Condemn the Criminal Zionist Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla! All-Out Support for the Palestinian People!

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Condemn the Criminal Zionist Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla! All-Out Support for the Palestinian People!

Thousands Demonstrate in London against Israeli Barbarity

Stop The War Press Release – May 31, 2010

George Galloway Speaks Out Against Israeli Piracy and Murder

RCPB(ML) forcefully condemns the brutal massacre and fascist attack carried out by Israeli Zionist commandoes on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which left as many as 20 volunteers dead and dozens injured. This crime is added to the ongoing crimes carried out by the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people, and specifically the indiscriminate killing of the people of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. It shows that to this criminal regime, human life is as nothing. The Zionist regime and their Anglo-American backers are the criminals, yet the Israeli government justifies its crimes in the same fashion as did the Nazi regime: the victims of the attack were the ones who "provoked" it. The heroic resistance of the Palestinian people drives them into a rage, and all who offer support and solidarity with this resistance, and are determined to bring the Palestinians humanitarian aid despite the Zionist dictate, must be punished and taught a lesson. But this fascist methodology and its associated crimes and murders is further exposing the regime and bringing down on it international condemnation and demands that these crimes be ended and their perpetrators brought to justice.

The Freedom Flotilla is a flotilla of aid-bearing ships whose aim has been to break the inhuman Israeli siege against the people of Gaza. It had been carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid, including materials for the reconstruction of the pounded infrastructure and housing, medical and educational supplies, as well as textiles and food. It is manned by some 800 people from 50 countries, and includes parliamentarians, journalists, peace activists and international personalities. Forty members of the flotilla are British.

This crime took place in international waters, 100 miles off the Gaza coastline. The flotilla is a peaceful humanitarian project. Yet the Israeli government justified its crime on the basis of the lie that Israel is defending itself, and is elaborating this lie with the brazen allegation that the volunteers on the flotilla wanted confrontation and violence, and this is what they got. The Israeli Zionists are the ones breaking international law and committing crimes against humanity, and there is a growing and powerful movement to ensure that these crimes do not succeed, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people.

RCPB(ML) calls on all justice-loving people to join their voices in vigorously condemning this murderous attack and the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people, and to join in the actions of protest and of support of the Palestinian people’s cause, as well as to demand the release of all those volunteers now being held by the Israeli regime.

Condemn the Criminal Zionist Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla!

End the Backing of Anglo-US Imperialism for the Zionist Regime!

All-Out Support for the Palestinian People and their Cause!

Stop the War Coalition Report

At least two thousand protesters blocked Whitehall on 31 May, outside prime minister David Cameron's Downing Street residence. That so many people could be mobilised within hours of Israel's barbaric attack on the Gaza aid flotilla, which left 19 dead and many injured, shows the scale of anger and outrage over yet another Israeli atrocity.

After hearing speeches from, among others, Tariq Ali, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Salma Yaqoob, Lowkey and Craig Murray, the demonstration marched to the Israeli Embassy, with hundreds more protestors joining on the way.

More action calling for the British government to break links with Israel in condemnation of the killings will be announced soon.

For further information, see http://stopwar.org.uk/

PROTEST: TUESDAY 1 JUNE

5pm onwards

OUTSIDE THE ISRAELI EMBASSY, KENSINGTON HIGH STREET

(turn right out of High Street Kensington tube station)

The killing of at least 10 people and the injuring of many more on board the flotilla taking aid to Gaza is the latest in a series of crimes which should see Israel condemned under international law. The 600 protesters were on a peaceful mission and unarmed.

Israel has repeatedly flouted law and public opinion worldwide in its treatment of the Palestinians. Its bombing of Gaza in 2009 and its continued blockade has caused outrage round the world. The flotilla was an attempt to bring aid to the blockaded population of Gaza. It was supported by many organisations and individuals internationally.

The decision by Israel to attack the flotilla with such loss of human life shows its arrogant and deadly intent in opposing any aid to the Palestinians.

The British and EU governments should immediately condemn this act of terror and break all links with Israel.

The Stop the War Coalition will be joining other organisations at 2pm today to demonstrate outside Downing Street at 2pm.

31 May 2010

"News has just broken of this barbarous act of piracy conducted by the so-called state of Israel, in which innocent humanitarian aid workers have been cold-bloodedly murdered and dozens wounded. Maybe more deaths to come in the hours that will follow.

"This crime is one of the most dastardly attacks on humanitarian aid workers in recent times, and amidst the wreckage of the Freedom Flotilla is what remains of Israel’s reputation as a member of the international community.

"Israel has grown used to killing people as an answer to their political problems, but now they have moved [on] from killing those Palestinians who have the misfortune to live under their occupation or behind the walls of their siege, and international citizens of 40 countries have come under a hail of gunfire from the so-called Israel Defence Force.

"This crime will not go unanswered. It will not go unanswered by the government of Turkey, which has invested heavily in the international diplomacy to try to come to the aid of the Palestinians under siege.

"But the international community as a whole must respond. Ambassadors should be recalled; Israeli ambassadors should be asked to leave; and a wholesale review of the international community’s relationship with this criminal, pirate state of Israel should now be launched …

"Viva Palestina Arabia was a partner in the flotilla, and we send our condolences to the families of the dead, our sympathies to the families of the wounded, our disappointment to the poor Palestinians under siege in Gaza, who will not now receive the $20m worth of charitable aid given from all over the world to try to make their lives just a little bit easier.

"This disaster cannot go unanswered. [It’s time] for the international community to stand up and be counted, and stop treating this law-breaking rogue state as if it were a respectable member of the United Nations."

George Galloway speaking from Houston, Texas, at 5.18am (UK time).