Rod Cox and Gaza

Abbas gets tough or Abbas is weak

2011-01-05T17:13:00.002+02:00

Abbas has sacked Mohammed Dahlan, formerly head of the Presidential Guard in Gaza, and regarded by everyone I've ever met as the hand of Israel in Palestine. Although there is certainly no proof, very many Palestinians point the finger at Dahlan when they talk of the mysterious death of Arafat, now almost universally regarded as murder by poison by Israel through the hand of...
When Hamas won the January 2006 election in Palestine, but were not allowed to take power, they eventually formed a power sharing government with Abbas' Fatah and some deals for practical implementation of the unitary government were put in place. One of these deals was that 'security' in Gaza would be put under the control of the Government in a unified force, rather than the collection of private militias that had existed since Arafat's time. These militia, you may recall, were responsible for kidnappings, including the BBC journalist Alan Johnson. A quick search of the BBC for "Johnson Gaza" brings up Jul 2004 - 'This weekend a string of high profile kidnappings and fighting...' April 2003 - 'Dahlan says he will disarm other militias by force if necessary', and so on. Johnson was captured on March 12th 2007 by the Dogmush clan, another fearsome tribe that had been allowed to run wild whilst Dahlan was head of security in Gaza under Arafat and then Abbas.
The reason for the kidnap at a time when Hamas looked certain to beat Dahlan, seems to have been an excuse to bring in International - ie Israeli - forces against Hamas, who had been fighting Dahlan as part of their mission to unify security, agreed as part of the coalition settlement. Dahlan was supposed to slot into the Hamas Parliamentary chain of command, but that was never going to happen after Israel - who preferred Gaza split, unstable, corrupt and divided - gave him a boatload of arms, and in the end the fighting became very bloody, but Hamas 'won'. Dahlan fled to the West Bank, where he was found a job in Tony Blair's re-organisations, but that spelt the end of any Hamas input there, as a wave of arrests of Hamas activists by Abbas, and Hamas MPs by Israel, took place.
So, the removal of Dangerous Dahlan is bravery by Abbas beyond what I would have considered possible. Does that make Abbas weak or strong? The BBC quotes him as under pressure, which he is, but I see this as poke in the eye for Israel, and a statement of independence from Abu Mazan (Abbas).
In Israeli eyes Abbas has been behaving strangely lately: he's refused to obey Israel slavishly, he insists on the settlement ban, and by removing Dahlan, he may actually be clearing the way for a dialogue with Hamas. So, as with Arafat, Israel'd want to get rid of him, so the coup charge against Dahlan looks realistic. And therefore getting rid of Dahlan is very brave, and a smack in the teeth for Netanyahu, isn't it? Well, I've always been a glass half full man, because otherwise I'd have to cut my wrists, it's so depressing, so let's look at the picture in the round.
Abbas had not folded in his demand for a settlement moratorium, he has a plan B (declare an independent state of Palestine) to go forward diplomatically in the face of Israeli Intransigence which is meeting with some success, and he has just got rid of the one man that Hamas would want him to, opening the way for genuine dialogue. He is now in a position where he can be a little bit generous to Hamas - even if Israel will portray that as weakness. A united front will be important to get a first ever Security Council Resolution against Israel's brutality, and then the Gaza Boats will be on the seas again in May, again with a powerful Turkish presence making it hard for Israel to sustain the Gaza blockade AND any credibility as a peace-loving state. Obama doesn't have to do anything, he just has to sit on his hands, and let it all happen. I think Abbas thinks he can actually achieve something, and I hope he's right.

Here's the BBC article in full; what a shame that it doesn't seem to feel it necessary to tell us Dahlan's blood-stained history:

Abbas suspends Dahlan from Fatah over 'coup plot'

By Wyre Davies

BBC News, Jerusalem

Mohammed Dahlan is Fatah's former head of security in the Gaza Strip

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

A senior figure in the Palestinian Fatah movement has denied plotting an internal coup to remove President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mohammed Dahlan has been suspended from Fatah's central committee pending an investigation into the allegations, which he describes as "fantastical".

There are increasing divisions in the movement, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Dahlan was Fatah's security chief in Gaza before Hamas took over in 2007.

Although President Mahmoud Abbas enjoys strong backing from the international community, the 75-year-old's presidential term formally ended more than a year ago and he has been effectively governing by decree ever since.

With peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians indefinitely suspended, there is growing criticism in Palestinian circles of what some describe as Mr Abbas' weak leadership.

Among his critics is Mr Dahlan, a 49-year-old who is originally from Gaza.

Mr Dahlan has emphatically denied plotting a coup and expressed his full support for Mahmoud Abbas in a BBC interview

"Abbas is the president of the Palestinian people and when he summons me, I will go to him. But this is an exaggerated story that is not good for Fatah or the Palestinian people," he said.

"There are those who want to stab Fatah in the back, but I won't give them the reason or means to do so. I am dedicated to the movement and I will not turn my back on it."

Embezzlement probe

Taking no chances, President Abbas also closed the offices of a TV station with links to Mr Dahlan and removed his personal security detail.

Mr Abbas has also reportedly ordered an internal investigation into embezzlement, which could focus on Mr Dahlan's multi-million dollar fortune.

Such moves might succeed in neutering any immediate attempt by Mr Dahlan, or others, to force a change of leadership in the Palestinian Authority.

But there is no doubt, say observers, that President Abbas looks like an increasingly weakened and dispirited leader.

Today is the start of the European Cup.

2010-09-02T21:09:00.007+02:00

It was during the last European cup that Israel played against England at Wembley, and I tried to bring a Palestine team for some games against UK football league teams at the same time. My objective was to give the Palestinians opposition that would motivate them to practice and improve. We had a base at the University of Chester, who were providing specialist coaching, and we had an ascending order of games culminating with a premier league game against Blackburn Rovers. But it didn't happen. The UK government refused them visas on the grounds that Israel might refuse them re-entry, if they let them out in the first place, so they would become refugees and become a burden on the state. Meanwhile Israel turn up to an official reception to play their leg in the European Cup, feted by the English FA. But why does Israel play in Europe whilst it is imprisoning another team, and why Europe anyway?

The reason Israel plays in Europe is the Oslo agreement. Palestine is not a 'country' as Zionists keep telling us, so is not entitled to a FIFA recognised team, whilst Israel could not get a game in Asia, where most countries boycotted it. So giving Palestine a team, as a concession for moving Israel to Europe was an obvious move to make in the Oslo settlement. Crucially, Israel gets to be treated as a 'normal' state where it matters most, in the west.

In this Cup, Israel play Malta tonight. They have a very easy group, their seeded team is Croatia, who they have beaten before, I think, and the second seed is Greece, a team very varied in quality. The winner of each group and the 5 best runners up qualify for the finals, and this must be Israel's best opportunity yet. Their other opponents are Malta, Latvia and Georgia (who despite the distance, really are in geographical Europe). And an appearance in the final play-offs is yet another step to normalising them as a country, and as a European Country at that. No wonder Israeli commentators like Gideon Levy and Illan Pape say that the Israeli public have closed their mind to Peace, seeing no need to get out of their chairs, and feeling comfortable in the world's acceptance of who they are, occupation and all.

As I said, I invited the Palestine youth team over, but they were refused visas by the UK Government. A practiced media expert could have made much more out of it than I did, but, still there was some media attention for it. I do not discount rumours that Israel threw their England game as a deal to get the banning result, you have only to read the commentaries on the game, and see what an appalling game Yossi Benayoun had, for instance, and England badly needed a win to retain credibility (they still didn't qualify). But whether or not, they played at Wembley and the Palestinians remained locked in Gaza.

Anyway, the amount of work in trying to organise the tour was astonishing, and the costs enormous, so I won't be trying it again. In any case, after the failure of that visit the situation changed dramatically for the team. They were not helped by the then president of the Pal's FA saying that my failure to get visas was a personal failure, because I was obviously not corrupt enough to pull the right strings, and, as he told me, nothing to do with the siege of Gaza, which didn't affect him personally much. There are still a very few people in Gaza, I very much regret to say, who feel that breaking the siege is just a matter of corrupt payments to the right Israelis rather than action to end the occupation for all. This corruption is, of course the reason why Fatah were punished in the elections, and Hamas elected, but our Pals FA president, sitting in his 5 star hotel in Qatar, paid for by the Emir, had not yet got that message, even though the 2006 world cup qualifying run came to an end for the Palestine team when Israel refused visas to half the team when they needed to get a good result against Uzbekistan, and they lost, and lost momentum. "Pah, he said, why would the British government be implicated in the siege of Gaza?"

The progress of the team was mentored by a Kuwaiti based Palestinian refugee businessman called Barakat, who persuaded many other businesses to invest in the team. They really thought that World Cup qualification was possible, and the team moved up the FIFA rankings from the bottom to 115th, nearly halfway. The enthusiasm was palpable and it was possible to image the world sitting up and taking notice. As their success grew, beating Taiwan 8-0, and drawing with in form Iraq 1-1, Israel suddenly refused to allow half the team to play against Uzbekistan, and that was the beginning of the end. They lost 3-0, and under similar sanctions, they failed to qualify through their remaining games.
In 2007, in the next world cup, without Barakat's support, and with West Bank pressures, they lost their pre-qualification match with Singapore, at 'home' in Qatar, and failed to show up for the return leg in Singapore, probably because of Israel visa issues, but also shortage of money and organising ability. The Pal FA failed to organise Palestinian TV coverage of the Singapore game, and failed to inform Al Jazeera (in Qatar!) or to make the most of Al Jazeera's coverage when I accidentally organised it for them following a fortuitous meeting in my hotel. I presented a shirt from Blackburn Rovers, but the Pals insisted that it be off camera, thus alienating Blackburn who were looking to build support in the Middle East, and also failing to get the important message, that they have friends in the West, out to their supporters. What was the explanation for this behaviour? I don't know, but it didn't help the team, and if the President thought it helped his position with Israel or the West Bank Fatah Government, he was mistaken. It just made it easy for him to be replaced.

Israel could clearly see the propaganda value of a successful Palestine team, and were keen to stop it.

Tony Blair, Middle East envoy, also saw the propaganda value of the team, and that clubs in Gaza were still largely controlled by Fatah but delegates were moving towards Hamas, so it was that FIFA agreed to re-build a national stadium, but on condition was that there must be a new election for President and delegates. Then they ruled out all the Gaza votes because Hamas 'gunmen' were said to have intimidated the voters at one local Gaza club. As a result, all the delegates are West Bank Fatah, except the delegate for Qalqilya, who 'is in touch with Hamas'. As a result the emphasis of the team was moved to the West Bank, and the new stadium was built there, just outside the area Israel has zoned as part of "Jerusalem", so not being contentious in the current Peace talks when Israeli Annexation of Jerusalem is ratified. They did this rather than rebuild the Gaza stadium that Israel bombed.

And it was the old West Bank section of the FA (supposedly under control from Gaza, but encouraged by Blair and Israel to behave independently) who had also sabotaged 'my' tour by refusing to take part unless they got 50% of the players regardless of ability, and on refusal by the President, pulled out. (This sabotage made it much easier for the UK to refuse the team visas, since they were all from Gaza. The press often described it as 'A Gaza Youth Team', whereas it was the official U19 Palestinian National Team. I was asked by Channel 4 News whether it wasn't right that the team should be blocked to punish Hamas)

The new President of the Palestine FA, Jibril al Rajoub, is a Fatah hard man. He is a powerful general previously in charge of Internal Security. Blair wanted to get rid of most of these guys from Government in order to create a unified structure of armed forces control, and he had to find jobs for them.
Unlucky FA! Since his appointment, many foreign players, such as Chile's Roberto Kettlun, that were so prominent in Palestine's dramatic progress towards the 2006 world cup, when they beat Taipei 8-0, have not been recalled, even when they request it, and some are now being recruited by Jordan instead. Conversely, however, Jordan has pressured the Palestine FA not to recruit Jordan based Palestinians (70% of Jordan citizens) and the Palestine FA appear to have agreed. A recent story concerns two Croats, the Sharbini Brothers, called up for the Singapore qualifier in 2007, but too frightened by death threats in Croatia to leave at that time, but who have not been recalled subsequently even though they have signalled a willingness to be so. One has been approached by Croatia, but both seem likely to play for Jordan, who has also approached them. The team is thus being downgraded to a non-threatening position, although they were scheduled to play a friendly against a league side in Belgium last year, but I'm not sure if it happened. There are plenty of UK clubs that would play them if the UK FA could be persuaded to invite them, but there is a strong link with the Israel FA in London, both officially and by Zionist individuals in senior positions.
And so the Israelis will strut the International stage, while the football mad Palestinians languish at 171 out of 207, positioned above the Comoros Islands and Somalia, their only scheduled fixtures being friendlies against Yemen away (played in Amman) and Iraq at home (played in Amman, despite FIFA promises about their home stadium). They have previously drawn with Mauritania, Sudan and the UAE, lost to China 3-1, and to Iraq 3-0, then 4-0

Still the West Bank got that new Stadium, and most Gaza players are allowed out of their jail to play, but generally not to train, although the Captain is still not allowed out - but then he is also no longer the Captain. The siege has been left out of the picture by these dealings, as Palestine is now not called unsafe by FIFA, so FIFA also now supposedly allow foreign teams to play in this Ramallah stadium, and both the men's and women's teams have played Jordan in friendlies, both ending in draws. Yet no other matches have been played in 'Ram', or are scheduled to be.
Interesting and co-incidental that England's first game in its new Wembley stadium was against Israel. And while I have been writing this, Israel have beaten Malta 3-1. A hat trick by Yossi Benayoun, ex Liverpool, now Chelsea player. Well Done, how the Premier league has improved your play! What a shame that the UK Premier league will never be allowed to employ Ramzi, the 65 times capped Palestine keeper. I don't how many of Benayoun's goals he would have saved, but I do know that he would give his life for the opportunity to be allowed to try.

Truth, What Truth?

2010-07-12T17:56:00.005+03:00

When a Massacre is not a Massacre

When a truth is not a truth

I don't write poems but, in any case, poems are not poems.

Long ago, I was made to understand that Palestine was not Palestine;

I was also informed that Palestinians were not Palestinians;

They also explained to me that ethnic cleansing was not ethnic cleansing.

And when naive old me saw freedom fighters they patiently showed me

that they were not freedom fighters, and that resistance was not resistance.

And when, stupidly, I noticed arrogance, oppression and humiliation

they benevolently enlightened me so I can see that arrogance was not arrogance,

oppression was not oppression, and humiliation was not humiliation.

I saw misery, racism, inhumanity and a concentration camp.

But they told me that they were experts in misery, racism, inhumanity and concentration camps
and I have to take their word for it:

this was not misery, racism, inhumanity and a concentration camp.

Over the years they've taught me so many things:

invasion was not invasion, occupation was not occupation,

colonialism was not colonialism and apartheid was not apartheid.

They opened my simple mind to even more complex truths that my poor brain could not on its own compute like:

"having nuclear weapons" was "not having nuclear weapons,"

"not having weapons of mass destruction" was "having weapons of mass destruction."

And, democracy (in the Gaza Strip) was not democracy.

Having second class citizens (in Israel) was democracy.

So you'll excuse me if I am not surprised to learn today

that there were more things that I thought were evident that are not:

peace activists are not peace activists, piracy is not piracy,

the massacre of unarmed people is not the massacre of unarmed people.

I have such a limited brain and my ignorance is unlimited.

And they're so fucking intelligent. Really.

By Ghassan Hage, professor of anthropology and social theory at the University of Melbourne.

2010-06-05T14:24:00.002+03:00

Dear Stephen Mosley, new Conservative MP for Chester.

You have replied to my query via Amnesty International supporting human rights, but you did not reply to my question about the right to detain and try War Criminals that land on UK shores: here follows a link to an article by Robert Fisk which details not only the abuses of the Israeli Government, but the lies it tells.

In connection with the illegal assaults on unarmed aid ships, the last this morning, the Israelis have produced highly edited audio 'evidence', including 'evidence' in which the voice of an activist - Huwaida Arraf, known personally to me, who was not present on the Mavi Marmara, but was on Challenger 1 as confirmed by Newsnight - is heard, supposedly from the Mavi Marmara, to support their case. Their audio file is transparently a racist attempt to blacken the Peace activists. The doors to the wheelhouse on the Mavi Marmara were locked, only the crew were in there, which would not include Ms Arraf in any case: This is evidence given by Journalists on board the ship. Please note that the Israelis have searched. both bodily and materially, for all evidence from the voyagers and have destroyed all other videos taken on board, (although the foregoing link gives a summary of what the reporters say), and stolen the personal belongings of every individual that was forced to go to Ashdod. Most significantly, the Israelis have released no footage of any of the deaths or woundings, including of their own soldiers, although an Israeli soldier shooting a hand gun can be clearly seen in the last three seconds of this video:

Can you please confirm for me that:

1 You are not, or are no longer, a member of the Conservative friends of Israel

2 You will support the arrest and trial of Israel policy-makers responsible for these crimes of piracy and ethnic cleansing, if evidence is put before a magistrate by any citizen that makes a prima facie case to that effect, as is allowed under the current law. You will not change the current law.

3 That these deaths both ongoing in Gaza, and on the boats, and the cover up by this one sided onslaught of lies on the media by Israel will be condemned by you unequivocally.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-truth-behind-the-israeli-propaganda-1991803.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/20106374525843674.html

Where Next? It's a surreal world.

2010-06-03T19:25:00.003+03:00

I predicted a while ago on my blog that the involvement of Turkey would be crucial, even wondering if they would send a warship - and some sources now say that they will next time. But Turkey is not going to go off and do one, its hysteria is carefully controlled. It has far more leverage staying involved with Israel, if only to show the west - the US and The EU, that it is not a mullah run hysteria factory (Yes I know that Iran isn't either, but image is everything).

I really believe that we have a chance to end the siege of Gaza in practical terms as a result of this action. Egypt has opened its borders, and although they'll close again, they will not close as tightly. If Turkey restricts itself to outrage only in the specific area, then it will succeed in getting Nato to require Israel to allow independent patrols of the Gaza coast to stop ships and inspect for weapons, but weaponless ships of all trade will be permitted.

I floated this possibility with some Hamas low rankers in Gaza when I was there, and they insisted that the right to have arms is essential for a nation state, and so would resist independent shipping controls - what do you all think? An Independent Nation needs all its rights for sure, and Free but regulated trade would probably see the UN become the effective government of Gaza. It would be very hard for Hamas to motivate resistance from a prosperous community, which is one reason why I think that this is the route that Obama will take. But giving trade rights will eventually lead to a withering of controls and a drift into statehood after some years,whatever government runs it, in my opinion. But that is only Gaza.

Far more worrying is the the plan to absorb only the West Bank into a single state. Inbuilt Arab Minority, no way to stop the expansion of settlements and the impoverishment of arabs, no land or marriage rights, and job discrimination - One state only works if Arabs have a reasonable shot in a secular state of influencing the democratic process: Freedom is meaningless without access to power! But the west might be attracted to a solution that incorporates the west bank into Israel and gets rid of Gaza to loose international control, which would include Egypt, of course. (Ideally the Israelis would like to give Gaza away to Egypt, but Egypt won't do that, because the radical Gaza tail would wag the Egyptian dog). Can Palestine ever be united again with Israel's main nuclear plant directly geographically inline between them, and Fatah and Hamas being separated by such a large distance politically?

Moshe Arens, former Defense Minister, and noted Israeli hawk, has endorsed a one-state solution for Israel/Palestine. It can be achieved in a matter of months. Israel should formally annex the West Bank and offer the Palestinians citizenship. As he puts it:

Adding another 1.5 million Muslims, the population of Judea and Samaria, to Israel's Muslim population would of course make the situation considerably more difficult. Would a 30-percent Muslim minority in Israel create a challenge that would be impossible for Israeli society to meet? That is a question that Israeli politicians, and all Israelis - Jews and Arabs alike - need to ponder.

Unlike the dire predictions heard so often, Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria would not be the end of the State of Israel, nor would it mean the end of democratic governance in Israel. It would, however, pose a serious challenge to Israeli society. But that is equally true for the other options being suggested for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This option of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria merits serious consideration. http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/

I'm glad that Britons are all safe, but why have they been sent to Turkey? Have you noticed that the media, and Israel, is making this entirely into a spat with Turkey? What about the appallingly weak British Reaction:

We need to maintain the pressure of international action, all forty countries. We have to let our government know that WE were involved, and we want them to care. There is no doubt that Israel would like to shunt all the anger through Turkey, and the propaganda has already started about the Turkish Islamic Relief Organisation IHH being a terrorist organisation. This talk must not be allowed to become the norm in the West.

Israel's strategy is clear - exploit the differences between the new Islamism in Turkish Society which sees IHH as a positive force for good, and the secular Old Guard, especially in the army, who see themselves defending Ataturk's legacy against religion, and are suspicious of Islamic institutions being successful. They will seek to promote civil war in Turkey, rather than accede to International sanctions, exactly as they have done in Lebanon, and of course, in Palestine itself.

If the Turks can be persuaded to fight amongst themselves, even just in the media, that will provide the route for the marginalisation of the current Government, and the excuse that the Zionist West wants to forget the whole thing. We will start hearing that Turkey is an undemocratic state etc.

The Foreign Secretary William Hague was very complimentary about Turkey in Parliament Yesterday, praising its mediation role with Iran and Syria, and almost criticising Israel for failing to make peace with Syria. There is no doubt that the anger at these deaths has made a deep and lasting change to the politics of Israel, and is all that is keeping natural zionists like Hague onside.

But when they are not being unutterably stupid, the Israeli Government will be attempting to explore the fault lines I've mentioned. We must keep our government up to speed with our anger, and onside with the Turks - its the best route for the Palestinians, I feel sure.

What Happened on Board the Mavi Marmara

2010-06-03T09:07:00.006+03:00

OK, it's become clear, now, what happened on the Mavi Marmara. A Helicopter arrived, Four soldiers rappelled down onto the Mavi and were captured and disarmed, and these events were the ones that the Israelis filmed from above and that Turkish TV filmed from the ship. A second Helicopter then brought in more soldiers who fired directly onto the crowd before they landed. In other words, indiscriminate fire on unarmed civilians. There is little film of this from the boat for the obvious reason that the cameramen went inside when the firing started, but the Israelis will have it, just not releasing it.

This, of course only describes the events on boarding. Witnesses have consistently said, about all the boats, that the Israelis fired stun grenades, sound bombs and fired at them before even coming alongside.

Of course, it also explains how an Israeli soldier got shot by his own side. He was in the first wave, and he got shot by the second wave. Nobody is sticking to the original Israeli story about guns on board, the Israeli story now is it was an IOF weapon that was taken off a soldier.

Question: if the voyagers had wanted to kill the Israelis, and they had them in custody, then why didn't they just kill them?

Silver Lining: At least four Israeli Occupation Force Soldiers know, just for 2 minutes, what it's like to be a Palestinian. And if you whine and whinge like this when you are manhandled by unarmed civilians, IOF, then just think how a Palestinian Youth feels when he is assaulted by a Soldier with a taser, bayonet and machine gun. Now can you think of any reason at all why the world is very pissed off with you? NO?

Testimony of Reporters on board the Mavi Marmara: I have changed this link reference, as Al Jazeera seem to have altered their pages -- Please don't do this Al Jazeera!!!

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

2010-06-01T13:23:00.005+03:00

I have read and re-read this poem today, and it helps me to shed the tears that it is necessary to shed for the dead. But I believe that they have not died in vain, though their families may disagree, for I believe that this marks the beginning of the end - albeit a long slow end - for Israel. Too often have they killed from a wanton lust to kill, to exterminate those inferior and in their way, but, really, the future belongs to those dead - and Death really has no Dominion, as these dead live on in the actions of the world. To Israel it will come to seem that they live even in the wind that blows the soil away, and in the face of the moon as it shines down on them, because they have died for the love of an oppressed people, killed by the envy and hatred of those responsible for the theft and dispossession of Palestine.
The link is to an article by Robert Fisk about the cowardice of Western Leaders, but these dead will haunt them forever. www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-western-leaders-are-too-cowardly--to-help-save-lives-1987989.html

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Dylan Thomas

Here is why I think it's appropriate:This is not a poem about religious themes in any way. It is not about survival of the soul after death, and there is no redemption. No redemption except...... transcendently for the Human Race, ideas, even life itself. It is easy to read this as a poem in praise of the blindness of Evolution, the survival of life as a whole, not of any individual.
Even the transcendent survival of, say, Dylan's own poetry is not what this is about. It is about the lust of life itself, of love especially, and hunger and adversity as well as hope and joy, and the mad surreality, of the world in which it all takes place.

This is the reason that I have dedicated this poem to the dead on the Free Gaza boats that were attacked by Israel on 31st May 2010. They, "lying long, shall not die windily, twisting on racks when sinews give way, strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, and the Unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up, they shall not crack; And Death shall have no dominion."

