Irish Rugby Players for Irish Ship to Gaza

Gaza: uneasy UN report and another aid convoy

The Palmer Commission, headed by former NZ prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, was appointed by the UN secretary-general to examine the Israeli attack on Gaza aid ship Mavi Marmara in May 2010. Nine humanitarian volunteers, eight of them Turkish and one Turkish-American, were killed by Israeli special forces who stormed the vessel in international waters during the dark of night.

After a number of delays, the final report by the Palmer Commission is due for release tomorrow (Friday, 2 September 2011). According to media reports, its conclusions look likely to be an uneasy compromise between Israel and Turkey, both represented on the equally balanced commission.

As we await the official release of the Palmer Commission's report, Kia Ora Gaza is sending you a backgrounder on Israel's disputed, but clearly bloody, seizure of the Mavi Marmara. It's from Gisha, the Israeli-based Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement (previously published on our website kiaoragaza.net). This legal opinion may help you identify where the legal facts lie in a tragedy which has been, and still remains, highly disputed and incredibly propagandised.

As well, Kia Ora Gaza is pleased to announce that we expect to take part in another international aid convoy to Gaza within the next few months. We will announce more details as planning is finalised. We are now calling for your donations to help fund our mission, made more important by the Arab Spring and the subsequent possibility of levering open Israel's terrible blockade of Gaza.

Are you able to donate to Kia Ora Gaza's next mission to aid the 1.5 million innocents of Gaza and break Israel's inhumane and unlawful siege? If you can spare some cash, please make a direct payment to our bank account:
Kia Ora Gaza, 03-0211-0447718-000, Westpac Bank, Onehunga branch (Afterwards, email office@kiaoragaza.net with your deposit details so our Board of Trustees can send you an e-receipt.)
Or else write a cheque for ‘Kia Ora Gaza’ and post to: Kia Ora Gaza, PO Box 59-007, Auckland. (And enclose your address or email so we can send you a receipt.)

Thank you,

Grant Morgan

Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza PO Box 59-007, Auckland, New Zealand 021 2544 515 office@kiaoragaza.net kiaoragaza.net

Revolt in Egypt undermines Israel's seige of Gaza

by Grant Morgan
Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza
26 January 2011

Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators took to the streets in many cities across their land. In vast numbers they faced down legions of riot police and, in some places, forced the cops into retreat.

Their calls were simple: Down with president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s strongman for 30 years. Bring an end to his reign of torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment.

No protests on this scale have been seen in Egypt for three decades. Now the inspiration of Tunisia’s popular uprising is intersecting with the frustrated anger that has long been simmering among the grassroots.

One Cairo-based reporter, Kristen Chick of the Christian Science Monitor, likened this historic mass outpouring to a dam breaking. The word “revolution” is suddenly on the lips of people who were previously too frightened to speak out.

Kia Ora Gaza: A new year, a new convoy

Why apartheid Israel is getting more brutal, 

and how Gaza aid convoys bring real hope

By Grant Morgan
Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza
1 January 2011


Israel’s ‘genocidal act’ two years ago

A ground invasion by massed regiments from the Middle East’s strongest military power. Plus aircraft and helicopter missile strikes. And tank and artillery barrages. Even the widespread use of white phosphorus, an internationally banned terror weapon, in high-density suburbs.

Such was the hellfire that, two years ago, Israel rained down on Gaza’s 1.5 million people, many of them refugees from lands ethnically cleansed by Zionist terrorists in decades past.

Breaking a longstanding ceasefire deal with the Hamas government, politicians in Tel Aviv unleashed total war against Gaza two days after Christmas 2008. Codenamed Operation Cast Lead, this one-sided slaughter lasted for 22 terrible days, and was only then called off due to public outrage around the world.

Among the Palestinians killed were 352 children. They included infants like Farah Ammar al-Helu, one year old, of al-Zaytoun. And school kids like Islam Khalil Abu Amsha, 12, of Shajaiyeh, and Mahmoud Khaled al-Mashharawi, 13, of al-Daraj.

Among Gaza’s 1,065 adults killed were elders like Kamla Ali al-Attar, 82, of Beit Lahiya, and Madallah Ahmed Abu Rukba, 81, of Jabaliya.

In total, 1,417 Palestinians died in what they call a “genocidal act”, compared to just 13 Israelis, four of them lost to their own “friendly fire”. Untold thousands more Gazans were maimed.

Destroyed were most of Gaza’s factories, along with water treatment, power generation and sewage plants, roads and bridges, water wells and farm greenhouses, teaching and health institutions, mosques and churches, and block after block of residential dwellings.

As if this “genocidal act” wasn’t bad enough, Gaza’s people and their economic means of survival have been savaged by a relentless siege both before and since Israel’s 2008 war. Over recent weeks, Israel appears to be revving up aircraft strikes and tank incursions inside the battered enclave, fueling fears of another invasion.

With the possible exception of trusted allies in the United States, Israel’s main diplomatic, military and financial backer, nobody outside Tel Aviv’s political and state elites are being informed about what future cruelties they are planning to inflict on Gaza.


Long reign of terror by Zionist state

Sadly, the horrors inflicted on Gaza over the past decade are nothing new.

