self-censorship? no headlines in the New York Times... not on Yahoo News ...pretty much ignored by any major Western press that I've seen... why is this only major news on Arabic, Chinese and alternative Western news organizations? it is a major story here in the Middle East and gets a lot of time on Al Jazeera
gulfnews : Convoy stuck at border on anniversary of Gaza war(story below)
Egypt has thus far not allowed the group to pass saying it was a “sensitive situation” but currently diplomatic efforts between Egypt and Turkey are trying to arrange a solution.
- By Layelle Saad, GCC/Middle East Editor
- Published: 15:17 December 27, 2009
- The convoy, jointly organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK, left London on December 6.
Dubai: An international delegation known as the Gaza Freedom March remains stuck in Jordan’s Aqaba sea port, with tons of humanitarian aid to be delivered to the people of Gaza. Gulf News spoke with members of one the UK delegation via telephone to get an idea of what they group was facing.
“We all have a shared sense of nervous anxiety,” Alexandra Lorty Phillips, team leader of UK’s Alpha team said. “We didn’t think we wouldn’t be allowed to take the ferry, we have have been here since Wednesday and have critical aid to deliver, some medications will surely expire in the sun,” she explained.
Egypt has thus far not allowed the group to pass saying it was a “sensitive situation” but currently diplomatic efforts between Egypt and Turkey are trying to arrange a solution.
“Our convoy is determined to break the siege and take in urgently needed supplies. Spirits are high in our camp in Aqaba, and we are going nowhere except to Gaza,” British MP George Galloway said.
“Allahu Akbar” chanting could be heard over the telephone as Philips told Gulf News the team was assembling in front of the Egyptian consulate to start a hunger strike.
Members of the 400 strong delegation hail from many European countries as well as some people from Malaysia. They are carring $250,000 worth of aid, including bandages, chairs, walkers, everyday medicines, antibiotics.
“We also have baby milk, childrens play educational material for a Gaza orphanages,” Phillips explained.
The convoy, jointly organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK, left London on December 6. It has enjoyed safe passage through Europe, Turkey, Syria and Jordan on its way to Gaza.
The delegates, ranging from high-profile figures such as author Noam Chomsky, British MP George Galloway, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire to diplomats, doctors, lawyers, students, interfaith groups that include rabbis, priests and imams, and others, are attempting to break the siege on Gaza by demanding the borders be opened a year after the War on Gaza left 1,400 dead.
Iqbal Warsi, a grandmother living in the UK, has never been to Gaza, but when she saw the events that unfolded last year, she said her heart went out to the victims.
“I saw how Israel would bomb the sewage plants and it would mix with the tap water, as a grandmother I imagined my own grandchildren playing in such filth,” she explained.
“I realized it was EU money going to repair all these facilities and Israel would just destroy everything we built,” Warsi said.
Meanwhile in Gaza, sirens went off in the morning to commemorate the dropping of the first Israeli bombs on Gaza.
Several demonstrations were to be held during the day and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya was to speak in the evening. Hamas is planning on staging events for 22 days-the length of the war.
“The goal of these events is that this war and its massacres, which had no precedent, should remain before the eyes of the world,” said Ihab al-Ghussein, a spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry.
