eddamanga - Edda Manga on Ship to Gaza Sweden and Freedom Flotilla (this blog will have texts in English, Swedish and Spanish)

Solidarity with the democratic movement in Israel

There are many courageous groups working against the occupation and for a democratic future in Israel, they are under attack. As for the Palestinians, our message to you is: You are not alone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMEGuJe1dtY

2011-04-12 @ 12:03:59 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Israeliska kvinnor mot ockupationen

Här är delar av en artikel jag skrev på Feministiskt Perspektiv om kvinnoorganisationer som arbetar för fred och mot ockupationen.

På den just avslutade utställningen på armémuseet Breaking the Silence köpte jag häftet med kvinnliga soldaters vittnesmål Breaking the Silence. Womens Soldiers’ Testimonies (2009) som samlar nära hundra olika berättelser av erfarenheter dessa kvinnor gjorde under sin militärtjänstgöring på ockuperat område. De vittnar om en plågsam verklighet där kvinnliga soldater kompenserar för könsojämlikheten inom militären genom att visa sig tuffa, förödmjuka och slå till palestinier. Vittnesmålen inriktar sig på systemets grundläggande våld, hur en situation av total dominans uttrycker sig i vardagen, snarare än att fokusera på de mer extrema våldshandlingarna eller dödandet. Mycket handlar om kränkningar och förödmjukelser och de flesta refererar till saker vittnen sett andra utföra snarare än egna övergrepp. Ex-soldaterna förebrår sig ofta sin passivitet inför uppenbara brott mot palestiniernas mänskliga rättigheter och de som försökte göra motstånd berättar om utfrysning och isolering som svar. Många berättar att kränkningarna och våldet mot palestinierna snabbt blev normaliserade och att det var först efter fullgjord tjänstgöring som de började reflektera över vad de varit med om. En Sergeant som tjänstgjorde vid Mevo Dolan berättar att hon kom på sig själv vid en minneshögtid för Holokausten med att tänka ”hallå, dessa saker gjordes mot oss”. Jämfört med dödandet framstod det vardagliga våldet som oviktigt men lämnade ändå en känsla av obehag. En Sergeant som tjänstgjorde vid gränskontrollen vid Erez crossing i Gaza berättar om soldater som tog påsar med falafel från palestiniernas packning: ”det är både trakasseri och förödmjukelse. Om han tog med sig en falafel klockan fem på morgonen vad det därför att han ville äta den klockan tio, inte sant?” Hon berättade också om gränspatrullmän som satte det i system att förstöra plastpåsarna i vilka palestinierna packade sina saker så att de inte kunde använda dem igen: ”Det kanske inte låter som ett stort övergrepp, men jag vet inte, jag tycker det är hemskt och det tyckte jag då också”. Många av vittnen noterar att just gränspatrullmännen var speciellt grymma i sin behandling av palestinierna. En sergeant som tjänstgjorde i Hebron berättar ”de kom hit för att visa vem som bestämmer: först av allt gå ner på knä när du talar till mig. Kanske inte alla, men ja, det var så det var (…) för dem var det fråga om att tämja, utbilda, jag vet inte, vad du vill kalla det.

Detta grundläggande våld, som är ockupationens förutsättning är ständigt närvarande och kan när som helst bryta ut och få unga människor att handla på ett sätt som de inte känner igen hos sig själva. En löjtnant från Hebron berättar:

- En dag går du över gränsen i Jerusalem, du osäkrar ditt vapen och det är allt, det är över. Och ingen vill höra om det, ingen frågar dig ens. Det är ok. Det är Territorierna. Alla vet att någonting händer i Territorierna, men det är Territorierna. Så du låter det vara och säger till dig själv, ok, det var i Territorierna. En annan värld, andra regler, andra sätt.

Breaking the Silence är en av flera israeliska organisationer som arbetar mot ockupationens våld och dess destruktiva effekter för palestinier och för det israeliska samhället. Organisationer som är kontroversiella i Israel och som skulle drabbas av förslaget – som just passerat första instansen i Knesset – på att göra verksamhet som anses vara till skada för Israel olaglig för israeler.

