By Haitham Sabbah | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Activists for Palestine have to have the same goal as Palestinians – the liberation of Palestine. They have to pay attention to not being diverted from this objective or to interfere with a greater geopolitical situation that may have consequences none of us can predict and which can cancel for a long time our hopes for liberation and return. Our fear is legitimate. We fear the emergence of the Zionist ultimate project, "Greater Israel" in the ashes of the destruction of Arab unity, which is not a lofty ideal, but present in the Arab masses and is a source that must be tapped into, and the Zionist project can be accomplished if we are not vigilant in all we do and if we shift our rage away from Israel and weaken the Arab masses. I shall explain.

Freedom activists march to Gaza

Let's assume that the Egyptian government was replaced with new democratically elected one, what do you think would happen? The answer seems vague, but believe me, it is very simple. Remember what happened in Occupied Palestine four years ago? Hamas was elected and the entire world witnessed real democracy in action. What happened next? The entire world, including most Arab countries, refused to accept Hamas as the new official government and nearly all of them decided to cut relations and aid to the new Palestinian government. The tag was ready for all of them to push off to the ears of the world, "Hamas is a terrorist organization. Full Stop!"

Now, we are not arguing here if Hamas was a good choice or not for and from the Palestinians, but it was their choice in fair elections and it must be respected by anyone who believes in democracy. And, it’s no secret that real democratic elections will always bring surprises. Remember Dubya’s slogans about bringing democracy to the Middle East and new dawn in the Arab world? Well, this was not what they expected. Not what they paid for, and no one ever heard these slogans coming from them ever again in Palestine after Hamas won.

Back to Egypt, who can guarantee that the newly elected government and its president will not be the same as the previous regime? And if we are very optimistic and think that activists and Egyptians succeed in changing the existing regime and a truly elected system comes to their royal palaces, why should anyone believe that it would not face the same ending like the Hamas government did and Egyptians shortly end in a situation similar to that the Palestinians are suffering?

If this comes true, even worse things can happen. It will not only affect Egypt, but the Arab world in general and Palestinians in particular, especially the Palestinians of Gaza, because Israel will not stop to think for a second before they rush to occupy Gazan borders again (let's say they will intensify their occupation and bring back their soldiers to Gaza/Egypt borders). This time without the Palestinian and Egyptian proxies. In fact, I believe that in a situation like this, the Zionists will find it the moment of history when they can establish their dream of Greater Israel. They might not only occupy Sinai, but invade Egypt across the Red Sea until Israel reaches the Nile. What may happen next is another story.

So what we have today is extremely bad, but in a certain viewpoint of realpolitik and understanding exactly how Israel operates, it may be better than what could happen if the existing regime in Egypt or a newly elected one opens the borders with Gaza in the present conditions of Palestine, without any international guarantees that Palestine is going to be autonomous in controlling its own borders for the good of the people in Palestine and not to serve factions whose agendas are not acceptable to any patriot. Even Hamas understands this and they know that what they have for now is more than what they can dream of having in a day or two until Israel reacts. Hamas knows very well that Israel is closing the borders, not Egypt. All they say in press conferences is nothing more than slogans for local consumption to remain patriotic in the eyes of their supporters, but they are aware of the situation they find themselves in, and they too are blocked. Unless we really think that both sides, Egypt and Hamas, are ready to commit suicide by enrolling themselves in a third world war.

Freedom activists march to Palestine

It seems to me that the world has forgotten the word 'Palestine', and how can anyone blame them? These days we only hear the words Gaza and West Bank. In fact, if you watch the mainstream media you will even hardly hear 'West Bank'. Everyone has forgotten that part of Occupied Palestine. Some activists even forgot that the Map of Palestine is from the River to the Sea (Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea). Anyway...

The West Bank is not in better shape than Gaza. Yes, our brothers and sisters in Gaza are suffering from the siege and a high level of poverty due to this siege, but Palestinians in the West Bank are not in much better conditions at all. All the checkpoints (more than 700) are in the West Bank. The Israeli Apartheid Wall is cutting the West Bank into tiny pieces. No one is allowed to enter Jerusalem. Kidnapping and assassinations are around every corner. Add to it the corrupted Palestinian Authority. So the question remains, where are our friends and activists when it comes to the West Bank? Why don't they try to break the Walls and remove the checkpoints and open its borders with the Arab world? If you think a Palestinian or non-Palestinian can travel from Jordan to the West Bank without the Israeli permission and passing through Israeli immigration offices, you are wrong. So, the West Bank is still under Israeli occupation.

