PRESS RELEASE FROM THE ISRAELI PEACE ORGANIZATIONS:
THE CONVOY . On the morning of Monday, Feb. 18 - after long delays - the relief convoy of two weeks ago will at last be transferred into the Gaza Strip; seven tons of basic food and water filters will arrive at the Sufa Border Crossing; peace activists will accompany the supplies until the checkpoint, holding up placards: "Lift the Gaza blockade!"
Since the supply convoy and protest action held at the Erez Checkpoint on Saturday, Jan. 26, with the participation of about 1,500 activists, the military authorities held up the actual tranfer to Gaza of the goods collected. These include five tons of basic foodstuffs purchased by the organisers by donations collected from Israel and all over the world as well as water purification filters, needed for public institutions in the Strip where the water is highly polluted. To these were added two tons of personal aid packages, prepared by many Israeli families as a a goodwill gesture to the inhabitants of Gaza.
Since the convoy, the goods were kept at warehouses placed at the organisers’ disposal at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom and the Bedouin town of Rahat.
There followed more than two weeks of repeated appeals and approaches to the military system, by lawyers and Knesset Members, protests sent to the Government of Israel by peace activists from all over the world who had donated to the convoy, and complicated discussions with various elements of the bureaucratic system, until the permit was finally given for transferring the goods into the Strip.
Peace activists of different groups, already left from near the Arlozorov St. Railway Station in Tel-Aviv to accompany the goods until the Sufa Border crossing near Kibbutz Kisufim, holding up placards calling for an end to the Siege of Gaza, which is an act of collective punishment in violation of International Law. On the other side there will wait members of the Palestinian-International Campaign to End the Siege, such as the phychiatrist and human rights activist Dr. Eyad Sarraj.
Participating organizations:
Gush Shalom, Combatants for Peace, Coalition of Women for Peace, ICAHD – The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Bat Shalom, Bat Tzafon for Peace and Equality, Balad, Hadash, Adalah, Tarabut- Hithabrut, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, AIC – The Alternative Information Center, Psychoactive – Mental Health Workers for Human Rights, ActiveStills, The Students Coalition (Tel Aviv University), New Profile, MachsomWatch, PCATI – The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Gvul, Gisha, Local Television on the Internet, Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue, “On the Left Side”, and Faculty for Palestinian-Israeli Peace (Israel).
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