Start of the Season
It looked like a scene from an opera. Massed in the doorway and second floor balconies of a quaint building in Athens, facing a magnificent view of the Parthenon, Spanish activists hung banners and flashed peace signs and proclaimed that they wouldn't leave the...
A July Fourth Shame on the Founders
Yes, that was I standing before the U.S. Embassy in Athens on the eve of the July Fourth weekend holding the American flag in the distress mode — upside down. Indignities experienced by me and my co-guests on The Audacity of Hope, the American boat to Gaza, over the...
Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed US Ship
Transparent and Trustworthy Israel
Confrontation Begins Before Gaza Flotilla Sets Sail
ATHENS — Activists are engaged in a harsh confrontation with Israeli authorities days before the international "Freedom Flotilla II — Stay Human" sets sail toward the Gaza strip in an attempt to break the naval blockade Israel has imposed since 2007. The flotilla will...
Staying Human: Preparing to Sail to Gaza
Last week, newly arrived in Athens as part of the U.S. Boat to Gaza project, our team of activists gathered for nonviolence training. We are here to sail to Gaza, in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, in our ship, The Audacity of Hope. Our team and nine other...
Spirits of Justice Going to Gaza
For those who engage in the common struggle for Justice, an invaluable grace comes from getting to know new friends similarly engaged—and equally willing to speak with more than words. Thus, it has been a great grace to get to know folks like Alice Walker personally...
Will Israel Kill Americans Again?
Stuffing my backpack before setting out to board The Audacity of Hope, the U.S. boat to Gaza, I got a familiar-sounding call from yet another puzzled friend, who said as gently as the words allow, “You know you can get killed, don’t you?” I recognize this caution as...
Gaza: Where Freelance Means Abandoned
GAZA CITY -- Sitting by the hospital bed of freelance photographer Mohammed Othman, Ashraf Abu Amrah knows that nobody owns a freelance journalist from Gaza who gets injured, or dies. "When a news agency crew is injured, the world reacts with anger, and human...
