VIVA PALESTINA USA: Only half of aid arrives at Gaza due to
USA, Israeli and Egyptian government interference

Galloway hands over leadership to former Black Panther leader Charles Barron

by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - July 21, 2009 - (ACN) The humanitarian Viva Palestina USA aid mission to the besieged Gaza Strip in Palestine arrived at the Rafah Gate on the night of July 15, 2009 despite major obstacles by Zionists, the Egyptian government and the USA Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.

Loading the medical supplies at JFK in New York,
About 200 delegates from diverse locations in the USA and representing various ethnic, racial and religious groups left New York City on the Fourth of July with wheelchairs and large suitcases loaded with medical supplies to Cairo, Egypt which served as an initial base of operations for the mission .

The Viva Palestina USA delegation included a 21 member contingent from Southern California, 4 from Central and 3 from Northern California. Among the group from Southern California was this writer for the purpose of reporting to the Latino community on this historic humanitarian effort for the benefit of the Palestinian people who withstood a savage military attack by the Zionist Israeli regime for 22 days in December and January.

The Viva Palestina USA aid project, under the leadership of British Member of Parliament George Galloway, collected approximately $1,200,000.00 dollars from organizations and individuals to purchase additional medical supplies and 47 new vehicles in Egypt to transport the supplies to Gaza. The 47 vehicles, which were not released from the Port of Alexandria by the Egyptian government, were to be donated to Gaza. La Voz de Aztlan donated directly $1,200.00 in checks and an undetermined amount that subscribers to our news service sent directly to Viva Palestina USA through the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO). We are proud of having served in this very worthy effort and reporting on the Viva Palestina USA project. Also, we would like to give thanks to our readers and subscribers who donated to the mission.

George Galloway briefs the delegation in Cairo.
In Cairo, the delegation was split into three groups. One group of about 80 delegates was sent to Alexandria to pick up the purchased 47 vehicles. A second group of about 20 delegates remained in Cairo to purchase additional medical supplies. The remaining delegates were sent as an advanced group to Al-Arish near the Rafah crossing to Gaza to establish a base where all groups would eventually rendezvous and prepare a unified convoy towards the infamous Rafah Gate controlled by the Egyptian government under the much despised and corrupt President Hosni Mubarak.

Soon after the delegation split up into three groups, the entire humanitarian effort was threaten with total collapse due primarily by obstacles placed by the Egyptian government, delay tactics by the USA Embassy in Cairo and by Zionist infiltration of the Viva Palestina USA delegation itself.

The approximately 80 delegate contingent that was sent to the Port of Alexandria to pick up the purchased vehicles and serve as drivers was stranded for three nights in Alexandria due to the Egyptian port authorities not releasing the 47 vehicles for reasons still not clear to this reporter. About $600,000.00 of the approximately $1,200,000.00 dollars went to the purchase of the new vehicles. The status of the 47 new vehicles stranded inside the Port of Alexandria is still not clear. They may be utilized for future aid convoys.

Four anti-Zionist rabbis of Naturei Karta International were part of the delegation.
This reporter was one of the delegates stranded in Alexandria and on the second night we heard word that the advanced group sent to Al-Arish had been detained by Egyptian authorities at a check point on the bridge across the Suez Canal and sent back to Cairo. The group in Alexandria also had to return back to Cairo and joined up with the other two groups.

The entire delegation, now in Cairo, then became the victims of the USA Embassy when it required that all delegates travel to crowded downtown Cairo to obtain and pay for some useless "Embassy of the United States of America" affidavits. The affidavits essentially warned us that the USA government would not protect us if we entered Gaza and had to be signed by Vice Consul Carina Klein after each delegate raise their right hand and swore that we understood the warning. We were each given a copy of the very official looking affidavit with an embossed seal of the US government to carry around.

The bureaucratic obstacles placed by our own and Egyptian governments on Viva Palestina USA made hollow the words delivered by President Barack Obama in Cairo on June 4, 2009. Egypt receives the most USA foreign aid, second only to the Zionist state of Israel, of all the countries in the world amounting to $30 billion dollar since 1975. Most of this aid has been squandered by corrupt and dictatorial President Hosni Mubarak in running a total police state. In return for this aid, the Egyptian government helps Israel keep the Palestinians locked up in the Gaza Strip, slowly starving them to death. This is the primary reason that the Egyptian government sequestered the Viva Palestina USA vehicles inside the Port of Alexandria and why it allowed the delegation to be inside Gaza for only 24 hours. The delegation and Gaza organizations had planned for three full days of activities visiting bombed hospitals, schools, mosques and homes and other events with Palestinian families.

Holding banner on the left is Reem Salahi, leader of Southern California Viva Palestina. On the right is Hector Carreon, reporter for La Voz de Aztlan - Cairo, Egypt.
The delay tactics and assorted obstacles placed on Viva Palestina USA in Egypt caused great suffering on the entire delegation except on a few undercover Zionists within the group who were passing on information of our discussions in our frequent meetings on to Egyptian authorities. Without doubt, there were at least three delegates of Jewish descent attempting to sabotage the entire mission. The photographs and information they took on the delegates may have negative consequences in the future.

