by Roger Waters 27 December 2009

Photo: Ronald de Hommel Israeli military wall in Gaza, Palestine.

My name is Roger Waters. I am an English musician living in the USA. I am writing to express my great admiration for and solidarity with the 1360 men and women from 42 different countries around the World who are gathering in Egypt, preparing for The Gaza Freedom March. We all watched, aghast, the vicious attack made a year ago on the people of Gaza by Israeli armed forces and the ongoing illegal siege. The suffering wrought on the population of Gaza by both the invasion and the siege is unimaginable to us outside the walls.

The aim of The Freedom March is to focus world attention on the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza in the hope that the scales will fall from the eyes of all, ordinary, decent people round the world, that they may see the enormity of the crimes that have been committed, and demand that their governments bring all possible pressure to bear on Israel to lift the siege.

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report by David Bleakney, Canadian Union of Postal Workers

Photo: Gaza City after Israeli bombing in January 2009.

The Gaza Freedom March has not made it to Gaza. Some might say this is a failure. But Gaza is in the hearts and other lessons will be learned here.

There is no question that Egypt faces intense pressure from other powers and forces, including Israel and the European Union. To a lesser extent, Canada whose government is now seen as an international climate change pariah, plays an apologist role for crimes against humanity while deserting, even aiding and abetting, the removal of the rights of Canadians while abroad.

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Indypendent December 29, 2009.

Photo: Egyptian riot police at Gaza Strip boarder.

Cairo, December 28—Cairo was waking up as we made our way to the first of today’s actions. We were going to gather at the bus depot in the section of the city called Ma’arouf. It was from that depot that a convoy of buses was supposed to be taking us this morning on the first leg of the journey to Gaza, to join the historic Freedom March there on New Year’s Eve.

But days before Christmas, the Egyptian government announced that it would not permit us to go to Gaza. Now the marchers are protesting, trying to pressure the government to rescind the ban and asking other governments to intervene. This morning, we were making that demand at the site from which we had intended to leave Cairo.

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1,360 international delegates appeal to Egypt to let Gaza Freedom March proceed

Photo: Sabrien Amrov. Gaza solidarity demonstration in Montreal, December, 2008.

Citing escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed us on December 20 that the Rafah border will be closed over the coming weeks, into January. We responded that there is always tension at the border because of the siege and that if there are any risks, they are risks we are willing to take. We also said that it was too late for over 1,360 delegates coming from over 42 countries to change their plans now.

Although we consider this as a setback, it is something we’ve encountered—and overcome–before. No delegation, large or small, that has entered Gaza over the past 12 months has received a final OK before arriving at the Rafah border. Most delegations were discouraged from even heading out of Cairo to Rafah. Some had their buses stopped on the way. Some have been told outright that they could not go into Gaza. But after public and political pressure, the Egyptian government changed its position and let them pass.

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Agence France-Presse AFP – December 27th, 2009.

Photo: Smoke over Gaza rises during Israeli bombing last winter.

French protesters camped out in front of the their embassy in Cairo to protest a ban on them from travelling from Egypt to Gaza for a march in support of the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

About 300 protesters set up tents and blocked a road in front of the mission after buses they had rented to take them to El-Arish, a town close to the border with Gaza, never came.

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report written by Luciana Coconi from Palestina al Cor in Catalonia

Photo: Smoke rises over the Gaza Strip after Israeli bombing raid.

The aim of this report is to determine whether or not a crime of apartheid is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. It adopts an outside, non preconceived side whatsoever and it analyses, on the one hand, international human rights legislation and international humanitarian law and, on the other hand, internal legislation and its application, both in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Throughout the study, we shall observe what is understood to be the crime of apartheid. We know what happened in South Africa, we suspect it could be occurring in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but little has been researched about why apartheid arose and became a crime against humanity and exactly what its legal content is.

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Al Jazeera by Nisreen El-Shamayleh in Mafraq, northern Jordan.

Photo Urban landscape in northern Jordan.

Jordan has stood at the front-line of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948, and in the six decades since has been de-mining battlefields where opposing armies once roamed.

Many of the country’s land mines date back to the 1948 partition of Palestine, the 1967 Six Day War, and hostilities with Syria in the 1970’s.

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photo by ActiveStills

Photo: ActiveStills. Poet Saul Williams visiting Bil’in, Palestine.

Celebrated US poet and performer Saul Williams visited Bilin, Palestine in November 2009, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid while touring near the apartheid wall build on Bil’in village lands and visiting with the residences in Bil’in about life under the Israeli occupation.

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New York Times by Mustafa Barghouthi December 16th, 2009.

Photo: Palestinian youth in the Israeli occupied West Bank.

I have lived my entire adult life under occupation, with Israelis holding ultimate control over my movement and daily life.

When young Israeli police officers force me to sit on the cold ground and soldiers beat me during a peaceful protest, I smolder. No human being should be compelled to sit on the ground while exercising rights taken for granted throughout the West.

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Free Palestinian political prisoner Abdallah Abu Rahmah!

Friday, December 18th 12h00
Indigo Bookstore
corner of St. Catherine & McGill college
(metro McGill)
Montreal, Canada

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