Stuffing my backpack before setting out to board The Audacity of Hope, the US boat to Gaza, I got a familiar-sounding call from yet another puzzled friend, who said as gently as the words will allow, "You know you can get killed, don't you?" I recognize this caution as an expression of genuine concern from friends. From some others, who don't much care about Gaza's plight and/or who do not wish us well, the words are phrased somewhat differently: "Aren't you just asking for it?" That was the obligatory question/accusation at the end of a recent interview of me that was taped for a BBC-TV special scheduled to air this coming week, as we try to break, or at least draw attention to Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza and the suffering it inflicts on the people there. I also have been cautioned by a source with access to very senior staffers at the National Security Council that not only does the White House plan to do absolutely nothing to protect our boat from Israeli attack or illegal boarding, but that White House officials "would be happy if something happened to us." They are, I am reliably told," perfectly willing to have the cold corpses of activists shown on American TV." Two millennia ago, "Civus Romanus Sum"
automatically won lawful treatment and free passage for Roman citizens in trouble. It was a matter of pride and a benefit of being part of a powerful empire. Today, the contrast could hardly be starker: It is a sad fact that "Civus Americanus Sum" would engender ridicule rather than respect, if invoked in an attempt to secure basic rights for those of us working for justice for the Palestinians.
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