 38, from Kayseri. Originally a journalist, worked for the past year as webmaster for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH). Married to Derya Kiliçlar; two children. See him participating in an IHH African relief project here. See his Flickr photos here. (link - link)

4. Çetin Topçuoglu, 54, from Adana. Former amateur soccer player and taekwondo champion, who coached Turkey's national taekwondo team. Married with one son, Aytek. See Çetin Topçuoglu's Facebook page here. (link - link - link)

His wife, Çigdem Topçuoglu, was also aboard the Mavi Marmara, but survived. (link - link - link)

5. Necdet Yildirim, 32, an IHH aid worker from Malatya. Married with a three-year-old daughter. (link)

6. Fahri Yaldiz, 43, a firefighter who worked for the Municipality of Adiyaman. Married with four children. (link)

7. Cengiz Songür, 47, from Izmir. Married to Nurcan Songür; six daughters, one son. (link - link - link - link)

8. Cengiz Akyüz, 41, from Iskenderun. Married to Nimet Akyüz ; three children - Furkan (14), Beyza (12) and Erva Kardelen (nine). (link - link)

9. Furkan Dogan, 19, student at Kayseri High School; hoped to become a doctor. Son of Dr. Ahmet Dogan, Assoc Prof at Erciyes University. A Turkish-American dual national, with two siblings. (link - link - link)

Amazing Speech by Iraq War Veteran

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B9V2tbnxk0

Hey Elton! by John Greyson -- A Brilliant BDS Call [REPRISE]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HSClZbhB5g

Israel's Gaza Blockade

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"Children of Gaza" -- Why the Siege Must Be Broken

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"Gaza Flotilla Activist Faces Death Threats"

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Haneen Zuabi (right), who represents the Arab nationalist party Balad in the Israeli Knesset, is heckled by Anastassia Michaeli, of the ultra-nationalistic Yisrael Beteinu party (centre). Photograph: David Vaaknin/AP

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/gaza-flotilla-survivor-haneen-zuabi

Haneen Zuabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, has been sworn at by parliamentary colleagues and received death threats since disembarking on Monday.

While other activists from the Gaza aid flotilla have returned home, one is left facing death threats and abuse in Israel. Haneen Zuabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset who was aboard the Mavi Marmara, is now under armed protection after nearly 500 people signed up to a Facebook page calling for her execution.

During a heated parliamentary session yesterday Zuabi was sworn at and then shoved out of the chamber amid shouts of "Go to Gaza, traitor".

The 41-year-old member of the Arab nationalist party Balad has also received death threats by phone and mail. "I am not scared," she said, speaking from her home town of Nazareth in northern Israel. "This is inherent here, it is not something that started yesterday. It is just harder and harsher now."

Zuabi faces growing hostility for taking part in the Gaza aid flotilla, amid a climate of rage at what has been portrayed in Israel as a premeditated attack upon its soldiers by armed activists aboard the boats.

"Israel wanted many deaths to terrorise us and to send a message that no future aid convoys should try to break the siege of Gaza," she told journalists this week.

Zuabi said that naval boats surrounded the Mavi Marmara and fired on it before soldiers abseiled aboard from a helicopter. She went below to the ship's hold and said that, within minutes, two dead passengers were brought inside, followed by two more who had been seriously wounded.

Soldiers refused her requests for medical assistance for the injured passengers, who died shortly after.

Zuabi – known in Israel as an articulate Hebrew speaker – said that soldiers specifically asked her to translatetheir instructions. At first, she refused. "I shouted back, 'Why didn't you ask for my help before you murdered these people?'"

But she realised that such assistance could prevent further violence. "My fear was that miscommunication and panic could lead to more deaths," she said. "Everyone on the boat was terrified, screaming and crying and I felt a sense of responsibility towards them."

Zuabi spent the next few hours conveying the Israeli soldiers' instructions to the passengers as they were searched, while also relaying concern over injured passengers and requests for water, medicine or to pray.

Disembarking with the others at Ashdod port on Monday, Zuabi, who has parliamentary immunity, was interrogated three times before being freed The remaining four Palestinian citizens of Israel aboard the aid boats were released from Ashkelon prison this morning, but remain under house arrest until next week. They have not been charged.

Having survived a situation in which she'd factored a "50% chance to come out alive", Zuabi said she is now facing a different threat, "of racist, illegitimate ideas that have turned violent".

Zuabi was elected last year and, as the first female Knesset member on an Arab party list, views her support for the Free Gaza campaign as part of a wider fight for democracy, race and gender equality in Israel.

She said she cannot yet allow herself to process the violent events aboard the Mavi Marmarawhat happened. "I can't forget the images of the dead, but I haven't cried for them yet. I have to stay strong in this climate of threats against me."

June 1 Seattle Demo -- Free Gaza -- Try Israeli Criminals

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSDGoDWuLtA

We Support Human Rights for Palestine! Try Israeli War Crimes!

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About 17 people came to the 45th Street Overpass to I-5 in Seattle today to bring the case against Israel to the streets. Good responses from many folks on the highway. Someone said truckers and Lexis drivers were the most consistently positive. ;) Though a Zionist wind came up in gusts that tried our strength, we stayed out from 4:30-6pm. We had to stay -- it wasn't even raining!

"I Confess. Just Don't Shoot Me!" -- Lawrence of Cyberia

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http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/06/laugh-all-you-want.html

I Confess. Just Don't Shoot Me.

"Pictures of Weapons Found on the Mavi Marmara Flotilla Ship, 31 May 2010"

From the blog of the IDF Spokesperson (caveat lector).

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"Picture of Weapons Found During a Cursory Search of my Kitchen And Basement, 1 June 2010".

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Gaza Freedom Flotilla Emergency Actions Alert

Tweet join us if you can as we bring our message to the freeway during rush hour.

Protest Israel's ongoing blockade and their assault on humanitarian aid vessels.

WEDNESDAY, June 2
4:30-6:00 pm
Freeway Bannering and vigil, I-5 overpass at 45th St. Meet on west/Wallingford side of the overpass.


UPCOMING ACTIONS

THURSDAY,June 3
Gaza Flotilla Peace Vigil
hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine
Thursday, June 3rd - 11am-1pm
Univ. of Washington - Red Square
Silent Vigil - Please wear black and bring candles

SATURDAY, June 5
Vigil for Gaza
Saturday, June 5th - 12 noon - 2 pm
Westlake Plaza, 4th and Pine in downtown Seattle

Selma Yaqoob -- "Stop Treating Israel with Kid Gloves! Sanctions & Boycott Now"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTmUVY8ZNeY