In cooperation with the International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza, the Jordan Lifeline to Gaza (Ansar 2) and Partners for Peace and Development (Miles of Smiles) humanitarian development convoys arrived in Gaza today (17th May).

Ansar 2, the Jordanian leg of the convoy consists of 91 Jordanians representing all sectors of Jordanian Society arrived in Al-Arish airport this morning where they transferred directly to Rafah.

They were be joined in Gaza today by Miles of Smiles International convoy which traveled directly from Cairo to Rafah. This leg of the convoy consisted of 21 participants from Lebanon, 3 from Malaysia, 3 from France and 7 from Egypt.

Wael Al Sakka, the Chairman of Jordan Lifeline stated that   “Previous convoys have no doubt been a great benefit in focusing attention on the unjust siege imposed on the Gaza Strip as well as bringing emergency aid relief.  However after evaluation of past convoys and in consultation with Gaza we have found it necessary to make significant change on the nature and content of the future convoys.”

Some areas the new models aims to achieve are:

• Supporting development projects as requested and defined by Gaza.
• Support the  establishment of small businesses in order to alleviate high unemployment by granting loans to finance these projects.
• Continuation of  focusing attention on issues through the media and political supporters of the convoy,  Ansar-2 for example is will be focusing  on the prisoners issue.
• Supply of specialised medicines and medical equipment requested by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

This convoy will also be establishing  a vocational training centre in the Engineers Association in Khan Younis to provide professional training in the field of reconstruction, as this sector suffers from a severe shortage of skilled trained workers.

Prior Miles Of Smiles Convoy image

A Tunisian medical aid convoy began its journey to Gaza on Thursday from Tunis, Palestinian officials said.

The convoy carrying four tons of medical aid left Tunis-Carthage International Airport earlier in the day, medical officials told Ma’an.

The coordinator of the medical services in the Gaza Strip said the convoy was organized by a Tunisian scout group and will arrive in Cairo and depart for Gaza shortly thereafter.

Some 11 scout leaders are part of the delegation, which is to visit Gaza’s hospitals and civil society groups before checking up on local scouts.

Ma’an

Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a UN body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate UN probe into Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year’s raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.

A panel of five independent UN rights experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.

“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy towards Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” they said in a joint statement.

An earlier fact-finding mission named by the same UN forum to investigate the flotilla incident also found in a report last September that the blockade violated international law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the blockade violates the Geneva Conventions.

Israel says its Gaza blockade is a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea.

The four-man panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer found Israel had used unreasonable force in dealing with what it called “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers.”

Turkey has downgraded ties with Israel over the incident.

Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday’s statement, said the Palmer report’s conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.

“The Palmer report was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law,” he said in the statement.
About one-third of Gaza’s arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures, said Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, another of the five.

At least two-thirds of Gazan households lack secure access to food, he said. “People are forced to make unacceptable trade-offs, often having to choose between food or medicine or water for their families.”

The other three experts were the UN special rapporteurs on physical and mental health, extreme poverty and human rights, and access to water and sanitation.

Haaretz

A UK based aid convoy carrying urgently neeed medical aid has just entered the besieged Gaza strip.

The team consisting of 19 people from England, Ireland and Egypt accompanying a truck loaded with specialist surgical equipment and vital medical supplies today arrived via the Rafah crossing. Their entry came after facing delays at the hands of the Egyptian authorities who regularly delay and hinder aid convoy’s and activists showing solidarity with the blockaded people of Gaza.

This convoy arrived on the 1551st day of the siege amidst a changing atmosphere between not only the Egyptians and the Israelis  but between Palestine and the rest of the world Ahead of their bid for statehood at the UN this month.

A UK based aid convoy carrying urgent medical aid has just been blocked from entering Gaza. They have all the correct paper work but have been told they can’t enter.

The team consisting of 19 people from England, Ireland and Egypt are accompanying a truck loaded with specialist surgical equipment and perishable medical items that are nearing expiring as time goes on.

The original date that they were given permission to go in on was the 8th but they were contacted by Egyptian officials and told to delay for their safety. The team delayed and went on the 10th as  suggested by the officials but they have waited since 8am on Saturday without any news on when the can enter. They have been told not to film or hold banners up.

