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Understanding Israel Palestine
This show is inspired by Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, a local group that has advocated for 20 years for a fair and even-handed U.S. foreign policy that recognizes the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis. Our program offers interviews with journalists, scholars, policy experts and activists to offer multiple perspectives, and to clarify the underlying issues that are often obscured by headline news.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla movement was launched in 2006 after a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) proposed chartering a boat to sail from New York to Gaza to break the siege which Israel had imposed. The roster of volunteers for the fledgling flotilla movement quickly burgeoned; financial and logistical obstacles were overcome. In 2008 the flotilla sailed from ports in the Mediterranean all the way into the Gaza harbor, greeted by thousands of enthusiastic Palestinians. You can read a vivid description of amazing courage and fortitude in Freedom Sailors, a book written and edited by the people who lived this first step. Rock the Boat is a documentary film that tells the story.
In this episode we hear excerpts from a 2020 panel discussion about the film sponsored by Voices From the Holy Land. Two of the panelists were on the 2008 Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian/American attorney now practicing law in Detroit, and Kathy Sheetz producer and director of Rock the Boat. You can access the entire panel discussion at voicesfromtheholyland.org