Now they are dead, what they are can no longer be subjected to torture and recantation, the meaning of their lives is fixed in the meaning of their death, and they shall not feel the blows of a hard world trying to weaken them anymore - 'age shall not weary them' as Binyon said. Their achievements are now set in stone, and the meaning will live as long as people remember them, and, actually, longer than that.

"Where blew a flower may a flower no more lift its head to the blows of the rain; though they be mad and dead as nails, heads of the characters hammer through daisies; Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, and Death shall have no Dominion".

Life will succeed no matter what is done to stop it, when a flower dies, another grows, and it grows with the character of the land, the soil, the place where it is planted. It grows with the soul of the dead, who gave them birth, though they were never a father nor a mother, still they shape the future, and they speak beyond the grave, not even needing words.
We are all heroes, we all change society, and not even death can change it back, nor stop the hunger for life that drives us forward, and our children, and their children, and the rats that eat us, and evolution itself. The world will change, change by the actions of its heroes, and death will not defeat them. That is why this is such a fitting tribute to the Anonymous Dead of the Israeli Assault on the Free Gaza Humanitarian Flotilla.

Obama's big opening.

2010-05-31T12:59:00.004+03:00

The BBC has moderated its story, but at the time of writing this, it still slants the story from the Israeli propaganda perspective, continuing to fail to mention that the boat was in international waters, even though it gives the distance off shore as 40 miles, it doesn't spell out the consequences of that for readers who don't realise that means it's outside Israel's jurisdiction. Its video is cut from the Turkish video streamed live from the Mavi Marmara - the Turkish Aid Boat - and seems to show a Passenger hitting a soldier who has just landed on board with a baseball bat, although it also shows other passengers being herded around by soldiers. This seems to justify its outrageous comment saying 30 passengers were injured (it doesn't mention the dead again after the headline) but 10 Israelis were injured - one badly!!! Actually 16 Passengers were gunned down by those poor injured lambs, BBC, were their injuries strained trigger fingers? If the weapons used by those on the boat were so vicious, why don't the Israelis get rid of their guns and use baseball bats instead?

If someone invaded my boat on the open sea, I would sure take to hitting them until they gave up their gun, I think. It is the responsibility of the invading force to save lives, the defenders have the right to defend themselves at all costs, although they had told the world that they were in fact unarmed, and would not start shooting. I'm damn sure that if Somali pirates killed crew members who were resisting their invasion with baseball bats, the international community would try the Somalis for murder, and give medals for bravery to the crew. What's different?

And so it is good to see that the International Relations Minister for the EU has said that the EU will have an Inquiry into these events, having previously said that the EU requires restraint by Israel and that the siege is illegal. Remember Turkey is a European power, with Candidate status in the EU. This Inquiry will certainly delay response to Israel for some time into the future, and nothing will happen unless the Americans give the lead - Spineless EU. But the range of sanctions available, such as the option of canceling preferential trade agreements would be a serious threat to Israel, hanging over their heads until the Inquiry is resolved. So if enough pressure is applied, Israel is going to have to make concessions.

Which makes all this Obama's great opportunity to show world leadership. When Netanyahu visits Obama this week, this is what Obama should say:

"We've told you before that the siege of Gaza must end, and normal life be permitted to begin there. We have offered ships to search merchant vessels for arms, but you have declined, saying you insist on doing the job yourself, because Gaza is a threat to you that fires rockets at you. So we took you seriously and have given you, for free, a rocket defence system which you extensively and successfully tested just last week. So now you don't have any need to be afraid of attack from Hezbollah or Gaza, so if we let you carry on like this, it begins to look to the world as if are complicit in collective punishment of Gaza, with repercussions for our relations elsewhere in the world - so you have simply got to learn the lesson that civilian lives cannot be terminated without consequences.

"Furthermore you have refused to even participate in a regional Nuclear Free Middle East Conference, and give up or at least declare your nuclear arsenal. The US has put significant resources into restraining Iran, at your request, and has voluntarily reduced nuclear arms to bring confidence to the rest of the world. So now its time for Israel to play ball. Stop behaving like a spoilt child and get behind all the International treaties that you haven't yet signed, like the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

"Attacking ships with US flags and citizens in International waters is unacceptable, and we will be stationing ships, jointly with our core ally Turkey - which has behaved with dignity and restraint - in the Mediterranean to ensure that it never happens again, and that while we will stop arms to Gaza, trade in everything else to Gaza will be FREE. This is for your own good, because you are our most important ally in the world, and we want to protect your image."

But will he? I don't think it is as wide of the mark as many of you who read this blog will. If good can come out of the decomposing bodies of the Turkish dead, this is it. Let's see.

If not, the struggle will go on. The struggle to end oppression is greater than the lives of any individual, including mine, and here is my epitaph to the Dead, in the words of Dylan Thomas:

"And death shall have no dominion.

Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

The Unbearable Lightweightness of the BBC

2010-05-31T08:15:00.004+03:00

Israeli Commandos descended from a piece of String onto the Turkish Charity IHH's boat the Mavi Marmara 90 miles out to sea, as attested by the GPS aboard the flotilla's boats, being transmitted live to the world, and in full view of live TV coverage shoot unarmed passengers, without provocation.

But to the spineless BBC, the exact location of the interception is unclear, but Israel had warned the boats not to enter its waters, and the Israeli soldiers are 'fighting to control passengers'. Despite updating its news story to report that Israeli TV indicates 14 Dead, it forgot to update the bit that says : 'The footage showed a number of people, apparently injured, lying on the ground. This was part of its initial report that 'unconfirmed reports that 2 people are dead have been received'.

The BBC obviously beleives that Israeli TV can be quoted as a substantial source whereas Al Jazeera, Turkish LIVE TV and Live positional updates from the Boats themselves can be ignored. So long as Israeli propaganda is reported as if it is news, and news from Arab or other non Western sources are treated as propaganda even when they are actually filming live news, then we will never be able to trust this previously world renowned broadcaster.

Fuck you BBC, you disgust me beyond any sensible words.

I hope every one else will do what the Turks are doing very forcibly - protesting vigourously to your local Israeli Embassy. Here they are: http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel

The stakes rise as FreeGaza flotilla dates get nearer

2010-05-12T21:07:00.003+03:00

The BBC reports that Israel has arrested a man working for IHH in the West Bank, declaring the Organisation illegal, although no reason has been given for the statement.

The Prime Minister of Turkey is a founder of IHH, so this is no small matter. The reason is probably that Shin Bet, who say this:

"He was arrested on suspicion he had been working for a long time in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] for the Turkish organisation IHH, which in 2008 was declared illegal in Israel, also that in his activity he assisted other organisations in Judea and Samaria which were declared illegal," the statement said.

"He was arrested on suspicion that his activities in Judea and Samaria risked the security in the area."

The statement also said his arrest was not connected to an IHH's attempts to break the blockade of Gaza by sea, planned for later this month."

want to prime the world community that anyone who tries to break the blockade of Gaza will automatically be a banned organisation. Everyone who works with IHH can now automatically be declared to be assisting a banned organisation, so in Israeli terms, that means everyone on the boats. Mind you I find it difficult to understand how he was allowed to enroll in the Hebrew University if he was known to belong to a banned organisation, and since he was the IHH representative in the West Bank, there really is no secret about it.

This particular FreeGaza trip will be a test, not just between Turkish and Israeli muscle, and subtlety in its use, but of Obama's resolve too. He wants to be friends with Turkey, so lets hope that he does not fall prey to the usual Israeli excuse about action to relieve Gaza's population being a threat to the Peace talks.

Turkey sending ten boats to break Gaza Siege

2010-02-02T20:00:00.008+02:00

Turkish Charity IHH is now a Joint Venture Operator with FreeGaza to send ten boats in Next Flotilla to break the siege.

The involvement of Turkish Charity IHH in becoming a joint venture partner in sending siege-breaking boats to Gaza ratchets up the pressure on Israel. Despite the bandaging of wounds following the humiliation of the Turkish Ambassador, when Turkey threatened to end diplomatic relations, Netanyahu has put his foot in it again, telling France that mediation with Syria depends on a mediator both parties can trust, such as France. This is a clear statement that Israel does not trust Turkey, since Syria plainly does. The snub is great, since Turkey were the mediators until recently, and were credited with making ground between the sides. Commentators feel that in reality Israel wants to kick Syria into the long grass, as it has done with Palestine. Prime Minister of Turkey Erdogan has, as a result, again blasted Israel, again raised Gaza as a symbol of Israeli aggression and racism.

Soon IHH will be sending Turkish boats with Turkish crews: will Turkey stand by while Israel stops and 'arrests' them, or turns them back? This is shaping up to a crucial standoff, and the stakes are very high, for if Israel loses face, Hamas will be strengthened in its belief that Israel only understands force, and never negotiates, since the UN and US and UK, come to that, have failed to negotiate any relief for Gaza as friends.

Turkey risks not only losing face, and looking weak if Israel is allowed to stop Turkish Merchant ships on a lawful activity, but if it intervenes, it must have a strong diplomatic hand to prevent the US and the UK from trying to get it out of the club of Israel Supporters called NATO, and marginalising it along with all the other Moslem states that have resisted Israel.

Below is an article from the Independent (UK) by Fisk, that shows how Israel is prepared to use the mass murder of 1.5 million people against Turkey, only when it suits it. Up to now it has supported Turkey's cover up of the Pogrom, because it wants the Holocaust of Jews to be unique. That way Jews are uniquely privileged to do things others are not. It is shocking how they put pressure on Armenian survivors of that Holocaust, that they will not even permit to be Israeli citizens, to speak out against Turkey.

My dream is that Turkey admits its Holocaust, its Shoah, its ethnic cleansing under Attaturk, bravely, and apologise, and compensate. Its recent re-establishment of relations with Armenia is a good first step. Let Turkey please show that it can settle the question of refugees displaced by ethnic cleansing fairly.

Then let it defend its blockade breaking boats as they strive to do the same for the people of Palestine.

Robert Fisk’s World: ❝Israel can no longer ignore the existence of the first Holocaust

Recognition of the Armenian genocide is a paramount moral and educational act

Saturday, 30 January 2010

While Israelis commemorated the second Holocaust of the 20th century this week, I was in the Gulbenkian library in Jerusalem, holding the printed and handwritten records of the victims of the century's first Holocaust. It was a strange sensation.

The Armenians were not participating in Israel's official ceremonies to remember the six million Jewish dead, murdered by the Germans between 1939 and 1945, perhaps because Israel officially refuses to acknowledge that Armenia's million and a half dead of 1915-1923 were victims of a Turkish Holocaust. Israeli-Turkish diplomatic and military relations are more important than genocide. Or were.

George Hintlian, historian and prominent member of Jerusalem's 2,000-strong Armenian community in Jerusalem, pointed out the posters a few metres from the 1,500-year old Armenian monastery. They advertised Armenia's 24 April commemorations. All but one had been defaced, torn from the ancient walls or, in at least one case, spraypainted with graffiti in Hebrew. "Maybe they don't like it that there was another genocide," George told me. "These are things we can't explain." More than 70 members of George's family were murdered in the butchery and death marches of 1915 – when German officers witnessed the system of executions, rail-car deportations to cholera camps and asphyxiation by smoke in caves – the world's first "gas" chambers. One witness, the German vice-consul in Erzurum, Max von Scheubner-Richter, ended up as one of Hitler's closest friends and advisers. It's not as if there's no connection between the first and second Holocausts.

But the times, they are a-changing. For ever since Turkey began shouting about Israel's slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza a year ago, prominent Israeli figures have suddenly rediscovered the Armenian genocide. Who are the Turks to talk about mass murder? Has anyone forgotten 1915? For George and his compatriots – there are in all 10,000 Armenians in Israel and the occupied West Bank, 4,000 of them holding Israeli passports – they had indeed been forgotten until the Gaza war. "In 1982, the Armenians were left out of a Holocaust conference in Jerusalem," he said. "For three decades, no documentary on the Armenian genocide could be shown on Israeli television because it would offend the Turks. Then suddenly last year, important Israelis demanded that a documentary be shown. Thirty Knesset members supported us. We always had Yossi Sarid of Peace Now but now we've got right-wing Israelis."

Maariv and Yediot Ahronot began to mention the Armenian genocide and George Hintlian turned up on Israeli television with Danny Ayalon – the foreign office minister who humiliated the Turkish ambassador by forcing him to sit on a sofa below him – and Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin who said that Israel should commemorate the Armenian genocide "every year". The Israeli press now calls the Armenian genocide a "Shoah" – the same word all Israelis use for the Jewish Holocaust. As George put it with withering accuracy: "We have been upgraded!!!"

This piece of brash hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed by Yossi Sarid who has described how, a few months after Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the Gaza war, "an important Israeli personality telephoned me and said the following: 'Now you have to hit back at the Turks, to denounce them for the crimes they committed against the Armenians You, Yossi, have the right to do so...'" Sarid was appalled. "I was filled with revulsion and my soul wanted to puke," he wrote in Haaretz. "The person who telephoned me was an example of the ugly Israeli who had disgracefully been at the forefront of those who denied the Armenian Holocaust." So now "new tunes" – Sarid's phrase – are being heard in Jerusalem: "The Turks are the last ones who have the right to teach us ethics."

The bright side to this anguished debate is that one of Israel's top Holocaust experts bravely insisted – to the fury of then-foreign minister (now president) Shimon Peres – that the Armenian massacres were undoubtedly a genocide. Tens of thousands of Israelis have always believed the same; several hundred are expected to turn up at the Armenian commemoration on 24 April, and most Israelis refer to the Armenian genocide as a "Shoah" rather than the tame "massacres" hitherto favoured by the political elite.

Yet the most extraordinary irony of all occurred when the Armenian and Turkish governments last year agreed to reopen diplomatic relations and consign the Armenian Holocaust to a joint academic enquiry which would decide "if" there had been a genocide. As Israeli Professor Yair Oron of the Open University of Israel said, "I am afraid that countries will now hesitate to recognise the (Armenian) genocide. They will say: 'Why should we grant recognition if the Armenians yielded?' Recognition of the Armenian genocide is a paramount moral and educational act. We in Israel are obliged to recognise it." And American-Armenian UCLA Professor Richard Hovannisian asked: "Would the Jewish people be willing to forgo the memory of the Holocaust for the sake of good relations with Germany, if Germany were to make that demand?" George Hintlian described the Armenian-Turkish agreement – which in fact may not now be ratified by either side – as "like an earthquake".

We walked together in the cold afternoon through the darkened interior of the great Armenian monastery of Jerusalem with its icons and candles. George opened a cabinet to reveal a hidden staircase up which priests would creep for a secret week when invaders passed through Jerusalem. In this dank, pious place, Ronald Henry Amhurst Storrs, governor of British Mandate Jerusalem, would often sit to ponder what he called "the glory and the misery of a people".

Miserable it has been for thousands of Armenians here. Up to 15,000 lived in Palestine until 1948, many of them survivors of the first Holocaust. But 10,000 of these Armenians shared the same fate as the Palestinian Arabs, fleeing or driven from their homes by the army of the new Israeli state. Most lost their businesses in Haifa and Jaffa, many of them seeking refuge – for the second time – in Jerusalem. A few set out for Cyprus where they were dispossessed for the third time by the 1974 Turkish invasion. As George put it bleakly, "Today, 6,000 Armenians are residents of Jerusalem and the West Bank. They cannot travel and they are counted as Armenian Palestinians. For Israeli bureaucracy, they are Palestinians."

George himself is the son of Garbis Hintlian who, as a 17-year-old, survived the death march from his home at Talas in Cappadocia. "We lost my uncle – my grandfather was axed to death in front of him." After the 1918 armistice, he worked for the British, carrying files of evidence to the initial (but quickly abandoned) Constantinople trials of Turkish war criminals. To no avail.

And glory be, if the tables haven't changed again! Turkey and Israel have made up and become good friends again. Yossi Sarid anticipated this. "Let us assume that Turkey will renew its ties with Israel. Then what? What then? Will we also renew our contribution to the denial of the Armenian Holocaust?❞

Turkey refuses to lie down

2010-01-13T19:43:00.002+02:00

It's great to hear that Turkey is standing up for itself in various spats with Israel, refusing to let its diplomats be humiliated in a row about how Israel is depicted in two different dramas on Turkish TV. Turkey says it is upholding its right to free speech and that what is inside its borders is none of Israel's business. Israel responds by summoning the Ambassador and belittling him publicly, and Turkey demands an unequivocal apology or it will break diplomatic relations tomorrow.

Turkey could be a major player in the liberation of Gaza. A Turkish NGO, but accompanied by many Turkish MPs, was on the Viva Palestina convoy, and it was the same Turkish NGO that procured the very expensive ferry that took the 200 vehicles to El Arish from Syria by sea after Egypt changed its mind at the last minute and sent the convoy back by this route. The Turks have a particular bee in their bonnet about Gaza, so the fact that the Government supported NGO have signed up to send two boats on the next FreeGaza voyage from Cyprus to Gaza is really exciting.

The Turkish boats will not be allowed to dock in Greek Cyprus because the G Cypriots do not recognise the breakaway Turkish sponsored state of North Cyprus. The EU has been trying to broker a peace deal, prior to the Greek part becoming part of the EU, but although the Turks voted overwhelmingly for it, the Greeks voted it down. As a result, only the Greek part was admitted to the EU.

So the Turkish boats will presumably travel separately and join at sea. The Cypriots, however, a small nation without much in the way of a Navy, are getting pissed off at the way that Israel has been stopping the FreeGaza boats, which their little government has invested a lot of time into. And as it stands, there is nothing to stop the Israelis arresting the whole flotilla of an expected six boats, just as they arrested or rammed various previous boats.

A Turkish Warship might stop them!

Turkey has a legitimate interest in this area and if a warship accompanied the boats, it would only be in accord with international law and the Geneva Conventions, which make it Israel's responsibility to allow the places they occupy to have a normal life, and failing which, anyone can legally run the blockade to relieve the humanitarian problems so created.

Turkey would be protecting its own merchant shipping, and would surely score Brownie points with G Cyprus for helping their boats too. As a major power in the area, Turkey cannot be simply overridden and ignored like Cyprus or even Greece - the flag of the last boat captured. The UK and US could hardly protest, since they proclaim a wish to lift the siege, and the reaction would be very interesting, to say the least.

Am I dreaming? Maybe, military brinkmanship can never be desirable, and responsible nations do not enter into it lightly - that's why we're so angry with Blair, who did. And the ISM, the ideology behind the FreeGaza group, are a non-violent movement that would prefer to sail to Gaza with a cargo of humanity so valuable that Israel dare not stop it without raising the wroth of the world. The ISM will work with everyone, but will not put itself under obligation to anyone, party or state. I doubt that FreeGaza will 'sign-up' to Turkish protection.

On the other hand, Israel is positively reckless in its military adventures, not just in its 'own' occupied territories, but in Lebanon, which it overflies daily, and in bombing Iran and Iraq and Syria; not to mention the assassination squads of which it is so proud, and which have killed many innocent people and snatched Vanunu (the man who told us about Israeli Nuclear Weapons) back from political Asylum in the UK and imprisoned him for life. And the world has so far failed to act even when hundreds of Europeans, including MPs, get attacked or arrested by Israel or by Egypt on their behalf. The UK Government failed to respond to MPs who asked that the Government protest to Israel when a British registered FreeGaza boat was rammed in what was clearly international waters. The impunity of the Israeli Military has to end, and I dare to hope that the present row over the content of Turkish television soaps may yet provide the Causus Belli for Turkey, already seething about the lack of substance in the condemnation of Israel over Gaza. Actually, there's a lot that can be done that's less than a warship.

With the next FreeGaza fleet scheduled to sail in the spring, I hope for interesting times.

A New Year

2010-01-01T14:05:00.007+02:00

A Happy, Productive and Successful New Year to:

This posting is about Abd Rabo Husein, of Yibna, Rafah, but before his story, can I say Congratulations to all who have travelled out to Gaza on the Viva Palestina Convoy, or with Code Pink direct to Egypt, or by themselves to El Arish. May you be successful in this new Year. All have been subject to arbitrary Egptian actions. Those on Egyptian soil have been arrested or attacked by riot police, whilst the Viva Palestina convoy has been forced to return to Syria and set off by boat for Gaza from there via El Arish in Egypt. They could have driven to Gaza from Aqaba after a short ferry crossing to Taba or Nuweiba in a few hours, but this would have meant travelling along the Israeli border on a road closed to foreigners. Why is it closed just to foreigners? Think Israeli security demands, and a supine, greedy Egyptian Government.

This ludicrous demand by the Egyptians means the boat will have to sail past Israel, and then on past Gaza to El Arish. It thrilled me to think that three boats, 200 vehicles, 500? people, would be sailing within 30 miles of Gaza Port, and a little leftwards turn would sail them directly to their destination. But the Egyptians have thought of that, and decreed that only vehicles will travel by sea. People must fly.

My heart goes out to all those people who have given up a large slice of their time to try and break the siege of Gaza, and they deserve respect and support. Many participants will be constrained by time, and will soon have to return for work or study, but signs that people are hardening their positions comes from hearing of those now in their 5th or 6th day of hunger strike in Cairo.

A key moment in breaking British resolve to stop unlimited immigration by Jews into Palestine after World War II came with the arrival of the ship Exodus, which was turned back from Haifa, and which Zionist Terrorists threatened to blow up with all its passengers if it wasn't allowed to land. The UK Government gave in to this threat by terrorists, and effectively, by giving in, gave Palestine into the Zionist control. This episode has been an important learning experience for Palestinian armed groups too.

Let us not threaten to blow up the boat, but must it travel without passengers at all? And must it go to El Arish instead of directly to Gaza? And must the British Government continue to be completely spineless where Palestine is concerned? The Old Man, below, is a timely reminder of British impact in Palestine:

His name is Abd Rabo Hussein and he was born and lived in Yibna, in what is now Israel. He worked for the British military at Lod airport - what is now known as Ben Gurion Airport. When the Exodus Immigrants, and all of the other immigrants decided at the point of a gun that Palestine would become Israel and that Israel had no room for Yibna which would be cleansed of Palestinians and annihilated, he was turned from a British Asset into a stateless refugee. His work for the British Military, which, as in modern Day Iraq, would have made him a target for Jewish Terrorists, cut no ice with the UK Government, who refused to help him in any way. He fled to Gaza where he was settled in a tent in Rafah Refugee Camp (Yibna Section). When the partition of Palestine, and subsequent land grab by Israel, did not produce the expected return of refugees, and when the UK Government, despite UN resolutions, did nothing to facilitate return, these tents became permanent houses, no bigger than the tent plot provided by the UN:

This is still the case today, and this is one such house, the house of a young family who we see in their kitchen with their only form of heating and cooking.

After the dust from the wars following partition cleared, Mr Hussein found himself in Egypt. He hadn't moved, of course, but Gaza became an Egyptian province. At that time, before the Suez nationalisation, there were British Military bases in Egypt, and Mr Hussein thought that would be a good place to work. The British thought so too, and he was employed for several years in the plating shop and as an electrician on a RAF base near the Suez canal.

Once again the British were not interested in his welfare, simply his work output, and once again they abandoned him to his hovel in Gaza. Once back in Gaza he set up a small workshop, since he was a skilled fitter, and found a small prosperity. But then, after the 1967 'Six Day War', he found himself back in Israel once more, again without moving.

Israeli occupation brought mixed fortunes to the inhabitants of Gaza. It humiliated them, made trade and commerce subject to extreme difficulty, often costing ten times more in bribes to Israeli authorities to move stuff out of or into Gaza via the Israeli port of Ashkelon, than the shipping costs from Ashkelon to, say, China. But unskilled labourers could find work on Israeli settlements at poverty wages compared to Israel, but above average compared to Gaza. But that would not help a skilled fitter like Mr Hussein, so he continued to work in his shop:

He continues to work there today, doing the same work as when the Israelis were there, after they left, and now that he finds himself under siege. He makes the little cookers that the young family have in the picture above, although he can only do this if you can give him the metal from scrap or somewhere, since the import of all metal is prohibited. Living close to the tunnels, as he does, is no help if you don't have the money to buy the goods that come that way.

All his life he has been a hard worker, a skilled fitter, a loyal servant of the British Crown, a deeply law-abiding citizen, a refugee in a place that has been three different countries, none of which is his home, because his home has been stolen, like his country, and eradicated, at least physically. Now he is subject to three governments (Hamas, Fatah/Israel, the UN) at the same time! He is nearly 90 years old. He has no pension, no country takes responsibility for him, and he must work until he dies, although because he lives in a UN refugee camp, he will at least get basic rations and some healthcare.