Kvinnoorganisationer mot ockupation

Bland det israeliska ockupationsmotståndet finns det flera framträdande kvinnoorganisationer.

MachsomWatch organiserar israeliska kvinnliga fredsaktivister som är emot ”israelisk ockupation av territorierna och det systematiska förtrycket av den palestinska nationen”. De arbetar för att Palestinier ska kunna röra sig fritt inom sitt eget territorium och för att ockupationen, som de menar förstör det palestinska samhället och allvarligt skadar det israeliska, skall upphöra. De använder närvaro vid check points vid domstolsförhandlingar som metod och uppmuntrar också till vapenvägran.

http://www.machsomwatch.org/

Bat Shalom är en organisation som har sitt ursprung i ett möte 1989 i Bryssel mellan israeliska och palestinska fredsaktivister. Den är den israeliska organisationen av ”The Jerusalem Link” där Jerusalem Center for Women organiserar de palestinska kvinnorna. Dessa organisationer delar vissa principer för samexistens av israeler och palestinier. Målet är en rättvis fred.

http://www.batshalom.org/

Women in Black utför tysta demonstrationer under en timma varje fredag i tre olika städer i Israel: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv och Haifa. Kvinnorna bär svarta kläder som ett tecken på sorg över offren på båda sidor, palestinier och israeler. Organisationen startade i Jerusalem 1988 i samband med den första palestinska intifadan. Rörelsen spred sig över hela Israel och det anordnades på över 40 platser när det var som störst. På demonstationerna bar kvinnorna banderoller som kallade på ett slut på ockupationen, de skedde på samma plats och samma tid vecka efter vecka. De hade det som policy att inte skrika emot motdemonstranter. Snart fanns det Women in Black grupper i andra länder som Kanada, USA, Australien och ett flertal europeiska länder till stöd för grupperna i Israel. I Berkeley har gruppen haft en stark närvaro ända sedan 1988. Gulfkriget 1991 innebar ett bakslag för Women in Black på grund av konflikter i fråga om kriget. Endast på fyra platser fortsatte demonstrationerna. Nya Women in Black grupper uppstod i samband med kriget i Jugoslavien 1991som formulerade kvinnligt motstånd mot nationalistiskt våld. En grupp startade i Indien 1992 i samband med förstörelsen av Babri Masjid moskén av hindunationalister. Under Kvinnokonferensen i Beijing 1995 organiserade den indiska gruppen en demonstration som samlade cirka tretusen kvinnor. Women in Black grupper i USA organiserade motstånd mot militärt svar på attackerna 11 september 2001.

http://www.womeninblack.org

Women in Black Women in Black nätverket kommer att hålla sin nästa internationella konferens (XV) i Bogotá Colombia i augusti 15-20 2011.

2011-04-12 @ 11:57:05 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Why did Goldstone change his mind?

Avnery says it was social pressure, in the following analysis. I wonder, how come that his text was published at the same time as the campaign against the Flotilla and for military intervention in Gaza was launched. Is it just a coincidence?

Uri Avnery April 9, 2011

The Gold and the Stone

THERE IS something tragicomic about the persona of Richard Goldstone.

First there was a veritable storm of fury when the original Goldstone report was issued.

What a fiend! A Jew who claims to be a Zionist and an Israel-lover, who publishes the most abominable slanders about against our valiant soldiers, aiding and abetting the worst anti-Semites around the world! The very prototype of a self-hating Jew! Still worse, a “mosser” – a Jew who turns another Jew over to the evil Goyim, the most detested figure in Jewish folklore.

And now the turnabout. Goldstone, the Jew who has recanted. Goldstone who has publicly confessed that he was wrong all along. That the Israeli army committed no crimes in the 2009-2010 “Cast Lead” Gaza operation, On the contrary, while the Israeli army has conducted honest and meticulous investigations into all the allegations, Hamas has not investigated any of the horrendous crimes it has committed.