Since arising in 1948, the Zionist state of Israel has inflicted a reign of terror on Palestinians everywhere which includes:

Wars of conquest.

Enforced mass exile.

Seizures of land and property.

Laws embedding racial discrimination.

Abductions, jailings and torture.

Ethnic separation.

Housing demolitions and evictions.

Economic blockades.

Daily harassment by police and army.

Denial of national statehood.

This blood-stained history is “the logical outcome of the racism that forms the inseparable core of Zionist ideology and practice”, notes Palestinian analyst Ali Abunimah.


Apartheid in Israel and South Africa
The racist record of Israel bears a close resemblance to the apartheid state of South Africa. Here blacks and Asians were “legally” denied the economic, political and social rights of the ruling white minority. Suffering under a reign of racist terror, “non-whites” were forcibly separated into impoverished Bantustans and slums.

Several days ago, on the 2nd anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, 37 civil society organisations in Gaza wrote an Open Letter asking the world to help them resist what they called “Apartheid Israel”. Signatories include trade unions, women’s groups, student movements, cultural associations, business federations, medical societies and children’s charities.

Kia Ora Gaza’s leadership agrees with Gaza’s civil society organisations that Israel is an apartheid state.

Roger Fowler, who captained Kia Ora Gaza’s team on the biggest international aid convoy to enter Gaza during 2010, was active in huge protests against the 1981 tour of New Zealand by a racially selected Springbok rugby team.

“Because South Africa was then practicing legalised discrimination against non-whites in the name of white privilege, it was fairly called an apartheid state,” says Roger. “Since legalised discrimination is today practiced by Israel against Palestinians in the name of Jewish privilege, the Zionist state is fairly called apartheid.”

At the very time that Roger and hundreds of thousands of other Kiwis were protesting against the 1981 tour, racist governments in South Africa and Israel were collaborating on the covert construction of nuclear weapons. Like attracts like.

Ismail Waja, co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza, spent much of his life in apartheid South Africa, allowing him to make realistic comparisons with the state of Israel. “While both are apartheid regimes, Israel is much worse than South Africa ever was,” Ismail reports.


‘Security’ justifications ignore racist crimes

The six decades of Zionist apartheid led into Operation Cast Lead in 2008. This devastating war was the end product of a racist state punishing Palestinians for refusing to be crushed into silent slavery and written out of history.

Politicians in Tel Aviv, however, try to justify such brutality as “security measures” against “terrorist attacks”. Any act of Palestinian resistance, whether violent or peaceful, is condemned as “terrorist” by Israeli leaders, and is met by hugely disproportionate state force.

At the same time, Israeli leaders cover up their racist state’s crimes against humanity which inevitably spark acts of resistance by the victims of apartheid.

Only by ending the injustices of Zionist apartheid can there be security for everyone in the region, Jews and Palestinians alike. The central issue is justice for all.

Anyone who talks of Israeli “security” while ignoring justice for Palestinians is part of the problem, not the solution.


Sea change in world public opinion

Some days ago, a detailed report by Human Rights Watch titled “Separate and Unequal” denounced Israeli policies as “apartheid”.

Yesterday the Israeli-based Jewish human rights group B’Tselem warned that the continuing siege of Gaza, West Bank settler colonisation and restrictions on peaceful demonstrations “prevent any real human rights improvement” across the region.

And many other widely respected agencies, such as the United Nations, International Red Cross, Save the Children, Amnesty International and Christian Aid, have issued reports condemning the injustices inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli state.

These reports are part of a sea change in world public opinion. The Zionist state is feeling besieged by growing international opposition to its apartheid policies on three levels:

Fraying of traditional state-to-state alliances. For instance, Turkey is turning from friend to foe, European powers are openly critical of Tel Aviv, Egypt is admitting Gaza aid convoys across its territory and South American governments are recognising the state of Palestine. Even the United States is showing some shakiness as an ally.

Civil society protests against Israeli policies. A recent decision by the Methodist Church in Britain to divest from companies operating in the occupied West Bank illustrates how an international grassroots campaign to isolate Israel has picked up steam over the past year. Meanwhile, Gaza aid convoys are riding a wave of public opposition to Israel’s collective punishment of an entire people.

Jewish protests against Zionist extremism. While a sizeable portion of Jews inside Israel and around the globe have traditionally opposed Zionist extremism, their numbers and profile are clearly rising. At last November’s General Assembly of North American Jews, for instance, a group stood in front of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with banners reading “The siege of Gaza delegitimizes Israel” and “Silencing dissent delegitimizes Israel”.


Existential threat of ‘de-legitimization’

This weakening of Israel’s state-to-state alliances, international goodwill and Jewish support base stems from a loss of legitimacy.

Israel now faces the existential threat of “de-legitimization”. That is the stark warning contained in two reports published in December 2010 by a couple of Zionist think tanks, the Tel Aviv-based Reut Institute and the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far right foreign minister, is so worried about the Zionist state’s loss of legitimacy that he has engineered a global media campaign to improve his country’s shattered image.

Lieberman, however, is doomed to fail. Why? Because his government refuses to scrap the agenda of apartheid which delegitimizes the Israeli state.

