The Audacity of Hope

I have just recently returned home from Greece on my own volition, not deported from Israel as I had expected.  I am alright with that to.  My work as part of the US Boat to Gaza and the International Freedom Flotilla II/Stay Human was to get a message out to the world that the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza must come to an end.   Our message went further than our wildest dreams, as millions of people around the world  watched.   Israel threw everything they could at us: lies about the passenger, sabotage of boats, threats of being homophobic, threats of chemical to attack soldiers, complaints against our boat, petty bureaucracy to tie us in, economic and political threats against Greece and neighboring countries.   The list goes on.   Well, Israel did succeed in stopping our boats by moving its own blockade into sovereign waters but our messages traveled in waves across the world.   The people of Gaza know we are still coming.  Our solidarity and global movement for a free and just Palestine grows.  And our movements still have most of the boats!

Victor Hugo once said that “Nothing can withstand the force of an idea whose time as come”.   Just like South African aparthied came down, so to must the occupation of Palestine end.