Ridgely Fuller, U.S. Boat to Gaza Passenger
Channel: USBOATTOGAZA
Date: 2011-06-14

Passenger Ridgely Fuller talks about why she is going aboard the US Boat to Gaza with the Stay Human Flotilla at the end of the month.

Bio: During my first significant trip to Gaza, John Ging, former head of the UN refugee aid effort in Gaza reflected that citizens of the world need to step in when their governments fail to resolve critical international issues. The Second Freedom Flotilla with thousands of world citizens representing some 22 countries represent that effort: coming together to insist that Israel ends its illegal blockade of Gaza and to demand that international law and human rights be applied equally to all people.

I am a social worker with an additional master's degree in international relations whose passion for Palestine developed during my first trip to the area in 2002. This study trip was inspired by my questioning the Jewish narrative deeply ingrained into my persona as the result of living in Germany and Holland as a child. I simply couldn't believe that a people who had suffered so much could condone the massive violations of Palestinian human rights that had begun to appear in the media: the theft of land, the bulldozing of homes and the breaking of Palestinian children's' arms . My first witness trip was then followed by others: an International Women's Human Rights marched organized by Israeli and Palestinian women in 2003 and 2.5 months in the West Bank of Palestine in 2008. As a social worker interested in children I also traveled with Code Pink to witness the effect of the Israeli invasion on Gaza youth in 2009 and returned in 2010 to work with mental health workers and young adults building resiliency in the Gaza youth.

On a personal note, I am proud to be a member of the Freedom Flotilla and sail on the US The Audacity of Hope in the name of equality for all people; for the young adults of Gaza who, living in a virtual prison, have given up their own dreams to cheerfully rebuild their people with incredible inner resources and for the many, many Americans whose demands of justice for Palestine are ignored by our own government.