Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Cynthia McKinney Returns to U.S. After Ordeal on High Seas and Israeli Prison
Bill Quigley
02 Jul 2009
🖨️ Print Article
The Editors

Former Georgia Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney arrives at JFK Airport early Tuesday morning. McKinney, known as prisoner #88794 during her confinement at Ramle prison since Tuesday, was arrested along wih 20 other activists of the Free Gaza Movment when the Israeli Navy seized their vessel, Human Spirit, on the high seas. The boat was enroute from Cyprus to Gaza bearing humanitarian aid to Palestinian victims of the two-year-old Israeli blockade and military assault on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million people.

McKinney and other Free Gaza members had refused to sign documents that were written in Hebrew and were said to be admissions to having entered Israel illegally. McKinney points out that she and here colleagues had no intention of entering Israel – their mission was to deliver humanitarian supplies, including cement and toys for children.

In a call from Ramle prison on Friday, Ms. McKinney reported: “The Israeli authorities tried to get us to confess to committing a crime. Israel,” she declared, “must be declared a failed state.”

Among her cellmates were Ethiopian female would-be immigrants to Israel who “thought Israel held promise for them – but it wasn’t true.”

Demonstrations in support of McKinney and the “Free Gaza 21”were held in several U.S. cities, including at the Israeli consulate in New York City. City Councilman Charles Barron led the crowd in chants of, “Hands of Cynthia McKinney.” Other actions were scheduled  in New York, Washington, Atlanta and Chicago, this weekend.

 


Cynthia McKinney

The continuing blockade of Gaza, in which Israel and the U.S. collectively punish 1.5 million people is a crime under international law, and one of many stories not covered in the corporate news.  Here are a few places where you can find out more about the situation in Israel-Palestine and the blockade.
  • The Free Gaza Project --ISRAEL ATTACKS JUSTICE BOAT; KIDNAPS HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS; CONFISCATES MEDICINE, TOYS AND OLIVE TREES

the blockade

 

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio July 25, 2025
    25 Jul 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss Canada’s role as a U.S. imperialist client state and how its image as a friendlier northern neighbor is contradicted by support for Israel’s genocide, increases in…
  • Immigration flight graphic
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Trump Africa Policy: Imperialism, Resource Extraction, and Deportations
    25 Jul 2025
    Our guest is Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan African Newswire. He joins us from Detroit to discuss the Trump administration policy towards Africa, including the recent visit of five African heads of…
  • Canada and the US
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Vassal State Canada Partners with U.S. Imperialist and Neo-Liberal Policies
    25 Jul 2025
    El Jones is a poet and a professor at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She joins us from Halifax to discuss Canadian politics and relations with the US. Despite…
  • Pindiga Ambedkar , Arnold August
    Were Canadian Elections Existential in the Context of US-Canada Tensions?
    23 Jul 2025
    Interview with Arnold August, writer, political commentator, and analyst of the North American continent, on the political situation in Canada and its relationship to the US.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Black Agenda Report At the Belt and Road Journalism Forum in China
    23 Jul 2025
    The 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in China was an opportunity for Black Agenda Report to join an international group of journalists working to promote meaningful dialogue on world issues.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us