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28/12/2009
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Manchester nurse Norma Turner has spent all today in protest outside the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) in Cairo, Egypt.
Along with 400 other international supporters of the Gaza Freedom March, Norma has been indicating to the UN the medical supplies that she and her colleagues have brought to Egypt in order to assist the beleaguered Palestinian people of neighbouring Gaza.
In all, over 1300 marchers have arrived in Cairo to join the people of Gaza on the anniversary of the bombing by Israel last year. However, the Egyptian government has refused to let them enter Gaza and has arrested many who have tried to make their own way to El Arich, the nearest town to the Rafah crossing into Gaza itself.
Egyptian police have surrounded the UN demonstrators all day and have continued to hem in the French volunteers who have camped outside their own Embassy in Cairo since last night. Riot police are expected to move in tonight.
Egypt also refuses to let the Viva Palestina convoy (of humanitarian aid) leave nearby Aqaba port in Jordan, with hundreds of vehicles full of supplies for the people of Gaza. Drivers from the North West of England set off in early December to be part of this convoy and are now on hunger strike in Aqaba – saying another 50 will join in every day that Egypt delays the crossing into Gaza.
Said Norma Turner just now:
“I am proud to be part of the Gaza Freedom March in support of the Palestinian people. Israel has occupied, blockaded, bombed and starved the Palestinians in Gaza – yet their spirit is unshaken. Together with volunteers from 44 countries around the world, I am hoping to be able to deliver the medical supplies and human solidarity to Gaza this week.
“Egypt is wrong to stop us going in. It is said that Netanyahu (Israel's leader) is visiting Cairo tomorrow, with some deal he has struck with Obama, to get Egypt to support him. We will be protesting against this war criminal. Everyone around the world needs to put pressure on their local Egyptian embassy to demand that the aid gets into Gaza and that the Israeli blockade is ended now.
“We have been at the UN headquarters because the UN has made statements that the siege of Gaza has to stop. (I remember that UN resolutions were what our government used as the reason for going to war with Iraq and Afghanistan.) We have been asking the UN to make these statements happen.
“The French volunteers are continuing to demand action. At least they have an Ambassador who is on their side. We should be demanding that the UK government does something better than back up Israel and the US.
“COSATU (the South African trade union) has also just arrived to join us. They are saying that we should be boycotting the Israeli apartheid regime. If anyone knows what they are talking about, it is them.”
Follows:
- Details of Egyptian action against the convoy and freedom marchers
- Contact details
- Target Brimar update (Greater Manchester arms manufacturer producing parts for Israel helicopter bombings – campaign against Brimar for “22 days of waging peace” – in anniversary of last year)
- appeal to president mubarrak of egypt
1. Please distribute widely
Contact:
Medea Benjamin | medea@globalexchange.org |
Egypt (18) 956-1919
Ann Wright | microann@yahoo.com Egypt (19) 508-1493 |
Ziyaad Lunat | Z.lunat@gmail.com
Roaming +351938349206
Egyptian Security Forces Detain Gaza Freedom Marchers in
el-Arish and shut down Gaza Memorial in Cairo
What: Egyptian security forces detain internationals in el-Arish, break up
memorial actions in Cairo
When: Sunday, December 27, noon: the Egyptian security forces detained a group of 30 internationals in their hotel in el-Arish and another group of 8 at the bus station. They also broke up a memorial action commemorating the Cast Lead massacre at the Kasr al Nil Bridge.
At noon on 27 December, Egyptian security forces detained a group of 30 activists in their hotel in el-Arish as they prepared to leave for Gaza, placing them under house arrest. The delegates, all part of the Gaza Freedom March of 1,300 people, were Spanish, French, British, American, and Japanese. The Egyptian security forces eventually yielded, letting most of the marchers leave the hotel, but did not permit them to leave the town. when two younger delegates, a French and Japanese woman, attempted to leave el-Arish, the Egyptian authorities stopped their taxi and unloaded their luggage.
Another group of eight people, including citizens from American, British, Spanish, Japanese and Greece, were detained at the bus station of Al Arish in the afternoon of December 27. As of 3:30 PM, they were still being held. Simultaneously, Egyptian security police broke up a commemoration of the Israeli invasion of Gaza organized by the Gaza Freedom March at Kasr al Nil Bridge, one of the main bridges connecting Zamalek Island, in the middle of the Nile, to Cairo. As a nonviolent way of commemorating the more than 1300 Palestinians killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza that began a year ago on December 27, 2008, Gaza Freedom Marchers tied hundreds of strings with notes, poems, art and the names of those killed to the bridge.
³We¹re saddened that the Egyptian authorities have blocked our participants¹ freedom of movement and interfered with a peaceful commemoration of the dead,² said Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, one of the March¹s organizers. Benjamin added that the Gaza Freedom March participants are continuing to urge the Egyptian government to allow them to proceed to Gaza. They visited the Arab League asking for support, various foreign embassies and the Presidential Palance to deliver an appeal to President Mubarak. They are calling their supporters around the world to contact Egyptian embassies and urge them to free the marchers and allow them to proceed to Gaza.
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2. Egyptian embassies and missions all over the world must hear from our supporters (by phone, fax and email)** over the coming crucial days, with a clear message: Let the international delegation enter Gaza and let the Gaza Freedom March proceed.