Therefore, the foreign minister’s media spin cannot go much beyond the character assassination of anyone who opposes Israeli policies. Widening circles of people get tagged with false labels, such as “terrorist supporter”, “Islamic extremist” and “anti-Semite”. Such verbal brutality against Israel’s critics merely alienates growing numbers of citizens.

To compensate for its erosion of legitimacy, Israel must now employ state force against even mild forms of dissent. For instance, peaceful protests against the Separation Wall on the West Bank are being broken up with shock grenades, teargas, beatings, shootings and intimidatory arrests, usually followed by torture, even of children, and long prison terms.

Israel’s increasing reliance on force rather than legitimacy is the same road to ruin trodden by South African apartheid in the dying days of white rule.


Challenging the siege of Gaza

Gaza has emerged as a centre piece of the international campaign against Zionist apartheid.

In a 2006 poll certified as free and fair by international observers, Hamas was elected as the government of Gaza. After Hamas survived an armed coup sponsored by Israel and the United States, politicians in Tel Aviv announced a blockade of Gaza to isolate its “terrorist” government.

Israel’s announcement was part propaganda, since Gaza had actually been under siege from the Zionist state for many years before the election of Hamas. The announcement was also part fact, since Israel tightened the blockade of Gaza to halt all exports, ban most imports and imprison the entire population.

But two years of tightened blockade failed to topple the Hamas government and reimpose Tel Aviv’s rule on Gaza. So, just after Christmas 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead.

The global response to Israel’s total war on Gaza was electric. The Free Gaza Movement organised several sailings of Gaza aid vessels, which were blocked by the Israeli Navy. Meanwhile, UK charity Viva Palestina led the first land convoy which successfully drove aid into Gaza through Egypt’s back door.

Since then, a series of land and sea convoys involving a diversity of movements in many countries have challenged the siege of Gaza.


Global response to aid ship killings

Sensing the seriousness of this challenge, the Zionist state decided to sink last May’s Freedom Flotilla.

On the open seas, under cover of darkness, the Gaza aid ship Mavi Marmara was stormed by Israeli commandos in a barrage of gunfire. Killed were nine civilian volunteers, some executed by close range shots to the head. Dozens more were wounded by commando bullets.

Again, the global response was electric. Viva Palestina led the way with an international convoy of 150 vehicles staffed by 500 volunteers from 30 countries. They overcame great odds to enter Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah Gate in October 2010.

Taking part in this convoy was a six-person aid team from Kia Ora Gaza who were funded from a successful public appeal for NZ$100,000.

Our grateful thanks go to all the good people who donated money and helped in other ways towards a Kiwi contribution to this Gaza convoy. Kia Ora Gaza helped to deliver NZ$7 million worth of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.

Even more important, said the people of Gaza, was how the convoy broke through the siege to reconnect them to the rest of the world.

By busting the siege, the convoy delivered hope as well as aid. That hope helps to sustain the intergenerational bravery of Palestinians in Gaza, and elsewhere, whose struggle for justice in turn fuels global opposition to Zionist apartheid.


The siege has not been ‘eased’
Following international outrage at Israel’s murder of civilian volunteers on the Mavi Marmara, politicians in Tel Aviv claimed that their siege of the Palestinian enclave has been “eased”.

Their claim is rubbished in the recent Open Letter from 37 civil society organisations in Gaza, which notes: “The Palestinians of Gaza under Israeli siege continue to live in the same devastating conditions.”

And that’s confirmed by a reputable independent observer, John Ging, who heads the United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.

“There’s been no material change for the people on the ground here,” Ging reported in November 2010. The so-called “easing”, he declared, “has been nothing more than a political easing of the pressure on Israel and Egypt”, Tel Aviv’s longtime ally in the blockade.

The Israeli commandos who raided the Mavi Marmara have received public praise and state medals from their prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu has also refused to apologise to Turkey, homeland of the nine slain aid volunteers.

Clearly, Israel’s rulers are continuing their inhumane and illegal siege, and feel no remorse at killing anyone who brings relief to the suffering people of Gaza.


How you can help another convoy in 2011

In their Open Letter, Gaza’s civil society organisations appeal to people around the world to take actions that help in “immediately ending the siege”, such as blockade-busting aid convoys.

In line with their appeal, Kia Ora Gaza has begun working towards a substantial engagement with another international aid convoy to Gaza in 2011.

The key to success is active participation by good people across our land.

Here’s how you can help another Gaza convoy in this new year:

Volunteer to join the Kia Ora Gaza team on another convoy.

Donate towards Kia Ora Gaza’s new fundraising appeal. You can make a direct payment to our bank account: Kia Ora Gaza, 03-0211-0447718-000, Westpac Bank, Onehunga branch. Or you can send a cheque made out to “Kia Ora Gaza” to PO Box 59-007, Auckland.

Offer to promote Kia Ora Gaza among your own networks.

If you can help in any of these ways, could you email office@kiaoragaza.net or txt/call Grant on 021 2544 515.

Thank you for reading this message. And please go to kiaoragaza.net for regular updates throughout 2011.

Interview: Advancing solidarity with Gaza

 Members of the latest Viva Palestina convoy celebrate after going through the Rafah crossing into Gaza

 

The fifth Viva Palestina convoy to break Israel’s siege of Gaza drove through the Rafah border crossing with 147 vehicles carrying 380 people from some 30 countries—and humanitarian aid worth some $5 million.
 
