01-07-2010, 11:38 AM
WASHINGTON, DC (MASNET) Jan. 6, 2010 - In its ongoing support of calling for an end to the illegal siege of Gaza through its 'Let Gaza Live' campaign, MAS Freedom (MASF), as the civic and human rights advocacy entity of the Muslim American Society (MAS), condemns the January 5, 2009 attacks by Egyptian riot police against members of the Viva Palestina convoy, resulting in the arrests of seven and serious injuries to as many as ten of the first 157 convoy team members arriving at Port El-Arish, Egypt in route to fulfilling their mission of delivering over 200 truckloads of humanitarian aid to Gaza. (VIDEO)
The incidents stemmed from a decision on the part of government officials in Egypt to impose yet another delay on the convoy's journey, insisting that more than 50 vehicles would remain behind. After traveling one month, thousands of miles, through ten countries, utilizing one ship and four flights, the news unsettled convoy team members who commenced a protest against yet another delay. The convoy, after traveling through Europe, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan, was forced to detour back to Syria after Egypt's initial refusal to grant permission for the convoy to proceed onward to Gaza, and later re-routed further west of the Mediterranean coast to before reaching El-Arish.
The ongoing economic blockade of Gaza - enforced by both Israel and Egypt - continues to inflict devastating damage to the food, water, sanitation, and electrical infrastructure needed to provide life sustaining support for more than 1.4 million people in the Palestinians territory.
As one of the 86 delegates allowed to enter Gaza from Dec. 29, 2009 -Jan. 2, 2010, Aishah Schwartz traveled from Cairo, Egypt through the Rafah border to participate in activities recognizing the devastation produced in the Dec. 27, 2008 - Jan. 18, 2009 assault on the Gaza Strip, code-named Operation Cast Lead, resulting in the deaths of 1,419 Palestinians, including 326 children and 111 women.
Among the countless realities striking Schwartz during her visit to Gaza was learning that, despite promises of reconstructive assistance and financial aid to the territory, generators were still being used in large areas to produce electrical power, four days out of seven - every week - for the past four years.
"There is an element of U.S. collusion with this illegal blockade of the civilian population of Gaza since Israel and Egypt are the largest and second largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, respectively, and this money, from U.S. taxpayers, directly provides armaments and technology used by Israel and Egypt to enforce the economic strangulation of Gaza," stated MAS Freedom Executive Director, Mahdi Bray.
The United States military is also reportedly supplying the Egyptian government with technology being used to construct a massive security fence designed to further cut-off the Gaza Strip from access to supplies from the Egyptian side of the border.
Bray added, "It is high time for American religious leaders, and all people of conscience, to step up the pressure on Congress and the President, to compel both Israel and Egypt to allow humanitarian aid to flow unimpeded into Gaza. In the course of an average month no less than 10,000 truckloads of supplies are required to sustain the region, yet, on average, only 2,000 are reaching the Palestinian people. In the 21st Century, no human being should be allowed to suffer from this type of immoral and illegal economic strangulation."