BURLINGTON- If you weren’t on Church Street yesterday, you missed this demonstration and memorial to the nine humanitarian activists who were murdered by cowardly Israeli commandos this weekend. The attacks have spurred worldwide condemnation including Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Aung San Suu Kyi, Jimmy Carter, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Russia, Turkey, India, China, Brazil, France, and Spain. Obama expressed “deep regret at the loss of life.”
The Turkish Mavi Mamara was delivering humanitarian aid and miscellaneous supplies to Gaza. Gaza cannot receive the aid due to the Israeli naval blockade, claiming it will help Hamas (which is rubbish). More flotillas are headed to Gaza and the Turkish parliament approved military escorts to ensure their safe arrival. An Israeli naval commander said “next time [we] will use more force.” There’s more to the story. There’s so much late breaking and developing news. For a good rundown click here. Glenn Greenwald also has a full recap.
In the meantime, here’s the YouTube from yesterday’s actions in Burlington. There will be another demonstration tomorrow. If I have any further information, I’ll post it here.
I was at the Wednesday protest last night on Church Street in downtown Burlington against the Israeli outrage, which everyone else in the world is condemning except our own government. Fifty of us went to Senator Leahy’s office to ask that he, as a friend of human rights, would issue a statement condemning the outrage, too. And there is the Leahy Amendment which prohibits military aid to countries that commit egregious human rights abuses. This should be enforced against Israel, by far the biggest recipient for years and years of U.S. foreign aid dollars. A number of the participants who spoke out most vociferously were Vermont Jews. There will be a further protest in downtown Montpelier this Friday at 4:30. I urge other people of all faiths & good conscience to join us then and there.
Jay Moore