Whilst rich Israelis sue Germans and others in International courts for property that their families often sold to Nazis (but, as they say, under duress) some of those Israelis live on Land and in Houses they stole from this man and his compatriots, without shame, without guilt, without any empathy. Having a relative who was in a concentration camp or who fled from the Nazis has become a badge that descendants think entitles them to steal what they like. But mostly, they are the descendants, why do they think their Father's suffering should entitle them to privilege, when they give such little care to those whom they continue to kill themselves in the Ghetto of Gaza?

Abd Rabo Hussein is still alive, and he wants to go home. He still remembers his English friend Sgt Cowell, from the plating shop, and would like to contact him.

Hedy Epstein, victim of the Holocaust, is also alive, and her memories of the Holocaust have persuaded her to be on Hunger Strike in Cairo in support of Mr Abd and all the other refugees and besieged Palestinians. Special regard must be directed at those whose suffering leads them not to demand this and that from innocent third parties, but to empathy with those now in a similar position.

I wish them both well, and a happy, productive and above all successful new year, and I hope that Mr Hussein can join Ms Epstein in having grim memories, but that are only memories, of events that have finally ended.

Etiquette at the Rafah Border

2009-07-20T13:02:00.005+03:00

It looks like Viva Palestina has become a travel agency for adventurers who want to say that they have been to Gaza! It seems that they were let in without most of their aid (again). When will their leadership start doing something that helps Palestinians rather than helping the Israeli/Egyptian Axis to defuse the Anger in the West. People think the Convoy helps to break the siege, but, it is just collaborating with it!!

If you go to the West Bank, the 'rule' is not to take advantage of the invitation usually extended by the Israelis to foreigners to go to the front of the queue at checkpoints (AKA behaving like an Israeli), and to stay in line and wait with the Palestinians. It's called Solidarity, whereas queue jumping is called Arrogance.
What should the procedure be at the entry to Gaza? Make up your own mind: here's an extract from a posting by the FaceBook Group International Campaign to open the Rafah Border, who are camped at Rafah sometimes on hunger strike, trying to force open the gates:

" Elated at news of the arrival of the Viva Palestina convoy, many of these (Palestinian) families, exhausted and in debt, came today to try their luck at Rafah, hoping that the Egyptian police would be more lenient and that they might be able to get some help from members of the convoy.

But that was, unfortunately, not the case: for these families the day turned into a nightmare. They had arrived early in order not to miss the convoy, so they waited all day in the scorching sun. The first members of the convoy began to arrive around 2 pm in buses under heavy security.

Then the horror began: at this very moment, the Egyptian riot police set upon the Palestinian families them and began forcibly evacuating them. People were shouting, screaming, weeping—and the cops kept on beating them savagely.

We tried to slip into Rafah Gate in the midst of the confusion. We even succeeded, but were then dragged back out.

The scene we were witnessing was once again so shocking that Iman, furious, was shouting insults at Mubarak and his minions.

Laila got into one of the buses and called for the help of the members of the convoy, but they replied that there was nothing they could do. “We want to get into Gaza and we don’t want any trouble.”

A man in the bus called out, “I’m a Palestinian.” And one Palestinian woman, stuck in Egypt for many days couldn’t help saying to him, “Oh, fine, you’re a Palestinian from America and I’m a Palestinian from Gaza. You can get in and I am not even allowed to return to my home in Gaza.” By then the Egyptian police had arrived and they pulled Leila and this woman out of the bus.

No contact between Palestinians and foreigners. That has been the order of the day every day since we pitched our tents here at Rafah.

We can understand the attitude of the members of this impressive convoy, with its buses, refrigerator trucks and vans. It has been so difficult for them to get this far with half of their humanitarian aid(the other half was confiscated in Alexandria) that it was hard for them to jeopardize delivery of the remaining supplies by attempting to help the people they were watching being beaten up before their very eyes. They would have been heavily penalized—they would have been refused entry into Gaza.

How can one comprehend Egyptian policy? How can one understand these Egyptian policemen who viciously beat the Palestinians and treat them like sub-humans, like enemies? Why prevent the Palestinians from returning to their own homes? Who gives the orders? Why not tell them what procedures they need to follow? And, by the way, is there one? We have asked these questions countless times, and each time we got a different answer. "

After a Slow Start, The Pictures That I brought Back From Gaza Finally Become an Exhibition

2009-06-17T09:51:00.002+03:00

It is such a relief to have finally got something organised - and pretty damn good it is too. Thanks to Sally for some artistic input so we have an aesthetically appealing show, and thanks to Dr Joseph O'Neill for arranging some places for the Exhibition to be seen. More on this soon, but what do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=575N0JRzaIs

Hunger Strike at Rafah Border

2009-05-21T22:26:00.003+03:00

There is a hunger strike at the border by Doctors who have been refused entry to Gaza. Let us hear those Politicians who are capable of making noise, make a noise right now. There is no web-site that I can give you where you can get updates for yourself, but PSC UK (palestinecampaign.org) may carry information from time to time. The hunger strike began on May 19th. The doctors concerned were refused entry on May 16/17.

Those striking include five Britons, 3 Belgians, and a Greek. Further info from their colleague who has returned: david.shove@googlemail.com

If you wish to also write directly to the FCO, you could address your letter to Bill Rammell [Minister Foreign and Commonwealth Office <psrammellinfo@fco.gov.uk>] and/or David Miliband [Secretary of State- Foreign and Commonwealth Office private.office@fco.gov.uk], otherwise write to your MP or other power-broker.

This kind of action deserves and requires great publicity, so I suggest that everyone write letters to their newspapers, at least. This is mine:

Dear Sirs

As a regular reader of the Independent I am disappointed that I only found out about the hunger strike at Rafah by personal contacts, and not through your paper. As the idea of a newspaper does carry a notion that people might read it to find out news, could I ask you to cover, daily, the brave action, begun on May 19th, of these five British, 3 Belgian and I Greek persons? I think that reporting their progress is the least we can expect for people prepared to die for an ideal gaining nothing for their personal or national benefit. Even Gandhi did not do as much.

The Hunger strike is designed to force open the gates of Rafah at the border between Egypt and Gaza. The closure of the borders of Gaza by Israel, who also are the puppet-masters behind the Egyptian closure at Rafah, is illegal, and were the UN's forceful attitude to Israel about food delivery through the borders not keeping the Palestinians alive, it would be no less than mass murder. As it is, it is random murder of individuals unlucky enough to require the advanced services of these 8 doctors and 1 specialist nurse.

Rod Cox

Depression, Libel threats, home sweet home.

2009-04-27T14:26:00.007+03:00

It's now a week since I got off the plane from Egypt. I managed to avoid depression for only a couple of days, and now I'm fighting to stay positive. Even in Gaza, I was obviously aware of the impact the recession is having on our business, but I feel guilty about leaving my partner alone for so long. We foresaw this recession and thoroughly reorganised our business and our borrowing, adjusting the payment profile to give us a three year breathing space, but it's still a struggle, and we have had to sell assets just to pay the bank. Lucky that we have an asset to sell, but it is galling that my taxes are keeping alive the monster bank that we are also feeding with our interest payments that are way above base rate, and if we fail to feed it, it will have no hesitation in devouring us.

But, on top of that, as soon as I got off the plane, I got a distressing phone call from Frances who, entirely of her own volition, publicises this blog. She was extremely distressed and almost incoherent. My first re-action was to publicise the threat she had received, but I felt that I needed a statement from her, and she was far too upset to give one. I'm afraid that, together with other bad news, and the enormous task of organising the exhibitions of Art, which I have hardly got moving at all - really I need some volunteer assistance - the problem sent me into a paroxysm of doubt and inaction.

I really want to thank the small number of people who, knowing none of this, contacted me in support and asked me to keep writing now I'm back. Are you sure that you mean it?

A week later and Frances has finally felt confident enough to make a statement: she had been rung up by Kevin Ovenden (Galloway's 'Fixer'), and threatened with Libel. Not me: her. As a journalist, Frances is not used to being threatened, and is paralysed by the fear that Newspaper editors will shun her. But today, at last, she has made a brief statement about it, and, of course, we have Kevin's Answerphone message. So now I can write about it.

If there is a libel in my Blog, Kevin, then the correct addressee for your threats is me, no-one else. However, there is no libel, so I am expecting you to withdraw your threat to Frances, with good grace, immediately.

This is what happened on the convoy:

It was so badly organised that drivers were asked to drive dangerously long sections, little support was offered to them by the convoy leadership, with Mr Galloway declaring, on video, that he had no responsibility for the members, who should drop out if they couldn't keep up. Attempts to inform the leadership of gross errors in planning, such as the labelling of the journey from Bordeaux to Madrid as 200kms instead of 550kms, simply exposed the informant to abuse.

The convoy continued in a state of fear and abuse. Persons who disagreed with the leadership were threatened with removal whilst racist and violent incidents went unremarked. There was a campaign against reporting which was certainly not hindered by any action by the leadership. Information from the leadership to the drivers was sparse and uninformative. The political situation was never spelt out, or discussed, leading to a considerable degree of paranoia; and frequent route changes forced on host countries by the leadership in countries both friendly and hostile meant that no-one was ever aware of our true status or realistically could grasp our situation. For many convoy drivers the trip was a surreal blur of adulation by the public and tight police control which was never explained or even discussed.

All, of this, though is small beer compared to what was achieved in the end, and everyone must make up their own mind on this. George - not Kevin Ovenden - is a hero in Palestine, of that there is no doubt, and he has brought some attention to the issue of the border at Rafah. However the opportunity missed is greater than the gain, in my opinion.

The Egyptian political rallies which we were almost compelled to attend, assured us that we would be ushered through the Rafah border at 12 noon on the Sunday. There was no talk of any conditions, and no argument from George, and so the convoy drove on believing that we had negotiated the ending of the siege.

Convoy members pay great attention to a speech given by the Egyptian Ruling Party

In El Arish, however, the Libyans, who plainly did have an idea of what was going on, started a riot, which the convoy buckaroos, fed up of being treated like aliens, were only too happy to re-inforce. The violence was not considerable, but the Egyptian Police did not hesitate to get revenge by 'allowing' youths to attack the convoy with bricks. Most people in the convoy thought that they were fighting simply for the right to travel as a whole, rather than in groups, but the Libyans were fighting for the basic right to take aid through Rafah, which most UK drivers thought George had achieved.

George at this time was at the Rafah border, unaware of the explosion that had happened behind him. He came back and found the convoy in belligerent mood, surrounded by Egyptian riot police, in a large scale stand-off. He had almost 250 vehicles, including 3000 tonnes of Libyan aid, and possibly 500 people, if we include those who arrived from the UK by plane, and at least 150 Libyans, as well as the convoy's core 250 souls. These were his negotiating tools. The convoy would have sat there for ever, I believe, if that is what it took to get the gates open. But perhaps others had a schedule to keep to, so it was only a matter of an hour or so before George was back telling us that we must unload the aid, agree to donate the vehicles or not cross through Rafah with them, and agree to leave Egypt directly after leaving Gaza. This, he told us, was an improvement on the previous arrangement, and the best that he could achieve. He had been assured that the aid would be delivered by the Red Crescent through the Israeli Controlled crossing immediately. But of course, it wasn't, and isn't.

In other words, he negotiated that there be no change to the conditions applying at Rafah, except that our vehicles be allowed in one way. Great publicity for us, but no long term use at all. Crucially, All our non-medical aid was still under the control of Israel, the deal was done without threatening agreements with Israel, and still no exports of any kind are to be allowed.

What exactly did we achieve, Kevin? We threw away a large and belligerent opposition to the closure, sacrificing it to political expediency and a quick headline. The world's press were waiting for us in Gaza, and hurriedly made their way to El Arish as well. This would have been the perfect moment to spell out that our demand was for an unconditional opening of the border.

My Friend Syfian points to the tent on the house where Sheikh Nizar Rayan, and 11 innocents including 7 children were killed by a one tonne bomb. Hamas 'hardliner' Rayan had for three years previously led the campaign to non violently resist Israeli house bombings by sitting on roof tops of threatened homes.

But we blew it, and meekly accepted the status quo, with a special dispensation for us to go through, and then to meekly leave the country. So what were the conditions that were in force BEFORE you negotiated such improved terms with the Governor as a result of the demonstration, George?

A minor inconvenience of your agreement, was that when I left I was compelled to travel with the transitting Palestinians. This was as a direct result of your agreement, and if you wish to sue me for Libel, i will welcome the opportunity to spell it out in Court. I didn't mind travelling with Palestinians, and their conditions were an eye-opener, but i would not have been under escort if it were not for your agreement. And my van! Of course, cars are not allowed out of Gaza under any circumstances, but I went there to fight such rules. However, I could not fight the Galloway Rule. I was not being detained by the evil will of Israel, nor of Egypt, but by an agreement made by Galloway. When i asked why only the part of the Galloway agreement that prevented me from doing things was being implemented, and why the aid was not being delivered that had also been agreed, they simply said that the agreement made was subject to Israeli control, and that was always part of the agreement.

There are other groups massing to fight this closure. I hope that they sit on the border until the gates are open without conditions. And when you come along in July, George, just make sure that you don't undermine them by negotiating an end to their actions for your own benefit.

Home

2009-04-22T18:36:00.005+03:00

I arrived at the Gaza exit point at Rafah on sunday am with Van. Calls through the British Embassy and to Egypt made it plain that the Van would not be allowed to leave because of the 'Galloway Agreement', so in the pm made the decision to store the van, travel to UK, where I need to get this exhibition thing moving, and 'wipe out' this Galloway Agreement that's been hanging over my exit, and which the Egyptians are so keen to enforce.

It's good to see that they can keep agreements, and set such store by them, but I hope that future convoys do not sell out the principle of getting the gates open IN PRINCIPLE, for the quick political gain of the media coverage of getting in now. FreeGaza boats, for instance, haven't said that in return for being allowed access to Gaza they will agree to sell out the rights of others to cross the border and travel by sea. They demand unreservedly open sea access, and I urge everyone who travels to Rafah, to also settle for nothing less.

I remember discussing with my convoy group in Libya, whether or not , and for how long, we would camp on the border. The answer was not universal, but generally we were committed to a long stay. My perception is that most people feel that, after a long build up on the journey, they were rushed in and out of Gaza, achieving little personally, and certainly the situation on the border hasn't changed in the slightest: for aid, all of which, despite assurances to the contrary, is still rotting in El Arish; for Palestinians, most of whom cannot pass, or can pass with difficulty - see below; and for exports, which are simply not allowed. Pity that the Egyptians only want to keep the parts of agreements that don't involve doing nice things to Palestinians.

Worse, the British Public believe that George Galloway HAS achieved something, so there is less need to think about Palestine. But this is a long long struggle, full of sellouts and political opportunism, and we must be ready to recognise it. We all want a saviour, a hero, but really they don't exist; there are plenty willing to wear the robes, though, for the celebrity. Lets make sure that when we have a smidgeon of power we don't cash it in by signing away everyone else's rights. The struggle is to Free Palestine, not enslave it.

So, I arrived again on foot on Monday Morning, was processed with a friendly cup of coffee, and put on the bus to Egypt. This bus only travels about 500 metres, but you must be on it, you cannot walk. The bus took 12 hours to cover this 500 metres the day before, during which time everyone got on and off several times, scrambling to get back on when it moved forward 100 meters, then getting off again to sit in exactly the same place as before, or walk back to the departure lounge to use the toilet.

On the Monday we got through to Egypt at an early 3pm, only 5 hours after arrival. The delay is caused by the Egyptians, who call through the buses when they want them.

On arrival we fill out visa applications, and our passports are taken away for processing. I am, as expected, interviewed by the police who explain that the Galloway agreement is that Convoy members will only be allowed to enter Egypt under police supervision, leave Egypt directly on departure, either through Libya if taking back their car, or through Cairo Airport. No other routes will be permitted. However, if I leave Egypt, having complied with this rule, that ends, and if I come again, it will be under the same rules as any ordinary person.

So I meet someone who entered Gaza by boat, and the Egyptians have no Galloway rule for them, so they are given their passport and told they are free to travel under their own steam, but I am sent to the transit point, which is the Departures lounge, now closed for the day, where my passport is retained and I am made to wait with an increasing number of Palestinians, more than 150 in the end. Departing members of the convoy will have had similar treatment on departure, except that, because of the larger numbers, I feel sure they will have had a pleasant ride in a reasonable time to a comfortable transit lounge in the airport. Because I am the last of the convoy, travelling alone, I will be transitted with the Palestinians.

They, many having been down this route before, tell me that we will be put on buses, taken under police escort to Cairo airport and deported - sorry, transitted to our country of destination. All, or nearly all, Palestinians seem to be treated this way. Most of my group are travelling to Saudi where they used to work, until the border was sealed. now after several attempts by most of them, they are being allowed to go back there, but the Egyptians have not, and seemingly will not, grant them visas for Egypt, so they have to travel by escorted transit, which is, to be fair, a not uncommon procedure, and is one that I have certainly experienced widely.

If you are carrying goods, or are just a citizen who the authorities are worried about, then you are escorted by police through to the next border. It happened to me in Cyprus when I was young, where I was released into the country, but had to report to the Authorities every day. In Syria, where lorry convoys are escorted from campsite to campsite by police to stop contraband, and elsewhere, including Europe, and of course, the extremely luxurious transit arrangements made for the convoy as it travelled without any customs papers through the countries of North Africa. The convoy paid little, but it is normal to charge the costs of the service, and reasonable to do so. Any passenger travelling through the UK, changing planes at say Heathrow, is held in a secure transit area from which they cannot access the UK, but can get to their flight gate. While waiting, they have a choice of coffee shops and other services, including airline desks and the internet, telephone and toilets that they can use.

I want to make it clear that Cairo does have a secure transit Lounge that is up to International Standards, and when I eventually saw it, had a wide range of internationals in it.

So I was not unduly concerned about being in the transit buses, although the enormous waits and makeshift conditions were less than perfect - but hey! we were moving. So my free friend went off in her Taxi to a destination that she had not yet decided, despite her 'illegal' entry to Gaza, whilst I moved to the transit lounge at about 7pm, after only three hours waiting! A further 5 hours or so lolling about there saw us being loaded up in to the buses which were not totally uncomfortable, and a further 4 hours on the parked bus, about 3 or 4 am found us begin slowly moving towards Cairo. Daylight found us stopping for half an hour at a cafe, the first opportunity to buy food other than sweets since entering the whole system, and the first opportunity to use the toilet in about 8 hours, and then onward to Cairo Airport where we arrived at 10 am or so. We were then processed through passport control twice, making a total of perhaps six times on the journey, and were led outside the terminal building to our Transit Lounge.

I think the Palestinians were not expecting me to be taken there with them, and when I arrived, I was warmly welcomed and given scraps of bread and cheese which people had saved from their journeys. People told me, partly with satisfaction that a Westerner was experiencing their plight, at last, and partly with a sense of concern for my delicate constitution, that NOW, I could understand the Palestinian condition!

The collection of rooms was a maximum of 13 metres by 27 metres, but this was divided into rooms in haphazard fashion, some of which were locked and a large one of which was a toilet and shower room, the only one. The only windows were the double entrance doors, at the end of a corridor leading into the complex. The ceiling was low, about 8 feet, although there did at least seem to be some ventilation. There was no facility for rubbish disposal, and internally, the rooms were entirely unsupervised, so that any intimidation or racketeering could not have been controlled.

Our buses deposited about 150 people into this space, but it was not empty when we arrived, there were people there who had spent days, and one man claimed a month, though I could not verify it. These long termers had staked out scraps of prayer mats as beds on the dirty stone flagged floor, and sat there guarding their spaces. I took a couple of photos, but was warned against it. But here they are.

The problem for the Saudi workers was that they had expired visas, and no-one has political representation in Gaza (except the UK!), so to get a new visa, Palestinians must travel to the embassy in Cairo!!!! They cannot get into Egypt to do this however, without convincing the Egyptian authorities that they will, indeed get one, so they have to get a pre-visa pass authorised by the Palestinian representation in Cairo and passed to the Egyptians, and then keep turning up at the Rafah crossing until, magically, one day their name is on a list. When they get to Cairo, they are kept in this dungeon until the Palestinian representative meets them gets some paperwork, takes it the Saudi Embassy, and then returns it to them, usually two days later. But even when you get the visa, or work permit, or if you already have it, you must still stay in the hole until it is time for your flight.

In my group there was one American citizen, and apart from me, two British subjects, but no-one took any notice of them! Why?, because they were joint Palestine nationals, and thus 'Palestinians' as far as the Egyptians are concerned. The Brits contacted the Embassy, and were actually allowed to sit outside the dungeon in the sun 'because they had a small child', although I noticed that other mothers with small children did not manage to achieve this, so maybe being British does have its use. They had already booked a flight - for Sunday, five days time, and they were to be detained until then. I asked why they booked so far ahead, and they answered that they had no idea how long their processing would be, and indeed, it had taken three days already, so taking a gamble on an earlier flight would have been foolhardy. They had rung the Embassy to try and get the flight re-arranged, but were not being allowed to go to the real transit lounge to do it by themselves. This means that they were under arrest, as far as I can see, by any meaningful definition.

I do not know by what rules a married couple with a child of 2 can be detained in a mixed sex prison for five days without beds, separate bathing, child facilities, rubbish disposal, daylight, privacy, or even food, unless they can afford the inflated prices charged by the runner who goes to the local cafe and brings food back. They are under arrest, not in any sense in transit, and their only crime, as usual, is that they are Palestinian -(even if they are British as well)

One of the things that you can do in Transit is buy a ticket. But you cannot do this in The Palestine Palace. There the guards say simply - when your flight is due we will tell you. Persistence identified that for London flights departed at 8am (and they simply would not entertain any other destination, not Manchester, not anywhere in Europe, although this, I think was due to the intellectual limitations of my Captor) . So I was detained until tomorrow, then!

I have a small support network outwith Egypt, and I decided to phone and check for flights. First, I needed to charge my phone, which had not seen a mains socket for about 30 hours, and had been roundly abused in that time. I identified three working electric sockets in the dungeon, and they were all occupied. It was clear that this was the sort of situation where gangsterism can grow, but I managed to get into a queue and get about 15 minutes before being levered away, and so I was able to discover that there was a flight at 1630.

This timing was similar to the Damascus flight for which there was a small band of takers, so we were all taken under the supervision of a single policeman, to the real transit lounge. Getting my ticket was an interesting experience, but the main point was that I had no freedom of action. Sit here, stand there, bags here, go there, that's the flight and price, take it or leave it and go back to prison.

I was very sorry to leave my acquaintances there:

Ali, the American citizen with an open ticket to Dallas, who had had to wait months for permission from the Egyptians to leave Gaza. The American Emabassy had efused to co-ordinate his exit throough Rafah, insisting that he go through Israel. He agreed and duly filled out an application for a crossing through Erez, he received an acknowledgement from the embassy that they were processing it, but in five months he had heard nothing else, so had made his own way to Rafah; Sahal, who had been working in Saudi for 30 years and who had not been able to make his annual visit to his parents and family in Gaza for two years before he gave up everything to go back nine months ago, for his daughter's wedding and because his father was 90. He realised that he risked never going back, and indeed his return was after a gap of nine months, and three attempts at the border; and Mahmoud, also a Saudi worker, also waiting for his renewed visa from the Saudia embassy, and the man in charge of the battered fragments of Bread and cheese that I was regaled with on arrival.

These men, sat disconsolately in a shallow side corridor, on their scraps of carpet, because they had staked out these quieter spots the day before. Along the end of the wall was a row of 'lifers', the long term residents who had been there for up to a month. One of these men had a family, the woman staying in a side room that had become women only, and joining him only when someone got some food. They had a girl of about 10 who carried things between them with a skip in her step.

These long termers had the deep recesses and the new arrivals congregated around the entrance, where there was light, and also police. It was there I met the man in the camel hair coat, going to Dubai, who said 'Fuck hamas, if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have to go through all this shit' which is both true and false at the same time, and for the people there a popular complaint. 'Abu Mazen pays our salaries and there was no problem when he was in charge' is simply false, of course, but those few interested in the English language debate seemed supportive. I tried to suggest to the man that the streets were safe in Gaza now, but then I realised that he didn't want to debate with me, he wanted to paint me as a Hamas apologist, and he was doing this in a loud voice. Why?

People saw me taking photographs and measuring the size of the room, and some at least rallied round and helped. All asked that I 'Tell the World About this", while many more were resigned and weary, but at least looked with a flutter of interest. He was trying to discredit me in front of these people.

Actually, it wasn't the first time that I had met him. He was at Rafah too, but each time near the soldiers, as he was here. Perhaps he was trying to ingratiate himself with the soldiers to get a cushy ride, perhaps he was an agent provocateur, but I told him that I couldn't talk to him anymore when he said 'Fuck Gaza, it's finished, I'm going to Dubai". Dangerous pressure cookers, prisons, especially if you have to live there for a month.

TELL THE WORLD ABOUT THIS. You know, I don't believe that at the time of the worst persecutions of Jews in Russia they were treated any worse than Palestinians are today. Perhaps we should have a declaration that to end the suffering of the Palestinians, we will give them a homeland in Palestine.

