[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens: US must support the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla aid boats, press Israel to end blockade

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, June 22, 2011


Green Party: The US must support the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla aid boats,
press Israel to end the blockade

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on foreign policy and
peace
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-peace.php

• Green Party's 2011 Annual National Meeting / New York Green Fest, Aug. 5-7
in Alfred, New York http://nygreenfest.org


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders today called on the US State Department
to support the Gaza Aid Flotilla, and to cease defending and assisting
Israel's maritime blockade.

"The US should end its shameful complicity in the brutal siege on Gaza and
pressure Israel to end its illegal collective punishment which has cost
thousands of civilian lives in Gaza.  The U.S. State Department should
denounce the Israeli Navy's threat to use snipers and attack dogs against the
'Audacity of Hope' and other Freedom Flotilla II aid boats as intimidation
tactics which clearly signal Israel's willingness to, once again, violate
human rights and humanitarian law," said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of
Miami-Dade Green Party (http://miamidadegreenparty.org) and a member of the
Green Party's International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).
Mr. Malik recently co-organized a rally near the Israeli Consulate in Miami in
support of Palestinian rights and the Freedom Flotilla II.

The Green Party of the United States has supported the Freedom Flotillas to
Gaza (http://ustogaza.org), including the May 2010 fleet of humanitarian aid
ships that were attacked by Israel in international waters near Cyprus which
left 9 human rights activists dead and at least 50 wounded
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=321).  In July 2009, Cynthia
McKinney, a former US Representative from Georgia and the Green Party's 2008
presidential nominee, was one of 21 human rights activists on board the Free
Gaza relief boat seized by the Israeli navy in international waters when it
tried to deliver medical and other humanitarian aid to Gaza in June 2009, in
the wake of Israel's invasion of Gaza.  Ms. McKinney and the other activists
were held in an Israeli jail for several days.

The flotilla will begin its next voyage on or around June 24 with
approximately 60 passengers, including Alice Walker, author of 'The Color
Purple'; Col. Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Dept. in 2003 in protest
of President Bush's invasion of Iraq; Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor; many
other peace activists and journalists.

"The State Department has called the Gaza aid boats 'provocative' -- and this
is entirely correct.  By delivering humanitarian aid to Gazans, the Freedom
Flotilla is undertaking a nonviolent, courageous, and justifiable act of
defiance to provoke international outrage over Israel's actions in Gaza.  The
aid boats are calling attention to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian
lands, murderous treatment of Palestinian people, displacement of Palestinian
families from their homes, and internal apartheid.  The US must cut off all
military aid to Israel until the Israeli government reverses its current
policies," said Justine McCabe, co-chair of the Green Party's International
Committee.

The Green Party of the US has called for boycott, divestment, and sanctions
against Israel until it complies with international law and UN directives,
ends the occupation of Palestinian lands, and observes full and equal human
rights for Palestinians, including the right of return.

Greens leaders have urged support for Palestinian and Israeli peace groups and
called for an end to all violence targeted at unarmed civilians, insisting
that regional stability and security for all the people of Israel and
Palestine are not possible until peaceful negotiation resolves the conflict.

The Green Party has condemned Israel's persecution of Palestinian peace
activists, including the 2011 arrest of Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
(http://qumsiyeh.org), former associate professor of genetics at Yale
University and member of the Green Party of Connecticut before he moved back
to Palestine (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=307).

Greens expressed fear that peaceful resolution may be less likely after
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Palestinians recognize
Israel as a "Jewish state"
(http://www.haaretz.com/news/netanyahu-demands-palestinians-recognize-jewish-state-1.274207),
which drew no protest from the White House.  Contrary to Mr. Netanyahu's
demand and President Obama's uncritical support for it, Israel-Palestine has
always been multicultural, with Palestinians currently making up 20-plus
percent of the population.

"We're very concerned that Israel will interpret the Obama Administration's
refusal to criticize the attacks on peaceful aid boats as permission for even
worse attacks on future flotillas.  We urge the President to do the right
thing -- to defend the Freedom Flotilla and see it as the equivalent of
nonviolent civil disobedience by activists during the US Civil Rights
struggle.  We are embarrassed that Mr. Obama doesn't seem to understand this
comparison," said Carl Romanelli, former Green US Senate candidate from
Pennsylvania and member of the party's International Committee.


MORE INFORMATION

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US Campaign to End the Occupation
http://www.endtheoccupation.org

Free Gaza Movement
http://www.freegaza.org

"Peaceful protest in Israel can lead to arrest"
By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyah, March 9, 2010, The New Haven Register
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/03/09/opinion/doc4b95ab40a3642160727871.txt

Green Party's 2011 Annual National Meeting / New York Green Fest
http://nygreenfest.org
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Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States (Fall 2010 issue now online)
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