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On
July 4 over 80 supporters of Palestinian liberation left JFK Airport in New York to join what would end up
being a delegation of over 200 in the Viva Palestina-United
States (VPUS) convoy to Gaza. Arabs, Muslims,
Christians, Jews, Latin@s, Blacks, Asians,
Native Americans, and whites embarked on a trip to bring medical aid as
part of the broader goal of breaking Israel’s genocidal siege.
The
first Viva Palestina convoy left from London in March and drove across Europe and North Africa to Gaza. It was initiated by
Respect Member of the British Parliament George Galloway.
This
second convoy carried wheelchairs, walkers, medicine, and other
health-care supplies. The material is needed both because of the
barbaric attacks by Israel on Gaza at the beginning of the year,
destroying hospitals and clinics and leaving tens of thousands wounded,
and because of the siege which has starved the area of such supplies.
What’s
more, the siege has left two-thirds of Gaza’s population, of which half
are children, “food insecure,” and UNICEF has said over 10% of Gaza’s
children have stunted growth due to malnutrition, all of which creates
an even direr need for medical aid.
Convoy
delegates flew first to Cairo to pick up supplies
previously purchased and to buy more. Those who had never been to Egypt were stunned by the
devastating poverty, the unpaved filthy streets, open sewage, and
adults and children sleeping in the streets. One delegate wrote in a blog that perhaps a convoy was needed to aid Cairo.
Of
course, the poverty suffered by Egypt’s workers and peasants are
the product of its government’s subservience to the U.S. and Israel, including helping Israel enforce the siege. In
return, it has been allowed entry into the “free market” of neoliberal globalization, allowing its ruling class
to prosper while previously won gains of its workers and poor peasants
have been eliminated.
Soon
delegates would see even worse conditions in Gaza. But first they had to
overcome a succession of bureaucratic obstacles thrown up by the
governments of Egypt and the United States.
The
initial plan was to spend about a week in Cairo gathering supplies and four
days in Gaza distributing them and
talking to people. But in the end Egypt threw up one barrier after
another until only one day was left to spend in Gaza before most
delegates had to return home—and Egypt threatened those staying more
than one day with being stuck in Gaza for weeks or even months until
the next general border crossing, which would occur at the whim of the
regime.
Before
arriving in Cairo, VP organizers had obtained
travel permits and provided Egyptian and U.S. government officials with
every single document requested, detailing who was on the convoy and
what they would be bringing into Gaza. Egypt repeatedly claimed not to
have received these documents, and then demanded even more.
In
the end, the convoy was barred from taking into Gaza 47 trucks, vans, and cars
purchased at the request of hospitals and social service organizations
in Gaza, and only two ambulances
and the medical aid were allowed in—still a big victory.
Standoff at Salaam Bridge
The
first contingent of the convoy attempted to cross the
Salaam (Peace) Bridge to the Sinai
peninsula on July 11, but were stopped by Egyptian
security. Among those at the bridge were Dahlia and Dima
Abi Saab of Al-Awda-NY
(the Palestine Right to Return Coalition), a group whose organizing was
key to the convoy’s success. They described in a blog
entry how the four buses were ordered to the side of the road and
passengers ordered to write their names and passport numbers down,
despite Cairo already having this
information.
Two
hours later they were ordered back to Cairo, but delegates refused.
While waiting they did debka (a traditional
Palestinian dance) and played soccer, “to show the cops that our
spirits would not be broken.”
Then
trickery was attempted, with a security official telling everyone to
get on the bus because they were being allowed to cross the bridge. But
a VPer who overheard security officials
telling drivers to pretend they were heading toward the border but then
return to Cairo alerted delegates. The buses were emptied, and
delegates held hands as they ringed the buses to prevent their
departure. Delegates didn’t even flinch when security ordered the
drivers to run them over.
Twelve
hours later, the contingent decided to return to Cairo to fill out the
newly-demanded paperwork. This included an affidavit to be filled out
at the U.S. embassy, never required of any other aid trips to Gaza,
which absolved Washington of any responsibility for the safety of its
own citizens while they were in Gaza and relinquishing all rights to
call on U.S. consular services for aid. The Abi
Saab sisters noted that the U.S. government “will, however,
provide the state of Israel billions of dollars
annually and weapons to be dropped on the children of the Gaza Strip.”
In
the name of the delegation as a whole, New York City Councilperson
Charles Barron and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney called on
Obama to force Egypt to end the delays,
citing Obama’s own rhetoric in his speech in
Cairo about a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza and his saying the siege
should be eased. Of course, Obama ignored
their plea. (McKinney had joined the convoy after
being released from an Israeli prison, where she had been taken after
being abducted in an act of piracy in international waters, along with
21 other passengers on a Free Gaza Movement boat.)
To
protest the harassment and delays, VPUS supporters back in the States
organized emergency demonstrations at Egyptian consulates in the U.S., and flooded Washington with e-mails, calls, and
faxes. In the midst of all these delays, Egypt allowed Zionist warships to
travel through the Suez Canal as part of maneuvers for a
possible attack on Iran.
24 Hours in Gaza
Once
in Gaza, delegates were shocked at the destruction and physical and
psychological damage they observed, even though their mission was
motivated by awareness of the impact of Israel’s barbarism. Said one
doctor, “We have so many children suffering from psychological pains.
Whenever they hear a loud noise, they cry out, ‘A bomb! A bomb!’ and
start crying.”
Delegates
heard stories of cold-blooded murders of civilians by Zionist soldiers.
