Why I Support the Gaza Freedom March - December 31st 2009

As we approach the end of the year, I am part of a group in the Boston area preparing for what we hope will be a historic, life-giving march: a call to "End the Siege of Gaza." Fourteen Massachusetts residents will be traveling to the Gaza Strip to march alongside 1,400 internationals from 42 countries and tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip. Among them will be the writer Alice Walker, 85-year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, European Parliamentarians and a contingent from South Africa including prominent colleagues of Nelson Mandela.

A year ago, on December 27, Israel launched its "Operation Cast Lead," which resulted in the death of more than 1,300. According to a UN investigative report, most were civilians and 300 of them were children. Gaza is one of the world’s most densely crowded places; a majority of its inhabitants are children. Last year at this time, after nearly two years of crippling sanctions and policed borders, it endured three solid weeks of aerial bombardment and ground attacks. For Gazans, there was nowhere to run.

The Israeli army is known the world over for its sophisticated military and is lauded by supporters for its precision and moral excellence. Whatever admirable qualities the IDF may possess, they did not stop the hundreds of civilian deaths already mentioned, the destruction of thousands of Palestinian homes, nor the demolition of other civilian and illegal targets including mosques, hospitals--even U.N. facilities.

In January of last year, John Ging, director of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and tireless advocate for Palestinian civilians, visited a U.N. school the morning after it was hit with illegal white phosphorus shells by the IDF. The school had been designated as a civilian shelter and the GPS coordinates had been given to the Israeli military. Of the young children killed in this bombing, their maimed mother, and the hundreds of other civilian deaths in Gaza, Ging said, "We are talking about the indisputably innocent...what we need is accountability." A year later, in late November, with the economic blockade still in full swing and continuing to deprive Gazans of the essentials of daily life, Ging told Nancy Murray of the Gaza Mental Health Foundation that "...we have run out of words to describe how bad it is here."

Since Israel declared the war at an end almost a year ago, numerous investigations and reports by human rights groups and others have given the world a sense of what happened in Gaza during the 22 days of aerial bombardment and ground attacks. World renowned human rights jurist and supporter of Israel, Richard Goldstone, called what Israel did to Gazan civilians and civilian infrastructure "war crimes" and "possible crimes against humanity". According to the findings of groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the kill ratio during the invasion was one hundred dead Palestinians for every one Israeli casualty.

Notably, some of what we know about the conduct of the Israeli army comes from the soldiers themselves. In a project called "Breaking the Silence", which compiles the testimony of about thirty IDF combatants who took part in Operation Cast Lead, one soldier paraphrases his commander's advice prior to engagement: "'Don't let morality become an issue...Leave the nightmares and horrors that will come up for later, now just shoot.' This was the spirit of things, more or less."

What is the spirit of things in Gaza now? Since the weeks of violent destruction at the turn of the year, Gaza has remained under siege: controlled at every border--including air and sea. Its residents cannot rebuild, lacking supplies, and most cannot leave. Trapped, with their families injured or dead, their civilization in ruins around them, severe shortages of water, electricity, medicines, and food have affected every aspect of Palestinian life. Considering their plight, one would expect a human climate ripe for religious extremism and despair. As recently as December 12th, Ging told The Independent that "The most important support is to change the circumstances".

The Gaza Freedom March lets Gazans know they are not forgotten and brings a powerful message of hope for the future. Around the US and abroad, people who cannot be part of the march will be holding vigils in its support. Tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of the occupied strip are preparing now, with hundreds of representatives of the international community, for a mile-long march in peaceful protest of the illegal siege. The whole world will be watching on New Year’s eve, as internationals and Gazans invoke the spirit of Gandhi's Salt March and the Selma to Montgomery march in a procession to assert their humanity.

Rama Williams is a member of the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza and CODEPINK.