All right, welcome back to the show, it's anti-war radio.
I'm Scott Horton and next up on the show is Kit Kittredge.
She's from Code Pink.
Welcome to the show.
How are you doing?
I'm great.
How are you doing, Scott?
I'm doing great.
Appreciate you joining us.
I heard you had some trouble on the high seas there.
Well, we did.
We were on our way to go to Gaza to end the siege, the illegal, immoral blockade, naval blockade of Gaza on the Canadian boat, Wave of Freedom, and the boat was called the Tahir, and we were going in tandem with the Irish boat, the Sershi, and the Israeli defense forces decided to intercept us in international waters, and so 45 miles off the coast of Gaza, not in Israeli waters, they intercepted us and basically kidnapped, pirated, and stole some of our belongings and put us in jail for four days, and, you know, the prison there is just a small taste of what the Palestinians feel and experience day in and day out, and the whole intent of the nonviolent, peaceful mission, Flotilla, was to bring attention to this illegal blockade, naval blockade, and hopefully we got some more news out there that it's still in existence, because a lot of people have no idea that this actually is a five-year-long siege of Gaza.
One and a half million Palestinians are under siege there, and so that was the intent, that peaceful, nonviolent Flotilla, Wave of Freedom.
So, yeah, that was the Israeli defense forces blatantly deny, blatantly ignore international law, and time and time again, while we were in prison for those four days, they basically said, you're not an Israeli citizen, we don't have to obey international law, and we make up the laws as we go.
So, we have many of our rights.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Numerous times, and that, you know, we weren't allowed to make or have our phone call.
We had...
We were sequestered, separated.
We were stripped, searched several times.
All of our belongings were basically withheld from us.
We didn't even have any toiletries, but they also stole our cameras and our computers off the boat, and basically they will confiscate the boat as well, the Tahir.
But that, like I said, that is, you know, we experienced just a tiny bit of what Palestinians have had to endure for the last five years just in Gaza, and what they're enduring in the West Bank with the occupation as well.
So, the intent was to draw attention to this very far-right, Zionist, apartheid state, and being very clear that it is not an anti-Semitic sentiment.
It is a sentiment that we are opposed to this apartheid policy of the government.
And yeah, so yeah, they were very, very clear that they were in charge.
They did not really have to follow any international laws.
So, and in fact, this morning, I just found out that two of the Irish people were on the plane, ready to be deported yesterday, and they took them back to the cell.
So, they're still in prison, to the best of my knowledge.
I just found that out about an hour ago.
So, they continue to violate international law.
There's no reason for them to have taken us there to begin with, but then to hold them.
There's a 72-hour limit, and they continue to hold two of the Irish, both the captain and then a woman who's a teacher.
At the university in Ireland.
So, it's just an example of this rogue government blatantly ignoring what is expected of them on the international stage.
All right.
Well, we've got a lot to go over here already.
So, if we could, I'd like to go back to the flotilla in the first place.
You say it was just a peaceful thing and all that, but I think people remember back in 2010, the Israeli government said that the Mavi Mamara flotilla was a joint project between Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah to invade and destroy Israel with sticks.
And so, I was just wondering if Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda put you up to this trip.
No, absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
I almost got away with a straight face there, but no.
Yeah, and I don't believe that that is what the Mavi Mamara was about either.
Isn't it fun that they tried that?
I mean, as far as ridiculous lies go, that's pretty silly.
They might as well have said it was a big clown birthday party gone out of control or something.
I mean, you know, let's be realistic here.
We're talking about the fourth most powerful navy army in the world.
So, I mean, who's going to be, for one, foolish enough.
But these are very intentionally non-violent, peaceful flotillas.
And, you know, if you think about if somebody is boarding your boat and kidnapping you, usually there is a little bit of a defense mechanism that is set up like you might push them back or something.
That's kind of a normal reaction, but that is not.
We very much emphasize that we are non-violent, peaceful.
We go through all kinds of training.
We have absolutely no armament on board, contrary to the, let's see, I think we had 12 of us on the Tahir and we were boarded by at least 30 commandos in full, you know, regalia with no faces shown, black masks, taser guns, and guns pointed at us.
There were 14, no wait, there were 17 ships there to confiscate our two tiny little boats.
