Minnesotans buy radio ad for call to action to protect Gaza flotilla, end siege

The group of Minnesota activists that organized late last year around the Gaza Freedom March are buying radio ads for an action alert urging their fellow Minnesotans to call the White House, asking for Obama to do something to ensure the safety of the Free Gaza flotilla and its cargo of badly needed medicines, medical supplies, and construction materials, and the passengers of those ships (hundreds of humanitarian relief workers, politicians and activists from around the world).

The situation in Gaza is dire, and the need for an immediate end to the blockade and siege of Gaza is recognized in capitols around the world, with the one possible exception being Washington, D.C. If the ad campaign is successful and Minnesotans express their characteristic compassion in responding to this call to action with phone calls and online comments to the White House contact form the group hopes that Obama will join the European Union in calling for "immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza"

54 Members of Congress signed a letter to Obama earlier this year calling for an end to the siege. It is hoped that thousands of phone calls in the coming days from Minnesotans to the White House will make a policy change on Gaza an urgent White House priority.

1.5 million people, largely children, are being deprived of basic human rights - of sufficient nutrition, of shelter and livelihood in Gaza today. Critically needed medicines are in short supply or have run out all together (e.g., on Thursday, 18 May 2010, the General Directorate of Pharmacy at the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that 110 types of medications and 123 types of medical supplies had run out.)

The immediate need justifies an operation like a new Berlin Airlift. The long term solution to the humanitarian crisis caused by the restriction on humanitarian goods imposed by Israel and Egypt will be the creation and operation of an international port in Gaza and the direct deliver of sufficient quantities of appropriate aid direct to Gaza by sea.

The local activist group here in Minnesota sent seven representatives to Cairo, Egypt to participate in the Gaza Freedom March, a Gandhi-inspired march that was planned within Gaza but was denied access to Gaza by Egyptian authorities. On 12/30/09 hundreds gathered in the skyways in Downtown Minneapolis in support of these brave Minnesotans and their efforts to end the siege and create prosperity and peace for Israel, Palestine and the U.S. The radio ads were purchased with funds raised in that organizing effort.

The group still maintains a presence on twitter and facebook. For more information please e-mail mn.to.gaza@gmail.com

The White House comment line is 202-456-1111. The White House online comment form is here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Please call the White House and ask President Obama to help end the siege and naval blockade of Gaza immediately.