Wider implications

2009-04-21T18:32:00.002+03:00

Received a message from the International movement to open the Rafah border. They commented:

'What is shocking, it is the way Egyptian authorities are dealing with Palestinians.Maybe Rod has been only a witness of this racist attitude towards Palestinians by the egyptian collaborators'.

Posted in Rod's absence by Frances Laing.

Rod believed to be on the way to London

2009-04-21T18:32:00.000+03:00

Latest word. 19.10 p.m GMT. Rod believed to be on his way to London. I feel it is important to keep an eye on this, even as he crosses the border to Britain.
Many thanks to all those in support.
Posted by Frances Laing (in Rod's absence).

DETAINED IN EGYPT

2009-04-21T13:53:00.003+03:00

Here is a transcript of a text received from Rod in Cairo. Please protest strongly to the Egyptian embassy & your MP .

4 buses of Palestinians left Rafah last night at 4am including 3 British citizens. We have been closely escorted by police to Cairo airport & our passports retained. We have not been allowed to buy airline tickets and have been taken to an underground storeroom where more than 150 people, including women & children are held in rooms about 300sq m. There is only one set of toilets between sexes and there are no windows. I havebeen told not to take photos. The reason that I am here is because of George Galloway's agreement with Egypt. There is no doubt that this room is below Red Cross standards for detention, but no-one here is a prisoner, they are simply transit passengers.

Leaving Tomorrow (Inshallah)

2009-04-19T00:44:00.006+03:00

Just a quick post before I go to bed, completely ignoring the packing that I haven't done despite plans over three days. Must leave in the am at 10, film half finished, my voice over star won't be in the UK of course, so !/1/?

Had 'final' meetings with senior Education Ministry Staff, anxious to make sure that I don't forget that they need 5000 computers (can be done for £250,000,peanuts, really), and wish to see me again with Portakabins for overflow schools which can be wedged into small spaces. You'll already know that most schools here, in the state sector, operate in two shifts, each one rammed full, class ratios being anything over forty:one, but most normally nearer to fifty. Well, we'll set up an appeal, and we'll think about transport. Anybody on the convoy want to share some of this workload? You can't take computers in through Rafah in the current rules, but......

As regards my first priority, the Art Van Exhibition Tour, I have posted a video of the first school that I worked with, including a rather pompous speech by me, but with a few nice pictures, mostly by girls not personally affected by deaths from the Israeli Attack. You'll find it in the right hand side bar, scroll down to it. It's the film at the top, at the date of posting. Or go to my channel THETRUTHOFPALESTINE on Youtube, and watch 'Art'.

See you all in Blighty, and I actually might have more time to write this blog, catching up on all the things that I meant to say about Gaza, but never got round too.

On the other hand, I could be back in my hotel with a sakhlab, (or some similar name) a nourishing milk and nuts drink that I can't begin to describe, but could devote a lot a waiting time to trying.

This is the Young Press Club. These beautifully turned out young girls interview edit and publish video, radio and press pieces, under the supervision of Ghassan, the man on the right. The back row from the left is The man in charge of the British Council, Me, The British Consul. The club operate out of premises near Tal Al Howa, where there was a major incursion of tanks, and cold blooded murder, and many of them come from there. In fact the four girls on the left of the front row are all the victims of multiple murder, of which they are the sole survivors (well two are sisters). Although I suspect that they are like swans, serene on top but paddling madly underneath, their composure is remarkable just three months after such a huge trauma.

We'll be hearing more about them, and about the others that I haven't had time or organisation to write about, I promise.

There was a suggestion that the British Government actually supported this project, but they don't. I asked Ghassan whether he thought that his project was the best way they could spend their money to improve the psychological health of the kids. He said that the best way to improve the health of kids in Gaza was to disarm Israel. Everything else is just shuffling chairs on the Titanic.

Time to come Home, if permitted

2009-04-18T02:28:00.005+03:00

Time for me to start trying hard to come home. Blog site improving, new website creaking into action, now I need to get home and fulfill the promises that I made to get an Art Exhibition together. I'm aiming to leave on the 19th, Sunday, so if you an write to the Egyptian Embassy, which will be open on Sunday, I should be very Grateful. More details of the Art Project Below:

Egyptian Embassy Address in London: emb_london@mfa.gov.eg

So much still to do here, although mixed with feelings that I have already stayed too long. Couple of good friends, a couple of rather more dodgy people working their passage in the living off the fund-raising game. So much needed, but so much wasted, Some interesting statistics about international aid, 'shortly' to be administered in an integrated database of UNRWA, World Bank, EU and government aid, as a preparation for taking it out of the Donors hands and putting into a unified government, were there such a thing. Another Tony Blair project already 2 years late, because the underlying agenda of this perfectly sensible move, is to further isolate Hamas.

About 77% of aid recipients are in Gaza, 23% in The West Bank, and in Gaza the estimate is that 80% live below the NIS2000 (Shekels) a month line. That's about £400, and rent for an apartment might be £200pm for one or two bedrooms. The poverty line is for a family of six, and the statistic for births seem to be 6.85 children per family.

Asked why the birthrate is so high, some Palestinians say what I said in my last Blog, that it is their weapon to defeat the Israelis demographically, but others talk more resignedly about the need to replace those killed in the wars and attacks.

In a tough school where I was working the other day a boy said, when I asked him how he felt at the death of his three brothers in separate attacks by the Israelis, he said that he felt proud. Pressed further, he said that he felt sad for less than a week, then proud that he came from a family with three Martyrs. Remember that these boys weren't fighters, just children killed at random. But I would be surprised if the boy and his like minded friends weren't prepared to give themselves up for the glory of the cause. To Paraphrase Golda Meir, I don't hate the Israelis for making them kill their sons, but for making the Palestinians kill themselves.

So back to the exhibition. I need a set of display boards to put in the van, a couple of those small in car DVD players to interpret the paintings, a large Screen or projector to show a film or two, a computer, diesel, volunteers, and offers to arrange town centre sites starting in June. Schools as well, even earlier than that.

Oh and who has time to give to help with these arrangements?

That's why I'm coming back to the UK if humanly possible, if the Egyptians will allow the Van through. I can't rely on others to help gratis, and I already over stretch my support group. But if there are kindly, organised souls, or people who can drive half the night and still be nice to people and talk intelligently about pictures to people, (after going through it first), then I would love to hear from you.

The Painted Pea is a sensation at the Islamic University. The students stuck on a picture of West Bank President Mahmoud Abbas with a beard and spectacles added.

We have a donate button coming on the site too, at the side and my email, linked to our half built website is rod@cape.uk.net.

The plan is to drive around the UK setting up (with permission) in the town square, using the graffitied van as the eyecatcher, and then drawing people into a tent (Wet) or encirclement of display where they can look, watch those explanatory videos, and the films like Awni Al Heteni, and ask questions above all. We will try to cash in the interest by getting an email and asking them to sign a petition, or just a visitor's book for support, which we can show to subsequent funders.

We can start anywhere, so if you would like us to come, just tell us. If you want me to speak at a meeting, I'm happy to do that, but would ask you to try and go the extra mile and organise permission for us in the town square or a schools talk or both, on the same day. (Which means schools in the AM.

Just to remind everyone of the trauma that we are trying to bring out from the kids, here is a picture of the evacuation of Al Quds Hospital, shelled by phosphorus tank shells, according to the eyewitnesses I talked to; followed by a picture of a school being shelled.

Fight or Flight, You'll still end in Jail: Breeding Resistance

2009-04-13T03:25:00.004+03:00

Yesterday - because it's now 3.30 am - I interviewed an old friend of mine for the third or fourth time. He was a commander in Fatah in the resistance before Oslo, from around 1972 to 4. He was 20 when appointed, and a student at University. He was tasked with setting up a new resistance group in Gaza, which at its peak was almost 100 men. Until his arrest, he says that he never lost a single man. Their tactics were to go to a scene, throw a grenade at the soldiers and leave. He says their success rate was high and contributed to the feeling that Gaza was ungovernable that still pervades Israeli thinking today. Secrecy was paramount, and the Soldiers operated in closed cells of 3, communicating by dead letter drops and the like. None of them had ever seen the commander, knowingly, although he had seen them.

A child's portrait of a modern - Hamas - resistance fighter.

All went well until one cell, without permission, shot someone in the legs as an informer. Cutting a long story short, they made a mistake, and he went to visit the man to ascertain the facts, and subsequently Fatah distributed a leaflet locally exonerating the man and proclaiming their great regret.

The Israelis immediately arrested the innocent man, since there was now evidence that he had communicated with a known Fatah operative, and he was sentenced to two years.

The leadership in Beirut then sent a man to investigate, he was arrested, and he had a list of names which my contact says he was too cowardly not to give out under torture. My friend got 12 years, serving six and a half, and when he met the wronged man in Jail, he was told by that man that he had an ugly face, and that seeing it was not worth the 2 years that he got, and he was never to show it to him again.

After release he became close to Arafat, but fell out with him over Arafat's acceptance of growing corruption in Gaza. Nevertheless, it is instructive to know that as a senior figure in Fatah, he made high level diplomatic contacts around the world. His violent background was no bar to life at the highest level. I asked him how he dealt with the Russian Mafia whilst doing business there. He said that all his life Palestinians were unfairly labelled as violent terrorists, but when dealing with the Mafia, it was a positive asset. Letting people know that he actually was a commander in the PLO made people anxious to befriend him, rather than fight him. Perhaps the only recorded useful use of a notorious reputation.

My contact then went on to tell me about all the Israeli leaders he had contacts with, and their shortcomings. He has met almost all of them.

"If they were not all on trial for corruption, I could have given the court the evidence myself. They are greedy and trust no-one. They will never succeed", he said, "because they do not even like themselves, they can never make relationships with anyone else. They will never make peace, and they will be abandoned by America, and they will become irrelevant to the world. "Before this last war I thought that it was possible to do business with them, but not now. They are very weak and small men, without any sense of duty.

"Many think that they control America, but they do not. America thinks that they will police the Middle East, but America has had to come and do the job itself. Why employ a dog and bark yourself? If America has to take control of the region, then why does it need Israel? And look at the cost. 30 more years, they will be finished.

"During the war, they did not make war on Hamas. Hamas lost less than 100 fighters, it is nothing. Israel made war on everyone, on farmers who have nothing, on people who have no fault except to be Palestinian. They wanted the people to be afraid and turn against Hamas, but they have shown everyone that Israel does not care for Palestine, and that resistance is the only way, and also that Israel cannot win. They have strengthened Hamas", said this Fatah Warlord. Don't bet that he won't come out of retirement either.

After he left, I went to get some Chicken Kebabs -mmm. There was, as there always is, someone who wanted to practice his English, but this man was different, he had lived for many years in the USA and spoke good English. He told me that he supported no political party, a common view, and that he would leave Gaza as soon as he could, if it were possible.

In America, where he had gone to study, but dropped out and opened a supermarket instead, he was very successful, and obviously enjoyed his life, though not smoking, drinking or chasing girls meant that he had lots of time for work. His rationale was that he wanted to leave his unborn Children better placed than he, and he was happy to work not for himself, but for the future. As an illegal immigrant, he was always vulnerable, but it was the aftermath of 9/11 that prompted a neighbour, jealous of his success, says my waiter, to report him to the authorities, where he was held for almost 4 years, no trial, of course, before deportation could be arranged to Jordan. The Americans couldn't deport him to Gaza, because, of course, they regard it as a terrorist place from which people can legitimately claim asylum. My acquaintance with this man was brief, but he was no fighter, no Al Qaida mastermind, just a dogged, persistent working man trying to make a way in the world, a piece of flotsam on life's political currents, and now earning 40 shekels a day, instead of hundreds of dollars a week. No hope, no future, ambition crushed into a container, a man whose life was wrecked by the Neo-Con wind of change in the USA. They wouldn't give him Asylum, and now he is one more festering hater of all that is US/Israel domination.

One of these men has let life toss him around like a leaf, while the other, used his time even in jail to learn English, Hebrew, and Philosophy, and has bent life to his will. Both find themselves trapped inside a Zoo, with no end in sight to their humiliation. Both have served prison terms just for being Gazan. One proud man for resisting the humiliation heaped on him. The other, for running away from the humiliation that he couldn't live with.

What do you expect of them, O Mighty Israel, O mighty America? You have locked them in a Zoo and given them no hope of ever opening the gate? They cannot live here and they cannot leave. They can only die, and when they don't die fast enough you try to speed it up with a war.

You know without asking that if I'm speaking to a young girl it's because her leg was broken by an F16's rocket: the same rocket that killed all the rest of her family. What you don't know is how I despise myself for accepting that it's normal, or that the girl asked me to sit with her because one of her friends had been interviewed by me previously, and she is so desperate to give a meaning to her life by letting people know about it. The other girls are the young press, schoolkid reporters (all Girls - boys are so much harder to involve), and they interviewed her instead.

But this is why the average Family size in Palestine is about 8 children, because the wastage is so high. And this is why it is illegal for an Israeli Palestinian to marry outside Israel, because it would create more little Israeli Palestinians, and speed up the already growing disproportion in the Arab birthrate, compared to the Jewish. A large Arab population ends all hope of israel being both exclusively Jewish, and also Democratic. Arabs aren't going to vote to be second class citizens.

i have often said that the Palestinian's best weapon is their tears, certainly in winning over the west, but Palestinians know that they can never rely on others to win their fight, and for themselves, and in this war of attrition against the Israelis, the Palestinians best weapon is breeding - not just children, but dignity. Even though the Israelis have given them no choice but death, they have still chosen life:

Have a look at this video, and go to bed with a smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywDUjsysE-g

Red Crescent, Aid Delivery, Lions in Zoos

2009-04-11T14:29:00.006+03:00

Sometimes there is so much to talk about that I am daunted to even begin. Since last putting anything on the web, I have visited four more schools and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Red Crescent and met so many people that I can't juggle them all. Staying in the hotel with us for the last few days has been a delegation from France, on a private visit, they stress, to investigate war crimes. The specialist in weaponry I interviewed, but I'm not allowed to talk about it for a few days until I'm given clearance. I shared my breakfast table with several tough looking guys from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the interior having secretive conferences with them.

However, regular readers may remember that I have shown children's pictures of bodies lying with dismembered limbs. Well, it turns out that Israel are using weapons - they are called anti-personnel weapons - that deliberately target people and not buildings. They are quite capable of blowing limbs apart, even if you are not at the epi-centre of the blast. They are specifically designed to kill people and leave buildings untouched, they are relatively experimental and they are being tested in Gaza. Some folk here think that the reason the Western powers allow Israel to continue to keep Palestinians in a Zoo and shoot them through the bars will-nilly is because of the research value of these tests. I don't know about this, but I know that the Israeli generals are sick fuckers.

I moved on to interview the Palestine Red Crescent. Earlier in my blog I uploaded a picture of a building saying that I was not sure if it was associated with the Red Crescent Building next door. Well it was the Hospital. the Israelis shelled it for three days, without warning and without allowing evacuation, which, each night, had to take place under fire. The spokesman pointed out that there had been a picture on National TV Stations of a sniper firing at the evacuees. Some of the British Fee Gaza Workers here were working in the Hospital at the time, and helped with this. More about this later, too.

Here's the second part of an interview I did with the red crescent, talking about where the aid from the convoy is, and making some more general points. :

Play

The first part will be a challenge to edit to 10 minutes, dealing with the fundamental right in law of Red Cross/Crescent organisations to immunity from fire, and also dealing with the three days of shelling that they got from the Israelis despite that, and the evacuations under fire, and the fact that some UK nationals were here all through the assault working in the hospital and such. This blog is being altered to make links to them more prominent, but here they are for now: http://talestotell.wordpress.com This Blogger is currently upstaging me by being the first to report on an exhibition of Art in the Red Crescent Hospital. WWW.Fishingunderfire.com, and www.farmingunderfire.com deal with the continuing firing of rockets from land and from sea by the Israeli navy and army. Do not listen to anyone who tries to tell you that the Israelis don't fire rockets at civilians. However, it is nice to be free of the supersonic bangs made at just a few feet in height, that the locals say are just designed to frighten and intimidate, that flyovers from Israeli Jets used to make.

Before the Red Crescent I went to the Palestine Human Rights Centre, and reported to the Administrator. He had asked me to review a couple of things on the web-site and I realised that there is not a single mention of Bulldozers in the entire site, as far as I could judge.

Yet the use of Bulldozers is widespread and lethal. These machines are not like those you see on construction sites in the UK, they are taller than many houses, fully armoured and have machine guns fitted to them. They are almost all made by Caterpillar, the PCHR confirmed, and these are finished in the UK and other European Countries, notably France. The Armour is attached by Israel, and that allows Caterpillar to say that it is not exporting war machinery. However, the offence is the same whether you do it or knowingly - and they can't say they don't know - allow others to do it. Their use in the front line is forbidden by EU regulations. Yet still the EU is considering upgrading the EU-Israel trade agreement! Yesterday I read that NATO countries have agreed to send ships to police the Mediterranean coast to prevent arms reaching Hamas. For the love of Humanity, are these people blind, deaf and Heartless? I really hope that the use of a NATO force will allow the Gazans to trade, keeping the Israeli navy away, and imposing a considered programme of policing. But the talk is just about destroying Hamas, not feeding people.

The lions' enclosure in Gaza Zoo, after 7 F16 strikes. The 2 lions cannot now leave their 7X8m cage, because the paddock can't be repaired; tubing is banned in the siege.

In a zoo, Children who poke sticks through the cage are told off, but not killed. But if the animals were to be able to, say reach through and attack a passer by through the bars, and they did this to the child who was poking them, then the animal would be killed. If the animal missed, then the public would demand that a stronger fence be put up to protect them from these dangerous animals. Anyone who said that they were friends with the, say, Lions in the cage, and could get into the cage and have a roll about in the straw with them as we have all seen on TV, would be regarded as special, admired for living with danger, but it would never change our vew that the animals were dangerous, and that they must be prevented at all costs from reaching humans and killing them. The point is that no matter what the humans do, they will only be told off, but it does not seem disproportionate to us that the animals be killed for even the slightest misdemeanor. And that is because they are not humans, and are not given Human Rights.

This is the narrative that dominates for the Palestinians, for most Israelis, and probably for most people. Just like in a Zoo, it is alright for the Zoo Keepers to have more and more sophisticated ways of keeping control while some old fashioned folk say that you can do it better with kindness, but no one will let the animals out of their cage, it is never discussed. That is what life, and the future holds for Palestinians. What is the best way to keep them in their cages. Netanyahu says that constantly punishing them, killing them, and better still, transferring them to a zoo elsewhere is the answer. Tzipi Livni says that they should have autonomy in a state of the leftovers from Israel, but will not allow them, ever, to control their own foreign affairs, for instance. Actually, it is not clear that she would ever actually allow them a state, either, but it is the Israeli way to have a good cop and a bad cop so that the West have someone they can like, and someone they can 'rein in'

This all misses the point. Palestinians must be entirely free. Free to bear arms if they like, free to have a state with an army, free to like and to dislike who they like. They must have the same rights as you and me, and that means the right to defend themselves. There will never be peace until they get it.

Israel, on the other hand, must learn that just because it is a state does not mean that it is immune from international law. And if ever there was a case for an armed invasion, it is into Israel, although the same result could be achieved by simple international will. To be a state, and have the right to bear arms and defend yourself, which Israel has, and constantly bleats about, entails responsibilities, too. Palestine would also have these responsibilities, if it were free. These responsibilities involve international norms of Justice, so signing up to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, getting rid of nuclear weapons and signing the nuclear non proliferation treaty, signing other facets of international law to do with extradition and equal treatment of citizens. If they did all this, after we had tried the war criminals, and after Israel had paid massive compensation to the Palestinians for all the destroyed infrastructure of their current lands, and also compensation for the original stolen lands, or allow some return of refugees: after all this, there is only one reason why the two nations could not live in peace together, and that is Zionism, the urge, the itch - Sigmund Freud described it as a compulsion, a neurotic compulsion - to expand again. Or in fact never to agree a peace treaty because they will never agree to roll back their existing expansion.

Really, the world has to stop selling them arms, the UK must stop selling them Bulldozers in particular, must boycott their goods, must siege and blockade them indeed, until they stop treating Palestinians like animals, and set them Free. (Capital F, just like when George Bush says it)

Action to open the Rafah border - International Movement to open the Rafah border

2009-04-11T10:12:00.005+03:00

Dear friends,

Since we have launched our call “International Movement to Open the Rafah Border”, we have been contacted by many organisations and citizens from all over the world who gave us information about their planned actions for Gaza.

We need you at the Rafah crossing in order to help them to bring their humanitarian aid into Gaza and ask the “PERMANENT OPENING OF THE RAFAH CROSSING!”

Since 4 years, people in Gaza are living under horrific conditions: there is no work, no money, no food, no enough medicine, no construction material, and so on.

At the Rafah Crossing, the situation is really bad! Many humanitarian aid convoys are actually stuck at the Rafah crossing and tons of foodstuffs and help are rotting in Al Arish because Egyptian authorities are refusing to let them get into Gaza. GAZANS NEED URGENTLY YOUR HELP!
(see video about an italian group stuck at the Rafah crossing/Al Arish :
http://tv.repubblica.it/copertina/gaza-gli-aiuti-bloccati/31366?video)

Below, a list of the planned actions:

1) May 3rd: A Convoy for Gaza

The European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza intends to send a big convoy of more than 100 trucks. They will deliver wheelchairs, medicine, medical instruments and toys for the people of Gaza. The trucks will come from Great Britain, France, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria and Norway. They will leave Milano, Italy, on May 3rd and will sail from Genoa towards Alexandria in Egypt. Then the convoy which will reach Alexandria on May 6th, will go directly to the Rafah border and then into Gaza.
http://www.savegaza.eu/index.php/Our-News/Hope-for-Gaza-Convoy.html

2) 22 Days to Lift the Siege of Gaza: May 22-June 14, 2009

From May 22-June 14, many organizations like CODE PINK & Free Gaza Movement, will amass delegations at the Rafah border in Egypt and the Erez crossing in Israel. Gaza will be enveloped with solidarity in order to LIFT THE SIEGE. 35 Palestinian and Lebanese organizations will send also boats to Gaza.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5619

3) July 4th: Convoy Viva Palestina US

George Galloway MP and the Vietnam veteran and peace campaigner Ron Kovic will launch a convoy from the United States and will bring $10 million in aid and 500 vehicles to Gaza.
The activists will land in Cairo where they will buy the humanitarian aid. The convoy will be formed there and will make its way to the Rafah crossing and into Gaza
http://www.vivapalestina.org/

All these organizations will need our help and, we, citizens of the world must be at the Rafah crossing, to show to our governments that we condemns this harsh and illegal siege and we will not stay silent in front of the desperate urgency and unacceptable conditions the civilian population of Gaza is facing.

COME ON AND LET SEND TOGETHER THE MESSAGE TO THE WORLD LEADERS: LIFT THE GAZA SIEGE, OPEN THE RAFAH BORDER!

For a better coordination, thanks to send your answers to the questions below at : intmorb@googlemail.com

. Do you intend to come and participate in our sit-in at the Rafah crossing? Alone or with a group? When and how long do you plan to stay? We will give all the information you need ((internal transport, hotel, visas, expenses, ect..)

. Do you intend to organize a convoy or an action for Gaza? Let us know! We will try to help you!

. Do you want to help in coordinating this action in your country or your area?

YOUR HELP IS REALLY NEEDED !
____________________________________________________________

Posted by Frances Laing.

Massive Abduction of Fishermen by the Israeli navy

2009-04-08T22:58:00.003+03:00

Rod has mentioned this should be the most important link on the blog, but due to communication difficulties, it has gone under so far. Please read it.

Here's the link. It's an international campaign to support fishermen in and around Gaza who have been attacked or abducted by Israeli military forces. Their livelihood is being undermined and their boats stolen.

Post by Frances Laing

Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign Factsheet. The EU and the Rafah Crossing

2009-04-08T16:54:00.003+03:00

Readers may find this background information important right now.
Posted by Frances Laing. Information from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Open the Rafah crossing

In November 2005, with the signing of the Agreement on Movement and Access by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians in Gaza were promised access to the outside world free from Israeli control through a border crossing to Egypt at Rafah. Commenting on this when the Agreement was announced, Condoleezza Rice said:

“… for the first time since 1967, Palestinians will gain control over entry and exit from their territory. This will be through an international crossing at Rafah … .”

And Javier Solana reinforced this promise on behalf of the EU:

“This is the first time that a border is opened and not controlled by the Israelis. … So as you can imagine, this is a very important step ….”

This promise to the Palestinians has not been fulfilled. In practice, Israel has had a veto on the opening of the Rafah crossing. The EU, which has provided a small force (EU BAM Rafah) to monitor the operation of the crossing, has consistently refused to send its personnel to open the crossing when Israel doesn’t want it open.

