Posted at FreeGaza.org
Dignity Leaves for Gaza on Emergency Mission of Mercy
Sunday 28th December 2008
For more information, contact.
(Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +970 598 700 497 / [email protected]
(Cyprus) Eliza Ernshire, +357 99 081 767/ [email protected]
(U.S.) Ramzi Kysia, +1 703 994 5422/ [email protected](Larnaca, Cyprus) The Free Gaza movement will hold a press conference at 16:30, Monday, December 29 at the port in Larnaca. The organization is sending in the DIGNITY on an emergency mission of mercy to Gaza loaded with three to four tons of urgently needed medical supplies.
On board are four physicians, including Dr. Elena Theoharous, a surgeon and Member of Parliament in Cyprus. Also going are The Hon. Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, and Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera reporter and former detainee at Guantanamo.
Dr Khaled from the Shifa hospital ICU in Gaza City told us on Saturday that the majority of cases are critical shrapnel wounds from Israeli gunboats and helicopters, with an approximate 80% who will not survive.
The medical supply list includes bandages, splints and rubber gloves, items that any medical community should have access to, but, because of Israel’s policies of collective punishment, these supplies are not available.
Eliza Ernshire, one of the Free Gaza organizers says, “We have calls for surgeons willing to go into Gaza and work there throughout this crisis. The doctors inside are exhausted and unable to cope with the number of wounded. We will do our best to send in the DIGNITY as often as we can over the next few weeks, bringing in physicians and medical supplies.
The media is welcome to come to the port at 16:30 to interview the passengers.
Roseanne Barr comments,
Cynthia Mckinney is a goddess of unparalleled intelligence and remarkable courage! God-energy go with her today as she joins those who bring doctors and medicine to the suffering of gaza. God-thought protect those who are putting their lives on the line to help the victims of nazi aggression. God-love touch the hearts of the soldiers of Israel to disobey their leaders! israeli troops! You must refuse to be nazis! refuse and save the world and your people!!
paulie – there are over 300 comments right now, but Kos gets more visitors in a day than we’ve ever had. It’s the biggest political blog on the web, I believe. And McKinney is controversial there because she used to be a Dem. Israel is also controversial there (where isn’t it).
I’m going to post another story there as an update. I’ll let you know about it.
Why not take it further and justify native american terror attacks on Joe the Plumber’s house because his forefathers set up a little country called the USA on land already occupied.
I don’t think his ancestors did – he’s German-American. By the time they came over, the deed had been done.
both states should be taken out.
@24
It has NOTHING to do with “giving terrorists a pass” as I have already stated that the Palestinian response is not acceptable. The fact is that Israel was founded upon terrorism. I’ve made that fact clear without taking anyone’s side.
Jews for Jesus aren’t exactly viewed as true Jews anyway. It’s like Christians for Wotan.
@ 27
Any subject regarding Israel is automatically a “Jews vs. Palestinian” discussion. After all, the IDF wouldn’t be bombing gaza if it weren’t for the Palestinian conflict. Solve the conflict and we eliminate the humanitarian crisis. If band aids are continually thrown at the situation, that gaping wound will never heal. That said, I agree about the point you make regarding humanitarian aid.
Why not take it further and justify native american terror attacks on Joe the Plumber’s house because his forefathers set up a little country called the USA on land already occupied.
The difference is that, while the US was de facto founded as a white nation, oppressing the colored inhabitants, the US has since renounced that policy. It now has an officially non-racist immigration policy and domestic laws. Which is good.
The US has given up its white, European-imposed character, as the price of equal rights and individual dignity, and will no longer be a white majority nation by 2050, if not sooner. Which is also fine. I think we’ll be a stronger nation when we overcome racism by intermarriage and integration.
Most of the Western European nations have likewise accepted multiracial, multicultural, and multireligeous demographics as their future.
By contrast, Israel insists on retaining its Jewish majority character, as reflected in their immigration policy and domestic laws. The Western democracies are embracing multiculturalism. Israel renounces that modern value, while insisting that it’s nevertheless a Western democracy.
You can justify it or not, but a “Jewish democracy” (or “Christian democracy,” or “white democracy”) is not the same as a democracy that pays no heed to race or religion.
The West is evolving, and Israel is not. (Nor is much of the Third World, but Israel claims to hold Western values, not Third World values.)
I don’t know why people want to make it into a Jews vs. Palestinians discussion. Shouldn’t humanitarian aid be above taking sides in a war?
Since when is any combatant party denying medical aid to non-combatants as a condition of peace an acceptable war tactic?
Palestine is also a UN recognized entity.
PEACE
Who cares?
You’re right. It is easy.