Goldstone, the Man of Stone, has become Goldstone, the Man of Gold. A man of conscience! A man to be admired!

It was, of course, Binyamin Netanyahu who had the final word. Goldstone’s recantation, he summarized, has confirmed once again that the IDF is the Most Moral Army in the World.

MY HEART bleeds for Judge Goldstone. From the beginning he was placed in an impossible situation.

The UN commission which appointed him to head the inquiry into the allegations of war crimes committed during the operation was acting on a seemingly logical but actually foolish calculation. Appointing to the job a good Jew, and an avowed Zionist to boot, would disarm, it was thought, any allegation of anti-Israeli bias.

Goldstone and his colleagues undoubtedly did an honest and conscientious job. They sifted the evidence laid before them and arrived at reasonable conclusions on that basis. However, almost all the evidence came from Palestinian and UN sources. The commission could not interrogate the officers and soldiers of the Israeli forces because our government, in a typical and almost routine act of folly, refused to cooperate.

Why? The basic assumption is that all the world is out to get us, not because of anything we do, but because we are Jews. We know we are right, and we know that they are out to prove us wrong. So why cooperate with these bloody anti-Semites and Jewish self-haters?

Today, almost all influential Israelis concede that this was a stupid attitude. But there is no guarantee that our leaders will behave any differently next time, especially since the army is dead set against allowing any soldiers to appear before a non-Israeli forum, or, for that matter, before an Israeli non-military forum either.

BACK TO poor Goldstone. After the publication of his commission’s report, his life became hell.

The full fury of the Jewish ghetto against traitors from its midst was turned on him. Jews objected to his attending his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. His friends turned away from him, He was ostracized by all the people he valued.

So he searched his soul and found that he had been wrong all along. His findings were one-sided. He would have found differently if he had heard the Israeli side of the story. The Israeli army has conducted honest investigations into the allegations, while the barbarous Hamas has not conducted any investigations at all into their obvious war crimes.

So when was Goldstone wrong? The first or the second time?

The answer is, alas, that he was wrong both times.

THE VERY term “war crimes” is problematic. War itself is a crime, never to be justified unless it is the only way to prevent a bigger crime – as with the war against Adolf Hitler, and now – on an incomparably smaller scale – against Muammar Qaddafi.

The idea of war crimes arose after the horrendous atrocities of the 30-year war, which devastated central Europe. The idea was that it is impossible to prevent brutal actions if they are needed to win a war, but that such actions are illegitimate if they are not needed for this purpose. The principle is not moral, but practical. Killing prisoners and civilians is a war crime, because it serves no effective military purpose, since both sides can do it. So is the wanton destruction of property.

In Israel this principle was embodied in the landmark judgment by Binyamin Halevy after the 1956 Kafr Qasim massacre of innocent farmers, men, women and children. The Judge ruled that a “black flag” flies over “manifestly” illegal orders – orders which even a simple person can see are illegal, without talking to a lawyer. Since then, obeying such orders has been a crime under Israeli law.

THE REAL question about Cast Lead is not whether individual soldiers did commit such crimes. They sure did – any army is composed of all types of human beings, decent youngsters with a moral conscience besides sadists, imbeciles and others suffering from moral insanity. In a war you give all of them arms and a license to kill, and the results can be foreseen. That is one reason why “war is hell”.

The problem with Lebanon War II and Cast Lead is that the basic approach – the same in both cases – makes war crimes as good as inevitable. The planners were no monsters – they just did their job. They superimposed two facts one on the other. The result was inevitable.

One consideration was the requirement to avoid casualties on our side. We have a people’s army, composed of conscripts from all walks of life (like the US army in Vietnam but not in Afghanistan.) Our public opinion judges wars according to the number of (our) soldiers killed and wounded. So the directive to the military planners is: do everything possible so the number of our casualties will be next to nil.

The other fact is the total disregard for the humanity of the other side. Years and years of the occupation have created an army for whom Palestinians, and Arabs in general, are mere objects. Not human enemies, not even human monsters, just objects.

