After a demanding and very long 7 week journey the convoy members have been given just over two days to stay in Gaza or risk joining the imprisoned population of Gaza; this is typical of the Egyptian control of the Rafah Crossing. 13 members of the convoy were blacklisted by Egypt, including a seventy-year-old children’s entertainer and magician from Wales who was transporting toys for the children of Gaza. Also blacklisted was a Scottish national who has never left Scotland and has no affiliation with any organization, along with a 19 year-old British national, again with no associations that could be considered prohibitive. Several survivors of the Mavi Marmara were banned, along with British/Pakistani nationals and previous convoy members. This trend makes it harder and harder for people to support Palestine and should be considered a part of the overall blockade of Gaza.
The convoy members will do their best to experience as much of Gaza as possible and share with the world the reality of life for people entering four years of a brutal collective punishment policy. The vehicles and aid will be distributed to various charities and organizations that are doing invaluable work. Among the aid is medical equipment and medicines, wheel chairs, crutches, toys, clothes footballs and shoes.
Ken O’Keefe will remain in Gaza for 40 days (or longer if imprisoned) and begin daily video reports focusing on the children of Gaza. These will be posted at his Facebook and Twitter accounts and his blog.
R2H Facts – The Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy left London on the 10th of October with £500,000 of humanitarian aid for the besieged people of the Gaza Strip. The convoy travelled with over 100 members and 32 vehicles over 5,000 miles through the UK, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya and Egypt. Ultimately 35 convoy members reached Gaza due to the lengthy journey and blacklisting.
The ship (the second to have been chartered by the Convoy), with the vehicles and three of the convoyers is nearing Al-Arish port in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities refused overland public transport for the rest of the convoyers, who have had to raise money for a specially chartered flight to Al-Arish.
In addition Egypt has banned about a dozen of the convoyers, including Ebrahim, who will be returning to the UK shortly. Also Ken O'Keefe, who had returned to London after the Greek abduction before rejoining the Convoy. Israel has branded as a "terrorist" everyone who travelled on the aid ship Mavi Marmara - this may explain Egypt's action. Names and faces, even addresses - with degrees of accuracy - have been listed in a publication by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
Keith and Shahid, the remaining Bristol pair on the convoy, are well. The Bristol mini bus is destined for a disabled youth club and the other vehicles for other local charities as arranged previously; boxes of aid will be delivered to the Baptist Church.
The remaining convoyers should fly from Benghazi at about midday. Assuming they are reunited with their vehicles and the entry formalities are swift they may all reach Gaza City later on Thursday where the vehicles and aid will be distributed.
If London - the UK - were under invasion and permanent curfew like, say, Palestine or Afghanistan, this is how it would be. And this film answers the puzzle for so many who are unable to understand why 'those foreigners' hate the Peace-keepers so much.
The Bat Ayn 'settlement' - or colony - was established in the early 1990s by a breakaway group from the nearby Gush Etzion colony. Bat Ayn was established under the guidance of the controversial Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg. Rabbi Ginsburg has been quoted in the New York Times as stating that “any trial based on the assumption that Jews and goyim [non-Jewish people] are equal is a total travesty of justice”. Rabbi Ginsburg also praised the actions of Baruch Goldstein who in 1994 murdered 29 people and wounded more than 125 people who were praying in a mosque in Hebron.
Bet Ayn is one of over 200 Israeli colonies within the West Bank. The International Court of Justice has deemed these colonies illegal under international law which prohibits an occupying power from moving its population into occupied territory. At least 42% of land in the West Bank is currently occupied by colonists or set aside for further 'settlement' expansion. The ongoing construction of colonies has been criticized by the United Nations, the United States of America and the European Union.
Today more than 1,000 colonists from Bet Ayn live on land that was used for centuries by Palestinian families. Residents of Bet Ayn have a long history of violence. In 2002, four people from Bet Ayn were convicted of terrorism related offences following an attempt to blow up a Palestinian girl’s school in East Jerusalem. The men were arrested outside the school with a trailer containing explosives.
Residents of Bet Ayn frequently attack neighbouring residents of Palestinian villages and destroy their sources of income. The following are some examples of colonist violence, destruction and intimidation since April 2009:
– November 16 2010, burnt and destroyed 70 olive trees in the Saffa Valley.
– November 15 2010, burnt and destroyed 85 fig and olive trees in the Saffa Valley.
– 24 June 2010, set fire to farmland in the Saffa Valley and threw stones and bottles at nearby houses.
– 11 March 2010, set fire to a number of trees in the Saffa Valley.
– 9 January 2010, 40 settlers attacked three local farmers with stones.
– 31 December 2009, shot a local farmer with a hand gun.
– 20 December 2009, shot at local farmers.
– 13 July 2009, set fire to farmland in the Saffa Valley.
– 1 and 2 May 2009, entered the Saffa Valley destroyed fruit trees and shot at nearby residential homes.
– 26 April 2009, beat two elderly Palestinians, including holding down an 80 year old male and repeatedly smashed his head with stones.
– 8 April 2009, invaded Palestinian land and shot at local residents.
