On December 6th, 2009 a convoy of humanitarian aid left London in route to the Gaza Strip.  The convoy intended to reach Gaza by December 27th, which was the one year mark since over 1,400 people were killed.  However, the politics surrounding the aid have intensified and subsequently attempted to derail the entire convoy.  All reports are that the convoy, organized by British MP George Galloway, remains resolute in reaching the Gaza Strip.  Below is a recount from a recent conversation I had with a member of the convoy.

Convoy’s Frustration Grows

After being stuck at Jordan’s Aqaba port for five days, the Viva Palestina convoy has been forced to drive back 18hrs to Northern Syria, where they will attempt once again to reach Egypt. In addition to the ridiculousness of having to drive back this far after there had been an agreement that the convoy of medical aid for Gaza would be allowed to go through Aqaba, this maneuver will entail loading all 200 vehicles onto 4 ferries and undertaking a 14 hour trip through the Mediterranean sea. What will happen once the ferries reach Egypt is any one’s guess, but judging by the extreme measures taken by Egyptian authorities to simultaneously restrict access to Gaza to the 1000+ activists from the Free Gaza March, the situation does not look promising for the convoy.

While making front page headlines throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, in the US this story has yet to be covered despite the fact that many of the participants in both the Free Gaza March and the Viva Palestina convoy are citizens of the US.

Although with difficulty, in the recent past several groups of activists have legally broken the siege on Gaza and have been able to deliver some badly-needed humanitarian aid to area which the UN has called a humanitarian crisis. For reasons which are unknown however, this time Egyptian authorities are being more obdurate then ever and only time will tell if and when the groups will be allowed to cross into Gaza. Some of the Free Gaza protesters are being held under house arrest, while US protesters at Cairo’s US Embassy were greeted by riot police for trying to meet with their country’s representatives. There are speculations that Israel plans an offencive on Gaza, and having hundreds of Western activists roaming around the Strip would sabotage their plan. Regardless if these rumors have any validity, it is absurd that the developments surrounding these humanitarian efforts have been barely covered by major Western media outlets.