Yesterday history was made. Today you would never know it if you solely depended on the mainstream media. For some reason or another they are not covering it. Or maybe Google News is no longer the best way to get the most comprehensive view of how a story is covered. Nonetheless...
Dockworkers in the Longshoreman Union in Oakland refused to unload an Israeli Zim Cargo Ship Scheduled to be unloaded on Sunday. In the initial stages one can never be sure what success there will be, how many would turn out on Father's Day for example.
And as it was we had a good turnout 800 in the morning and at least 200 in the afternoon. We had to block 4 gates so the forces had to be dispersed effectively and there had to be communication between the various gates to make sure there were no weak spots.
The Longshoreman have always been a progressive union standing against Chile's Pinochet, South African Apartheid and now Israeli Apartheid. We were honored that a new generation of Longshoreworkers continued that tradition. Norwegian dockworkers begin a TWO WEEK boycott and Swedish dockworkers begin a ONE WEEK boycott of Israeli ships starting today.
Susan Galleymore is the author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror
Galleymore reports to us in Common Dreams Israeli Shipping Line Zim Shut Out at Oakland Docks
The Non-violent action is described as well as the links to Apartheid both in South Africa and Israel.
But international anger has been simmering for some time against Israel's actions in Palestine. The bombardment of Gaza over Christmas and New Year 2009 was an act of sustained brutality that riveted the world. Since then, images of desperate Palestinians are hard to miss. They include babies and children living in what is referred to by some as the "world's largest open-air prison".
Israel's blockade of Gaza extends beyond its land borders. Fishermen are allowed within only 5.5 km of their own coast. Some sneak into Egyptian waters to fish but doing so puts their lives at risk.
Israeli officials insist there is no humanitarian crisis. United Nations aid workers inside Gaza, however, speak of 80 per cent of the people depending on food hand-outs. UN data draws disquieting images: 14 per cent of children suffer stunted growth due to malnutrition.
Both President Obama and the US Congress in general continue to overpraise Israel and give it money with no requirements to behave as a good citizen.
Galleymore points out people are waking up and are less intimidated by the labels.
In the clear sunshine that poured over the Oakland docks on June 20, it is apparent that ever more people of all ages and backgrounds are looking into the face of this new version of apartheid. What they see makes them unafraid of the omnipresent threat of being labeled "anti-Semitic" or "self-hating Jew."
If the Israeli government follows the directive of just one sign in evidence on this day - "Boycott Israeli Ships and Goods" - it would consider deeply apartheid South Africa's history. Then it would steer its ship of state toward a different star...and full speed ahead.
Susan Galleymore is the mother of a former US Army medic and author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror in which she shares the first person stories of families in Iraq, Israel and West Bank, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, and the U.S. She was born in apartheid South Africa, lived in Israel from 1975 to 1977, and visited again in 2005. She is host of Raising Sand Radio
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