to think that if you were shocked or saddened by Israel's actions today you could

[lowrib]

spare a moment or two to write a letter or an email to voice your protest.

For those of you who haven't seen the news, Israeli forces today stormed a flotilla of boats which were trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestine and shot dead 19 people, injuring many more. The people on the ships were an international group of unarmed civilians, and they were in international waters.

A friend of mine is on one of the ships. I'm yet to hear any news (Israel seem to be doing all they can to block any communication).

What you can do to help ...

(Copied from the Stop the War Coalition at stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1906/1/)

PROTEST TO FOREIGN SECRETARY WILLIAM HAGUE:

BY EMAIL: [email protected] AND [email protected] AND [email protected]

BY LETTER TO: William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH

PROTEST TO YOUR MP:
findyourmp.parliament.uk

PROTEST TO DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NICK CLEGG
EMAIL: [email protected]

LETTER TO: Nick Clegg MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Thanks.

This is what the MP Jeremy Corbyn wrote, for example.

To: Rt Hon William Hague MP

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

By email to [email protected]

May 31st 2010

Dear William,

I am writing this urgently to express my shock and outrage at Israel?s behavior in attacking, boarding and killing people who are on the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza.
Apparently 20 people have been killed and I am concerned for the fate of all those involved including the British nationals on board. I know two of them very well, Sarah Colborne and Kevin Ovenden.

I hope that the UK Government has already protested in the strongest possible terms to Israel on this attack, in international waters, on a vessels carrying aid to the people of Gaza. I also hope that there will be an immediate suspension of the EU Trade Agreement, reference to the UN Security Council and appropriate and immediate sanctions made against Israel for this clearly illegal acts.

Additionally I hope we will put pressure on the USA to act accordingly and specifically revoke the planned further military aid of $150millions for a missile system.
I visited Gaza earlier this year as part of a pan European Parliamentary delegation and saw for ourselves the continuing destruction from ?Operation Cast Lead?, the shortages of medicines and vital supplies and the isolation and imprisonment of the people. The continued blockade and under-supplying of Gaza is appalling and also illegal. Not surprisingly the people look to other countries to recognise their plight and put appropriate pressure on Israel.

I would be obliged if you could tell me what actions have been taken by the British Government in respect of the illegal attack and over the safety of British nationals on the vessels.

With thanks,
I await your response,

Jeremy Corbyn MP

(Copied from stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1908/27/)

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I will its disgusting really is shame on you Isreal.

its not going to do them any favours and people will have a negative view of them.

there is a blockade, the boats were told not to go to gaza. i hope your friend is ok but there is a reason for the blockade.

They were in international waters when they were attacked.

but they were going to gaza.

Yes they were, because they didn't believe that Israel has the right to starve 1.5 million people and prevent aid.

I will be writing a letter this is dreadful.

israel has a right to protect its citizens from terrorism.

You really think Israel is right to starve the inhabitants of Gaza? It's a humanitarian disaster, it's not protecting anyone from terrorism.

Do they have a right to commit an act of international piracy? I don't think so?

The Israelis clearly over-reacted...AGAIN.

We really need to be careful about the use of that phrase "Have a right to protect itself from terrorism" I would say the Israelis have just commited an act of international terrorism themselves.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find it impossible to believe that Israeli commandos rappelling onto a ship from a helicopter were "surprised" or "taken off guard" so badly that they were stripped of their helmets and equipment and thrown from the top deck to the lower deck, let alone being so unprepared that one of the passengers seized one of the soldiers' weapons and opened fire.

I'll be writing. And I'll marching tonight too.

I am completely and utterly disgusted by this.

Itsw Citizens are also Palestinians too you know

Israel were willing to allow aid in if it went via Israel, what they wouldn't allow was unsupervised 'aid' to enter Gaza, this has to be expected when they are being attacked by Hamas rockets on a nightly basis.
Some people may believe that Israel is breeding terrorism, but Hamas want to see Israel wiped off the map, they won?t stop fighting until they achieve their aim. I honestly believe that although what happened today is regrettable, Israel had no choice other than to try and stop the boats

shdad - Israel would not have allowed the aid in if it went via Israel, they have a deliberate policy of starving the people in the Gaza strip. That was why it was so important to get aid directly to the people through the blockade.

Of course Israel has choices other than blockading Gaza and murdering civilians.

I fee deeply saddened by this news. I have always defended Israel's right to protect itself against terrorism. I would come out and say that I support Israel almost all of the time. I am passionate about Israel having the absolute right to exist and to defend itself.

But I do think this was a completely unreasonable and ill thought out act. Israel must be careful. It will find itself in an untenable position, with no international support, if it continues to make these bad decisions.

Missus84 ? Israel allows thousands of tons of aid into Gaza, they even supply aid themselves, to claim they wouldn?t have allowed it in is just wrong. Israel wanted to make sure the aid really was aid.

Did you read the last sentence of the BBC report?

"Israel says it allows about 15,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid into Gaza every week.

But the UN says this is less than a quarter of what is needed. "

I have not read the bbc report. I was correcting the falsehood that Israel doesn't allow aid in.

I don't understand why everyone thinks Israel should allow the ships through even though they could be carrying weapons to kill innocent Innocent Israeli citizens.
They had every right to try to inspect the cargo.

If you provoke someone they will react. Of course it isn?t good that people died, and the IDF may have overreacted, but it seems they were provoked.

the flotilla was not entirely innocent in all of this.

I am not saying what Israel did is right or wrong. I am saying get all the facts first.

Shdad the UN itself says people in Gaza are prevented from having the necessities of life by the Israeli blockade. There is a massive injustice going on.

The peace convoy was carrying medical supplies and building materials not weapons. Just because the Israelis feel the Palestinians deserve to be starved and bullied, the rest of the world does not have to agree.

I have a real dilemna about this. A friend of mine is Israeli and has sent me a link to that video linked below, she has not attached any message but the meaning of sending the link is fairly clear.

I have fairly strong views about Israel and it's treatment of the Palestinians but have so far avoided discussing it with her as I don't want to get into an arguement.

Now I don't know what to do as I am incensed that she has sent me the link but I really, really don't want to get into an angry correspondence with her. At the moment, I am remaining silent on the matter. But it makes me cross that she, as an Israeli, feels she has the right to speak her mind whilst I, as someone not involved in the region at all but also not brain-washed as most people who have been brought up in Israel appear to have been, feel it would be insensitive to comment.

Sorry, I don't expect any answers, just having a rant as the only other people around I can talk to about this are 2 and 4 years old and wouldn't have a clue what I am talking about!

Israel has/does exactly what it wants...and would actually probably like to do more.They have the support of the U.S.This is dreadful,but I am not surprised.