We gathered as scheduled in a restaurant. What we ate quickly faded from memory; what we learned lives on. Vividly.

The three of us might seem to share little; in age and gender and work skills and nationality … even in favorite sports and musical taste we were a diverse lot.

What drew us together was a shared commitment to social justice and faith.

We came to talk with Herman Reksten, the Norwegian sailor who had made world headlines when—defying a military blockade—he captained his ship into port on the Gaza Strip. Why? Because Reksten, in his thirties, had seen the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and wanted to help. So he and his crew loaded their fishing boat with medicines, food, school supplies—heading it to Gaza.

That’s where the story gets complicated. Gaza’s port is blockaded: the intent is to keep all international shipping out. The reason? Israel, the most powerful state in the region, seeks to prevent military equipment from getting into the hands of Palestinians. So strongly does Israel feel about this that even when Reksten’s cargo passed inspection as non-threatening, he was arrested, handcuffed and sent to prison.

So some of us sat down with him when he spent a few days in Orlando.

Convictions

Reksten’s convictions about justice are as clear as his convictions in Israeli courts. He has made three trips from Oslo, Norway, where he lives, to Gaza … each time arrested, found guilty of defying the ban—illegal under international law as he sees things—and imprisoned. He describes prison conditions there as crowded and dirty and the food as poor quality. He was even more critical of conditions the people of Gaza not in prison face day after day. Their freedom of movement is restricted, he said, and their human rights constantly crushed. In fact, he would question my use of the term “not in prison” to describe the people, pointing out that some observers call Gaza “the largest open-air prison in the world.” He himself, on the other hand, does not use that term. He prefers to call it “the largest open-air concentration camp in the world.”

Gaza squeezes its people into an area the size of the District of Columbia. Result? “The highest population density in the world.”

Home? Prison? Or Concentration Camp?

Speaking personally, I doubt that the label concentration camp should be applied to even the crappiest conditions any people face today. But I could be wrong. Thus a valued friend, a Jewish veteran of World War II who lost relatives at Auschwitz, is emphatic as he claims the world has learned nothing from the horrors of the camps. ”Rwanda and Gaza are stories we hear and quickly forget.”

What’s your take-away? Are the people of Gaza, having sown the seeds of their own destruction, now living with their own just punishment? Should they be glad just to be alive? Should someone tell them it’s a sin to envy the better lot of their Israeli neighbors, so shut up and be content with what you have?

Here are some realities to ponder as you form your own response:

Poverty

Annual income per person fell from $2,659 (U.S.) in 1994 to $1,826 in 2018.This puts 30 percent of the people below the poverty line. Unemployment reached 44 percent—the highest in the World Bank’s database. Among youth this soared to above 60 percent.

A personal anecdote shines some light on this dark reality. Some years ago, while on a tour of Israel and Palestine, our guide was a professor, filled with information and a friendly spirit. After we had focused on Israel—the Temple in Jerusalem, the town of Nazareth, the Mount of Olives, the Holocaust Museum, he announced, “Today we will cross the border onto Palestine. You will notice immediately how different things are. Instead of cleanliness you will find filth. In place of prosperity, poverty; in place of hope on people’s faces, a spirit of grumbling and complaint. Why is this? Very simple: Israelis know how business works. They grow oranges, export them to Europe and make a profit. Palestinians, on the other hand, have never learned that you can’t get rich just trading stuff with your neighbor.”

I later relayed the guide’s comment to people with the Ecumenical Accompaniment program, a multi-national team living in Bethlehem, which is in Palestine. “Of course Palestinians (including the West Bank and Gaza) don’t sell oranges in Europe!” was their answer. “Israel won’t let them. They can’t get an export license!”

Should a Country Fight Do-Gooders?

Into that heated context sailed the little Norwegian-flagged fishing vessel.

The whole crew—20, including two Israelis—were arrested. Here is the report from the Guardian, a respected newspaper in England:

Activists who attempted to sail a fishing boat carrying aid to Gaza but were intercepted by the Israeli navy have complained of violence during a boarding operation.

Israel held the 20 foreigners and the boat after they arrived several dozen miles off the coast of Gaza on Sunday and were in the process of releasing and deporting the crew, the group said.

Most of those on board Al Awda, which means The Return in Arabic, were held in prison, while two Israelis on the vessel were released on bail.

Freedom Flotilla said the Norwegian-flagged boat had been surrounded by “12 military vessels with hundreds of armed soldiers.”

“Some participants were repeatedly tasered, including in the head. Others were punched or had their head beaten against a wall by IOF soldiers. Zip-cuffs were used in a manner which cut off circulation,” Freedom Flotilla said, referring to Israeli troops as Israel Occupation Forces.

The account appeared to conflict with that of the Israeli military on Sunday, which said the boat was “monitored and was intercepted” and “the activity ended without exceptional events”.

On Thursday, the military said its forces “used proportional force in order to constrain the provocateurs on board the ship”. It did not say how many activists it had deported or if any remained in custody. Al Awda was carrying €13,000 (£11,500) worth of medical supplies for Gaza, which were transferred to the enclave by Israeli authorities after the boat was confiscated.

Among those deported was Australian Chris Graham, editor of the independent news website New Matilda. Another crew member, Swee Ang, a British orthopaedic surgeon who helped to establish the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, said she had also arrived back in the UK.

The boat’s captain accused Israeli authorities of illegally boarding the vessel in international waters. “We were closer to Egypt than Israel,” Herman Reksten said when he returned to Norway. “I still have a headache from being hit in prison.”

Mike Treen, an activist and union leader from New Zealand, said on his return to Auckland that Israeli soldiers had worn balaclavas as the activists linked arms. “They just started tasering us, beating and tasering us to get out the way,” he said, adding that many had had their belongings confiscated.

Israel imposes a naval blockade on Gaza and has in the past blocked ships from reaching its shores, most infamously in 2010 when it launched an operation that killed 10 people.

? ? Questions in Search of Answers

Whenever Israelis are invited to explain incidents like this, they typically use terms like security.

Which triggers other questions. At what point does “security” become overkill? When is it effective, and when self-defeating? Since repression by military force has failed to provide security, is it time to try another approach? How about negotiation supported by service?

The questions multiply: Should a people whose human rights were cruelly crushed just a generation ago in the Holocaust be extra vigilant never to violate the rights of others? Is there no place for equality in our world?

Some questions focus on Israel, others hit closer to home. There was a time when both Canada and the United States turned aside refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. We sent them back to their horrible fate. If today we learn of others ground down by gross injustice and turn our backs, are we not guilty all over again? Since the U.S. sends billions in foreign aid to Israel—even though Israel represents only .0001 percent of the world’s population—, while Gaza/Palestine do not even make the list, is the U.S.A—every taxpayer—not part the problem?

The microphones are open…