In an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times, Huwaida and Adam Shapiro, a human rights activist and documentary filmmaker, spoke at length about their mission, that is aimed at helping the besieged Palestinians and defying the Israeli siege of Gaza until it is lifted.

Huwaida, an Arab-Israeli, has been defying Israel politically from humanitarian perspective, bringing attention to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, its persecution of the Palestinian people and its continuing violation of international law.

The Free Gaza Movement, which started in 2006 as a protest against the siege of Gaza, epitomises political defiance with non-violent but powerful means. With the involvement of high profile people and media in previous expeditions, it has so far carried out eight humanitarian missions by sea—five of which were successful in reaching Gaza—from Cyprus carrying medicines and toys for Palestinian children.

Huwaida said, “Palestinian people need humanitarian aid directly because of Israeli policies, but, the people should realise that giving aid is not enough; they have to invest in confronting 
policies.”

The siege of Gaza has led to a humanitarian disaster for the 1.5 million Palestinians deprived of food, medicines, education material and vital reconstruction supplies to rebuild their homes.  The last Gaza offensive started by Israel in December 2008 has exacerbated the situation. The Free Gaza Movement, despite being apprehended by the Israeli Navy and forced to abandon its mission of taking humanitarian relief to Gaza on three separate occasions, plans to organise a bigger expedition before winter carrying construction material and books and stationery.

The aim is to alleviate the terrible humanitarian suffering in the Strip, especially for the women and children of Gaza as warned by the UN humanitarian organisation.  Forced to live amid the rubble of their homes, the people of Gaza have to brave the fast approaching cold months due to lack of construction material.  The Free Gaza Movement has received considerable international support in terms of volunteers but is in urgent need for funding its next expedition. Excerpts from the interview:

Could you throw some light on the Free Gaza Movement’s mission?

Under Israel’s inhuman siege of Gaza, not only war crimes have been committed against Palestinian people but they are tantamount to crimes against humanity. When it comes to Israel, nobody is enforcing the international law. It is not held accountable. People are sending food and medicine but no effort is being made to change Israel’s policy of punishing Palestinians. That’s what we are trying to do — to make people believe that that’s something we can stand up to. Our first boats went last August in 2008. They were two small fishing boats. That’s all we could get; and we had to get into debt to get those.

We are now trying to get more people to join us. We are preparing to go back with a different strategy. We might not get a hundred boats because, one, we don’t have so many resources. Besides, it’s hard to convince governments to defy US and Israel and actually discharge their obligations under international law. So we will deal with what we have. The least we can do right now is to go with three boats. We will try to get a cargo ship. It’s been 10 months since Israel’s assault and nothing has been able to get into Gaza. So we are trying to do that. All these governments, like UAE and Saudi Arabia, have pledged billions of dollars but nothing has been able to get in because of the Israeli blockade.

How were you able to evade the Israeli Navy and break the blockade five times?

We organised ourselves in a way that Israel could not say we are a security threat. We had left from Cyprus, a European port. We had Cypriot authorities check our boats that we are not carrying something that could be seen as a threat to Israel. We publicised who we are. We had a lot of media coverage, we put our profiles on the Internet so people would know who we are before we left, we had a number of high profile people with us.

We were very clear about the fact that we are not a threat to Israel, and we said we are going to sail to Gaza. Israel tried to get the Cypriot authorities to stop us but they refused. They said as long as we do everything legally there is no reason to stop us.  So once we left the port, the only way Israel could stop us was to attack us or confront us on sea.  They chose to do nothing, because the other one would have been bad for them.

First time they stopped us and hit us was during the Gaza offensive. Because there was so much focus on what was happening in Gaza, they thought no 
big deal if they could stop us. They did get negative media attention from CNN but they were not being held accountable, and they thought that would stop us.

We have been going with one boat with international civilians, and a handful of high profile people on each mission. Now we need more. Last time around they stopped us, they arrested all 21 of us. One was a former Congress member, one was Nobel Peace laureate from Ireland, Mairead Maguire.  That didn’t look good for them, that did actually spur not only media but also political action.

That’s why we are changing our strategy. We want to use more boats. At least three if not more. On these boats we need a decent number of high profile people. That’s what we are working on now, apart form raising money for these boats.

How do people donate money to your mission/cause?

Our web site www.freegaza.org is a medium; there are different ways to donate. We are a registered NGO in Cyprus, individuals can donate via paypal through the website.  If they want to donate locally they can write to us, we can arrange it.

How has been the response in the Gulf states considering people here mobilised in huge numbers to collect donations during the recent Gaza 
crisis?

There is a natural response that people give when bombs are dropping. As time has passed donations have come down. However, the situation in Gaza is exactly the same as was it was when bombs stopped dropping. Because it’s not there in the headlines any more, people are not paying attention.

Secondly, so much of that money raised in January hasn’t been delivered.Problem is not about funds, problem is with getting the goods into Gaza. Israel patrols everything.

The Malaysian government had raised a lot of money in January.  It is just sitting there. Because there’s no way they could get the stuff they wanted to bring into Gaza. 

What we are offering is a way to challenge that, we are not prepared to accept the fact that Israel should decide what goes into Gaza. We say this is contrary to international law; it is backed by UN and international community.  Governments that support Palestine are not ready to challenge Israel on this.