These two mental attitudes lead necessarily to a strategic and tactical doctrine which dictates the application of lethal force to anyone and anything that can possibly menace soldiers advancing in enemy territory – liquidating them in front of the soldiers preferably from afar by artillery and air power.

When the opposition is a resistance movement operating in a densely populated area, the results can almost be calculated mathematically. In Cast Lead, at least 350 Palestinian civilians, among them hundreds of women and children, were killed, together with about 750 enemy fighters. On the Israeli side: altogether 5 (five!) Israeli soldiers were killed by enemy fire (some six more by “friendly fire”).

This result did not contradict the undeclared political aim of the operation. It was to pressure the Gaza Strip population into overthrowing the Hamas government. This result, of course, was not achieved. Rather the opposite.

The logic – and the balance of casualties - of Lebanon War II were about the same, with added huge material destruction of civilian targets.

FOLLOWING THE Goldstone report, our army did indeed conduct quite extensive investigations into individual incidents. The number is impressive, the results are not. Some 150 or so cases were investigated, two soldiers were convicted (one for theft), one officer was indicted for the killing – by mistake – of an entire extended family.

This seems to satisfy Goldstone, who this week gratefully accepted an invitation from the Israeli Minister of the Interior – perhaps the most rabid racist in the entire government, in which racists abound – to visit Israel. (When the conversation was leaked, Goldstone cancelled the matter and stated that the report would not be withdrawn.)

On the other side, Goldstone is aflame with indignation against Hamas, for launching rockets and mortar shells at civilians in Israel and conducting no investigations at all. Isn’t it rather ridiculous: using the same standards for one of the five mightiest armies in the world and a band of irregular and poorly equipped resistance fighters (alias terrorists).?

Terrorism is the weapon of the weak. (“Give me tanks and airplanes, and I promise I won’t plant bombs’” a Palestinian once said.) Since the entire military strategy of Hamas is terrorizing Israeli communities along the border in order to persuade Israel to put an end to the occupation (and, in the case of Gaza, to the ongoing blockade), Goldstone’s indignation seems a bit surprising.

Altogether, Goldstone has now paved the way for another Cast Lead operation which will be far worse.

I expect , however, that he can now pray in any synagogue he chooses.

2011-04-11 @ 14:06:50 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Porqué no intervienen militarmente las Naciones Unidas en Gaza?

A pesar de la manera tendeciosa en que se ha contado en la prensa establecida como las fuerzas israelíes han "respondido" a ataques por parte de palestinos en Gaza en las últimas semanas hay que recordar que según el derecho internacional los actos de venganza, máxime cuando se perpetran contra la población civil, están prohibidos. Dada la desproporción de fuerzas y la situación de dominación en que se hallan los palestinos (quienes estando ocupados están en su derecho a resistir, más no atacando a la población civil del estado ocupante), se hace superfluo hacer las cronologías de los diversos círculos de violencia para buscar culpables. Sí este indígena o aquél asesinó o dió muerte a aquel u otro colonizador durante la conquista y colonización del Nuevo Mundo será siempre una violencia secundaria en relación a la violencia misma de la colonización y ocupación de los territorios indígenas.

Sin embargo, es interesante recordar las microcronologías de la violencia, sobretodo comparadas con las explicaciones oficiales de los hechos:

Desde el primero de abril Gaza a sufrido un recrudecimiento de violencia por parte de Israel. El primero de abrill fue asesinado un miembro de la resistencia de edad de 24 años. El segundo de abril otros tres miembros del grupo fueron asesinados. El cinco fue asesinado un palestino en el norte de Gaza quien según los reportes no hacía parte de ningún grupo armado. El seis los israelíes bombardearon por tres veces Gaza hiriendo a cuatro personas, entre ellas una mujer encinta y un niño. En la tarde de este mismo día una manifestación que reunió cientos de niños en Gaza pidieron a la comunidad internacional protección contra los ataques israelíes. En la noche los israelíes bombardearon varias zonas de Gaza hierendo a una persona. El jueves en la mañana el grupo de resistencia que sufrió cuatro pérdidas lanzaron misiles que alcanzaron a un bus escolar hiriendo a dos personas. Ese mismo día las fuerzas israelíes bombardearon Gaza matando a cinco personas e hiriendo a cuarenta. En la noche los grupos de resistencia palestinos acordaron un cese de fuego para tratar de prevenir la escalada de violencia. Israel ignoró este gesto y siguió bombardeando, matando aún mas personas. Las fuerzas israelíes mataron en total a 14 personas ese día, e hirieron docenas muchos de ellos civiles desarmados.