This comes long after Egyptian authorities claimed that Rafah was opened. This kind of delay/denial of entry has become commonplace, almost standard practice for those attempting to send aid or show solidarity with the people of Gaza and the process is harder still for the millions of Gazans trapped inside wishing to travel in or out of Gaza.

This convoy is testing the Egyptian Authorities at Rafah at a very crucial time following the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo, the ‘de facto’ expulsion of it’s ambassador and calls from the post Mubarak revolutionary movement to cancel the Camp David agreement with Israel.

Gaza TV News

Turkish warships will escort any Turkish aid vessels to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks broadcast on Al Jazeera television on Thursday.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan also said that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources from the eastern Mediterranean, according to Al Jazeera’s Arabic translation of excerpts of the interview, which was conducted in Turkish.
Last Saturday, Turkish officials told Hurriyet Daily News that the Turkish navy will significantly strengthen its presence in the easter Mediterranean Sea, as one of the steps the Turkish government has decided to take following the release of the UN Palmer report on the 2010 Gaza flotilla.

“The eastern Mediterranean will no longer be a place where Israeli naval forces can freely exercise their bullying practices against civilian vessels,” a Turkish official was quoted as saying.

As part of the plan, the Turkish navy will increase its patrols in the eastern Mediterranean and pursue “a more aggressive strategy”.

Haaretz

A UN report on Israel’s deadly raid against a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza has found that the naval blockade was legal but commandos used excessive force in the May 2010 incident.

The New York Times, citing a leaked copy of the document to be released Friday, reported that it found Israel used “excessive and unreasonable force” after meeting “violent resistance” from some of the passengers.

Israel and Turkey have been in dispute over an apology for the May 31, 2010 raid in which nine Turkish activists were killed.

Former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer led the UN-mandated investigation into the raid on the flotilla that was attempting to take aid to the Gaza Strip through an Israeli blockade.

Diplomatic relations in brink

The release of the report has been delayed several times this year. Turkey has demanded an apology for the deaths, Israel has refused and there had been no agreement on the final version of the report.

Palmer’s report recommends Israel provide Turkey “an appropriate statement of regret” and pay compensation for deaths and injuries, but neither side has accepted this formula.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday on the fringes of the Libya Contact Group meeting in Paris, where she urged Turkey to prevent further deterioration of its relations with Israel, according to a report on Israel Radio.

Davutoglu had warned on Thursday that diplomats would launch “Plan B”, and referred to possible sanctions, if Israel fails to apologize when the report is published, in an interview with Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.

On Friday, Israeli daily Haaretz cited senior foreign ministry officials saying Turkey could expel Israel’s ambassador and downgrade diplomatic relations, as Israeli officials told the press that no apology would be issued.

Israeli and Turkish leaders declined to give an official comment before the UN formally releases the report.

Report finds fault on both sides

The report criticized “Israel’s decision to board the vessels with such substantial force at a great distance from the blockade zone and with no final warning immediately prior to the boarding.”

But it accused the flotilla of “acting recklessly” by attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Events surrounding the deaths of nine passengers remain contested.

While the report finds “most of the deceased were shot multiple times, including in the back, or at close range” and this has “not been adequately accounted for” by Israel, it adds that forces met violent resistance from passengers requiring self-protection.

Report writers said they could not determine whether Israeli commandos used live fire before landing on the vessel, a key point of contention.

Israel and Turkey spar over conclusions

In responses from both countries included in the report, Israel and Turkey rejected its findings.

But as the leaked report emerged, the countries attempted to emphasize the conclusions seen as more favorable to their governments.

Einat Wilf, an Israeli lawmaker and member of the Knesset foreign affairs commission, told AFP the report “clearly exonerates Israel on the main issues regarding the legality of the blockade, the legality of stopping incoming ships in international waters and the existence of violence, resistance to the Israeli soldiers.”

Meanwhile, Turkish officials insisted on focusing on Israel’s refusal to apologize.

