Tag: Gaza

  • Joy and shame at Rafah

    International Movement to Open the Rafah Border 16 July 2009 Yesterday, July 15, should have been a day of rejoicing here at Rafah Gate because the Viva Palestina convoy had finally been authorized to enter Gaza, but it turned into a nightmare for the many Palestinian families held up on the Egyptian side. Finally, at…

  • Free Gaza–and Palestine

    Huwaida Arraf | The Nation 17 July 2009 Last month I led a group of twenty-one human rights workers on a boat from Cyprus to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. We carried toys, medicine, olive tree saplings, toolkits, a fifty-kilo bag of cement and school supplies on our small converted ferry boat.…

  • Malnutrition begins to bite

    Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service 15 July 2009 “There are some people who buy frozen meat, because it’s much cheaper: 20 shekels (five dollars) per kilo versus 60 shekels for fresh beef.” According to the 45-year-old father of ten, while business is in general terrible, the better days are early in the month, when…

  • ‘Who will hold us accountable?’

    Natalie Abou Shakra | Electronic Intifada 15 July 2009 I will never forget the image of the elderly woman whose son was dying in a hospital in Egypt. She only wanted to be with him. Crying, her hand touching the glass window of the office of the Egyptian intelligence services, she pleaded, “Please, please. I…

  • Viva Palestine convoy updates

    14 July 2009 2 pm the final negotiations are still underway at the moment; it looks like we may have an extension of the stay beyond 24 hours (all those protests in the US have paid off); all of our aid is permitted to enter, but not the vehicles (unless there’s a miraculous breakthrough in…