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I spent an entire day in London walking around and checking out the sights. Christmas season in London is really no different than it is in New York City. Thousands of people walking around and bumping into each other in a shopping frenzy. I stopped to listen to some Christmas carolers, checked out a department store’s Christmas window display, and grabbed some falafel for dinner. Seeing as I’d be spending the next month away from a traditional Christmas, I took in some of that spirit from the streets of London. I returned to my hotel room exhausted. Repacked my bags. Set up my camera, microphones, and tripod. Unfurled the sheets and had a last comfortable warm nights sleep.
The next morning I made my way to the Parliamentary buildings where around 15 ambulances and vans awaited departure. Soon Member of Parliament George Galloway, initiator of the Viva Palestina convoys, appeared and we encountered the BBC, Al Jazeera, and a number of other media outlets. BBC interviewed me shortly and asked me why I was on the convoy. Afterwards we boarded our vehicles, and drove south and met up with another 60 vehicles or so at the EuroTunnel, to cross to France. This is where the journey of the convoy begins. We marveled in awe of the size of the convoy and the amount of aid we managed to pack for delivery.
Our efforts, practical and necessary, are really more symbolic and a call to action. The aid we bring is really just a drop in the water. For people who have close to nothing, our aid is a mere bandage to the illness, hunger, and deplorable living conditions in Gaza.
The real project here is building an international solidarity movement with the Palestinian cause for self-determination. Galloway’s efforts in organizing 3 convoys is admirable and his pursuit of future convoys from different parts of the world is a step in the right direction. Already there is talk of a Malaysian convoy and a long talked about Venezuelan convoy including Hugo Chavez. In the end I think a it’ll take a political fight to place pressure and build a movement to place sanctions on the state of Israel, as well as boycott their goods and divest from their economy. Only then can we force the hand that funds the bombardments in Gaza to spend it on the restructuring of life in Palestine.
When I walked through London the other night I thought what Christmas must have been like last year for Palestinians in Gaza. I’m sure it was a day to gather and forget the open-air prison they reside in. Or a day to reflect on what they do have and their resilience to resist occupation. Unfortunately two days after the holiday, Israel begins a 3 week assault that takes the lives of over 1400 Palestinians, one quarter of them children. If they had nothing to call their own during the last couple of years of the siege, then one can only imagine the conditions they live under now. But soon I’ll find out.
Martin Smith, who wrote to The Sitch from Gaza during the US convoy this past summer, sums up the political sentiment of those of us on this voyage: ” ‘We are all Palestinians’ is more than a slogan. It’s a vantage from which to view the world, our relationship to each other, and the collective imperative to act.”
Its with that solidarity with the Palestinians, their fight for liberation, and the need for a movement to stand for their right to self-determination that we proudly proclaim:
“Nehne raheen Gaza!”
(We are going to Gaza!)
Tags: Gaza, george galloway, Israel, Palestine, Viva Palestina
10:52 am. Viva Palestina.
Thanks for your work. We look forward to your dispatches to break the silence and to break the siege.
There’s so much to say and not enough internet time to put them up. I will try my best! If you like what you read, link others and spread it.
I am proud that you are part of this renewed drive for justice in an arena that so many of us have given up on as heartbreakingly hopeless. As you step out in faith that change can and must happen you pull us along in your wake…thank you.