The Gaza freedom flotillas: Sailboats, lawsuits and struggle for justice in Palestine

Ann Wright will discuss Gaza and the 2015 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the 2016 Women's Boat to Gaza, and the two lawsuits in US courts concerning the 2010 Gaza Flotilla. She also will address the effects of the Israeli military's attacks on Gaza in 2014 and 2009 through discussion of Dr Mads Gilbert's books, "Night in Gaza" and "Eyes in Gaza". Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She also served 16 years as a US diplomat in U.S. Embassies in Afghanistan, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Grenada, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, and Mongolia. She has a law degree and a masters degree in national security affairs from the U.S. Naval War College. Ann resigned from the US government in March 2003 in opposition to President Bush's war on Iraq. Since then she has challenged many policies of the U.S. government including its war, extraordinary rendition, torture, illegal imprisonment and assassin drone policies. She has travelled to Gaza 6 times and was on the 2010, 2011 and 2015 Gaza Freedom Flotillas and is an organizer for the 2016 Women's Boat to Gaza. She is also working on peace for the Korean peninsula with Women Cross the DMZ and was in Pyongyang and Seoul in May 2015 with the 30 woman international delegation. She will be coming to Australia after a conference with North Korean women and South Korean women.