The convoy departed from London on September 18 and traveled 3,000 miles through France, Italy, Greece and Turkey before arriving in the Syrian port town of Latakia, where it was joined by two other convoys—one from Morocco and Algeria, and another that originated in Doha and came through the Gulf States and Jordan. After spending 16 days in Latakia while carrying out frustrating negotiations with Egyptian authorities, the convoys traveled on October 19 to the port city of El Arish, and from there drove into Gaza.
 
Kevin Ovenden, the director of the Viva Palestina convoy, spoke with Eric Ruder about the convoy’s significance for the Palestine solidarity movement. 

 

Kia Ora Gaza: The Big Day – entry into Gaza!

From Kia Ora Gaza

Day 34: 21 October 2010

Talal of Kuwait waits at Al-Arish wharf for the "go" signal to Gaza

Notes:

• Times: All times given are those of Egypt and Gaza. Their clock is 11 hours behind New Zealand time.

• Messages: The contents of this bulletin are real time texts from our Kiwi volunteers on their way to Gaza. Texts have been edited for readability.

• Writers: Roger Fowler and Chris van Ryn.

• Photos: Azra to Gaza blog.

The boys from Canada about to set out from Al-Arish wharf to Gaza

12.25pm: Chris
Arrived at Al-Arish wharf compound. Very heavy security. Armed guards are everywhere, looking ominous. All running smoothly so far.

12.53pm: Roger
Met up with Hone off the ship. Got passports back. Preparing vehicles to move off wharf soon under watchful eyes of over 50 armed riot police. 

1.12pm: Roger
Vehicles are flying Palestinian flags and the flags of the 30 countries which have sent volunteers. Jubilation. This is it. We’re off. The first Kiwis out the wharf gate are Chris and Hone.

1.14pm: Chris
I’ve left the compound. We’re lining up on the roadside, waiting for others. About every 10 convoy van there’s an armed police vehicle.

1.56pm:  Roger
Pat and Julie’s van is out the gate. I’m right behind. We’re pulling up to wait for others so we go as one long convoy. There’s no room for Mousa in my van, so he’s going in a UK vehicle. The sun is scorching.

2.04pm:  Roger
We’re moving off in single file. Gaza, here we come!

A crew from Italy show their excitement as they get ready for the short drive from Al-Arish to Gaza

3.06pm:  Roger
We’ve got an armed military and police escort in Nissan utes. 10 kilometres to go to Rafah Gate.

3.34pm:  Chris
Convoyers are entering customs at Rafah Gate.

3.39pm:  Roger
A “farewell, come back soon” sign is over the entrance to Gaza. Armed personnel vehicles are parked on the roadside and in nearby barren fields. There’s lots of barbed wire. Two long queues are waiting to go through the gate.

3.48pm:  Roger
More truck loads of riot police are at the ready, carrying automatic shotguns, although there’s no tension. Some police wave to convoyers. TV crews are arriving.

The convoy queues up at Rafah Gate, the only land entrance into Gaza not controlled by the Israeli military

3.54pm:  Chris
We’re through the gate! We’re in Gaza! Our heartfelt thanks to all our supporters back home in Aotearoa! Without you all we would not be here.

3.58pm:  Roger
Red Cresent youths arrive and pose for photos alongside convoy vehicles. A relaxed atmosphere.

4pm:  Chris
We’ve parked our vehicles just past the border, and are being guided to seats for a media rally.

4.23pm:  Chris
There’s a festival mood. Everyone is hugging each other, and there’s lots of joyful tears.

Convoyers mix with Gazans just over the border from Egypt

4.38pm:  Chris
Viva Palestina director Kevin Ovenden is giving a speech. We come from 30 different countries with $7 million worth of aid, he says. It’s the biggest convoy so far. In a first for any land convoy, we have entered Gaza in broad daylight. Politically the siege of Gaza is breaking down, but it’s not yet broken. If the wall of the prison is breaking, we must all push it down, Kevin declares. “I promise you that we will come back again and again and again, until all Palestinians can go home in peace and dignity.” He thanks the people of France, Turkey, Syria and across the Arab world who helped the convoy. Palestine is now an international issue. 

Huge bursts of applause from the large crowd punctuates Kevin’s speech. About 15 TV crews are filming the event.

Flags from many countries fly inside Gaza, showing the broad international support for a free Palestine

5.24pm:  Chris
I’ve just met a young man whose pregnant sister died in 2007 because she couldn’t get medical attention for ten days.We’re soon heading off to Gaza City where I’ve been told crowds are waiting for us.

5.32pm:  Chris
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, to shake hands with people on the streets of Gaza. But I’m still on hold until we hand over our aid. Then I can relax and say, “Job done!”

5.35pm:  Chris
It’s evening and the light is dimming. There’s flashing lights and sirens all around me as we move off to Gaza City. What a sight. What a noise.

5.47pm:  Chris
As we head to the city, Hone is sitting on top of the ambulance roof. He’s waving a Palestinian flag. Emotions are running high. One convoyer was in tears, and has now swapped her driving role and is resting in her vehicle. It’s all a bit much.

