A New year, an Old Sadness but Renewed Resistance

Our Flyer for the first vigil of 2010:

Make 2010 the Year We End Israel's Blockade of Gaza

Since just days before Christmas, 2009, over 1300 citizens from 42 different countries have travelled to Cairo as a transit point enroute to Gaza where they would join 50,000 Palestinians on December 31 in a Gaza Freedom March to protest the continuing siege of Gaza. Conceived during Code Pink's delegation to the Gaza strip after the Israeli Cast Lead Incursion, the organizers envisioned a massive peaceful nonviolent show of international solidarity with the Palestinian people. They had envisioned several days of commemoration of those who died during the winter attack, several days of bearing witness to the rubble, the unreconstructed homes, and the widespread destruction of the possibility of healthy daily life.

Women in Black, Melbourne, dedicates this vigil to the international Gaza Freedom Marchers, young and old, including 85-year old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, who have been stranded in Cairo, after the Egyptian government decided to block their transport. Like freedom marchers from other times and other struggles, they are helping each other to survive on the streets, in blockaded hotels, in the face of massive police presence. All we ask of you is to be aware that thousands of miles from here, ordinary people are risking their lives to end the suffering of the people of Gaza. Yesterday thousands marched in Gaza and in Israel to the Israel-Gaza border, asking for an end to the blockade and renewed dedication to peace efforts. For first-hand accounts, please go to Gazafreedommarch.org or this website.

These people, ordinary citizens of Gaza, of 40 other countries, want another kind of world where children do not play amidst the rubble of their homes, where young people have hopes for the future, where national hatreds do not reign supreme over international negotiations for peace. A new year, let us make it one that honors human life and all its joyous and complex possibilities.

We, the members of Women in Black, wish a happy and peaceful New Year for all.