There also are Jews for Jesus but it doesn’t take away from the fact that their is a UN-recognized nation called Israel with a bunch of Jews living there right now who don’t intend on being bullied out anytime soon.
It is easy to give the Palestinian terrorists a pass and blame Israel for all the problems and easier still to highlight the minority of Jews who think Israel is an abomination. Why not take it further and justify native american terror attacks on Joe the Plumber’s house because his forefathers set up a little country called the USA on land already occupied. Canada also should be wiped off the map and aborigines in Australia should shoot rockets into Sydney Harbor every chance they get too. But I suppose natives without oil and religious ties to outside antagonists don’t have such justifications.
I also highly recommend Rabbi Yisroel Weiss and his work against Zionism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7epIyIqkZc
http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/
BTW: there is a very interesting 6 part video on YouTube called “The Birth of Israel”. part 1 can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5JAhNd47HI
I don’t support either government. I support the people of that region, regardless of their religious beliefs.
I feel the same way and that is why I included the clause “if any.”
@ 15
I don’t support either government. I support the people of that region, regardless of their religious beliefs. In fact, one day I hope to visit.
It doesn’t matter who you think is right in the conflict, or if both sides are wrong – humanitarian aid should be an entirely separate issue. If either side stops it, it should be condemned. Anyone who facilitates it, to either side, should be praised.
@12
Israel’s existence came about through Zionist terror (Stern Gang, Irgun) and British culpability.
Before the Zionist movement, Jews and Muslims largely lived a peaceable co-existence. When Rabbis were sent to investigate Palestine for the possibility of turning it into a Jewish homeland, they sent a telegram back to Vienna which said “The bride is beautiful but she is married to another man”. They KNEW Palestine was already inhabited and a Palestinian society already existed. In order to create that homeland, they had to remove the Palestinians. And we are left to wonder WHY the Palestinians are so uppity?
That’s a despicable war tactic. Humanitarian aid should not be held hostage. That’s why Red Cross, Red Crescent etc., are supposed to be allowed to provide relief in war zones.
We could go on and on about this… But if the Palestinians stopped firing rockets at Israeli towns, they would have all the medical supplies and pain medicine they want. Israel tried the Pavlovian tactic of stopping shipments to Gaza every time a rocket was fired and renewing them when the rockets stopped, but evidentally Hamas didn’t catch on or didn’t care.
I agree, providing humanitarian aid should be commended regardless of which side, if any, you support.
Kudos to McKinney –or anyone– who wants to help alleviate the suffering of the victims of war.
No one is correct in this protracted battle. Not the STATE of Israel, not the Palestinian Authority. What the First Zionist Congress set in motion back in 1897 (the Zionist movement which culminated in the State of Israel in 1948) is reaping the fruit of missile attacks and suicide bombings. Of course, the Palestinian response since then has not exactly endeared themselves to the world. Munich, anyone?
It might be a drop in the bucket, but I’m sure if you were in a hospital and dying in suffering for lack of medical supplies and pain medicine, you would appreciate that drop if you got it. I know I would.
Her actions have nothing to do with medical supplies and everything to do with exploiting the situation to propagate her support for Hamas dominion over the entire area and aversion to Israel’s existance. A small boatload of medical supplies is a drop in the bucket and meant to be a symbolic move.
I’m always open to criticism for my blog, but the posting was more about the Green Party sadly moving away from their environmental/energy independence roots.
Vin,
I see you wrote an article too
http://whigsinvirginia.blogspot.com/2008/12/green-party-declares-support-for-hamas.html
Providing medical supplies = supporting Hamas?
Right on. Looks like you are getting more comments than I have, in a shorter period of time.
I posted this at Dailykos. Look:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/28/21858/834/366/677991
Does this mean that McKinney supports constant rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and justifies this as legitimate response to those pesky Jews living in the region?
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/12/28/click-the-star-to-watch-this-topic-israeli-navy-pull-in-towards-gaza-port-heavy-israeli-shelling-of-gaza-reported/
If it gets on the news, it will probably be O’Reilly or Glenn Beck denouncing McKinney.
And of course to reinforce McKinney’s supposed antisemitism.
PEACE
I wish that Ron Paul had the balls to take this sort of action.
I’m glad I did.
If it gets on the news, it will probably be O’Reilly or Glenn Beck denouncing McKinney.
I wish I would have voted for McKinney.
Whadyawannabet this doesn’t get on the evening news in the US?
Kudo’s to McKinney for taking part in this exercise, literally putting her body on the line for the dignity of (mostly) innocent people.
I wish that Barr or Root had the balls to take this sort of action.
PEACE