April 17, 2012
October 12, 2011
January 5, 2011
Dawn Treader: Applying for the next flotilla to Gaza
On New Years Day, me and my family all trudged off to see “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and once again got inspired to take sword in hand and fight against Injustice and the Bad Guys. I wanna be Queen Lucy! (But non-violently of course).
And now I just may get my chance.
Sometime in April of 2011, many American and European peace-and-justice organizations plan to join together and launch yet another humanitarian flotilla of boats and ships to Gaza, in an effort to bring food, medicine, books and building supplies to the illegally-besieged men, women and children there — trying to relieve their suffering under the Dark Lords who have kept them chained and imprisoned. How heroic is that! I wanna go!
But, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do anything that involves fighting giant sea monsters and dueling with dragons — because of my sore foot and bad knees.
“But Jane — maybe you won’t have to fight any dragons,” you might say. “I hear that this voyage is going to be completely nonviolent. All they are going to do is sail to Gaza, drop off humanitarian supplies and leave. Think school notepads. Think penicillin. Think toothbrushes.”
Yeah, okay, but — what will happen if we DO come under attack? How the freak will I be able to inform the Bad Guys (who will be coming after me with battleships and helicopters and ski masks) to just leave me alone because I’m the next Gandhi — as they violently charge at me with tear gas, crowbars, assault rifles, hand guns and vicious mean dogs!
How did Gandhi manage to remain nonviolent in the face of all that — when even Queen Lucy couldn’t do it? Snaps for Gandhi. Any fool can fire a machine gun, drop a bomb, plant a roadside device — or even use a sword. You really gotta be a real hero to be as brave as Gandhi.
PS: I really liked “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” which took place at a time before guns were invented and all fighting was done hand-to-hand. It may not have been as nonviolent as I would have liked it to be but at least when you are locked in swashbuckling combat, you at least get to see your enemy up close and personal before you kill them or they kill you. Now the whole thing is just done with artillery and drones.
PPS: Wanna go sail on the “Dawn Treader” flotilla to Gaza yourself? Here’s a link to instructions on how to submit your application: http://ustogaza.org/application-information/
PPPS: According to the Huffington Post, Wikileaks just announced that, “Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was meant to push the area’s economy ‘to the brink of collapse,’ according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks on Wednesday, signaling that Israel was well aware that the policy was taking a heavy toll on the area’s civilian population.”
Isn’t that illegal? And immoral? But, hey, at least it’s not fattening — that is, if you are a malnourished three-year-old living in Gaza http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/05/israel-gaza-collapse-wikileaks_n_804583.html
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June 1, 2010
Update on Paul Larudee: Non-violent pacifist badly beaten by Israeli commandos
San Francisco Bay Area resident Paul Larudee, who is instrumental in Berkeley’s Free Palestine Movement, was taken and detained by Israeli commando forces on Monday. Official Israeli sources are stating that their peaceful boarding parties were met with violent resistance by passengers on the ships they were boarding and that the boarding parties only used force when necessary to protect themselves.
However, I have known Paul for many years and his whole credo is one of non-violent resistance. Working with the NorCal branch of the International Solidarity Movement since approximately 1996, Paul is very much a believer in and practitioner of Gandhi’s principles of non-violence.
Given what I myself know about Paul, it seems rather odd that Paul would have been mercilessly beaten by Israeli forces. Yet I and other members of FPM just received the following e-mail stating that he was badly and, according to another e-mail I just received, “brutally” beaten:
“Hello, my name’s Lindsey, I’m living with Betty Larudee while her husband Paul is overseas with the Gaza flotilla. We just got an email from the Israeli Consulate General Andrew Parker in Jerusalem.
“He said that Paul is alive and seriously beaten. Paul told him to call us so this is the closest contact we’ve had so far. He asked us to spread the word as much as possible. Betty was the one that talked to Parker but now she is upset and doesn’t want to talk to anyone until she gets an email from the consulate tomorrow.
“Paul silently refused to follow Israeli orders so they beat him. Now he’s being held in prison. He’s in the same room with the captain of the boat. They have no windows, no telephone, nothing. He refused treatment by Israeli doctors, and only let the ship doctor give him aspirin.”
Furthermore, I am currently receiving several other reports from various European, Greek and Turkish eyewitnesses that the Israeli boarding forces hit the ground running, armed with stun guns, tear gas, metal batons, rubber bullets, etc., and with clearly violent intent.
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