– In 2007, large numbers of colonists from Bet Ayn terrified locals by marching through neighbouring Palestinian villages dressed in white and carrying weapons, including M16 machine guns. The primary reason behind this campaign of terror and destruction is an attempt to deter local Palestinian farmers from farming their land, facilitating the annexation of the land by the Israeli military for further colonial expansion.
A website associated with the Bet Ayn colony states:
All who visit the Bat Ayin are struck by the beautiful vistas, the peaceful surroundings, and the profound level of devotion and spirituality of the people who live there. (http://www.batayin.org/73023/About-Us)
Unfortunately life, for Palestinians living near the Bat Ayn colony, is far from peaceful.
Excerpts from a speech by Chris Hedges. The author spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in the Zionist colonisation of Palestine and the slow but determined destruction of the Palestinian people...
Israeli boycotters strike Tel Aviv opera by PHILIP WEISS on November 16
The ground really is shifting. Here's incredible video from Israel of Israeli boycott activists trying to submarine the Cape Town Opera House's performance of "Porgy and Bess" in Tel Aviv last night. Boycott apartheid! they sing. Note the big turnout of activists, the inspiring songs. Ynet reports 40 activists. Wow. This is inside Israel. And it's civil society: people of conscience around the world waking up to the humiliation and dispossession and statelessness of the Palestinians-- and seeing that they can take action.
Main-stream news reports in Greece(Friday 12-Saturday 13th) say Greek commandos boarded the Gaza-bound ship on Friday in the country's main harbour of Pireaus during a dispute between the ship's captain and the aid group over money.
The 10 travellers with the Road to Hope organization said they were being treated like terrorist suspects by the Greek commandos.
The organization said the Maltese-flagged ship, Strofades IV, with 16 crew members was originally intended to sail from Libya to El Raid in Egypt with the aid then to be transported via land route to Gaza. After a two-week wait at the Libyan/Egyptian border, the group had raised the money to pay for this alternative journey.
But following an argument between the ship's Greek captain and an Egyptian broker, the aid group's cargo and nearly 70 other volunteers were left behind in Libya and the ship sailed to Pireaus instead. According to an earlier statement from Road to Hope, the captain was reported to be saying he wanted to proceed to Greek islands and drop off the convoyers and Libyans, so that the Greek people could deal with them as illegal immigrants. The ship contains 10 aid workers - seven Britons, two Irish and an Algerian - on board as well as several Libyan police officers, plus a senior port official. The police officers had gone on board at the port to help settle the dispute, when the ship set off from the Libyan port of Darnah. The captain had set off while the Strofades IV was still moored, snapping the ropes holding his boat by force and heading for open waters. "The scene was crazy," said Saeb Shaath, one of the convoyers who was at the port helping the charity to dispatch the aid consignment and who witnessed the incident, speaking to Reuters. "He [the captain] broke anchor without permission to leave. He broke the ropes tying the ship ... and nearly capsized the ship when when it hit the wall. There were a lot of people on that ship." Libyan authorities pursued the ship with Zodiac speedboats and aircraft, but the captain refused to stop. "He won't listen," said Shaath. Libyan authorities had secured the boat while waiting to resolve the dispute between the captain and his passengers. The volunteers understood the captain feared the agent would not pay him the $90,000 fee for the voyage to Gaza. After leaving harbour, he apparently disembarked 22.50 GMT on Wednesday 10th, through a side door of the ship, onto a speed boat, which made for another cargo vessel in Darnah harbour – “Odin Finder”. There followed this short statement from one of those on board: "reports of 4 Libyan navy vessels & two fighter jets surrounding ship, attempting to bring the vessel back to harbour safely. Attempts to ensure 10 kidnapped convoyers & 3 libyans safely transferred to Libyan ships, to return to Darnah. No force being used – only verbal reasoning applied to Strofades IV captain" After this, the journey to Greece resumed.
Britain's foreign ministry said it was aware of the incident. It released a statement: "Our Embassy in Athens has spoken to the shipping company and is also in close contact with the Greek authorities. Our priority remains that there be a safe resolution to this incident.” The ship's owners are the Pireaus-based Ionion Bridge Shipping Management. Ministry officials said all those on board the vessel were in good health; although it is known that for the earlier part of the journey they were allowed only washing-water to drink and no food.
Update, 14 November 19.45 GMT:
Ebrahim reports back: The convoy has just driven away from the port of Darnah where the debacle with the ship took place and apparently caused some bad feeling with the local police.
He says they are all safe and well, and had their passports returned.
The two local Bristol people, Keith and Shahid, are fine.
Internet connections have been limited and this is the reason communications have been so fragmentary.
They are driving to Tobruk where they will have some freedom and can relax.
There are no ships over the next few days as it is the festival of Eid.
They have their money back and have news of a ship arriving next Thursday which would leave on Saturday.
Ebrahim Mussaji, from Gloucestershire, is part of the Bristol Contingent of Road2Hope.
21st November: The abducted convoyers have returned to the UK but some of them were hoping to fly back to rejoin the convoy for the departure of ship number two, planned for the night of Sunday 21st; while the Captain of