14 and three huge naval ships and then 14 other.
Is there a video of this that we can look at online somewhere?
Well, Democracy Now!
did a very good job of covering it.
And there's some on that, Al Jazeera and Press TV.
Those are the three that do have footage.
There's YouTube.
There are 17 ships.
I want to see that.
Yeah, it was crazy.
It was crazy.
Thank goodness they didn't shoot anyone four times in the head at point blank range this time.
No, it was very good they didn't.
We had our hands showing and we were very, you know, obviously peaceful protesters.
Were you bringing actual humanitarian supplies or you didn't bother since you knew you'd get seized on the way or what?
Well, they are seized.
You know, they have the ship, but we were bringing in $30,000 worth of medical supplies.
But our main intent is to end this naval blockade and the siege of Gaza.
And people need to keep in mind that this is totally backed by the U.S. government to the tune of $15 million a day that the U.S. government, our tax dollars, $3 billion a year are given to the Israeli government in military aid.
It's the country that is not needing it.
It's not humanitarian aid and it's in direct violation because all of this armament has been used against civilians in Palestine and Operation Cast Lead in 2009 and when 1,400 people were killed.
And that was with U.S. armaments.
It was white phosphorus gas, F-16s and all sorts of missiles that have been directed at the civilians in Gaza.
And M-16s too, the handheld rifles there.
Absolutely, yeah.
The barrel of the gun they're staring down was made in the USA.
That's correct and thank you for pointing that out.
And I just, that's what's really, Americans need to wrap their heads around is that we are very complicit in this violation of human rights and this international law being broken.
Well, let's hold it right here because when we get back from this break, Kit, I want to give you a chance to really explain what it's like in the Gaza Strip.
I read online that you've made several trips there and then you can explain your motivation for taking such a risk on the high seas confronting the IDF out there and as well as bring that publicity to the subject that you're seeking in the first place.
It certainly deserves it.
When we get back, I think we'll probably start with Ehud Olmert, the former Prime Minister of Israel's AIDS quote, that what we're trying to do with the people of the Gaza Strip, far from keeping weapons out of the hands of Hamas or anything like that, is we're trying to keep them on a diet.
Hungry but not starving.
This is the policy that America is so complicit in as our guest has just described.
So when we get back, we'll explore these subjects and others with Kit Kittredge from Code Pink, Anti-War Radio.
All right, y'all, welcome back.
It's Anti-War Radio.
I'm Scott Horton.
I'm talking with Kit Kittredge from Code Pink.
She got seized last Friday on the high seas by the IDF trying to bring some medical supplies to the men, women, and children of the Gaza Strip living in their prison by the sea.
And one more thing, Kit, before we get into what life is like for the people of the Gaza Strip, and I'd like to give you pretty much the whole rest of the 10 minutes of this segment on that, one more little thing about your capture and imprisonment here, as well as the Irish you mentioned there.
Has the American government, the Irish government, done anything to intervene here on behalf of their citizens, or they're just leaving it up to the Israelis to decide?
Well, all of the different embassies did attempt and did help a little bit.
There were the Australian, the Irish, the Canadian, and the U.S. all working together to try to get us released from the prisons.
And basically, it was very interesting to see how the Israelis kind of just snubbed their noses and put it, like I said before, they denied or they were blatantly, they avoided tending to international law with it, such as phone calls and allowing the embassy to come in and see us at certain times.
And luckily, we had one person, we had a couple of people on the embassy, the U.S. embassy that were able to get in, but they didn't come and see me until Sunday morning.
We were arrested on Friday night, and they didn't tell us what we were arrested for either.
And at the very end, they ended up saying that they told the embassy that we were in violation of the international embargo against Gaza, which is total malarkey because there is no international embargo against Gaza.
It's strictly the Israeli naval blockade.
So, you know, just even what they accuse us of isn't accurate.
But the embassies did come, but they were not given as much access as they would have liked.
And they also, I was dismayed because our embassy, you know, Hillary Clinton, what she said before when we went on the flotilla and I was on the one in Greece in July, she said, well, we advise you not to go into Israeli waters.
So she was very ignorant about the fact, you know, we'd made many, many statements.
