salam,
The below news is not only about state of Isral barring aid convoy, but also
about many Israelies wanting to help people in Palestine.
Maqsud
Israel bars aid convoy to Gaza
By Rachel Shabi at the Erez crossing, Gaza-Israel border
Israeli peace groups have braved the cold and rain at the Erez crossing [EPA]
The Israeli military has prevented an aid convoy organised by Israeli human
rights organisations, peace activists, and former military personnel, from
reaching needy families in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israeli groups braved dipping temperatures and the unusually rain-sodden
grounds of the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip on
Saturday, hoping that Israeli authorities would allow five tonnes of food
through.
As of Monday, the Gaza-bound supplies, comprising non-perishable goods, are
still warehoused at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom on the southern border of the Gaza
strip, awaiting army clearance to cross into the strip.
Adam Keller, of Gush Shalom, an Israel-Palestine peace bloc, said: "We are
still in negotiations with the army and are trying to mobilise Knesset members.
We have an appeal to the supreme court that is ready to be lodged. We hope it
will not come to that, but will use it if necessary."
The Israeli supreme court is already considering a wider appeal made last week
by Israeli humanitarian organisations, asking that the court compels the
government to lift its blockade on Gaza.
Israeli, Palestinian unity
The Israeli and Palestinian peace activists first arrived at the Erez crossing
in a convoy of about 100 cars and 20 buses that wound its way from Israel's
main cities to the border on Saturday.
Travelling under the "End the Siege!" banner, the convoy brought about 1,000
demonstrators and five tonnes of food aid to the border.
Saturday's peace protests came from what in
Israel is known as the 'radical left' [AFP]
In the past 10 days Israel had tightened a seven-month blockade of the strip,
halting supplies of foodstuffs, medical equipment and fuel.
The Israeli government describes the siege as a response to rocket fire into
southern Israel from Gaza, but human rights groups see it as collective
punishment.
Saturday's peace activists came from what in Israel is known as the "radical
left", groups such as Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), the International Committee
Against House Demolitions, the Coalition of Women for Peace and the
Arab-Israeli Balad and Hadash parties.
The action at Erez ran in tandem with a protest in Gaza City, where some 200
demonstrators gathered and were connected to Israeli demonstrators via speeches
broadcast in both directions through mobile phones.
Organisers had planned that Israelis and Gazans would protest within eye
distance of each other -with the former group located on a nearby Israeli
hilltop enabling line-of-sight vision with the latter group - but this proposal
was rejected by the Israeli army, citing security reasons.
Making his way to the Erez border from Jerusalem, Reuben Moskovitz, 79, a
self-defined veteran campaigner, said: "I am glad to see today that the Israeli
peace movement is still alive and there are still people ready to make an
outcry against this huge crime against humanity, against international law and
against peace that is being committed in Gaza."
Symbolic gesture
Demonstrators of a different generation were of the same mind.
"We just thought that the blockade of Gaza is wrong, that starving people and
preventing them from having basic human rights like food, fuel and water is not
the solution," said Rachel Aharoni, 17, from Tel Aviv.
Demonstrators brought two lorry-loads of
food and provisions to the Erez border [AFP]
Arab-Israeli protesters were also a prominent presence at the crossing.
"It is so painful for me to see this reality in Gaza, as a mother and as a
human being, and not to do anything," said Arees Sabbagh, 28, from Nazareth. "I
see it as a human obligation to come today."
Demonstrators brought two lorry-loads of food and provisions to the Erez
border, which the campaigners expect to cross on Monday morning.
"We don't believe that this is going to solve the problem in Gaza," says Amit
Ramon, one of the organisers.
"It is intended to be symbolic."
The goods in part comprise parcels made up by individual demonstrators bearing
hand-written notes to their recipients.
Praising the breach
Several of the speakers at the Erez crossing on Saturday praised Gazans on
breaching the Rafah border last week, while condemning both Qassam rocket
attacks from the strip on the Israeli border town of Sderot and Israeli
military attacks on Gaza.
Eyad Sarraj, founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health programme, spoke from
Gaza City by mobile phone and his voice was amplified on the Israeli side of
the crossing.
"I am deeply honoured and proud to have the chance to talk to you," he told the
Israelis.
"Every drop of blood shed in Israel or in Palestine is a crime against humanity
that has to be prevented."
Just like Moskovitz, the peace veteran from Jerusalem, Sarraj later told Al
Jazeera that demonstrators in Gaza were "pleasantly surprised that there is
still a peace camp in Israel".
But the slogans and demands of this camp are clearly drowned out by the
opinions of a wider Israeli public.
"The people who are organising those convoys are considered to be fringe,
eccentric and liberal in the negative, American meaning of the word," says
Akiva Eldar of the Israeli liberal newspaper, Haaretz.
In recent weeks, and especially before the Hamas breach of the Rafah border
crossing, much of the Israeli media focus was on the rocket attacks on Sderot.
According to the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, over 200 Qassam rockets
and mortar bombs have been fired on Sderot and nearby communities since
mid-January.
Public supports blockade
Ephraim Yaar, an academic and co-author of Tel Aviv University's Peace Index
which monitors Israeli public opinion, suggests that the national mood is one
of support for the tightened seal of Gaza's borders.
"In terms of Sderot and other communities around the Gaza strip, people feel
that something must be done about it and that the Israel government's
responsibility is to protect its citizens," he said.
Yaar said the Israeli public is sceptical about warnings of an impending
humanitarian disaster in Gaza where 80 per cent of the population depends on
the UN for food aid.
"They don't believe that the situation in Gaza is as bad as is described," Yaar
said.
While international newspapers reported on the severe consequences in Gaza of
an Israeli fuel blockade and consequent closure of the electricity generator,
Israeli media discussed whether the issue might have been manipulated and
exaggerated by Hamas.
Both Yaar and Eldar point out that UN reports do not hold much credibility
among the Israeli public.
The most recent Peace Index poll, earlier this month, reveals that 81 per cent
of Israelis support increasing "the targeted killings" of Palestinian fighters.
And 65 per cent do not think that Israel should reach a ceasefire agreement
with Hamas.
Sharing the suffering
But at the Erez crossing, where protesters stayed without incident for several
hours under the watchful eye of Israeli border guards, a surprising endorsement
of the radical left position came from a resident of kibbutz Zikim, near Sderot.
Several Israeli speakers praised Gazans for
breaching the Rafah border last week [AFP]
Addressing the rally, Shir Shudzik, 17, described the trauma of living under
rocket fire for the past seven years.
But then she said: "I know that I'm not alone in this situation, that people
are suffering even more on the other side."
Shudzik said she does not trust either Hamas or the Israel government to bring
peace.
"But the fact that we are here together, Arabs and Jews, might be a beginning
and it brings me hope," she said.
This message of hope was echoed by the organisers of the rally.
Uri Avnery, of Gush Shalom, in an earlier statement said: "Our hearts and minds
are with our Palestinian brothers who are at this moment demonstrating with us
on the other side of the fence – Don't lose faith that one day we will meet
together in this place without fences, without walls, without firepower,
without violence, the sons of two peoples living next to each other in peace,
in friendship, in partnership."
Source: Al Jazeera
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