Eyewitness Gaza 2009

Public meeting with Ewa Jasciewicz
7:30pm, May 12 2009
Easton Community Centre, Easton, Bristol

Paramedics, prisoners and border communities under fire

EWA Jasiewicz has been on the ground in Gaza since November, having arrived on the siege breaking Free Gaza boat. She has been working on ambulances and reporting the reality of lives under siege and under military assault. She is currently in the UK to highlight the ongoing situation in Gaza and encourage links between communities here and in Gaza

THE FREE GAZA MOVEMENT
http://www.freegaza.org
Since August 2008, the Free Gaza Movement has sailed from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip on several successful voyages bringing in medical aid and solidarity workers. Ours are the first international boats to journey to Gaza since 1967. In May a flotilla of boats will sail to Gaza carrying people and medical supplies to break the siege once again. We have not and will not ask for Israel’s permission. It is our intent to overcome this brutal siege through civil resistance and establish a permanent sea lane between Cyprus and Gaza.

Ewa Jasiewicz is a co-co-ordinator of the Free Gaza Movement, based in Gaza. An activist, union organiser and journalist, she has worked with oil workers in Iraq from 2003-2004 and paramedics in Gaza throughout Israel’s recent war on the territory. Her current focus is on co-ordinating siege breaking delegations to Gaza and building twinning relationships between schools, ambulance stations, and ER departments.

Response to ISM call out from Bristol No Borders

Bristol No Border acknowledges the call to action received from ISM Gaza following the indefinate closure of the Rafah borders in February 2009.

Bristol No Borders condems the closure of the borders at Rafah which prevents the movement of people, food, aid and other essential supplies and which serves to imprison and repress the population of Gaza. These closures are a stark example of what all borders are set up to acheive – the control and repression of populations and the artificial division of people.

No Borders acts in solidarity with all those who are fighting to break the siege and stop the border control in Gaza. We call for collective action and practical solidarity with the people of Gaza. No Borders rejects all forms of nationalism and state based ‘solutions’. Ethnicity does not grant “rights” to lands, which require the state to enforce them. People, however, have a right to ensure their human needs are met, and should be able to live where they choose, freely.

Controls such as checkpoints, walls, barriers and borders, which exist throughout the occupied territories, are denying the fundemental right of freedom of movement to the Palestinian people and causing immense
suffering to the population caged inside them.

We call for the immediate removal of all such barriers and demand the right to freedom of movement for all people. Bristol No Borders is committed to taking direct action action against companies based in our
locality that are directly profiting from this system of control and oppression. We urge other groups to take similar action.

In solidarity
Bristol No Borders