Gaza Convoy - July 2009
Gerard Hosman, a member of VFP's Smedley Butler Chapter 009, joined the Viva Palestina convoy to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Veterans For Peace has contributed $1000 as a co-sponsor of this delegation.
> Read more from Gerard Hosman
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Viva
Palestina US update - July 11, 2009 Vehicles are coming from Alexandria, the medical supplies from Cairo and the advanced party of nearly 100 US citizens is heading for the staging post of Al Arish, just before the border with Gaza. That group, of four buses, has, however, been stopped from crossing over the Suez Canal and into the Sinai region, which leads to Gaza. The buses, carrying people, medical aid and bearing US, Egyptian and Palestinian flags in a spirit of international cooperation, have been held at a security checkpoint and given various, conflicting reasons for why they cannot proceed to their destination at Al Arish. New York Councilman Charles Barron is leading the group and is negotiating with security officials to resolve the situation. He has contacted Washington and other elected officials in an effort to clarify the reasons for the delay and address any concerns as efficiently as possible. Former US Congresswoman and Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney will join the convoy on Sunday, July 23, and British Member of Parliament George Galloway will also be heading to meet up with Councilman Barron and the advance group. He and the rest of the advance group of the convoy, however, are insisting on their right to travel with their supplies to Al Arish, where the rest of the convoy is to rendezvous with them before heading for the border crossing into Gaza. This medical convoy is on the way to Gaza a month after US President Barack Obama described the situation in Gaza as a "humanitarian crisis."
"Our convoy is on an aid mission," says Galloway, "We come in
peace; but we will not be stopped." |
Updates from Gerard Hosman
July 16: Battery is about gone. We're almost gone. I'm giving stuff away including this computer. More from home. I love you all. Thanks for your assistance.
July 16th, Commodore Hotel, Gaza City, Palestine: I guess that says it all. I'm in. It's 1:30 AM, but this place has an internet hook-up so I'm checking my e-mail. Must be the new sense of what's important. Right now there is no water and the room is about eighty degrees, but I'm sitting in the lobby checking my e-mail. Tell you the truth, I'd prefer hot water. Cold water would do. I've been up since 3:00 AM yesterday. But that can wait. We got to Rafah about seven, but by the time we did customs, etc, it was after nine.
What a "trigger" this place is. Driving at night brought it all back. This place is Vietnam, 1968. Barbed wire, motor bikes, few electric lights outside the city, bomb damage and a generally ruined infrastructure. To add to the experience, the Israelis are shelling the Palestinian fishing fleet. The only thing off is the smell. Nam did not smell this fowl. They had prepared a quick meal for us when we got to the hotel. Over the din, I could hear the artillery. There were a lot of officials there so I asked an officer of the army, Hamas I guess, who was shelling who. He said I had good hearing, so I just said I was a veteran and left out the part about being on heightened alert (come to think of it, that's probably why I'm so wide awake too). Anyway, he said, "it's the enemy, the Israelis, shelling our fishing fleet." He explained further that they never hit anyone. They just do it to harass.
Tomorrow they have promised us a tour of damaged buildings and a visit to a hospital. Oh what fun! Our twenty-four hours is up at nine-thirty PM. That's when the last person in our group got through customs tonight, and the clock started to run. We should just make it back to Cairo in time for our 7:15 AM check-in at Egypt Air. I think I'd better go and try to get some shut-eye.
I didn't see much in the way of souvenir shops on the drive in so don't anyone get your hopes up.
July 15, Cairo: I don't know what's happening. At one AM this morning, I got a call saying, "we are leaving for Gaza at 5:00. Be in the lobby at 3;00 AM." It's 3:00 AM. More later when I get time.
July 13, 2009: Alexandria: Well we're still here. Waiting. There are varying degrees of pessimism about the fate of the convoy, but I'm convinced that we will not make it to Gaza. Well, no. I guess I'm only almost convinced. If I were really convinced, I'd change my flight and leave. So I'm still not ready to give up.
