Editor, Gazette-Journal:
On Aug. 30, I joined 600 peace activists in Tunisia for the Global Sumud Flotilla, hoping to end Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza’s two million Palestinian civilians.
The South African boat was led by icon Nelson Mandela’s grandson Chief Mandla Mandela. Both Israelis and white settler-colonial South Africans established apartheid regimes in 1948. By 1990, the struggle for equal rights by ending apartheid was won in South Africa, in part due to international boycott, as was attempted against Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
In 1997, President Mandela stated: “No one is free until Palestine is free.” Chief Mandla is delivering that message today.
A number of the boats in the fleet in Tunis proved unseaworthy. Thus, I watched the flotilla’s departure from the shore. Yet 50+ boats from Spain, Tunisia, Italy and Greece should enter Gaza waters by next week.
By last weekend, over 150 countries have formally recognized Palestinian statehood. Others plan to do so soon. That...