US Citizen Jailed in Israel, Condemns Gaza Blockade

Update: BBC: One Gaza border crossing opened

Kidnappings, killings, terrorism, piracy, employment of the tools of militarism; all of this is kind of a downer after the election of president-elect Obama.

Bear in mind that these deplorable actions described and committed against real, living human beings are being done by arguably America's closest ally: Israel.

[Pictured above is Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel peace prize laureate, who was part of the recent breaking of the siege of Gaza, by the Free Gaza movement Ship Dignity.]

It's a story attracting scant attention in the American press, as Israel's blockade of over one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continues obstructing food, fuel and other humanitarian supplies from entering an area Israel decided to cordon off from the world.

Darlene Wallach, an American peace activist, remains jailed in the Masiyahu Prison near Tel Aviv, arrested days ago for fishing off the shores of the Gaza coast that Israel denies is under blockade.

The Free Gaza Movement, a group dedicated to breaking "the siege of Gaza .... (and raising) international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip, ... (and upholding) Palestine's right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, (and) journalists," maintains its mission to break the blockade and bring attention to the routine Israeli kidnappings, killings, and terrorism of innocent Palestinians and international human rights activists.

Israel is currently blocking all journalists from entering Gaza, a move that has drawn the condemnation of free speech and free press organizations. See Foreign Reporters’ Group Fights Israeli Prohibition on Entering Gaza (NYT).

Unlike many of the huge problems facing the incoming Obama administration, this problem has an easy solution: Halt the billions in annual subsidies to Israel unless it stops its militaristic enterprise in the occupied territories.

As an anonymous writer commenting on Israeli human rights violations wrote a few years back: ‘Israel cannot be half-humanistic and half fascist.”

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman reports: