[van-announce] Sun. Sept. 30: Rally for the Fishers and Farmers of Gaza, Palestine - Vancouver

[Charlotte Kates]

*SEPTEMBER 30: DAY OF ACTION FOR THE FISHERS AND FARMERS OF GAZA,
PALESTINE!

Vancouver Rally
Sunday, September 30
1 PM
Vancouver Art Gallery (Robson side)
Robson St. and Hornby St., Vancouver*

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/169183449884770/
Part of the International Day of Action:
http://www.vancouver2gaza.org/dayofaction/

*See new statements of solidarity from Ali Abunimah, Ramzy Baroud, Ben
White, Tim Louis, Haidar Eid, Audrey Bomse, Marianna Harris, Jim Manly:
http://www.vancouver2gaza.org/statements-of-solidarity/*

Join us on September 30 to stand in solidarity with both the farmers and
fishers of Palestine as they work to defend their land and sea from
occupation and continue their harvest and their livelihoods. Many people in
Gaza have always relied on the land and the sea for their livelihood.
Generations of Palestinian fishers have worked the sea, and farmers
harvested the land, to support their communities and their lives. Today,
the fishers and farmers of Gaza are under attack. The Union of Agricultural
Work Committees in Palestine has called for international action and
solidarity to support fishers and farmers under siege.

Gaza, Palestine lies along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Gaza has
been under Israeli occupation since 1967, and under a tight and brutal
siege since 2006, denying people and goods access and movement from the
small coastal strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Over 70% of the people of Gaza are refugees who have lived in Gaza since
the 1948 Nakba – the occupation and ethnic cleansing of most of Palestine.
All of Palestine has suffered with occupation and apartheid since that time.

*Speakers include: *
Khaled Barakat, local Palestinian community activist and coordinator of the
Vancouver delegation to Gaza
Kat Norris, Indigenous Action Network, Salish Territories
Brian Campbell, member of the Vancouver delegation to Gaza
Terry Engler, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 400
Raul Gatica, Agricultural Workers Alliance
Hamoudi Ghareeb, a Palestinian from Gaza
Gene Logan, a local fisher
*
*
*"Gaza’s fishers and farmers have long been the backbone of the area’s
economy and their ways are an integral part of the culture. Israel’s
violent attacks on them and restrictions on their freedom to do their work
is part of its policy of siege and reducing the Palestinian economy in Gaza
to devastation and dependency. The right to work and earn a livelihood, and
to feed your family and community, is a fundamental right. By standing up
for Gaza’s farmers and fishers, we stand up for the freedoms of all
Palestinians."*
*
*
*- Ali Abunimah, author, journalist and co-founder, Electronic Intifada*
*
Gaza’s Fishers:* Today, over 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza rely on the sea
and the fishing industry for their income and their lives.  However, the
sea in Gaza and the fishers of Gaza are bearing the brunt of one of the
most severe aspects of Israel’s siege on Gaza. Israeli warships constantly
patrol Gaza’s shores and have unilaterally declared fishing prohibited
outside 3 nautical miles. Tens of millions of dollars of income have been
lost and fishers families forced into unemployment and poverty. Fishers who
venture to the 3 nautical mile “border” are regularly shot at, their boats
seized or damaged, and subject to arrest, detention and imprisonment. In
2012, there have already been hundreds of attacks on fishing boats by
Israeli warships.  (See video of Gaza fishers under attack:
http://www.vancouver2gaza.org/2012/07/29/video-gazas-fishers-under-israeli-assault/
)

*Gaza’s Farmers: *Gaza’s farmers are also subject to an ongoing war against
their lives, livelihood and land. Israel has unilaterally declared the
northern and eastern edges of the Gaza Strip to be “buffer zones” or “no go
zones”, often in some of the most agriculturally proficient areas of the
often-dry region, on land farmed by Palestinian families for generations.
Anyone who ventures into these areas regularly faces threats to their lives
from soldiers, snipers, tanks, helicopters and drones that routinely patrol
the area.  The “buffer zone” includes 17% of Gaza’s total land mass – but
35% of its agricultural land and 113,000 people. 305 water wells, 197
chicken farms, 377 sheep farms, and over 1000 homes have been destroyed by
Israeli occupation military inside the “buffer zone.” (See video of Gaza
farmers and fishers resisting occupation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RMAJi9OPiU)

*"Standing in solidarity with Gaza’s fishermen and farmers, and taking
action to bring this inhumanity to an end is a moral duty required of every
person of conscience. Governments that blindly support Israel in its
punishment of the Palestinian people of Gaza knowingly violate humanitarian
laws and the very foundation upon which international law is based."*
*-Ramzy Baroud, editor-in-chief, PalestineChronicle.com, columnist, and
author. His latest book is My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold
Story.*

While Palestinian fishers and farmers are braving gunfire to work their
land and sea, the Canadian government of Stephen Harper has nothing but
praise for the Israeli state that enforces this siege on Gaza. On March 29,
2006, Canada became the first country in the world to impose a siege on the
Palestinian people living in Gaza and the West Bank, declaring cancellation
of aid to Palestine. Foreign Minister John Baird recently described Canada
as “Israel’s best friend.”

Of course, Israel is not alone in denying indigenous people the right to
fish and farm their land – like Israel, Canada was founded upon the theft
of indigenous people’s land, a settler colonial reality of genocide and
oppression that continues to the present day. Indigenous nations are
engaged in constant struggles to defend their fishing rights against
attempts to deny their right to fish their own waters commercially, as well
as to defend their traditional territories from pipelines and resource
extraction.

Join us on September 30 to demand an end to the siege on Gaza’s fishers and
farmers, and to demand that the Canadian government end its extensive
political, diplomatic and legal support for Israeli apartheid and
occupation – and to show the farmers and fishers of Gaza that their
struggle echoes around the world.

*Endorsers include: Alliance for People’s Health, Boycott Israeli Apartheid
Campaign, **Canada Palestine Association, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
- Pacific Region, Indigenous Action Movement - Salish Territory,** Independent
Jewish Voices, Gaza’s Ark, Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group
(SFPIRG), Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC,  South Asian
Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), Vancouver and District
Labour Council, Vancouver Catholic Worker, **Voice of Palestine,** **Union
of Agricultural Work Committees (Palestine)*
*
*
*"The Day of Action for the Fishers and Farmers of Gaza is endorsed by
Palestinian civil society at large...Our fishers and farmers have always
been at the forefront of this struggle and, therefore, have been the target
of Israeli aggression against our people."*
*- Haidar Eid, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies, Al-Aqsa University
– Gaza; Steering Committee, Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel; One Democratic State Group*

To endorse the protest, or get involved in organizing, please email
vancouver2gaza at gmail.com

More information or flyers? See online: vancouver2gaza.org

-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com