"We challenged the ridiculous notion that the people of Gaza are children and need to be taken care of (by the Israelis)," she said.
Paki Wieland of Northampton on Friday talks about her experience being aboard the ship "The Audacity of Hope," which was seized by the Greek coast guard soon after it embarked on a voyage to run Israel's Gaza blockade.NORTHAMPTON – Paki Wieland sailed in solidarity with some 38 other peace activists earlier this month aboard a ship bent on defying the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Her cohort was much smaller Friday in Council Chambers as people came to hear her talk about the experience.
Some 15 people, several of them fellow activist and at least one who took issue with Wieland’s politics, gathered inside the Wallace J. Puchalski Municipal Building for Wieland’s account of the adventure, from which she returned on Wednesday. She was part of an international effort this month that employed 10 boats seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has been in place since 2007, when Hamas came to power in the Arab territory.
Last year, amid an international outcry, Israel eased the blockade, allowing nearly all food items and household goods into the country. However, construction materials are still at a premium and Palestinian officials say there remains a humanitarian crisis in which the people of Gaza must live under Israeli rule.
Wieland, 67, a member of the “Raging Grannies,” a group of older women who sing in defiance of oppression, said she was able to travel to Greece, from which her boat embarked, with financial help from friends in the Northampton area. The boat, “The Audacity of Hope,” took its name from a Barack Obama campaign slogan. It joined some 20 other vessels with passengers from 22 countries in a “Freedom Flotilla” challenging the blockade.
Prior to leaving the Greek port of Piraeus, Wieland said, she and some others fasted and sat in at a “Justice for Gaza” rally. Some of them were taken into custody outside the U.S. embassy, but they were released without charges. Although Greece had warned against it, the boat left port, carrying thousands of “love letters” to the people of Gaza. It was gone about 40 minutes when the Greek coast guard stopped it.
“We didn’t get there, but we got out of the port,” she said.
Military personnel Wieland described as “commandos,” came around in front of her boat but did not board it.
“We appealed to them to move away,” Wieland said, adding that some aboard “The Audacity of Hope” tried to engage the Greeks in dialogue about the situation.
Although Wieland’s ship was not boarded, it agreed to return to port, where its captain was placed under arrest, she said. Despite her abbreviated trip, Wieland termed the venture a success.
“We challenged the ridiculous notion that the people of Gaza are children and need to be taken care of (by the Israelis),” she said. “They’re an occupied people. More people know about Gaza than they did three weeks ago.”
Joseph Morse of Northampton stood in Council Chambers holding an Israeli flag and a sign saying, “The audacity. Educate yourself. The U.S. says there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
He questioned Wieland about the blockade and why she has not put more effort into challenging the Hamas leadership, but the exchange was civil on both sides.