We have to keep in mind that big picture. Over sixty years ago we were fighting for all of Palestine. Since Oslo, we started to talk only about the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. Now activism is mostly focusing on food and aid to one part of Palestine, Gaza. In other words, putting a band-aid on a deep wound. In a few years’ time we will be demonstrating just to know or hear if there is anyone still alive on this land!

So, what are we doing and what are the alternatives, you ask?

First and foremost, we need to realign and look at the big picture again. The whole of Palestine is occupied, not Gaza and the West Bank only.

Second, the Right of Return is a divine right for all Palestinians. If the two states solution is not going to guarantee the return of those who want to return (and it will not guarantee it) then to hell with this solution! Jews are welcome like all other religious and non-religious people to live side by side with Christian and Muslim Arabs and Palestinians in One State. No special conditions for Jews.

Third, we are not fighting to break the siege only in one part, but in all of Palestine, once and for good.

Fourth, our enemy is not the messenger, but the real occupier and whoever supports them.

Now, you ask me where to go!

Your Borders and Israeli Borders

One can't really say that there aren't a lot of great, dedicated people around the world, devoted to the cause of Palestine's freedom, and they deserve a lot of credit for putting their time and energy to the cause. We can question their timing, methods and even their overall goals, which might not go as far as many Palestinians would desire, but their good faith seems to be beyond doubt. However, to not lose an important opportunity not only for activists to really do something concrete as well as for them to make tidal wave of support happen, strategy does count, because lives are on the line and Palestinians pay for every day that the occupation drags on. There were several movements that acted in these days, and one day we will be able to draw the sums of their effectiveness.

In spite that fact of the 1,400 activists (a very small number) who went to Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), which didn't happen (other than the 100 who were permitted to go to Gaza). In the end, they came up with a document that has many good points which can be brought back to their countries to add to their strategy planning, and this is no bad thing. We can also look at the Viva Palestina (VP) convoy which traveled from one continent to another (and now crossing the sea) driving those useless brand new cars they bought to "aid" Gazans; in the meantime gaining a lot of publicity and that, in itself is not always a bad thing.

But again, the question begs, because it must: how effective were these movements? Personally, I think it was a big failure, and despite all the human and economic resources invested in it, didn't achieve much, however grateful we might be that something was done. But what we ask of them is something much simpler, yet doubtlessly more effective.

In each country around this world, there is a US embassy, UK embassy, etc... Why don't you gather in your own countries in front of these embassies and demonstrate? What's wrong with Washington, the White House and the Congress? What's wrong with Number 10, Downing Street? etc... At least your numbers will be much greater, no harassment from US/Israeli proxy Arabian dictatorship and much more effective. Eventually and slowly, the mainstream media will notice you whether they like it or not, and CHANGE, real change (not what Obama promised in Cairo) for a just resolution of the Palestinian/Arab/Israeli conflict will become reality.

Another way, which is so far hardly used, are the Israeli borders themselves. Why don't the freedom marchers travel to the "democratic Israel" and gather at the occupation internal borders? The ISM is doing an amazing job inside the West Bank and the weekly demonstrations in Nil'in and Bil'in are amazing, but are they enough? NO! What we need are more activists on the other side of the Wall. No, Peace Now is not good enough, however we thank them.

Several activists were killed while they were protecting Palestinians or trying to help them save their properties and lives, and to them go our deepest thanks, love and respect. However, true activism is not only shouting slogans here and there without actions, serious actions, which no one can guarantee anyone’s safety. So, if you are not ready for the risk of being killed by the Israelis, which is a real risk, stay home and do what you can there, not in Cairo or surrounding occupation proxies. I'm not asking you to commit suicide, but your governments and media need to see the real enemy and you need to wake up your nations. We need you to educate your country's citizens and pressure your official for real and lasting peace, not to demonstrate in the streets of Cairo and give a chance for the regime to describe you as hooligans and coup promoters.

Free Gaza

My friends, Free Gaza Movement was a good example of the above. Their plans, actions, risks and effectiveness are beyond all what GFM and VP tried to do in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the way GFM and VP was run and ended has served no one but to smear Egyptians (as a nation, the regimes will still get their cheque) and let the criminals run away with their crimes on the first anniversary of Israeli War Crimes against Gaza, Palestine. This is a mistake in judgment that we should not have afforded. The opportunity for Palestinians to express their pain and remember their dead was missed. The focus was on Egypt. Free Gaza Movement not only really broke the siege on Gaza time after time, but they risked their lives in the last trip that sailed to Gaza and the Israeli marine ships tried to sink their ship (more on DIGNITY), not to mention the attention of the media on the victims in Gaza, Palestine. I stand to salute all this group of activists who set an example of real activism to free Palestine.

