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Sacharov Prize recipient Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan and her peace activist brother Miko Peled to participate in Gaza Freedom March Set for December 31
December 18, 2009
For Immediate Release: December 18th, 2009
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Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan, an Israeli mother and recipient of the Sacharov Prize and her brother, writer and peace activist Miko Peled (mikopeled.wordpress.com) will be participating in the Free Gaza March (www.gazafreedommarch.org) this month. Nurit will be on the Israeli side of the wall while Miko, who lives in California, will be marching inside the wall on the Gaza side.
Their father was the late Israeli General turned peace activist Matti Peled. Nurit’s daughter, Smadar, was killed by Palestinians in a suicide attack in 1997.
They released the following statement:
“The appeal to march for Gaza even as the killing of innocents continues, reminds us of the appeal by the Jewish poet Bialik, more than a hundred years ago after a massacre of the Jews of Kishinev:
"Arise and go now to the city of slaughter;
Into its courtyard wind your way;
There with your own hand touch, and with the eyes in your head,
Behold on tree, on stone, on fence, on mural clay,
The spattered blood and dried brains of the dead."
In its shameless indignation, only sixty years after Auschwitz, the State of the Jews confines people in ghettoes surrounded by walls and barbed wires, supervised by armed soldiers and their ferocious dogs, and the world looks on in silence.
The blood of the children of Gaza will forever stain those who allow the killing in Gaza today. Israeli leaders and generals must know that they will not be exonerated. As the poet Bialik also wrote "Satan has not yet created vengeance for the blood of a small child.”
In Gaza, hundreds of children are already buried and thousands more are dying. Their muted voices are a testament to the crime, to our powerlessness, and to the world's indifference.
During this march we must pierce the high heavens with the cry:
How much longer will this go on? “
The Gaza Freedom March, to take place in Gaza on December 31, is an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and nonviolent resistance to injustice worldwide, the march will gather people from all over the world to demand that the Israeli government open the borders.
Other participants include Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, leading Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, South African anti-apartheid leader Ronnie Kasrils, French Senator Alima Boumediene–Thiery, author and Filipino Parliament member Walden Bello, former European Parliamentarian Luisa Morgantini from Italy, President of the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights Attorney Michael Ratner, Japanese former Ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki, French hip-hop artists Ministere des Affaires Populaires. Families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 70 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women's delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.
Inside Gaza, excitement is growing. Representatives of all aspects of civil society, including students, professors, refugee groups, unions, women's organizations, NGOs, have been busy organizing and estimate that at least 50,000 Palestinians will participate. People from the different sectors will march in their uniforms--fishermen, doctors, students, farmers, teachers, etc. Local Palestinian rappers, hip-hop bands and Dabbkeh dancers will perform on mobile stages.
To contact Gaza Freedom March Organizers in country:
Ann Wright in Egypt (19) 508-1493, Gaza (599) 501-517
Tighe Barry, in Egypt (19) 481-2932, Gaza (598) 289-860
Medea Benjamin in Egypt (18) 956-1919, Gaza (599) 501-519
Haider Eid Gaza (599) 441 766
Ziyaad Lunat (roaming) 351938349206
Dialing region from US:
011 to get out of the US
202 for Cairo, Egypt / dial 972 for Gaza
phone number
In U.S. contact after departure:
Emily Siegel Emily@codpinkalert.org 202-441-6716
For more information see www.gazafreedommarch.org
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