Hunger strike for Gaza

I'm sorry, Fr. John, but everytime Israel eases up on the Palestinians, Israel is attacked. I hate to see some many people suffering, but the people of Gaza elected Hamas, and shouldn't be surprised at Israel's reaction. I will join you in praying for peace, but I cannot fault the Israelis for protecting themselves.

Here is a recent update from another participant, Australian Donna Mulhearn 30 December 2009:

We’re not heading for the Promised Land, but I do have some sympathy for the ancient Israelites as they struggled to leave Egypt a few thousand years ago.

We don’t require the Red Sea to part, just to be allowed to get on the road to the northern town of Rafah and cross the border into Gaza , but the Pharoah, President Mubarak, and his heavily armed men will not allow us.

The Gaza Freedom March has attracted about 1400 people from around the world to Cairo in a bid to cross the border and break the siege of Gaza , by entering with aid and solidarity. For five months organisers have been negotiating with the Egyptian authorities to allow the entry of the marchers at the Rafah border. The negotiations were positive and amicable. Egypt had already allowed CodePink, the US women’s peace group organising the march, to have seven delegations enter Gaza just this year. But a few days before the scheduled entry, Egyptian authorities announced they would not give permission for his one. By then most participants were already in transit.

We can speculate the many possible reasons for this, but just to give you an idea of the kind of police state Mubarak runs here, this is what Gaza Freedom Marchers have had to contend with:

- Egyptian authorities withdrawing permits from bus drivers so that they could not drive the buses we booked to Rafah for Monday morning.

- Withdrawing a permit to hold an orientation meeting at a Catholic School in Cairo .

- Announcing we are not allowed to meet in groups of more than six people.

- When we tied messages and flowers as a memorial for those killed in Gaza on a busy bridge, police and security forces ripped down the notes and flowers. We when asked “what is the reason?” the reply was: “we don’t need a reason.”

- to avoid the meeting rule organisers booked feluccas (boats) to sail on the Nile River so we could receive briefings in groups of 25. Authorities shut down the boat hire company so we could not even get on the boats.

- Instead we stood on the footpath by the river and held our candlelight vigil, about 400 of us, surrounded by hundreds of riot police.

- Still unable to meet, we decided to gather in the busiest square in Cairo and just started. Police were not amused and asked organisers to stop talking, but the feisty CodePink women just kept going and we were able to do some organising. This was a great outcome and locals were bemused and very supportive.

- Various groups have tried to leave Cairo for the border but have been turned away at checkpoints and had their passports confiscated

- Bus companies have been ordered not to drive any internationals towards the border area.

- As a protest at having their buses cancelled, a French delegation of about 300 have camped outside their embassy for the last 3 days and nights, surrounded by about 1000 Egyptian riot police.

- We occupied the plaza outside the UN offices in Cairo on Monday for five hours and ignored initial orders to disperse, we then were barricaded in by lines of hundreds of police.

- We are under constant surveillance by less-than-subtle security agents who wear dark glasses and talk into their collars or walk-talkies

- We were invited to a demonstration organised by local Egyptian activists to protest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Egypt today. It was an honour to be in solidarity with these brave activists who risk much to be so outspoken. Again we were surrounded by hundreds of armed riot police and security agents.

Despite all this intimidation, participants are still passionately focused on the main issues: ending the illegal siege of Gaza , and lobbying our Governments to take diplomatic action to allow that to happen.

We have a large group of people here currently on a hunger strike, led by 85 year old Holocaust survivor Heddy Epstein.

The Australian contingent went to the Australian Embassy in Cairo today and demanded to present our concerns about the Australian government’s silence on the crisis in Gaza . After some time we were granted a meeting with the Ambassador. She acknowledged that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “utterly tragic” but that the Australian government had no influence on the policies of Egypt or Israel . She warned us about the dangers of entering Gaza and we reminded her of UN head in Gaza Richard Falk’s recent exhortation saying that since the international political community has failed Gaza , it is now time for civil society to step in and act.

