DEARBORN — Activists from multiple backgrounds joined together Wednesday at Bint Jebail Banquet Hall in Dearborn for a fundraising dinner in support of the Michigan Peace Team’s upcoming trip to Gaza near the end of December.

Huwaida Arraf

The event, created by the Students for Socially Responsible Investing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and sponsored by the MPT, was titled “Gaza: A Year Later.” It gave local activists and organizations a chance to network and discuss strategies for “breaking the siege” and Israeli occupation in Palestine while fundraising and listening to keynote speaker Huwaida Arraf and others like Kim Redigan of the MPT.
Arraf, the found of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which is committed to resisting the Israeli occupation using nonviolent methods and principles, and member of the Free Gaza Movement (visit www.freegaza.org for more information), thanked the dinner’s guests for their support.

“When you wake up with a tank parked outside of your house with a turret pointed at your window, it’s kind of hard not to want to fight back,” Arraf said.

“I am no more courageous and brave…being far away from the violence and still fighting injustices, that’s the hard part.”

Arraf, who was born in Detroit to an Israeli Arab father and Palestinian mother and has spent considerable time in Palestine helping stage countless non-violent protests in Gaza in the face of the Israeli occupation, said that perseverance and boycott/divestment strategies are effective in the fight to end the occupation.

“Israel is paying nothing for its occupation,” she said, referring to U.S. aid amounts that are estimated at $7 million per day in 2009 by the Web site www.ifamericansknew.org. “The only way to stop it is to make it costly for them.”

Earlier in the evening, Redigan spoke about the Gaza Freedom March that is expected to take place from December 21, 2009 to January 1, 2010 from the border of Egypt into Gaza. Members of the MPT are expected to participate.

Redigan said that over 50,000 Palestinians within the country are organizing in preparation for the event and delegations from several nations along with various politicians and famous faces are expected to join, including singer/bassist Roger Waters of the popular classic rock band Pink Floyd and Alice Walker, author of the classic novel “The Color Purple.”

Funds raised during the evening will go towards the Peace Team’s trip for the march, which aims to break the siege, raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians in the international community and in America, and to deliver much-needed supplies to the region as winter approaches.

Arraf compared the current situation in Gaza to an outdoor maximum security prison and recounted stories such as the time she made it through the Israeli naval blockade in a small boat with fellow activists, leading to an unforgettable moment when the group was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd and children swam out to meet them as they docked.

Arraf stressed that the key to the Free Gaza Movement is to focus on and shed light on the hardships of the occupation as opposed to simply gathering supplies that often never reach the region because of the blockade.

“I’m not saying we don’t need more aid and supplies, but much of it is not getting through,” she said, mentioning that items like generators and even luxuries like chocolate are currently banned as an example.

Arraf added that another goal for the movement is to break through multiple times, and said that donations are needed for the upcoming Freedom March and also for more boats and more voyages to continue to draw attention to the urgency of the situation afterward.

She talked about the Gaza crisis and its overall importance on the international level.

“This is about the very notion that we need to stand up to injustice wherever it occurs,” she said.

For more information on the MPT, visit www.michiganpeaceteam.org.