We were very vocal about our intentions in July, and she obviously misunderstood or just chose to ignore the information we gave her and said, you know, don't go into Israeli waters.
Well, that wasn't our intent, and we never did go into Israeli waters, but we're not getting a lot of support from her at all.
And actually, there was one senator who gave a pretty, I was really concerned she said, let's see, what was her name here?
Anyway, I'll get it here.
I'm gonna look through my papers.
But she said, you know, we need to look into these groups that are going over to Gaza, because they might have some terrorist intentions, which was, you know, if you look at any of the information that we put out prior, during and after any of these flotillas, it's anything but terrorist.
It's actually trying to counter the terrorism of the Israeli Apartheid regime, and we're very strictly peace activists.
Yeah, but don't you see that women and children in Gaza aren't really human beings?
They're just props in Hamas's evil terrorist plot to take over the world.
Right.
Yeah, well, that's a real convenient way to paint it.
So if you claim you have a concern for some little kid over there, we know what you really want is to help terrorists terrorize things.
Yeah, right.
Well, guess what?
Hamas was democratically elected, and the U.S. deals with all kinds of democratically elected governments that are very rogue and do all kinds of horrific...
Plenty of dictatorships, too.
Yes, and I would like to say the senator, I believe she's the senator, she might be a representative, her name is Carolyn Maloney, and she asked the State Department to look into those of us that were trying to break this illegal blockade, in a very legal manner, by taking legal boats down to the high seas and going to Gaza to end the siege.
So I thought that was pretty distressing that we would actually have representatives that are trying to point the finger at us as being the problem.
And really, the problem is our government and the Israeli government with policies that are totally against human rights and are in violation of international law.
I'm sorry, I wanted to real quickly make a correction or at least a distinction.
I said earlier that Ehud Olmert's right-hand man said that we want to not starve them but put them on a diet and keep them not starving but hungry.
And actually, I was conflating two different things.
I think he was the one who used the diet phrase, and then it was the WikiLeaks that revealed that is, I believe, an unnamed Israeli official had told the American State Department flunky that, yes, our policy is to keep them hungry but not starving.
So that was two different, basically saying the same thing.
They want to deny that anybody's dying of what they're doing, but they're admitting that their stated policy of keeping weapons out of the hands of Hamas is simply a lie.
Yeah, well, yeah.
Well, what's going on is it's just this very obscene, barbaric strangulation of a people.
And I would challenge anyone to be in a 25 by 8 mile area with one and a half million people and not have a few people probably raise their raise up their fists and say no more.
I mean, I don't know of any American that would even do it for a week.
So I am not condoning any violence.
And actually, I've been to Gaza five times in the last two years, and Hamas does not condone any of the violence that is taking place now with some of the rockets that go out from some of the more fundamentalist groups.
Oh, hell no.
They have conservatives now.
They don't want any of that.
Right.
They got power now.
They want to keep it.
Well, the thing is, it's just an incredibly obscene, gross situation that is going on in Gaza and in the West Bank, you know, with the mowing down of houses and the building of new settlements still, even against international law there as well, and against the will of the entire international community, save for the U.S. and Israel and a couple others.
Now, we've heard some really bad things, but when you were there, did you see people who really were hungry, who really were anemic, who really were sick and shouldn't have been?
Absolutely.
Well, you know, it truly is the largest outdoor open air prison in the world right now.
One and a half million people in that tiny area.
And people need to realize that that means the fishermen cannot go out.
So there isn't the fish either for trade and commerce, but also for eating.
And a lot of the fish is contaminated because much of the infrastructure was destroyed during Operation Cast Lead.
So there's raw sewage.
And because no building materials are allowed in, because Israel has totally shut down the borders, tiny bits come in rafa, but not much.
They cannot rebuild their infrastructure.
So they have, you know, septic systems, sewage systems that aren't functioning, hospitals, schools that were bombed.
They bombed the U.N. school, even.
They really didn't hold back on anything.
They were bombing mosques.
I was there six weeks after Operation Cast Lead, and it was, I've never been to a war zone.
And it continues to be a war zone because they actually, they still send missiles in at least once a week.
You don't hear about it on our news because it's just old news, but there are many different sites that talk about it.
And I have friends there who talk about the missiles that continue to come in.
And every time I've gone back, I hear missiles.