Porqué es que las Naciones Unidas no escucha a los niños palestinos que piden protección contra los ataques aéreos de un poder militar ante el cual se encuentran indefensos?

Es que las bandas armadas de clanes beduinos y organizaciones islamistas al oriente de Libia son más "civiles" y mas desprotegidas que ellos?

2011-04-10 @ 21:15:46 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Internal resistance

A group of Israeli citizens have decided to take action against the spiral of violence between the IDF and Palestinian groups. They denounce a "liquidation" by the IDF and organize a manifestation against a futrure military attack that have been discussed lately in Israeli media.

Last Friday, the IDF carried out a "liquidation" in the Gaza Strip, and immediately the alert level was raised in our region for fear of a Palestinian retaliation leading to escalation.

On Friday, April 8, 2011, at 2:30 PM, we will hold a protest vigil at the Yad Mordechai Junction, and call for:

No "Cast Lead 2"!
Yes to dialogue!
A life for them = A life for us

We, residents of the area, see a close connection between the suffering of our neighbors due to the ongoing siege and military attacks, and our own suffering.

We call upon the Government of Israel to stop the deterioration towards another senseless cycle of violence, to put an end to the mutual bloodshed and offer residents of this region a different option:

Dialogue, negotiations, and a striving for a long-term agreement, which will make possible a which will enable us and our neighbors to live a quiet life in dignity.

The option of brute force has brought us to a dead end!
It's time for a political initiative!

2011-04-07 @ 14:47:57 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Preparing the Freedom Flotilla 2.0

May is approaching and with it the new departure of the Freedom Flotilla. According to Haaretz the armed forces in Israel are preparing for an intervention, the government has held some meetings and a diplomatic campaign have been trying to press divers governments and the United Nations to stop the citizens that intend to defy the inhuman and illegal blockade imposed to the inhabitants of Gaza.

Haaretz advises to let us pass with the argument that only a military confrontation can give the Flotilla the effect that we want to achieve (delegitimize Israel). If Israel let us pass we will be on the coast of Gaza just for some hours and will leave again without arousing any particular interest from the media. Compared to the revolutions going on in the North of Africa, some activists hating Israel will not be perceived as news. On the contrary, to open fire to unarmed civilians protesting will immediately be associated to the characteristic ways of dictatorship. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/let-the-aid-flotillas-sail-to-gaza-1.354356

We can agree on that. Only that we don’t hate Israel, nor is its destruction the purpose of our action. On the contrary, we love Israel and our objective with breaking the siege is not only an act of solidarity towards Palestinians but also with those who believe and work for a democratic order in Israel, an order where protests are not silenced with the use of force and people defending human rights are not suppressed as if they were terrorists. We are citizens of the world claiming as our brothers ans sisters in the North of Africa: freedom, justice, democracy.

2011-04-06 @ 09:36:54 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Preparativos para la próxima Flotilla

Se acerca mayo el próximo viaje de la Flotilla de la libertad. Según Haaretz las fuerzas armadas israelíes se preparan para "diferentes escenarios", el gabinete de gobierno ha tenido varias reuniones sobre el asunto y una campaña diplomática trata de presionar a los estados y a las Naciones Unidas para detener a los ciudadanos que se unen con el objetivo de romper el bloquo inhumano y brutal al que someten a los habitantes de Gaza.

