A CALL FROM GAZA
to the People of Conscience worldwide to break the Israeli Blockade:

Do not forget Gaza
We are waiting for your boats at our shores

September 30, 2011

Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine

We the Palestinians of the Besieged Gaza Strip, are calling on the world: enough inaction, enough discussion, enough waiting – the illegal closure on the Gaza Strip must end.  While attention is focused on the Palestinian bid for statehood in the UN do not forget that the blockade and the suffering continue in Gaza.

Shortly after 2006 democratic election which was supervised by people and bodies from the international community, nations formerly supporting aid and cultural organizations in Gaza withdrew their support.  In mid-2007, our borders, controlled by Israel and Egypt, fully closed, locking Palestinians within and preventing imports and exports from crossing our borders.

From December 27 2008 to January 18 2009, Israel waged an all-out slaughter on Gaza, killing over 1400 Palestinians, the vast majority innocent civilians and among them nearly 400 children, and destroying thousands of homes, businesses, factories and buildings including universities, schools, hospitals and medical care facilities, and damaging vast tracts of our water and sanitation system.

Almost three years following after Israel's attacks, almost no homes and few buildings have been rebuilt, our sanitation and sewage system is more dire than ever, raw waste continues to be pumped into our sea –for want of proper treatment facilities –polluting our water and the fish along the coast which fishermen are forced to harvest because the Israeli navy shoots at them if they try to fish more than three miles from the Gaza coast—contaminating our drinking water and food supply.

The One Democratic State Group -Gaza

"The One Democratic State Group is committed to the struggle for Palestinian rights. These rights will never be realized outside the framework of a unitary state with equality for all its citizens. For too long this aim has been a vision. It is time to make it happen, and the ODSG is at the forefront of that effort. They deserve our full support."~ Ghada Karmi

"In this time of despair and ever-growing violence that threatens to destroy the Palestinian people, it is most refreshing to hear about a humanist and genuine initiative to find a just solution for the Palestine question. It is most amazing that it grew on the killing fields of Gaza, which bore the brunt of the Israeli criminal policies.  It carries with it a hope that despite the various Nakbas the Palestinian people have gone through, there is still a valid possibility for Jews and Palestinians to share the land on the basis of equal and human rights. This is the only way forward and it is in particular the people of Gaza who can show us the way forward."~ Ilan Pappe

"Durable peace can only be based on justice especially the implementation of the basic right of return and restitution for Palestinian refugees.  This can only be done in a context of a democratic pluralistic state for all its people.  Institutions and movements that promote this logical and just vision for peace are growing and should be supported.  The ODSG stands at the forefront of dynamic grass-root movements that are changing the political landscape and thus are creating a better future not only for the native victims but for all people."  Mazin Qumsiyeh