Yeah, well, it's just a little brief.
If you keep your eye on the wires, you know, Reuters and AP, it makes the AP.
It's just never the point of anything.
Oh yeah, they lobbed a couple of other rockets in the thousands today.
It was a retaliation for something or another, rest assured.
Yeah.
And there were nine people that died.
I think it was about 10 days ago and it wasn't from a retaliation, even from a rocket.
They actually killed the nine people and then a rocket went out and that did not kill an Israeli, but it's, they have been the ones who have broken eight of the 10 ceasefires Israel has.
And that's a little known knowledge too.
But back to an answer to your question, there are children that are suffering extremely because over 50% of the population is children under 18.
And one of the most dire situations is that their kidneys are failing because a lot of the water is extremely contaminated and some of the wells that they didn't destroy have saltwater infusion into it from the sea.
So they're not, they don't have enough good drinking water.
So consequently the kidneys become damaged and they cannot go out to get hospitalization and some of the medical needs that they need, like they used to do, but also they have very high level hospitals.
They did there in Gaza that could have taken care of things, but because of the siege and the blockade, they aren't able to keep their systems up and running.
And so, and many of the hospitals were destroyed.
I went to three different hospitals that were destroyed during Operation Cast Lead.
So yes, there are many, many different medical situations that are not able to be tended to.
Food is scarce.
If you go out in the fields, there's this whole border all the way around on the west east and the south side that borders Israel.
And they keep almost a half a mile to a mile, depending on which part of Gaza you're in, that you cannot go into.
It's no man's land.
And if you go into it, you get shot.
I was shot at when I went there.
They take, when you go into that zone, and it's a premium farmland and it's where the best wells were, which they also destroyed.
And they tore out the olive growth and the citrus growth.
So they very deliberately are, like I said, strangulating the people of Gaza and it's continuing as we speak.
This is not something that is passe.
It's been going on for five years.
And as I said, the U.S. is very complicit in supporting the Israeli government's policy of this siege and this totally barbaric situation there in Gaza.
All right.
Well, sure sounds barbaric to me.
It is.
It's horrific.
And as the children and the elderly suffer the most, of course, as always.
All right.
Well, as long as I have you a little bit over time here, can you tell me real quick, is there an actual list of Israeli demands?
Because I know they had a ceasefire back before Kass led and the Israeli side of the ceasefire was that they were supposed to lift the siege.
And I wonder whether there's anything that Hamas can do in Gaza to get the siege lifted other than cease to exist at this point.
You know, that's probably the million dollar question is like, what do they want?
And I really think that the Israeli government would just as soon see Gaza and the West Bank not exist and that the entire state be a Jewish state.
And I don't I have not heard of definite, you know, requirements from Israel what they want to, you know, Hamas to do.
It's not even on the table for discussion at this point.
Right.
They gave back Shalit, you know, the one Israeli prisoner.
And, you know, there are still 9000 Palestinians in jail in Israel.
They gave they let 450 out, I think, or something.
There are over 160 children in prison, Palestinian children in prison in Israel.
Brutally treated, according to the British press to absolutely brutally treated.
And that's why I'm saying, you know, how we were treated in prison is just like so nothing compared to how they treat the Palestinians.
And, you know, the world really has to wake up and say no more to this heavy handed government, both of them, the U.S. and Israel, that are enabling this behavior to continue.
It's just it's not acceptable on any kind of human rights standard.
And it's totally in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and all sorts of international laws in regards to what you can do when people are under siege, you know, what you can do when people are basically prisoners of war, even.
It's just very horrific.
And I can't situation I can't believe that those who have been persecuted in the past would choose to persecute as as ruthlessly as they are right now.
And I don't feel like it is, you know, the Israeli people.
I feel like it is.
I'm sure there are some that agree with the government, just like with here when you're against the war here.
That doesn't mean you're anti-American.
You're just you know, you disagree with the policy of your government.
And I believe it's the same there.
But we have to say enough is enough.
And so we will sail until Palestine is free and we will continue all of our peaceful efforts in ending the siege of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine.
All right.
Thank you very much for your time on the show today, Kit.
You bet.
Thank you, Scott.
That's Kit Kittredge, everybody, from Code Pink.
