Vans, plans and solidarity
It’s day 7 and we’ve completed the first leg of our journey to Gaza.
We’ve made it through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Italy, successfully loaded all vehicles onto the overnight ferry at Ancona and off again at Igoumenitsa, crossed the Alps and the northern Greek mountains and are now approaching Thessaloniki, where a warm welcome, the town’s mayor and a sports stadium await us.
And this time, we get to sleep INSIDE the stadium (as opposed to camping in the car park, as we have til now), with toilets, showers, a hot meal and suchlike convivial comforts.
Things we have learned so far
1. No plan survives first contact with the convoy. Expect the worst. Triple all time estimates.
2. A convoy is only as fast as its slowest vehicle. Up a big hill. In the rain.
3. CB radio turns grown men into little boys.
4. Camping is probably more fun in the summer.
5. People with pop-up tents are losing out on valuable character-building experience. This may explain their misplaced smugness.
6. There is such a thing as TOO clean (see crazy self-cleaning German toilet seats).
7. Sleep is a waste of time when there are interesting people to talk to.
8. Sleep deprivation makes you first tired, then cross, then manic/slightly hysterical, and finally zen.
9. A tidy minibus in the morning is a skip on wheels by teatime.
10. Carrying aid is highly inconvenient when travelling on an aid convoy.
11. Having off-loaded lots of aid onto more spacious, powerful vehicles in order to make it through the mountains, we now seem to be on a mission to deliver four pointless old tarts to Gaza. Not sure that’s quite what they’re hoping for.
11. Food tastes much better when handed to you by a friendly stranger on a cold, dark night.
12. Chocolate pudding is not to be resisted, especially after a week of camp-stove mealy-meal.
13. Solidarity rocks (inquilab zindabad).
14. In the brotherhood/sorority of (wo)mankind, the things that unite us are far more numerous and significant than the things that divide us.
A few pics – lots more coming very soon
More info and pics on the Swansea Palestine blog
Via An Phoblacht
The Irish government should again look at suspending diplomatic relations with Israel after this week’s revelation that the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs was refused permission to visit Gaza in occupied Palestine.
Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh said it is high time that a hard line is taken on the issue. He declared Israel a “rogue, racist and belligerent state”.
Deputy Ó Snodaigh said:
“It was with regret but little surprise when I heard Mícheál Martin say that he was refused permission by Israel to visit Gaza. It was yet another slap in the face for the Irish Government from Israel that must not be allowed to go unchallenged. The minister should consider suspending diplomatic relations with Israel.
“Israel – a rogue, racist and belligerent state – has no right whatsoever to deny any Irish minister a visit to Palestine to see first-hand the humanitarian crisis that has been created by their criminal war actions.”
Take a stand
The Sinn Féin TD said that no Irish minister “with a scintilla of backbone” can allow matters to rest here.
“I am calling on Minister Mícheál Martin to take a stand. It is high time that a hard line is taken on the issue of Israel – to stand out among European and world leaders and to stand up for the people of Palestine.
“He must demand access and make every effort to get to Gaza and Palestine despite what the Israeli authorities say. If the Israeli authorities refuse access again, diplomatic relations should immediately be broken off and the Israeli ambassador sent home.
“He has to make Israel understand that there are consequences for their actions. He must push for immediate action at European level. A start could be made by demanding an end to the special trade relationship that exists between the European Union and Israel.
“Meekly walking away from a major diplomatic insult without a response is tantamount to conniving and colluding in the abuse of the Palestinian people. It cannot and must not be allowed to happen.”
Meanwhile an aid convoy left Ireland from Dublin Port on Saturday 5 December to link up with the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza leaving London the following day. The third Viva Palestina aid convoy, organised by MP George Galloway, will travel 4,000 miles to bring ambulances and vital humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
The convoy aims to arrive on 27 December, the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the brutal Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip that lasted for 22 days and left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.
The Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that in Tyrone, Galway, Dublin, Derry and Cork, “volunteers have been working flat-out, fund-raising and raising awareness of the plight of the people in Gaza”.
“Together, they will bring two ambulances, a minibus and a truck filled with over 10 tons of humanitarian aid,” the group said.
As a section of the convoy left Belfast to meet up with the other Irish volunteers, Sinn Féin MLA for west Belfast Jennifer McCann, who has recently returned from Jericho in the West Bank where she participated in a conference on the rights of Palestinian prisoners, congratulated the volunteers.
“The sheer size of this convoy and the fact that supplies have come from far and wide show the depth of feeling in relation to support for those in Gaza who are still reeling from the impact of the Israeli assault of December 2008 and January of this year,” McCann said.
“I wish those taking this vital aid to Gaza all the best and would appeal to Israeli officials who are still controlling access in and out of Gaza to allow this convoy to pass unhindered.
“Furthermore, there must be strident efforts to rebuild the peace process in the Middle East and part and parcel of that needs to include a huge international effort to begin the work of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
Altogether, more than 100 vehicles left London on Sunday 6 December, and will travel through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and reach the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza for 27 December.
Solidarity from Scotland
Cairde na hÉireann, the Irish republican solidarity group in Scotland, also wished the Viva Palestina aid convoy, to which they have given major assistance to over the past year, bon voyage, as two volunteers from Glasgow travelled to Belfast to link up with the Irish section of the convoy on Saturday.
