Protest to demand end to one-year siege of Gaza

Last Dec. 27, the U.S.-funded Israel war machine unleashed a 23-day blizzard of U.S.-made weapons of mass destruction on the towns and refugee camps of Gaza, the most densely populated place on earth. The death toll was 1,500. Many of the dead were women and children. Tens of thousands lost their arms, legs, eyes, were paralyzed, orphaned or made homeless.

The United Nations Goldstone report found that the Israeli state had committed war crimes, but the U.S. government has blocked any international action on the report. Meanwhile the people of Gaza still go hungry, children are malnourished, the sick die from lack of medicine, and homes have not been rebuilt because of the vicious blockade imposed by the U.S. and Israel. This blockade is reinforced by the European Union and the U.S.-paid Egyptian regime. The Israeli Navy prevents Gazans from fishing in their own waters. U.S. Army engineers are stationed on the Gaza-Egypt border to detect and destroy tunnels that might bring medicine to Gaza’s sick and food to Gaza’s children.

People from around the world are seeking to break the blockade. On Dec. 27, the third Viva Palestina convoy led by British MP George Galloway will try to enter Gaza with truckloads of humanitarian aid. Firsthand reports from the convoy will appear on the Al-Awda NY Web site at www.al-awdany.org. On Dec. 31, the Gaza Freedom March will also try to march through the gates.

In New York City, on Dec. 27, Al-Awda NY — the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the Arab Muslim American Federation, the MAS Freedom Foundation, American Muslims for Palestine, the International Action Center, the Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Dec. 12 Movement, New York City Labor Against the War and many others will march to say the blockade must end, the flow of U.S. arms and dollars to Israel must stop, and Israeli generals and politicians must be prosecuted for war crimes.