International Aid Convoy Members Prepare for Hunger Strike

26. Dec, 2009 Print This Article! 0 Comments

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26 December 2009

Press Release – for immediate release

Members of the Viva Palestina international aid convoy to Gaza will begin a hunger strike at 11.25 am tomorrow (27th) in protest at the Egyptian government’s refusal to allow the convoy entry onto its soil.

Diplomatic negotiations are also taking place between the Turkish and Egyptian governments over the convoy’s entry to Egypt. IHH, Turkey’s main humanitarian aid agency, has 63 vehicles travelling on the convoy.

The Syrian government has also provided aid and vehicles, as has the government of Malaysia. More than 400 people from 17 countries are travelling on the 150 vehicle convoy, which is taking medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Gaza.

The convoy departed London on 6 December and have travelled nearly 3,000 miles across Europe and the Middle East. However, the convoy and its cargo of aid is now stopped in the Jordanian port town of Aqaba, having been denied entry into Egypt.

British MP, George Galloway, who is travelling with the convoy, said: ‘Israel has kept Gaza under siege for three-and-half years against international law. It has not allowed aid or rebuilding materials in following its attack on Gaza earlier this year. Our convoy is determined to break the siege and take in urgently needed supplies Spirits are high in our camp in Aqaba, and we are going nowhere except to Gaza.’

It was at 11.25 am on December 27 2008, that Israel dropped its first bombs on the besieged population of Gaza. Three weeks later, following a sustained air, land and sea assault, more than 1,400 Palestinians had been killed.

The Viva Palestina hunger strikers will consume only liquids until the convoy is allowed entry into Egypt.

Convoy members will also mark the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead by holding a march through Aqaba, jointly with the Jordanians. In the evening, more than 1,400 candles will be lit for a vigil.

The convoy has been jointly organised by the charity Viva Palestina and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the UK’s largest organisation campaigning for solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Ends
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Gaza aid convoy awaits Egypt nod

By Lawrence Smallman at Al Jazeera (English)

An aid convoy that has travelled over 3500km to deliver vital medical and food supplies to the Gaza Strip is currently stranded because of Egypt’s refusal to grant it easy passage.

The Viva Palestina convoy, made up of almost 250 lorries, remained in the Jordanian port of Aqaba on Saturday, having waited over 48 hours to board ferries for the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba.

But Egypt has so far insisted that the aid be delivered through its Mediterranean port of El-Arish, a much longer journey that would require the convoy to go around the Sinai peninsula and through the Suez Canal.

George Galloway, a British politician leading the convoy, on Saturday appealed to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, to allow the lorries through before medical and food supplies were ruined by the heat.

“Please President Mubarak – let us resolve this matter. We can only sail through Nuweiba. We are only four hours away from Gaza,” Galloway told Al Jazeera.

“We have this aid, and the people of Gaza need it on the anniversary on the 27th December – a year after Israel’s 22-day bombardment of the beseiged Palestinian territory.

“All fingers should be pointing at Israel, not getting confused and pointing at Egypt”, Galloway said.

‘Infiltration worry’

But Maged Botros, a member of Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party, told Al Jazeera that the government in Cairo has every right to specify the port by which Viva Palestina enters its territory.

“We are talking about 250 trucks passing along this critical territory [the Israeli-Egyptian border] – it is technically so difficult to allow.

“There are good reasons not to allow them through Nuweiba … these trucks might create a big infiltration problem for Egyptian security forces”, he said.

But convoy members told Al Jazeera that travelling through the Suez was not a viable option, as passengers are not allowed to go with cargo ships and that the port of El-Arish is too shallow to take the size of ship needed to transport the aid.

Anniversary deadline

Zuber Hatia, who has driven thousands of kilometres from the British city of Portsmouth, said there was a symbolic reason why Viva Palestina cannot make the extra long journey to El-Arish.

“We are only a four hour ferry ride and a four hour drive from Gaza – we have to be there by 11:35am on 27th December – the first anniversary of Israel’s war on Gaza”, Hatia said.

“So though we have all the cargo manifests, we have to just sit, wait and hope. Unfortunately, the Egyptians I have spoken to say this is a ‘political aid convoy’ rather than a humanitarian aid convoy – and that makes all the difference,” Hatia said.

“And though the Jordanians are being very kind to us while we wait, the fact is our trucks are impounded in a car park 30km from the port with tonnes of medicines spoiling in this Middle Eastern heat.

“Please Mubarak, let our people go!”, Hatia said.
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