Tuesday 1 June 2010

End the seige of Gaza! National demonstration!

Assemble 1.30pm Downing Street, London
Saturday 5 June

Called by Stop the War, CND, BMI and Viva Palestina against the attack on the Gaza aid flotilla and the siege of Gaza. Get in touch at info.bhsp@gmail.com for travel info from Brighton.

Lift the blockade now!

Below is a translated and a slightly edited statement posted earlier today (31/05/2010) on the website of Tnua’t Maavak Sozialisti / Harakat Nidal Eshtaraki (Socialist Struggle Movement – the Committee for a Workers’ International in Israel: http://maavak.org.il/maavak/?article=664 ) on the killing of peace protesters by IDF paratroopers early this morning.

Below we provide an initial response from Socialist Struggle Movement in Israel (CWI) following the killing of protesters during the IDF takeover of the international aid convoy, last night. We call on everyone to participate in demonstrations and protests.

It seems that about 10 demonstrators were killed and others wounded, last night (30 May 2010), during the violent raid that the far-right Israeli government initiated against the flotilla which sailed in protest against the siege of Gaza. Similarly to previous protest flotillas, the demonstrators did not risk, in any way whatsoever, the security of the residents of Israel. This time, helicopters, missile boats and commando forces were sent and 200 officials from the immigration authority were waiting for the protesters at the Ashdod port, in an expectation to deporting protesters.

The government cynically shakes-off responsibility for the deaths. But there is no need for a “state commission of inquiry” to understand that the responsibility for the killing sits on the shoulders of the government ministers and top officers. While there is an Israeli media blackout on many details, we are presented by the enlisted press with a simplistic picture, according to which the IDF soldiers were attacked on one of the boats with various ‘objects’. The IDF soldiers should not have been there, to begin with, and, in reality, they were used to for the political goal of preventing protest, which is actually outside the official territory of Israel. There should be an emphatic rejection of the use – which is common in Israel – of the military and other "arms of security" to trample of the right to protest.

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