Israeli crimes in Gaza incite struggle worldwide

By Kathy Durkin

Feb 15, 2009

Israel seizes aid ship bound for Gaza

A Lebanese ship carrying 60 tons of humanitarian aid for the besieged people of Gaza was aggressively intercepted and seized on Feb. 5 by the Israeli navy. Called “The Brotherhood Ship,” this unarmed vessel carried medical supplies, food, books, toys and milk for children.

The cargo ship was stopped 19 miles off Gaza. On board were human rights activists, religious figures, journalists and crew members.

Al-Jazeera correspondent Salam Khoder reported that the Israeli navy opened fire on the ship. Then soldiers stormed it. Passengers were beaten, then handcuffed and interrogated, and their possessions confiscated. All were arrested. Most were held for a day. Khoder said that she and another woman, Lebanese TV reporter Ugarith Dandash, and Dr. Hani Suleiman, an organizer of the Lebanese aid mission, were beaten. (iht.com)

The ship’s owner, Mohamed Youssef, told Al-Jazeera from Beirut that the navy’s firing damaged the ship. He said, “Contacts with the ship were cut. ... the crew and passengers were beaten savagely.” (latimes.com)

The freighter was forcibly towed to Ashdod, Israel, where it was searched and where it remains. What happened to the aid is unknown. Most passengers and crew have been sent to Lebanon and Syria, but as of Feb. 6 two crew members from India were still in Israeli police custody. Scottish human rights and Free Gaza Movement activist Teresa McDermott is reportedly in Israel’s Ramleh prison. (palsolidarity.org)

Though other humanitarian-aid ships bound for Gaza have been harassed and threatened, this is the first time that Israel has seized a ship, its passengers and crew. Israel is trying to stop solidarity with the Palestinians while its belligerent enforcement of the blockade of Gaza is preventing critical medicine and food from reaching families there.

Scottish students’ solidarity with Palestinians

Strathclyde University students staged a 24-hour sit-in on Feb. 4-5 to demand that the Glasgow school end its ties to Israel.

Led by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), more than 40 students, including many Palestinians, occupied the registry hall. The administration then agreed to stop buying water from the Israeli-owned company Eden Springs, to provide some scholarships for Palestinian students, to publicize the Gaza aid appeal and to show solidarity with the University of Gaza.

Eden Springs has been the target of a growing boycott campaign by the Scottish PSC for its violations of international and human rights laws. The company makes worldwide profits from selling water it extracts from Salukia Spring in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, thereby depriving the Syrian population of a vital water supply.

Eden Springs Scotland shut its East of Scotland depot after losing hundreds of contracts across Scotland following an Edinburgh University boycott. Lancaster University’s Friends of Palestine Society is pushing for a campuswide boycott there. (scan.lusu.co.uk)

Strathclyde activists vow future sit-ins to demand the university sever its ties to the United Kingdom’s BAE Systems, which ships arms to Israel, and more. (Scotsman.com)

Western Australia dockworkers to boycott Israeli ships

On Jan. 27 the Maritime Union of Australia (Western Australia) resolved support for the people of Gaza and condemned Israel’s military assaults on them.

The delegates’ assembly endorsed the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and pledged to fully participate in it. They called on the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Unions WA to support the BDS and all related actions.

They also asked that the Maritime Union of Australia state conference agree to boycott “all Israeli-registered vessels, and all vessels known to be carrying either goods destined for Israel or goods sourced from Israel.” (www.greenleft.org.au)

Sydney MUA officials roundly condemned Israel’s massacres in Gaza by signing a petition which was published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

South African dockworkers refuse to unload Israeli goods

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) announced a victory by South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), whose members refused to unload a ship filled with Israeli goods at Durban harbor.

This courageous workers’ action is a big boost to the growing international movement challenging Israeli oppression and militarism against the Palestinian people.

The action was carried out despite threats to COSATU members and maneuvers to try to circumvent the workers’ protests by the ship’s owner, M. Dizengoff and Co., a shipping agent for Zim Israel Navigation Company. The shipping company had secretly changed the arrival date for the cargo ship Johanna Russ, which docked on Feb. 4, four days earlier than expected.

“The vigilant [dock]workers were on guard and immediately they realized that it had docked, then they refused to handle it, despite pressures from management. SATAWU members maintained their refusal to offload the ship and also attempted to ensure that scab labor would not be used. ... A few hours after berthing ... the Johanna Russ sneaked out of Durban Harbor.” (wwww.cosatu.org)

COSATU members plan to intensify their efforts in support of the Palestinian people’s struggles by strengthening boycotts of Israeli products and institutions, and pushing divestment and sanctions against Israel.

COSATU states: “The momentum against apartheid Israel has become an irresistible force. We are proud to stand with the millions around the world who say, ‘Enough is enough.’ They are doing what we asked them to do when we faced the apartheid regime in our own country.”

COSATU and the Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa stress, “This is just the beginning of a solidarity campaign which will continue until the demands of the Palestinian people have been won.”

BDS movement salutes South African Transport and Allied Workers Union

On Feb. 3 the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, warmly saluted SATAWU for not unloading the Israeli ship on Feb. 4: “Coming weeks after the massive Israeli massacre in Gaza, this distinguished expression by SATAWU of effective solidarity with the Palestinian people in general, and with Gaza in particular, sets a historic precedent that reminds us of the first such action during the apartheid era taken by Danish dock workers in 1963, when they decided not to offload ships carrying South African products, triggering a similar boycott in Sweden, England and elsewhere.” (www.bdsmovement.net)

They also hailed the decision of the Maritime Union of Australia (Western Australia) to boycott Israeli vessels and Israel-bound cargo and ships, and they recognized the Greek dockworkers who threatened to block a ship carrying weapons to Israel to use against Gaza:

“Those actions [and] the SATAWU decision ... will most likely usher in a new, qualitatively advanced phase of BDS that goes well beyond symbolism. We call on dock workers’ unions around the world to endorse similar sanctions against Israeli or Israel-bound cargo.

“Support in South Africa for the Palestinian struggle against Israel’s colonial and apartheid policies and its war crimes is reaching new heights, with COSATU, the South African Council of Churches, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Young Communist League and many grassroots organizations and networks leading diverse forms of BDS campaigns, informed by the long and ultimately successful struggle of South Africans against apartheid. The Palestinian and global BDS movement against Israel is indebted to the people of South Africa for their inspiring and morale-boosting solidarity.”