Haaretz les aconseja dejarnos pasar. Solamente una confrontación militar puede dar el resultado que los activistas de la Flotilla desean. Si nos dejan pasar estaremos allí algunas horas y luego nos marcharemos sin haber logrado despertar ningún interés por parte de la prensa. Comparado con las revoluciones del norte de Africa, unos cuantos activistas que odian a Israel no van a ser noticia. En cambio, abrir fuego contra civiles desarmados que protestan, será inmediatamente asociado con el actuar propio de viejos dictadores. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/let-the-aid-flotillas-sail-to-gaza-1.354356

Estamos de acuerdo, salvo que no odiamos a Israel, ni nuestro principal objetivo es desprestigiarlo. Al contrario, muchos de nosotros amamos a Israel y nuestro objetivo con romper el bloqueo no solamente es un acto de solidaridad con los palestinos, sino también con aquellos que creen en un orden democrático en Israel, donde las protestas no se callan a la fuerza y los movimientos de derechos humanos no son reprimidos como si fueran terroristas. Somos ciudadanos del mundo que reclamamos comos nuestros hermanos africanos: libertad, justicia, democracia.

2011-04-06 @ 09:18:20 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Barco a Gaza Colombia

El interés por formar una organización para enviar representación colombiana a la próxima flotilla de la libertad ha sido grande. Por eso decidimos convocar a una reunión para discutir su conformación el 7 de octubre a las diez de la mañana en el auditorio Camilo Torres de la facultad de derecho de la Universidad Nacional.

Las tensiones entre la posición de por un lado los movimientos sociales y los órganos dedicados a los derechos humanos y por otro lado los representantes estatales de Estados Unidos y sus aliados se repite en Colombia: de un lado Alvaro Úribe juega su papel de marioneta en la comisión del secretario general de la ONU, de otro lado la voluntad de las organizaciones estudiantiles, sindicales y de organizaciones de derechos humanos en Colombia.

2010-10-02 @ 15:10:07 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Vi får tillbaka Sofia!

Efter koalitionens möte och presskonferens i Stockholm de föregående dagarna har vi fått uppgifter om att vi kommer få tillbaka Sofia, eller Fri Medelhav, som våra grekiska kamrater kallar henne. Nyheten om att vi snart skulle åka till Israel för att hämta henne verkar ha haft omedelbar effekt!

Annonsen att Freedom Flotilla 2 är på gång har också skapat nyheter världen över. Det är fantastiskt.

Tigran skrev förresten tydligen en artikel om Uribe i Aftonbladet igår, jag har dock inte sett den.

2010-08-06 @ 20:33:08 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Mina berättelser om vad som hände på Mavi Marmara

http://www.gp.se/kulturnoje/1.419506-anfallet-mot-mavi-marmara

hd.se/kultur/2010/07/31/dagarna-pa-mavi-marmara/

2010-08-03 @ 15:04:42 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

The UN probe

I was astonished to hear that Alvar Uribe has been appointed to the probe of the Israeli attack on the Freedom flotilla. Uribe is an ally to Israel, he has sustained deep cooperation with the Israel Defence Forces during his presidency and he has even received medals for his friendship with Israel. Uribe has himself broked international law, permitting or even ordering military operations on Ecuadorian soil. He started the paramilitary organization Convivir and during all of his office the paramiliraty controled zones increased in the country. Many of the politicians who sat as representatives for his party at Parliament has been proven to have attachments to the paramilitary and during his presidency atrocities unheard of have been commited against humanity, like the transportation of poor people from the suburbs to conflict zones being killed and counted as "good results" in the war against the gerilla. There have been cruel massacres against indian villages, and rutinarily desaparitions and killings of human rights activists, journalists and local politicians.

This appointment is outrageous!

It is said that whatever he has done is legitimated because he won by a big majority democratic elections. And it is perhaps true that a majority of the minority who votes in Colombia voted for him. But I think Colombians would have voted for his friend Pablo Escobar also if the had been given the opportunity. Colombians had then got a president with a much better moral standard.