In the future, activists have to take either of two routes. Going in and through Israel itself to break the walls, checkpoints, crossings and borders, or by sea, where you need no one's permission but are entitled to demand their protection. However, please don't ask for protection from Egypt or Arabs, but from your Western greater powers. If you are coming from the US, ask Obama to protect you. If you are coming from the UK, ask Gordon Brown to protect you. If you are coming from France ask Sarkozy to protect you, and so on.

Related posts:

• Gaza Freedom March Wrap Up
• Video: Koreans’ Solidarity Protest for Palestine
• Palestinian boy die of cancer at Israeli crossing

Foreign activists staged a sit-in to protest against Egypt's stance. (AFP- Victoria Hazou)

By Sana (Keffiyeh And Onions)

I'm sure its going to take me some time to process everything that has happened in Cairo with the Gaza Freedom March over the past week or so but here are some of my initial thoughts and feelings. Bear in mind, these are my own opinions and reflections and they surely are not the same as the 1300 other people who were in Cairo. So for what its worth - here it goes:

This whole political experience here with CODEPINK, for me, has been honestly disappointing and angering. I'm going to be honest here, I did not participate in many of the protests that took place in Cairo because I had serious issues with the way everything was being handled and the way that the March really seemed to have fallen apart and unraveled once everyone realized that our chances of getting into Gaza were really slim to none. From the very first meeting that was held in Tahrir Square, the individuals who were going to be staying in Gaza longer (past January 2nd) were told to not participate in any of these demonstrations because if we did somehow come up with a way to get into Gaza, if we had any record or history with problems with the Egyptians - this would effectively eliminate any chance of us getting in. People told us to completely "disassociate from the March" and that because Egypt is not a democracy, "nothing we do will change their minds" - which sadly, ended up being quite true despite how often people demonstrated, were barricaded in by people, and some even beaten up. Moral of the story: This is not the U.S., they don't care that you're Americans, and we did not fly thousands of miles to protest in Egypt.

Aside from this though, there were so many critical problems with the way things were being done and decisions were being made that I really felt uncomfortable with doing anything that GFM was doing in Cairo.

I felt as though there was no insight to the way the Egyptian government works, or the greater public opinion in Egypt, at all. We cannot simply think that a country, who has religiously served the agenda of the U.S. and Israel, will do a complete 360 and open the borders when a group of activists show up, no matter how big. Anyone who has any familiarity with the politics of this conflict, know that Egypt's role in ensuring the Palestinian suffering is not a new or novel concept. Given that, the fact that CODEPINK did not prepare for the very unsurprising setback that Egypt delivered by closing its borders, really baffled me. When we got news on Monday, that the borders were going to be closed and no one would enter, I figured that this was a very expected move (especially after news of Egypt's steel wall just was released as well) and that the steering committee and whoever else also saw this coming and that surely back up plans and strategies were on hand now that Egypt played its cards. But after a couple days when everyone started arriving and it was time to figure out what we were going to do, it just seemed like these small fragmented actions (the hunger strike here, french sit-in there) were things that groups were doing on their own, hardly with any support from the mass collective. There was no unified message besides come out in the streets and protest. It felt like everyone kind of went their own way and that now instead of focusing on the occupation we were going to go after the Egyptian government - which as much as I have issues with that they are doing and how they add to the Palestinian suffering - that is not why I came here.

Lets clarify something here. As much as I hate Egypt, Egypt is NOT occupying the Palestinian territories. ISRAEL is. I mean, to a certain degree, by doing of all this, I feel, we took a lot of heat off of Israel b/c the press coverage just shows a bunch of people demonstrating in Cairo, which is giving the message that we have a problem with Egypt for what they are doing wrong when we were here to raise awareness of the ISRAELI OCCUPATION and Operation Cast Lead which was carried out by ISRAEL one year ago. Why are people shouting "Free Egypt" at the demonstrations? It makes no sense, we had no focus.

