Category: Writing

Articles by Mya Guarnieri

What Israeli democracy?

by adminin Politics, Writing

dsc00160The Huffington Post, July 18, 2011
Counter Punch, July 19, 2011

The anti-boycott law, which the Israeli Knesset passed this week, has sparked a storm of controversy both inside Israel and within Jewish communities abroad.

The legislation effectively criminalizes Israelis who answer the Palestinian civil society call to join the BDS movement — boycott, divestment, and sanctions — intended to bring Israel in line with international law and to pressure the state into recognizing full human and civil rights for Palestinians. While many Israelis are uncomfortable with the BDS movement — mistakenly seeing it as an attack on the state itself — there are numerous Israeli peace groups and individual activists who have taken part in a targeted boycott of settlement products for years, refusing to buy anything that is manufactured over the Green Line. There are also a small number of Israelis who support the broader BDS movement.

Under the new law, both groups will be vulnerable to lawsuits. The complainant will not have to prove that his or her business was harmed by the boycott in order to sue someone. The law is retroactive and, if one is found guilty of participating in the boycott, he or she will be subject to steep fines.

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Confessions of a so-called leftist

by adminin Writing

dsc00423+972 Magazine, July 15, 2011

I have to admit that, at first, I resented the Palestinian workers next door.

Not because they were Palestinian but because I no longer had any privacy. A writer and freelance journalist, I work at home. Most of the time, I wear my pajamas to work. Sometimes I wear a Santa Claus hat, a reminder to relax and not take myself—or my writing—too seriously. Sometimes my characters make me laugh out loud; sometimes they make me cry. And so I do that, openly, at my computer.

When I’m not at my desk, I’m watering and talking to my plants. I’m waving to my neighbors’ tabby cat. I’m doing jumping jacks. I’m dancing. I’m singing badly in English and worse in Hebrew. I’m eating with my hands.

But the shiputz, or renovation, next door brought all that to an end.

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“Welcome to Palestine” deportee ready to try again

by adminin Writing

dsc05630Maan News Agency, July 21, 2011

Laura Durkay spent 100 hours in an Israeli prison simply for declaring her intention to visit Bethlehem and its neighboring Aida refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

But the 29-year-old activist and filmmaker says, if she had the money, she’d gladly do it again. And she’s quick to add that her ordeal is “nowhere close to what happens to Palestinians” who resist the Israeli occupation.

Durkay participated in the July 8 fly-in, a protest organized to call attention to freedom of movement restrictions that affect both West Bank Palestinians and those who dare to sympathize with them. As Durkay did, participants were to openly declare their intention to visit Palestine at Israeli passport control — a small, peaceful action that could lead to deportation.

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Second flotilla ends as Israel seizes boat

by adminin Writing

dsc06758Maan News Agency, July 21, 2011

Early Tuesday morning, the Israeli navy overtook the Dignite Al Karame. A French-flagged boat, it was the only vessel of the flotilla that managed to reach international waters.

The Dignite Al Karame’s attempt to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip came a month after the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara, withdrew from the flotilla.

The organizers cited “technical problems which were caused by Israeli attacks last year,” referring to the 2010 raid, during which Israeli soldiers killed nine activists.

Eight of the dead were Turkish nationals. One was a Turkish-American.

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Out of step

by adminin Politics, Writing

dsc06703Souciant, July 13, 2011

The twelve days I spent in Athens, covering the Gaza flotilla as an embedded journalist, were stressful and confusing. I was still trying to wrap my head around things as I left Tel Aviv for a visit to the United States.

Hearing others’ thoughts and feelings is one way we can process our own, especially when we’re struggling to sort things out. So, I decided I would spend the 24 hours of transit time asking Americans what they think about the flotilla, the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and US foreign policy vis a vis the Middle East.

Yes, I’m one of those annoying plane-talkers. No, I don’t sleep. (I can’t sleep sitting up. And as a broke writer—excuse me, freelance journalist—I can’t afford first class. I can only look, with great envy, at those seats-turned-single beds as I shuffle off the plane, bleary-eyed and exhausted.)

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Organizers: Gaza flotilla era may be over

by adminin Lead Story, Writing

dsc06724Maan News Agency, July 2, 2011

A Greek decision to block ships from sailing to the Gaza Strip has prompted some organizers to rethink the flotilla movement that for years challenged Israel’s blockade of the coastal enclave.

But US activists remained upbeat Friday as they discussed alternative ways to get to Gaza.

The activists said they felt that they had accomplished their goal of bringing attention to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has been in full effect for five years after previous restrictions under a policy of closure.

Passengers said the bureaucratic delays, physical blockages and threat of violence were “just a little taste” of the restrictions on freedom of movement faced by the 1.6 million Palestinians who live in Gaza.

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Greece halts flotilla bound for Gaza

by adminin Lead Story, Writing

dsc06807Maan News Agency, July 1, 2011

The US Boat to Gaza left the Athens Port at 4:50 p.m. on Friday, expecting to be stopped by Greek authorities in the country’s coastal waters on its way to meet a French ship that had already left port.

Shortly after it sailed the US boat was intercepted by Greek officials, at the same time organizers of the Canadian boat to Gaza said the coastguard surrounded their vessel and prevented it from leaving.

At sea, the US ship attempted to secure passage through coastguard ships – one with armed soldiers aboard – which demanded it return, following the passage of a decision by the Greek Cabinet that afternoon, which according to organizers mandated that “no boat will sail for the Gaza Strip from Greece.”

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The blockade on Gaza began long before Hamas came to power

by adminin Writing

MIDEAST ISRAEL PALESTINIANS+972 Magazine, June 29, 2011

The second Freedom Flotilla is slated to set sail by the end of the month in an attempt to challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The act will call attention to the closure that the United Nations and human rights organizations have decried as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the collective punishment of civilians.

According to the Israeli government—and most of the mainstream media—the blockade began in 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The aim of this “economic warfare” was to weaken Hamas, a group that the Israeli government had once supported. Israel also sought to stop rocket fire and to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held in Gaza since 2006.

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Gaza goes mainstream

by adminin Writing

dsc06459Maan News Agency, June 28, 2011

At 33, Megan Horan is one of the younger passengers on the US Boat to Gaza. She admits that she is also a newcomer to the issues surrounding Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Speaking to Maan News Agency, Horan explains that she attended an interfaith conference last summer, soon after the Israeli raid on the flotilla that left nine activists on the Mavi Marmara dead. A Palestinian speaker who mentioned the recent attempt to break the blockade piqued her interest, as did Ann Wright who spoke of her experience on last year’s US boat, the Challenger 1.

“When I returned to Seattle, I started to really dig,” says Horan, who works in hi-tech.

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Flotilla organizers shake off threats

by adminin Writing

dsc06482Maan News Agency, June 28, 2011

At a spirited press conference in Athens today, organizers and participants of the Second Freedom Flotilla announced that recent events have not weakened their resolve to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The group also called into question American foreign policy.

While organizers remain reluctant to give an exact exit date—saying only that the flotilla will set sail for Gaza in the next few days—a departure seems imminent.

Members of European Parliament and a number of European politicians were present. The nine organizers and participants who spoke at the press conference sat before a white, red, black, and green banner that read, “We are breaking the blockade” in Greek.

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