Why we sailed to Gaza: A Phone conference with Mairead Maguire and Yonatan Shapira

Information about Mairead Maguire and Yonatan Shapira

Internationally known peace activists, Mairead Maguire and Yonatan Shapira, have both sailed on boats attempting to break the siege and bring symbolic amounts of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

Maireed Corrigan Maguire

On August 10, 1976, two of Mairead Maguire's nephews and one of her nieces, all little children, were killed on a Belfast street corner. Her sister, Ann, was also injured in the incident. In response to this personal tragedy, Maguire joined with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown to organize weekly peace marches and demonstrations that instantly brought out over half a million people throughout Northern Ireland, as well as in England and Ireland. They also co-founded the Community of the Peace People, an organization dedicated to nonviolence, to continue their peacemaking initiatives. Maguire and Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize for their extraordinary work.

Maguire is an advocate for peace around the world and helped found the Nobel Womens Initiative, a group of six women Nobel Peace Laureates devoted to strengthening women’s rights and being a voice for justice and peace around the world. She helped organize the recent visit to Israel and the Palestinian Occupied West Bank by the Nobel Women’s Initiative but was denied entry to Israel. After several days in detention, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the decision to deny her entry and she was deported from Israel earlier this month.

Maguire has sailed on three boats to Gaza, in October 2008 when they reached Gaza, and then in June 2009 and then on the MV Rachel Corrie in June 2010. On both occasions in 2009 and 2010, the boats were intercepted by the Israeli Navy and she was arrested along with all the passengers.

"If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of nonviolence, here and now, in the present."

You can read a profile of Mairead Maguire here.

Yonatan Shapiro

From Rabbi Brant Rosen's Blog:

Yonatan Shapira was an officer in the Israeli Air Force and flew hundreds of missions over the Occupied Territories in a Blackhawk helicopter squadron during the course of his eleven year career. Following a targeted bomb assassination of a Hamas leader that killed fourteen civilians in Gaza, he became a prominent Israeli “refusenik,” authoring the Pilot’s Letter – a 2003 statement signed by 27 Israeli pilots who publicly refused to fly missions over the Occupied Territories. Since that time, Yonatan has gone on to co-found “Combatants for Peace”.

This is an excerpt from an inspiring blog post by Rabbi Brant Rosen, co-founder of Taanit Tzedek – Jewish Fast for Gaza. You can read the complete post about Yonatan Shapira here.

Earlier this month, Yonatan was one of the passengers on the “Jewish Boat for Gaza.” You can read his account of the experience on the boat here.