Iron Will
Sara Ibrahim
All the way from San Francisco to Palestine, he came to fight for justice, a man who believed in humanity and peace. He worked with the International Solidarity Movement and now a co-founder of the Free Palestine Movement and the Free Gaza Movement.
He was on board the "Sefmdoni", a ship of the Freedom flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, when the ship was raided by "Israeli" forces.
He was then caught by the "Israelis" and was kept in prison for two days at Givon Prison, in Ramle, "Israel".
Dr. Paul Larudee human rights advocate, and a for-ever peace activist gave Moqawama.org the pleasure of a special interview, during his latest visit to Lebanon.
Starting with the U.S imposing sanction on Iran, Paul said, "I think there's a double or triple or even quadruple standard in the fact where Iran is criticized for things that are tolerated easily by any other nation, especially in the case of "Israel", we know what is tolerated and ignored". "This is a double standards and I don't think there's anything serious", he said.
He continued that the U.S is concerned that Iran someday might be getting nuclear weapons, noting that "Israel" has hundreds of Nuclear warheads as everyone knows the "Israeli" program was stolen from the U.S and still the U.S does nothing about it.
Moving on to the U.S- "Israeli" relations he said the U.S declared that it will no longer provide "Israel" with automatic support, with a sarcastic smile he added, "It will surely provide it with
manual support".
As for the changes in the New Obama administration he said, "Nothing changed in the Obama administration but the color and the name of the party in power."
He added that there might be one slight possibility of change as he marked that the U.S in March didn't make a delivery of bunker buster bombs to "Israel" after it was supposed to, instead Obama sent those bombs to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
"This maybe a difference, knowing that in 2008 the Bush administration delivered a large amount of bunker buster bombs to "Israel". Obama refused to do so and that coincided with the week of argument that occurred between both countries, when Netanyahu had difficult talks with Obama", he said.
Paul went on talking about the Flotilla incident and the U.S stance, "As far as I can see the U.S still protected "Israel" in the media but what's interesting about it is not the U.S government's reaction, it's how the U.S press and media covered the incident."
He added that the U.S media took such big interest in it, and that means that some kind of change is happening in the society.
Speaking of the Flotilla and the "Israeli" attack, Paul started telling his bitter story of his experience when captured by the "Israelis".
"They beat me up over and over again", he said with a strong laugh. "I was a bad prisoner, I did what they didn't want me to do and didn't do what they wanted me to do", he continued again with a stronger laugh.
Paul explained how brutal the "Israelis" were, noting that he was beaten up more than 7 times. "They were too upset from me, although I was never violent. They even hit me in front of the prisoners and they all started a riot and some were beaten very hard", he said that with pain and that showed that he cared about others more than himself.
Paul added that the "Israelis" were very careful to manage everything that happened so that it looked nice and gentle in the eyes of the media.
"After I jumped into the ocean, I was taken by a ship and was beaten before arriving to Ashdod, when I arrived to Ashdod I got out of the boat and sat down, I refused to walk, they carried me and twisted my arm. They had to carry me, 5 of them put me on a stretcher and carried me from one place to another. Then they put me in an ambulance, for they had to hide me somewhere and the best place to hide someone on a stretcher is an ambulance", he added with a firm tone.
Paul was taken to a hospital afterwards of where he was treated violently, he said there was no point in taking him to the hospital, and he refused to respond to any of their demands. "I remember wanting to use the rest room, and they refused which they did regularly. But I sat on one of the beds and said I don't want to cause you inconvenience so this bed would make a great bathroom, and so they immediately found a bathroom for me", he said with a victory smirk.
"They beat me up so hard; ten men put me down on the floor, kicked me in the head, kicked me in the ribs, and slammed my head against the concrete on the floor. At that moment I understood what it means to be the most "moral army" in the world. I was shouting so that the reporters could hear me, the only person to defend me in the processing center was Dr. Evangelese Picia, he fought so hard and he ended up with a broken leg and a broken rib", he said.
Paul spoke about the reason why many American and foreign activists come to the Middle East and fight for peace. He said, "We didn't come here intending to do what we ended up doing, we came here because we are angry, we are angry of what is being done in our name, and we get more and more involved. We have to do something about it; we don't want to pay the price of our conscience for what's happening to people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine".
Other than the "Gaza by Sea project", Paul talked about the upcoming projects of his primary organization Free Palestine Movement.
The return from Exile Project is one of many of their projects. "In partnership with two other Palestinian organizations, The Palestinian Return Center in the UK and the Right of Return coalition in the U.S, we will gather Palestinian volunteers who have citizenship in North America and Europe and they'll fly on commercial flights to Lid (Tel -Aviv) airport and they'll demand their right to return home, and they will resist deportation.
A project of Gaza by Air will soon be launched as well, where a Gaza air space can be entered without over-flying "Israeli" or Egyptian territory.
Paul ended by talking about the "talk of the town" on whether a war will rage in the region or not. He said, "I think "Israel" really misses raging a war, but perhaps the U.S doesn't want it immediately, but there's a huge possibility of a war and the question is how big it will be? Will it include Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza? Or will they go for the easy game, which is a war on Gaza? A war is surely coming but we don't know when".