Contact your local consulate here:
http://www.mfa.gov.eg/MFA_Portal/en-GB/mfa_websits/
Contact the Palestine Division in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo
Ahmed Azzam, tel +202-25749682 Email: ahmed.azzam@mfa.gov.eg
If you are in the U.S., contact the Egyptian Embassy, 202-895-5400 and ask
for Omar Youssef or email omaryoussef@hotmail.com
3. target brimar (greater manchester arms manufacturer supplying Israel)
remembering gaza
targeting bloodshed
targeting brimar
the 22 days of waging peace started with a vigil in exchange square in manchester today.
there will be actions throughout the coming 22 days - remembering the onslaught on gaza a year ago - see website www.targetbrimar.org.uk for more details.
at the same time, the viva palestina convoy of aid has been blocked by the egyptian government and the drivers are marching to aqaba harbour to demand entry - just as the freedom march has been banned by the egyptian government from entering gaza.
Egyptian embassies and missions all over the world must hear from us (by phone, fax and email)** with a clear message:
Let the international delegation enter Gaza and let the Gaza Freedom March proceed. Dont deprive the people of Gaza of Aid and Solidarity.
December 25, 2009
The Gaza Freedom March appeals directly to President Mubarak
In an open letter, the organizers of the Gaza Freedom March, representing 1362 individuals from 43 countries, are appealing directly to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to grant them passage into Gaza.
After being in communication with the Egyptian government for months, denying the March passage to Gaza, which was only communicated to them this past Sunday came as a shock to the organizers. "We had no other option but to appeal to the President directly." said Ann Wright, the March's coordinators.
The letter, attached, will be delivered to the presidential palace in Heliopolis, tomorrow, Saturday, by representatives of the March.
As per the organizers, the Gaza Freedom March is scheduled to take place inside Gaza on December 31 at 11AM, from Ezbet abd-Rabbou to the Erez border crossing demanding that Israel lift its illegal blockade imposed on the Palestinian people in Gaza for years.
For more information:
Medea Benjamin, Cairo +20 18 956 1919
Sandra Ruch, Toronto +1 416 716 4010
Ehab Lotayef, Montreal +1 514 941 9792, Cairo +20 17 638 2628
(add as needed for your country, area)
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OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUBARAK FROM THE GAZA FREEDOM MARCH
December 25, 2009
Dear President Mubarak;
We, representing 1,362 individuals from 43 countries arriving in Cairo to participate in the Gaza Freedom March, are pleading to the Egyptians and your reputation for hospitality.
We are peacemakers. We have not come to Egypt to create trouble or cause conflict. On the contrary. We have come because we believe that all people -- including the Palestinians of Gaza -- should have access to the resources they need to live in dignity. We have gathered in Egypt because we believed that you would welcome and support our noble goal and help us reach Gaza through your land.
As individuals who believe in justice and human rights, we have spent our hard-earned, and sometimes scarce, resources to buy plane tickets, book hotel rooms and secure transportation only to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza living under a crushing Israeli blockade.
We are doctors, lawyers, students, academics, poets and musicians. We are young and old. We are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and secular. We represent civil society groups in many countries who coordinated this large project with the civil society in Gaza.
We have raised tens of thousands of dollars for medical aid, school supplies and winter clothing for the children of Gaza. But we realize that in addition to material aid, the Palestinians of Gaza need moral support. We came to offer that support on the difficult anniversary of an invasion that brought them so much suffering.
The idea of the Gaza Freedom March-a nonviolent march to the Israeli Erez crossing-- emerged during one of our trips to Gaza in May, a trip that was kindly facilitated by the Egyptian government. Ever since the idea emerged, we have been talking to your government through your embassies overseas and directly with your Foreign Ministries. Your representatives have been kind and supportive. We were asked to furnish information about all the participants-passports, dates of birth, occupations-which we have done in good faith. We have answered every question, met every request. For months we have been working under the assumption that your government would facilitate our passage, as it has done on so many other occasions. We waited and waited for an answer.
Meanwhile, time was getting short and we had to start organizing. Travel over the Christmas season is not easy in the countries where many of us live. Tickets have to be purchased weeks, if not months, in advance. This is what all 1,362 individuals did. They spent their own funds or raised money from their communities to pay their way. Add to this the priceless time, effort and sacrifice by all these people to be away from their homes and loved ones during their festive season.
In Gaza, civil society groups-students, unions, women, farmers, refugee groups-have been working nonstop for months to organize the march. They have organized workshops, concerts, press conferences, endless meetings-all of this with their own scarce resources. They have been buoyed by the anticipated presence of so many global citizens coming to support their just cause.
If the Egyptian government decides to prevent the Gaza Freedom March, all this work and cost is lost.
And that's not all. It is practically impossible, this late in the game, to stop all these people from travelling to Egypt, even if we wanted to. Moreover, most have no plans in Egypt other than to arrive at a predetermined meeting point to head together to the Gaza border. If these plans are cancelled there will be a lot of unjustified suffering for the Palestinians of Gaza and over a thousand internationals who had nothing in mind but noble intentions.
We plead to you to let the Gaza Freedom March continue so that we can join the Palestinians of Gaza to march together on December 31, 2009.
We are truly hopeful that we will receive a positive response from you and thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely
Tighe Barry, Gaza Freedom March coordinator
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK, USA
Kawthar Guediri, Collectif National pour une Paix Juste et Durable entre Palestinens et Israeliens, France
Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Alessandra Mecozzi, Action for Peace-Italy
Germano Monti, Forum Palestine, Italy
Ehab Lotayef, Gaza Freedom March, Canada
Ziyaad Lunat, Gaza Freedom March, Europe
Thomas Sommer, Focus on The Global South, India
David Torres, ABP, Belgium
Ann Wright, Gaza Freedom March coordinator
Olivia Zemor, Euro-Palestine, France