[E-rundbrief] Info 704 - Peace-Boat to Gaza

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 704 - Jeff Halper (Israeli Committee Against House 
Demolitions/ICAHD): An Israeli Jew in Gaza: A Statement. (International 
Peace-Boat-Voyage from Cyprus to Gaza port, start: Aug. 5th, 2008).

Bad Ischl, 6.8.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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AN ISRAELI JEW IN GAZA: A STATEMENT BY JEFF HALPER

Jeff Halper

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

In another few days, I will sail on one of the Free Gaza movement boats
from Cyprus to Gaza. The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an
absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half
Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes,
exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities
of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity.
The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law:
the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations. Our voyage also
exposes Israel's attempt to absolve itself of responsibility for what is
happening in Gaza. Israel's claim that there is no Occupation, or that
the Occupation ended with "disengagement," is patently false. Occupation
is defined in international law as having effective control over a
territory. If Israel intercepts our boats, it is clear that it is the
Occupying Power exercising effective control over Gaza. Nor has the
siege anything to do with "security." Like other elements of the
Occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where Israel has also
besieged cities, towns, villages and whole regions, the siege on Gaza is
fundamentally political. It is intended to isolate the
democratically-elected government of Palestine and break its power to
resist Israeli attempts to impose an apartheid regime over the entire
country.

This is why I, an Israeli Jew, felt compelled to join this voyage to
break the siege. As a person who seeks a just peace with the
Palestinians, who understands (despite what our politicians tell us)
that they are not our enemies but rather people seeking precisely what
we sought and fought for -- national self-determination I cannot stand
idly aside. I can no more passively witness my government's destruction
of another people than I can watch the Occupation destroy the moral
fabric of my own country. To do so would violate my commitment to human
rights, the very essence of prophetic Jewish religion, culture and
morals, without which Israel is no longer Jewish but an empty, if
powerful, Sparta.

Israel has, of course, legitimate security concerns, and Palestinian
attacks against civilian populations in Sderot and other Israeli
communities bordering on Gaza cannot be condoned. Under the Fourth
Geneva Convention, Israel, as an Occupying Power, has the right to
monitor the movement of arms to Gaza as a matter of "immediate military
necessity." As activists committed to resisting the siege non-violently,
I have no objection to the Israeli navy boarding our boats and searching
for weapons. But only that. Because Israel has no right to besiege a
civilian population, it has no legal right to prevent us, private
persons sailing solely in international and Palestinian waters, from
reaching Gaza -- particularly since Israel has declared that it no 
longer occupies it. Once the Israeli navy is convinced we pose no 
security threat, then, we thoroughly expect it to permit us to continue 
our peaceful and lawful journey into Gaza port.

Ordinary people have often played key roles in history, particularly in
situations like this where governments shirk their responsibilities. My
voyage to Gaza is a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people
in their time of suffering, but it also conveys a message to my fellow
citizens.

First, despite what our political leaders say, there is a political
solution to the conflict, there are partners for peace. The very fact
that I, an Israeli Jew, will be welcomed by Palestinian Gazans makes
that very point. My presence in Gaza also affirms that any resolution of
the conflict must include all the peoples of the country, Palestinian
and Israeli alike. I am therefore using whatever credibility my actions
lend me to call on my government to renew genuine peace negotiations
based on the Prisoners Document accepted by all Palestinian factions,
including Hamas. The release of all political prisoners held by Israel,
including Hamas government ministers and parliamentary members, in
return for the repatriation of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, would
dramatically transform the political landscape by providing the trust
and good-will essential to any peace process.

Second, the Palestinians are not our enemies. In fact, I urge my fellow
Israeli Jews to disassociate from the dead-end politics of our failed
political leaders by declaring, in concert with Israeli and Palestinian
peace-makers: We refuse to be enemies. Only that assertion of popular
will can signal our government that we are fed up with being manipulated
by those profiting from the Occupation.

And third, as the infinitely stronger party in the conflict and the only
Occupying Power, we Israelis must accept responsibility for our failed
and oppressive policies. Only we can end the conflict.

In the Israeli conception, Zionism was intended to return to the Jews
control over their own destiny. Do not let us be held hostage to
politicians who endanger the future of our society. Join with us end the
siege of Gaza, and with it the Occupation in its entirety. Let us, the
Israeli and Palestinian peoples, declare to our leaders: we demand a
just and lasting peace in this tortured Holy Land.

(Jeff Halper, the head of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions/ICAHD, was a nominee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. He can 
be reached at jef [at] icahd.org.)

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions/ICAHD: 
www.icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=2&article=502

Free Gaza Movement: www.freegaza.org

Peace-Boat-Diary: https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/gazafriends.

-- 

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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