Viva Palestina Convoy update #3
by Brian Lenzo | Sunday, July 12th, 2009

Viva Palestina Convoy update #3
July 12, 2009, 7 pm Cairo

The Viva Palestina members who spent the night in their buses at the Suez Crossing after they were stopped by Egyptian authorities on July 11 are now making their way to the nearby city of Ismailia and are preparing to resume their travels toward Gaza imminently.

British Member of  Parliament George Galloway, who has met up with former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in Cairo, was working with Egyptian and U.S. authorities to expedite the passage of the convoy over the Suez Canal and into Gaza.

New York City Councilmember Charles Barron, who led the group at the Suez Canal, says, “Whether these requirements are genuine or not, we will get around these obstacles.  We are going to Gaza.”

Egyptian have held up the convoy on the grounds that it has not acquired the necessary travel permits from U.S. officials in order to cross into Gaza.

“If the Egyptian authorities want us to jump through yet another hoop, we will, even though their ambassadors in Washington, DC, London, and Tripoli, Libya were already supplied with this information, at their request.  The U.S. embassy in Cairo was informed about the mission as was the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.” said Galloway. “So now we expect that there should be no further reasons for the delayed transportation of this urgently needed relief to the people of Gaza.  We have hundreds of thousands of dollars of medicine, which are time-sensitive and perishable and which need to reach the children of Gaza.”

Another group of Viva Palestina delegates is 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 element is continuing to gather additional aid 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 tomorrow, but is prepared to call for solidarity protests at Egyptian embassies and consulates should that not materialize.

Tags: Add new tag, authorities, blockade, Crossing, egypt, Gaza, Palestina, Palestine, Suez, Viva Palestina

1:13 pm. Viva Palestina.