By Sister Miriam Ward, RSM, The Rutland Herald 6/11/2010
The Times Argus, 6/15/2010 and the Caledonia Record
When young black students staged their sit-ins at lunch counters in the 1960s American civil rights movement, they were there for more than a sandwich and cup of coffee. Their goal was integration and the end of segregation. When the recent Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying tons of humanitarian supplies attempted to deliver the aid in Gaza, the human rights activists were there for more than a crucial donation, albeit direly needed medical equipment, medicine, building materials and basic foods. Their ultimate goal was to lift the three-year Israeli blockade of goods, a practice that amounts to collective punishment against 1.5 million Gazans in the world’s largest open-air prison. For Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to say, “Come to Ashdod with your cargo and we Israelis will truck it in to Gaza” is disingenuous at best and hardly believable in view of Israel’s past behavior. Why does Israel limit the number of trucks into Gaza to about171 per week when the UN World Food Program says 400 trucks per day of supplies are needed? Why are hundreds of Gazans held up from leaving Gaza to get medical treatment? Twenty-eight people have already died. Why aren’t the Gazans allowed repair parts for water and sewage treatment plants? These questions for starters. So, just as the brave blacks at the lunch counters risked arrest and more until public awareness of the injustice grew to the point where the powerful “got it,” so the Free Gaza activists courageously plan to continue humanitarian flotillas until the international community says “enough” and insists on the end of the blockade.
Sister Miriam Ward is a Sister of Mercy, retired professor, and member of Pax Christi Burlington and Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. She has led 30 plus study tours to biblical lands.
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