Inside Gaza: the emotion of the moment

6.19pm:  Chris
As we head slowly to Gaza City, the wall is around me. In front of the wall is a fence. It feels like I’m going into prison. It’s a shock. The bastards!

7.03pm:  Chris
Thousands of people cram the streets of Gaza City. They are ecstatic. “Welcome! Welcome!” they shout. Kids are pushing forward onto the road. I have to drive carefully to avoid hitting anyone in the crush. People on motorbikes are yelling, “Thank you! Thank you for coming to Gaza!” Everyone wants to touch me.

Now the crowd is chanting and clapping. They’re in a frenzy. We’re driving at a crawling pace. There’s too many people to go any faster. I must be careful, have to stop txting for a while.

8.46pm:  Chris
We’re driving through a narrow corridor of cheering people. They often jump in front of us. Some kids are banging drums. Soldiers are everywhere, we’re very well protected. I just saw a bombed out building.

The convoy heads into Gaza City

10.33pm:  Roger
I’ve just done an interview with Radio New Zealand. It’s been crazy here. We were mobbed all the way in Gaza City. Now going to our hotel by bus.

10.56:  Chris
We’re holed up for the night in a hotel. It’s pretty horrible, but a bed at least. Saw more bombed out buildings. I did a long interview, about 15 minutes, with Kim at Morning Report.

11.27:  Chris
Have just done an interview with Keith Slater of TV3.

History-making aid convoy about to bust Gaza siege

Viva Palestina founder George Galloway announces the Gaza convoy is sailing to Egypt on 18 October despite Cairo blacklisting himself and 16 other volunteers. He is speaking to a crush of international media and 400 convoyers in Latakia, the main port of Syria.

Kia Ora Gaza media release
18 October 2010

Today the international aid convoy to Gaza, whose three columns have driven from England, North Africa and the Arab East to link up in Syria, leaves land and takes to the waters of the Mediterranean.

These are the same waters where, four months ago, Israeli commandos stormed the Gaza aid vessel Mavi Marmara, leaving nine civilian aid workers shot to death and dozens more wounded.

The convoy’s destination is the Egyptian port of Al-Arish, just a 19 kilometre drive to Rafah Gate, the only land entrance to Gaza not under the control of Israel.

“It took a tense ten-day battle of wills to get Cairo to grant safe passage across Egypt and into Gaza, but the convoy finally got the green light,” said Grant Morgan, co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza, which has a six-person Kiwi Team among the 400 convoyers driving 150 aid-packed vehicles.

“This is a history-making convoy because Egypt’s back door to Gaza has been well and truly pushed open by the convoy’s huge size, sheer determination and international support,” Mr Morgan continued.

“It’s a fantastic victory, and all Kiwis who care about a fair go for all will be proud that our own Kia Ora Gaza team is part of this humanitarian breakthrough.”

At the last minute, Cairo blacklisted 17 convoyers from entering Egypt, including George Galloway, the founder of Viva Palestina which organised the month-long epic journey across three continents.

“Not even Cairo’s blacklisting of 17 aid volunteers can take the shine off the convoy’s huge triumph,” said Mr Morgan. “The guts and grit of the convoyers, together with growing global support, has broken Israel’s inhuman siege of Gaza. It’s a big step forward for humanity.”

The convoy could be entering Gaza by Wednesday 20th October.

“Convoyers are sure to be greeted by cheering throngs of Gazans. They badly need the convoy’s chemotherapy drugs, X-ray machines and other life-saving supplies. Even more, these suffering but resilient people appreciate the international solidarity which is helping them to bust the brutal blockade,” said Mr Morgan.


Keep up to date with the Viva Palestina convoy at http://kiaoragaza.net/

Gaza aid convoy permitted to enter Egypt

Aid volunteers in Latakia are glued to Aljazeera as the television network announces that Cairo has granted immediate permission for the international convoy to enter Egypt and proceed safely to Gaza

By Julie Webb-Pullman
Member of the Kiwi Team to Gaza
From Kia Ora Gaza
14 October 2010

A few hours ago the Egyptian Government gave permission for the international aid convoy to enter Egypt, and deliver its humanitarian aid to Gaza, although Viva Palestina founder George Galloway has been told to keep out.

The convoy is comprised of over 400 people from 30 countries, and is carrying more than US$5 million of medical and educational supplies in some 150 vehicles, mainly ambulances. The supplies include desperately-needed chemotherapy drugs for children with cancer.

Convoy leaders say they expect to leave the Syrian port of Latakia in the next 24 to 36 hours, sailing for the Egyptian port of Al-Arish.

The mood is upbeat in Latakia’s former refugee camp which has been home to convoyers for the past 12 days while awaiting Egyptian approval. Groups are gathering to discuss developments, watch the news, celebrate with a game of football, and text their organisations back home.

The convoy will pass through the waters in which Israel’s military attacked the Gaza aid ship Mavi Marmara on 31 May, killing nine Turkish citizens and wounding many more humanitarian volunteers. As we reach this site, convoyers will throw flowers into the sea, before continuing on our way.

Although there is concern about how the Israeli government might respond, especially among the 30 people who were also on the Mavi Marmara, most convoyers are confident their passage will be peaceful. 

