New York, NY 11/6/2011 – Although Freedom Waves to Gaza organizers have not yet had direct communication with the people taken into custody by Israeli armed forces as they tried to peacefully sail to Gaza last week. Information is emerging that Israeli armed forces tactics in confronting the non-violent activists have been violent and dangerous. This despite claims from the IDF spokesperson that “every precaution will be taken for the safety of the activists.”

Prisoners include U.S. citizen Kit Kittredge, a delegate on the Tahrir from Quilcene, WA, and Jihan Hafiz, a U.S. citizen and journalist from Democracy Now, the national news program. Both have been advised by the U.S. consul in Israel to sign an Israeli deportation agreement. Both have refused because the statement says they came into Israel illegally and will not attempt another effort to break the Gaza blockade. Both statements are untrue.

A letter from Canadian David Heap, smuggled from the Givon prison, states that he was tasered and beaten when the Israeli Navy attacked the Tahrir. Irish prisoner, Fintan Lane, in a telephone call from Givon prison, reported that the takeover of the Saoirse was also violent. The Tahrir and the Saoirse were forced, by Israeli warships, to crash into each other, crippling both ships.

Palestinian Israeli Majd Kayal, a delegate aboard the Tahrir, who was arrested and released confirms these reports. “As a Palestinian, I was not surprised at how the IDF treated us,” said Kayal, after his release, noting this kind of abuse is a daily reality for the 1.5 million people of Gaza, who are indefinitely detained in an open-air prison. “However, for the Canadians and other Westerners onboard, it was a complete shock.”

“Israeli brutality and the unnecessary use of force against non-violent protests is well documented. What has happened to the passengers on the Tahrir and the Saoirse is just a tiny fraction of the daily abuse directed at Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as part of Israel’s occupation policy,” said U.S. coordinator Jane Hirschmann. “Nonetheless, all people – Palestinians under occupation and peace activists kidnapped and imprisoned – have human rights under international law that civilized governments must respect. The purpose of the boats’ voyage to Gaza was to demonstrate that Israel continually violates those laws, and that the U.S. government cares more about Israel than about its own citizens.

1. Organize support actions in your local area if possible. If you email the info to bio190d@gmail.com (our webmaster) we will post it to the “Support Actions” page of the US to Gaza website.
2. Check these websites for updates: Irish Ship to Gaza and Canadian Boat to Gaza, watch or listen to Democracy Now for live coverage and check their archives for coverage from the boats themselves. Search tweets using hashtag #Freedomwaves.
3. Call the State Department and the White House- demand that they take immediate action to free the passengers and the boats and to put an end to the siege of Gaza.

Call the State Department:

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 202-647-5291
• U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro 011-972-3-519-7575
• Office of Israel/Palestinian Affairs Paul Sutphin 202-647-3672
• Office of Consular Affairs, Kim Richter 202-647-8308
• and the White House: 202-456-1414
• email President Obama at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Here are some talking points or suggested messaging:

Gaza has been under siege since mid-2006, depriving 1.6 million people of their liberty and basic human rights. Although the siege has been condemned by the United Nations, the Red Cross, and many national governments, nothing has been done to ease the plight of these civilians. Civil society has had to act where governments would not. Two ships with 27 passengers from 5 countries sailed to Gaza to confront the Israeli naval blockade, and to bring medical supplies and letters of support. They were seized in international waters by Israeli gunboats, and the passengers kidnapped and taken to Israeli prisons.

As Americans we insist that our government (which sends Israel $3 billion in military aid every year), demands that Israel immediately free the kidnapped passengers and boats and ends its illegal blockade of Gaza. There is absolutely no excuse to subject 1.6 million people to collective punishment. Ask your local press to cover this story. Up-to-date information and press releases will be available at www.ustogaza.org, www.irishshiptogaza.org and www.tahrir.ca

As you are probably already aware, two boats carrying 27 civilians from various countries, including a representative from our youth movement, have been surrounded by Israeli war ships and likely violently boarded, while attempting to reach the people of Gaza, suffering under a criminal blockade.

We are writing to you personally as well as all heads of the United Nations agencies operating in Occupied Palestine to convey a unified and clear demand that you condemn, in no uncertain terms, this Israeli violence, and ongoing violations against our people in the Gaza Strip, and that you end your complicity with Gaza blockade.

We appreciate the work of the UN in Occupied Palestine; the reports and statements your agency has been disseminating for the last few decades to the whole world in order to highlight the continued oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupier have been highly valuable. Yet, your reports and statements have exhausted themselves.

It is high time to call upon you to stop treating Gaza (and Palestine as a whole) as a charity case! Our problems and humanitarian crises are the results of deliberate Israeli policies denying us freedom and other human rights. There are no “established channels” (to use the words of SG Ban Ki Moon) through Israel for our freedom.

What we need from the United Nations at this stage is protection, not aid. Protect our rights and the Palestinians and internationals that are trying to defend them. We hereby reiterate it in a firm and clear voice, stand up for what’s right, or we don’t need you.

We look forward to you taking the principled, moral, and legally appropriate position. We’re watching and waiting.

With greetings for a happy Eid il-Adha.

PALESTINIAN YOUTH

Please bring appropriate signs with you such as:
END THE SIEGE OF GAZA NOW!
OCCUPY WALL STREET NOT GAZA
END U.S. FUNDING OF ISRAELI ATTACKS

“In the event that Israel attacks our ships, there will be an Emergency Response protest at the Israeli Consulate in Chicago at 5:00 PM on the following work day (Monday-Friday). Please bring Palestinian flags and appropriate posters. “