Urgent: take action for Gaza
To all friends of the convoy and of Palestine
Well folks, as you awake today from your Christmas hangover, over 500 people from 20 countries, in 250 vehicles loaded with humanitarian aid, are left stranded in Aqaba, Jordan, having been refused permission to enter Egypt.
The Egyptians have placed three conditions on the convoy if it wants to enter Egypt.
1. We hand all our vehicles and aid over to UNWRA.
2. We drive 500 miles abck to Syria, and take a 24-hour ferry through the Suez Canal. (Actually, we would have to hire five boats, since the port of Al Ariesh couldn’t handle a boat big enough for the convoy.)
3. We have to ask Israel for permission to cross from Egypt to Gaza.
All three conditions have been flatly rejected by everyone on the convoy, as we want to cross into Gaza and hand our aid over to the Palestinians ourselves.
Would you phone Canada to ask permission to enter the US? Would you ask France for permission to go to Germany? For the first time, Egypt has now openly admitted that it is subject to control of Israel/US.
This has been the lead story on Al Jazeera for the past 24 hours, and there are media teams from all over the Arab world here in Aqaba following this story. Needless to say, everyone watching is totally outraged by Egypt’s complicity with Israel/US in denying this convoy of aid to reach Gaza.
Yesterday, Christmas Day, John Hurson from Tyrone dressed up as Santa to lighten the mood, and everyone’s sprirts lifted. Al Jazeera interviewed Santa, who explained that the children in Gaza were the only ones in the whole world who didn’t recieve any presents. Santa explained that while flying through the air on his sleigh with the reindeers, he was stopped and refused entry. Santa was upset as this was the only place in the world he could not visit.
Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the start of the 22-day massacre of over 1,400 people. In solidarity, many convoy members are all going to embark on a fast. We will fast for as long as it takes for us to get into Gaza with our aid.
We are calling on people all over the world to fast with us, and with the Palestinians, who fast every day due to the illegal siege imposed upon them by Israel/US/Egypt.
It’s time to take a stand and say “Enough Is Enough”. This siege has got to stop, for the sake of humanity.
We are calling on ALL friends of humanity to call the Egyptian Embassy and demand that we be allowed to enter Gaza and deliver our aid.
The contact details for the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin are: +353-1-6606718 / +353-1-6606566 / consular@embegyptireland.ie
The contact details for the Egyptian Embassy in London are: 0044-20-7499-3304 / eg.emb_london@mfa.gov.eg
Please contact them, and express your outrage at their refusal to allow Humanitarian Aid into Gaza, and to let them know that you will never travel to Egypt again, as long as they are the lap dogs for Israel/US.
Please forward this message on to everyone you know, and ask them to do the same. Plus, please leave a message of support for everyone who is stranded here in Aqaba, and for the Palestinians who need our support now, more than ever.
Example letter to the Egyptian consulate in London
Joti's journey to Gaza 
I had some thoughts upon hearing of Egypt’s stated intention to close Rafah. Should Egypt stand firm and prohibit entry to the Gaza Freedom Marchers, BDS and PACBI would be clearly justified in extending their movements to Egypt. This would then be publicized by 1,300 angry marchers returning to their 42 countries of origin.
An academic and cultural boycott could target the tourism industry in particular, Egypt’s #1 industry that produced $11 billion in revenues last year. If effective, this could negate or exceed the $2.5 billion in annual US bribes Egypt receives to collude in Israel’s criminality.
Scholars of antiquity and cultural tourists could be encouraged to choose other ancient sites until Egypt reforms its ways, e.g., “Instead of Giza and the Sphinx this year, choose the Mayan pyramids and some real jaguars.” (This would also be a less costly trip from North and South America.) Whatever dollar amount the tourism reduction, it would embarrass them, win greater public awareness of the Palestinian situation, and might not be worth the bad press for them to continue their shameless corruption.
Discontinuing the immoral alliance with Israel would also win the hearts of most of the Egyptian public, allow Mubarak to relax a little, and restore his manhood by cutting (or at least fraying) the strings to his US & Israeli puppeteers.
I think Egypt would be a less resistive target than Israel, the demands upon them smaller, and once won over, would soften up Israel with hieroglyphics on the wall, so to speak.
Other possible ad lines:
“No Gaza, No Giza”
“As long as the Rafah border is closed, we will treat all Egypt’s borders as closed.”
Very best wishes to you all! Please keep your spirits up. I have telephoned BBC Aberdeen and spoken to a reporter. Also I did phone the Egyptian embassy in London, but it is closed today (Monday 28 December 2009). Since I could not speak to anyone I have sent an email to the embassy. Please keep in touch to let us know how you all are!
Excellent post Jack, I have been suggesting the same.
Let’s turn this into a reality once the convoy and GFM have returned.
The tunnels must be open as long as there is a seige and Rafah is closed.
No Gaza No Giza (although some people may not be aware where Giza is!)
I am sure we can come up with more tag lines.
Jack may I borrow your post and copy it to the Facebook groups?
I’ve contacted my congressional representatives as well as forwarding your message to friends here and abroad. Wishing you safe passage and thanking you for doing what we are unable. Nancy McClintock, Women’s International League for Peaace and Freedom, Monterey, California, USA
Could any of your organisers arrange for a massive lobbying of travel agencies around the country to draw the attention of the traveling public to this issue? It would be useful especially at this time of year when people are booking holidays. I, for one would be more than happy to join in such an action. I will phone the Egyptian embassy when they open.
Hey…. let us know how you are getting on….. are you still stranded on the Egyptian border? Please keep in touch!