“I expect that the Israelis will shadow us in a boat to intimidate us, but the military option is off the table, in my opinion,” said Kia Ora Gaza convoyer Pat O’Dea.

Organisers are hopeful there will be no last minute problems, and that the aid will reach Gaza by next week.

Viva Palestina: Aid convoy crosses Turkish border into Syria

Keep up to date with the Viva Palestina and the Kia Ora Gaza Kiwi Team at http://kiaoragaza.net/

Kiwi captain: ‘We need a bit more help from folks at home’

The Kia Ora Gaza team is now in Istanbul, Turkey. 
Read the latest reports at http://kiaoragaza.net/

Roger Fowler (left), captain of our Kiwi Team on the Gaza aid convoy, makes new friends in Lyon, France

By Roger Fowler
Captain of the Kiwi Team to Gaza
27 September 2010

Passing me in the passageway of our ferry to Greece, Viva Palestina project director Nicci Enchmarch speaks two simple sentences which echo in my mind.

Pointing towards the stern of the ship, she says: “I can’t go back there. It reminds me of the Mavi.”

Smiling without humour, Nicci walks on. For the first time I can see the trauma she has suffered after experiencing the Israeli military assault on the humanitarian ship Mavi Marmara which killed nine of her fellow aid volunteers.

I turn and catch up with Nicci. I want to know something. I ask: “Why on earth would you come back again?”

“Because every day people in Gaza go through the same and more,” she replies. “We must stay focused, reminding ourselves of the trauma these people suffer every day.”

Countless thousands of Gaza’s civilians have been killed and maimed by the Israeli military. 80,000 homes have been destroyed. Basic infrastructure, like water, sewage and power, is crumbling or collapsed. Devastated hospitals cannot get vital medicines and equipment.

Israel is still blockading all exports from Gaza, stopping the free movement of its people, and restricting or banning imports essential to healthcare and rebuilding. Israel’s bombs and missiles rain down on Gaza so often that the world media hardly notices. A ruinous collective punishment has been imposed on even the babies of Gaza.

Staffing our Gaza aid convoy are volunteers from five continents who represent the best instincts of people the world over.

Our Kia Ora Gaza team represent all “fair go” Kiwis. Many of you have already donated to our $100,000 Gaza Appeal.

Now our Kiwi volunteers need a little more of your help. We still have $10,000 to go to reach our $100,000 fundraising target.

This last $10,000 is vital to cover unbudgeted costs on the road. And to get a little bit in the bank to meet emergencies as we close in on Gaza.

The Kiwi Team is playing a major role in making our humanitarian mission a success. But we need a bit more help from folks at home to bankroll our work in the field.

Together we can help Gaza. Please donate now.

Viva Palestina project director Nicci Enchmarch with Kiwi Team captain Roger Fowler (left) and his deputy Chris van Ryn

UN report exposes BBC bias against Palestine

by Grant Morgan  
Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza
23 September 2010


A panel of experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council has slammed Israel for raiding a Gaza aid flotilla last May, saying its military forces killed and tortured humanitarian volunteers in breach of international law.

“The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel toward the flotilla passengers,” the UN panel declared, “demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality.”

The three UN human rights experts who found the Israeli raid “clearly unlawful” are:

• Former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva.
• Trinidad judge Karl Hudson-Phillips.
• Malaysian women’s rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam.

The findings of these internationally respected human rights experts contradicts the thrust of a recent BBC Panorama story titled ‘Death in the Med’. 

This BBC story, filmed in partnership with the secretive Israeli commandos who stormed the flotilla, suggested that the civilian aid workers were the aggressors, not the victims of an unlawful and brutal action by overwhelming military forces.

In effect, the UN report exposes untruthful bias in the BBC story.

And here are two further exposures of the pro-Israeli propaganda themes in the Panorama film:

Expose Panorama bias (click to read)

Kia Ora Gaza - Breaking the siege of Palestine

The Kia Ora Gaza team and the entire Viva Palestina 5 convoy continues its way through Europe. Daily reports are featuring on the Kia Ora Gaza website.

I thought the following summary by Omar Hameed as Socialist Aotearoa was particularly pertinent.

It’s sickening to watch the Delhi Commonwealth games descends into utter shambles and absurdity with pampered athletes moaning about their (obviously unclean) accomodation in a country where the population of people living in slums is set to be 93.06 million next year.

23 times the population of Aotearoa living in houses without access to drinking water, toilets or drainage and yet the major story is that the building dust hasn’t been cleaned out of the bathrooms. For many Indians it would be nice just to have a bathroom.

On the other hand one Kiwi team we should be all cheering for is the Kia Ora Gaza crew, trekking their way across Europe on the way to break the siege of Palestine. With nearly $90k of their $100k target raised these activists have strengthened and demonstrated the support for the Palestinian people in this country.

As Chris Van Ryn, one of the activists on board the convoy described life on the road,

It’s hard. It’s stressful. It’s uncomfortable.

And it’s so worth doing.

We’re here to do a job, not have a party. Our focus is to supply aid to suffering people in Gaza and break the globally condemned Israeli siege. That’s the thread binding our convoy together. For a month we put aside our own needs for the much greater needs of oppressed Palestinians.

The closer we get to Gaza, the stronger our feeling for the one-and-a-half million people imprisoned on that small strip of land. We feel their plight.