The vehicles are ours. Viva Palestina put the wrong routing number on the bank transfer (it was off by three numerals according to the woman who has done most of the translating for our leaders). Viva had to get the money back from wherever they sent it and try again. This time it worked.
Although we have the vehicles, we are not able to go to Gaza yet. I'm told that we need permission from the Egyptian Ministry to cross the Sinai. I don't know if that's true because I don't trust what the organizers are telling us. But perhaps my skepticism comes from my own pessimism or the several hundred rumors that are circulating. That's one reason. The other reason is that all the Americans have to go to the American Embassy in Cairo and sign an affidavit. We have to acknowledge that Gaza is unsafe and if we get into trouble while there (i.e. if the Israelis decide to bomb again) our government will not help us. One of my roommates met a Palestinian American doctor who regularly goes back and forth to Gaza. She, the doctor not my roommate, says this is the usual procedure and we should have been prepared for this eventuality. Although the organizers acknowledge that the American and Egyptian governments are trying to delay us, they claim to have had some other agreement that had been worked out over the phone. Over the phone!
So, the vehicles are ours, but we need to put flat beds on the pickups and roof racks on some of the cars and maybe the minibuses. We would like to do that now and drive the vehicles to Cairo to sign the waivers tomorrow and move on toward Gaza. However, we are packed and ready to board busses to Cairo tonight, visit the US embassy tomorrow morning, return here, prep the vehicles and drive them to Ismailia which is near the Suez crossing. I've just been told that we are bussing to Cairo tonight, so tomorrow looks like a long day.
In a way, it's a good thing that we have been delayed. If we had been forced to travel yesterday, I would not have been able to go. I ate something, I think it was the melon, that didn't agree with me. Actually, it wasn't the melon, it was the way it was sliced. We were sitting on our deck eating snacks; olives, pickled vegetables, canned sardines and pita bread, when Tony brought out a melon. He and I had shared one in Cairo. I cut that one in half, and we each ate the contents with a spoon. This time someone cut in end on end and then into slices. In this manner he touched the rind and the melon. Also I ate a couple of slices as I would have if I were in the states. My lips no doubt contacted the rind. I wound up with a case of the green apple two-step. Nasty, nasty, nasty.
The polite greeting in an Islamic society is "sala'am aleikum" which means "peace be with you." I've been hearing another one for the last two days; "what's wrong with your face?' When we got to Alexandria and could not get the vehicles, we needed a place to stay for what we expected to be up to three days. Alexandria is a vacation destination so there are a lot of "vacation apartments" to rent. There bare bones three bedroom, kitchen, living-room. Some people took one look and departed for hotels. Not your intrepid reporter. I've stayed in worse flea traps than this, or so I thought. No screens, A/C or other luxuries like a shower curtain. Open windows and flies. We were forced sleep wrapped in blankets to ward off the flies. I did not sleep alone. I had some type of bugs with me. Their bite did not hurt, so I didn't know they were eating me the first night. The second two nights they were the lesser of two or three evils. I now look like I have a bad case of chicken-pox. I've got little red spots all over my body. I don't know what type of bugs they were, Maybe someone else does. They started with little welts about half the size of a mosquito bite with a red dot on the top. Now I have only the dots.
We are now on the busses headed to Cairo and the US Embassy. The organizers asked us to call Egypt Air and pay a fee to have our flights delayed for a few days. They will not pay the fee because that would take away from the money for aid. It would probably also take away from the money they are using to stay in the Sheraton while we got eaten. I know. I Know. I wanted to suffer. So what am I complaining about? All Right. I'll shut up. I won't even tell you that when we come out of Gaza, they plan to dump us at the Rafah crossing and have us make our own way back to Cairo. Nope. You didn't hear that from me. But it does keep their admin expenses down. And I get to suffer!
The last night in Alexandria, three of us quit suffering and went to a hotel. Heaven
NOTE: It's been a couple of hours since I typed the above, and I'm glad I did not get a change to send it right away. I've been thinking about what I said about the leaders/organizers using our money for their comfort. I was probably wrong. There are a couple of wealthy Palestinian Americans with us. They have used their personal funds to aid all of us. For instance, one of them fronted the money for the apartments in Alexandria that we stayed in. However, they are going first class and they want the leaders with them. I'm sure they are paying the organizers' way. It's not midnight, and we are back in the original hotel in Cairo.