The EU BAM website states that the crossing “can only be opened by agreement between the Parties”, in other words, the EU accords Israel a veto over its opening. This is in flat contradiction to the promise made by Javier Solana that the crossing is “not controlled by the Israelis”.

The IPSC believes that this promise made to Palestinians by Javier Solana on behalf of the EU should be honoured. And so should the other promises made in the Agreement on Movement and Access:-

other crossings for people and cargo between Israel, Gaza and the West Bank will be expanded

regular bus and truck convoys between the West Bank and Gaza

the reduction of obstacles to movement on the West Bank

a seaport and airport at Gaza

None of these promises has been fulfilled. We believe they should be fulfilled.

28 March 2008

Awni Al Heteni School, North Gaza, Majed and Mohaned

2009-04-03T23:59:00.014+03:00

I have managed to upload a better quality version of the Al Heteni School Video. I met Majeed, the English Teacher featured as a link to the school. He tried to watch the video, but only saw the first few minutes, because the download times were so slow and then the electricity failed. He was on the way to a friend's house to check his emails and watch the rest.

He reminded me that the name of the boy who had lived in the tower was Ibrahim Parude, and the boy whose whole family was killed by a British bulldozer demolishing the house on them, his name was Mohaned Khalef.

I will shortly be launching an appeal for the Art to Europe, and Access to Gaza projects and I think it should be called the Mohaned Khalef Appeal.

Part of the money will also be used to set up a trust fund for him to go to University, or use however else, when he is 18. Until then the professionals will do a better job than I can. The rest of the money for the two projects - the first to get to Gaza Children's voices heard in Europe, the second to take computers to Gaza so even more children can get their voices heard on the Internet - will also benefit him as well as all the others. I would really like blog readers to give me their views on this before we launch it more widely. What do you think? Does it help Mohaned to use this film as a fund raiser?

Je suis un Arabe

2009-04-02T19:51:00.023+03:00

Here is a performance by four girls from Ahmed Showki School:

'Je suis un Arabe' par Mahoud Darwis.

Mahmoud Darwish is the very much revered national poet of Palestine, recently dead and heading for a special place in Palestinian consciousness.

Translation below.

Je suis un Arabe - I am an Arab (poem by Mahmood Darwish)

Identity Card

Record!

I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?

Record!
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks...
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself
at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?

Record!

I am an Arab.

I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are engaged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew.

My father...
descends from the family of the plough
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather...was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house
is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title!

Record!

I am an Arab.

You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks.
So will the State take them
As it has been said?

Therefore!
Record on the top of the first page:

I do not hate people.
Nor do I encroach.
But if I become hungry
The ursurper's flesh will be my food.

Beware...
Beware
Of my hunger

And my anger!

International Movement to Open the Rafah Border (in three languages)

2009-04-02T17:37:00.005+03:00

The following statement received from the Facebook group of the International Movement to Open the Rafah border. In three languages. Sign up to the Facebook petition here.

International Movement to Open Rafah Border.
Global Help Initiative for Palestine ''HI'' Gaza StripPalestine
http://www.help-initiative.org/
info@help-initiative.org
بيان صحفى

تعلن الحركة الشعبية الدولية لفتح معبر رفح، مقاطعة كافة أشكال التطبيع مع (اسرائيل)، وتدعو الجميع ليحذوا حذوها، خاصة الحكومات العربية.
مجزرة تلو أخرى على مدى ستون عام و(اسرائيل) ومازالت تمارس الاحتلال العنصرى الاستيطانى وعدوانها ضد السكان الاصليين الفلسطينيين وجيرانهم العرب، تحت سمع وبصر العالم أجمع دون ان يحرك العالم ساكنا لايقافها، بل كثير من الدول والحكومات تدعمها!
الان على كافة الشعوب الارض مقاطعتها اقتصاديا وسياسيا وثقافيا، اعلانا لرفضهم الاحتلال والظلم والعدوان والعنصرية.
فمحرقة غزة ليست الاولى، ولن تكون الاخيرة اذا لم نتحرك الان..كم من محرقة قد يتحملها ضمير البشرية!

الحركة الشعبية الدولية لفتح معبر رفح

COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE

Le Mouvement international pour l’ouverture du passage de Rafah, proclame la rupture de toutes formes de normalisation avec Israël et appelle le monde entier à suivre son exemple, notamment les États arabes.

Les massacres perpétrés par Israël contre les habitants autochtones palestiniens et leurs voisins arabes, n’ont connu de cesse au cours des derniers soixante ans, et l’occupation d’implantation raciste se poursuit, au vu et au su du monde entier, sans que nul ne remue un petit doigt, et qui plus est avec le soutien de nombre d’États et de gouvernements.

Maintenant, l’ensemble des peuples de cette terre se doivent de boycotter Israël, à tous les niveaux, économique, politique et culturel, afin de crier leur rejet catégorique de l’occupation, de l’injustice, de l’agression et du racisme.

L’holocauste de Gaza n’est pas le premier de la série et n’en sera pas le dernier si nous ne réagissons pas maintenant… Combien d’holocaustes la conscience humaine devra-t-elle donc supporter?

Le Mouvement international pour

L’ouverture du passage de Rafah

PRESS STATEMENT

International Movement to Open Rafah Gate states the severance of all forms of normalization with Israel and calls the world to follow his example, particularly the Arab states. The massacres perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian natives and their Arab neighbours never stopped over the past sixty years, and the racist occupation and colonization is continuing in the light at the knowledge of the world, with nobody moving a finger, and most importantly with the support of many states and governments.

Now, all the peoples of the world need to boycott Israel, at all levels, economic, political and cultural, to shout their rejection of the occupation, injustice, aggression and racism. The Gaza holocaust Gaza is not the first of the series and will not be the last one if we do not act now ... How many holocausts the human consciousness should be accept?

The International Movement to Open Rafah Gate

-- In Solidarity from all International Movement to Open Rafah Border
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9986479902

Press release posted by Frances Laing

Awni Al Hepteni School, North Gaza.

2009-03-30T13:49:00.012+03:00

I have been awake for almost 36 hours to make this short film (click on the link). I think you should look at it, and I think that the EU when it considers the EU-Israel Preferential Trade agreement tomorrow, it should look at it, too. Here's the link in full: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SPKHlW9aFI

Front Row: Assistant Head Maajed, Head teacher Mr Hosein Al Eyaa.

Second Row: The School's Socio-Psychological Support Team

Back Row: Rod Cox

This school would like a link with a British School, and identifies its weakness as in Extra Curricular activities such as Drama, Sport, Dancing. Their goalposts were hit by a rocket because they are made of steel tubing and look like rocket launchers to the Israelis. They have a pupil:Teacher Ratio of about 50:1, and operate in two shifts. The Girls in the Morning and the Boys in the Afternoon about 7-1100, 1100-1500. Every Pupil receives one hour of Socio-Psychological input every day. There is no budget for that, or for water, or to repair the damaged drainage system.

Maajed speaks good English and can be contacted on maajed101@hotmail.com

Awni Al Hepteni School, North Gaza.

International Movement to Open the Rafah Border

2009-03-30T00:19:00.003+03:00

Hello Rod, hello all,
just received the following message from the International Movement to Open the Rafah border so have posted it straight here as may be of interest to readers. Regards, Frances Laing. Copy follows:

Peace Thank you for your support,

This is just to let you know that Global Help Initiative for Palestine HI Chairman Hamza El Tawil will be appearing on PressTVs Remember the children of Palestine, Tuesday March 31st at 7pm - 8pm ( UK TIME) GMT +1 Satellite Sky 515 or online

He will mention briefly about the call originating via Hashim and the movements aims.For those who do not know the show is presented by Lauren Booth and looks at :-* The Children’s humanitarian issues. Their Hope. Future and the Sadness the Palestinian Children suffer all year round* Activities people all round the world are doing to help the Palestinians & Children of Palestine i.e. Someone is making music, another person in France may be making cakes and selling them to raise money for medical supplies, etc * Bringing people together from all parts of the world interactively to highlight the plight of the Palestinians. * Interactive show with live cams, emails and txts as the viewers input is vital, both for the people in Gaza and for us to learn how to help each other improve the lives of those in Palestine.

Hamza also hopes to cover an update on some of the Children in the Cancer ward whom HI supported via their ''Smile of Hope'' Project which started prior to the war and hopes also to talk about one family in particular and the devastating effects of the war upon their family, their grief and hardships it has thrust upon them.

International Movement to Open Rafah Border now has a facebook group for those who facebook Join us. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9986479902

Hope that you are all well.
Peace and solidarity

Copy Ends,

Post by Frances Laing

Lets all campaign to get the Rafah crossing open

2009-03-29T02:36:00.025+03:00

All of us can sign this petition to the EU

Viva Palestina have announced that they will have a campaign to get the borders of Gaza opened. Well good, but people should know that they are not the only game in town. From large and small groups and even individuals, people have been fighting this battle for a long, long time.

PSC is the daddy, or I should say Mummy, perhaps, since it's been so ably led by Betty Hunter for, well, one or two years.

War on Want, and most other aid organisations have been fighting...

All the Human Rights organisations, from Amnesty forward, not to mention the International Court at the Hague.

The international Red Cross and Red Crescent:

Not sure if this building is part of the Red Crescent Building next door, but you can see the remains of three destroyed ambulances if you look carefully: Can you see them yet?

Governments, too, claim that they are upholding Human Rights as enshrined in developing International law, but, often, they are simply lying, or in the case of the British Government, reading only the sections that they wish. So we need all these campaigners, and more and more.

Then there is the ISM - The International Solidarity Movement founded by a very Young Law Graduate who happened to be Palestinian in Israel when the second Intifada broke out. Non Violent Direct Action. Sitting with Palestinians as they are held up at checkpoints, occupying various Palestinian Buildings to act as Human Shields against the Israeli Occupying Forces in the West Bank, organising demonstrations at the cost, sometimes, of their lives, and now in Gaza going out with the Fishermen to try and shield them from being killed by Israeli patrol boats which I have photographed just off the end of the Pier, let alone 20 miles out, as agreed by the Oslo Accords. Two days ago two farmers were shot dead by the Israelis because they were harvesting their fields, and their fields are inside the 1 kilometre exclusion zone that Israel enforces - INSIDE Gaza. Now Gaza is only 6 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, and 10 at its widest. That's a lot of land that the Israelis are sterilising.

FreeGaza, another new organisation in which Huwaida, the ISM founder is involved. This organisation has been bringing in supplies by boat, breaking the siege by sea. Their last trip was halted by some Israeli patrol boats, and the trip before ended with the boat getting deliberately rammed, and almost sinking, but the first second and third trips drove down the price of petrol, so much psychological impact did it have on this starved economy, even though the boats carried no oil.

It's interesting how many of these organisations are run, in the majority, by Women. All of them, in fact, except Battling George Galloway's Viva Palestina. All of them working towards opening the border, when a bunch of macho guys in motors drives up and takes over. Or tries to. I was on the Convoy, and George is almost God in Gaza. I listened to a Palestinian telling me, even though he knew I had arrived on the convoy, how difficult the journey had been, and how so many people had died on the trip. "NO-one died on the journey, I said, except a Libyan Journalist who had not actually joined us yet, who was killed in a crash" "Are you sure?", he said. "George Galloway IS a moslem" said another, "why would he come otherwise?"

Well, that's a polarisation that Al Queada would like, but I don't. And its a sad fact of human nature that most Gazans think of Galloway, who arrived at Gaza by Plane, as taking enormous risks, but will not know the names of those who accompany the farmers and the Fishermen at the risk of their lives.

Congratulations on the convoy, George, but remember, most of the hard work is done elsewhere. These organisations could not be further from the punch drunk chaos that was the convoy, disorganised, and excessively hierarchical, with a remote and unapproachable leadership . Is it the influence of women that makes these hard, hard working organisations so very effective and respected at what they do? Huwaida once said to me that there is no difference between starting up the ISM and being a Prom Queen. (Well, she was brought up in Detroit, at that time easily the Murder Capital of the World) You win by powers of attraction, not force and fear. And that is the message that we need to convey, both to bullying nations, and to bullying organisations. So Israel cannot impose its will on the Palestinians, it must give up compulsion, and all the stolen land, too. Only when the Palestinians feel that they want to live with the deal on the table can there be peace, because only then will Israel get the opportunity to live without paranoia. In Gaza the people here generally support or accept Hamas, which has made the strip safe, and neutralised the Mafia families left over from the corrupt last years of Arafat, but political debate has been lively every where I've been, in formal meetings and on street corners, with most people not afraid to put their views on camera. The way you do things, the way that you run an organisation, is part of your politics. I commend the freedom (I know that it's compromised) inside Gaza, but the way that the Palestinians are treated like animals in a zoo - poked through the fence by the Israelis - is simply racist. It is beyond unacceptable.

Those in power who know nothing about the horrors of Palestinian life are the greatest supporters of Israel, so if we are to gain change for Gaza, we must tell them the truth, especially the politicians, but it is an uphill battle, to say the least. This is a Gordon Brown Quote from a Labour Friends of Israel Lunch in 2007: "I think it's a measure of the bonds of friendship between Israel and Britain and between the Labour Party and the Jewish community that we have here today with us fellow members of the Cabinet, Valerie Amos, Hazel Blears and Pat Hewitt; we have 20 Ministers, almost 70 Members of Parliament and I should add 40 members from the House of Lords as well." israel is supported by virtually the entire Tory Party as well.

If the Uk is not fertile ground then we must move to the EU, which alone could gather the strength to challenge the US, and I want to feature one organisation about to try to do that here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvcMlFDl7Hg

The Peace Cycle, founded by Laura Abraham, and now run by a non hierarchical collective, which is nevertheless fixated on organisational excellence, as FreeGaza is, come to think of it, does what it says on the tin. They Peace Cycle has cycled from London to jerusalem three times, and tomorrow, sets out to Cycle to Brussels where it has an invitation to address the parliament on Tuesday. I shoiuld be in that delegation, but I am now myself also a victim of the siege of gaza, and cannot attend.

Part of their presentation was an exhibition of Children's paintings sent by me, but they cannot be sent, because there is no postal service to or from Gaza. Couriers such as DHL and Aramex operate, but they operate through Israel, by law. So my pictures have be taken by road to the Erez crossing into Israel, and there they are censored, and destroyed at the whim of the censor. If passed they go to the Israel office of the courier where they join the other non-censored Israel mail.

I asked Aramex to send the parcel, and they said that it could be done, but the pictures must not be 'Political'. Some of the pictures are on the blog: judge for yourself whether Israel would have allowed them. So I asked DHL, and I said that they had to be in Brussels for a speech in the EU parliament against Israel, on Monday. They didn't reply to my email, but said when I chased them a day later that they could send the pictures, but that they couldn't be sent before Sunday because the Erez crossing was not open until then. That would mean, after their trip to the censor's office, that they could not be guaranteed to be delivered on Monday, but a special arrangement could be done which would cost $700. The price was anyway $300, and if I wanted confirmed Monday morning delivery, it would be $3000. Now this conversation was on Thursday, and Erez was open on Friday, because an acquaintance passed through it. So its a scam, and probably the only way that a courier can make money in Palestine, I'd assume.

So that's my thought for the day: There is no justification in making people live in a dictatorship for a philosophy that espouses freedom.

This is the English Class of the Tomooh Foundation, an NGO that educates Gifted Children, after school, on a voluntary basis. They have just begun a socio-psychological group for disturbed children, but these girls clearly have the poise and dignity that I'm talking about. I'm going with the management to a UNRWA school that was completely destroyed, and now shares a building with another school, to take the Art Project forward, Hopefully.

That applies to organisations as well as states and philosophies; we must live, even under oppression, with the dignity that we require of freedom, and we should not give up that dignity on the pretext that we are somehow required to do it to protect the Nation, or make a convoy run quicker (You do that by having someone who can organise, George). I think that by and large the Gazans keep that dignity magnificently, and when they have freedom, many will look back to this time as a golden age of unity in society - yes, really. But they still deserve the chance to lose their dignity of their own free choice in a free society, like the rest of us. (And they still need therapy for the shock of the war)

But this adversity also mothers inventiveness, so if the borders are closed, dig tunnels under them. If there's no petrol, bring out the old Donkey Carts, they're here in numbers, and let's start trying to build with the local clay bricks and with lime mortar, because we can't get cement. Not yet, but it's coming.

And so for me, without any possibility of officially getting my pictures to Brussels, lets see if I can anyway, and lets all laugh at the impossibility, in the end, of Israel actually sealing the border permanently. Then all write to President Abbas' West Bank Palestine Authority pointing out how much tax they are losing on items smuggled through the tunnels, which are now large enough to take 50inch Plasma TVs, and Motorbikes, and so might soon be big enough for the my Van, the 'Pea". and Egypt, what value of exports are you losing by the restrictions on trade? So, why don't you just open the Rafah Crossing, and Mr Obama, tell Egypt that it's OK, they won't lose $2billion in US aid if they do.

And all of us can sign this petition to the EU to end Israel's preferential trade agreements, so they'll be the only losers, instead of the only winners - wouldn't that be great?

Call for an international movement to open the Rafah border

2009-03-28T02:01:00.009+03:00

The following call was posted today on the VIVA PALESTINE site. To sign the international petition or join the call, visit the site:

Don't let Gaza die. After the massacre of the people of Gaza by the Israeli army that started on December, 27th 2008, the world was moved at the plight of Palestinians. But Gaza remains closed almost hermetically, humanitarian convoys accumulate at the border and only a small part is allowed to enter. Similarly, citizens of various countries, including many Palestinians are stranded in Egypt.

We, citizens of the world, oppose this illegal and deadly blockade, tolerated, not to say encouraged by most governments of the world, especially those of USA, Israel, Europe and many of the Arab countries. Once again, it seems that only civil society is able to mobilize to demand the application of the basic rights of people that are echoed in international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December, 10th 1948).*

Therefore, we call any individual or group (association, organisation, party, etc.) to participate, within its means, to establish a permanent sit-in at the border in Rafah, to put pressure on the Egyptian, US, European and Israeli governments, and also on the international community, until the definitive opening of the border between Gaza and Egypt, allowing the free movement of goods and people. TO FREE GAZA, TO BREAK THE SIEGE, FOR FREE MOVEMENT OF ALL AT RAFAH , NOW ! * Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. * (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Enquires and endorsements please contact: IntMorb@Googlemail.com

Posted by Frances Laing

Pictures from Beit Hanoun

2009-03-27T09:52:00.008+03:00

There is a very clever young man in the project in Beit Hanoun who draws political cartoons, and this is one of them. The hanged man has Gaza written on his sleeve, while the two hands reaching out have if memory serves me right, US and UN written on them. I asked the young man whether he really felt that the US was trying to reach out to Gaza, and he was horrified. No, he said, these hands are applauding the death of Gaza. Oh yes, I said, I see that now.

A Bulldozer and a tank menace a Mosque. These Bulldozers are Caterpillars made in the UK.

Another Bulldozer in the company of tanks, and indeed leading the tank going across country.

Another Tank, and a weeping Tree. I have personal testimony that trees were demolished by Bulldozers even outside of the line of advance. But, in any case, they should not be used in the front line, since they are sold to Israel with UK licences that specify they must not be used for external aggression or internal oppression. Lord Malloch Brown confirmed this in Parliament on Wednesday 25th March. It is an EU wide stipulation, and part of the agreement with Israel that earns it special treatment by the EU. Israel has clearly broken this agreement.

A new crime, and something I have personally witnessed many times in the West Bank. A Blindfolded Prisoner on their knees. Often they are left in this position, in the sun, for hours, and then simply released because they haven't actually done anything wrong. There is something deeply sick and racist about the Israeli Occupation Forces.

The Dove of Peace rows across the dry sands of disinterest. In case there are any clever dicks out there, the disinterest is from Israel. If we want to extend metaphors, and I don't expect the artist necessarily meant to, then the cactus, for Palestinians, is the sign of perseverance on the land, the badge of patience , while the Palestinian lands over which the dove so valiantly rows are only desert because Israel has stolen all the water

Beit Hanoun is in the North of Gaza, as Close to the Fence with Israel as can be, although a few isolated farm workers live even closer. Extensively destroyed during the war, I have posted an image of the mosque that was hit in two separate F16 strikes. No wonder the children feel small in a giant world of killing machines.

Pictures as Evidence of War Crimes

2009-03-25T23:35:00.018+02:00

A Simple Child's Picture, what could it possibly tell us about the war? These pictures were all drawn by a younger age group than previous posts: about grade 6 (11 Years old), and come from Islamic relief, who work in the most stressed areas of Gaza.

In this image we see a large battle being fought by tanks and planes in a very densely populated area, with Tall Flats. This area can be identified near Zeitoun. The picture is accurately drawn, and shows a helicopter dropping white phosphorus over the tall flats. It also shows a bulldozer demolishing trees, important because these Bulldozers are D9s made by Caterpillar in the UK.

In this very detailed drawing, the Tank Commander's goggles can be seen, as can the ringlets of hair hanging down from under his helmet: his is an Orthodox Jew. Other well observed details are the water tank on the top of the block of flats, and the bright sun. The event took place in bright sunlight - many of the pictures have a bright sun in them, an odd detail if you think about it. The daylight means that the tank commander cannot be mistaken when he shoots the man in camouflage: a soldier, but he has also shot the woman in the stomach. Overhead, a helicopter drops white phosphorus.

Here the tanks are shown flattening trees, but the tank has here also shot a woman's head off. A boy has fallen off his bike. The tall flats have moved almost off the picture, and the Mosque is centre stage

This is the same scene, with the Mosque in the background, the boy fallen off his bike with blood making it clear that he has been injured, and a woman having her head blown off by a tank. Other people are in pieces too.

In this very complicated drawing the bright sun is drawn with a frown. A tank attacks some buildings in which a masked fighter is hiding, and other resistance troops can be seen centre front. A UN truck, right brings aid, some of it labelled UNICEF. At the top right a boat is shelling the area, while helicopters also fire rockets or missiles. One is aimed at a Mosque in which people can be seen huddled together. In the left foreground people have been lined up against a wall. They have their heads covered with bags or hoods and they have their hands in the air, but at least one of them has been shot while another lies dead on the floor. I spoke to several people who told me that the Israelis took people out of their houses and shot them in cold blood.

The same battle for the tall flats, with the Mosque damaged and a collapsed building with people trapped under it still being bombed. Once again bodies are being shown with severed limbs, and a new atrocity, an ambulance is targeted by gun fire from a helicopter, while in the background another explodes.

Reduced to essentials: A helicopter bombs a block of flats with a missile and with white phosphorus, dead lie on the ground with body parts severed, and another helicopter targets an ambulance with a missile.

The internal consistency of these pictures should be enough to convince us that they are telling the truth, and more like this must prove beyond doubt that Israeli soldiers deliberately targeted civilians, and used white phosphorus on civilian targets deliberately. Is it any wonder that Israel will not allow these pictures out, especially now that the International Criminal Court has allowed Children's paintings as evidence of war crimes? Even more important is that the 12 year old children who painted these images witnessed them first hand. They must have been terrified, and the images will stay with them for a long time. All very well having an intellectual discussion about it, but to see all those dismembered bodies, and then to have the world turn its back on you, and not have a word to say against Israel even when it stops anyone from sharing the horror with you so your only solace is others similarly affected and just as spitting angry. Does Israel really believe that its actions will turn people away from armed resistance? A Donkey can see that the population is becoming more radicalised. But worse than this, is the damage the unrequited anger is doing to those children who do not want to vent it through arms and will turn the resentment inward, and even though the United Nations Schools department has appointed 172 School socio-psychological Counsellors since the war, the UNRWA Head of Education, Mahmoud Himdiat says that it is far from enough, and the effects will not even begin to show until the shock has worn off in several months time.

Palestine as this artist wishes it was, or else as it was, below. Even the trees are smiling!

Gaza War Crimes Ilustrated

2009-03-25T00:32:00.012+02:00

The UN, The USA and The Arabs Enjoy Watching Israel Dissect Palestine
Please Tell Me Why
Missile
Under Scrutiny
We Wait the Sun of Freedom
Memories of a Child
Resistance: Qasam

Children of Gaza Asking for Help

2009-03-24T03:48:00.007+02:00

Children of Gaza Asking for Help, while the World is only Watching

Flames of Anxiety and Fear

Peace on the Left, Friendship on the Right, but I Bear the Burden of a Broken heart

Palestine to me Forever: (Note Skulls)

The Ark of Palestine: Al Aqsa Mosque in a heart, and the fist of resistance in the centre

This picture shows the red, black, green and yellow flags of four Palestinian Factions, and the Yellow and Green Factions seem to be inflicting a beating on the Blue Israelis. Only the Israelis have dead on the ground, the greens have 2 patients on stretchers, and the yellows have advanced.

