Olympia Food Boycott - Israelli products

Ann Wright--Help Launch U.S. Boat to Gaza

author: Mollie

Ann Wright -retired Army Colonel and Diplomat-- spoke in Olympia tonight. She came to support Olympia Food Co-Op's boycott of Israeli products and announce the plan for another flotilla to break the blockade of Gaza.

Ann Wrigh

Ann Wright

Olympia Food Co-op's boycott is part of the Boycott, Disinvestments, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which began in 2005 when over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in Israel and in Palestine issued a call for the nonviolent tactic of BDS on Israel until the country abides by international law and human rights standards. The BDS call has become an international movement, endorsed by renowned figures such as Desmond Tutu, Naomi Klein, and Alice Walker. The Co-op boycott comes two months after Italy's largest supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, declared a boycott of products exported by Israeli Carmel Agrexco.

The boycott has focused attention on the continued Israel-Palestine conflict, and the U.S. role in supporting the violence of the Israeli military and the illegal blockade of Gaza.

Ann Wright also spoke about her experience in the Free Gaza Flotilla, which killed nine humanitarian aid workers and kidnapping more than 700 others. She was among the 700.
She said that what was not shown on the news was the Israeli commandos shooting people on the ships prior to boarding. Nine died and over 50 were wounded in twenty minutes of shooting. he U.S. has not protested the Israel's actions.

Ann asked people to launch a U.S. boat to Gaza. The boat --to be called, The Audacity of Hope-- will join an international Freedom Flotilla and nonviolently challenge U.S. foreign policy and break the blockade. They are seeking donations as well as a crew of human rights activists.
To find out more or to help, conatact: ustogaza.org

Info about BDS:  http://www.olympiabds.org/

Also present was Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, a disabled veteran, who had filed suit to become a United

States citizen. Mr. Chaudhry is wheelchair-bound due to injuries. He was deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He filed an application to become a U.S. citizen under the military naturalization program in 2004, which requires the U.S. government to provide expedited processing for citizenship applications for individuals in the armed forces. For more information:

 http://www.justice4chaudhry.info/