I want to believe that GFM tried to do the best that it could, given the circumstances, but honestly it just led to many people feeling as if they had to do something, anything, since we weren't being allowed in Gaza. Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in public resistance and demonstrating, even getting arrested when its necessary, etc - but you cannot do these things without tons of planning, proper escalation tactics leading up to massive direct action like that, and a solid SOLID solid foundation in Egypt (resources, connections, lawyers, etc) for the people that do take those risks. Otherwise, you just end up looking like a bunch of stupid foreigners (mostly Americans) who are protesting, sitting in, going on hunger strike - for what? We came here to deliver aid and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza - if that was not going to happen then we could have held all of these actions back in our home towns where we know how things work, we know what resources we have, and we can accurately assess what type of risk we are willing to take for this dire cause. After these past few days, I feel that all we've done is agitate Egypt for a brief period of time, spent a lot of money fueling this unjust country's economy, and made the daily lives of the Egyptian people harder.

When our plans fell through, and it did not seem like we were going to get in, there should have been a massive meeting/discussion with a vote with all of the delegates who have come from around the world as to what we think would be the best thing to do. But when people were told to figure it out and come up with ideas, you had serious fragmentation and people, like the French delegates, who were occupying the area in front of the Embassy feeling like they did not have support or instances like when the entire Japanese delegation just left after the first day for the West Bank. All I've been asking myself these past few days is "What the hell is going on?" and "What is all of this?". And to tell the truth, I still really don't know because I don't think GFM really even knows.

The "100 people to Gaza" stunt was also another fiasco that only further divided this group and our efforts. At first, CODEPINK accepts this offer and takes credit for it since the women went and talked to Suzanne Mubarak. They come up with a list in a very short time of these people who would get to go, not realizing what a bad mistake this is. After a few hour, they do realize its a bad idea, send out an official message saying how they have 'rejected' this offer, and yet, lo and behold people STILL got on the buses and went? Again, "What is going on?"

I realize that this has gotten really long already and these are just some of my preliminary thoughts from the past few days. As of right now this is how I feel: as much as I'd like to really blame fully the repressive Egyptian dictatorship for the Gaza Freedom March falling apart and not succeeding, I believe that CODEPINK, and the same old foreign arrogance/ignorance we have, has a lot to do with it this time as well. Sadly, the Palestinian people are still under occupation and I wish the best of luck to the VIVA Palestina convoys who seem to have a better grasp on how to deal with all this nonsense than we do.

Until later, free free Palestine,

-Sana

Related posts:

• OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUBARAK FROM THE GAZA FREEDOM MARCH
• Gaza Freedom March Set for Minneapolis on Dec. 30 and for Gaza on Dec. 31
• Egypt Approves Gaza Freedom March Passage, Viva Palestina Blunders Paperwork and Blames Egypt

In a press conference conducted earlier this evening, the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit announced some threats, warnings, surprises as well as some good news. The press conference that aired on Egyptian official TV a few hours ago was boiling with Aboul Gheit's very firm and angry answers to the journalists' questions who did not spare him a topic. They asked about the peace process, Hamas, Rafah tunnels and the Iron Wall besides the questions about the Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina.

To my surprise, it seems that the mainstream media are so far ignoring this press conference and no one has published any of the surprises or the good news which he carried for the Gaza Freedom March and the surprise he had for Viva Palestina. Not even those directly concerned, the activists themselves. Instead, searching the mainstream media today you will only get news about Egypt's arrest of activists in Cairo, the activist hunger strike, Viva Palestina's redirection to Syria, and so on.

Therefore, to be fair with Egypt and Egyptians, I'll try to translate the important parts of the press conference.

To start with the good news, Aboul Gheit announced that the Egyptians approved a limited number of Gaza Freedom March members to pass through and reach Gaza, Palestine, in the coming few days. He said (translated from Arabic here):

##start##

. . . On the demonstrations held by activists from 42 countries and their appeal to President Mubarak to allow them to cross into Gaza Strip, Aboul Gheit said, "This issue has been on the Egyptian state agenda for several months, there is a non-governmental organisation that heads six non-governmental organisations below it with 200 other organisations, and there are groups of activists, idealists and those of different directions. We have asked them early on, so as to heed their wishes, to provide us the details of their names and passports, and to tell us to what extent they wish to go. Some did, and others decided not to respond because they reject the right of the Egyptian state to use its territory to allow or not allow. They said, "we'll impose on the people of Egypt to accept that we only have the right to impose conditions for those who want to enter our state. You can not (pointing to the journalists) get a visa for Italy or France just because you defend them, or some of you at least. So Egypt has decided that this is matter that needs to be looked at carefully, and then we identified that some of them want to reach the Egyptian Rafah to exercise unlawful acts which deal with the Egyptian construction (referring to the Iron Wall), which means demonstration against Egypt, and some tried to hold contacts in Egypt which we do not accept, and intervened in a clash with the Egyptian state, so Egypt decided not to allow either of these groups to move deep into Sinai, however, as a result of the appeal, the Egyptian state has decided as per instructions from Mr. President to consider allowing a limited number of representatives of groups that we feel are genuine groups, and stands with the Palestinian people, such as ours do with them, in order to express advocacy of the Palestinian people and will allow them to enter in the next few days."

