Jewish boat to attempt to breach the siege of Gaza

A small (10 m long) catamaran with pro-Palestinian activists of Jewish ethnicity has set sail from Cyprus in yet another attempt to breach the siege of the macro-camp for displaced persons in South Palestine. The boat, named Irene, carries fishing nets in a nonviolent act of defiance against Zionist apartheid, 8 crew members and two journalists.

Reuven Moskovitz, an Holocaust survivor, 82, declared:

It is a sacred duty for me, as a survivor, to protest against the persecution, the oppression and the imprisonment of so many people in Gaza, including more than 800,000 children.

He also said: we are two peoples but we have one future. 

The crew of the Irene

The crew members are:

• Reuven Moskowitz, Israeli citizen. Founder of unsegregated village Neve Shalom – Wahat al Salaam (Oasis of Peace). He is an Holocaust survivor.
• Rami Elhanan, Israeli citizen. Lost his daughter Smadar in a suicide bombing in 1997 and is founding member of Bereaved Families Circle of Israelis and Palestinians (association of victims of the conflict).
• Lilian Rosengarten, US citizen. Peace activist and psychotherapost. She is a refugee from Nazi persecution.
• Yonatan Shapira, Israeli citizen. Former military pilot and member of Combatants for Peace. 
• Glyn Secker, British citizen. He is the boat captain and a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians Executive Commitee.
• Edith Lutz, German citizen. She is peace activist and a nurse. She was in the first boat to Gaza in 2008. 
• Itamar Shapira, Israeli citizen. Yonatan's brother. 

The two journalists are Eli Osherov, from Israeli Channel 10 News, and Vish Vishvanath, freelance photographer and reporter.

More information at Jewish Boat to Gaza and also at the support organizations:

• European Jews for a Just Peace.
• Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
• Juedische Stimme fuer einen gerechten Frieden in Nahost.
• American Jews for a Just Peace.
• Jewish Voice for Peace.
• Jews Against the Occupation Sydney.

See also news items at Al Jazeera and BBC.

Update: somewhat anecdotally, Jews sans frontieres mentions today that Marion Kozak, mother of the two confronted Labor party leaders Ed and David Miliband, is among the 1600 signatories supporting the boat, whose names will be displayed in colorful banners by the crew, as member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. She is a veteran left wing and Labor Party militant.

Update (Sep 28): Israel has taken the boat today. Not yet known whether in international or Gaza waters, in another illegal action in any case. The boat flies British flag so this is technically an act of war against the United Kingdom.

Physicians for Human Rights has asked for access to the kidnapped crew, as at least one of them is known to have a chronic illness and needs medical care.

Police commanders to jail for G8 Genoa assault and killing

Now and then we get some good news for a change. Sadly some of these good news seem to be hidden by the mainstream Imperial media and we have to look at alternative sources to get to know them.

This is the case of the sentence against 25 police officers who lead or took part in the 2001 assault against a school in Genoa that was the base of a group of nonviolent protesters against the G8 summit that year and participants in the alternative Genoa Social Forum held simultaneously in the same location.

The trial revokes a previous sentence from 2004 that only condemned some of the police agents involved in situ but acquainted the whole command chain that gave the orders, sentencing them to a total of 85 years of prison for falsification in second degree (they introduced explosives in the school) and severe injuries (one of the victims died, many others were seriously harmed).

The sentence is still under what the state attorneys demanded: a total of 110 years. However this is not the official position of the government that has declared its support for the attackers.

Sources:
· Diagonal Aragón (in Spanish)
· Processi G8 (in Italian)

Greece: why are not the thieves behind bars?, their properties confiscated?

Day after day we read about the Greek crisis and its ramifications. We know by now that a good deal of the responsability behind this case was that of a corrupt government and companies.

But we know little more about that. Some anecdotal details but not a word about any of the culprits being brought to trial or his/her property expropriated to pay for some of the national debt they used for their own benefit.

This is the most outrageous element of all the process: some oligarchs have brought a whole nation to heavy indebtedness and they are not even charged?! Their names are almost not mentioned, their practices nearly not inspected, their wealth (obviously the product of such anti-patriotic larceny) not even considered.

What's wrong?

It's as simple as this: some people and companies scammed a whole nation, they must be held responsible for it and their assets must be returned to the nation so it can face this challenge form a better position.

Yes or yes?