Nelson End the Occupation Now (NEON) supporters are inviting all to the Mana’eesh Market,at 449 Baker Street in Nelson, on October 19th at 7:30pm, to hear a presentation from members of the Vancouver delegation to Gaza, in June 2012.
Gaza, Palestine has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, and to date, over 70 per cent of the people of Gaza are refugees. This small coastal strip along the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Many people in Gaza have always relied on the land and the sea for their livelihood. Generations of Palestinian fishers have worked the sea, and farmers have harvested the land, to support their communities and their lives. Now the fishers of Gaza are bearing the brunt of one of the most severe aspects of Israel’s siege.
Israeli warships constantly patrol Gaza’s shores and have unilaterally declared fishing prohibited outside of 3 nautical miles. Fishers, who venture to the 3 nautical mile “’border’’, are regularly shot at. Their boats are frequently seized or damaged, and they are often subject to arrest, detention and imprisonment. In 2012, there have been hundreds of attacks of fishing boats by Israeli warships. Fishers’ families are being forced into unemployment and poverty.
Gaza’s farmers are also subject to attacks on their lives, livelihoods and land. Israel has unilaterally declared ‘’ buffer zones’’ in some of the most agriculturally proficient areas of land farmed by Palestinian farmers for generations. Anyone venturing into these areas faces threats to their lives from Israeli soldiers, snipers, tanks, helicopters and drones.
Brian Campbell is co-chair of the Seriously Free Speech Committee, an active member of the Boycott Israel Apartheid Committee and former coordinator of the multi-group, multi-location A Child’s View from Gaza - Vancouver committee. Brian travelled to Gaza as a member of the Vancouver delegation.
John Soos is a clinical and peace psychologist whose work addresses the psychological trauma of living life under occupation. John walked the 160km. Nativity Trail in 2010. He travelled to Gaza as an independent observer in June, 2012.
Admission: $10 Refreshments will be available by donation.