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Gerd von der Lippe

Gerd von der Lippe
Ship to Gaza Norway
Professor of Sports Sociology and author.

Female, age 75. Professor of Sports Sociology and author. Research projects in cooperation with university colleagues in Gaza, and several invitations to present papers on women’s lives in Norway. Former Norwegian National Champion 100 m, 200 m and 400 m sprint. Famous in Norway when she – under a fake male name – ran in the biggest Norwegian relay race 1972, which was prohibited for women. She was punished for that, but together with other Norwegian champions she was an activist to enable women’s participation in the relay in 1975, which her team won. More recently, she worked on the case of Mahmoud Sarsak, a Palestinian football player detained by Israel and released after a long hunger strike in 2012.

From 2009-2013 member of the Advisory Board to the biggest Norwegian radio/TV channel, the State channel. Social commentator in the biggest Norwegian newspapers. Member of the national section in the Norwegian Palestine committee and Board member/deputy chair Ship to Gaza Norway.

Quote: “I have been in Gaza as a guest of university colleagues and listened to the stories of different people during and after several of the Israeli aggressive bombs. They are my friends, the unknown and silent Palestine heroes, who need the solidarity of the world.”

Gerd can be interviewed in Norwegian or in English.

Divina Levrini – a memorial from a friend, shipmate and staying in jail together (March 2019).

I knew her as a friend, activist, singer and advocate for justice in the summer of 2018. We were on Kårstein/Al Awda (The Return) and in the same cell in Israeli jail together.

One morning, one of the guards shouted at me and then hit me hard on my left ankle to get us up out of our beds, injuring one of my hips. Several hours later Divina supported me on our way to a doctor.

To exaggerate my pain, we found out that I should limp, while she was holding my arm. We were, however not on our way to a doctor, but to a new hot cell. In order for me not to faint in our new sauna, I asked Divina to sing with me. We did that so loudly together and so well, I think, that all guards passing heard it and several of them looked towards our new cell. Songs like “Yesterday”, “We are many” (a Scandinavian women’s song), “Who can sail without wind” and “The International”. Singing together with her in a hot cell empowered me and helped me hold on to my identity, because the aim of the guards was to break us and dehumanize us.

I see her beautiful face every day, and I cannot believe that I never will meet her again.

A very sad Gerd von der Lippe, Ship To Gaza Norway and Freedom Flotilla Coalition member.