Viva Palestina to lead largest US convoy into Gaza

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British anti-war MP George Galloway is to fly out on Saturday 4th July, American independence day, from JFK airport in New York with the first of a group of hundreds of US citizens who are to form the largest ever aid convoy to head into Gaza.

They will be heading off a month to the day from President Obama's signal speech in Cairo promising a new, more egalitarian US engagement with the Muslim world and a change in policy over Palestine and the Middle East from the disastrous eight years of the Bush administration.

For six weeks the Viva Palestina campaign, launched by Galloway with an earlier convoy in March from Britain in March, has been building support for the mission across the US.

George will be leaving from JFK with the convoy members on Saturday afternoon. They will be landing in Cairo on Sunday at midday.There will be over 200 people participating in the convoy which will assemble in Cairo before heading for the Rafah Crossing. It is hoped to enter Gaza on Sunday 12th or Monday 13th July.

The convoy comes at a vital time for the people of Gaza as the International Red Cross report issued earlier this week confirms. There are one and a half million people now living in dire poverty, unable to rebuild after the destruction of the war in January of this year. This is the effect of the siege of Gaza imposed by the Israeli government for the last year. In the latest twist former U.S. Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and other human rights activists were seized by the Israeli navy as they sailed in the Spirit of Humanity with aid for Gaza. [my link].