PROTEST freedom flotilla massacre

News from the Flotilla keeps getting worse and worse. Initial reports were two dead; now most media are reporting between 10 and 20, with as many as 60 injured. Contact has not been re-established with some of the smaller boats and no details have been released about the dead and wounded.

Protests are taking place around the world. They have already started in some Arab countries, where it is now morning. In Turkey, protesters have surrounded the Israeli embassy and reportedly blockaded the ambassador in his home. There is a call for a general strike of Palestinians inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories.

You can find a protest near you here. The protest in Los Angeles tomorrow (Monday) will be from 4:30-8 outside the Israeli consulate, 6380 Wilshire Blvd.

FREEDOM FLOTILLA ATTACKED

At least one ship of the Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish Mavi Marmara passenger ship, has been attacked with live ammunition by the Israeli Navy. The livestream is currently broadcasting Turkish news, reporting 2 dead, 30 wounded. On the shipboard footage played on the news I could clearly hear a woman speaking in English into a bullhorn (presumably to the Israeli Navy) saying they have critically injured people on board.

These are initial reports and I'll confirm more as I have it. For now watch this.

Watch live streaming video from insaniyardim at livestream.com

livestreaming history

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is currently being surrounded by Israeli Navy warships. The Flotilla is in international waters, somewhere between 75 and 100 miles off the coast of Gaza. Passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish passenger ship carrying 700+ people, have donned life jackets and are preparing for a possible attack.

The ship's livestream feed keeps going in and out (jammed by the Israeli military), but over 12,000 people from around the world are still watching. Whatever happens--Israeli pirate attack on the high seas or a successful breaking of the siege--it's a historic moment. Watch here or on IHH's channel. As usual, Twitter is the most up-to-date news source. Follow freegazaorg and search hashtag #flotilla for many updates from around the world.

Watch live streaming video from insaniyardim at livestream.com

the gaza freedom flotilla is a big f*cking deal

Freedom Flotilla passenger ship on its way to Gaza. Photo courtesy of freegazaorg's Flickr photostream.

International solidarity is pounding on the prison walls of Gaza, and sooner or later, they're going to crack for good.

In the year after Operation Cast Lead, George Galloway's Viva Palestina and other solidarity groups like CODEPINK correctly identified the Egyptian border as the weak link in the siege. Grassroots aid convoys and delegations began prying open the Rafah crossing--until last winter, when the combined forces of Viva Palestina 3 and the Gaza Freedom March threatened to punch such a massive hole in the blockade that the Egyptian government had to crack down or risk losing all credibility as Israel's chief collaborator in the strangulation of Gaza. And thus that crack was effectively sealed up, at least for the present time.

The northern and eastern borders with Israel have long been impenetrable to all but a lucky few. That leaves one obvious blockade-busting route into Gaza open: the sea.

When the Free Gaza Movement sailed two tiny fishing boats carrying 44 people from 17 countries through the Israeli naval blockade into Gaza's harbor in August 2008--the first international ships to dock in Gaza's port in 41 years--I don't think anyone could have predicted what things would look like less than two years later.

As I write this, the various vessels of the Freedom Flotilla are steaming toward an undisclosed rendezvous point in international waters. Among them: four cargo ships carrying a combined 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid: construction materials, medical supplies, textbooks, paper and even chocolate and children's toys (both still banned by Israel); and five passenger ships carrying between 700 and 800 activists from 40 countries, including 35 Members of Parliament. Ships departing from Turkey, Greece, Algeria and even as far away as Ireland will meet up in the Mediterranean and head for Gaza in one massive international effort to break the siege.

For the record, it should be stated that all the actions of the Freedom Flotilla are completely legal, nonviolent, and in compliance with international maritime regulations. All ships and cargo have been properly inspected. The Flotilla will be sailing through international and Gazan waters and does not plan to enter Israeli waters at any time. There is no conceivable way this Flotilla constitutes a "security threat" to Israel--other than threatening the security of the continued siege and occupation of Gaza.

The Israeli navy, of course, has threatened to intercept the Flotilla and kidnap and deport all its passengers, a la the Spirit of Humanity this past June. Apparently they have even set up a special concentration camp in the port city of Ashdod for this purpose.

