As the Road To Hope Convoy languishes with its loads of aid for Gaza, convoyer Laura Stuart has released this bulletin, below. Laura was a member of the Viva Palestina convoy which passed through North Africa in February/March 2009. Many of the current travellers have already travelled with an Al Quds convoy on that first journey and they have a bond already with the Libyan drivers as they shared the hardships and difficulties of the journey with them. On that occasion there was no objection from Egypt and they were welcomed by the Egyptian Government who gave members of Viva Palestina and Al Quds a police escort and hospitality all the way from Al Saloum to Rafah.
Laura is one of 7 present survivors of the Mavi Marmara attack by Israeli commandos which took place in international waters on the 31st May 2010 and which has been called a "war crime" and a "crime against humanity" by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission report published in September. She said "we owe it to those who lost their lives on the ship, the widows and 29 children who were orphaned by the attack, to continue the struggle to have the blockade of Gaza lifted completely and for all borders to be open for aid convoys".
"Now we have moved to Tobruk, we have received an amazing welcome from the local people here, who are stopping us on the streets and inviting us into their homes and restaurants for tea and food. All across the Muslim lands of North Africa we have been given the utmost protection and assistance from the King of Morocco instructing his police force to ensure our safe passage through Morocco followed by the amazing fact that Algeria and Morocco opened the border which is sealed for many years. If this border was thrown open to us after 15 years of closure then we wonder why can't the Egyptian border not be opened to us as well? Algerian, Tunisian and Libyan police have escorted and protected our convoy and many local organisations have given us free food and accommodation. The support for the Palestinians and people of Gaza across North Africa from people at every level is overwhelming.
'We are not wealthy people, we are humanitarians, people of conscience who came together to form a convoy taking aid to Gaza, now we are faced with the prospect of our only hope of reaching Gaza being to hire a ship for our vehicles and to pay for ourselves to fly to Al Arish. The cost of this was never reckoned into the cost of reaching Gaza. We also feel that although charities from Libya or elsewhere may offer to assist us financially that this money could be better spent directly on the people of Palestine rather than being spent on taking a ship to deliver what we can take by road. On the other hand we are steadfast in our determination to continue however much we may suffer from being separated from our families and loved ones, we recognise that our suffering is very minor compared to the struggle of daily life that the people of Palestine face. Some of our people have had to leave to fulfil work commitments but about 60 of us remain and reaching Gaza is our aim and we remain steadfast on that aim."
On the 1st November, Siamak Alimi sent out a quick blog:
Libyan Government actively and vigorously trying to help R2H get a boat. Egyptian Government has been very happy, for weeks, to facilitate r2h getting into Gaza by El Arish port. Egypt has repeated its full permission to facilitate access to Gaza through El Arish. Libya is repeating its offer to try to fix up a boat. It is all still up for grabs. We are confident that the convoy will be on the move again soon and will complete its mission.
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