Justice for the Free Gaza flotilla victims and the Gaza people - end Israeli aggression now!
The women, children and men of Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific are outraged by the Israeli attack on the Free Gaza flotilla and for the continued injustice towards the Gaza people. Israeli elite navy corps stormed the ships filled with civilians, killing 19 according to reports and injuring dozens. The attack done on international waters was an act of piracy. This marks the latest attack in an escalation of violence and repression against people standing up against Israeli crimes. Israel has decided to silence, by death or imprisonment, all those ready to speak out.
The Israeli attack was well prepared and according to Israeli news the political establishment had calculated that media backlash was less important than keeping the people in Gaza cut off from the world and humanitarian aid.
Not content with massacres against the Palestinian population, international solidarity is in Israel’s crosshairs now. People telling the true story, people defying the dictates of Israeli racist and colonial laws have become a threat to Israeli apartheid. Ironically, this brutal attack highlights the strength people can have when they are determined to resist power and injustice.
The suffering of the people in Gaza must end now! It is time to end Israeli apartheid, colonialism and aggression!
Hundreds of activists around Asia Pacific and the world protested the raid and the blockade - joining demonstrations around the world. Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific calls on all activists around the world to join in solidarity and hold protests and vigils in memory of the people killed on board the ships.
Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific urges international solidarity groups to work with even more determination to build a strong and effective movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions until Israel respects human rights and international law, and until justice prevails in Palestine.
Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific, calls on the United Nations, the European Commission and the United States of America to:
- Suspend trade agreements with Israel
- Condemn this violation of international law
- Provide humanitarian assistance to participants in the flotilla and act to lift the blockade of Gaza
- Call for the urgent establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry into the attack
The victims on board the Free Gaza flotilla may not be brought back, but with our concerted actions, we can make a difference and claim justice for the victims and stand with our sisters and brothers in Gaza.
