Yesterday, organizers from the Gaza Freedom March, Free Gaza Movement, and Code Pink voluntarily made ourselves available for arrest in Rep. Brad Sherman’s offices on Capitol Hill. RT Television covered our attempt to ‘surrender’ ourselves, and activist videos of the action are now up on YouTube.

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on terrorism, has publicly called for the arrest and prosecution of “any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla” under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. According to Rep. Sherman: “[It's] absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete …so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”

Sherman has also stated that he is planning on working with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure all non-U.S. citizens aboard the flotilla would be permanently barred from entering the U.S. This list includes Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, as well as a number of parliamentarians and government officials from Ireland, Britain, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, and Israel.

Sherman isn’t alone. A great number of our elected officials – both ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ – have come out strongly in support of the Israeli massacre of civilian aid and human rights workers aboard the Mavi Marmara.  Nor are these governmental attempts at intimidation limited to the United States. An effort is underway to lobby the Canadian government to designate the Turkish charity IHH as a ‘terrorist group.’ This follows similar campaigns in the U.S. to criminalize charities such as Holyland Trust and LIFE for Relief and Development. Ghassan Elashi and four other aid directors are currently serving a 65 year sentence in U.S. federal prison for “supporting” Hamas in the form of humanitarian aid. Although attempts to prosecute the Michigan-based LIFE for Relief and Development for ‘terrorism’ were ultimately unsuccessful, these and other similar actions by government officials have created a dangerous climate of fear in North America.

Donations to charities with an Islamic or Middle-Eastern focus have significantly faltered because ordinary citizens are frightened their government will prosecute them for ‘aiding terrorism’ – even if that ‘aid’ is simply in the form of food and medicine being given to populations in dire need.

In Israel, these attacks on civil society have gone so far as to try to criminalize Israeli human rights organizations for documenting Israeli governmental abuses in the West Bank and Gaza. These witch hunts are extending even into the Israeli Knesset. Haneen Zoubi, a member of the Knesset and just one of several parliamentarians aboard the Freedom Flotilla, is currently facing an organized campaign to strip her of her citizenship, as well as open death threats, simply for being aboard the Marmara and attempting to deliver aid to besieged Gaza.

Although Congressman Sherman chose not to have us arrested at his office yesterday, he has not retracted his statements. The threat of possible future prosecution looms over all of the passengers and organizers behind the worldwide campaign to overcome the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. This threat is deliberate. Whether we are ever arrested or not, its intent is to frighten people away from any type of activism involving Muslim populations – whether that activism be ‘political’ or even simply humanitarian.

We cannot allow this intimidation to continue. We must not allow it to continue. A generation ago few could have imagined that the U.S. government would openly be arresting people without charge, and imprisoning them indefinitely without trial – often on ‘secret evidence’ that they are not allowed to see, and even when other evidence exists proving their innocence. Yet this is happening. A generation ago no one would have believed that government officials would openly argue in favor of torture, or of a supposed ‘right’ of the President to execute anyone he designates as a ‘terrorist,’ including U.S. citizens, without any judicial oversight or hope for appeal. But it is happening.

If we don’t take a stand, now, and take direct action commensurate with the multiple crises facing our world today – our children may find themselves living in a nation little different from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

After Israeli commandos massacred 9 civilian aid and human rights workers aboard the Marmara, including kicking and executing a Turkish-American teenager while he lay helpless on the ground, MK Zoubi observed that: “Israel had days to plan this military operation. They wanted many deaths to terrorize us and to send a message that no future aid convoys should try to break the siege of Gaza.”

Israel will not be successful. We will return to Gaza. We will sail again and again and again, until the siege is forever shattered and Palestine has free access to the rest of the world.

If our government wants to put us in jail for trying to help people in need, so be it. We won’t be intimidated.

—

Ramzi Kysia is an Arab-American writer and organizer with the Free Gaza Movement

Just after midnight I couldn’t sleep. Went out to get a bite to eat or maybe a glass of wine to help me sleep.

See several CodePink people and others with the Gaza Freedom March, say they are going to the French embassy — they had put out an alert:

“As we are writing this hundreds of French delegates are camped outside the French Embassy, pitching tents and sleeping bags on the sidewalk, chanting ‘Palestine Freedom!’ The French Ambassador and his wife are outside negotiating with the delegates and the police and Egyptian authorities. It is a powerful action and the French invite solidarity and support – come wherever you can! This is a critical situation and the police are surrounding the group. Check it out if you can. We will send out an update when possible.”

Indeed, it was a powerful action. By the time we got there, the protest was lively, but almost all on the sidewalk in front of the embassy, it had been on the street. A while after we got there, a long line of at least 100 government forces with riot gear appeared across the street. They had helmets and shields and clubs.

They came towards us. But it was not to beat us.

It was I think to keep us confined. Not letting the passing drivers see a vibrant protest.

I began talking to the riot police. In my broken Arabic: “Gaza wants to eat.” And then through a French translator: “These people want to get supplies to Gaza. The Egyptian government is stopping them, why?” A commander came by, told the woman who was translating for me to stop talking to them. Of course, he doesn’t want his men to fully appreciate how the Egyptian state appears to be doing the bidding of Israel.

I tried to get him to answer if he really has a government. One of the apparent demands that the Egyptian government on the convoy led by Galloway is that he get permission from Israel.

What does Israel have to do with it?

Egypt has a border with Gaza. If Egypt is a nation state, it should be able to do what it wants with its border. But it is saying that what it does is dependent on Israel. So Egypt is a puppet state, not a nation state.

When the commander went away, most of the soldiers looked dolefully upon me, one pointed to his eye and his heart — after looking in either direction to make sure none of the commanders could see him.

I think a larger opportunity may be here. It’s one thing for a few hundred, or maybe a thousand people from the US and France and such to protest in Cairo. But if Egyptians know what their government is doing and feel safe protesting, will they join us? This is one more reason why the cause of Palestine linked globally to the cause of human freedom, and perhaps how the cause of human freedom is linked to solidarity.

Sharing this, maybe I can sleep for an hour or two.

CODEPINK was at Representative Berman’s office to protest the vote on November 3 (Photos).  36 Representatives voted against the Berman amendment, and 27 voted “present,” which can be read as a vote of no-confidence.

The roll call is here: http://www.opencongress.org/vote/2009/h/838. Ask your Congressperson why.

Rep. Howard Berman Confronted Over Goldstone Report

We went to the camps again today and recorded horrible stories. Visited a health clinic where 3 new mobile clinics donated by Spain ($250K/each) were bombed by an F16 while parked overnight in their compound. The only reason the night guard who had been sitting between the vehicles was not killed was because he had gotten up to get coffee. Drink Gaza Coffee, It Saves Your Life! War crimes abound. Tomorrow visits to the Palestinian Human Rights Center, Palestinian Relief Center, interviews with ambulance and fire engine drivers who were shot while retrieving injured, drama therapy for traumatized children at Shiva Hospital, etc. Friday morning going out with the fisherman and afternoon visit to another camp. Heading to the south on Saturday to see the farms where Israelis have been sniping Palestinians farmers and maybe, if safe, visit the site of the tunnels. Sunday cross back to Egypt and head home on Monday.

Because of the political silence in Israel and the rest of the world many Gazans are feeling very afraid that another assault will come soon. All Gazans want is peace. And the US is the only country that could stop another assault. We have hard and fast work to do ladies. Call your members of Congress.

xo,
G