July 10, 2009 Alexandria, Egypt: Yesterday was a bust. Those of us who are going to be driving the new vehicles met as eight AM in the lobby of the hotel in Cairo to board the busses that showed up at ten. We then spent eight hours on the busses before we got to our sleeping quarters. There may have been a mutiny is they hadn't found a McDonalds.
Well, I've found the middle class. What a difference a hundred and twenty-five miles can make. This city is completely different from Cairo. It's clean, it's not falling apart and there's grass, bushes that people actually trim and lots of trees. It's much cooler and there's a terrific breeze. However, there are also mosquitoes. I heard them buzzing around my head last night so I put a plug in my ear and that took care of getting to sleep. I'm trying not to scratch. In addition to the ten million people who live here, Alexandria is also a vacation town. We are staying in a three bedroom apartment. There are seven of us, so it's pretty cozy.
Our ranks are starting to dwindle. At least two people had to be left in Cairo because of intestinal problems. McDonalds may be shit, but at least its shit to which my system is somewhat accustomed. We've also had one person go AWOL. The Egyptian American I mentioned yesterday packed it in. His family lives in Cairo and he hasn't seen them in five years. He got tired of hanging around and doing nothing so he's going to visit with his family until the return flights at the end of next week.
July 7, 2009: Suffering! You want to talk about suffering! I'll tell you about suffering. I didn't pack my bathing suit. I haven't been in the pool. The last guy who told me how nice the water is is suffering for it.
They must be trying to teach us patience. Why else would they have us sitting around for two days. Actually, the reason they are so slow is that they have thrown this convoy together in six weeks. There is still a lot of organizing to do here. In addition to that, we have received only fifty percent of the money that was pledged. George Galloway, the Member of Parliament from Scotland, who organized the first convoy in February and this one and crisscrossed the States fund raising is (roll the "r" and lengthen the "s") "right pissed." Fifty percent less funds translates into fifty percent less vehicles that we can purchase and less supplies. Don't worry. This is not an appeal from money. It's too late. If it hasn't been banked, it won't get here in time.
So, while they've been trying my patience, I've been sightseeing. I went to the pyramids Monday and a couple of mosques in today. Our hotel is in the Giza section of Cairo so we walked to the pyramids. What can I say. They're old. The one in Los Vegas is much nicer and is air-conditioned inside. These ones didn't even have gambling. Nevertheless, they were impressive in their own way.
The person I went with was a geologist who pointed out that the building blocks of the pyramids have fossilized remains of reeds and formations of algae. I guess that's how they could tell where the blocks come from. I also saw the Sphinx. I always thought there was more than one. I guess that's because the "x" is pronounced "s." Anyway, it looks to me as though they hacked this thing out of bedrock which means they took an area the size of a football field and cut away everything that didn't look like a sphinx. Way cool.
One of the mosques we went to today has a tomb in it that supposedly contains the head of Ali (flat "a" as in "ah'). The body is in Iraq. His death and the dispute over the succession of the leaders of Islam is what sparked the separation between the Sunni and Shia.
We are getting a lot of coverage on Al Jazzera and the local media, which is what we want. We want the Arab world to know we are here to help even if our government won't.
If someone knows how to upload pictures to Snapfish, please let me know. Otherwise you'll just have to imagine what a pyramid looks like.
July 4 Somewhere Over the Atlantic: We're at 33,000 feet jetting east so fast that I don't have much time to get today's entry into the journal. This is getting more and more like the Army. Nobody knows what's going to happen, but there are plenty of rumors. Worst rumor had it that the temperature in Cairo was 105 today.
So what the hell am I doing here? Why am I spending most of my vacation and several thousand dollars to go to Gaza? Well, there are a few reasons actually. There's the adventure. Let's face it. I lead a dull/unsatisfying life. Work, exercise, a few meaningful relationships, but that's pretty much all there is. I like an occasional adventure, but I'm lazy. If me and adventure are going to get together, I'm unlikely to do the courting. This one seduced me. It has many of the attributes I admire in an adventure.
