occupied territories

On Monday, Israeli commandoes boarded ships in the "Freedom Flotilla" attempting to bring humanitarian aid to residents of still-blockaded Gaza. The aggressive response by Israel turned deadly, with at least nine activists killed. The international community has reacted with shock and outrage; protests have erupted around the world outside Israeli embassies, with protesters even teargassed in Paris. Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a long awaited meeting surrounding peace talks with President Obama and headed back to Israel to do damage control, and Turkey, from where the flotilla departed, has recalled its ambassador and issued a travel warning to its citizens. Huwaida Arraf was on one of the ships; she joins us via phone from Ramallah, along with Norman Finkelstein, to tell us what happened to her and offer some analysis on the situation.

"My statement wasn't strong enough," says UN special rapporteur Richard Falk of his condemnation of the killings of humanitarian volunteers by Israeli commandoes on the "Freedom Flotilla" this Monday. Falk is the Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories for the United Nations Human Rights Council, and he joins us via Skype to discuss the reaction of the international community, the way he and other advocates for Gaza have been and are treated, and more. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates.

International pressure is mounting on Israel to end the occupation. More than 1,000 filmmakers, actors, and writers recently called for a protest of the Toronto Film Festival's spotlight on Tel-Aviv. Meanwhile an international boycott is growing. Neve Gordon, in a recent editorial, explains why it is time to boycott Israel. Since then he has received harsh criticism from within Israel but also a great deal of support. He says that The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign is the only way to save Israel from itself. Launched by Palestinian activists in 2005, the BDS movement has now become a global effort. Diana Buttu, a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization, Gordon, a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University, and Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, on organizing to end the occupation.

Micha Kurz was an Israeli soldier during the second intifada, and when he left the military he co-founded Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects stories from members of the service (which is compulsory in Israel for young men and women) who served in the occupied territories. Breaking the Silence allows soldiers to confidentially speak out about the things they did and saw while in the military. Kurz is now with Grassroots Jerusalem, where he helps bring together grassroots social justice activists from across Israel. Kurz notes that his Jewish upbringing is what caused him to question the way Israel conducts the occupation and to speak out against it, and he talks to Laura about what Americans can do to help bring peace in Israel and Palestine.