By Darlene Wallach
(Darlene Wallach of San Jose is a participant in the Free Gaza Movement)
Special to the Mercury News
"On Nov. 18, the Israeli military kidnapped me — a Jewish American leaving behind the comforts of San Jose — and 17 others from three Palestinian fishing vessels plying Gaza's coastal waters. Two other international human rights workers and I were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen to provide witness to and documentation of the frequent harassment and attacks by the Israeli navy. Our seizure belies Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza and its 1.5 million people.
Israel's military occupation of Gaza did not end with the withdrawal of its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. Israel still controls access of people and goods into and out of the Strip. It controls Gaza's airspace, borders and, as my capture attests, territorial waters.......
Palestinians have a right to live free of Israeli occupation. That will not be possible, however, until Palestinians control their land borders, air space and coastal waters. Until then, Gaza will be little more than a Bantustan over which Israel exercises control.
The incoming Obama administration should withhold financial and military aid to Israel until it ends the blockade and should demand the free flow of people, goods, and services in and out of Gaza. Then I would feel my ordeal had been well worthwhile. "
(Darlene Wallach of San Jose is a participant in the Free Gaza Movement)
Special to the Mercury News
"On Nov. 18, the Israeli military kidnapped me — a Jewish American leaving behind the comforts of San Jose — and 17 others from three Palestinian fishing vessels plying Gaza's coastal waters. Two other international human rights workers and I were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen to provide witness to and documentation of the frequent harassment and attacks by the Israeli navy. Our seizure belies Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza and its 1.5 million people.
Israel's military occupation of Gaza did not end with the withdrawal of its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. Israel still controls access of people and goods into and out of the Strip. It controls Gaza's airspace, borders and, as my capture attests, territorial waters.......
Palestinians have a right to live free of Israeli occupation. That will not be possible, however, until Palestinians control their land borders, air space and coastal waters. Until then, Gaza will be little more than a Bantustan over which Israel exercises control.
The incoming Obama administration should withhold financial and military aid to Israel until it ends the blockade and should demand the free flow of people, goods, and services in and out of Gaza. Then I would feel my ordeal had been well worthwhile. "
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