It came along at a time when my advancing age is becoming more and more of a concern. I've told a number of people that I got stronger on my bike every year until I turned sixty. I don't know if it's the aging process or the cancer, but I am getting weaker every year. So one reason is the same one that made me go sky-diving when I turned fifty. I had always wanted to sky-dive, but had always said "some other time." When I turned fifty, I realized I was running out of other times.
Then there's the rush. I'm not an adrenalin junkie as some people are, especially vets, but damn if I don't feel exactly the way I did heading out to Vietnam. There's the chance that something bad could happen. But I'm not as stupid as I was at nineteen. There isn't much of a chance.
This will also be a test. I'm not a patient person, and I don't like the heat. As a matter of fact, I become especially bristly when I'm hot. As I said yesterday there is a lot of "hurry-up and wait" going on already. I'm going to have to contain myself when we run into the roadblocks both literal and figurative that will get throw in our way.
Which brings me to the prime reason for my being here; payback. I'm hoping to put a couple of demons to rest and to do that, this can't be easy. I have to do some suffering to pay back a North Vietnamese mother for some of the suffering I caused her. I've been carrying guilt and confusion around for forty years. Those feelings haven't just affected my life. The way I've lead my life has affected others. Maybe I can leave some of my guilt in Gaza. I'm going to try.
Back to being impatient. I think that after 2003, I was able to take some satisfaction in the small part that Veterans For Peace played in turning the tide against the war. Now everyone is against the war, but what good does that do. We, the people, have no effect on our government's actions. They lied us into the war. Now it appears they lied about getting us out of it. I'm frustrated at not being able to do anything. My actions have no effect so I've stopped acting. They've won.
I started reading about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict a year or two ago. The more I learned, the more I began to side with the Palestinians. I've learned about the power of AIPAC, the "Israeli lobby," and the influence they have over our government's policy. I did not realize how much influence until Israel started bombing Gaza this past January. AIPAC wrote a resolution of support that was introduced in Congress by one of their stooges. The resolution supported the Israeli slaughter and basically condemned the Palestinians. Only five members of the House of Representatives and one Senator had the guts to vote against it. Well, maybe I can at least stick my finger in their eye.
July 3, 2009: Well I've managed to piss off someone else. The cabbie that drove from JFK to Brooklyn had on a yarmulke so I kept quiet about during the ride. After I paid him in Brooklyn, he handed me my bag and told me to have a safe trip. Then he asked with a smile where I was headed. When I said "Gaza," the smile vanished. He asked me a couple of questions about which route we were taking, Jordan or Israel. He suggested that I visit Jerusalem. Once he learned we were bringing medical supplies and sneaking in through Cairo and the Rafah crossing, his speech which was heavily accented deteriorate to the point that I could no longer understand what he was saying. I did hear one work, "terrorist," as I walked away.
There is an odd mix of people here; the older people are white and predominantly Christian with a few Jews. The young people are middle- eastern. I do quite a bit of reading on the war, politics, the economy and government, but I don't read the newspapers. My sources are on the web. Anyway I thought I was pretty savvy, but I'm a babe in the woods compared to the people here. There is a comfort level to being in a group of likeminded people. "Likeminded" hell! I'm conservative.
Damn my parochial school upbringing. I followed orders, "be in NY by noon on Saturday," and I was the first person to arrive. I got there before the organizers. It's like the army; hurry up and wait.
Headquarters is the basement of a church. There were at least thirty wheelchairs and walkers. I thought that meant the congregation was old. Wrong. We're taking them with us. I don't know how, but I've learned to trust the organizers. I hope there are pictures accompanying this e-mail. The plan is to put all our clothes into our carry-on bags. This will allow each of us to check two pieced of luggage. At two in the afternoon, we got a delivery of 600 blankets and large duffle bags. Chaos ensued as we emptied the boxes of and stuffed four blankets in to duffle bags that fit on three. We got it done, but it wasn't pretty.
The airport ought to be "interesting."