2010-08-03 @ 15:02:34 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Faith and courage

First today I considered myself strong enough to see the Lara Lee's footage. http://tc.indymedia.org/files/flotilla-footage/index.html That was difficult. Made me cry. I remember the man who said to me at four o'clock that nothing was about to happen, just the morning prayer. The peace and the determination in his face.

I see for the first time how people were praying to their God when the attack started, and that there were a few with peace of heart enough to finnish their prayers before taking their places at the defense. I am not a believer, but that was what I saw, that night in the face of the vigilant outside: superhuman courage and peace of heart.

People here are disgusted by the talk about shahids, martyrs, that was uttered at the burial in Istanbul. Yet it is a human thing to try to make sense of death, especially when it is violent and unjust. Secular as I am, I say that they are my heroes. Armed only with love and faith, meeting the elite commandos of the Israeli army who were playing their usual game: assaulting defenseless people from a distance, disproportionately armed (or armed proportionately to the unjustice of their cause), murdering, sawing fear and terror, lying systematically, fearing the least resistance, using sharp ammunition out of fear to be beaten, out of fear of meeting their own violence on their own bodies, fearing their humanity. It's not only that their cowardice makes them lethal, they try then to compensate it by humiliating their victims. By humiliating us when we sit on our knees wearing handcuffs. And even then they are fearful. Fearful of themselves, I think. They are suspicious of everything, and don't trust anything because they think we are the same as them. That if we could we would do the same things to them, that like everything they say, everyting we say is a lie. But it is not. We have nothing to hide, we don't fear the truth and because of that we don't fear our fate. We can endure their violence and their humiliations and yet keep our humanity.

I can look you straight in your eyes, soldiers. I am not ashamed. You cover your face. And still you cannot stand my look. It is a provocation to you. When I look in your eyes, silently, I am like a mirror. And I see your shame. You know. And you know that I know. Why did you participate in this? Still you can try to be brave, and try to safe your humanity. You are young. You can relearn truth, justice and love.

Look at this film. Try to see. Is this the "enemy" that you have constructed in your head? Try to listen. Civilians, who struggle for an unjustly sieged population, waiting for an attack that shouldn't have taken place. We were not harming you. In fact we are trying to save you from the psychotic world which you inhabit.

2010-06-19 @ 14:51:37 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Miriam

Some women from Lebanon are preparing themselves to go with a ship to Gaza with cancer medicins. The Israeli try to prevent it associating their mission with Hizbollah - who have declared they have nothing to do with it. They state at the United Nations that the reserve for themselves the right to enforce the naval blockade on Gaza. As if it was lawful. They also say that they consider this ship to be different and will be treated differently because it comes from a "enemy state".

Meanwhile in Stockholm warships await the celebration of the wedding of the crown princess tomorrow. I felt uneasy when I saw them, and reacted strongly to the sound of helicopters. Then I noticed that I was talking to myself, reproducing time and again the conversation with the clerk who made me sign the deportation order. I corrected some of my expressions from when we really met and I was very tired, angry and insecure. I was telling her all I really wanted to tell her.

2010-06-18 @ 23:56:08 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Akvatisk demonstration

Det verkar som att blockaden kollapsar. Men jag har fått den här bilden i huvudet om hur folk runt om i världen tar med sig sina båtar och demonstrerar om rätten till de fria haven, hur nästa konvoj skyddas av mängder med båtar av alla storlekar som fredligt demonstrerar att internationellt vatten är inte de laglösa staternas jurisdiktion där de kan upprätta hemliga fängelser och tortera folk, eller kidnappa fredliga aktivister och behandla dem som terrorister, utan det som finns kvar av det gemensamma. Den globala befolkningens gemensamma tillgång.

2010-06-16 @ 11:20:17 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (0) Trackbacks ()

Demonstration in Gothenburg

Somebody has filmed my speech at the demonstration in Gothenburg the day after arrival and translated parts of it. I had just been to the police and was surprised by the way they took it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4hKXVJhs58

2010-06-15 @ 00:14:20 Permalink Allmänt Kommentarer (1) Trackbacks ()