And so we are here hoping to do that. There’s a group from the women’s delegation that is lobbying the President’s wife, Suzanne Mubarak, who is the head of a humanitarian organisation, to intervene and allow the international contingent through, considering we are carrying a large amount of humanitarian aid.

We still hope to get to Gaza and will continue to call on the Egyptian government to let us leave Egypt – please Pharaoh let us go, we wish no plagues of locusts to come upon you, only justice and freedom for Gaza, for Palestine and for your people.

Your pilgrim

Donna

PS: We’ve heard positive news tonight about the lobbying of the President’s wife Suzanne Mubarak - more news as it comes to hand. For updates see gazafreedommarch. org

PPS: There’s been a large amount of media coverage of the Gaza Freedom March in Europe, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8433010.stm and see this great summary http://www.truthout .org/1229097 but I suspect there’s not been much coverage in Australia. But Australian author and activist Antony Loewenstein, who is part of the Oz contigent, just did this interview with ABC Radio National http://www.abc. net.au/rn/ breakfast/ stories/2009/ 2782504.htm

PPS: I've never done this before, I don't know how my body will react, but I'll do whatever it takes," 85-year-old Hedy Epstein, Gaza Freedom Marcher, hunger striker, Holocaust survivor.

You have my prayers. You have my love, but I remain non- political. I will pray for peace, but I don't usually get what I want. THY will be done (that works for me). I really wish that you and all the others were safe at home.

Thank you Fr John Dear for being a part of the world to create a non violent reaction to the middle east political situation that almost seems impossible to resolve. I support the actions of the brave few who stand up for the rights of a people who have been so oppressed that most of us who do not live there no nothing really of the suffering of all of these people. I do not take sides as such as I know that what is happening is the policy of a government who has lost its heart for others than its own kind. I know that there are wonderful people in Israel that do not support the actions of their government. I am beginning to believe a statement that I heard recently that the definition of
"Love" is compassion. I hope and pray for a more compassionate world.

I'm sorry also. It does little good to pray for peace when there is no justice and compassion for the people of Gaza. Israel has created the world's largest prison in Gaza. Innocent people are suffering and dying while Israel,Egypt,the United States and the whole world stands by and does nothing. Thank God for Father John,Father Louie Vitale, Heddy Epstein and all the other 1300 people from around the world who are there to bring humanitarian aid, shed light on the terrible situation in Gaza and support the people who are living under worse conditions than the apartheid in South Africa. I'm sure Jesus weeps.

The US and the international community has failed to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1860, which calls for "unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment" or hold Israel accountable for what the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict documented as violations of human rights, international law, war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile Egypt is not allowing GAZA FREEDOM MARCH to proceed to the Rafah border crossing into Gaza,will not release humanitarian aid and is building a 100 foot wall to block any tunnels that are used to smuggle in basic necessities of life.

What would you do if your home was torn down by a bulldozer, you and your family were kicked off your land, you couldn't get to work except by waiting hours at checkpoints? You can't leave Gaza. Your family is separated by the wall. Children sick? wife pregnant? No medicine or medical treatment. No clean water, no food.

To the previous comment:

Israel is attacked because it is involved in a modern colonialist project. If by letting up you mean removing settlements in Gaza, then that is not really letting up, since the settlements there were exchanged with even more in new ones in the West Bank. At its root, the conflict is about one group trying to dispossess the other of its land, and the Palestinians are not going to stop resisting, neither violently nor nonviolently, until Israel 'let's up' on its colonialist land grab.

Both Israel and the Palestinian state (Hamas) are at fault. Neither one is a choir boy.

Neocons try to make Israel out as some kind of sinless martyr when it's quite obviously not, and the progressives try to pretend that Palenstians don't keep trying to murder women and children wholesale because it fits with their political ideology.

It's a truly sad situation. Saudi, Jordan and the rest would love to simply 'get rid of' the Palestinians if they could, as they view Gaza and the West Bank as the world's largest leper colony. What really keeps them from doing this is the simple fact that the Palestinians are too useful a tool to use against the Israelis. The Israelis don't help the matter much either by their actions, obviously.