No to the Separating Wall

Under Pressure in Gaza

2009-03-22T15:59:00.011+02:00

Still trying to collect my thoughts. My Art Project going so well, although so small, We moved to a more ambitious scheme - decorate the van!

The Van is causing a sensation. So many kids gathered round it that my minder - he really wouldn't like that phrase, preferring friend- is taking it away for an hour while I write this. It is MEANT to cause a sensation, of course, but in Europe.
The Van - The Pea! Taken away by the Ministry under Galloway's orders, and given back when they saw the extent of the Art Project, now decorated by the uninhibited attentions of the Ahmed Showki sixth form. Of course my idea for the decoration was a couple of slogans and a well composed picture or two, but I put my faith in Ahmed Showki and was repaid with some very clever graffiti as well as such bon mots as "Death to Israel" and "The Hand of Israel is Stained with Blood". (So Exit via Israel unlikely!)

The final result is a tour de force, but it only means anything if it is seen in Europe, so how to get out is a really big issue.
I made a speech to all the groups that I saw, but the 2 state school groups were geared up the best. I said that most British People were tolerant and generous, well meaning and fair minded, but that they knew nothing of Palestine. It is the job of the Children, I said, to show, by the pictures that they draw, their fears and their hopes, their tears and their ambitions, that they are just as much people as we are, and they deserve our help. I did say something about their courage under fire, and it was distressing for me to go to a 'festival' to commemorate the deaths of fellow pupils, harrowing to see it on video.

The teenagers responded magnificently, both in their paper drawings and paintings, but also in the decoration of the van. It must be the centre piece of any exhibition, surely.
But how to get it home?
So I took it to the friendly Egyptian Border, and they told me that George Galloway would not let me take it out! He had signed up the entire convoy to the agreement that any vehicle entering could not leave. Please note that I made it plain at all times that I did not subscribe to this arrangement, I reserved my position not only with my team leader, but the administration of the convoy, and not only with them, but with the Egyptian Customs, too.
I rang up contacts in Gaza before entering to discuss whether to come in or not, and from their indications that the rules were arbitrary and not final, I made the decision to do what I, personally, had come those 6013 miles to do, which was to take a van into, and out of, Gaza, loaded in both directions.
To me, the aid that we took - even the vehicles, which are all right hand drive, and so bus passengers have to get out into the road, for instance - is a tiny drop into a bucket with no bottom. Gaza needs aid only to support the Israeli occupation, for without it they would starve, and the world would turn, at last, against the Zionist bastards. But for true freedom, Gaza - Palestine - needs to trade. It needs its borders open, and it needs to export.
My vision was just to export something, and Art came to my mind because it is not food, which it would be immoral to export. But as I began to develop the idea with schools and community groups, It got more important than merely exports, it became Medical.

More and more, people told me about the inward turning anger of the the young. Even the elderly people distributing aid told me that they did voluntary work at least partly because it re-focussed their impotent rage on something constructive. If only people would listen; if only people could understand; why does nobody care about us; why does nobody speak up for us?
Picture after picture shows Israel bombing Gaza, or killing Palestinians, while the World sleeps, or even applauds. US, and even British, flags on the cuffs of those clapping hands make me ashamed, and they should make the Government feel frightened. Child after child has told me that they will die for their country, and they will never give in (or is it give up? they asked) whichever it is we won't do it, and joking aside, many would relish the thought of revenge.
Breeding a Nation of Terrorists? If you've been here you will despise me for even raising the subject. I reckon that now that Hamas has closed down the Mafia Families completely, Gaza is the safest place on Earth, but only if the Israelis stopped firing. I mean it. Apart from a little aggressive begging, I have never felt in any danger, and even rather under educated Soldiers with a strong religious viewpoint who find my view point distasteful keep a sense of humour alive in discussions that I am occasionally forced into. Palestinian Generosity is legendary, and it would be easy to live here for a year and never pay for a meal, if you were so inclined, and the only complaint might be that the strength of the embrace is sometimes suffocating.
So the wartime spirit and the certainty of belonging makes for a ringing society of tolerance and warmth with a widely accepted agreement on dress, morals and behaviour.
But, inside is all that simmering resentment, as I've said.
So then I began to realise that just exhibiting these pictures, just letting the children know that someone out there cares about them and their anxieties; someone outside this hothouse of seething vengeance and hatred; someone who represents the privileged and active world outside; someone who might actually BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING; just knowing that is enough to give the kids a warm glow, and settle them down to a sleep with at least one nightmare less: someone might actually like them. Just that.

So I spoke to the Head of Community Mental Health in Gaza - can you imagine doing that job? He - Dr Ayed Suraj - turns out to be a joint British/Palestinian citizen. Yes he said, The journey, and the end product of sharing the paintings, was a way to boost the Psychological Health of the Community. He welcomed it and wrote me a letter to say so. So did the Minister of Education,

and the Youth Organisation Sharek and The Family Development Association, and a private School and there would have been others if there was time, but there wasn't because the border was open and it wasn't going to stay open after today, so I scrabbled around to find a cash point to pay my Hotel Bill, got the van decorated by the Ahmed Showki School for highly talented and polished Young Girls, who entertained me to a performance of Darwish's Poem 'Arab' that they had translated into French, whilst we waited for the rest of them to graffiti the Van,

and I set off for the Border. I actually got as far as no-man's land. One wheel might have actually been in Egypt, but probably not.
'It's not possible for you to take your van, so turn it round and take it back'
The soldiers on the Palestinian side gave me some food, and a couple of them watched a video of an interview I did with some bombed out folk, and then more tea, coffee, bed, tea, coffee, lunch, tea, coffee, and time to go to Egypt again.
About five hours of interviews, photo-copies of letters, them refusing to talk to the Embassy in Cairo, calling in my Customs contacts and tearing them off a strip for discussing anything with me, and finally phoning head office in Cairo, the answer came back: "You may have been entitled to make this journey for medical reasons, but because you came with George Galloway, you are bound by the agreement that he made, even if you do not consider yourself a party to it. Because George Galloway made a deal with the Egyptian Government, you cannot take your van. It is forbidden."
And that's the trouble with deals that you make on other people's behalf. The law of unintended consequences. Any deal has 2 sides, and although you think you have opened up the arena, it turns out that you have closed part of it down. How Brave many thought that Sadat was, flying into Tel Aviv to make peace with the Israelis, but who would have thought that that deal would result in the Egyptians being obliged by the Israelis to limit the use of the Rafah crossing to a few arbitrary days a year, and to collaborate in the blockade? To prevent the passage of trade, even food, and even if the Palestinians are starving; that is the agreement, and we call it a siege, and we intend to break that agreement, made in the name of the Palestinians, but not in their interests.
Or the Oslo accords, that great breakthrough in the Peace process, that binds Hamas to arrangements that it had no voice in, although of course it was part of the Palestinian political system, and the agreements were made in everyone's name. This agreement is used to give legitimacy to the Israeli and US boycott on Hamas: they will not respect those agreements, which are not in the interests of the Palestinians. And we hope they break those agreements, too.
My Art project, conceived months ago and discussed with Gaza contacts before the convoy was ever thought of, jeopardised by an agreement that I had no part in, that I railed against, but could not be heard. Just someone who wants to keep his van, I can hear them think. Perhaps I shouldn't have travelled with the convoy? The last time I did something like this, we started on our own, a convoy of one, although we did join up with the 'Caravanne', an international convoy from Brussels to Jerusalem, in Damascus. Like the convoy, the scheduled departure of the Caravanne was a spur to action. We told both them and the Israelis that we were intending to leave again, unlike the rest of them, and got no argument from the 'Caravanne', though we did get plenty from the Israelis. And we succeeded in twinning with Jericho on that trip, and bringing back a tonne of Olive Oil.
And why not travel with the convoy? Just because I had my own purpose, should I travel alone, when by joining forces, a better impact could be made. Or could George's administration team have done what I asked, and notified their negotiating partner that there was a single dissenter in the convoy? A van with another purpose. Or should I have left it on the Egyptian side, and come home with less paintings in an unprepossessing van?
Three people have now offered to buy the van from me, but I have refused.
In any case, George went further than just signing agreements preventing me from taking it out, he donated it to the Palestinian Government. Its lucky that they've broken the agreement with George, even if it was in their interests not to, and given it back to me, and I couldn't be more grateful to them for it. Like the others, it's a silly agreement and it needs to be broken.
So like, I said, I'm confused.
When the Egyptians told me that I was free to pass, on foot, I refused to go, and went back to Gaza. They told me the border would close immediately after some Hamas dignitaries entering from the Cairo discussions on reconciliation with Fatah had cleared the terminal, and it would not re-open for a period perhaps of a month, but I still refused to leave the van. I cannot get it out of my head that the exhibit would do much better with the van as its centre piece, and that if Galloway told the Egyptians that he favoured the release of the van, it might be allowed to go.The journey is within the rules of the International agreements. It is a Medical trip, after all.
What about it George?

Staying in Gaza

2009-03-20T23:20:00.004+02:00

Thank you all for your efforts. At the end of 2 days & appearing to make some headway Rod was finally turned back & refused entry to Egypt with The Pea. The Rafah crossing is now closed for an indefinite period.

Rod could have got through on his own but leaving all the children's artwork behind. He decided to stay in Gaza to bring out the art for fundraising as planned.

Posted by Pauline Thompson

Feedback from Egyptian Embassy Press Office

2009-03-20T13:13:00.001+02:00

Spoke to Osama Farouk at the Egyptian Embassy press office.
He said they have 'no knowledge of the situation'.

Sent another email to this press office. I've asked him to confirm receipt.
No reply. Time 11.14 a.m.

Post by Frances Laing

Update

2009-03-20T12:04:00.003+02:00

Messages have also gone out in solidarity across the globe from supporters to Viva Palestina, Christine Russell M.P (with a request for immediate action before 11.a.m.), the Green Party European Office (who are currently in conference)

The understanding is that Rafah is NOT an Israeli controlled crossing.

Post by Frances Laing

Updated Egyptian Embassy email address

2009-03-20T11:38:00.001+02:00

Please note, just got a 'vacation reply' back from the Egyptian embassy on the
previous email address, they have sent me another updated email address which
campaigners might like to try. Have resent my email to this address here:

emb_london@mfa.gov.eg

Post by Frances Laing

Contacts for Egyptian Embassy

2009-03-20T10:59:00.003+02:00

U.K. time 09.05 a.m.

Pauline tells me the children's pictures are also painted on the van itself.

I phoned the Home Office and they have given me the following email address for the
Egyptian Embassy. I have emailed them but do not yet know if the email address is o.k.
The telephone number for the Egyptian embassy in London that I have is tel: 020-7499-3304
They say they are not open until 10.a.m.!

Egyptian embassy email address:

etembuk@hotmail.com

Contacts here are phoning Christine Russell M.P to lobby. The Guardian has been informed.

We're thinking of you all here, especially Rod. In solidarity.
Post by Frances Laing

Campaign to get Rod & the Pea out of Gaza.

2009-03-19T23:00:00.005+02:00

The Pea has been returned to Rod by the Palestinians and today he tried to leave at Rafah only to be turned back by the Egyptians. He has one more shot at it tomorrow (Friday) but is worried he may have to leave on foot.

The minibus is currently filled with artwork by Palestinian schoolchildren to be displayed in Brussels and then auctioned in the UK to raise funds. Frances has found local schools to be involved.

Please can everyone contact the Egyptian Embassy to add weight to the campaign that he be allowed to leave. Time is short - the crossing at Rafah opens up at 1pm (11am UK) tomorrow. Ask everyone you know to send an email or phone call and if you know anyone with influence please get them to do what they can.

Posted by Pauline Thompson

More Art

2009-03-17T23:16:00.010+02:00

Visited the Family Development Association today to look at some of their Art. They are in Beit Hanoun, in the very north of the Gaza Strip, and first port of call for an invading army.

They are an entirely voluntary organisation, like so many others, who aim to empower and develop Families, and whose programmes include 'Child Development' and Family Counselling and more. Their carefully worked business plan showing inputs and outputs begins: Strategic output 2:1: Improved Psychosocial status of Traumatised Children. Indicators and Testing methods are listed, followed by Assumptions: Decrease in Israeli Aggressions; Decrease in Internal Security Disorders; End of International Siege!!!

Still the fat man opposite was impressed with the work, and there is a brilliant 15 year old political cartoonist.

Outside their building there is a Mosque hit by F16s not once, but twice.

15 of their Children were killed in the bombardment, and they were anxious to show me pictures from before the attacks, and after.

Yesterday I met a man who told me that to stop his young children getting scared, he taught them to listen to the difference between Apache rockets, and those of F16s: something like thwump (F16) and Thwing (Apache), while his friend said that he opened the window to let his four year old see 'the fireworks'. Both had been rung up by an Israeli tape recording telling them to blame Hamas for the war.

This picture shows a child having nightmares at 3 o'clock in the morning - the clock is the small red circle on the right. The tiny child in the giant bed is linked to thought clouds above which contain F16s Apache Helicopters, and tanks, while a red rose is stuck to the painting like a flower on a grave. He looks lonely, doesn't he?

This is the only photograph I got because the light faded, and there has been little electricity for some days. In my hotel they only switch the generator on when busy at night. In the day they switch it on to let me ride the lift to the 6th floor, and switch it off as soon as the lift doors open at the top.

Gaza

2009-03-17T21:48:00.012+02:00

Street Scene

The Ladies who Like Ice Cream and Milk Shake

Part of the Palestinian Parliament

Gaza is a Seaside Town

Double Decker Cots and Dummies

The Square of the Unknown Soldier. The Columns in the Distance are the remains of a bombed building.

The PLO Flag Shop, does what it says on the label

Ever wondered what the driving schools use in Gaza?

Temporary Mosque, erected by private donation, replacing bombed Mosque on same site. Shoes off at the door

Extravagant Buildings near the sea-front

Football in the Street

Norway - Palestine Friendship park

Petrol is not always available

We Wuz Poor, but We Wuz Happy!

Backgammon: The man looking at the camera said "You like Gaza now, but you'll say the same old things when you get home"

Some Art

2009-03-16T18:35:00.008+02:00

A Headmistress, left, her Artist Husband who teaches in an UNWRA school, centre, their children and me being presented with an embroidery, and about a hundred school pictures. Behind us are two of Ahmed's works, a giant wooden key, and a rose breaking through paving stones.

The Ministry of Education.

An UNWRA refugee primary School. UNWRA schools are still largely used by Refugees, while the indigenous population go to state schools, purely for historic reasons, I'm told. The minibus is a school bus, one of many at this home time.

Some Questions at this State Girls School

The Girls get down to serious painting

I photographed every girl and her painting, but I used the wrong setting on the camera, and they are all blurred. But I find this image really moving, so I better describe it. In the middle are many babies wrapped in swaddling clothes made from Palestinian flags. They lie on a blanket of Blood, and a phosphorous bomb explodes over them. The ironic comment, in Arabic, English and French is " Has he got a weapon?"

All the other girls smiled, too.

A story and other things

2009-03-15T14:42:00.004+02:00

Mr Hamad Abu Shmell

The old man sat in the light of a kerosene lamp and looked bleakly ahead. His wife sat in the opposite corner, crying loudly "They soiled our sheets, haram, haram, they broke our bed, fired guns in our bed'.

'And', the old man said'they took all our money. The day after they left we found a 100shekel note in the garden, that's all'

He was talking about the Israeli occupation of his house to a foreign photographer who had come to film the destruction in North Gaza. Hamad Abu Shmell lived in a line of houses along a high ridge overlooking Gaza city in Atatra district. It was the part of Gaza nearest the Israeli border, and it also commanded long views of Gaza city, so it was bombed repeatedly in the first few days, and most of the houses were destroyed. Then the Apaches fired rockets at what was left and machine gunned anything that moved. Mr Abu Shmell stayed home with his family, even when machine gun fire came through the window and sprayed the wall behind them. The foreign Journalist put his fingers in the big holes in the plaster, but to him they were just dents in the wall; to Mr Abu Shmell they represented fear and salvation at the same time. But there was an even closer miss in the next dark room, where there were no lights. A row of smaller bullet holes at a lower level.

"We were eating our meal on the floor when these came. If we were sitting on a chair they would have gone through our heads. I am lucky that I cannot afford to put chairs in both my rooms" said Mr Abu Shmell.

What happened next? "The Israelis came and pointed their guns at us. They told us to get into the back room, where the shots had been fired, and to stay there, and they went on to the roof. They told us that if we moved, they would shoot us. They went upstairs, they stole my money, soiled the beds, left condoms everywhere. They fired holes in the bed - for what? While people were dying they were making love with each other in our bed, and then they destroyed it. All our money was in the mattress, everything for the whole family, and they took it all. Then after 3 days, they left. Just left"

His family of seven children and his wife listened in the gloomy light. "There is no glass in the windows, and we cannot afford even to buy plastic sheets", said Mrs Abu Shmell. "The UN gave us some blankets, but we have no money to repair anything and no one helps us. No one. And it is cold, even our clothes they cut up and soiled - look, look at these cuts, why, why they do this, why?"

They drank their tea in silence, the foreign photographer left, and the light slowly went out.

This story was written for my Gazan Translator, who asked for it, but, apart from the name, it is all true. I was taken to film the massive destruction around this area, with people living in tent fields wedged in between the shattered buildings. I was taken there by a rich man, who also showed me the destruction of his land in the same area, but he had the resources to bring in trucks and machinery, to level the ground, re-plant the willfully destroyed palm and olive trees - $150 each tree, even they come through the tunnels. He promised his family that they would have their pool back by the summer, although he privately told me that that was optimistic. But he said: what use can it be to destroy a poor man's home, what has he done to deserve this?

The old man, Abu Shmell, actually said that he had worked for years and years on the neighbouring Israeli settlement, and he appreciated the regular wage, more than he could reliably earn as an unskilled labourer anywhere else, and certainly more than he feared he would get in Egypt, if Gaza was incorporated into that country. He seemed to me to be a man without prospects, a man for whom the struggle to provide for his family would always occupy his life full time. He was a man who had been brought up to respect those in authority above him - so what matter whether those lording it over him were Jews or Moslems? He would be happy with peace at any price. Or would have been. He said that he was disgusted by the behaviour of the Jews (By the way, when the Israeli army comes to call, it says Open up, Yehuda (the Jews), and everyone uses that term. It suits the Israelis to confuse the term Jew and Israeli)

He could not now imagine any peace. "There will be rivers of Blood" he said, and then he cried.

No-one expects Hamas to help them re-build. Everyone knows that they haven't got any money. There are Vat and Customs type duties on many things, but these are collected at the border by the Israelis, and given to the Government in the West Bank. Some salaries are paid by the West Bank Government in Gaza, but all Hamas appointments are unrecognised. There are small municipal taxes on the tunnels, and a small amount of tax on companies, but it is well short of what is required to even keep the streets clean. Yet Hamas is universally acknowledged to have brought a small amount of civic responsibility back, and the system of clan ownership of everything, and the corruption that flows from that has definitely ended. No gunshots are heard in Gaza, unless from an Apache, or the Israeli Sea Patrol Boats. My contact told me that in the later years of the Arafat administration, he paid $900 dollars to have a container of goods shipped from Italy to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and further $15000 to have it shipped the last 40 kilometres to Gaza. Bribes. Now there is no industry hardly at all, and he has goods in Ashdod which no amount of bribery can move, but which cost him $'000s a month in storage charges. No Industry, no tax, no public services, so how does Hamas keep its forces paid and the streets fairly clean?

Donations from abroad. Incredible that private individuals should donate enough each month, by tortuous and illegal channels, to keep an entire government afloat. While the UN and others keep the food flowing to the poor, the government is supported by individuals.

Jewish Settlement in Israel started by Russian émigrés in the 1870s, and onwards, being funded by the unbelievably rich Rothschild, the man to whom the Balfour declaration was addressed. Without Rothschild the settlements would have collapsed, as many did, and the Zionist project would have remained a pipe dream. Now Hamas and the integrity of Gaza rely on the same precarious method. And what's the betting that they will become just as strong?

What I've been doing.

2009-03-14T23:10:00.004+02:00

I meet the Deputy Education Minister, Dr Yusuf Ibrahim, and we arrange a programme to collect School Art.

I meet the person responsible for Art in Schools, and we agree a programme to produce something for exhibition in Brussels and eventually the UK. On the right another random delegation from Northampton working in schools

Some bombed houses

Jica Japanese Aid NGO distributes non-food aid: a school satchel with crayons and a pair of shoes of random size, cleaning materials, cooking pots, kerosene lamp, brooms etc.

To qualify for this aid handout, people must have lost a family member or had their home demolished, and these 260 in Beit Hanoun are the 'lucky' qualifiers.

In Gaza

2009-03-12T11:23:00.004+02:00

The Gates of Gaza - Exit from Egypt

High Speed Crowds in Khan Younis

View of the port from my hotel, showing blast damage.

The bombed house next door

Day 3 in Gaza, and I feel like a fraud. People read a blog for up to the minute news, but you'll have done better to read or watch the mainstream news. The pictures of cheering crowds I never get anyway, because the van must keep moving, and I'm also selfishly being in the moment and waving and shaking hands. What was slightly different about the ride up the 25 miles or so from Rafah to gaza City was that many of the young, especially, were less concerned about the politics of the support we were bringing, but the celebrity moment, and a few were begging. Gazans have been starved of more than food, and I felt, once again, like a fraudulent hero, who they hoped, just by touching hands, would fulfill their lives. Instead, we were taken to a sports centre where we had a few speeches, including some touching ones by ordinary convoy chaps, a box of lamb, bread and chips, and a mattress on the floor, where I sleep like a log until I remembered that I had not heard from Arif and Asim who had leapt out of the Pea when asked to do so by the Egyptians, despite me telling them to stay put while we agued their case. 'No, man' says Arif already walking away, 'we'll see you on the other side, init?'

While I was having my sleepless night they were already in Gaza, but their timed text telling me so arrived 24 hours late, so in ignorance I txt the British Consul, and spoke to Gaza Immigration, and to convoy officials.

The next day I began work on my Art project, which is to bring Art of all standards to Brussels for an exhibition during the campaign against the Israeli Trade agreement, and then on to the UK for an auction to raise more funds for Gaza, but it was not a good day. One minister agreed that we could use the Pea to tour the area, but another pointed out that Galloway's agreement with the Egyptians and ultimately with the Israelis was that no vehicles could return through the Rafah crossing, as permission to enter was on an exceptional basis. This legal prohibition - which i am prepared to confront - had become re-stated as 'every vehicle entering Gaza is a gift for the Palestinian Government', and so I have donated it, although the whole point for me going, was to fill the van and export something. Still, maybe when the West Bank and the Gaza do reconcile, the Ramallah government will remember the Green machine that first exported Olive Oil from Jenin overland. I can't pretend that I won't miss it.

Deprived of our own transport, we loaded up my bags into Yasser's car, but returning for the second time, he had lost his keys. I went by cab to a hotel, but it was full, and then I lost my convoy chaps so couldn't say goodbye - goodbye Richard. When Yasser got a new set of keys It was too late to pursue anything, but at least I got a long sleep.

What has the convoy achieved?

It has opened up the UK media, at least a little bit, people have told me that the Pea is on the news, and the little van has certainly earned its moment of fame, entering in triumph, rather than on the back of a low loader like so many others. Never a moment's difficulty. I'd like to hear from someone about just how much the media interest has been, and how well received. IMHO, Media coverage is King, and if we brought the difficulties of Gaza into people's consciousness, even a little, then it was a triumph. Every other comment that I will make is secondary to this; exposure to the media IS the war that we who want to liberate Palestine are fighting, because we cannot resist Israel in any other way. I have said before that, at least in the West, the tears of the Palestinians are their best - and only - weapon, and when all the ordinary people in the West identify with the losses of the Pals; when everyone cries together; they will be Free, because no government can overcome the revulsion of its population at suffering which can be stopped.

What else? Despite my previous post that the terms of opening of the Rafah crossing remain unchanged, they have been widened slightly, since the whole of the convoy has been let in, even though it was let in as an exception. Of course the Israelis will have been consulted by the Egyptians about this, but our leadership - Galloway - did not talk to them, and that is a small step on the road to an autonomous opening between Egypt and Israel. However, legally, it still only for pedestrians and medical emergencies, and we need to keep pushing those boundaries. Perhaps that means more convoys, but Gaza needs 2 way traffic, if it is to survive, it needs to export from its massive talent of skills and manufactures, and I hope to start with what can be spared - Art!

What else? I see Tony Blair has at last visited Gaza, and watching his interview with the BBC, he is supporting a unity government, admits the Israeli attack was outrageous, and describes the current situation as a blockade which must be ended. I believe that the timing of his visit to Gaza was in the face of the impending arrival of the convoy.