A Cairde na hÉireann spokesperson said:
“Over the past months, a lot of our time has focused on fund-raising in order to buy a lorry and fill it with aid to take to the people in Gaza. Our driver, Paul Diplacito, has previously taken an ambulance on the first Viva Palestina convoy with sponsorship from Cairde na hÉireann.
“This time around we have filled the lorry with items such as wheelchairs, walking aids, medical essentials, educational supplies and shoeboxes of gifts for the children in Gaza from children in Scotland.
“We are very proud of the efforts of everybody who has supported this campaign and those who are driving to deliver this aid. While we are happy to see them set out before Christmas we must remember the dreadful conditions in Palestine that make these efforts so essential. We wish them, along with all the volunteers, a safe trip and will, of course, follow them every step of the way.”
Aid for Gaza
Thanks to all the lovely people who’ve donated, we have raised £4,500 in just two weeks! That’s to add to the £3,500 raised by the aunties in Swansea with whom I’m going to be travelling.
So here’s what we’re taking to Gaza:
– a minibus with wheelchair access
– spare parts
– laptop computers
– wheelchairs and walkers
– maternity and post-natal supplies
– other surgical and medical supplies
– children’s books in English and Arabic
– other educational materials
– all-weather camping equipment
Thank you again to all of you who donated. Read some messages of support from donors here.
Here’s a picture of our freshly-painted minibus leaving Swansea this afternoon.
Freshly-decorated minibus driven by three aunties prepares to leave Swansea
LSE Students voted by a clear majority in the most recent Union General Meeting, 26 November, to twin their students’ union with the Islamic University of Gaza, which was targeted by the IDF in the attack on Gaza earlier this year.
The motion passed by a 30 percent majority. It comes three years after a twinning motion with An-Najah University in the West Bank was passed.
The motion mandates the LSE SU to support the campaign to open up its subscriptions to electronic journals with universities in occupied Palestine and to name a room in the new students’ union building after a Palestinian student killed by the IDF.
The Islamic University of Gaza was bombed by Israeli war planes on Sunday 28 December, causing US$15m worth of damage. It has not been reconstructed due to the siege by IDF, who have refused to allow construction materials and educational resources into Gaza.
The right to education is enshrined in international law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that “Everyone has the right to education”, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), recognizes that “Education is both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other human rights.” However, the Israeli occupation systematically denies this human right to Palestinians.
In Gaza the blockade inhibits the importation of educational resources as well as construction materials, health and food supplies and prevents the movement of people. Over 600 students are prevented from leaving Gaza by the IDF, including LSE offer holder and Honorary President of the LSE Students’ Union, Othman Sakallah. In the West Bank a network of over 600 checkpoints and the apartheid wall inhibits freedom of movement and prevents students from reaching their lessons. Children, students and teachers, like the rest of the Palestinian population, are subject to mass arrests and violence from IDF. Over 300 children are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centres, many without being charged of any crime, where they are denied their right to education.
The LSE SU Palestine Society campaigns for justice for Palestinians on the LSE campus. It was the first Palestine Society in the UK to successfully pass a motion in the Students’ Union meeting to divest from Israel. LSE students voted in January to condemn the attack on Gaza. After the motion, 40 students occupied the Old Theatre, one of the main lecture theatres on the LSE campus, in protest at the attack on Gaza and the refusal of the LSE to support the campaign for the right to education for Palestinians or to divest from Israel.
Mira Hammad, the Chair of the LSE SU Palestine Society, called on all universities to “open up their electronic journals for access by Palestinian Universities as a practical way of advancing the right to education and defeating the 61 year long abuses of this international principle of justice by the Israeli regime”.
Samer Araabi, the proposer of the motion, stated that “this is an opportunity for some of the most disadvantaged students on the planet to realise their ambitions and work their way out of the abominable situation they find themselves in”.
Please give generously for Gaza
Dear friends, colleagues, comrades, peace lovers and freedom fighters
Thank you for taking the trouble to follow the link that brought you to this page. Step one of your four-step solidarity mission is complete!
Please take 10 minutes out of your day to do some or all of the following:
1. Donate, donate, donate!
I’m off to Gaza on 5 December and I need your money to buy aid and get it over land to Palestine. Following last year’s horrendous bombardment, many Gazan families are still living in flimsy tents, open to the weather, and are unable to access adequate clean drinking water. The convoy will be focussing primarily on ambulances and medical aid. Please give all you can here.
2. Send messages of solidarity.
You can do this when you donate, or alternatively, add to the comments box here.
3. Subscribe to this blog, and/or my Twitter feed, and forward this link to your friends and colleagues. Alternatively, join my Facebook group and invite your friends to do the same.
The more attention the convoy has while it is travelling, the better chance we have of persuading the Egyptian authorities to let us into Gaza. If they think no-one knows or cares what is happening, they may be tempted to try and keep us out.
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THANK YOU!
Who will be next?
Despite the continued calls of the UN for all illegal settlement activity to cease in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the eviction of Palestinian families by zionist settlers continues on a daily basis.
This short report by Al-Jazeera shows what the BBC won’t.
Joti's journey to Gaza 