Ma’an

Miles of Smiles and Africa 1 aid convoys reached the Gaza Strip on Monday evening through the Rafah border crossing.

The higher committee for receiving delegations in Gaza said that Miles of Smiles5 from Europe which was dubbed the “border martyrs” to honour the Egyptian soldiers killed by the IOF, and Africa 1 convoy arrived at the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing at sunset (time for iftar) on Monday.

The committee added that after receiving participants in the two aid convoys at the crossing and having iftar together, they proceeded to Gaza where they will spend Eid with its people.

Abna

George Galloway in Gaza - 11 March '09

A new international ‘Viva Palestina’ convoy was announced at the Summer University of Palestine in Beirut by convoy founder George Galloway last night.

“Viva Palestina 6 – The Return Convoy” is set to arrive in Gaza December 27 this year on the 3 year anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s cast lead massacre which left 1400, mostly civilians dead and the infrastructure of Gaza in ruins.

Viva Palestina, meaning Long live Palestine, in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, is a British-based registered charity which came into being in January 2009 with the initial ‘Viva Palestina’ humanitarian aid convoy to the Gaza Strip straight after the ’08/’09 attacks and takes it’s name from the Viva Espana convoys that traveled from across the world to assist to civil war stricken Spain.

It’s aims since becoming a registered charity are: “provision from the UK of food, medicine and essential goods and services needed by the civilian population” [of the occupied Palestinian Territories], and “highlighting the causes and results of wars with a view to achieving peace.”

It has achieved great successes in breaking the siege and delivering an estimated £5 million worth of vital aid, with one UK, one US and two International convoys all breaking the siege of Gaza via Egypt’s closed Rafah crossing with Gaza. The convoy has brought to Gaza several hundred vehicles and the best part of 1000 visitors to witness the situation first hand in Gaza.

Viva Palestina 1, convoy travelling across Libyan desert

Gazan residents have been very receptive of the visitors, much more so than the aid they say. When asked by a convoy volunteer as to what type of aid would be most useful Gazan resident, Remah Mubarak, replied “Eyes, bring more sets of eyes to see what is going on, then people can see what the situation is”. The solidarity from international volunteers traveling to Gaza has had a positive psychological effect on the population of Gaza.

For more information on the upcoming convoy visit the Viva Palestina website  and sign up to the mailing list as more details will be released soon and a system for registering online will become available.

Tom Baker – GazaTVNews

This is the new song performed by the recently formed GYBO rap team. They say it is dedicated to all the freedom fighters world wide, to all those who raised the palestinian flag to face zionism and especially to the passengers of the flotillas, flytilla, viva palestina convoys, road to hope convoy, Africa to Gaza, Asia to gaza and to our friends in the vik2gaza convoy.

The Trade Not Aid UK Tour is underway, (tour dates below) traveling across the UK for two weeks to raise awareness for the Trade-not aid mission and the upcoming ‘Samouni convoy’, both lead by Gaza activist and Mavi Mamara survivor, Ken O’Keefe.

The convoy, as well as raising funds, will collecting items intended to help get the people of Gaza on their own two feet, specifically picking up good quality sewing machines, Bee hives, textiles such as cotton rolls, solar panels, a T-shirt printing machine and any such items that are valuable and can be used to produce marketable goods in Gaza. 

As part of the Trade Not Aid Mission the convoy members will also developing the Samouni Project by delivering everything needed to begin first class education for over 100 children of the Samouni family. (If you do not know the Samouni family story then see what Ken has to say about them here; http://kenokeefe.wordpress?.com/2011/05/09/samouni-in?ter-trade-palestine-trade-?not-aid/)

So for this part of the project the convoy will be collecting computers, books, paper and pens, a telescope, microscope, screen projector, arts and crafts, and much more.

“They already have a loving and highly qualified teaching staff ready to provide full time, quality education. All we need to do is deliver the educational items and secure the modest salaries for the teaching staff. Come and meet us on our tour and we will provide a way for you to support the running of this educational program.”

Unlike any convoy/Flotilla before it, their mission does not end upon arrival in Gaza, their mission will not end until import and export trade is happening with such regularity and reliability that aid will no longer be necessary for the people of Gaza.

