Since the imposition of the embargo on Gaza and its radicalisation in January of this year already several international solidarity delegations tried to enter besieged Gaza. The latest attempt took place on March 31 starting from Cairo and trying to reach Gaza with relief materials.
It was initiated by the "European Campaign to Lift the Siege on Gaza" and seized by several other groups like us from the Anti-imperialist Camp or the "Gaza must live" committees. As most of the interested forces did not know each other the preparations were scarce and had to take place upon arrival in Egypt.
We took advantage of the international Cairo conference against Zionism and imperialism which took place ahead of the delegation. It was astonishing how the idea was taken up spontaneously by the participants eventually bringing together some 30 people from a dozen non-Arab nations.
Not only this unexpected support but also the fraternal climate between the activists from the most different political and cultural traditions hints towards a changing situation within the international movement. After the landslide electoral victory of Hamas and the ensuing coup d'etat by Fatah backed by Israel and the West many forces in the pro-Palestinian movement wanted to take a neutral position and thus ignore the importance of the case of Gaza. They tried to circumvent the problem by generically speaking of Palestine. But the monstrosity of the crime committed against Gaza as well as its political meaning became clearer by time. When Israeli deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai last February menaced Palestinians in Gaza with a new holocaust people increasingly understood that the Israeli policy of oppression could assume a new quality. The resistance against Zionist occupation should be physically extinguished with the full complicity of the so-called international community.
Another positive element of the protest action of March 31 in Egypt was the full coverage by the Arab media including the satellite channel Al Jazeera. It indirectly indicates the overwhelming refusal of Egypt's complicity in the embargo. Meanwhile the Western media continued to remain silent.
All this shows the line we embarked on is correct and must be continued. Therefore we will try to build the European Campaign to Lift the Siege on Gaza as a platform to take action both at home and in the Middle East.
Beside the activities which are scheduled for the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe caused by the erection of the Apartheid settler state of Israel, in Europe and across the world, we have been informed about a conference organised by the Egyptian opposition. It is directed against the embargo and especially dedicated to the members of the Palestinian Legislative Council kept in prison by Israel without any legal ground. The conference will be attended by MPs from the region. It might be the occasion to organise a new delegation to Gaza including MP from across the world. The conference has been set for the end of May.
Anti-imperialist Camp
April 2008