SW: Stopped at the Peace Bridge
by Brian Lenzo | Monday, July 13th, 2009

NOTE: This piece originally appeared on Socialist Worker Online

Brian Lenzo and Karen Burke contributed to this article.

– On July 4th 2009, the biggest delegation to Palestine, ever, from the United States, began.  This is an historic moment in the movement for justice in Palestine.  This group of 200 activists, aptly named “Viva Palestina”, encountered their first delay on July 12th

The delegation divided into two teams, half going to Al Arish to consolidate humanitarian supplies, the other half to Alexandria, Egypt to secure a fleet of vehicles to carry the aid across the border into Gaza.

The delegation sent to Al Arish were delayed at the Mubarak Peace Bridge on their way over the Suez Canal.  About 100 of the Viva Palestina humanitarian delegation decided to stay the night in their buses on the bridge Saturday night, despite pressure from the Egyptian security officials to return to Cairo.

When the convoy arrived at the Peace bridge checkpoint, the Egyptian authorities asked organizers to step off the buses for negotiations. The group remained on the buses unaware they were being detained.  The first thing they were told was that the Interior Ministry had gotten word to the check point to not allow the convoy to pass.  Later convoy organizers were told by Egyptian authorities that the convoy could not pass for unspecified security reasons.

Check point officials asked for a list of names of everyone present on the buses, at least three times. They instructed convoy members to write their names in Arabic as well as English, even though all those present had passports in English.  ”That was a way to separate out and isolate the Palestinians and other Arabs among us, so everyone refused to do that and wrote all their names in English,” explained Ream Kidane who was present on the convoy. After waiting on buses for over 2 hours, it became clear to the delegation that the Egyptian authorities had no intention of letting them cross.

At that point, New York City Councilman Charles Barron, as well as a few others, joined the negotiating team to press for a speedy conclusion to the negotiations.

The final reason given at the checkpoint for the hold up, was that officials did not have a full list of the names of the members of the convoy, despite collecting a full list at least 3 times on site.  Furthermore, at the request of the Egyptian authorities, before any of the convoy members set foot in Egypt, complete lists had been sent to the proper authorities. The list was also sent to Egyptian ambassadors in Washington, DC, London, and Tripoli, Libya, at their request.  The U.S. embassy in Cairo was informed about the mission as was the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

After the delegation realized they would  not be allowed over the bridge, they organized a protest. All members of the convoy got off their buses, formed a ring around them, waved American and Palestinian flags, held banners and began chanting “Viva Viva Palestina!” and “Free Free Palestine!” Officials soon became agitated and  negotiations became heated. “At that point we established that we weren’t leaving the bridge and we were going to stand our ground no matter what they did to us!” said Ream.

British Member of Parliament George Galloway offered these words of encouragement for the delegation  at the crossing: “This is an American convoy and Americans are used to refusing to give up seats on buses in the struggle for justice. I regard everyone who’s putting themselves on the line tonight at the Suez Canal for the success of this humanitarian mission as nothing short of a hero.”

And so they stayed for over 12 hours.

First, the group had to ensure the safety of the bus drivers who, being Egyptians, could be threatened with arrest, detention or other punishment for cooperating with the activists.  The group decided to form two human blockades, one at the front of the convoy and one in the back to ensure the buses would not move without encountering the locked arms and bodies of activists on their way to help the people of Gaza.

It was clear by then that negotiations would continue through the night.  Nancy Mansour Leigh, a spokeswoman for the Viva Palestina delegation at the Suez crossing, phoned the section of the delegation still in Alexandria, “It’s going to be an uncomfortable night, but it’s nothing compared with what the people of Gaza must live through every day. We’ve already succeeded in securing internet access and are negotiating other necessary facilities. But whatever facilities are provided or not, our determination will see us through the night and all the way to Gaza.”

Throughout the night, spirits remained high.  At midnight, convoy member Salma Elshakre  celebrated her 20th birthday while the group sang “Happy Birthday” to her in 7 different languages. Later on, in the early hours of the morning, a few people organized a soccer right in the middle of the crossing.

As the sun came up, after almost 12 hours of negotiations and stalling, the convoy headed to the American Embassy to procure and organize, yet another set of names and documents now required by the Egyptian authorities.

Khury Peterson-Smith, another convoy member on the bus, put it bluntly, “There [was] a lot being done to discourage and intimidate us. There were cops and security surrounding us. The fact that we stood our ground and made it clear that our intent is to go into Gaza is significant. The demonstration that we staged at the Peace Bridge may be one of the only demonstrations that these guards have ever seen.”

A team of Viva Palestina delegates is working hard in Alexandria to take possession of 47 vehicles that will be used to drive the group’s humanitarian and medical relief supplies through the Rafah border crossing. A third Viva Palestina contingent is gathering additional aid and supplies in Cairo.

Tomorrow, Viva Palestina plans to gather all its forces in Ismailia, load all of the collected aid on its vehicles, and make final preparations for the drive through the Sinai.  The Viva Palestina convoy expects progress on all fronts, but is prepared to call for solidarity protests at Egyptian embassies and consulates should that not materialize.

Khury described the dilemma facing the mission quite clearly, “After hours of sitting on the Peace Bridge with medical supplies I realized something. In a rational world, a convoy like ours bringing medical aid to people who desperately need it would be welcomed. There are powerful people in this world that would rather we not succeed, but we have the power to stop them.’

As Kevin Ovenden declared with confidence back in New York at the send off event held at House of the Lord Church: “WE ARE going to go to Al Arish, WE ARE going to the Rafah crossing, WE ARE going to go through that crossing. Those who might like to stop us have to bear this in mind. Do they want to stand against this? That we will be handing over wheel chairs and walkers to people who have been left amputated from the bombing in December/January. We will be handing crayons to children, taking messages from children in Chicago to children in a refugee camp in Khan Younis.”

In his speech in Cairo last month, US President Barak Obama said the conditions in Gaza are “intolerable” and called the situation, “a humanitarian crisis.”  Viva Palestina is determined to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza and show the world that the intolerable situation can and must be challenged.  Let them try and stop us.

Tags: Palestina, Palestine, Viva Palestina

5:56 am. Viva Palestina.