Viva Palestina is a caravan of about 200 people, mostly Americans, but which also included some prominent non-Americans, most notable among them being George Galloway, a British MP (member of parliament) and an outspoken critic of modern day corporatocracy and the politics of fear. The group also included New York City Councilman, Charles Barron, a tireless crusader for minority rights; four anti-zionist Rabbis and I believe, Cynthia McKinney, US Presidential candidate under the Green Party in the 2008 elections. Also in the group was a close friend of one of my friends. It is moving to watch people from diverse walks of life, some of whom one would least expect to see, come together for a cause such as this. A video of the event can be seen at the Viva Palestina website, which also contains loads of information related to the event.
What is glaringly missing from the whole incident and story is the absence of coverage of these issues on the US media, inspite of the fact that the group was overwhelmingly American. The Daily Kos had some coverage of the event. The Rafah crossing in Egypt became the choice route for two primary reasons. One was because Israel would never allow (and has never, since it left Gaza about two years ago, allowed) any aid into Gaza. Even coastal access to Gaza is not permitted, even though international regulations permit Gaza to exert complete control over its coast. The second reason was to see if Egypt would succumb to US and Israeli pressure and block the access to Gaza through its territories.
It was quite refreshing and heartening to see Cynthia McKinney rush to join the convoy, almost immediately after her arrest and illegal imprisonment in Israel, along with Irish Nobel Peace laureate, Mairead Maguire, another event that received little or no coverage in the US media.
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