AID TO GAZA - FROM DREAM TO REALITY
by Yvonne Ridley. as the Aid convoy crossed the channel.
FIVE weeks ago Viva Palestina was a pipe dream and now it is a reality as more than 100 vehicles and 300 volunteers snake their way through France heading for Gaza.
Last night the show-stopping convoy rolled off a freight ferry in Ostend to embark on a historic mission of mercy to help the Palestinian people.
I spent the ferry crossing getting to know my fellow passengers and discovered they come from all walks of life from students to pensioners, estate agents to accountants, engineers, mechanics, housewives and doctors.
This morning I expect many of us are bleary eyed as the convoy heads for Bordeaux - I know I am, after a sleepless night trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in a car seat.
My eyes feel like sandpaper every time I blink.
You see this 5000 mile trip from London to Gaza isn’t a jolly or five star vacation for any of us, although some are more organised than others with regards to finding a comfortable nook or cranny in which to sleep.
Press TV is very much part of the convoy and the only TV station to be there from start to finish. Regular reports will be filed from our SNG vehicle along the route, and there’s already been some dramas and hitches.
A group who were carrying aid from communities in Blackburn were stopped by police shortly after they set off from their homes in the North of England but despite hysterical headlines in the tabloid media most have now been released and we’re told there are efforts by Manchester police to reunite the group with the convoy.
The news was relayed on board the freight ferry bound for Ostend last night by one of the organisers Kevin Ovenden amid great cheers by those who had set off from Hyde Park in London after a rousing reception. Sporting a green Viva Palestina t-shirt he gave the opening introduction before the assembled travellers.
There were more cheers in store when we learned our convoy of 100 plus vehicles would double in size by the time we reach Libya next week - news has just come through that 100 large lorries are waiting to follow us into Egypt carrying even more aid.
Meanwhile, back in the UK charities like Islamic Help and the Al Khair Foundation are continuing with TV appeals and fund raisers to swell the coffers of Viva Palestina which will buy even more aid in Egypt before entering war-torn Gaza.
The convoy carrying in excess of £1m aid is already a record-breaker and will be the largest British land convoy to cross North Africa since the Second World War. Led by a bright red fire engine, the convoy has more than a dozen ambulances, countless vans and trucks plus a whacking great big generator brought along by the Bolton Massive (my nickname for the men from the Lancashire town). The generator will have enough power to supply a small hospital or school, so I’m told.
When you consider Viva Palestina was nothing more than a pipe dream five weeks ago, the achievement of pulling together the convoy has been nothing short of staggering.
The brainchild and initiative of Britain’s best known politician RESPECT MP George Galloway, Viva Palestina has already motored its way into the record books and it is set to get even bigger. Not a man usually lost for words, the Bethnal Green and Bow MP looked overcome with emotion as he greeted and then waved off every single vehicle.
Much of the last few weeks have been spent travelling the length and breadth of Britain appealing for funds, support and volunteers by Galloway.
From the tears and anger of communities outraged by the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, thousands rallied to his call for aid and help in whatever way they could, and the efforts were open for the world to see on Saturday in central London.
Well George, I also counted the vehicles out of Hyde Park and counted them all in again at Ostend. But from my pit stop on France’s Autoroute A10, I must sign off now and try and catch up with my fellow travellers. They shouldn’t be too difficult to spot, that’s for sure.
* Yvonne Ridley will be giving regular updates from the convoy for the duration of the trip. Her website is www.yvonneridley.org
An aid appeal for Gaza, from a friend of mine who lives in Lebanon:
—————-
Friends and Colleagues in Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations
Greetings
In the name of AMAN Network for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence & Torture in the Middle East & North Africa I appeal to you for the support of our friends in Gaza.
We have corresponded with our colleagues in the Gaza community Mental Health Program and Josoor Trauma Center asking for the forms of support they need. Their response indicated that, despite the horrors of destruction and death which have befallen Gaza and its people and despite the blockade imposed on them, they were prompt in mobilizing their efforts and strengths and have actually begun to amend some of the traumas of the war, devoting special attention to the children of Gaza, helping them to deal with the traumas of death, fear and loss.
Our colleagues in Gaza started a training program of large numbers of volunteers to deal with the psychological consequences of trauma among children. Their target is 500 families per month. They will also work in 15 school and 30 kindergartens in the areas most affected by the war. They will address teachers training them on the management of trauma in general and trauma of children in particular to spare children and their families the efforts of seeking professional centers.
