A video in two parts by journalist James Penn on the Free Gaza demo in London, outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington High Street on 27 December, 2009.
Organisers of Viva Palestina aid convoy, which is trying to reach the Gaza Strip, have now agreed to go via Syria en route for Egypt.
She said the hunger strike began at 11:25 on Sunday, marking the first bombs Israel dropped on the besieged population of Gaza on December 27, 2008. “Volunteers on the convoy are on a hunger strike and will only take fluids until the Egyptian side gives them the nod,” said the convoy’s press officer, Alice Howard.
As the days of December 2009 draw in, two events which each have a role to play in world peace draw closer. The first is on the 27th and is commemorating the start of the 22 day attacks on Gaza, an operation which targeted unarmed civilians, schools, hospitals, journalists and emergency staff. The second, The Gaza Freedom March will take place on the 31st. The Gaza Freedom March is a historic moment, the magnitude of which has not been seen in Palestine since 1967. Chiseled on the lessons learnt from South Africa’ struggle for liberation against apartheid and from Gandhi’ Satyagraha approach during the campaign for India’ independence, the Gaza Freedom March is walking in the same shoes.
”How do we make non-violent activism sexy?” asked a friend in a letter to me recently. His question was posed in the context of the ongoing debate in the national media and elsewhere about the supposed threat to national security from Maoists who are mobilising tribals in central and eastern India for a protracted war to overthrow the Indian State. The State on its part is marshalling its paramilitary and other troops to ‘flush out’ the Maoists, unfazed by the collateral damage this civil war is likely to cause among the already severely exploited tribal population.
Obama postured “the more we can work together to encourage the parties involved. . . to have constructive dialogue and try to negotiate out of the current impasse, the better off Lebanon will be, the better off the world will be.” His face and his folded hands, however, said otherwise. He offered the rhetoric on the 14th, gave Israel billions of dollars in weapons on the 16th, and then on the 19th presented Israel an additional $202 million in weapons.
Yesterday was a great day. We went down to a major bridge across the Nile and tied cards of rememberance and flowers to the bridge railings. These were removed almost immediately by the police who follow us everywhere. It is evident that there are spies at our meetings. The police challenged us to move on, but in a very restrained manner. It is obvious that at this stage they are treating internationals with kid gloves, unlike their own nationals.
Viva Palestina is a UK charity; some the supplies are rotting at the Aqaba crossing. Please write urgently (in addition to the Egyptian embassies in London and Dublin) to the British embassy in Cairo, David Miliband etc.
No I do not need legal assistance as yet … Others are organizing things for various delegations … The worst that is happening to internationals is hotel arrest … No one has been deported yet. We came here to go to Gaza and that is my focus …
George Galloway, a UK politician who is leading the convoy, tells Al Jazeera why the group must be allowed to proceed: It was Christmas Day but there was no room at the Inn for the weary travellers. Turned away by the Arab Republic of Egypt, the 500 members of the Viva Palestina Convoy to Gaza spent Christmas in a car park in Aqaba.
Since June 2007 Gaza has been under a crippling blockade with few essential goods making it through.Now an aid convoy of 250 trucks and ambulances is attempting to reach the Strip to deliver much needed supplies.But a bureaucratic argument with Egypt is holding it back in Aqaba in southwest Jordan.
According to Palestinian medical sources, the number of patients with cancerous tumours residing in areas that the Israeli army targeted during its war on Gaza is on the rise. As the first anniversary of the war on Gaza approaches, the Palestinians are shocked to discover more of its damaging effects. A Palestinian woman whose house in the district of Al-Shaaf, east of Gaza City was targeted with white phosphorous missiles gave birth to a baby with a deformed heart. Doctors reported another pregnant woman in north Gaza, whose home was attacked with the same chemical agent, gave birth to a baby with the same deformity.
At 11 35 am, the time of the first attack, a group of humanitarians on the “Viva Palestina Convoy” will embark on an International Hunger Strike in the main square in Aqaba, Jordan.
The International Hunger Strike will aim to highlight the ongoing illegal siege imposed on Gaza, and to remember the victims of the attacks who died during the 22 day bombardment by Israel.
MW—On Thursday, on orders from President Obama, the US military launched cruise missile attacks on Yemen which were followed by raids by the Yemeni Security forces. An estimated 120 people were killed. Obama’s actions indicate that he accepts the Bush Doctrine, that he thinks the US has the right to assassinate people without due process on the mere suspicion they may be linked to a terrorist organization. Is Obama right? Does the US need to be more aggressive in the “post 9-11″ world?
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