Free Gaza

This blog entry is not disconnected from my previous posting about the recently late Israeli peace activist - Abie Nathan. Among Nathan's other acts - for which he was condemned at the time, but now is more remembered as a moral hero - was his delivering of food and medicine to Gazaans, and his various meetings with "the enemy".

This week - in a story too little covered in the Canadian and American press - two ships organized by peace and justice activists, broke Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, and delivered food and medical supplies. They also took out 12 Palestinians with acceptances to foreign universities and to whom Israel had denied transit permission.

I say Hooray for them !!!

In another aspect of this affair that reminds us of Abie Nathan, project organizer and Israeli citizen, Jeff Halper(see inset picture) was arrested upon return to Israel. This echoes Nathan's arrest after trips to Egypt and meetings with Yasser Arafat. Jeff Halper is a long time activist and founder of the Israel Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICHAHD). One can disagree with him on details of analysis and tactics, but, in my opinion, there is no disagreeing with him that peace will first and foremost be based on mutual respect and kindnesses, and that mitigating, and ultimately stopping, the harm done by Israeli policies to individual Palestinians is the only hope of building the kind of Jewish Arab relations that are a pre-requisite for peace.

I will try to follow and report on what happens to Halper as result of this arrest.