Aboul Gheit added, "Those thousands of people trying to conspire against Egypt, all that we will do is to let them in our streets, seeking to provoke the Egyptians, but the Egyptians are wiser, especially after we saw that all these demonstrations have been limited to those foreigners who tried to invoke the Egyptian security, who had not provoked, stressing that these will be in the hospitality of this magnificent sun, until the end of their desire to stay and they leave."
. . .
##End##

That was the good news. At least partly.

As for the bad news, or should I say surprise, Aboul Gheit explained in detail the claims of Viva Palestina's block to enter Egypt as they planned and provided copies of a letter that was delivered to the Viva Palestina convoy which clearly states Egyptian approval of their entry, but through Al-Arish port, as they did before, twice. The surprising part was the dates of these letters. The first one dates back to Nov 10th, 2009 and another reminder from Dec 10th, 2009 (copies below as available from source).

I think this is a very embarrassing day for activists around the world. At least for those who follow and support both, Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina.

Both of them either lack coordination and transparency, or have intentions for uncalled propaganda against Egypt which all activists and Palestinians are better off without.

Gaza Freedom March seems not in control of who joins and who is not supposed to, especially since it is clear that many of them did not comply with the Egyptian request of providing the details they requested ahead of time.

Egypt, like any other country in the world, has the right to approve or deny the entry of anyone to their land. However, it allowed anyone to arrive into Cairo and welcomed them like any other visitors. At the same time, in situation like borders with Palestine and Israel, no one can blame Egypt for being extra careful in accepting or denying who will travel into Sinai and who will not.

On the other hand, Viva Palestina never mentioned anything about Egyptian pre-approval to pass through Al-Arish. At least not to the mass followers, supporters and activists, if at all we assume that the convoy organizers coordinate well enough and know well ahead what is their approved route. Instead, after they reached Aqaba they issued appeal after appeal and calls for support, even went as far as asking Turkey to help. The Turkish official who went and met with Egyptians must be embarrassed after he discovered what Viva Palestina hid and did not tell him (or anyone else) about the Egyptian letters.

I think this is a lesson for the activists to learn from. Viva Palestina and Gaza Freedom March made a mess and they involved everyone in it. It is embarrassing to act in such a way.

The only thing that must be remembered so as to forgive them this blunder is the genuine reason they are claiming to be working for, which is helping Gazans. Otherwise, Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina lost their credibility because of their lack of transparency and misleading messages which reach to creating propaganda against Egypt and Egyptians.

Only apologizing to Egypt in a public press conference can make one forgive these fatal mistakes which made Egypt sound as THE enemy deflecting our sight from the real enemy and the real reason behind all this atrocities that Gazans and Palestinians live in, ISRAEL.

Related posts:

• Egypt allow humanitarian group Viva Palestina to enter Gaza
• BBC: Exclusive News on Viva Palestina Convoy to Gaza
• Gaza Freedom March is Determined to Break the Siege

By Coleen Rowley (Former FBI Special Agent) | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Gandhi said that the purpose of nonviolent action is to "quicken" the conscience of humankind. Citizens of Minnesota are called upon to stand in solidarity with an expected 1,300 International Peace Activists (including a number of Minnesotans) from over 40 countries marching in Gaza-to lift the inhumane siege of Gaza and to align ourselves with International Law and on the side of human rights.

Many Minnesotans who cannot afford the actual trip to Gaza are planning a parallel march that will take place in the sky ways of downtown Minneapolis. We will meet at the Hennepin County Government Plaza (2nd floor) at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 30th and will proceed into the sky ways from there. People are encouraged to bring children as we would like the nearly 1 million children in Gaza to be symbolically represented.

No one has better explained the importance of this historic action on a human rights level than one of the Minnesotans going to Gaza, Sylvia Schwarz, in her recent commentary, excerpted below:

Human rights: not to be entrusted to governments (excerpt from MinnPost "Community Voices" by Sylvia Schwarz | Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009)

The movement is gathering steam since Operation Cast Lead beginning in December of 2008. Israel framed this as a "defensive operation," but in reality it was an offensive assault on the Palestinians in Gaza. Even before the assault Israel maintained a siege on Gaza -- which, according to human-rights agencies, led to a humanitarian crisis. While Israel is not currently bombing Gaza, the siege continues to this day. Normal activities: farming, fishing, attending school, buying groceries, and earning a living, are impossible for Gazans. Construction materials are denied entry into Gaza so that no rebuilding has been possible after the massive destruction of the civilian infrastructure.