We realize that our colleagues in Gaza are best equipped to deal with the psychological consequences of war. They have been trained, not in the usual training workshops, but in the middle of battle and wars, which hardly gave the people of Gaza a break to take their breath. Still, we appeal to all of you to mobilize all possible efforts to support them, even if only morally through the expression of solidarity.
The children of Gaza need psychotropic medications as well as toys. Not only because they are children and are entitled, like all children of the world, to find a toy to ventilate their dreams and fears, but because a toy is an important therapeutic and diagnostic tool in the field of child psychology.
They also need psychotropic medications, so any of you who has contacts with representatives of drug companies or is able to collect such medication through personal contacts, please do to respond to a shortage in medication in the Gaza rehabilitation centers.
Furthermore, care providers in Gaza themselves need our support and solidarity.. they are in need of trainers to help them with therapists, teachers and family members in dealing with the war trauma. They need to know that the world shares in the responsibility of healing the wounds of war.
We are in the process of investigating the possibility of obtaining entry permits into Gaza through the Rafah crossing in collaboration with agencies who can facilitate this process. But we have to be ready when we receive those permits. We appeal to you to draw lists of colleagues who are ready to travel to Gaza indicating the time and duration they would be ready to spend there and the nature of their contribution.
Until then, you can help by:
- Collecting toys for the children of Gaza and sending them through international organizations, the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, or any other feasible means. (Contacts: Gaza Community Mental Health Program, Dr. Yasser, Mobile: +972 59 9770377, Fax: +972 8 2824072, email: yasserjamei@yahoo.com and Josoor Trauma Center, Ms. Mervat, email: info@jesoor.org).
- Sending messages to the president of the World Psychiatric Association, Prof. Mario Maj, the president of the Arab Federation of Psychiatrists (majmario@tin.it), Prof. Ahmed Okasha (aokasha@internetegypt.com) and the WHO Mental Health Director in your respective regions, requesting them to organize a mission of prominent professionals in the field of psychiatry and psychology to visit Gaza and report on the consequences of the criminal war launched by Israel against an unarmed people amidst international silence.
For coordination with Aman network please contact Khiam Center – Lebanon:
Tel: +9611302631, Fax: +9611701692, email: khiam_center@hotmail.com)
Cordially
Mohamed Safa
Secretary General of Aman Network
Comment by Faust — 17 February, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
Alternatively Hamas could release Gilad Shalit and stop bombing Israel; then the crossings would be opened. Still I guess Yvonne and George would prefer the conflict to continue. In any case the content of their convoy is a tiny proportion of the aid supplied to Gaza from Israel, so this is a pretty pathetic excuse for a road trip. But I do admire the masochism of the participants - going on holiday with these two must be a horrible ordeal.
Comment by j.r. — 18 February, 2009 @ 9:52 am
you have deleted my post.
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/02/18/one-rule-for-you/
Comment by Fabian from Israel — 18 February, 2009 @ 10:36 am
Alternatively, “J.R.”, Israel could release the thousands of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are held without charge, including the people kidnapped by Israel the day before Shalit’s retaliatory “kidnapping”. Weird how the Israeli press is more honest than our own. You can find all this stuff from out Israeli publications. Shalit’s capture (it wasn’t a kidnapping: he was an occupation soldier who was captured) and the rocket attacks are simply a pretext for Israel’s planned assaults on what’s left of Palestine.
The closure of the crossings had nothing to do with Palestinian rocket attacks. They were closed when there was a ceasefire. Israel broke the ceasefire repeatedly by launching military attacks on Palestinian targets. Hamas then retaliated. Read the Israeli press. The most crucial question is, Why do the settlements keep expanding and Palestinian territory confiscated if Israel wants a durable peace? As Ariel Sharon once put it, the situation is comparable to “French” Algeria, but this time, he added ominously, “we have no intention of leaving”. Indeed, why are Ben Gurion, Rabin, Sharon, Shamir, Begin, Meir, Sharrett, Dayan, etc all of the opinion that Israel is a colonial settler state that has ethnically cleansed the indigenous population, wishes to expand further and has no wish to see a resolution to the conflict that includes a Palestinian state? Maybe they’re all deranged liars.
Or as David Ben Gurion frankly put it: “If I was an Arab leader, I would never make peace with Israel…We have taken their country…There has been anti-semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see only one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?”
Comment by Tawfiq Chahboune — 18 February, 2009 @ 6:16 pm