Hundreds of determined people being supported by thousands of ordinary people around the world, united in their determination to rebuild international co-operation and solidarity between people through hard work and shared physical hardship. You won't find it at the Commonwealth games but you will find it with the courageous volunteers on the road to Palestine. This is one team to keep an eye on this spring.

New aid convoy sets off for Gaza

Here’s some international media coverage of the Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza, which of course includes Kia Ora Gaza. Daily updates from the Kiwi Team are now appearing on their website. They’re currently in Paris.


From Al Jazeera

Last Modified: 19 Sep 2010 01:29 GMT

Organisers say the Viva Palestina 5 is the biggest aid convoy ever bound for the Gaza Strip [File: GALLO/GETTY]

A new convoy of vehicles has set off from the UK carrying humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, more than three months after nine people were killed in another attempt to break an Israeli blockade on the Strip.

The Viva Palestina 5 convoy, which departed from London on Saturday, will be joined by participants from a number of countries before it eventually attempts to cross the Rafah border from Egypt into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from London, said organisers of the trip say the attempt is the biggest and most international aid convoy ever bound for Gaza.

“By the time the convoy reaches the Strip it will have grown from 15 vehicles to 150 - picking up support across Europe and the Arab world,” she said.

“Most of the journey will be over land, but the aid will be transferred to ships for transportation between Syria and Egypt.

“The aid workers hope to deliver their supplies through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza early next month.”


Deadly raid remembered

Members of the convoy have planned to hold a remembrance ceremony as they pass the spot where Israeli troops conducted a deadly raid on another aid flotilla destined for Gaza on May 31.

Nine pro-Palestinian activists - eight Turks and a dual US-Turkish citizen - were killed when Israeli troops boarded the Mavi Marmara ship.

Israel has insisted its commandos resorted to force after they were attacked on the deck of the boat, but activists on board say the soldiers opened fire as soon as they landed.

Organisers of the Viva Palestina convoy said the actions of the Israeli army against the flotilla brought a change in international opinion against the seige on Gaza.

“Far from deterring people from seeking to bring that siege to an end, the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla is spurring on even more people to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and to end the blockade,” the group said in a statement on its website.

“As a result Viva Palestina is launching ‘Viva Palestina 5 - a global lifeline to Gaza’ … in conjunction with convoys leaving from Casablanca and Doha and timed to coordinate with a larger and even more international flotilla aiming to reach Gaza by sea at the same time as the land convoys reach by land.”


Gaza closed off

Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after the Palestinian group Hamas movement took control of the territory.

Gaza has been closed to virtually all supplies, and Palestinians inside the territory have had to deal with food shortages, lengthy power cuts and no cooking gas.

Israel has since eased its land border restrictions with the territory to allow through more civilian goods.

But construction materials remain heavily restricted, Gazans have very limited freedom of movement, and Israel still enforces a naval blockade on the territory.

Kia Ora Gaza departure from TVNZ’s Te Karare Maori news

Kia Ora Gaza: Kiwi Team has arrived safely in London

Kia Ora Gaza newscast
16 September 2010

KIWI TEAM HAS ARRIVED SAFELY

Our Kiwi Team to Gaza has arrived safely in London. Tomorrow the six of them will pick up their aid vehicles.

You can send your best wishes to Roger Fowler (captain), Chris van Ryn (vice-captain), Julie Webb-Pullman, Pat O’Dea, Mousa Taher and Hone Fowler.

Just email your goodwill messages to grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz and they will be forwarded to our team.


BEST TV COVERAGE OF DEPARTURE

The best TV coverage of our Kiwi Team’s departure on Tuesday comes from TVNZ’s Te Karare Maori news programme. Click here:

http://www.turkcemp4.com/qW1qVg9KtIw/Kia-Ora-Gaza-group-to-deliver-aid-to-the-needy-of-Gaza.izle



LAST LAP OF FUNDING MARATHON

Kia Ora Gaza is now on the last lap of our fundraising marathon. Big thanks to all the generous people who have donated.

Over the last two months we’ve raised $85,000 of our $100,000 target.

We urgently need that last $15,000, or more, in order to build an Emergency Reserve Fund.



DONATE NOW TO EMERGENCY FUND

Our Emergency Reserve Fund will help our brave Kiwi volunteers get out of almost certain dangers and difficulties on their hazardous road to Gaza.

Please donate NOW to our Emergency Reserve Fund. Go to kiaoragaza.net to see how to donate.



AND IF A SURPLUS IS LEFT OVER?

What happens if, through the generosity of Kiwis like yourself, a surplus is left over in our Kia Ora Gaza account?

That surplus will stay safely in our bank account until the following Gaza aid mission, when it will be used to kickstart that next humanitarian convoy. All your donations will find their way to Gaza to help its suffering citizens.

Kia Ora Gaza is a Charitable Trust registered under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957. All our accounts are audited by a professional auditor (donating his services free) who is independent of our Board of Trustees.


INVITATION TO KIWI TEAM LINKUP

This coming Tuesday Kia Ora Gaza is holding a public meeting at Auckland University.

Here we plan to hold a skype linkup with our six-person Kiwi Team, who will by then be three days into their historic mission to Gaza. While this skype linkup is not certain, because of technical difficulties, we will do our best to make it happen.