They might challenge Israel verbally, bring forth some resolution in the UN but they are not prepared to do something that will stand up in the face of Israel, that’s where it’s lacking. US President Obama and the US pledged $900 million for reconstruction of Gaza. If the US puts $1 million worth of construction material on a boat and sends to Gaza, would Israel stop that boat? No, Israel would not stop a US ship from entering Gaza.

As far as fund raising goes, there is a great deal of pressure on individuals throughout the world, especially in this part of the world, to not support action that is more political in nature than humanitarian. While we recognise the importance of humanitarian assistance and support, the fact is we will go on giving at the humanitarian level forever, if we don’t challenge Israel politically. That’s what Israel wants; they have been for decades now creating one crisis after another so people are preoccupied with just supporting Palestinians this way and not commit any time or energy to finding a political solution.

We are not saying that don’t give humanitarian aid to Gaza, but we are saying recognize this is happening and devote some of your energies to challenging the policies that have created this crisis.  Because it is not Israel but the international community that is paying for the occupation.

What is the estimated cost of procuring three boats and reconstruction material for your next expedition?

We are focusing on reconstruction material and educational material like books and papers.  Nothing is going into Gaza. We had a Right to Read campaign on our web site with a list of the books we needed for Gaza. People are welcome to buy these books and send them to us. We are fairly confident that a lot of reconstruction material will be donated to us.

We are worried about getting the boats. Malaysia has donated enough money to get us a small cargo ship. Which is significant as it involves a government action.  It’s not officially the government as such but former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and architect of modern Malaysia is pushing it.

We have a couple of groups working on getting more boats, we expect a boat from Ireland and we expect a boat from India. We are looking at, at least, one more boat, and the approximate price of that will be Euro 250,000.

It could be a little more or little less but we have other costs, fuel, and port fees, captain fees, things like that but that’s the minimum.

Why aren’t you focusing on supplying food to Gaza?

We work with people on the ground in Gaza so we have civil society organisations that we communicate and coordinate with, to see what is needed, what to bring in. Last time they told us we need paper and construction supplies. Since winter is coming and they haven’t been able to rebuild anything. People are still living in tents or in the rubble of their homes. In terms of food shortage the UN is bringing in food. Israel allows a certain number of UN trucks to come in every day so it can’t be said they are starving people but only a limited items are allowed on these trucks. People are not starving, there is some aid coming in, then there are tunnels. I don’t know if people can survive without the tunnels. We will bring in what people of Gaza want; we are seeking to open a ceiling to Gaza.

Do you see a perceptible shift in  public response to the Palestinian crisis in the US and EU?

Thelevel of activism in US is increasing, there is more awareness that what’s happening there is wrong. Also there is now an awareness that Americans are active part of it, with billions of dollar every year going to Israeli army, when you don’t have money for adequate healthcare or schooling.

We are working on different levels, directly standing up to Israel and 
disobeying its policies that are illegal. The media should educate people. There are people on the ground who are doing their bit, pushing their Congressmen and women to change political dynamics. This is growing, primarily in the US and Europe, because we really need to change the policies of those governments. 

In the Gulf and Middle East, we need to figure out how to plug in, people know about the injustice, but they have to go beyond the humanitarian mentality, go beyond and join this global movement for change. There is a lot of participation from US and Europe. Again it’s good and it’s changing things on the ground. But we still have to convert that change (of mindset) into political change. I am confident that, that will come.

How do you view reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah?

From the Free Gaza Movement perspective we dont take position on internal Palestinian politics and work with all groups. As a Palestinian, I can say people are very disappointed with both political factions and with political groups representing the people, and I can say at this point both Fatah and Hamas are not representing the will of the people. They realise that unity is important before we confront Israel.  Israel’s policy is to divide us and it’s a shame we have fallen into that trap. Most people there have been in active campaign urging the leadership to reconcile. I am disappointed like the millions of Palestinians that they have not been able to unite. In the absence of unity and strategy to move forward, people rise up and they lead the way forward and then I guess leaders will follow.

What message would you like to give to the people?

Palestinian people need humanitarian aid directly because of Israeli policies, but, the people should realise that giving aid is not enough; they have to invest in confronting policies.  The Palestinians themselves say they don’t want charity. They want political solidarity. They want the right to a life of dignity. That’s what we have to consciously keep in mind.

The other message is: we can do it. Israel has arms and bulldozers and tanks and fighter jets but they are on the wrong side of history. People working together can really stand up to them, without the legitimacy of the international community that Israel tries to so hard to maintain, it wont be able to maintain this occupation. The other thing we are working on is to isolating Israel politically, economically socially by pursuing boycotting. That’s picking up, people are doing it consciously.

We called for boycott in 2005. It has been less than five years and we have big unions pass resolutions calling for boycotts.

We have been working on this for a short period of time compared to South Africa, this is important for it has the potential of putting the pressure needed on Israel to end its policies.

But we are also trying to counter the influence of the Israeli lobby in America. It’s picking up around the world, and people here in this part of the world should join these growing efforts, and it should be taken up.

It’s a war of legitimacy with Israel at levels not seen before. In 2002, Israel was able to block a UN investigation, with US assistance, and completely close the investigation of a human rights report. It couldn’t stop the recent UN investigation and it could not stop the disclosure of the Goldstone report.  The Nobel peace prize being awarded to Obama may be useful in putting additional pressure on him. A sitting US president who is a Nobel peace laureate cannot uphold a UN war crime report, which will expose the height of hypocrisy. This makes it difficult for the US.  This is a war of legitimacy and Israel totally lacks it. 

—  faryal@khaleejtimes.com