Leaden sunset (postcards from Israel)
Leaden sunsets
lethal postcards
sent from Israel to the fishermen in Gaza.
Stamped by Zionism, they brand the guardians of human rights with stamps* of antisemitism.
The postman** in these waters is armour-plated and covered in hatred,
the mailboxes look more like floating coffins.
I've never seen sunsets as crimson as those offshore from the Gaza coast.
There are many reasons why we go out fishing with Palestinian fishermen; some of them are concrete, some others are more symbolic, but no less essential.
One fishing day with us on board, according to the fishermen, is equivalent to one week of ordinary work offshore when, without internationals, they can't dare to sail for more than few miles from the port, where usually fishing is very poor. If they try to go further they risk death - or if they're lucky, "just" injury. It's worth remembering that before the siege was imposed by Israel, there were more than 3,500 fishermen working along the 40 km of the Gazan coasts; today just 700 of them are still trying to survive in a field which was used to be able to provide jobs for at least 40.000 people, if you consider mechanics, fishmongers etc as well as thousands of local fishermen that now are surviving with difficulty.
The day after one of our fishing actions, the fish is sold at the market at a knock-down price. The offer is bigger, prices go down, more mouths will eat. The owners of some of the fishing boats, before we arrived, had the serious intention of selling them, due to the very high price of the fuel and to the absence of a reliable future income. Since we arrived they've told us many times how our support, in addition to helping increase their incomes, has also acted as an injection of hope at a hopeless time.
In addition to the clearly visible achievements obtained with our fishing actions, there are some others more symbolic but equally edifying.
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http://guerrillaradio.iobloggo.com/archive.php?eid=1739&y=2008#commenti_5659626