Aucklanders are invited to our meeting:  start 5pm on Tuesday, 21 September, at the Cap n’ Gown Lounge, adjacent to the university quad.

For more precise directions, email Michael Lai at battybattybot@hotmail.com



I hope to see you Tuesday,

Grant Morgan

Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza
021 2544 515
grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
kiaoragaza.net

Kia Ora Gaza team leave Auckland

From Kia Ora Gaza website

It’s very early on Tuesday morning, 14 September. While Auckland awakes, our Kiwi Team are at the airport booking in for their flight to the other side of the world. All except Hone Fowler, who’s already in London where the international aid convoy to Gaza will leave on 18 September. From left: team members Julie Webb-Pullman and Pat O’Dea, Kia Ora Gaza co-organiser Grant Morgan, team captain Roger Fowler, Kia Ora Gaza co-organiser Ismail Waja, vice-captain Chris van Ryn and team member Mousa Taher. “They’re such a great team to represent Aotearoa,” said Ngati Whatua representative Steve Phillips. “Ka mau te wehi!” (amazing, fantastic).

Students from Mangere East School’s combined culture clubs gave a special sendoff performance for the Kiwi Team. Here they get up close to Kia Ora Gaza’s famous truck logo, which will be plastered on the side of our three aid vehicles heading towards Gaza.



Chris van Ryn engages a large crowd of supporters with stirring words of social justice leavened with a bit of humour. Looking on are (from left) Pat O’Dea, Julie Webb-Pullman and Roger Fowler.



Roger Fowler sings the official Kia Ora Gaza song ‘Movin’ On’, our anthem of solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza. The song also pays tribute to the nine civilian aid workers on the last humanitarian flotilla shot to death by Israeli commandos on the open sea in the dead of night. Roger is flanked by the other four departing members of our Kiwi Team.



Te Tai Tonga, a highly rated kapahaka group from South Auckland, give a floor-shaking performance which delights the crowd of Kia Ora Gaza supporters and curious passersby alike. Their final haka came close to generating a seismic wave.



All good things must come to an end. Loud applause for Te Tai Tonga’s standout performance heralds the move by our Kiwi Team towards the departure gates. They’re off to London to join an international convoy which will swell to over 1,000 volunteers driving 500 or more vehicles in the biggest aid convoy since the Second World War. The rest is history!

The best way you can counter Israel’s propaganda machine

[Last Sunday] TVOne’s “Sunday” programme broadcast the BBC Panorama story “Death in the Med”.

As “Sunday” presenter Cameron Bennet made clear in his intro, this BBC Panorama story gives the Israeli version of the storming of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May which left nine civilian aid workers dead and dozens injured.

It’s the old, old story of an aggressor selling the propaganda line that really the victim was to blame for being attacked.

Cameron Bennet asked the question: Will this Israeli version of history sway people? My answer: probably not many.

The Israeli military attack on a humanitarian aid ship on the open sea in the dead of night was so indecent that the world’s majority are lining up against the illegal and immoral siege of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

If you do come across someone who is swayed by this Israeli propaganda, simply point them to Kia Ora Gaza’s website.

Today [Monday] on kiaoragaza.net we have posted seven articles which, in different ways, expose the Israeli propaganda attack. These articles are:

UN official criticises Israel over flotilla probe

‘Death in the Med’ for BBC journalism?

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, writes to BBC Panorama

A beautiful gift from the BBC

IHH 40 page report on Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara

Israeli propaganda attack on Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Amnesty International Report 2010 – Israel & the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Just click on any headline above to take you to the article on our website.

Kia Ora Gaza is fund-raising to send a six-person Kiwi Team to Gaza in three vehicles packed with humanitarian aid, such as medical equipment, educational supplies and building equipment. 

Our brave Kiwi Team is joining the biggest aid convoy since the Second World War. 500 vehicles full of aid and staffed by over 1,000 volunteers from scores of different countries  will converge on Gaza in October.

This historic convoy, led by UK-based charity Viva Palestina, will deliver humanitarian aid that is still banned by the state of Israel. And the convoy has a real chance of ending the Israeli siege of Gaza, or at least fatally weakening the blockade.

Here’s my message to you:  If you really want to bring both aid and justice to the people of Gaza, then donate generously to Kia Ora Gaza's humanitarian mission. Go to kiaoragaza.net to see how to donate.

And if you have already made a donation, then how about making another? Your financial support for Kia Ora Gaza is the best way you can counter Israel’s propaganda machine.

Thank you,

Grant Morgan

Co-organiser of Kia Ora Gaza

021 2544 515

grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz

kiaoragaza.net

Kia Ora Gaza fundraising gig

BREAK THE BLOCKADE MUSIC SHOW

Featuring:

• TIGI NESS (UNITY PACIFIC)

• THE FRANK E. EVANS BAND

• LUKE HURLEY

2 hours of Kiwi musicians performing for their sisters & brothers besieged in Gaza.

5.30pm – 7.30pm on Sunday, 5 September.
Dogs Bollix Bar, 2 Newton Rd, Central Auckland (near the corner with K’Rd).

Admission free. Donations collected for Kia Ora Gaza. Visit kiaoragaza.net.