All of the tribulations and sufferings were soon forgotten when we all finally crossed the Rafah Gate late at night and three days late. The great reception by the besieged Palestinian people brought many of us to tears. The Palestinians were waiting for us for three nights in a row but never-the-less showed great enthusiasm, spirit and exuberance in our arrival. The road leading out from the Rafah Gate was lined on both sides by a uniformed youth corps, similar to the Brown Berets, performing with military drums. The Palestinians, undaunted by our delay cheered amidst a great number of journalists, cameras flashing and Gaza government officials.

The emotions were intense as many Palestinian-American members of the delegation embraced their relatives inside Gaza for the first time in many years. The first gesture that George Galloway and New York city Councilman Charles Barron performed as they cross the gate was to kneel down in a Muslim prayer position on the Gaza soil.

A few minutes later while journalists and news cameras surrounded Galloway and Barron, Galloway made two important announcements. First, he formally handed over the leadership of the Viva Palestina USA convoy to Councilman Charles Barron of New York who was standing next to him. Galloway said, " ... one of the most important new and rising voices in the Democratic Party of Barack Obama, the City Councilman of New York city to whom I now hand over formally the leadership the American Viva Palestina convoy Councilman Charles Barron."

Raed - Palestinian-American delegate from Ohio.
Councilman Barron is a former leader of the Black Panthers and a champion of Black civil rights. He is also very friendly and a supporter of immigrant rights. Charles Barron has welcomed illegal immigration with the phrase, "don't criminalize, legalize." He appeared on the television program The O'Reilly Factor and said the entire "immigration problem" is really a black-white issue. He argued that Germans, Jews, Poles, Greeks, and Italians who immigrated to the United States during the late 1800s were welcomed because of the color of their skin, but now, "All of a sudden when the complexion of immigration changes, now it's 'these people'."

The second announcement that George Galloway made at the Rafah Gate was an upcoming Hugo Chavez Viva Palestina Venezuela aid convoy to Gaza. This announcement was received with great enthusiasm and loud clapping. An Hugo Chavez "bust the siege effort" staggers the imagination and it may be the one that finally frees the Palestinians from the prison which the Gaza Strip has become under the evil Zionist occupation. Hugo Chavez is much beloved in the Middle East and is affectionately known as "Chavez of Arabia."

At the Rafah Gate, George Galloway also gave great accolades to the incredibly courageous and articulate Cynthia McKinney who had just been released by the nefarious Zionists from an Israeli prison. Ms. McKinney spent 7 gruelling days under Israeli military detention after the aid boat she was on in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea was hijacked by the Zionist navy. Instead of going home to recuperate, Ms. McKinney decided to join the Viva Palestina USA convoy to Gaza. She is quite a trooper and suffered along with all of us.

George Galloway is carried across the Rafah Gate on the shoulders of a delegate.
Cynthia McKinney is a former US Congresswoman who was targeted by the Jewish Lobby's principal and most powerful political organization in the USA, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The AIPAC lobbies exclusively in Washington for the Zionist Israeli regime and has the vast majority of congresspersons and senators in its pocket due to the almost unlimited amounts of funds it receives from the International Zionist Movement of B'nai B'rith and Jewish bankers in Europe. The AIPAC also receives back a large percentage of the over $5 billion dollars per year approved by congress as foreign aid to Israel for its operations.

The hospitality of the Palestinian people must be the greatest in the world. They shared with the delegation the best of what they had and considering the effects of the Zionist siege, it was truly a sacrifice. The plan was to stay in Gaza for three days but the Egyptian government only allowed us 24 hours. Palestinian organizations and government entities had planned three days of activities for Viva Palestina USA and had to replan the most important events to fit within the 24 hours allowed.

The first impression of Gaza was how beautiful it is, especially the beaches along the Mediterranean. Of worthy memory is the quaint and peaceful small fishing harbor just outside our hotel in Gaza City. Gaza has the great potential of becoming quite a tourist destination if only it was totally liberated from the cruel Zionist siege. The natural beauty of Gaza, of course, has been marred by the horrific bombing and shelling, for 22 days, by USA provided F-16 jets, helicopters, bombs, tanks, drones and artillery. If only Americans knew what their tax dollars are being used for by Israel.

George Galloway and Councilman Charles Barron kneel down in a Muslim prayer position just after reaching Gazan soil.
The government of Gaza and Palestinian organizations provided three events for the delegation. The first was a tour of the bombed and totally devastated areas of northern Gaza where the Israeli Zionist regime did a horrendous job of destroying schools, hospitals, mosques and homes. One school totally destroyed was the American International School that was considered an oasis of learning in Gaza. The 22 day brutal military assault on Gaza in December and January left over 1420 dead civilians of which approximately 315 where babies and young children. The civilian injured were many times this number and today there are blind children in Gaza whose eye sockets and eyeballs were totally burned because of Israel's used of white phosphorous bombs and shells.

