The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign is saddened and outraged by Sunday nightâs attack on the Free Gaza flotilla. Israeli elite navy corps stormed the ships filled with 700 civilians, killing up to 16 according to reports and injuring dozens.
This marks the latest attack in an escalation of violence and repression against all those standing up against Israeli crimes. From the killings of the youth in Nablus a few months ago to the mass arrests of civil society and community activists and the attacks on the international solidarity activists on board the Free Gaza flotilla â Israel has decided to silence by death or imprisonment all those ready to speak out.
While in line with the repressive and criminal policies that Israel has implemented for decades, these killings move the Israeli attack to a new level: Israel has targeted a Turkish ship in international waters filled with passengers from a dozen countries around the world including people of conscience young and old, aid workers, European MPs and holocaust survivors. Not content with massacres against the Palestinian population, international solidarity is in Israelâs crosshairs now.
People telling the true story, people defying the dictates of Israeli racist and colonial laws have become a threat to Israeli apartheid. Ironically, this brutal attack last night highlights the strength people can have when they are determined to resist power and injustice.
It shows as well the extent of brutality, aggression and recklessness a colonial regime can reach when it remains unchecked by the international community. Last nightâs killings were well prepared and according to Israeli news the political establishment had calculated that limited media backlash was less important than keeping the people in Gaza cut off from the world and humanitarian aid. This calculation is based on the fact that the international community has refused to act upon the Goldstone report investigating the killing of 1400 people during the Israeli 2008/9 attack on Gaza, that it has been unwilling to bring justice to the over 1000 people killed in the Israeli war against Lebanon and that, finally, it has allowed Israel to flout all UN resolutions regarding the question of Palestine. It is the direct outcome of the refusal of the international community to hold Israel accountable for any of its crimes.
It is time to end Israeli apartheid, colonialism and aggression now!
Therefore, the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign calls on all activists around the world to hold protests and vigils in memory of the people killed on board the ships. We urge international solidarity groups to work with even more determination to build a strong and effective movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions until Israel respects human rights and international law, and until justice prevails in Palestine.