All the way from San Francisco to Palestine, he came to fight for justice, a man who believed in humanity and peace. He worked with the International Solidarity Movement and now a co-founder of the Free Palestine Movement and the Free Gaza Movement.
He was on board the "Sefmdoni", a ship of the Freedom flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, when the ship was raided by "Israeli" forces.
He was then caught by the "Israelis" and was kept in prison for two days at Givon Prison, in Ramle, "Israel".
Dr. Paul Larudee human rights advocate, and a for-ever peace activist gave Moqawama.org the pleasure of a special interview, during his latest visit to Lebanon.
Starting with the U.S imposing sanction on Iran, Paul said, "I think there's a double or triple or even quadruple standard in the fact where Iran is criticized for things that are tolerated easily by any other nation, especially in the case of "Israel", we know what is tolerated and ignored". "This is a double standards and I don't think there's anything serious", he said.
He continued that the U.S is concerned that Iran someday might be getting nuclear weapons, noting that "Israel" has hundreds of Nuclear warheads as everyone knows the "Israeli" program was stolen from the U.S and still the U.S does nothing about it.
Moving on to the U.S- "Israeli" relations he said the U.S declared that it will no longer provide "Israel" with automatic support, with a sarcastic smile he added, "It will surely provide it with
manual support".
As for the changes in the New Obama administration he said, "Nothing changed in the Obama administration but the color and the name of the party in power."
He added that there might be one slight possibility of change as he marked that the U.S in March didn't make a delivery of bunker buster bombs to "Israel" after it was supposed to, instead Obama sent those bombs to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
"This maybe a difference, knowing that in 2008 the Bush administration delivered a large amount of bunker buster bombs to "Israel". Obama refused to do so and that coincided with the week of argument that occurred between both countries, when Netanyahu had difficult talks with Obama", he said.
Paul went on talking about the Flotilla incident and the U.S stance, "As far as I can see the U.S still protected "Israel" in the media but what's interesting about it is not the U.S government's reaction, it's how the U.S press and media covered the incident."
He added that the U.S media took such big interest in it, and that means that some kind of change is happening in the society.
Speaking of the Flotilla and the "Israeli" attack, Paul started telling his bitter story of his experience when captured by the "Israelis".
"They beat me up over and over again", he said with a strong laugh. "I was a bad prisoner, I did what they didn't want me to do and didn't do what they wanted me to do", he continued again with a stronger laugh.
Paul explained how brutal the "Israelis" were, noting that he was beaten up more than 7 times. "They were too upset from me, although I was never violent. They even hit me in front of the prisoners and they all started a riot and some were beaten very hard", he said that with pain and that showed that he cared about others more than himself.
Paul added that the "Israelis" were very careful to manage everything that happened so that it looked nice and gentle in the eyes of the media.
"After I jumped into the ocean, I was taken by a ship and was beaten before arriving to Ashdod, when I arrived to Ashdod I got out of the boat and sat down, I refused to walk, they carried me and twisted my arm. They had to carry me, 5 of them put me on a stretcher and carried me from one place to another. Then they put me in an ambulance, for they had to hide me somewhere and the best place to hide someone on a stretcher is an ambulance", he added with a firm tone.
Paul was taken to a hospital afterwards of where he was treated violently, he said there was no point in taking him to the hospital, and he refused to respond to any of their demands. "I remember wanting to use the rest room, and they refused which they did regularly. But I sat on one of the beds and said I don't want to cause you inconvenience so this bed would make a great bathroom, and so they immediately found a bathroom for me", he said with a victory smirk.
"They beat me up so hard; ten men put me down on the floor, kicked me in the head, kicked me in the ribs, and slammed my head against the concrete on the floor. At that moment I understood what it means to be the most "moral army" in the world. I was shouting so that the reporters could hear me, the only person to defend me in the processing center was Dr. Evangelese Picia, he fought so hard and he ended up with a broken leg and a broken rib", he said.
Paul spoke about the reason why many American and foreign activists come to the Middle East and fight for peace. He said, "We didn't come here intending to do what we ended up doing, we came here because we are angry, we are angry of what is being done in our name, and we get more and more involved. We have to do something about it; we don't want to pay the price of our conscience for what's happening to people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine".
Other than the "Gaza by Sea project", Paul talked about the upcoming projects of his primary organization Free Palestine Movement.
The return from Exile Project is one of many of their projects. "In partnership with two other Palestinian organizations, The Palestinian Return Center in the UK and the Right of Return coalition in the U.S, we will gather Palestinian volunteers who have citizenship in North America and Europe and they'll fly on commercial flights to Lid (Tel -Aviv) airport and they'll demand their right to return home, and they will resist deportation.
A project of Gaza by Air will soon be launched as well, where a Gaza air space can be entered without over-flying "Israeli" or Egyptian territory.
Paul ended by talking about the "talk of the town" on whether a war will rage in the region or not. He said, "I think "Israel" really misses raging a war, but perhaps the U.S doesn't want it immediately, but there's a huge possibility of a war and the question is how big it will be? Will it include Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza? Or will they go for the easy game, which is a war on Gaza? A war is surely coming but we don't know when".