The fact that the Western powers make no progress with Fatah alone, and are forced to accept a unity government to deal with Gaza, because they still don't want to deal with Hamas alone, is a tribute to the steadfastness of Hamas, and an admission that an Uncle Tom Government in the West Bank, however supine, and however much it is ordered to act as the policeman of Palestinians on behalf of the Israelis, cannot deliver a durable peace for Israel. There is no doubt that the FreeGaza boat, this convoy and other initiatives, not least the blowing open of the fence by Hamas last year, has made the Israeli politics of repression untenable, and Obama may get a lucky break, and actually be allowed to deliver some progress. But I'm not carried away. Every scrap of freedom will be a new struggle, accompanied by claims that Israel has given Palestine a great deal, and the ungrateful and lazy Pals will have to be punished if they are not prepared to evict themselves from the West Bank, and be Israel's slave labour force in fenced off factories in Gaza, owned by Israelis. Interesting that Jordan and Egypt both allow these Industrial zones of Israeli control and profit on their soil, accepting that their only role is to coerce their population into working there without any protection such as a health or pensions or accident protection. Slaves, I say, driven their by their government's fear of Israel, yet i regularly meet men, labourers and those who will work for others anyway, say that they would welcome the return of the Israeli wage certainty, and would gladly trade the loss of equality for the regular wage. These are mostly older men, the young cannot imagine working with Israelis and want only victory over them.

Galloway and his team deserve a mark of respect for driving the convoy to its conclusion, and for publicly handing over large sums of money that had been raised in the UK to the Hamas leadership, and challenging the UK Government to prosecute him. This is yet another confrontation that needs to be had, but I fear that the UK Government will not prosecute, but my prediction is that he should worry about charges of un-parliamentary behaviour in about 6 months time.

A less attractive part of Galloway's belligerent style was the view from the top that there can be no democracy in the convoy, because the people are best served by the secret decisions of the leadership. Rumour about whether we were in support of a government, or about to go to an opposition rally, such as at Sfax in Tunisia, were rife, and increasingly a siege mentality descended on us, and conspiracy theories abounded, not helped by public proclamations that MI5 and Mossad were among us. Although probably true, it created a fertile ground for complicated conspiracies and something of the atmosphere of "Lord of the Flies" was prevalent in the convoy at the end, with all sense of the proportionality of response eroded as people graduated into sectors mutually hostile, and prepared to threaten others. Because of the remoteness of the Leadership, the 90% of the convoy that are Muslims, at the second attempt, elected an Emir to act as leader and as an arbitrator of their cause. His repeated pleas failed to stop many cases of overtaking dangerously, racing, and collisions that led to altercations. There was also a more insidious campaign whose theme was that if someone did something wrong, and it was filmed, then it was the filmaker who was the culprit, not the miscreant. On the last day I was forced under threats of really extreme violence to hand over a tape after someone tried to grab my camera, and all three (if I'm one) film crews where seriously threatened in some way during the trip. Certainly I learnt a lot about the way a group of people can react when they perceive themselves moving through hostile terrain, relying only on themselves. All governments, police were considered hostile, when my observations convinced me that all police had orders to be especially friendly, even if officiously efficient. As a cantankerous old man, and anyway a loner, I was viewed with suspicion by some. This study in himan psychology, captured in Lord of the Flies, is a shock in real life.

Nevertheless, I made some amazing friends, Shocutt - total respect, man, Kim, the coolest dude on the planet, Jim, another cantankerous old man, with great self awareness; Richard, overcoming tiredness and bad temper with good humour, the Birminghams, especially the London Birmingham, and others who I will regret not mentioning later. So a personal journey of discovery for this old man, I hope it was so for others.

But, more important than all of that, is the boost that it brought to life here in Gaza. If we were worried by the hero worship before, then here we are celebrities par excellence. people were standing in the middle of the road to stop the vans to shake hands with the drivers, and although a few saw the rich westerners as a chance to beg, many more threw flowers or sweets at us, which we usually gave back to children at the side of the road. people here often say that they appreciate our hard journey of three weeks or so, but really it is nothing, I say compared to the 3 weeks of bombing that they have endured without the option. I heard a story of a woman buried alive with her child under the rubble of a building who sowed up his spilt guts with a sewing needle and thread while they waited days for help. She lived, he did not. Stories of horses being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, of olive trees being demolished on purpose by tanks and a new kind of Bulldozer, not seen here before. It was described as 30 metres tall, but I assumed that they meant a D9, the armoured Bulldozer partly manufactured in the UK by Caterpillar. "No, no, much bigger than a D9, 30 metres tall, I saw it!"

paradoxically the deterioration of morality on the convoy helped me to understand how Israeli soldiers can come to commit such cold blooded acts of murder, trained as they are wawy from Palestinians and indoctrinated in the increasingly racist culture that pervades Israel today, from what I read in the press. What is remarkable to me is that, as far as I can tell, there is no such behaviour deterioration in Gaza, even though they are besieged and bombed by an invisible enemy that seems to have total control over their lives. Some accounts say that tribal warfare had come to Gaza in the later stages of Arafat's regime, although I can't verify that. But the ordinariness of life here is really bthe greatest tribute to Gazans. It makes me completely certain that they will win in the end.

Health in the Palestinian Territories

2009-03-10T11:52:00.011+02:00

Hope you won't mind my posting this important link Rod.
We're all thinking of you there and are very proud.

Woman's Hour today features an item on health in decline in the Palestinian territories with Dr. Rita Giacaman Professor of Public Health at Birzeit University. The item stays in the Woman's Hour archive for several months and readers can access it online. Look for the 'Listen Again' section on the website.

'A two year international investigation published in the Lancet shows that the effect of the occupation, the recent conflicts in Gaza and inter-Palestinian fighting are undermining the health and development of the population. In particular it shows an increase in infant mortality, failure of children under five to grow, the difficulties faced by women in labour trying to get to maternity units and that health gains in the 1990's are being eroded'.

Post by Frances Laing

Bittersweet

2009-03-10T09:51:00.004+02:00

My first night in Gaza and I keep waking up thinking of Arif & Asim who were prevented from entering by Egypt. We should have stayed with them but believed Egyptian officials who said that they would be allowed in later. They were seperated because they had not entered Egypt with the convoy but flew in to Cairo. Several so called 'celebrities' had done the same, some being with Galloway the first to go through the gates betraying those who had driven 6000 miles & were still denied top billing.

Arif & Asim's names were given to convoy officials in accordance with the rules but these officials now wash their hands of the matter and will not assist them.

Our reception by the Palestinians has been overwhelming, the vehicles being mobbed by ecstatic people all the way from Rafah to Gaza City, but it sticks in my throat, this adulation wasted on those who don't deserve it while Arif & Asim face an uncertain future.

Opening the Gates

2009-03-09T14:48:00.002+02:00

Text from Rod 12.39pm

After 6013 miles gates are opening for our entry into Gaza. Massive numbers of press waiting and our entry was direct from Egypt without Israeli control or permission.

Pauline Thompson

Waiting & Politics

2009-03-09T10:13:00.002+02:00

The convoy did not pass through at noon yesterday as planned. Here are Rod's texts (British time):

Sunday 12.34pm
A problem is developing here. Riot police deployed to stop convoy leaving as a single unit. Libyan secret police & trucks involved. New negotiations mean that vehicles which are not staying in Gaza will not be allowed to enter and that would mean I cannot load up in Gaza.

Sunday 7.23pm
George Galloway announced after negotiations with the Governor of Sinai that medical aid and all UK vehicles which are staying in Gaza will enter through Rafah. All Libyan aid and all our non-medical aid will go by Israeli-controlled crossings but in the hands of the Red Crescent. This is (almost) in accordance with international agreements & was the position when we left the UK. We have not forced any changes on Israel. Our aid will be transhipped to Red Crescent trucks tonight & we leave for the border at 6am tomorrow. However the convoy is adamant that they will enter together and not through any Israeli-controlled crossing.

Monday 4.50am
Our aid unloaded to Red Crescent last night but 50% still waiting to unload. Police asking us to start engines but convoy refusing to move until all can travel.

Monday 6.58am
1st section of convoy now moving in groups of 20, but will wait to consolidate at fuel stop ahead. I think it will be slow.

Monday 7.39am
1st (our) section of convoy now 30kms from Rafah moving at 35kph, with refuelling stop ahead. Tail end still not authorised to start.

Pauline Thompson

Egypt, the final frontier.

2009-03-08T01:06:00.003+02:00

Soldier standing silently staring into a sandstorm in Sinai

Egypt, the final frontier.
We arrived in Egypt in a sandstorm, or the aftermath, anyway. The air was heavy with sand and visibility was very limited. The front half of the convoy went to a tented reception in the little town at the foot of the mountain that the border lies on; a sweet town on the mediterranean that probably never sees a tourist from one years end tothenext. No tourists come from Egypt the Libyan Official had said. For Tobruk where we stayed our last night they arrive in Tripoli or Benghazi and come by coach. It must be a dying trade visiting those graves, but what we passed at a fair clip looked well maintained.
Further along is El Alamein, which has its own airport. No reference was made to this historic place as we listened to a second reception last night and stayed in a military hotel, presumably a rest and recuperation centre, which had huge columns in the lobby, and lots of gold and ornaament, but lacked some class in the bathroom department. Still, huge rooms, free, large beds, a full 7 hours - really luxury.
The Egyptians are managing the convoy better than anyone before. Cutting us into manageable chunks they move us efficiently wuth huge numbers of police and Army. parked along the motorway, the vehicles were guarded overnight by soldiers while we were bussed off to our hotel. Actually the numbers of Police and soldiers is remarkable. They have been stationed every 50 metres or so, often standing at attention, always facing away from the road, often standing to attention, but some unable to resist the temptation to turn and look at us. Every 50 metres for 1000 kilometres. that's 20,000 soldiers, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds who marshal our convoy and count the vehicles obsessively. We have not seen any 'real' people until we crossed the Suez canal, again in a sand storm. The number of soldiers dropped and suddenly there were small pockets of crowds. When we gave out Palestinian flags, however, the police used their sirens to move us forward and the crowds back. Still there was a good crowd waiting for us at El Arish where we arrived a couple of hours ago. I have had to blag my way past the soldiers on the gate of the hotel and here I am at 1.30 am, and we are going to Gaza tomorrow! 10 sharp! The end is in sight and lots more people are coming to join the convoy by air to Cairo, 2 of them to join the Pea. welcome Arif and Asim.
It has been a long journey, over 5000 miles on our mileometer, and now only 50 to go, I don't know what to think and I'm not sure that others do either.
At last nights reception, the Egyptian minister speaking said that we would go through the Rafah crossing at noon on Sunday - as easy as that. Almost seems like we needn't have come 5000 miles if the crossing is going to open that easily.
I really fear that the Israelis will make a meal of this crossing, saying that aid always gets transmitted to Gaza etc etc, but the gates will shut behind us. I already suspect that only vehicles which are staying in Gaza will be allowed through, but I'm going to take the Pea if humanly possible. I need to take it to bring back some exports from there.
The politics of the convoy had got very introverted, like a remote village in the mountains where the only entertainment for the locals is to call each other withches. I am not certain that the rumours about the photos of people holding a gun being published were started to embarass the filmmakers, possibly by a young anti-intellectual crowd, or possibly by the leadership. Anyway, there were no embarassing photos in the press, just an article about how George Galloway was selling out the Egyptian Opposition by doing a deal directly with the Government. All the threatening behaviours were based on a fiction that has spread through the convoy faster than any good news.

Whatever, four people got refused entry into Egypt, and have been hosted by the Libyans until they can fly to catch up, or go home. We had a meeting this morning as to whether to wait for them or move on. It was overwhelming that we should keep going. I think that brings the total of arrests or visa refusals to around 13, although a couple of those have caught up. There is a man who has been in Guantanamo bay, and one who was imprisoned in Afghanistan for nine months by the Northern Alliance. People who who care about Palestine are obviously prepared to give up a lot.
--Written yesterday --It's getting dark and we are about to go around Alexandria. We have just entered a stretch of road lined with policemen or soldiers, and buildings, although miles and miles of buildings look uninhabited, and may be holiday accommodation. Whether or not, there are no people, no cheering crowds, and I don't think that there will be. We are going to be going around Alexandria after dark, although that is the time that we have been consistently mobbed in other countries. Here, however, I fear that we will stay on the motorways and be invisible. We were not on Al Jazeera news last night.
Instaed, our companions are the soldiers and Gaddafi's convoy, and its bus full of journalists and organisers. the Egyptian soldiers wave at us from the side of the road, and occasionally we get a wave from distant donkey carts and farmers. At last we have been drawn in to the side of the road and the pent up traffic behind us has been allowed to flow past, although the other side still looks far more empty than a Friday night motorway should.

After Suez the crowds did come out, even though there was a dust storm where sand creeps into every orifice, and we kept the Pea's windows closed tight Spontaneous Demonstration of Schoolchildren in Libya
Our journey started as a mad chatic and totally disorganised journey through total disinterest in Europe, progressed through cheering populations in Morrocco, through stage managed crowds in Algeria, as well as the bleakness of the central Highlands. Constantine the city where the soldiers shared their guns, and on over the cold lands of the Algerian Tunisian border getting but small interest from the locals, until their enthusuam exploded out in the little border town of Ben Guerdane. Onwards through Libya, where the convoy was contolled with a light but efficient touch, including a passage through Tripoli, our only capital city, and where we missed the main groups of people because of our insistence on taking a short cut to save a day. And now, Egypt, where we are courteously, efficiently and totally segregated from the population, and where I have no doubt that we will be delivered to Rafah at 12 noon on Sunday without ever seeing a single crowd in this country of 50 million people, almost all of whom, I'd bet. would like to tell us how much they support the Gazans. (We have now seen these small crowds in Sinai, and they have told us how much they support thePalestinians. El Arish seems to be a place where the authorities don't mind a show of support from the locals.

I received a text from a contact in Gaza, and I replied that I was busy with the crowds in El Arish. She replied that I should wait until I see the crowds in Gaza!
I can't wait!

Arrival at Gaza

2009-03-07T20:34:00.004+02:00

Rod says the convoy has been very tightly controlled whilst traveling through Egypt and he has not been able to get to an internet station but has asked me to let everyone know that the convoy will be going through to Gaza tomorrow (Sunday) at 12 noon Egyptian time (2 hours ahead of GMT).

They are stopping at El Arish tonight and crossing tomorrow at Rafah. The Egyptian government have said they will be allowed straight through.

Let us see how much publicity is given to so momentous an event by the British mainstream press.

Pauline Thompson

Libya

2009-03-04T22:13:00.007+02:00

The route that we should have taken but we cut the corner from the two black spots at the bottom to the black spot on the right. The red spots are where we should have met people, so we've missed most of them

The Desert

Me!

The Desert

A Pharoah that I found in a Libyan Kitchen

Crowds in Tripoli

In the park in Tripoli on last Sunday I was interviewed by Al Jazeera. People have been coming up to me since and being very complimentary about it. I spoke, as I always do, about the insignificance of our aid compared to the task in hand, and the real cause of our mission being to get the gates of Gaza open, but this isn't the part that people are speaking of. There was an exhibition of schoolchildren's paintings, some magnificently framed, and I had been given one of these which I pledged to bring back to the UK to auction and use the money to aid Gaza. I said that this was a way in which the children of Libya could directly help the children of Gaza. This seems to have caught the imagination of many people, and I hope that I can do the same trick in Gaza, where the Al Jazeera clip will also have been seen. This is a way for the children of Gaza to help themselves. I have already been in contact with a couple of people in Gaza, a long time ago, to see if anything can be organised, but I haven't been able to follow anything through for days because we can't find any Internet connection - I'm feeling very frustrated.
The war is in the media as much as it is on the ground. How is it that Israel can commit such vile acts of murder and have people dare to write to the press complaining about their hardships on their subsidised farms and villages in Israel, when they have stolen the land in the first place and they have killed everyone who gets in their way to keep this stolen land. None of Israel or the land it occupies has any legitimacy. Even the land purchased by the very earliest settlers in the 1870s, about the same time as the cowboys were wiping out the Indians in America, cannot be secure inside Israel without a Peace Agreement, because every Treaty or Declaration about the State of Israel solemnly swears that the original Inhabitants must be granted equal rights and securely protected. Israel is therefore in breach of ALL its obligations in International Law, and, of course, it does not recognise International Law, and has not signed up to any of the International agreements that regulate good behaviour between states. It is truly a pariah state, and the only state except the USA to threaten another with Nuclear attack. Sharon did this to Iran, and in the last month, Avigdor Lieberman, the guy who makes even the Fascist Netanyahu look moderate, said that Gazans must be got rid of, if they will not flee into Egypt, he said they should have a nuclear bomb dropped on them. Why is he not in Jail? Because his support in the country is widespread, that's why, and unlike when I was there in the 1970s, most of the population now seem like unadulterated racists. We should stop appeasing them, and tell them to their face: Palestinians have equal rights and should have equal opportunities to Israelis. Anyone who disagrees with this, cannot be accepted in 'polite' society, or any society.
Let's be clear about this. Israel is not afraid to lie and lie again to make a point in the media, usually with banal simplicities: "We only kill militants, those civilians who die were being used as Human shields". In fact Hamas claimed they only lost 68 fighters, and hospital reports tend to support this. The Israelis count "Hamas Policemen" among the number of 'Militants' killed. But Policemen are not combatants in a war, they are civilians. And they are not 'Hamas' Policemen, any more than British Policemen are New Labour Policemen.
Why am I so het up about this today? Because several people have reported to me that photos of convoyers holding guns given to them by soldiers have appeared on the Internet purporting to show that the convoy is being used for terrorist training. I took such a picture myself, and it is posted in this blog, but I don't believe in guns as a solution, and I didn't want to hold one myself. Some guy made a bee-line for me in Constantine, Algeria, however, and put one in my hands, or tried to. When I refused to take it he got quite upset and there was a row. He could not explain why he wanted me to hold the gun, and not himself, and I shrugged it off and forgot about it. But of course there is an MI5 agent on the convoy, and probably someone from Mossad, too. Was it that guy - I don't know him, so have no idea why he so desperately wanted it to be me - or was he goaded by others. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Israelis will not let the matter of the truth get in their way when it comes to the media. They will not wait for the opposition to fail, or to look silly, they are constantly working to make it happen. Lies, all lies. People who read this blog must be vigorous, please, in writing to the press. It really is war, and no reference to even small things, like "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel" should be allowed to pass unchallenged. (They say this every Eurovision Song Contest, for instance.)
As a result of incidents like this, there has been developing a Paranoid element in the camp. People are from a disparate and unequal background, with some elderly people, some I would describe as joy-riders, some serious religious elements, some middle class Guardian Readers (yes Sarah Gillespie, there are some), some sorted folk, and some who are working through personal issues or have a chip on their shoulder. In this environment, and as people become more familiar with the rhythm of the convoy, and its 'hurry up and wait' ethos, so boredom and devilment have set in. Overtaking, and rash and dangerous driving, which I mentioned earlier in the blog have continued to grow. A van - said to be hired!! - has overturned without casualties, but is a write off. Several minor accidents and angry incidents have taken place. Scapegoats have been sought for the media reports, and I have been obliquely threatened, while the official film crew have been explicitly threatened, and Press Tv were attacked when they tried to film the overturned Van. After shooting seventeen films, I can no longer get the co-operation of many whom have been previously filmed by me, and I may abandon the documentary. Nevertheless, I filmed a fight early last night, and a heated dispute, within a matter of minutes.
Last night we spent in the desert. we shouldn't have been there, since we were scheduled to take the Coast Road around by Benghazi, but at last the organisers got the Libyans to agree to their plan. The plan was to drive right through the desert, to Tobruk, and then go through the Egyptian border today. But as night fell, the man they call the Sheikh, head of the Chamber of Commerce and nothing to do with the convoy really, decreed that we would stay in the desert, and sleep in our vans or under the stars, because "The road is dangerous at night. Camels cannot be seen and they will run across the road in front of you, and if you crash into one it will be very serious." This turned out to be a Very Good Thing.
The convoy also has a sheikh - at least one - but this Brummie has become the most respected figure on the convoy. The Muslims have asked him before to be their Emir, or representative, and he has previously refused, but now he has accepted. He made a long speech which was impassioned and coherent. A message that you could feel the younger group, especially, had been waiting for. I'll spare you the quotes from the Quran, but if I simply give you the bald outcomes, the effect of the words on the assembly of almost all the convoy sat on the side of the road; in the cloudless night, soldiers at a nearby checkpoint stopping lorries which ground down and up their gears as they crawled between our close packed vans; the words floating over the chilly evening breeze, without a murmur of disinterest; if I simply give the outcome, the effect will be lost.
The outcome was this: there will be no more overtaking or reckless driving, do you all agree? YEEEESSSS.

There will be courtesy between all, whether Muslim or non muslim, do you agree? YEEESSS

There will be no more intimidation, do you agree? YEESS.
Really the effect had long been wanted. Reassurances were given that despite the undoubted presence of MI5, and others on the Convoy, there would be no paranoid aggression. Everyone was relieved and went to bed, literally happy. The next morning, TEAM 11 - us - were given the honour of leading the convoy for the first time, and we pulled away with only one attempt to push in (stopped by the police immediately), and absolutely no overtaking all morning. Believe me, that is truly remarkable, and we have turned a corner. Even Kevin was caught smiling today, and he has spoken to me almost with civility. It is doubly tragic that as we halted for the day, we assembled to give our condolences to the family of a Libyan Journalist killed in a crash on her way to join us for the push to Gaza. The Convoy has been dedicated to her; nice one Kevin.
Tonight I am in the internet cafe in Tobruk, 100kms from our camp. We've been driven here under Police escort, by the Libyan Sheikh. He is buying my pals dinner while I finish uploading. Video doesn't work, upload speeds are not high enough there isn't time, I'm stressed, but tomorrow, tomorrow, we cross into Egypt, and the gates of Hell will soon be before us, and we will be a united and disciplined convoy, and we WILL get into Gaza. On of our young Drivers, Arif, is flying out to Cairo on the 5th, to re-join us for the last push. Looking forward to it Arif. This convoy has finally become a nice place to be.
The whole group 11 was also interviewed by a small Libyan funded Egyptian Station. It was a long running interview in which several people spoke. Kieran, team leader, said that he thought that a disparate group of people had welded into a team, I made the point about the need to force open the gates wide, and liberate the people, Shocut from the Oxford Ambulances, said that we were a United Nations of dark and light skins, Moslems, Christians, Atheists, and if we count the Mossad agent, Jew as well. We ended the interview by chanting "We are going to Gaza and we're not going home 'til the gates are open wide." You better believe it folks.

Advancing into Libya

2009-03-04T20:39:00.007+02:00

Richard warming up in Mizrata, a decent seaside resort in Libya. According to convoy organisers, we left 2 hours ago, but a nice Libyan man predicted that we would not leave till 3pm. We actually left at 1510.