Investigations discounted; people galvanized Israel and pro-Israeli groups in the United States discounted all investigations into war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead, including the Goldstone Report, as biased against Israel. With typical near unanimity, the House of Representatives condemned the Goldstone Report in H.R. 867, assuring that it will not be brought before the U.N. Security Council.

But rejecting investigations, rather than inflicting amnesia, has galvanized people worldwide. Many church groups, labor unions, universities, and other organizations within Europe and the United States are now calling for BDS and for further actions and demonstrations to force the end of Israeli repression and human rights abuses.

On Dec. 27, 2009, one year after the start of Operation Cast Lead, an international delegation of more than 500 people from 35 countries and 32 US states (including several people from Minnesota) will cross into Gaza on the border with Egypt. They will meet with Palestinians, U.N. agencies, and NGOs working in the Gaza Strip. On Dec. 31, the delegation, along with thousands of Palestinians, in the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., will march toward the Erez crossing in a nonviolent expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people and an effort to end the brutal siege of Gaza. Simultaneously, others will peacefully demonstrate in cities around the world.

Finally, people who have been despairing of ever seeing an end to Israeli human-rights abuses have effective grassroots tools to force governments to act morally. These actions -- the Gaza Freedom March and boycott, divestment and sanctions -- are the beginning of the end of the human rights abuses in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

We are also contacting Egyptian Consulate and Embassy officials (as well as our Minnesota Senators Klobuchar and Franken) to ask for Egypt's assistance in safely allowing the 1300 international human rights activists peaceful crossing into Gaza from Rafah. (Sample letter below--contact info is: Egyptian Consulate in Chicago tel # 312 828-9162; fax # 312 828-9167; Egyptian Embassy in Washington D.C. [contact person is Omar Youssef] tel# 202 895-5400 or easier to click "Tell Egypt: Don't Block International Gaza Freedom March!" at Just Foreign Policy).

Dear Egyptian Embassy officials:

My husband and I are writing and calling to express our full support for the December 31, 2009 Gaza Freedom March. Several Minnesotans have already made travel plans and are planning on participating. So we urge the Egyptian government to allow the 1,300 international delegates to enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt.

The aim of the march is to call on Israel to lift the siege. The delegates will also take in badly needed medical aid, as well as school supplies and winter jackets for the children of Gaza.

Please, let this historic March proceed without difficulties! Thank you.

Coleen Rowley, Apple Valley, Minnesota

Related posts:

• OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUBARAK FROM THE GAZA FREEDOM MARCH
• The Gaza Freedom March
• Gaza Freedom March is Determined to Break the Siege

Press release: Government of Egypt changes policy to allow humanitarian group Viva Palestina to enter Gaza December 27, 2009

Gaza Freedom March congratulates the Government of Egypt on its change of policy to allow international missions into Gaza during December with the decision to allow the Viva Palestina convoy to go into Gaza on December 27, 2009.

Organizers of Gaza Freedom March were told on December 20, 2009 by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that no international missions would be allowed to enter Gaza during December, including the Gaza Freedom March, because of serious security conditions at the border.

Today, December 23, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told Gaza Freedom March organizers that the decision had been made to alter its policy because of the “humanitarian assistance” nature of Viva Palestina.

Since the Gaza Freedom March is also bringing in humanitarian assistance items valued at tens of thousands of dollars and the border is now considered safe, Gaza Freedom March will make a formal request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 24, that that Government of Egypt reconsider the request of the Gaza Freedom March for entry of its 1360 delegates from 42 countries into Gaza through the Rafah crossing on December 27.

Marchers and their friends have been flooding Egyptian embassies throughout the world with calls and emails. Embassies throughout Europe, the United States and Canada have told callers that they have been flooded with telephone calls from persons asking that the Gaza Freedom March be allowed into Gaza. Members of the Canadian, German, Swiss, French, Greek and Filipino Parliaments have written letters, as well as the Irish Minister of Defense, asking the Egyptian government to allow the march to proceed.

The Gaza Freedom March has families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 100 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women's delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.

