-----Original Message-----From Kathleen Wang: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hi Frank I'm home now! Came home with Palestinian citizenship and a new Palestinian passport! We got back to Cyprus in our boats Free Gaza and Liberty on the 29th of August and I had to get new flight to London and ended up arriving home Saturday night in LAX 9/6. I spent a couple of days in London with the family of our cameraman and 2 nights in Paris with a Palestinian family. Very happy to be home. Very happy that we succeeded in breaking the siege of Gaza by Israel, the US and Egypt. We need more boats to land in Gaza so that the Palestinian people of Gaza have a link to the world not interefered with by Israel, the US and Egypt. The people of Gaza had no control over their borders or airspace or their access to their own territorial waters. Until we arrived through Gaza territorial waters for the first time since 1967 Gazans were able to welcome visitors and guests to their land by sea and with the permission of their own elected government of Gaza and not an occupying power. No foreign boats have been allowed to come in by sea to Gaza since 1967 due to Israeli occupation which still is in effect. A new port stamp had to be made to stamp the passports of our perspecive countries and the new Palestinian passports we were given as new citizens of Palestine. While Gaza had a new state of the art airport built by the International community;Israel bombed the tarmac before any planes were allowed to land there. It remains unused. The only way Gazans can leave Gaza with their visas to to other countries where they seek medical care, education in universities (where many have been awarded scholarships) or just to visit another country (as you and I do freely) they need the permission of Israel or Egypt to exit Gaza. The siege has caused the deaths of over 250 patients who were not allowed to leave Gaza to get health care not available in Gaza due to the lack of medical equipment and medicine that is not allowed pass the blockade. In our boats were some Palestinians who could not enter Gaza any other way then by our boat because Egypt and Israel has control over who goes in or out of Gaza and keep most Gazan confined inside Gaza's borders. Many Gazans who managed to get out of Gaza to visit other countries are stuck in Egypt because Israel, and Egypt won't allow them to cross the border to home. We met 2 families at the Israeli border who have been waiting 5-7 years to go to Russia as each of the wives married to a Palestinian were not allowed to leave to go visit their families in Russia. While we were there one of the woman got a call that Israel was letting her through and with her husband and 3 children she walked the dirt path to the border as 2 porters helped with luggage. The kids 4-7 years old have never been allowed to visit their grand mother in Russia because of Israeli policy. The other family left behind had waited 5 years and would wait to see if Israel would allow them exit also. When we pushed off the dock from Gaza to go back to Cyprus we took a Palestinian; a woman and her 4 boys 4-18 years. Her husband was stuck in Egypt 2 months unable to come home after getting out of Gaza for a conference; he runs a mental health NGO. The woman has not been able to leave Gaza for 5 years to go to Cyprus, the port we sailed from. Her mother and other family members lives there. Israelis from Israel's coast sail like we did all the time to go to Cyprus or fly there at will for vacations...but this woman could not visit her mom. She left Gaza, abandoning her nice home and all her belongings. Though she lived well in Gaza she said it is a prison. Unlike her most Gazan live on charity (85%) because of Israel's crushing of Gaza's economy. A boy of 16 was also taken back with us. He needed care not available in Gaza. He needs a special prostheses for a leg amputated after a bomb hit his neighborhood when he was 13. His father also came with us. The Cyprus government accepted financial responsibility for his care in the hospital he was taken to. The King of Jordan has now invited them to Jordan to avail themselves of the kind of sophisticated equipment he will need. He has very little hip left to attach a new leg. 10 of our members are stuck in Gaza as they decided not to take our boat back and now Egypt and Israel won't let them go home except by another boat though there is a real threat they may not let our next boat through even though they claim they must leave by boat the way they came in. Lauren Booth was my roomie in the hotel we stayed in. She is Cherie Blair's sister. Quite a gal. She can't go home to her 2 daughters 5 and 7 and now like Gazans..is stuck in Gaza. 2 days after we left, Egypt allowed let 2500 people out of Gaza but not these 10 peace activist. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u95SR7h_eyw&feature=related> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u95SR7h_eyw&feature=related Our hope is to have another boat full of people and sail back to Gaza by the end of September. We need donations. This is an expensive endeavor. Though we are all volunteers, we had paid crew and Captains and the boats had to be purchased, needed renovation and important communication equipment, and fixing of the boats was very expensive and done with Euros which have US dollars at a disadvantage. <http://www.freegaza.org> www.freegaza.org Will provide more info and hopefully people might want to donate. We received many small donations and fortunately large as well and everything helps.Also if anyone wants to go on subsequent trips there is a list of passengers forming. Kathleen Krystle and Mei-Lee my grand daughters gave me 2 magnets the night before they took me to the airport for my plane to Cyprus and Gaza. The first said: "Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Emerson The trail we left leads to Gaza! The second said: "20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. EXPLORE,DREAM. DISCOVER. I discovered the wonderful and accepting people of Gaza! P S Thanks for the hero title! It is one we were given often in Gaza but all of us who managed to be on those boats agree that the real heroes and resistors are the people of Gaza and all of Palestine who have had to resist everyday for years and continue resistance by living life courageously under a most cruel and sadistic occupation by the Israeli government. Kathleen <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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