----- Original Message ----- From: "Ingrid" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 2:20 PM Subject: Cynthia McKinney: Letter from an Israeli Jail > > Letter from an Israeli Jail > By Cynthia McKinney > > This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison > cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights > activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to > Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a > suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to > Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn > around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to > give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we > want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just > because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of > Gaza. > > At the outbreak of Israel's Operation `Cast Lead' [in December 2008], > I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day's notice and tried, as the US > representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of > medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza. > > During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16's rained hellfire on a > trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. > U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, > DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never > treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told > by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel's onslaught that Gaza > had become Israel's veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used > to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons. > > The world saw Israel's despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera > Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts > live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where > my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli > military rammed the boat I was on in international water ... It's a > miracle that I'm even here to write about my second encounter with > the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the > Israeli military. > > The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we > committed a crime ... I am now known as Israeli prisoner number > 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids? > > Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it > does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that > they put their own lives on the line for someone else's children. > Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for > its security because Gaza's children have crayons then not only has > Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared > a failed state. > > I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at > gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel > against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream > that Gaza's children could color & paint, that Gaza's wounded could > be healed, and that Gaza's bombed-out houses could be rebuilt. > > But I've learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. > First of all, it's incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians > who also had a dream ... like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They > are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the > Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better ... The > once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back > pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, > rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because > superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights > and self-determination. > > My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the > exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to > have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel > held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and > Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for > them. And it wasn't cheap. Many of them represent their family's best > collective efforts for self-fulfilment. They made their way to the > United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow > paper of identification. They got their certificate for police > protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to > Israel only after they arrived Israel told them "there is no UN in > Israel." > > The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the > black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, > industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. > The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely > propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as > a place of refuge and safety for the world's first Jews and > Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper. > > The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the > families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves > who are now trapped in Ramle's detention facility. And what are we to > do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. > As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the > United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give > 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it > ought now be clear that hope, change, and `yes we can' were > powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, > individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly > believed in. > > It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to > the voters of America as was Israel's marketing to the world. It > tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women. > > We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to > represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's > letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I > have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is > clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, > for what they've done to others around the world. > > What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me > because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, > for other people's children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I'm > experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] > I'm lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where > dreams die? > > Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men > whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. > [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do? > > Let's change the world together & reclaim what we all need as human > beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of > Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as > the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to > the United State's Department of State to include the plight of > detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its > annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to > go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to > engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people. > > I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free > Palestine, and to the women I've met at Ramle. This is Cynthia > McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794. > > --- > Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman, Green Party > presidential candidate, and an outspoken advocate for human rights > and social justice. The first African-American woman to represent the > state of Georgia, McKinney served six terms in the U.S. House of > Representatives, from 1993-2003, and from 2005-2007. She was arrested > and forcibly abducted to Israel while attempting to take humanitarian > and reconstruction supplies to Gaza on June 30th. For more > information, please see > <http://www.freegaza.org/>http://www.FreeGaza.org > > === > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, please visit: > > http://lists.zgrams.zundelsite.org/mailman/options/zgrams > > *** exposing the hidden truth for further educational research only *** CAVEAT LECTOR *** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. NOTE: Some links may require cut and paste into your Internet Browser. Please check http://tinyurl.com/33c9yr for more real news posts and support the truth! 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