Well Worth Reading:
By Salma Elshakre
Viva Palestina
"We spent the days after the Peace Bridge incident finishing the “required” paper work and negotiating with the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Affairs to reach an agreement on time to be spent in Gaza, what we can take with us, and to let all members of the convoy cross into Gaza. Mr. George Galloway and Councilman Charles Baron made a great effort to come up with a good pact with the Ministry and tried to get the most out of them. At the end, we were only allowed 24 hours in Gaza and they promised that all convoy members would enter as well as all the medical aid. They denied the entry of the 47 trucks that we purchased in Alexandria and they still have them at the port......
We arrived at Rafah at about 6pm; we were greeted by people who have been camping out of the border for weeks, even months trying to get in to Gaza to see their families. Some of them came running to our buses trying to sneak in to cross with us. It was disheartening having to refuse to let them in because the number of people on each bus had to remain fixed until we crossed the border, no more or less on each bus and the police had really strict security on us.......
I made some conversations with a few of the translators that accompanied us, they figured I’m an Egyptian from my accent, and they immediately started complaining from what my government has done. I felt humiliated at some point, and all I could do was just cry and apologize to them, but I also clarified to them that they are not only bad to the Palestinians; but they are also merciless with their own people.......
Next, we took a tour in Gaza and visited the heavily destroyed areas which were mostly the industrial areas. The scenes we saw just made us all so speechless, no “Oh my God” is big enough can explain how it feels to see the destruction with our own eyes, it’s like nothing on T.V. We saw the people that live in the Unicef tents, they waved peace signs high in the air for us to see, it was heart breaking. No matter how terrible their conditions are, they were still keen to welcome us to their humble, destroyed neighborhood and express their happiness that we are there......
The Palestinians have suffered so much but yet they are resisting. They are fighting for the rubbles of their homes and their land and their children. No matter how much stress and suffering they experience, they are still standing. No matter how hard things are on them, they still managed to be happy that we are there, they were very hospitable and generous even in their dire hard times.
This life changing experience is only the beginning for many of us, we will stand up for injustice and Palestine will be FREE!"
Viva Palestina
"We spent the days after the Peace Bridge incident finishing the “required” paper work and negotiating with the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Affairs to reach an agreement on time to be spent in Gaza, what we can take with us, and to let all members of the convoy cross into Gaza. Mr. George Galloway and Councilman Charles Baron made a great effort to come up with a good pact with the Ministry and tried to get the most out of them. At the end, we were only allowed 24 hours in Gaza and they promised that all convoy members would enter as well as all the medical aid. They denied the entry of the 47 trucks that we purchased in Alexandria and they still have them at the port......
We arrived at Rafah at about 6pm; we were greeted by people who have been camping out of the border for weeks, even months trying to get in to Gaza to see their families. Some of them came running to our buses trying to sneak in to cross with us. It was disheartening having to refuse to let them in because the number of people on each bus had to remain fixed until we crossed the border, no more or less on each bus and the police had really strict security on us.......
I made some conversations with a few of the translators that accompanied us, they figured I’m an Egyptian from my accent, and they immediately started complaining from what my government has done. I felt humiliated at some point, and all I could do was just cry and apologize to them, but I also clarified to them that they are not only bad to the Palestinians; but they are also merciless with their own people.......
Next, we took a tour in Gaza and visited the heavily destroyed areas which were mostly the industrial areas. The scenes we saw just made us all so speechless, no “Oh my God” is big enough can explain how it feels to see the destruction with our own eyes, it’s like nothing on T.V. We saw the people that live in the Unicef tents, they waved peace signs high in the air for us to see, it was heart breaking. No matter how terrible their conditions are, they were still keen to welcome us to their humble, destroyed neighborhood and express their happiness that we are there......
The Palestinians have suffered so much but yet they are resisting. They are fighting for the rubbles of their homes and their land and their children. No matter how much stress and suffering they experience, they are still standing. No matter how hard things are on them, they still managed to be happy that we are there, they were very hospitable and generous even in their dire hard times.
This life changing experience is only the beginning for many of us, we will stand up for injustice and Palestine will be FREE!"
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