Rough waters

What made Memorial Day 2010 a watershed moment in the decades-long conflict between the Israeli government and the Palestinian people? Sacramento’s George Bisharat knows. He is one of 46 contributors to Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How It Changed the Course of the Israeli/Palestine Conflict. These essays help us understand the causes and consequences of Israeli forces’ attack on an aid flotilla for Palestinians on the Gaza Strip that resulted in the deaths of nine civilian aid workers. Bisharat and his co-authors show the breadth of this global citizens’ movement for an end to the Israeli blockade of Palestinian territories: academics, blue-collar workers, filmmakers and journalists. Eyewitness accounts from the blood-soaked ship are chilling, but work in other sections of the book examines the pattern of Israeli claims to be victims, their blockade of Gaza, regional and U.S. politics and Jewish-American youth culture.