Adam Shapiro on the Free Gaza Movement

Fundraiser for the Free Gaza Movement with Adam Shapiro, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and documentarian Wednesday Sept 8, 2010 at the Quaker Meeting House, 225 Rooney St,
Santa Cruz
8 pm
By donation
Information- Dorah Rosen, dorahbee [at] comcast.net, 831.427.0624

The Resource Center for Nonviolence and the Palestine-Israel Action Committee are sponsoring one of a series of nationwide fundraisers for the US boat in the next Freedom Flotilla, scheduled to set sail for Gaza during the fall of 2010. The US boat, christened “Audacity of Hope”, will join in the first Free Gaza flotilla since the fatal Israeli commando attack on a Free Gaza flotilla in May this year. The attack and capture of vessels full of international activists, resulting in nine civilian fatalities, took place in international waters.

The Audacity of Hope will carry 40 to 60 people as well as goods needed by the Gazans. Other vessels sponsored by groups from Ireland, Scotland, India, Canada, and several Middle Eastern countries are being prepared. The Free Gaza Movement and the flotilla’s dozens of other endorsers plan to bring in humanitarian supplies as well as raise awareness worldwide of the Gazans’ ongoing plight. The Gaza Strip is arguably the most densely populated region on the planet and is routinely referred to as an open-air prison due to the Israeli restrictions on travel and access to the ocean.

The situation in Gaza remains dire. Homes, clinics, schools and businesses destroyed in Operation Cast Lead cannot be rebuilt as building materials, medical supplies and common machinery are not coming into Gaza at anywhere near the rate needed to rebuild after the devastation. Israel cut Palestinians’ fishing rights from 20 miles out into the Mediterranean to 6 miles and then to 3. An August 2010 report from the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance calls for restoration of the original fishing limits as well as an end to destruction of Gazan farms and wells, lifting travel restrictions that prevent children from going to school and, of course, cessation of opening fire on civilians. Even conservative estimates find that well over 50% of Gazans suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition.