Before the noon Friday protest outside the Boeing Company, manufacturer of drones, guidance systems for bombs, and machinery to deliver death and mayhem, and before Saturdayâs Gaza Freedom Flotilla on the Chicago River, peace and justice activists gathered at Grace Place for an educational event on Gaza, at the beginning of three days of action in Chicago to build awareness and activism to lift the deadly Gaza blockade.
Featured speakers include updates from Gaza by Gazan activist/scholar Jehad Abusalim (an AFSC Program associate), and four-time Gaza Flotilla veteran (Ret.) Col. Ann Wright, a peace activist and veteran of four past boat flotillas organized to break the siege of Gaza. AFSCâs Jennifer Bing introduces the key speakers and explains AFSC's commitment to end the siege of Gaza. Kathy Kelly, Kit Kittredge , Keith Meyer, and Elizabeth Murry speak as well.
American Friends Service Committee - afsc.org/office/chicago-il Voices for Creative Nonviolence - http://vcnv.org Freedom Flotilla Coalition - https://freedomflotilla.org/
This event was part of three days of action to build support for ending the blockade of Gaza and the 2020 Freedom Flotilla. Since 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has sent many international flotillas sailing to Gaza to highlight the brutal violation of international law and of Gazansâ human rights that is the Israeli governmentâs lethal Gaza blockade. Voices members have joined past flotilla actions seeking to free Gazans from a crushing economic siege and from airstrikes, arrests, torture, and the myriad human rights violations inherent in apartheid. It is time to give Gazans desperately-needed access to food, fuel, medicine, employment, & basic human dignity. The next international sailing is in 2020, but this summer our message is for the people of the United States. Join us! #Chicago4Gaza #NoBombsfromBoeing #GazaUnlocked #EndtheBlockade
More information visit: gazaunlocked.org USBoattoGaza.org
For up to date reporting on Palestine, the Electronic Intifada https://electronicintifada.net