UPDATE: MCKINNEY IS ON HER WAY HOME, REPORTS ATLANTA-JOURNAL CONSTITUTION …
Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) is shown speaking at UC Irvine May 13 as part of the Muslim Student Union's controversial, three-week “Israel: The Politics of Genocide” teach-in. Here she makes the case that forces hellbent on continuing U.S. wars in the Middle East devised a coordinated effort to get her defeated in her unsuccessful 2006 reelection bid. That, she says, paved the way for Congress to pass a war funding bill–despite public opposition–by one vote. Later, when asked by an audience member if she blames the Jews for her defeat, McKinney answers that individuals who belong to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were part of the conspiracy against her.
Against that backdrop comes came word today Wednesday that McKinney is among the 21 Free Gaza Movement activists aboard a humanitarian relief ship that was stopped and held by the Israeli navy in international waters.
The Greek-flagged Spirit of Humanity was carrying medical supplies,
olive trees and children's toys to Palestinians under blockade in the
Gaza Strip. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is among the groups urging President Obama to intervene on behalf of the ship's passengers.
The Israeli government had indicated the passengers would be processed by immigration officials on the Israeli shore and released. But McKinney just issued a statement saying they remain jailed.
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USA Today's Eugene Kiely reports he spoke earlier today with Scott McLarty, a spokesman for the Green
Party, whose 2008 presidential nominee was McKinney. McLarty said he received the following message from McKinney, who he said is
being held in a Ramle prison:
We
were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to
people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally
threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and
confiscated the ship.All of us on board were then taken off
the ship and into custody, and brought into Israel and imprisoned.
Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but
we remain imprisoned. State Department and White House officials have
not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the
illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of
humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that
has been condemned by President Obama.
Israeli's military had previously said the ship would be forced
to sail to an Israeli port, where passengers would be met by immigration officials. “Nobody wants to keep them here,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman Yigal Palmor. “They will be
released as soon as they are checked.”
Besides McKinney, passengers included Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Ireland and other activists from
Britain, Bahrain and Jamaica. A previous post on Free Gaza's website said they “are not the story.”
Since its founding in 1948 the State of Israel
has regularly kidnapped and tortured Palestinians, throwing them into
forgotten prisons where they can languish for years. Today, over 11,000
Palestinian political prisoners without benefit of due process, some
never even charged – men, women, and children – endure torture and
isolation in Israeli jails, outdoor prison camps, and secret black
sites. They come from all walks of life: doctors, journalists,
parliamentarians, workers, resistance fighters, homemakers, students
and others. They are our sisters and brothers.
The 21 passengers aboard the Spirit of Humanity have been illegally
incarcerated for their solidarity work with Palestine. 11,000 other
members of our common human family are already imprisoned simply for
being Palestinian.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.