WBAI-in-Exile – ON DEMAND
Special Report on Gaza 21 with Cynthia McKinney & Mairead Maguire
04 July 2009

This is Cynthia McKinney and I am calling once again from Ramle prison. I am now known as Israeli prisoner #88794. I am joined by Theresa McDermott who is going to offer up a musical piece for us. And I have Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire who will offer some of her thoughts and views. And we will let Kathy Sheetz round us up with our contribution today.

I would like to begin by saying thank you to the people all over the world who have demonstrated their support in spontaneous demonstrations in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., all over Europe. We even found out today that there was a demonstration in support of what we were attempting to do and asking the Israelis to release us all the way in Haiti. And then tomorrow the Palestinians in Nablus are planning to have a demonstration in our support.

I would also just like to say that the women in our cellblock are absolutely phenomenal. We’ve got 33 women in total from Africa and Asia and they have treated us like royalty.

The last thing I’d like to say before passing the telephone over to Theresa from Scotland is that the King of Bahrain sent a jet to collect his five nationals.

The Foreign Ministry of Ireland has called for the release of their two nationals.

I am told that members of parliament have introduced resolutions in the British Parliament condemning the Israeli action.

Where is the voice of the United States government on this issue?

We love you. We love your support. Here is Theresa McDermott, our representative from Scotland.

Houston Palestine Film Festival –April 2009

via Dignity Action Movement

4 July 2009
VIVA PALESTINA! The Chicago Network to Send a U.S. Aid Convoy to Gaza

On to Rafah.

And so it begins. By Sunday, the largest grassroots material aid campaign for Palestine in US history will be on the ground in Cairo, organizing supplies and transportation for the run to to Gaza. Viva Palestina Chicago would like to thank each and every one of you who contributed to this extraordinary organizing effort in the past two months. Your participation and support has been crucial in making this happen. Please tuned for updates as the Convoy heads out.

Viva Palestine Email Alert
3rd July 2009
Viva Palestina to lead largest US convoy into Gaza

British anti-war MP George Galloway is to fly out on Saturday 4th July, American independence day, from JFK airport in New York with the first of a group of hundreds of US citizens who are to form the largest ever aid convoy to head into Gaza.

They will be heading off a month to the day from President Obama’s signal speech in Cairo promising a new, more egalitarian US engagement with the Muslim world and a change in policy over Palestine and the Middle East from the disastrous eight years of the Bush administration.

Continue reading →

Saturday, 04 July 2009 09:45
Written by Free Gaza Team

Adie Mormech, one of over 21 human rights workers and crew taken prisoner on Tuesday 30th June when their boat was forcibly boarded by the Israeli navy, has spoken by mobile phone from his prison cell at Givon jail, Ramle, near Tel Aviv.

Amongst the other prisoners from the Free Gaza Movement boat, Spirit of Humanity, are Nobel Peace prize winner, Mairead Maguire, and former US Congresswoman, Cythnia McKinney. A message from McKinney on 2nd July condemned Israel for its “illegal” action in “dismantl[ing] our navigation equipment” and confiscating both the ship and its cargo of medical aid, childrens’ toys and olive trees.

McKinney went on to say that “State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama.”

The Free Gaza campaign succeeded in entering Gaza by sea on several occasions in 2008, carrying humanitarian aid, medical personnel, journalists and human rights workers. However, later attempts have been met with aggression by the Israeli navy, with one boat, the Dignity, having to seek refuge and repairs in Lebanon after being rammed three times by an Israeli warship.

In a brief interview with Andy Bowman of Manchester’s Mule newspaper (http//www.themule.info), Mr Mormech gave the following account:

[Read the interview]