But something else interesting has happened in the past year--namely, the Turkish charity IHH chose to strike up a warm relationship with various direct action Palestine solidarity groups at around the same time the Israel government saw fit to totally fucking humiliate some Turkish politicians, souring relations between two formerly close allies remarkably quickly. And as a result we now have a potential standoff between Israel and Turkey, which would have been unheard of just months before.

The standoff has been rhetorical so far--who knows how far Turkey would actually go to protest Israel's actions if the Flotilla were attacked. But the simple brilliance of the Freedom Flotilla's strategy must be acknowledged. Nonviolent international solidarity activists have done what no government has been able to do: forced Israel into a showdown in which all its choices are bad.

Block, hijack or fire on the Flotilla, and Israel risks not only a massive international outcry--which it's proven it can ignore--but a potential diplomatic row with a NATO member state, which it probably can't.

Allow the Flotilla in and civil society groups will have blown a massive hole in the blockade--maybe a permanent one. The floodgates will be opened. If one group can do it, surely others will try.

Because, in the long run, the latter option is by far the more dangerous choice for Israeli apartheid, I think it's likely the Flotilla will be stopped with force. But doing it will be a massive sticky mess for Israel. Even with all hasbara generators on overdrive, there is just no way to put a good PR spin on images of naval ships bristling with guns attacking a boat with THIS IS A HUMANITARIAN AID SHIP printed on it in giant letters.

Of course, Israel got itself into this mess by getting just a little too comfortable with its position of total fucking impunity. Like all oppressors, it was bound to go too far eventually. It wasn't enough to bomb Gaza--they had to flatten it. It's not enough to have the world's fourth largest military, ridiculously superior to any other in the region. Israel has to go around thumbing its nose at other countries saying (in a Cartman voice; Israel totally has a Cartman voice) "Whatever, I do what I want!" Hell, they've even managed to piss off Australia.

Activists should keep an eye out here and here for news of the Freedom Flotilla and be prepared to protest any aggressive actions by Israel, particularly in the next 48 hours. Pre-emptive protests are already planned in a number of cities to demand safe passage for the boats. But whatever happens with the Flotilla, the global tide has turned--against Israeli apartheid, toward Palestine and toward justice, and I don't think there is any going back.

what's going on

1. I graduated. I now officially have an MFA. Well...sort of. Turns out the "diplomas" we were handed for the graduation photo op were friggin' props, with a little IOU inside saying something like "You will receive your actual diploma in 4-6 weeks." Which seems somehow oddly appropriate.

The commencement speaker for the film school ceremony was Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of DreamWorks, which certainly sounds impressive. But let's just say when it comes to graduation speeches, he is no JK Rowling.

2. I First-Pitched. It went okay. I got a couple of script requests for my thesis script, which haven't led to anything so far, but I'm kind of okay with that, mostly because...

3. I have a writing assignment. It pays money. Okay, not very much, but I think anything more than zero is a step in the right direction at this point. I can't really say much about the project (Hollywood is all secret like that) but it's with a great female director who just made her first feature, and it's a story I'm really excited about.

There is also a chance I may be working on a second project that pays no money (at the moment) but is based on an amazing true story that's perfect for me and would involve some subsidized travel for research to somewhere I've never been that would be very, very cool. Nothing is confirmed with that project yet but if it happens I'll be stoked. Which leads me to...

4. Travel and/or the rest of my life. This much I know for sure: I'll be in LA until the end of June, since that's when my lease is up. I'm also thrilled to report that I'll be back in PALESTINE (inshallah) July 24-August 6, traveling to the West Bank and '48 [Israel] with Interfaith Peace-Builders (and blogging up a storm per usual, of course). I'll also be spending a few days in Jordan on my own at the end of the trip, returning to the US on August 12.

Baltimore is a strong possibility for the 3 weeks between the end of June and my departure for the Middle East. After August 12...who knows????? I still really want to move back to NYC, but that sort of requires employment, which, you may be aware, is not such an easy thing to come by these days.

But in the meantime, some other things I'm excited about:

1. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. I'm going to a play! In Los Angeles! They do exist!! Of course the day I'm going, I have learned, is also the day of some giant bike race that's going to cause street closings, oh, pretty much all the way from my house to the theater. Of course.

2. Winter's Bone at LACMA with Q&A with Debra Granik. The more I hear about this film, the awesomer it sounds. Can't. Wait.