South African Jews demand end to blockade, pledge their “own bodies” to break siege on Gaza
The South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) has strongly condemned the illegal abduction of peaceful activists carrying humanitarian relief for a desperate, besieged population in Gaza carried out on international waters by Israeli forces.
This was contained in a statement on the SAJFP website titled: “Our Own Bodies to Break the Siege”.
The SAJFP commended thousands of organisations and individuals sailing, driving, and marching to call for an end to the blockade and the genocide in Gaza.
It said, “It has been more than 19 months since the genocide in Gaza began. We have witnessed millions of people being chased from their homes, and then successively chased from every location in which they have tried momentarily to rest.
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“We have witnessed the decimation of schools, places of worship, and hospitals; countless children and infants undergoing amputations without anaesthesia – sometimes before our eyes. Indeed, Gazans have managed to show us events unfolding despite their journalists being systematically hunted down and assassinated.
“Despite these constant and ongoing abominations, complicit governments remain deaf to protest; genocidaires remain unperturbed.
“After our constant protest for the past 19 months, people around the world are now looking for another way to counter the perversion of a powerful military trying to utterly annihilate a vulnerable population.
“The Freedom Flotilla began drawing attention to the illegal blockade on Gaza’s seafront in 2010; it was violently intercepted by Israel and 9 activists onboard the Mavi Marmara were killed.
“The latest iteration of the Freedom Flotilla, the Madleen, has now been intercepted and those aboard are being held by the Israeli Occupation Forces in conditions unknown.
“We condemn the illegal abduction – carried out on international waters – of peaceful activists carrying humanitarian relief for a desperate, besieged population.
“While the Freedom Flotilla aimed to break the siege by sea, there are much larger campaigns underway to break it by land as well. Thousands from around the world are working to breach the blockade themselves.
“From Tunisia, the Al-Soumoud Caravan will be travelling through Libya and Egypt to reach the Rafah border with Gaza. More than 7,000 have joined. Thousands more will be coming under the banner of the Global March to Gaza. Starting in el-ʻArīsh in the Sinai desert, they will march about 50 km in only two days to the Rafah border crossing. They will call for an end to the blockade and the genocide.
“SAJFP is just one of the many organisations that will be represented in this march. Our representatives will be among thousands of others for whom protests from afar, and endless editorials have not been enough.
“Those sailing, driving, and marching are ones who cannot bear to sit by and see more of this horror unfold: our best wishes must go with each of them, they carry the humanity of us all.
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