HANEEN ZOABI, via Shada Zoabi
A member of the Israeli Knesset, Zoabi, who was born in Nazareth, is a board member and co-founder of the I’lam Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel. She was aboard the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the Gaza flotilla where nine activists were killed, and she witnessed some of them bleed to death. When she returned to Israel to speak in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), she was verbally assaulted by other parliament members. A Facebook group calling for her death has reportedly attracted hundreds of members. See interview and footage of Zoabi in the Knesset.
PAUL JAY
Jay is CEO and senior editor of The Real News Network. He recently wrote the piece “In Defense of Helen Thomas: On Apologizing to Apologists” in which her refers to a “McCarthyite witch hunt atmosphere.”
Jay did a series of interviews with Thomas in April.
He was also recently in the Mideast, interviewing key people in the region including a Hamas official.
ANN WRIGHT, RAMZI KYSIA
LobeLog.org reports: “On a press call hosted by a pro-Israel organization, Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, told reporters that he intends to seek the prosecution of any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla.”
The Free Gaza Movement and other peace groups have released a statement that they will “be voluntarily making themselves available for arrest in Rep. Brad Sherman’s Capitol Hill offices on Thursday, June 10 at 2 p.m. In the event they are not arrested, they will be holding a memorial service for those killed aboard the Mavi Marmara in Rep. Sherman’s Rayburn HOB office.”
Col. Ann Wright (ret.), a former U.S. diplomat, Gaza Freedom March organizer, and a passenger aboard the recent Freedom Flotilla, said today: “Nine aid workers were murdered by Israeli commandos, and more than 50 were wounded. I want to look Brad Sherman in the eye and see if he has any sense for the gravity of this situation. If Sherman wants to have us arrested — we’ll be there.”
Kysia, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, said today: “Rep. Sherman is welcome to arrest me and try to make his case to a jury of my peers. Delivering humanitarian aid to people in need is not ‘terrorism.’ Brad Sherman is a prime example of just how degenerate our political discourse has become on Capitol Hill.”
Correction: In a news release distributed Tuesday, IPA wrote that Melvin Goodman, who was featured on the release, was “with the CIA for 41 years.” While he held various government positions for that long, he was with the CIA for 24 years.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-00208; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
