If the United States had a state-mandated news blackout on coverage of the Viva Palestina US convoy, which has been kept waiting for 10 days with 50 trucks of humanitarian aid at the borders of Gaza, it could not be less visible to the public.
But the convoy has confirmed that its 200 members, plus at least some of the vehicles, finally crossed into Gaza through Rafah, Egypt, in the last few hours. It is one of the most important MIddle Eastern stories of the year: the second convoy led by British MP George Galloway and many other noted peace activists to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, one of the harshest long-term abuses of any people on the planet. Despite the presence of Galloway, four anti-Zionist rabbis, a US general, and some 200 other people from the US, this important development has been nowhere on the mainstream press's radar, even in the "humanitarian news" section of Reuters. But you can get a few details at Chinese Xinhua.
The Viva Palestina US convoy follows hard on the heels of the high-seas kidnapping and imprisonment by Israel of former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, and 19 others as they attempted to enter Gaza from the sea, to deliver medical aid, toys, olive trees, and a single, symbolic bag of cement.
By barring the Viva Palestina US convoy, Egypt in cooperation with Israel was keeping out over $1 million in medical and other aid, including wheelchairs and walkers for the many amputees Israel created in its 22-day bombing and invasion of Gaza in December and January, which killed more than 1300 people. What's symbolic about a bag of cement? Gaza is in complete ruins, yet Israel has barred all reconstruction materials. As Mairead Maguire said upon her release, "It is a crime against humanity."
Israel and Egypt are the top two recipients of US aid and receive billions of dollars a year from us. The world well knows that the US had the power to demand that Egypt allow entry to the Viva Palestina convoy, yet the US did not do so at once. In fact it insisted that all the members of the convoy sign a statement giving up their right to protection by the US government. For decades, the US has allowed Israel to starve and suffocate 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza into submission to its plans. If the maps of shrinking Palestinian territory over the last six decades haven't made it obvious to all, Israel barely bothers these days to hide its intentions to take over virtually all Palestinian lands and resources.
The Anti-Defamation League has launched a campaign to brand those involved in the Viva Palestina humanitarian mission as terrorist sympathizers for allegedly offering material support to Hamas (the legally elected party "governing" Gaza while Gaza is utterly subjugated by Israel).
It is a sad irony that the ADL should engage in a McCarthyite smear campaign against Viva Palestina volunteers who wish to prevent even worse humanitarian disasters than the Israelis have already caused in Gaza. Only when the world sees the reality of Israel's goals there will Israel be forced to stop.
The fact that Israelis are actually blocking entry of humanitarian aid is beyond comprehension. They claim they are starving and suffocating a population of 1.5 million because of Hamas and a single Israeli prisoner. Gilad Shalit, being held by Palestinians. They probably understand that most Americans know nothing of the 11,000+ Palestinians rotting in Israeli dungeons. If Israelis look in a mirror, they should see the image of Israel hovering alongside that of Burma, North Korea, and Zimbabwe, the only three other nations denying entry to international journalists and humanitarian relief for populations in crisis. On top of this, the world's longest illegal occupation, fresh reports from the Red Cross, from Amnesty International and from Israeli soldiers themselves are confirming the massive war crimes of which the Israeli regime are guilty.
The entire million dollars of aid carried by this convoy could have ended up dumped in the Sinai (as occurred wtih an earlier attempt), and the convoy members could have been forced to return to Cairo without ever entering Gaza. It is a great step forward that they were not. Americans of conscience owe the Viva Palestina volunteers a huge debt for their heroic mission. There will be a new Viva Palestina convoy, and a convoy after that, from England and Ireland, from Venezuela, from Moscow, and again from the US, because there has been an unmistakable turning of the tide. Israelis themselves are becoming uncomfortably aware that a spectre is haunting Israel: the spectre of a free Palestine. All of us must do whatever we can to hasten the process by urgently writing the White House, our congressional representatives, and the State Department, by submitting letters to the editor, by crying out against the wholesale injustices that have been perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians for so long.