Viva Palestina: New Year Emergency Financial Appeal

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Friday January 01, 2010 15:58 by Kev - IPSC (pers cap)

On 6th December 2009 the third Viva Palestina international aid convoy set off from London. Over the next few weeks it traveled almost three thousand miles through 9 countries gaining support as it went. By 24th December, Christmas Eve, when it reached the post of Aqaba in Jordan it had grown to almost 500 people in 250 vehicles - carrying much needed medical aid for the besieged people of Gaza.

And there its journey could have come to an end. The convoy was refused passage across the Red Sea to the Sinai by the Egyptian authorities - gatekeepers of the Rafah crossing into Gaza. The convoy would only be allowed to enter Gaza if it landed at the port of Al-Arish on the Mediterranean coast.

The convoy was forced to turn around and head back through Jordan and Syria to take ship from there to Egypt. But this solution, imposed by the Egyptian authorities, has come at a cost. Viva Palestina and our partners will need to charter three ferries and a plane to move our vehicles and convoy members from Syria to Egypt. And we need to raise the money to pay for this.

So we are asking our friends and supporters to dig deep in their pockets and make an emergency donation towards the costs now facing the convoy. With your help we will once more deliver aid to the people of Gaza - and once more demand the end to this in human siege.

Thanks you for your support and may we wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Viva Palestina and friends

PLEASE MAKE A DONATION HERE: