Interesting Week

(is this post too long? please let me know...)

This has been a fascinating week. I have just got back from the London wide meeting for those planning to go on the convoy. Sadly we could not get the projector to project. Typical, two laptops, a projector and a massive wall-hung TV and yet still a verbally delivered presentation. I'm not feeling so technical any more. I made some more contacts and was glad to hear about some useful potential vehicles someone has found (a man with 15 ex NHS ambulances!). Some views at the meeting were that Viva Palestina needed to get more info out quicker and some weren't clear on how donation/ vehicle-buying etc is to work. Personally I think they're doing a good job - people need to work to some degree autonomously and not expect directives on everything - they have produced a fair old amount of relevant info so far. The volunteers need to buck up and get their registration forms and documents in as requested before any complaints in my view.

On Tuesday evening I went to a book launch at Amnesty International (thanks 4 heads up Ez). 'Palestine in Pieces' was written by Kathy and Bill Christison and provides their accounts of places they have visited there in the occupied territories. One passage read from the book describes a village of settled Bedouin called Numan where 170 people live. It became part of Jerusalem in 1967 when Israel captured East Jerusalem and expanded the city limits. Most of its residents happen to have West Bank ID cards which did not particularly matter until 1993 when a system of closures was introduced restricting those without Jerusalem ID cards from entering Jerusalem. So the villagers are now technically illegally living in Jerusalem under Israeli occupation law and cannot physically move towards the North West. This might not have been completely difficult to live with because villagers used to be able to trade with their South East neighbours towards Bethlehem. However now there is the massive security Wall blocking their way. There is one exit and entry point to the village guarded by Israeli police at which there is a list of residents names. No-one else is allowed in. Five residents happen to have Jerusalem ID cards and these five are the only ones allowed to move a vehicle in or out. A weekly UN mobile medical clinic was barred. Any 50kg sacks e.g. of flour or feed, have to be decanted into smaller containers for inspection. Water and electricity supplies were cut off in the nineties. There is so much more to this story and that is one of many in the book. (No profit available from www.plutobooks.com)

The couple who wrote the book are quite elderly Americans and used to work for the CIA. They say that the Palestine-Israel issue in the States is just not yet in the conscious awareness of enough Americans and therefore not a priority politically. Perhaps this would be different if more Americans saw this website that I was forwarded this week: www.ifamericansknew.com, check it out for data, figures, links, history and interesting stuff like that. No really check it out!

This morning I felt a bit reflective because I spoke to a contact at Merlin (international medical charity) who advised me to speak to another organisation called Medical Aid for Palestinians. I spoke to them and we spoke about the difficulty of taking aid which might be inappropriate e.g. wrong language, out of date, not able to be used etc. Apparently she said George Galloway's vehicle that he took previously is still not usable. I start to think about him and posturing and really hope that what we plan to do is really useful. Viva Palestina have some contacts for proper medical aid though so I'm reassured. Also the MAP lady did say that crayons, exercise books etc would be very useful so we need to try and find some of those.