A year ago, we were out on the streets to show our indignation and our pain for the massacre caused by the Israeli military intervention - Operation Cast Lead - against the Gaza Strip, to call for a ceasefire, to bring an end to the siege and to guarantee the right of life of Gaza's population. In 23 days of bombardment, more than 1,400 dead (one third were children) and more than 5000 palestinians injured. 13 Israelis dead (10 soldiers and 3 civilians). Thousands of homes, many schools, 20 mosques, the water and electricity supply networks destroyed; UN centres, hospitals and ambulances struck by the Israeli army. Tens of thousands left homeless.
A year has passed and the siege continues
You can't get into Gaza and you can't get out.
Amnesty International described the blockade of Gaza as a "form of collective punishment of the entire population, a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention". The special UN rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, condemned the siege as "a crime against humanity". The consequences of the siege are undeniably causing a situation of mass suffering, created for the most part by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, in particular the United States and the European Union.
The illegal siege of Gaza isn't happening in a void. It is one of many illegal acts committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, militarily occupied in 1967.
Illegal:
- The wall and the settlements
- The demolition of houses
- The indiscriminate destruction of agricultural land.
- Closures and curfews
- Roadblocks and checkpoints
- La detenzione
- Torture
- The occupation itself.
The ending of the military occupation which began in 1967 is a fundamental condition for bringing abouot a just and lasting peace. For more than 60 years, the Palestinian people have been denied their right to freedom, to self-determination and to equality.
1400 people from 43 countries (the Gaza freedom March) tried in recent days to enter Gaza, to join with thousands of Palestinians in a non-violent march which would have gone from the north of the Strip to reach the border with Israel, calling for the end of the siege.
Egypt stopped them leaving Cairo, allowing only around 100 to enter Gaza. Hedy Epstein, 85 year old Jewish pacifist and Holocaust survivor, started a hunger strike in protest.
1400 people from 43 countries (the Gaza freedom March) tried in recent days to enter Gaza, to join with thousands of Palestinians in a non-violent march which would have gone from the north of the Strip to reach the border with Israel, calling for the end of the siege.
Egypt stopped them leaving Cairo, allowing only around 100 to enter Gaza. Hedy Epstein, 85 year old Jewish pacifist and Holocaust survivor, started a hunger strike in protest.
“It is important that the population of Gaza, under siege, know that they are not alone. I want to be able to say to the people of Gaza that I represent many people in my city and in the USA who are indignant about the policies adopted by Israel, the USA and Europe towards the Palestinians and that ever more people are coming to think in this way.”
said Ms Epstein, who escaped from the Nazi persecution while her parents died in Auschwitz.
Together with the participants in the Gaza Freedom March who demonstrated in the streets of Caior on January 1st, and with all those who at the same time marched in Israel and in the Gaza Strip, with those who protested in Ramallah, Bethlehem and in other West Bank cities, joining the protests organised in many cities throughout the world, we continue to draw attention to Gaza. We do not forget the tragic attack on the strip and we demand justice.
We call on politicians - local and national, on the government, on the European Union and the governments that are part of it to ensure respect for international law that has been trampled on. And to the leaders of Israel, we say:
End the siege of Gaza, stop the building of settlements in the West Bank, end the occupation, respect and apply the UN resolutions. That is the only way to peace.