We have large delegations from the U.S., France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Greece, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Japan. We also have delegations from Sweden, Turkey, India, Ireland, Switzerland, Jordan, Morocco, Denmark, Lebanon, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Tunisia, Algeria, Philippines, South Korea, Bahrain, Bosnia, Israel, New Zealand, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Libya, Mexico, Mauritius, Romania and Serbia.

For more information see www.gazafreedommarch.org , especially Questions and Answers section, or contact:

In Cairo: Ann Wright 019 508 1493 microann@yahoo.com
In Canada: Sandra Ruch 416-716-4010 miriamswell@hotmail.com
In the US: Medea Benjamin 415-235-6517 medea@globalexchange.org
In Gaza: Haider Eid 970 599 441 766 haidareid@yahoo.com
In Europe (Portugal): Ziyaad Lunat +351938349206 z.lunat@googlemail.com

Related posts:

• BBC: Exclusive News on Viva Palestina Convoy to Gaza
• Relax, Holy Father. Viva Palestina and George Galloway are doing the job for you
• Gaza Freedom March is Determined to Break the Siege

At Last! BBC NEWS coverage of the Viva Palestina Convoy:
13 days into the journey and the BBC has yet to cover the 200+ vehicle Viva Palestina Convoy that is travelling with aid from London to Gaza.

With massive media coverage in Greece, Turkey and around the World the UK Media should be ashamed of its dereliction of duty.

Public interest is intense, our map ( http://readingpsc.org.uk/vp3 ) has received 500,000+ hits in the first 2 weeks alone.

About the Convoy: http://vivapalestina.org
Get news & track the Convoy: http://readingpsc.org.uk/convoy
List of UK media contacts: http://readingpsc.org.uk/media

CALL THE BBC: 03700 100 222

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmoeBlKzy9Q

Related posts:

• Viva Palestina
• Ewa Jasiewicz – Free Gaza News: Eye Witness Reports From Gaza [Video]
• Is it a flogging offence to send friendly greetings to Gaza’s beleaguered PM?

Illustration by Bendib

By Mazin Qumsiyeh *

On 16 October 1935, a barrel marked "cement" fell as it was being unloaded from ships at the port in Jaffa. The broken barrel contained guns, grenades, and ammunition and was one of many secret shipments to the underground Zionist terrorist militias in Palestine. That incident among others (including the British government collusion in marginalizing natives in Palestine while encouraging Zionist Jewish migration and takeover) led in the year after to the great Palestinian uprising of 1936.

Before the state of Israel was founded, these terrorist underground militias that were to become the Israel "Defense" Forces committed over 100 massacres of civilians. The atrocities intensified in the months leading up to the "declaration of indeperndence". In March and April 1948 alone over 25 massacres were committed including infamous ones such as Tantura and Deir Yassin. Israeli leaders themselves credited these actions as of great use in getting the Palestinians to evacuate Palestine so that a Jewish state could be established without a demographic "burden" of "non-Jews" (Christains and Muslims). The massacres continued after the war with government ordered slaughters at Kufr Kassem in 1956 (see http://www.taayush.org/new/kassem.html), and more until the latest slaughter of 1400 in three weeks in Gaza (most of them civilians). This showed that the state of Israel is still addicted to these policies of terror.

Israeli leaders as before try to intimidate the world into silence and some do comply (the US and some Western Countries also feed this addiction with money and weapons and use of veto power to protect Israel from Internatioanl law). However, ethnic cleansing via state terrorism has become more exposed over the decades and Israeli leaders have been frustrated. They started using other coercive tools to affect the Zionist goal of a Palestine free from Palestinians: economic strangulations, bureaucracy, unjust laws analogous to the Nutremberg laws etc. The major credit for the decreased effectiveness of slaughter as an instrument of policy is Palestinian resistance (most of it civil resistance). The second factor is that in the age of the internet, governments and wealthy racists have less control over information. The public even in the US, Holland, France, England etc is largely aware and disgusted by their governments' support of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. We need to now translate the public mood and sentiment into change in government policy. That takes determination, energy and opportunity. We have an opportunity NOW.

