[Peace-discuss] Ann Wright: Why I Am On Gaza Freedom Flotilla 3

[Robert Naiman]

Why I Am On Gaza Freedom Flotilla 3
By Ann Wright
https://freedomflotilla.org/news/20-why-i-am-on-gaza-freedom-flotilla-3-by-ann-wright

I served 29 years in the U.S. Army and retired as a Colonel. I was also a
U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua,
Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia,
Afghanistan and Mongolia.

In my 2003 letter of resignation from the U.S. government in opposition to
U.S. President Bush’s war on Iraq, I cited the “continuing unbalanced
policies of the United States in Israeli-Palestinian issues” as one of my
major concerns on U.S. foreign policy.

I had had an assignment in the Middle East. My first experience in
Palestine was in January 2009 when I travelled to Gaza and saw the brutal
destruction of much of Gaza by the Israeli attack and the deaths of over
1400 persons. Afterwards, I helped organize 5 delegations to Gaza in 2009,
including the Gaza Freedom March with 1300 participants from 30 countries.
I returned to Gaza in 2011 as a part of an international parliamentary
delegation and again in 2012 after the Israeli attack on Gaza. I was a
passenger on the Challenger 1 boat in the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla in
which the Israeli commandos executed 9 persons on the Mavi Marmara (a 10th
person has now died from his injuries) and wounded over 50 and beat up
passengers on each of the six boats in the flotilla. I was an organizer for
the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, in the 2011 Gaza Freedom
Flotilla and an initial organizer for Gaza’s Ark.

I am horrified by the brutal 55 day Israeli attack on Gaza in 2014 that
left over 2,200 dead and 10,000 wounded and much of the country in ruins. I
am equally horrified by the lack of international assistance for the people
of Gaza during this past year and by the impunity that Israel has in the
international community for the criminal acts it has committed on the
people of Gaza and the West Ban.

I am participating again in another Gaza Freedom Flotilla because I am
totally and completely opposed to the continuous Israeli naval blockade of
Gaza and the U.S. complicity in the frequent massive Israeli attacks on the
people of Gaza. Without the approval of the United States and the military
weaponry from the United States, Israel would be unable to continue its
military destruction of Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank. As a
concerned citizen of this planet, the least I can do is challenge Israel
and my country, the United States, by this flotilla.
===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1
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