NOT-CONVOCATION DECEMBER 2009: GAZA FREEDOM MARCH

The last Sunday of the month
27 December 2009
THERE WILL BE NO CONVOCATION
in the Plaza Mayor
but Women in Black against wars - Madrid
invite you
to read about GAZA FREEDOM MARCH
..............................................................................

GAZA FREEDOM MARCH

We Women in Black want to remember the alarming situation being experienced by the people of Gaza as a result of the Israeli siege and the passivity of the international community in confronting this fact.

We ask for an investigation of the accusations of war crimes contained in the report by Goldstone, who was charged by the United Nations Human Rights Council with writing the report, which deals with the Israeli military intervention in Palestinian territory during this past December and January, known as Operation Cast Lead, in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed, the majority of them civilians, including 300 children and 13 Israelis. The report put responsibility on both parties, but reserved the harshest criticism for Israel, which it accuses of crimes against humanity because of these deaths and for demolishing the civilian infrastructure of Gaza: schools, hospitals and homes.

The Oslo accords foresaw a zone of separation between Israel and the Gaza Strip that has been occupied by the Israelis. Many farmers and people living in the countryside have had to abandon their land, and those who have stayed see the Israeli Army shooting at them and destroying their crops with excavators even while they are working.

We are united with the Gaza Freedom March, which will take place on 31 December, in support of the denouncement that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law, inflicting disastrous injury and harm on the populace, in which the United States and the European Union are complicit. This international march, in conjunction with the people of Gaza, will be a non-violent action to denounce and exert pressure on Israel to draw an end to the blockade and give recognition to their responsibility for the crimes committed. Likewise, we appeal to Egypt to open the border at Rafah, so that the people of Palestine can travel freely to study, to work or to receive medical treatment.

We share with the organizers of this march their faith in humanity calling on both parties to respect and fulfill international law and human rights, with the hope for a political solution to the conflict, which will halt the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, and will lead to a just and lasting peace.

We support the proposal of the Coalition of Women for Peace to maintain the arrest warrant initiated in the United Kingdom against Tzipi Livni, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, for war crimes in Gaza, including all those who bear responsibility in her government and army.

We lament the fact that in Spain the possibility of universal justice has been suppressed.

We ask that on the occasion of the Spanish presidency of the European Union, our government show clear and definitive support for the defense of human rights, following the recommendation of the Goldstone Report.
WiB madrid, 27 december 2009

Traslater Trisha Novak, USA