But they were equally impressed by the determination of Gazans to continue resisting. As New York delegate
Bill Doares stated in a report-back forum,
the sign on the border should read “Welcome to Gaza, Land of Dignity
and Resistance.” Delegates were inspired, said Bill, “to see no Israeli
soldiers, no settlers from Long Island, no checkpoints, and
weapons only in Palestinian hands.”
With
Israel having destroyed Gaza’s power plants, lighting
depends on fuel-fed generators. But delegates saw graffiti with a
painting of a hand, holding a heart with the colors of the Palestinian
flag, with wires and lightning bolts issuing from it, and underneath
the words, “Gaza runs on the electricity in
the hearts of all Palestinians.”
Graffiti
expressing such resilience could be found on almost every building,
including “Steadfast, We Will Not Give Up Despite the Siege,”
“Jerusalem Will Always be the Capital of Palestine,” and “Resistance
and Struggle is the Way to Victory.”
Convoy
participants included Palestinians living in the U.S. who had been prevented from
entering Gaza for years, despite having
family members there. One delegate was a doctor who had hoped to bring
out his three young children, who had been trapped there despite having
U.S. passports for five years. His efforts were blocked by Egypt.
Delegates
noted that the “inmates” of the world’s largest open-air prison did
everything in their power to accommodate them and to boost their
spirits, to encourage them not to cry but to continue to support those
resisting.
After
seeing Al Quds Hospital, once one of Gaza City’s foremost medical
facilities, but whose floors were blown out by mortar fire (and can’t
be reconstructed due to the siege), the convoy went to Al Shifa Hospital to deliver the bulk of the aid. At a
press conference there, Barron announced, “After much duress, we’ve
broken the siege. Mission accomplished!”
At
the Ministry of Detainees, delegates wept as they heard stories of
families of detainees and the slain. Said one, “This is land that is
for all prisoners, for all free people, for every single human being.
All of Israel is said to suffer so much from one prisoner [Gilad Shalit, an armed
soldier riding on a tank, in contrast to the 11,000 Palestinians jailed
for alleged participation in civilian political activities]. What about
us? This child whose hand I’m holding has never seen his father, but we
are people of peace.”
Three
little girls spoke about losing 29 immediate family members. Said a
10-year-old: “What is my fault? They killed my parents, but what did I
do to them? My life was beautiful and peaceful. But after what they
did, I will never ever feel that passion again, to just seek a hug from
my parents. And I will never forgive them, because they took the most
precious thing in my life.”
Gazans welcomed the convoy not primarily for the aid
brought, important as that was, but for the political statement of
solidarity made by the attempt. As VPUS delegate Soozy
Duncan reported in The Indypendent,
“Bringing medical aid was only one of VP’s stated purposes. The convoy
also sought to learn and share the stories of the Gazans
who have lived under 61 years of occupation and the severe assault from
December to January.”
Despite
verbal squabbles over settlement expansion, Washington is clearly
backing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to continue
the siege, the land thefts, and the denial of the right to return—using
as a cover an IMF-style “development” of the economy of the West Bank,
integrating isolated segments of it further, a la Egypt, into
the world capitalist order, at the expense of Palestinian workers,
peasants, and refugees.
Resistance
to these plans was evident not only in Gaza, but also among the people
of Egypt, in contrast to the regime
imposed on them. Wrote the Abi Saabs, “The
people of Egypt remain a breath of fresh
air with their support and positive attitude towards our mission and
convoy to Gaza.
“Walking
down the streets of Giza, with our Al-Awda ‘Falasteen’ shirts,
we are constantly being stopped by pedestrians who want to greet us and
tell us how much they love Palestine. People began screaming ‘We
Love Palestine!’ One man stopped us and said every time he prays, the
first thing he prays for is Palestine. Most of the people we have come
across don’t support the actions of the Egyptian government, and are so
appreciative and grateful for our mission.”
Ironically,
this support of working-class Egyptians for the convoy was being
expressed at the very same time at an event of potentially historic
proportions occurring in Cairo, an event displaying the strength of the
social force that could re-galvanize the masses of Palestine and the
rest of the Arab world in their efforts to break imperialism and
Zionism’s hold on the region.
Hundreds
of workers on strike for 41 days against the Tanta Flax and Oil Company
met in Cairo on July 10. They demanded
the nationalization of their factory, privatized four years ago, threatening to take it over if the government
didn’t intervene on behalf of the strikers. Some speakers went even
further and demanded an end to the government’s entire policy of
privatization.
Said
one: “If we succeed in Tanta Flax, this will be the end of
privatization in Egypt. All companies will follow
suit and strike. Our fight is for the workers of all Egypt”—and, we would add, given Egypt’s key role in supporting Israel, by extension for the Arab
people as a whole.
Galloway
has announced that he intends to lead caravans this year from Venezuela
(with the participation of Hugo Chavez), France, and Moscow, as well as
a joint U.K.-U.S. convoy in December to commemorate the first
anniversary of Israel’s attack. These convoys can be part of a broader
effort to expand the growing movement in solidarity with Palestine.
This
movement in turn can provide support for a growing resistance by
Palestinians themselves. As stated at the report-back forum mentioned
above, that resistance will be built on the principles, in the words of
Lamis Deek, a
leader of Al-Awda-NY and the U.S. Palestinian
Community Network, that “Jerusalem must be the capital of Palestine;
rejection of Zionism as racist colonialism; and return of all refugees
to their original homes and lands.”
Dos, Tres,
Muchos Convoys! Viva Palestina!
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