Jewish anti-siege activists prep for July voyage

[Douglas Carpenter]

Published today (updated) 05/06/2010 11:51
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Bethlehem - Ma'an - In a harbor in the Mediterranean a small vessel is waiting for a special mission.

She will be sailing to Gaza during the second half of July. In order to avoid sabotage, the exact date and name of the port of departure will be announced only shortly before her launch.

"Our purpose is to call an end to the siege of Gaza, to this illegal collective punishment of the whole civilian population. Our boat is small, so our donations can only be symbolic: we are taking school bags, filled with donations from German school children, musical instruments and art materials“, says Kate Leiterer, one of the organizers.

"For the medical services we are taking essential medicines and small medical equipment, and for the fishermen we are taking nets and tackle. We are liaising with the medical, educational and mental health services in Gaza," Leiterer said.

''In attacking the Freedom Flotilla, Israel has once again demonstrated to the world a heinous brutality. But I know that there are very many Israelis who compassionately and bravely campaign for a just peace. With broadcasting journalists from mainstream television programmes accompanying our boat, Israel will have a great chance to show the world that there is another way, a way of courage rather than fear, a way of hope rather than hate',' says Edith Lutz, an organizer and passenger on what is being called the "Jewish boat."

''Jüdische Stimme,'' or Jewish Voice for Peace, along with European Jews for a Just Peace in the Near East, and Jews for Justice For Palestinians (UK) are "sending a call to the leaders of the world: Help Israel find her way back to reason, to a sense of humanity and a life without fear."

In a statement, the group said that "Jewish Voice expects the political leaders of Israel and the world to guarantee a safe passage for the small vessel to Gaza, thus helping to form a bridge towards peace."


http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=289703

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[azurnoir]

1. More good news n/t

[FBI_Un_Sub]

2. As a sign of good faith

1. Repealing the Arab League's "Secondary Boycott of Israel" which precludes (US) companies seeking to do business with member nations from hiring Jewish employees.
   
   
2. Freeing Gilad Shalit
   

[azurnoir]

4. can you provide a link proving such a boycott exists n/t

[FBI_Un_Sub]

8. Eight year old link

to the student newspaper at Berkeley, the Daily Californian. I am using this old link to the Daily Californian because the Daily Californian is the student newspaper of the University of California at Berkeley, hardly a neocon or PNAC or ADL or AIPAC university, in a most un-Neoco, un-PNA, un-ADL, un-AIPAC community. Examining the Error of the Divestment Campaign by University of California alumnus and University of California at Davis faculty member Joe Lockard wrote---

http://www.dailycal.org/article/8330/examining_the_error_of_the_divestment_campaign

The original boycott was xenophobic in that it represented a political and economic strategy to contain, isolate, monitor and eventually destroy what it perceived as an alien presence. Inviolable borders had to be maintained against subversive infiltration. It sought to preserve a hegemonic definition of territory as Arab, rejecting peaceful relations with an entity deemed fundamentally illegitimate. A boycott was a weapon to eliminate an "artificial" presence that had no right to exist.

Boycott officials in Damascus pored over corporate reports from around the world to identify both intercorporate links (e.g. did your company deal with another company that had dealings with Israel?) and Jewish agents of power. Routine administrative forms circulated to collect information on the religion and national origin of corporate employees. The Central Boycott Office issued "non-Jew" certificates to foreign organizations.

A Jewish name was enough to ensure that you would not be hired at large firms with major projects in Arab countries; a new class of closeted Jews appeared in response and there was a run on false baptismal certificates. (emphasis not in original)

The boycott's intellectual terms were changing, however. In 1975 came UN Resolution 3379 (repealed in 1991) equating Zionism with racism and apartheid, which served as the political analogy that would justify maintaining an isolation containment around that alien presence. The Arab League affirmed its solidarity with the then-rising anti-apartheid boycott and began conceptually re-positioning its own boycott. What changed was less the original purposes and methods of the anti-Israel boycott, more its rhetorical references that relied on stigmatizing one nationalism among all others.

[azurnoir]

10. can you prove the boycott is still in effect today?

that members of the Arab League can't do business with company that hires Jews as you claimed you see the original boycott mentioned in your link is from the 1948 something your link does not say

[azurnoir]

12. Respectfully sir you are either mis-informed

or promoting the idea that Jews and Israel are synonymous

here is the actual boycott

The impact of the Arab League boycott of commercial ties with Israel on U.S. trade and investment in the
Middle East and North Africa varies from country to country. While it remains a serious barrier for U.S.
firms operating in the region, the boycott has extremely limited effect on U.S. trade and investment in
most Arab League countries. The 22 Arab League members include the Palestinian Authority and the
following states: Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain,
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates).

http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/reports/2009/NTE/asset_upload_file298_15453.pdf

and as another poster has pointed out seeing as how many Arab League countries are doing business with US companies that most certainly do business with Israel also they are not really keeping the boycott very well coca cola and maggi would be 2 that come to mind

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. I spend a lot of time in the Gulf region and every American product imaginable is available

I find it find it hard to believe that Coca Cola, Ford, GM, McDonald's, Burger King, Hagen Daz, Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Safeway (full of American products) and Holiday Inn, Hilton, and countless others do not have or do not hire Jewish employees or that these same products and services are not available in Israel.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

7. How many Jewish petroleum drilling engineers

or petroleum geologists do you see in the Gulf? I've had "consulting" jobs with Oxy, Shell, BP, etc. But no "career path" positions.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. not being my field, I don't know

It is true that there are few Jewish people working in the Gulf states; some but few.

What is absolutely not true is that the Arab states boycott businesses with Jewish employees - that is obviously not the case at all.

[proteus_lives]

3. Just another PR stunt.

[B Whale]

6. Brave determined people

who are prepared to actually get off their buts and do something for peace and justice (IMHO)

i salute you!

[Lars77]

9. How will the propaganda machine spin this?

Will they be classified as self-hating jews, brainwashed by evil arabs?

[TomClash]

13. Heroic and principled people of good will and uncommon decency nt

[IndianaGreen]

14. Their lives will be at risk at the hands of Israeli commandos, many of which are religious fanatics

Israeli violence has not been confined to non-Israelis. Israelis opposed to the Occupation have been assaulted, and even murdered in cold blood, by religious fanatics waving the flag of Zionism.

Jews have been murdered by Jewish religious fanatics since time began.