Palestinian Fishing Boats Attacked by Israeli gunboats
For Immediate Release
31 October 2008

At 10:00 am Cyprus time, three Israeli gunboats attacked Palestinian fishing boats in the territorial waters of Gaza. Eleven internationals have accompanied the fishermen on five of the boats. The internationals were from the Free Gaza Movement and had landed on the shores of Gaza on October 29 aboard the SS DIGNITY.

According to David Schermerhorn, one of the internationals on board, “Three naval vessels attacked us with machine gun fire and water cannons. All three boats have machine guns on board, one of them has a huge water cannon. The water from the cannon was so fierce, it blasted a lot of the equipment overboard as well as my GPS locator. At the time of the attack, we were about 9 miles offshore fishing. Several of us got on the radio to the Israeli navy and shouted, “We are human rights watchers. We are unarmed internationals, and we are recording everything you are doing. They completely ignored us and continued menacing all of the boats.”

As David was talking to us, one of the gunboats came back to within 45 meters, shearing the water and making it difficult for the small boat to steer its course.

For More Information, Please Contact:
Greta Berlin (Cyprus) +357 99 081 767 / iristulip@gmail.com
Osama Qashoo (Cyprus) +44 (0)78 3338 1660 / osamaqashoo@gmail.com
Angela Godfrey Goldstein (Jerusalem)  +972 (0)54 736 6393 / angela@icahd.org

Illuminarcy / TheNarcicyst
30 October 2008

Yeah man, when I first heard this track i was really disappointed. Busta Rhymes is a genius to me musically, he is someone who pioneered a style and someone I grew up listening to since the age of 13. LONS was something huge in my life, and the Coming still is one of my favorite albums of all time. I remember first seeing Busta in videos and thinking “wow, now there is man that can express himself FREELY”. I have everything up the Big Bang on CD in my house, and I will probably buy B.O.M.B. ( I Download, but buy albums of artists that I respect. Im a product fiend-ain’t nothing like cd cases and cover art)

But man, you know, the time and effort put into the hook by Ron Browz was really really really really depressing. At a time when our brothers and sisters are dying worldwide, we are subject to so much racism and insanity, I would want or expect a brother of this stature to speak on our people in a way that is intellectual, understanding and of growth. We, as arabs, cannot be misrepresented or slept on anymore. It is our time to be seen as the rich culture that we are (pun intended- I’m taking rich like Babylon, Mesopotamia, ancient civilization, mathematics, the wheel, science, NUMBERS!!!) . I did this specifically as a response and NEVER a diss track. I would not even want to disrespect someone back. The only person that pissed me off here is the producer and some of the content in the verses. The hook is jibberish, it is not even arabic. If you listen closely to what the producer is saying, it is similar to what you use to hear in old Arnie movies where Arabs die every 2 seconds. The misrepresentative forces of Hollywood and in North America have aided in the modern day destruction of the Middle East, and the rise of certain states that are ‘in bed’ with the American military and government complex. I do not blame the author, I blame the teacher. The ignorance towards Arab culture permeates on many levels and this is just an example of it. I remember growing up listening to Redman and one “Pick it up” he says ‘That red dot on your forehead, its not cuz you Arabian’. Arabs don’t have red dots on our foreheads, that is an Indian thing. Hence where I reached the boiling point. After having studied and traced back our history and relearning my ancestry and the origins of who we are, this is something many intellectuals such as Edward Said, Jack Shaheen and many more would not stand for. and our generation shouldn’t either.

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According to Atrios (via), when Senator Barack Obama appears on her show Thursday, MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow will likely challenge him from the left.

Maddow will assist in marketing Obama’s muscular humanitarian interventionist credentials. She will not produce a challenge from the left but will encourage liberal bonding in nauseating bellicosity.

By Ramzi Kysia

GAZA CITY, FREE PALESTINE (29 October 2008) – This morning I walked to the Indian Ocean and made salt in defiance of the British Occupation of India. This morning I marched in Selma, I stood down tanks in Tiananmen Square, and I helped tear down the Berlin Wall. This morning I became a Freedom Rider.

The Freedom Riders of the 21st Century are sailing small boats into the Gaza Strip in open defiance of the Israeli Occupation and blockade. This morning I arrived in Gaza aboard the SS Dignity, part of a Free Gaza Movement delegation of twenty seven doctors, lawyers, teachers, and human rights activists from across the world, including Mairead Maguire – the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

When I close my eyes, I still hear the crash of ocean waves, I still feel the warm sun on my face, and I still taste salt from the sea spray. When I close my eyes, I can still see the Israeli warship that tried to intimidate us when we reached the twenty-mile line outside Gaza, and I can still see a thousand cheering people crowding around our ship when we refused to be intimidated and finally reached port in Gaza City. Today, the proudest boast in the free world is truly, “Nam, Nehnu Nastatyeh!” – “Yes, We Can!”

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