Relief Aid Couple blocked at Rafah border with medicines
By Mary Rizzo • Jul 23rd, 2008 at 23:29 • Category: Action Alert, Israel, Newswire, PalestineA Palestinian-Scottish couple are driving a ton and a half of urgently-needed medicines to Gaza on July 10th and they have arrived the Rafah border but cannot enter Gaza because the Egyptian government doesn't give the permission to open the border. Please take action and write to the Egyptian officials:
http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/content/view/2547/458/
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15217
http://www.gaza.tk/
a letter could look like this:
His Excellency
Dr. Ahmed Mahmoud Mohammed Nazif
Prime Minister of Egypt
Fax No. 202 7356449 – 7958016
21 July 2008
Sir,
We have heard that a large supply of medicine, in fact 1.5 tonnes of medicine, collected in Scotland, Great Britain, for people in the Gaza Strip is being held only a few metres outside the gate into Gaza at Rafah on the Egyptian side of the Israeli wall. Those who have made the effort to drive from Scotland to Rafah (!) are being threatened by the Egyptian authorities in Rafah that they must drive their van away without delivering the medicine.
It is well known that the siege of Gaza has caused death and much suffering to the population there, half of which are children, and it is a crime that this situation is allowed to continue. We have protested Israel’s siege at our vigils for many months and, in general, held vigils to draw attention to the desperate situation of the people in Gaza for some years. In actual fact, Gaza has been an open-air prison for decades and not only since the election of Hamas.
We are indeed shocked to learn of the position of the Egyptian authorities in not allowing basic medicine into the Strip and we urge that the peace activists be allowed to enter Gaza on this humanitarian mission, which should be greatly admired by all!
Yours faithfully,
Paula Abrams-Hourani
for Women in Black (Vienna)
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Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
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Thank you again for publishing this, Mary!
We are protesting today, 24 July 2008, in front of the Egyptian embassy in Vienna!