The UN Human Rights Council voted by 25 : 6 to accept the Goldstone report despite intensive lobbying by the Israeli government and by the (Zionist dominated) US government. 25 Countries voted for the resolution including China, Russia, Egypt, India, Brazil, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Mauritius, Nicaragua, and Nigeria. Six countries voted against the report: US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine. 11 countries abstained: Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Others did not show-up to vote. Citizens of all those countries should write to their representatives in government (Presidents, parliamentarians etc) and commend those who supported accountability for war criminals and shame those who voted against it or abstained (spineless) thus becoming complicity in such war crimes. We must also reject the attempts by some countries to save Israel by asking it to conduct an internal investigation; you cannot ask a criminal to investigate his crime and Israel never found its leaders culpable for even one of the hundreds of massacres they committed). (British Prime Minister Brown and French President Sarkozy wrote a joint letter to Netanyahu with diplomatic language that only means more green light to do state terror in the name of "security")

The importance of this is not to be underestimated (hopefully eventually shocking the Israeli public out of its denial). This worries the Israeli government. The vote and potential downstream events have dominated the interest and talk of Israeli media and politicians. According to Haaretz: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that Israel must prepare for a protracted struggle against a damning United Nations report.." and daughter of Irgun terrorist and war criminal Tzipi Livni stated "Today's vote was political and cynical. Israel will continue to do the right thing and to protect its citizens, and will continue the international battle against the report to ensure the legal protection of IDF officers, wherever they may be." The apartheid government is quickly forming a high level task force to exonerate itself and all its criminals. The Turkish government also took principled positions adding to the apartheid system delusions of denial and desperation (far better than positions of Arab countries like Jordan and Egypt and Israel is also panicking on this; imagine if Arab countries cut their ties) I think all of us should create grassroot committees all around the world to ensure accountability and to redouble our efforts on boycotts, divestments, and sanctions per the Palestinian Civil Society call to Action (http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52 ).

EI exclusive video: Protesters shout down Ehud Olmert in Chicago [Olmert is one of those war criminals who should be at the Hague for his crimes in Gaza and beyond]
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/10/17/protesters-shout-down-ehud-olmert-in-chicago/

Things are changing: American Jews rethink Israel
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091102/horowitz_weiss

Why Are Palestinians Losing Faith in Obama? Ask Rahm Emanuel

The Palestinians have the Cairo speech to hold on to, but I have bad news for them. Bibi is eating Obama's lunch. No one in that top 50, or the top 500 have any loyalty to the oppressed residents of the West Bank or Gaza. Official Washington has been drinking the AIPAC kool-aid for so long they don't know what all the fuss is about.
http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/why-are-palestinians-losing-faith-in-obama-ask-rahm-emanuel/

Episcopal News Service: JERUSALEM: Evicted Palestinian family keeps watch near home taken by settlers By Rev. Pat McCaughan
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_115574_ENG_HTM.htm

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home. Author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle.
http://qumsiyeh.org

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Confronted with the indignation expressed by so many people in France and abroad who had heard about the scheduled Israeli Tourism Fair in this great Parisian hotel, the management of this establishment has made the decision to cancel this event, which was supposed to open on January 15.

The hotel's management, as the Paris police prefecture has confirmed to us, has indicated that it has disinvited the 50 Israeli exhibitors who had planned to present their tourism products.

We express our profound appreciation for all the individuals and associations in France and abroad that made the effort to express their arguments to the hotel management, arguments that were certainly taken into account in the decision to cancel the event. We also thank the management of the hotel for this decision, and we stress that commercial relations and all other interactions should be guided by basic ethical rules.

As long as Israel makes martyrs of an entire people in order to annex their lands, defying all international conventions as well as the most fundamental human rights, we must avoid any acts that would turn us into accomplices.

Holding an Israeli tourism fare would have been especially obscene while the Israeli army continues its massacres in the Gaza Strip. But it is the web of relations and collaboration with Israel which we have the moral duty to freeze, as long as there is a continuation of the occupation and enslavement of a whole people, deprived of liberty for more than 60 years.

Together, we have not only the duty but also the power to reject the impunity enjoyed for so long by Israeli state terrorism. Impunity which encourages it to increase the violence carried out against Palestinian men, women and children, and to multiply, here in France, provocative actions such as the benefit galas for the Israeli army and the attacks by the thugs of Betar or the JDL (Jewish Defence League) who last week wounded two students of the Janson de Sailly high school.

Please stay mobilized ! At the present time we are publishing information almost by the hour on our site http://www.europalestine.com. That is how we announced the entry, yesterday, into Gaza of a surgical mission led by Prof. Christophe Oberlin, and we praise the courage of the French, Greek, German and Egyptian specialists who have broken the siege in order to aid the wounded.

Have a look at the short video on our site showing the big demonstration for Gaza that gathered 100 000 people in Paris streets last Saturday : http://www.europalestine.com/article.php3?id_article=3620

With best wishes,

CAPJPO-EuroPalestine

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