A Fundamental Change:
Just as I finished writing yesterday's piece, Munir in the driver's seat, said "There will be no more F words in this vehicle, and I replied that I would speak as I liked, so he got out and moved to another vehicle, in what was a pre-planned move. We had some fun on the trip, laughing about Mohammed's view that if you are reading or listening to the Koran at the time of your death, you will go straight to Paradise. "One of the Companions asked - 'Doesn't your intention matter?' - but the prophet replied 'no'". Munir said, as we were driving along listening to a tape of the Quran recited to the whoops and cheers of an obviously large crowd, 'So you're in luck, if we crash now, even as an infidel you'll be saved' Good Luck Munir. He brought little luggage, and no aid, his ambition in Palestine, as in the UK, is to preach Islam, and that was -and is - the journey purpose for him.
The issue of intention in Islam, however, does matter. A senior figure on the convoy preached a sermon in which he encouraged his congregation to remember that courtesy - respect for other people - must be behind all actions, or they have no or little value. I taped the sermon in a mosque that we stayed in a few days ago, after consulting the Imam, of course. The Mosque was warm and comfortable and welcomes any stranger in this way, but the cold water washing still leaves much to be desired in my opinion. Now I've left my washing kit behind in the last hotel, however, cold water with soap is better than cold water without.
My new co-driver is Richard - he snores. He warned me about this before coming across, and he is gently ZZZing behind me as I write this in the van at about 2pm in Tripoli. As usual, we have been ordered to be ready to move, but I'll write a whole piece before there is any action. Richard was the Group's spare driver, which sounds efficient, but was just an accident, but being spare, he liked the possibility of driving the Pea regularly, and I like his sardonic humour, so that's done then. He helped out whilst I had flu, and that's how we met.
Through him, I've broadened my social circle, meeting the Oxford Ambulance crew, Masroud and Shocut. They have been driving all day yesterday without any brakes - yes literally!!! Driving steadily and using gears to slow and hand brake to stop. They informed the Police escort provided specially for them in Tunisia, and in Libya, but shifts would change in front of them, with no communication, and the driving here demands sudden braking regularly. Once they had to over take their stopped police car on the inside verge, going through a police checkpoint in the process, triggering a rush to chase them before they eventually rolled to a stop. Mechanics have repaired the brakes to three wheels, but the fourth requires major surgery. they are continuing a considerable distance away from us! Two days later I can write that they have found a small workshop where the owner fabricated the parts that they need and fixed them properly. Needless to say, he would not take any money.
The fire engine from Manchester, crewed by the laconic Richard who bought the engine; the enormous Kamal, a Palestinian Australian who is not afraid to mix it, and Mumtiaz, a characterful bearded man of about seven stone. When they got a sudden ingress of another Convoy vehicle against their mirror, Kamal exploded out of the cab and took matters into his own hands. I saw that incident, but with the recklessness of driving increasing both in the world around, and in the convoy, I can't believe that it will be the only one. Two days later i have many reports of such overtaking incidents, including one against the vehicle that travels behind us, again damaging the wing mirror. Some of the younger men are getting fueled on Adrenaline as the convoy approaches the end of the line, but as the driver of the Blackburn van said: 'there is no point in the tail of the snake overtaking the head, no part moves forward any faster.'
The Pea has also been a casualty, overfilled with Oil by Munir, who didn't realise that you don't have to put all the bottle in. Soon after starting off it was making grinding, big end type noises and blowing black smoke, and we were pulled over by those travelling behind us. The oil was drained and changed by the Oxford crew within an hour. Everyone helped, and Kieran, team leader who claims to be pestered by me constantly (whereas I claim that I never see him) turned the tables on me by filming me talking about the problem. That was Algeria, and the Pea is now in Libya and is still running as beautifully as ever.
There are now several vehicles on low-loaders being transported towards Cairo. The number of odd-ball vehicles, like the small fishing boat, or the fire engine, that are travelling essentially outside the convoy, increases by one each time a vehicle gets put on a low loader or has to go off for repairs. We followed three ambulances, believing them to be the convoy, to a smart Mercedes garage, where we were obliged to wait for wait for the police to instruct us on how to re-join the convoy.
Two women and three men who went off in two cars to drive to Sfax for an oil filter, arrived late, booked a hotel, and were arrested by the secret police at 6am. They were not given a reason. The two women fought back, they told me in an interview, knocking over one man and elbowing another, and having eventually been restrained and put in an unmarked minibus they tried to hi-jack it at a petrol station. They were deported to Libya, and I met up with them at the border. They could think of no reason for their arrest, and knew nothing of the opposition Rally there that I had heard - but can't confirm - had been banned by the police, and which was scheduled for that night. It's fair to say that they had been off by themselves for a day or two before, but then it's also fair to say that they were following the printed route, going through the Algerian/Tunisian Border on our originally planned route. We (the convoy) saved time by cutting through the country's interior, crossing at Tebessa instead of near Annaba, but certainly I was only aware of that as we were rolling that day.
There have been many complaints at grassroots through the convoy that the host countries are keeping us away from the people, by refusing to let us drive through the big cities, but I have never been convinced. The convoy itself rebelled against going to Rabat, because of the excessive hours that it had had to drive through Europe. Subsequently, I believe that it is the organisers who are trying to short-cut the intentions of the hosts by insisting on avoiding Urban areas in the main.

Queueing for the Lunch we weren't supposed to have in Mizrata. The man looking at the camera is Mohammed, a Libyan Youth Organiser.

The same thing is now happening in Libya.. The Libyan organisers have agreed a programme which now has been repudiated by our organisers. I was told that today we would be going to Tripoli for a reception, but our team leader told us officially that we would be avoiding Tripoli and driving a long 500 kilometres today. I'm writing this in the van after the reception in Tripoli that we attended has ended. We are waiting for the team leader and others to return from the Souk, and we'll be gone. To another reception outside Tripoli, says my source, and at 3.36 it's getting late for 500 kilometres, since we've only done 50. Two days later, and the pattern has repeated itself. I met a charming man in Mizrata, a large, faded resort along the coast from Tripoli where we stayed in bungalows, who told me: "you will not leave at 10, you will have lunch here before you go, and you will not go as far as your organisers say. The guest is not a free man, he is the prisoner of the host. Even in the Koran, it is said to be better to give than to be the supplicant, and in Bedouin culture, from which Libyan culture - and all Arab culture - derives, if your host asks you to stay for dinner, you have no choice"
'There is a reason for the programme: Your trip has two purposes, the first is to get to Gaza and get the gates open, but the second is the political work along the way, and this is just as important, and it is why the programme is agreed as it is.
Despite several public statements by the organisers to the contrary, we left at 3pm, and next stopped for a snack at a large reservoir project, which the Libyans call the man made river, and I write this extra bit as Richard is driving - at midnight, to our final destination. Libyan Architecture is very eclectic, and Architects certainly don't suffer from fear of self expression. This cross between a marauding dragon and a tiger moth plane is in Tripoli
We're also driving in Libya. In Tripoli at least the driving is aggressive and dangerous, worse than I remember in Cairo, even. I'm writing this as we canter through weaving traffic at 60, but if we need a new clutch, it'll be all those hours of crawling along the Tripoli Motorways at 0mph, fighting for every inch of road - and that's with a police escort.
One of Gaddafi's Hundred Trucks - not to mention 2 Fire Engines and a flock of Ambulances

But one of the reasons for the programme times is that we have been joined by 100 articulated lorries, donated by the Government of Libya, and although we are not in convoy with them, we are building a relationship with them as we pass and re-pass them, and they travel at night. We have also had added directly to group 11 an ambulance and a fire-engine, both brand new. There is also a press coach which also carries various others who are travelling with us, and all in all, in volume, the Libyan effort knocks ours into a cocked hat. At 30 tonnes per lorry, it's 3000 tonnes of mainly flour. But then, as my Libyan friend and I both agree, it is not the amount of aid that matters, because however much we take we will need as much tomorrow, it is the sheer weight of public opinion represented by all those rolling wheels which will batter the gates open, nothing else, and it is the opening of the gates that is the only acceptable outcome for the children of Gaza

Police and the people - the Oscars

2009-03-04T19:47:00.003+02:00

No Return! waiting at the Libyan Border

I thought that I'd consider which Country had done the most in various departments, such as heavy policing, strength of voice from the people, etc., etc. I thought about this because of the events of yesterday. In short, it seems that political dialogue between our convoy leaders - George Galloway since he's travelling with us at the moment - and the Tunisian Government, have broken down, leading to a charade of a day, which I'll tell you about shortly. Before doing that, though, I want to make clear that I have very little knowledge of the governments of North Africa, and cannot do the research since I don't get enough time on the Internet. That's why I thought that I'd have an Oscar award for the various categories of behaviour we've experienced here.
First Yesterday: It seems that we have arranged with the Libyans that we will enter Libya today, Saturday, at 8am, so George and co wanted us camped near the border in our vans ready to move as a sweetly trained flock of homing pigeons at the rising of the sun. They were afraid that if they accepted the Tunisian's offer of accommodation, they would not be able to get us out of bed in time. The question is, essentially, do we get accommodation because they're nice, or because they want to control us? That's not all. From Gabes, it is only about 100 kilometers to the border, but there is one large town on the way, 33k from the border, that the road went through without alternative. Friday being the day of the Major Muslim prayer, and 'holiday' (Muslim's don't actually get a day off in the Quran, I'm told by Munir - no wonder the Israelis wanted to employ Palestinians before the first Intifada) it was said that the Government didn't want us to stop in the town for those Friday prayers, in case the people got too excited(?!), but it was also said that they would try to get us through the town quickly so that they could push us over the border and out of the way.
At this point I probably need to tell you that there was - allegedly - an opposition rally organised in Sfax, a town not far from Gabes, at which we, or at least George was to be the guest of honour. A couple of people who went up to this event were arrested and have gone into Libya on their release 'for their own safety'. None of this is verified, and the leadership will not talk about anything, but there is no doubt that there is an anti- government agenda being disseminated in the convoy, which some say is the agenda of the Respect Party, and others that it is a Human Rights agenda, because the Government is so dictatorial. In the official Blog of the trip I saw a post in which someone described the Tunisian Police presence at the border as overwhelming and intimidating, and described onlookers as being all of a certain age and obviously bussed to wave at us. This is so far off my experience that I thought that I would award these Oscars, so here they are:
Most efficient Police (Most Forceful): Algeria
Most effective (and entertaining) motorcycle outriders: Algeria, by a distance. the shabbily dressed army outriders of Tunisia don't compare, and I can't remember the Moroccans. The Algerians performed like circus stars, and deserve an Oscar.
Least effective Secret Police: Tunisia. Well I saw many, whereas I didn't really notice them elsewhere, although I know they were there. The photo of the Fez, below, shows the local head man in that Moroccan town.
Most Demonstrative Crowds: Morocco, until the last night in Tunisia, and the first night in Algeria, which were wild. But only in Morocco did almost every individual give us a hearty wave even if we didn't wave first. In Algiers, even crowds sometimes seemed distant, reserved, detached. And in the high plains areas the people were much more likely to ignore us.
Most sincere crowds: You can't shout Allah Akbar at the top of your voice more than 100 times - we are about no.104 in the convoy - without being sincere and passionate. Dead Heat between all countries, when the crowds let rip, although the last night in Tunisia was the most fervent, but Morocco overall.
Most efficient Convoy Marshals: Algerian, when they bothered to. I got the feeling sometimes that they were playing with us, letting the convoy run pell mell along motorways, then reining it in and bringing it to a halt in order to change over at their lunch break. (I'm not joking) I would have given Tunisia joint billing, but if we were able to outmanoevre them so easily, they don't deserve it. However, when we set off from Gabes, we left the convoy to fill up with LPG when we saw a station. In seconds the bemused gas station owners and sightseers were overwhelmed with police, and much to the surprise of the owner, a car with a three star general or equivalent swept in to the gas station and said the government would pay. They then gave us a 2 police car escort and forced their way through he traffic tailing back behind the convoy, and I re-joined it in minutes. The Algerians however, forced groups of ten vehicles through crowded town centres at a reasonable pace, and without unduly alienating the public, something that the Tunisians couldn't manage.
From our border cold lands to Gabes the half day trip was uneventful. Vehicles were escorted to a football stadium - uncomfortable memory of Death camps in Chile when we see the fencing around the terraces and the heavy police presence - but of course the vehicles are secure, which they would not be in the town. I spent the afternoon shopping and received no attention, because I don't look like a Muslim, and this convoy now seems to be associated in Government's minds and the public's with a British Muslim project. When I changed money in the Post Office the heavily scarfed woman teller was quite surly about changing sterling. She called a supervisor and we saw them look on the internet for a picture of the note to ensure it was genuine. She was definitely irritated. But when someone mentioned Gaza to her, her manner changed, a warmth and speed entered into her proceedings. She did the same things, but willingly, and saw us off with a cheery greeting. Conservative po-faced bank tellers support the fight of the Palestinians eh! If you were a government, you must get a piece of this action, you must show the people that you are throwing your weight behind this problem, and not siding with the Americans (although you probably are).
However, if this is an Islamic Jihad, this convoy, then that might stir up an Islamic movement that is sleeping in every country, it now seems to me. But if that is not harnessed properly for the government, it might lead to its overthrow, as in Algeria. So it might be best to get the convoy through in the dead of night, film a few selected supporters cheering and show it on TV as a great government triumph? You'll have to make your own mind up.
Morocco is a Monarchy, which is traditional and seems to have genuine support, there seems no rift between the people and the Government, in general
Award for most friendly Police:Morocco - see the Fez. The guys posing there are Colonels and similar.
Algeria, and my research is my memory from some years back, was a once democratic state in which the Islamist Party won an election, but was denied power. There followed years of bloody civil war. The police are direct, friendly - see boy's toys - but were prepared to drive us round in circles when it suited them.
Most Ruthless Police: Algeria
In Tunisia our convoy yesterday crawled along at 5 mph. We stopped for 2 hours for midday prayers, then shortly after for Lunch, then shortly after for sunset prayers, and we still hadn't reached Ben Guerdone, the town we couldn't go round. On the outskirts we stopped for no reason, and a message filtered back that we had stopped simply because we couldn't push through the crowds. i walked forward, and indeed it was so. Everyone was high fiving, shouting thank you to us, or Allah Akbar. they gave us the two fingered salute, but also the single finger pointed to heaven - it also means God is Great - and the more of that there was, the more the government wouldn't like it, I fear. they gave us all this love, emotion, power, and biscuits, water, milk, sweets, bread, and I feel sure that some would readily have given their lives right there.No wonder the opposition conference harnessing the convoy to its cause was cancelled and the leaders arrested, but you'll have to do your own research to find out if these rumours are true.
While we were on one of our many stops, I filmed a man who approached me to use his English, but also to tell me of the distress that he feels that his 'brothers' in Palestine are being killed while the West supports Israel, especially, he complained, by the use of the American veto. "why do Americans hate us so much?" he said, in reversal of the usual complaint.
Several people gathered round, and I shook hands with each of them as they joined the group to be involved with this westerner. One man, a billy bunter type, fat and with a pushed in nose, joined us and there was a perceptible shuffle among the rest. I had just replied to the question 'how do I like Tunisia? with 'great, the police are a little strong, but I really like it'. I did it on purpose, I was trying to sow the seed of a conversation to feel the pulse. My Friend replied without hesitation, 'yes, they are strong, they keep tourists safe, you can be sure that you will have no problems in Tunisia'. I saw Billy Bunter later, working the crowds in Guerdone, so he really was Secret Service, even if he was young and very thick looking. ( That's shameful prejudice really, but it's what I see)
The police tried to keep us moving through the town, but it is a large town, and it took us more than three hours. Three hours! It was like a carnival, and an election all at once. The police drove their cars, in the suburbs anyway, along the dusty road edges where the crowds were standing, between the crowds and the convoy, to force the crowds back. Is this sensible crowd control, or evidence of a police state? I know some vehicles went out of their way to antagonise the police by stopping as often as possible - Respect Party Agenda by rumour - but we didn't and the crowds constantly surged forward. They chanted Allah Akbar, and shook hands endlessly. It took three and a half hours to drive through the town and we finished up in this car park at 2330 and went to sleep exhausted.
Least Effective Police: Tunisia, but I hope that the man I spoke to is not arrested, nor any other, though I hope that in the other countries too. They were simply more effective in policing us.
In life as in personal relationships, there is a balance between handing power to others and retaining autonomy for yourself, which some people think can be expressed in a democracy, perhaps. What is the level of crowd control that is acceptable? The police were really no worse than I have seen in Las vegas on New Years Eve - friendly if you don't question them, but totally ruthless in dispersing the crowds after midnight. better than the Tunisians in fact. Arrest and detention without trial cannot be acceptable, if that happens, and allowing popular movements free expression is essential to avoid a police state. But whilst i think that everyone must form their own opinion of all these three governments so far, I am very certain of this: the passion of evryone in these lands is clear, and the great sense of personal connection to the tragedies of Palestine is palpable. Until they can freely express, there cannot be satisfactory peace in their own countries, surely, and untill Israel is made to behave like a civilised country, they will never rest.

Algiers to Gabes(Tunisia)

2009-02-27T06:34:00.002+02:00

Convoy going uphill

View of the 'Little' Kebylla from the high plains of Algeria

The cold Djebel Chambi National Park. The mountains form a complete ring, and it would appear to be a gigantic extinct volcano.

Munir examines his dinner, whilst others tell tales of the convoy

Trees at sunset on the Algeria/Tunisia border, with the Pea's windscreen and condensation

Algerian soldiers at Constantine, with a Thorb in the middle.

Yvonne Ridley of press TV, accompanying the convoy, interviews our mysterious benefactor from Algeria

Boys with their toys.

I'm reporting to you from another four star hotel provided free of charge by an Arab Government. The last few days represent the ups and downs and contradictions in our fortunes. Last night was the coldest night of my life, sleeping in the van on the high plateau in the National Park called Djebel Chambi, while I am writing this tonight from my soft, warm, bed in a sea front hotel in Gabes Tunisia. The hotel is being run more like a hostel; I am in a two bedded room which has had an extra bed put in it, and normal hotel services, such as washing clothes, have been suspended whilst they cope with 250 of us, but it is still a great hotel.

The reason for the differance in fortunes is that the Tunisian Government intended us to stay in this hotel last night. I've just talked to the hotel manager, and he is mightily annoyed at having to get ready for us all for a second night at such short notice, and told me at great length how he had all his staff working until 4am last night in anticipation of our arrival. Some people did arrive, some as late as 4am, but the main section of the convoy was stopped, as I said, just inside the border of Tunisia, and we were ordered to park up and sleep. The reasons for this go back to the problems at the beginning of the convoy.

The trip through Europe was not disorganised - it wasn't organised at all. Someone looked at a map, and set arbitrary travelling times for each day. It is quite reasonable to travel 500 miles a day on your own, but in convoy with slow moving vehicles, these times are difficult to achieve. Add in the organisation of civic receptions in San Sebastian, for which no time has been allowed, and gross errors, like forgetting to add in the mileage to Madrid, and you have impossible schedules that require virtually 24 hour driving, leading to fatigue, and a few bumps, although nothing worse. This situation was further compounded by the refusal of Galloway's man on the ground, Kevin, a hard man who was plainly stressed to breaking point, to listen to anyone or contemplate change. As a result, crews rebelled in Tangier and the idea of travelling through Rabat was abandoned, although we still had a long journey to Fez, arriving late, and after a serious accident.

In Tipaza, the hotel resort near to Algiers, George Galloway arrived, and I filmed him being confronted by 2 middle aged, middle class, white ladies from the South East, complaining about the excessive length of the journeys, and the danger of the long long hours. The previous day had been the worst so far. We had been ordered to be ready to travel at 6 am, and as usual, we were. But also as usual the convoy did not get going until 1030 or so, and then did not stop driving until 4am 22hours. The police had decided that our section of the convoy would go to some unspecified resort East of Algiers, but then there was a problem with that. Some people went directly to Tipaza, another resort before Algiers, and were there by 11pm, but we were shepherded round the Algerian countryside for hours through the night until it was decided that we would also go back to Tipaza, a place we had passed many hours ago. At one point we found ourselves on a minor road, without police support, travelling to an unknown destination, an unknown distance away. The crews rebelled and decided to park on the side of the road and go to sleep. At this point a police car arrived; I asked where we were going and was told that we were only 10 kilometres away, but the drivers simply didn't believe him and refused to move. I told him to Allez and we would Suivons, but he must go immediately, or the crews would be in bed. He objected that he must wait for some reason - orders or some such, and there was a problem with parking; I'm told by others that my voice could be heard at the back of the convoy as I told him that he should Allez Immediatement, if we were to follow, and he did. All's well that ends well, although I fell asleep at the wheel three times on that journey, and stayed awake only by singing Men of Harlech at the top of my voice. I am still friends with Munir, however, he can sleep through anything.

So these ladies confronted George. This may be a matter of the police, they said, but it was a recurring theme. We wasted time in assembly, planned badly, tried to make impossible distances, then were forced to take a rest day to recover. We are now 3 days behind, but we feel lucky to be all in one piece. George was less than impressed. Travel to Gaza was dangerous he said, and it was the personal responsibility of every individual to do what they feel comfortable with. If they feel they cannot go on, they should stop. He never promised them a rose garden and they should get out of the kitchen if they can't stand the heat. The worst of his anger was reserved for me, however. He tried several times to get me to stop filming, and continued to try and stop me even when the argument attracted the travelling film crew and others.After the camera was turned off he said that he would throw me off the convoy if I ever filmed him again without his permission. Later discussions with him, brokered by friends, failed to produce any thawing of attitude.

Well, I'm not the first person to have received this threat from the leadership.

Of course his attitude is simply wrong. The local governments would not tolerate individuals breaking off from the convoy and doing their own thing. In any case the impact of the convoy is in its completeness. People turn out to cheer and to wave not at a random collection of vehicles, but at a disciplined convoy of vehicles which is often taken through towns, sirens wailing, whilst other traffic is pushed to the side of the road. Without the discipline and integrity of the convoy there is nothing. But then the convoy is an entity that it is difficult to escape. I constantly feel frustrated that I cannot get to shops because the Convoy moves around large towns, and does not stop. But then it does stop in the middle of nowhere and we all hang about. Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. Our whole life, like that of a soldier, is in the hands of the organisers: when we get up, drive, eat - or not - sleep and relax, if at all. Galloway is the man who will get all the credit for this journey, and we are his cannon fodder. Just like a war, he owes it to his troops to do the best he can for them. He wants to blame relations with local police and governments for the problems, but the fact is that he has no specialist staff working on the project, although there are several people with logistics experience travelling with the convoy. We cannot be sure what the balance of blame is in North Africa, but the organisation in Europe was so totally execrable, and entirely the fault of the convoy organisation; now people will always distrust George's outfit when it comes to deciding responsibilities.

Nevertheless, After Tangier, a camper van turned up on the convoy, from Portugal, with a married couple in it, striking in that she, a tall willowy blonde, is the only woman not wearing a headscarf of some sort. I have spoken to them, but they deny that they have been brought in to strengthen the organisation, although they have brought extra CB radios - essential for communication up and down the chain of command. But the big change came after the confrontation in Algiers.

To end the confrontation with the women, Mr Galloway agreed to a public meeting and discussion, and to an extended meeting of the team leaders. Two things were agreed there, that there should be, in principle, a night time driving ban, and that crews should get organised in their groups, and so have a little autonomy within the convoy structure.

The second part of this agreement was ignored immediately, as we all set off from Tipaza in a mad straggle, but the distance rule held, and we had a good journey to Constantine, up over some very rugged peaks. We discussed how the city was named after the same Roman Emperor I have mentioned before, who brought Christianity to the Empire, and how the road was travelled by the companions of Mohammed, preaching the word of Islam. Being in a minority of Infidels on the convoy has really heightened my understanding of how the very landscape has been affected by these great religious movements, and needless to say, still does. It is purely for religious reasons that we are on our way to Gaza, if you think about it, and it is religion that drives the naming and renaming of places - Canaan, Samaria, Israel, Palestine. The ancient town of Nablus has been in all these countries, and in Syria as well.

Anyway, the next day we set off for the border, and reached it only two hours behind schedule. The Tunisians processed us through the border at a fast clip, not more than half an hour, seeming to dispense with customs altogether. I must digress and tell you about this area around the frontier. Very High, it is freezing cold, poor soil, constant dust storms. While we were re-fueling we even got a few flakes of snow. Snow can be an enjoyable experience, but this area seems to be permanently ravaged by strong winds, which give a wind chill factor of several degrees. Trust me, even the Yukon in December did not feel so bitterly cold. The locals here wear a Thorb, a thick all in one floor to hair garment that makes them look like Darth Vader, but more handsome. I covet one of these items, but have been unable to find the time to buy one, for the reasons above.

Since Tipaza I have been suffering from something which is probably flu. I have been aching in my bones and running a temperature, not eating and sleeping all day. From Constantine to the Djebel Chambi we had to call in the services of a spare driver to help out as I lay helpless in the back seat of the van. I don't want your sympathy, not yet anyway. I'm building a picture of the laws of unintended consequences, perhaps you've already guessed. As a result of the changes made to the operation, travel times are limited to daylight and early evening hours. As the convoy set off across the the Tunisian border we were updated on the rows going on between Kevin and the Tunisian authorities. They wanted everyone to make the journey all the way to Gabes that night, a journey of an extra 200 kilometres or 125 miles, but Kevin, now instructed on the day-time rule with the same inflexibility that he previously held the laissez faire rule, was arguing that we should find somewhere before that. So the police just stopped us on the road in the coldest part of the world I have ever experienced, especially as I was shivering from the flu anyway. Those who did make it all the way were given a hot meal even at 4am, and then had all of today at leisure, while we had to wash in cold water and drive for 4 hours before the usual chaotic scenes of checking in. If only we hadn't had that silly rule of short driving hours I wouldn't be freezing to death, and stumbling over cactus to pee.

C'est la vie. It's easy to think that if we had all made it to the hotel life would have been better, but I don't think so. As the Hotel manager confirms, there was no intention for the hotel to be used for a second night. If we had all arrived at the hotel in the middle of the night we would have been expected to be up and on the road at 6am (why is it always 6am? We never move before 10 anyway), and life would have continued in the same overtired way. There still does not appear to be the sort of time planning that I have been asking for. Driving 125 miles in a saloon car, even on a bad road, might be expected to take less than three hours, on a motorway only 2, but in a convoy, 4 is the minimum, and we are still forgetting that.

Libya today - I'm writing this by the lifts in the hotel at 5.46 am, because this is the only place that I can get Wi-Fi - so we'll be moving soon, and rumours are that we have a big reception in Tripoli with Gaddafi on Saturday. So it will be another long drive today, then.

catch up.

2009-02-27T06:33:00.002+02:00

The following 2 posts are out of sequence. They were lost when the electricity failed at Tipaza. I might find a way to put them in order later.