The assault by Israeli soldiers was merciless. On many occasions entire Palestinian families of ten, sixteen, twenty nine and even forty eight members were killed as occurred to the Samouni family. The Zionist attack included sniper squads that had orders to kill anything that moved. After the military campaign in Gaza, the killer snipers were given special t-shirts by the Israeli command to reward them for their deeds. One of various t-shirts had an image of a pregnant Palestinian mother with the inscription "One shot - Two kills." If this does not expose the nature of the evil minds that rule Israel, nothing ever will. Al Jazeera news exposed this shocking evilness in the following video:

There are hundreds of bombed structues like this one in northern Gaza.
The next stop on the tour was a reception with the Prime Minister of Gaza Ismail Haniyeh at an extremely secured location. The convoy to the location was led by an escort of armed guards and police on motorcycles with sirens blaring. On the tour bus to the reception was one suspicious loud-mouth and ill mannered American Jew making obnoxious remarks about the Prime Minister. One statement he made in the presence of other delegates was, "Ismail Haniyeh must be feeling safe since he will have a group of Americans as human shields." This s one remark made one Palestinian-American uneasy and he made sure that the delegate of Jewish descent was not carrying a GPS device or anything else that would harm the Prime Minister. The incident makes clear the need for the careful screening of delegates in future aid missions to Gaza.

After the reception with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the tour headed for the Gaza Legislative Parliament. The reception for Viva Palestina USA by members of the Gaza Legislature was conducted under a large tent and the reason soon became clear. The Zionist had dropped a bomb on the once beautiful parliament building which now laid in ruins adjacent to the large tent which is now used for legislative sessions. At the legislative reception, Viva Palestina USA heard a heart wrenching speech by a young boy that had been severely crippled for life by an Israeli bomb.

The last two stops were the most emotionally intense of the tour. The first was at the Shafa Hospital in Gaza City where some of the delegates were allowed to visit victims of the attack barely hanging on to life. Doctors at the hospital explained the condition of the patients and how it has been difficult to treat them properly without adequate medical equipment and medicines. The doctors thanked the delegates profusely for the medical supplies brought with the convoy.

The American International School is now only rubble after the Israelis targeted it with a "smart bomb.".
The last stop was at the Ministry of Prisoners where many of the delegates cried after hearing mothers, sisters and wives tell of losing their sons, fathers, husbands, and brothers in the brutal and inhumane Zionist prison system. The cruel Israeli prison dungeons also have a large number of female political prisoners that undergo daily humiliation at the hands of sadistic Israelis. One of the official aims of the Israeli jailers is to break the spirit of the Palestinian women by torturing them psychologically.

At the Ministry of Prisoners we also heard three young girls tell a harrowing story none of us will ever forget. The three girls between ages of 10 and 12 and all three related, told of the night when the Zionist soldiers killed numerous members of their family as they witnessed it. One of the girls who was quite an orator told of her cousin being decapitated by a bombed while sitting next to her. She said that her cousin's severed head rolled onto her lap and that she will never forgive the Jews for what they have done. Another of the girls was left orphaned having lost her mother and father in the attack. Due to the 24 hour constraint, it was not possible to visit the crowded Gaza orphanage.

The presentation by the three girls so moved Councilman Charles Barron that he made a series of commitments to them personally and made a large monetary donation towards their well being right there on the spot. The older of the girls said she wants to be a medical doctor and the fiery orator said she wants to be an attorney. One of Palestinain-American woman delegates commented that she is contemplating adopting one or more of the orphaned children or least sponsoring their educations.

Prime Minister of Gaza Ismail Haniyeh gave Viva Palestina USA a warm welcome.
This reporter was asked in Egypt and Gaza why I was on the aid mission. My response was that I see great similarities between the Palestinian condition and at that of Mexican and other Latino immigrants in the USA. One hundred years apart, we both lost our land to invading settlers and today our families are being separated by walls being constructed on land that is ours. Our children are being murdered by callous and evil people. For us it is the racist Minutemen vigilantes who on May 30 invaded the home of a Mexican family in Arizona while they slept and killed 9 year old Brisenia Flores and her father, leaving the mother injured and without a husband and a surviving daughter without a father.

Also, I see great benefit in an alliance between Latinos in the USA, Mexico and Latin America and the greater Islamic regions beyond. While in Alexandria I attended my very first Mosque and prayer and see no significant conflict between the Muslim faith and my Christian beliefs. I believe Muslims and Latinos can co-exist peacefully through mutual respect and reject the notion advanced by some sectors of American society, most notably the Republican Party and the hypocritical Christian Zionists, that Islam is our enemy.

I believe that Islam and the Latino world have a common enemy. Hugo Chavez, leader of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, is also leading the way in pointing out our mutual common enemy. This enemy can be defeated ultimately through a vast alliance of Islamic and Latino nations. What we call Aztlan borders Mexico and Mexico is the window to Latin America. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are strategically located on the globe to be able take a very significant role in the immense political changes coming to the world.


The three young girls above are all related. During the Zionist savage attack they lost numerous relatives and one lost both her mother and father. No child should ever experience what they went through. The trauma of their horrible experience could still be detected through their eyes.


See and hear an impassioned speech by the 11 year old girl.(Click on video above)

Viva Palestina USA - Photo Slide Presentation

Background Music: "Forever Palestine" by Sami Yusuf

July 4 - July 17, 2009

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