According to Mr O’Keefe who up until the initiation of this convoy spent 8 months in Gaza with the Samouni Family : “The truth is that the people there do not want to live on aid; they have been forced to do so for over 5 years now. We intend to end Gaza’s charitable dependency status, and that is why we will not only offload our goods in Gaza, but then reload our trucks to the brim, and export those goods to the people of Europe and beyond. If anyone tries to stop us then you will hear about it and we will do everything to correct this ongoing injustice.”

The convoy is led by Ken O’Keefe & Trade Not Aid Palestine – http://www.trade-not-aid.n?et/

for more info contact
catemyles@sky.com
or samouniproject@hotmail.com

LEICESTER 12th July (1pm – 9pm) Jame Masjid, 51 Asfordby Street, Leicester, LE5 3QG

LIVERPOOL 13th July (Wednesday 12pm – 9pm) – Al Rahma Mosque, Hatherley Street, Toxteth

MANCHESTER 14th July (Thursday 12pm – 9pm)

BRADFORD 15th July (Friday 12pm – 9pm)

NEWCASTLE 17th July (Sunday 12pm – 9pm)

GLASGOW 18th July (Monday 12pm – 9pm)

BLACKBURN 19th July (Tuesday 12pm – 9pm)

NOTTINGHAM 20th July (Wednesday 12pm – 9pm) – The Market Place, Hyson Green, next to ASDA, NG7 6AP

BIRMINGHAM 21st July (Thursday 12pm – 9pm)

LONDON 22nd July (Friday 12pm – 9pm) – SAEB SAATH CONFIRMED SPEAKER!

LONDON 23rd July (Saturday 12pm – 9pm) – SAEB SAATH CONFIRMED SPEAKER!

LUTON 24th July (Sunday 12pm – 9pm)

MILTON KEYNES 24th July (Sunday 12pm – 9pm)

SLOUGH July 25th (Monday 12pm – 9pm)

BRISTOL July 26th (Tuesday 12pm – 9pm)

GLOUCESTER July 27th (Wednesday 12pm – 9pm)

SWANSEA July 28th (Thursday 12pm – 9pm)

Partners:
Trade Not Aid Palestine
www.trade-not-aid.net
http://www.facebook.com/Tr?adeNotAid

copy of the order the Israeli government sent to airlines in Europe

Israeli ministry of Interior has sent out directives to all air lines asking them to cancel reservation of passengers Israel believes they are part of the “Welcome to Palestine Campaign”. The Israeli Authorities sent out a list of names to the airlines saying that their entry to Israel will be refused.

“Failure to comply with this directive will result in delay on the flight and their return on the same flight,” the letter said.

The letter asked the air lines not to board the listed passengers on the flights to Israel.

The list of names remains unknown, however, it is expected that this list will grow. In Europe, German federal police said as long as passengers had valid tickets and passports, they had no grounds to stop any activists at airports there, the AP reported.

The campaign organisers issued a press statement condemning the Israeli measure and demanded that passengers coming to visit Palestine to be treated like Israeli passengers treated in other countries airports.

The campaign organisers expect over 600 internationals to come to Tel Aviv airport on Friday, to join the nonviolent manifestations of rejection to the wall Israel is building in the West Bank on July 9 and other activities during the week.

So far, Swiss Air Lines and Lufthansa and some other air lines have declared they would comply with these directives.
Early today 2 Dutch journalists were prevented from boarding El-Al flight to Tel-Aviv.

Hungarian Airline, Maliv, banned 8 activists from boarding in Paris.
Flight from Zurich landed in BenGourion carrying activists and
a 50 years old German was deported for wanting to visit Nablus.

On this day in 2004, the International Court of Justice at The Hague issued its advisory opinion ruling the wall illegal and demanded its removal. Israel has failed to comply, as the ruling is not binding.

On the same day in 2005, Palestinian civil society organizations made out their call to the International Community to boycott Israel, divest from it and impose sanctions until Israel adheres to the International Law. This call has become an International movement known as the BDS movement.

The International Middle East Media Center Updates by GazaTvNews