As we get ready to sail in two weeks, Israel has stepped up the threats, threatening to sue the Canadians who are going, threatening to sue the satellite phone company if it provides us with service, threatening to kill and maim us if we don't stop, then saying, "I told you so...we said we would kill you."
This behavior has got to stop. Israel is behaving like the schoolyard bully whom parents and teachers fear, because his parents are rich and have contributed to the school. It's time for us to put our foot down.
Start calling your members of parliament/congress now. Start writing letters to the editor. Start a civil movement on social networks of outrage against Israel's attacks on civilians. Distribute this statement below and post on your websites.
ANNOUNCEMENT
June 12, 2011
Regarding statements of government officials in Israel (echoed by officials in other countries) about diplomatic initiatives to impede the "Freedom Flotilla II- Stay Human" mission to Gaza, Palestine, we say:
Proper diplomacy does not exclude humanitarian action. Instead of seeking to prevent an international community of concerned citizens from taking nonviolent action in defense of liberty and human rights, diplomacy must pursue such actions and encourage them.
It is, therefore, a provocation to label the humanitarian action taken by movements supporting human rights to sail to Gaza a "provocation."
It is a provocation that ...
Powerful states and international organizations, such as the US, Israel, the EU and the UN, are asking people to be silent and not react to violations of law and the disdain for universal values.International diplomacy is demanding that solidarity action from "people to people" be stopped.
This international peaceful action is threatened with violence, and the powerful of the earth "wash their hands" of the consequences if Israel attacks us.
These powerful entities justify, a priori, the murders, wounding, arrests and torture of unarmed human rights activists that took place one year ago on board all six ships of Freedom Flotilla 1.
We are determined to sail to Gaza, and we will. Our cause is just and our means are transparent. International diplomacy must do what it has refused to do for years, to undertake initiatives that it has turned away from for decades. Instead of condoning threats of repeated violence against unarmed civilians sailing in international waters, the global community must legally sanction the perpetrators of such crimes.
Those who seek to uphold and defend freedom, human rights, and justice must do more than denounce belligerent occupation, man-made humanitarian crises, ethnic cleansing, wanton violence against civilians, and the fierce oppression of social movements.
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