Jubilee Partners Protest Injustices In Gaza

A group of people led by Donald Mosley, head of the Jubilee Partners community, organized a protest rally in downtown Athens Friday night to show support for ending the blockade of Gaza.

As the downtown area started to bustle with weekenders, about 30 people gathered under the University of Georgia Arch holding posters inked with slogans like “End the Occupation,” and “Give Peace A Chance.”

The largest sign, a 30-foot long white and blue colored banner, read “HAVE MERCY ON THE PEOPLE OF GAZA.”

“We’re trying, in as gentle but direct way as we can, to bring attention to the fact that there are over 1.5 million Palestinians who are virtual prisoners inside Gaza,” Mosley said.

He described the war-torn country, as seen through his own eyes.

“The housing has been destroyed by attacks from Israel, and schools have been damaged so much that the people are really suffering. The occupation of the country has caused their employment to be disastrously low, and the young people are frustrated.”

Having visited the Middle East more than a dozen times, Mosley has a heart for both the Palestinian and Israeli sides of the conflict and says the current situation there is extremely unjust and counterproductive.

“We must get people to realize that there will be no peace in the Middle East until there is justice there. Gaza is probably the most dramatic example of injustice and very counter-productive policy,” he said.

During the rally, cars honked at the group and some passengers waved in approval. A few people walked by to read the signs and some stopped to ask questions about the protest.

One passer-by, Glenn Anthony, a graduate of UGA with a degree in history, was critical of the group’s effort and said the rally seemed senseless.

“If these people are so great about organizing for the Gaza strip, why aren’t they holding out big banners for the people of Appalachia who have been poor for more than a hundred years?” Anthony questioned.

“Why aren’t they supporting the people of North Georgia who are in dire economic straits? They are organizing to support a terrorist government that is 10,000 miles away. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Mosley disagreed with Anthony, saying, “There are many situations of injustice around the world, not just the Middle East. But if we turn and look the other way with apathy or ignorance and remain uninformed about it, we are making it possible for it to continue, and we become guilty of that injustice ourselves.”

He said that as Georgian Jimmy Carter reminds us frequently, “we must recognize that we are connected with people around the world. We no longer live on little isolated islands.”

Mosley, among a wealth of other humanitarian efforts, co-founded Habitat for Humanity and helped launch the “All Our Children” campaign, which helped provide medicine to Iraqi children.

He started Jubilee Partners with his wife Carolyn and the couple has hosted over 3,000 refugees from more than 30 war-torn countries around the world.