[WCUSP] Fw: Convoy's Provisions Reach Gaza - at last!

[Libby or Mort Frank]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jewish Peace News " <jpn at jewishpeacenews.net>
To: <LMFrank1 at verizon.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 2:43 PM
Subject: Convoy's Provisions Reach Gaza - at last!


>
> Two and a half weeks after the convoy - when 1500 Palestinian and Jewish 
> activists traveled from all over Israel to the Gaza border to bring much 
> needed provisions to Gaza - the provisions have finally been allowed into 
> Gaza. They included 5 tons of foodstuffs, 2 tons of personal aid packages, 
> and water purification filters. The Palestinian Campaign to End the Siege 
> says that hospitals will get priority for the water filters, which are 
> severely lacking and critically important for basic health needs. Dr. Eyad 
> Sarraj spoke with Israeli organizers on the phone and noted, among other 
> things, that the provisions people bought when the border with Egypt was 
> open are already running out. The extremity of the siege is reasserting 
> itself. It's great that the convoy's goods made it through; much more is 
> needed to undermine, break, end the siege on Gaza.
>
> Sarah Anne Minkin
>
> Coalition against the Gaza Siege
> Press Release February 18, 2008
>
> At noon today in the Sufa Border Crossing, donated foodstuffs and water 
> filters at last reached their destination in Gaza
>
> At Noon today, there at last arrived in their Gaza destination the goods 
> carried in the supply convoy of the Israeli Peace and Human Rights 
> organizations, two and a half weeks ago. After the authorization was given 
> after long negotiations with the military authorities, some fifteen 
> activists arrived this morning at the warehouses in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom 
> and the Bedouin town of Rahat, where the goods had been stored, loaded 
> them and decorated the cargo with enormous banners reading End the 
> Blockade of Gaza!
>
> The Israeli activists accompanied the cargo until the entrance of the Sufa 
> Compound on the Gaza Strip border, where it was unloaded and transferred 
> to Palestinian trucks and delivered to members of the 
> Palestinian-International Campaign to End the Siege, based at Gaza City. 
> The cargo consisted of five tons of basic foodstuffs purchased by the 
> organizers from donations collected from Israel and all over the world, as 
> well as water purification filters for the highly polluted water in the 
> Strip. To these were added two tons of personal aid packages, prepared by 
> many Israeli families as a a goodwill gesture to the Gaza inhabitants.
>
> Members of the Palestinian Campaign intend to give the highest priority in 
> distribution of the water filters received today to the Gaza Strip 
> hospitals, where the need for clean water is particularly acute. The entry 
> of water filters today follows many months when the Israeli siege caused a 
> severe shortage of this item, indispensable for basic health, as of many 
> other vital goods. The organizers hope that from now on, inhabitants of 
> the Gaza Strip would be able to use the precedent created and import as 
> many water filters as needed, without restrictions.
>
> "Under conditions of the strangling siege of Gaza, the simple act of 
> transporting a few tons of cargo some dozens of kilometres required two 
> months of intensive effort by dozens of people in Israel and the Gaza 
> Strip, with considerable help from peace seekers all over the world. This 
> siege should be terminated forthwith. It is a manifestly immoral, gross 
> violation of International Law which causes Israel nothing but damage. The 
> suffering caused to the inhabitants of Gaza in no way benefits the 
> inhabitants of Sderot. There is only one way to bring about the end of the 
> shooting of Quassam Missiles at Israeli communities: a positive response 
> to the many offers by Hamas leaders, to a complete and mutual ceasefire on 
> both sides of the Gaza Strip border" said former Knesset Member Uri Avnery 
> of Gush Shalom, who was among the activists accompanying the aid cargo to 
> the Sufa Crossing. Dr. Eyad Sarraj of the Palestinian campaign spoke with 
> the Israeli organizers on the phone and warmly
> thanked
> them. He told that the stores of goods brought into the Gaza Strip during 
> the two weeks when the Egyptian border was open are in the process of 
> running out, and that the feeling of siege and suffocation is reasserting 
> itself. "We in Gaza greatly appreciate the manifestation of solidarity in 
> the convoy of today. We hope that this is the start of a common struggle 
> by the two peoples, to ensure peace and liberty to both."
>
> Contact: Adam Keller 0506-709603, Ya'akov Manor 09-7670801 or 050-5733276, 
> Dr. Eyad Sarraj 0599-408438, Marwan Diab 0599-462037
> Stills of the action available from AP and Reuters. Video footage from AP 
> as well as from Natalio Cohen 050-8102366 or Sergio Yahni 052-6375032.
>
> Participating organizations: Gush Shalom, Combatants for Peace, Coalition 
> of Women for Peace, ICAHD - The Israeli Committee Against House 
> Demolitions, Bat Shalom, Bat Tzafon for Peace and Equality, Balad, Hadash, 
> Adalah, Tarabut- Hithabrut, Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, AIC - 
> The Alternative Information Center, Psychoactive - Mental Health Workers 
> for Human Rights, ActiveStills, The Students Coalition (Tel Aviv 
> University), New Profile, MachsomWatch, PCATI - The Public Committee 
> Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Gvul, Gisha, Local Television on the 
> Internet, Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue, "On the Left Side", 
> and Faculty for Palestinian-Israeli Peace (Israel).
>
>
> ................................................................
> --------
> Jewish Peace News editors:
> Joel Beinin
> Racheli Gai
> Rela Mazali
> Sarah Anne Minkin
> Judith Norman
> Lincoln Shlensky
> Alistair Welchman
> -------
>
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