"100 foot wall to block any tunnels that are used to smuggle in basic necessities of life."
*rolls eyes* Oh! Of course! Because food and medicine is all that goes through the tunnels. No one would EVER consider sending machineguns, ammunition, explosives and rocket parts through, like all the stuff that's already been intercepted before. Oh NO! Of course not! In a related story, I hear that low flying plains from Columbia are bringing in nothing but Cheetos and bottled water to needy families in Southern Texas!

"What would you do if your home was torn down by a bulldozer, you and your family were kicked off your land, you couldn't get to work except by waiting hours at checkpoints? You can't leave Gaza. Your family is separated by the wall. Children sick? wife pregnant? No medicine or medical treatment. No clean water, no food."
- Honest answer: I'd probably be doing what the Palestinians are doing. Another question: your're a lower-middle class Israeli working as a mechanic and your 2 kids just got blasted to pieces by a suicide bomber on a public bus and your home just turned into a hole in the ground by a rocket launched from Gaza, all the while a bunch of protesting foreigners are screaming that it's all your fault anyway. What do you do? My honest answer: Probably what many of the Israelis are doing.

*GASP* you don't think that's the problem do you?

The old adage still holds true: "If you want peace work for justice."

Let justice flow like a river ... but first there is a river of tears ... across the world still now and throughout history there have been countless acts of occupation and acts of solidarity.

We may stand at the foot of the cross and weep, we may walk to the promised land, we may put our bodies on the line ... but whatever we do must be done knowing that it is together as brothers and sisters under the same sun that when one suffers we all suffer.

The international movement is not all gathered in Gaza - we are scattered across the planet and our love and prayers are with everyone on all sides of the border.

Pete the Greek:
Absolutely right....as Gandhi, one of the greatest non-declared Christians who ever lived, stated: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
With the Peace and Love of the Nonviolent Jesus,
Jan

First of all, Thank-you, Father John, for the work you are doing for peace. I think one of the worst results of the ethnic cleansing conducted by the Israelis how it has corrupted Judiasm and Christianity.
The Israelis claim to believe that they have a right to land that they have not lived on for 2,000 years, and which they had every opportunity to return to peacefully, but did not want to because they were merchants and bankers in all the major cities of the world. Then in the late 1800s, they decided they wanted to return. At first, they were just buying land from the Palestinians, but that was not enough for them. During WWI, while Germany and Turkey at war with England, they made a pact with England, promising to loan money to England for their war effort, in exchange for British help in taking Palestine from the Palestinians and establishing a "Jewish Homeland." They wanted to take this land militarily, not by the peaceful means of purchasing the land.
They have managed to convice themselves and others that this land is rightfully theirs, because God gave them this land sometime in the bronze age. Nevermind that they live in the land for some 1800 years before leaving it for places like Corinth, Ephesus, Damascus, Cairo, Rome, Philadelphia, and so forth, to be the merchants of the region.
The tragedy is that they managed to convince many Jewish and Christian religious leaders and followers that is this promise that God may have made some 3800 years ago is more important than the ethical teachings of the two religions. The new ethics is that everything is ethical if it helps the Israelis in their pursuit of owning all the land from the Mediterranian to the Euphrates. This is part of the reason we attacked Iraq. The Tigis and the Euphrates are in Iraq. Look it up in Genesis if you thing I'm wrong.
Somehow, they have managed to convince themselves and us that this new ethic is more inportant than the ethical teachings of the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, God did'nt really mean "thou shall not kill; he meant it is okay to kill so you can take the land. God did not really mean "thou shall not steal;" he meant it is good to steal the land. He did not mean "thou shall not make idols." In the new religion, what God actually meant was that it is okay to make an idol out of the Wailing Wall, and even out of the land itself. And, of course, with all this new religion, the commandment that is most cast aside is the first commandment, "thou shall have no other Gods but me." In the new religion where the land of greater Israel is more important than the ethical teaching of the Old and New Testaments, the God of the Bible has been cast aside for a new God of War, materialism, Holy Lands, and Chosen People.
Thank-you again, Father John, for adhering to the real God of the Bible and for trying to restore Judiasm and Christianity to its orginal foundations.