Cynthia McKinney, other activists released from Israeli jails

July 6—Former U.S. Congressperson Cynthia McKinney has been released and deported from Israel, after being imprisoned there since June 30 along with other members of the Free Gaza Movement.

McKinney and 20 others were traveling aboard the boat Spirit of Humanity to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza when the Israeli navy took the ship into custody and arrested all aboard. The international delegation included participants from Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Jordan, Palestine, Scotland, the U.S. and Yemen. Materials aboard the ship, which had passed a security clearance when it left port in Cyprus, included concrete to rebuild homes, medicines, children’s toys and olive trees.

Palestinian women rally in front of Israeli Mission at the U.N., July 1. WW photo: Monica Moorehead

Cynthia McKinney’s mother, Leola McKinney, told the July 5 Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she had received word that McKinney had been released from Israeli custody and taken to Ben Gurion International Airport. In addition, the Free Gaza Movement reports that the six British participants were expected to be deported home July 6. Two members of the delegation, who hold Israeli passports, were previously released; it is unclear what is happening with the remaining prisoners.

Israeli officials claim that delegation members could have been released sooner, but they refused to sign a document, written in Hebrew, admitting that they violated Israel’s inhumane blockade against the people of Gaza.

Mumia supporter Pam Africa speaks at July 1 Philadelphia protest. WW photo: Berta Joubert-Ceci

McKinney noted in a statement: “This is an outrageous violation of international law. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do.”

Demonstrations throughout the U.S. condemned the hijacking of the Spirit of Humanity and the detention of its passengers. In Detroit a July 1 protest, organized by the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice and Latinos Unidos, condemned both the Israeli government actions as well as the recent military coup in Honduras. Signs carried by activists called for the end of the blockade of Gaza, the release of McKinney, the restoration of civilian rule in Honduras and the suspension of U.S. aid to the military regime in Honduras and the Israeli government in Palestine.

Buffalo, N.Y., protest, July 1. WW photo: Ellie Dorritie

In New York, more than 100 people rallied on July 1 across the street from the Israeli Mission to the United Nations until City Councilperson Charles Barron, defying police barricades, led the crowd across the street to protest right in front of the mission. Other protests were held in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Buffalo, N.Y.

Activists converged July 3 on the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., for a send-off of another mission to deliver aid to the people of Palestine. Hundreds of people arrived in New York to participate in the Viva Palestina U.S. caravan, which left July 4 for Cairo to bring supplies across the border into Palestine (see accompanying article).

Lamis Deek of Al-Awda put the caravan into the context of the Palestinian struggle for the past 50 years: “I recall growing up where Palestine was a shameful word and, especially for the past nine years, activity around Palestine, funding to Palestine, humanitarian support to Palestine has been criminalized. What we are doing is we’re normalizing support to Palestine. ... Equally important, we’re normalizing our right to speak, to change the policies of this government.”

Noting the thousands of Palestinian men, women and children who are daily abused in Israeli prisons, Deek stated, “This is humanitarian, but this is not about charity; this is about self-determination and about people’s right to determine their own lives, their own future.”

Several speakers tied the struggles of people of color in the U.S. to the struggle for self-determination in Palestine. Kevin Ovendon, a coordinator of Viva Palestina from Britain, told the audience, “If you look at the spillover from what’s happening in Palestine and the wider Middle East and what’s been done to Blacks and Muslim people in particular inside the United States, we are still living to some extent within the context of Selma, Birmingham, Montgomery ... and of Martin and of Malcolm.”

City Councilperson Barron, who is participating in the caravan with several members of his staff, said: “As Black people, we have to fight against suffering anywhere. One baby suffering in Palestine or anywhere else is one of our babies, and we have to end that suffering.” Barron discussed the hypocritical policies of the Obama administration, which killed three Somalis who were defending Somali waters against the dumping of toxic materials and the trawling of their waters, and yet remains silent about the Israeli capture of the Spirit of Humanity.

For updates on the Spirit of Humanity and Viva Palestina caravans, visit http://freegaza.org and www.vivapalestina-us.org.