20 from SA to join Gaza March - voc fm 13:12

A delegation of almost 20 South Africans will, later this month, join more than 1,000 activists from around the world and about 20,000 people from Gaza in the first international Gaza Freedom March, which will protest at Israel's Erez border crossing. South African delegates, including former Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, a five-person COSATU delegation, solidarity activists and journalists, will meet up in Egypt with solidarity holocaust survivors, activists, academics, and politicians from 42 countries.

The march has been organized to protest the two-and-half year hermetic siege that has been imposed on Gaza by Israel. The blockade has resulted in large-scale suffering for the Palestinian population, with food, fuel, and medical supplies being prevented from entering the territory. The march will also commemorate the first anniversary of the devastating attacks on Gaza by the Israeli Occupation Forces, in which 1,400 people were killed, 4,000 houses destroyed, and UN buildings, hospitals, universities, schools and mosques were bombed.



"And now, one year after those attacks, the Israeli government still refuses to allow reconstruction material into Gaza. Thus people whose homes were destroyed in December 2008 are forced to live through another winter without shelter because their homes cannot be rebuilt. While governments and inter-governmental organizations remain silent about the misery caused by the siege, it has remained the concern of the world's citizens, who cannot ignore the violation of basic human rights and the enduring deprivation and suffering caused by the siege," the Palestine Solidarity Committee said in a statement issued Friday.


Hardened attitudes

Eminent America author Norman G Finkelstein, author of the bestseller The Holocaust Industry and his latest offering, Beyond Chutzpah, told VOC in August that the international Gaza Freedom March was an important way to speak out against Israeli atrocities. He said Israelis have become very "hardened and inured to the atrocities they commit against the Palestinians".

"The Palestinians will never ever melt the heart of the Israelis. Just as the Jews could never make the heart of the Nazi's melt. What I do think is possible however, is that if the Palestinians practice non violence and the whole world watched as Israel fired on them, they can win over the support of international public opinion

However, Finkelstein said, the success of this tactic depended largely on the support for Palestinians outside Israel. "It depends on us, those outside Israel, to keep pointing the finger and camera at what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. That is why on January 1 2010 we are organising the Gaza Freedom March and we are trying to bring thousands of people from around the world to march with the Palestinians to break the siege of Gaza.

"Because we know," he continued, "realistically speaking, if the Palestinians on their own tried to march non-violently. Israel would shoot. Israel would kill them. But if there are thousands of people from around the world - from the United States, the UK and South Africa and elsewhere - if they are at the front of the march, in my opinion, Israel won't shoot."

The march will take place on the 1st January 2010, and protesters will march from Gaza City to the Erez Crossing, where they will confront Israeli soldiers and demand the opening of the border and the lifting of the siege. VOC