Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski at verizon.net
PRESS RELEASE-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 2, 2010
Contact: Max Obuszewski [410] 366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net
BALTIMORE PEACE COMMUNITY TO PROTEST ATTACK ON GAZA FREEDOM MOVEMENT
WHO: The Pledge of Resistance was formed for individuals willing to engage in nonviolent civil resistance to first prevent and later to protest the war in Iraq. It is affiliated with several national peace groups, including the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and United For Peace & Justice.
Baltimore Pledge members have repeatedly risked arrest to protest the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan. Two members of the Pledge are currently facing contempt charges in Superior Court of the District of Columbia, relating to an antiwar protest at the U.S. Capitol.
WHAT: For several years, Pledge members have gathered once a month at Centre and Charles Streets, in Mount Vernon, to call for an end to the wars and the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. The next demonstration is scheduled to condemn Israel’s brutal attack on nonviolent activists trying to carry relief supplies to the people of the Gaza Strip. Sadly, on May 31, in international waters, Israeli commandoes brutally assaulted an unknown number of activist and members of the media who were onboard a peace flotilla traveling from Turkey.
May 31, 2010 will be remembered just as much as the Kent State massacre. It is astonishing that the Israeli Defense Force would send a vicious military force to assault people trying to support the suffering people of the Gaza Strip. Baltimore activists want to show solidarity with brothers and sisters in the Middle East involved in humanitarian missions. We will honor those who lost their lives and those wounded in that day of infamy.
WHEN: Thursday, June 2, 2010, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.
WHERE: Centre & Charles Streets in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood
WHY: Israel's attack on an unarmed flotilla of humanitarian aid vessels in international waters resulted in fatalities, the wounding of scores of passengers and crew, and the kidnapping of 750 others. The violations of law and morality are endless. No country has the right to board humanitarian aid vessels, guns blazing, in international waters. This is piracy. What was accomplished? The only result is worldwide condemnation.
The Israeli propaganda machine will try hard to cover this up. It is the responsibility of peace activists to seek the truth, demand that our government end all aid to Israel and to sanction its client in the Middle East. We will continue our efforts at calling for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel until the apartheid state ends its occupation of Palestine.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration does not seem interested in bringing about a peace agreement which grants freedom from occupation to the Palestinians. Israel only continues this lawless behavior because of U.S. support.
Nevertheless, Baltimore’s peace community intends to keep speaking out against the apartheid state of Israel. Through our efforts in the 1980s and 1990s, we helped to end apartheid in South Africa. We hope to do the same in Israel.
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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