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Viva Palestina Convoy Gets Underway

08/12/09

Last Friday [December 4], four groups from Ireland left on a three-week journey to the besieged Gaza Strip in Palestine.

They met up with the Viva Palestina Convoy in London, and, on Sunday, over 100 vehicles left from Westminster on a journey that will take them through a dozen countries in order to bring aid to the people of Gaza, who continue to live under a brutal Israeli siege.

This is the third convoy organised by the Viva Palestina movement. The first made its way to Gaza from Britain in March of this year, in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli assault of the region that left 1,400 people dead and most infrastructure in ruins.

The second convoy went from the United States in the summer, and, on this occasion, convoys from Ireland, Britain, the United States and several other countries will meet up in a massive demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Irish contingent alone – travelling from Cork, Derry, Galway and Tyrone – is made up of two ambulances, a minibus and a truck loaded with over 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

They will also be bringing goalposts, jerseys and training materials donated by the GAA to aid in the development of the Gaza GAA Club. The club was set up by Tyrone man John Hurson, who participated in the first convoy, to help bring some sense of normality to the lives of the children of Gaza. Noam Chomsky and All-Ireland winning footballer Peter Canavan are presidents of the club.

The various convoys intend to reach Gaza together for December 27, one year on from the beginning of Israel’s onslaught on the region populated by 1.5 million people, a region it refers to as an ‘enemy entity’.

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