More than 100 Asian activists calling for the lifting of the Gaza blockade and ferrying vital humanitarian aid entered the Palestinian coastal strip on Monday.
They are part of an Asian aid convoy, Asia1, which started on December 2 from Rajghat in New Delhi and travelled by road to Syria, after crossing Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.
As a part of the convoy, a ship named Salam, which sailed from the Syrian port of Latakia, brought for Gaza residents humanitarian supplies worth a million dollars. Apart from medicines, foodstuffs and toys, the aid cargo includes four buses.
The eight members of the caravan on the ship were Sudhir Sawant (former MP), Shaheen Kattiparambil (Student Islamic Organisation), Ajit Sahi (journalist) and Aslam Khan (All India Students Association) from India; Koichi Sakaguchi from Japan; Hakim Alizade from Azerbaijan; Muhammad Hussein from Indonesia and Norazli Bin Musa from Malaysia.
Around 170 human rights activists from 18 Asian countries were part of this humanitarian task force.
Egyptian authorities allowed entry to only 108 after denying visas to Iranian and Jordanian delegates.
A statement from the India-based New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), one of the main organisers of the aid mission, said one helicopter and two Israeli vessels tracked the aid ship as it sailed from Latakia to the Egyptian port of Al Arish.
The Israeli forces contacted the ship's captain, and demanded various details of the activists on board.
Significantly, Asia1 has the Turkish Foundation of Humanitarian Relief (IHH) among the organisers, AFP reported. The IHH came into international limelight in May 2010 after its aid ship, Mavi Marmara, was boarded by Israeli commandos, who killed nine activists on board. Unlike Salam which has docked at Al Arish, the Mavi Marmara was heading to Gaza at the time of the pre-dawn incident.
The Asia1 mission is a response to the tight blockade that Israel has imposed on Gaza Strip since June 2006, after Palestinian groups captured an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Mr. Shalit is yet to be released. The embargo was further reinforced in 2007 when the Hamas, a Palestinian group, sized the Gaza Strip and caused the exit of the rival Fatah following bloody clashes.
In Gaza, general secretary of the NTUI Ashim Roy, addressing the media on Monday, said Asian unity would be the first major step leading to the liberation of Palestine.
Keywords: Humanitarian aid, Gaza strip
Comments:
A very hearty show of solidarity with the people of Palestine who are living in the most deplorable conditions. More such efforts are needed by peace loving people from all around the world.
Where is the main stream media? Why this act of courage and justice not reported with the importance it required? This is the true anti-terror campaign which need to be taught to coming generation. My congrats to all those brave hearts!
It was nice to read that some help got to the people who have been abused so long by people who used their military to invade and occupy land that the arabs of 1917 died by the thousands to create. They never want to mention the brave Arabs of WWI who fought and died by the thousands in the British effort to defeat the Turkish army. The British Army suffered defeat after defeat with an entire British unit including a British commanding officer under arrest in what later would be Iraq. The only success the British had in the entire area was the effort of the Arabs with one British officer going along. That British officer was Lawrence of Arabia. After WWI the British then gave the land promised to the Arabs to the zionists who for the most part were not involved in WWI in any way. The fact that the zionists avoided WWI was one reason why there were so many available to invade the Palestine mandate mostly with illegal new settlers. I suggest people read the diaries of the founders of Israel and one will understand the massive lies that you read in the organized press. Give peace a chance and help create peace by supporting real peace in the middle east. You only have your loved ones to lose by not doing so.
Thank you India. Its great to be an Indian.It was always.
I was one among the eight who were stranded on the ship for 100 hrs and then by Egyptian authorities and also has been the main coordinator for the caravan the last month. Just wanted to inform the readers that NTUI is not the organiser of this aid convoy nor were its members present when the ship departed from Latakia. This convoy comprises of members from different organisations all with specific roles, so hence it is not right that just only one organisation is singled out again and again for credit. Also was disheartened that the most major event, the leader of the convoy Feroze Mithiborwala speaking in the Iranian parliament and subsequently the Iranian MPs all standing up with the Gandhiji's autobiography in their hands was not reported by the Indian media.