Gaza Freedom March Scotland

2010-01-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

What happened after our protest at the Egyptian Museum? More protests, legal action and becoming residents of Egypt (we now have Egyptian civil rights – surely that’s an oxymoron!)

It’s now been a few days since we’ve been back in bitterly cold Scotland and I decided we should update people with what we did in our final days in Cairo. Our protest at the Egyptian Museum was, I suppose you could say our ‘showpiece event’, where we were forced to remain in Cairo but did our best and eventually succeeded in highlighting the complicity of the Egyptian state in the suffering of the Palestinian people. A protest in a high-profile location and the nature of our protest(s) meant the Egyptian people seen and heard about our campaign on the street and via extensive media coverage in Egypt. Quite frankly, the people on the streets of Cairo had never seen anything like this before and I hope we have provided great inspiration to activists and individuals in Egypt.

On New Year’s Day we protested at the Israeli Embassy for approximately 3 hours. This was a hugely successful event where again we got our message through to the media and the people of Cairo, not to mention the Egyptian officials. The French were again instrumental with their slogans, chanting and rapping keeping spirits up.

Later in the evening, almost all the remaining delegates attended a ‘winding down’ meeting outside the Mugamma building in Tahrir Square, again amidst a tight security presence. This was a time for reflection upon what had been achieved and where to go from now. Many inspiring and emphatic speeches were made, most notable was Mick Napier (a.k.a ‘Braveheart) of the SPSC (who incidentally has made quite name for himself amongst the international crowd!)

Mick Napier of the SPSC addressing the delegates in Cairo at the closing meeting, 1 Jan 2010.

Another point of the meeting was to inform the delegates of a very exciting result of this Gaza Freedom March. The previous night a meeting was held and the outcome of this meeting was the complete and utter abdication of leadership of the GFM and its resources, networks and symbols by codePink. We already knew the leadership had effectively disbanded many days prior to this but now we had confirmation. After a few hours of discussion, it was agreed the best way to take forward the momentum of the GFM was an international concerted effort to progress the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement led by the South African delegation, whose national trade union has already approved a boycott of Israeli good, with the ultimate goal of course being the removal of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. We call this the Cairo Declaration. It wil be led by a steering committee of Mick Napier of SPSC, Ziyaad Lunat, representatives from the Palestinian trade unions, representatives from the South African trade unions and Ahab from the Canadian group.

CAIRO DECLARATION

Please read and sign the Cairo declaration to show your support. At this point in time, the BDS campaign is the most effective way of punishing the Israeli state into changing its ways; the US-backed Peace Process is nothing more than a smokescreen for a Palestinian ceasefire while Zionist aims such as settlement building are allowed to continue.

In some ways, perhaps there was a silver lining in being denied entry to Gaza. Since we stayed in Egypt and made a nuisance of ourselves, annoying the Egyptian authorities but most importantly highlighting the complicity of Egypt but the problems we had to overcome (against the authorities as well as internal divisions) allowed everyone to bond and is very encouraging for future projects. The aim now is to create and maintain an international network of activists using the Cairo Declaration, if we have similar opportunities in the future we can plan better than the current organisers and have people on board with the same agenda meaning most of the problems encountered in Cairo can be avoided in future.

READ AND SIGN THE CAIRO DECLARATION HERE

APRIL 6 YOUTH MOVEMENT PROTEST

On the 4^th of January a protest was called at the Cairo courthouse by a movement know as the April 6 Youth Movement, a youth pro-free speech and anti-censorship group which began on Facebook. Like us, they are incensed at the Egyptian government’s actions in Gaza and vehemently oppose the construction of the wall of shame (i.e., the Gaza wall). We protested with our Egyptian brothers and sisters and also provided them with a degree of safety as the Egyptians would not touch them while they were in with all us foreign nationals.

It was great to participate in this action with Egyptian youth some of whom were in their early20’s and often younger and provides you with some hope that change can come about in Egypt. The people on the street support us wholeheartedly but live under a government with utilises fear to keep the people down. However, when you see the occasional person giving us the thumbs up, cars now and again beeping their horns to show their support and when strangers in fast-food outlets offer to buy your food as a token of their appreciation you are really filled with renewed energy that we have done some invaluable work here in Cairo.

BECOMING RESIDENTS OF EGYPT!

The SPSC had been informed that a notable lawyer in Egypt, Mr Ibrahim Yousri was appealing the decision to build the Gaza Wall by arguing it was a violation of numerous international laws. However, he required signatories to be behind the appeal and especially foreigners. Mr Yousri was the lawyer behind a recent high-profile appeal against the sale of Egyptian gas to Israel at below market levels to Israel http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/01/egypt-court-uph.html.

We, the Scottish delegation put our names behind this appeal. In order for him to argue on our behalf we had to give him power of attorney and to do this we had to become residents of Egypt, which we duly did. In order to put our names forward as plaintiffs for the appeal was not as straightforward unfortunately. The office where 4 individuals, including Yvonne Ridley and Hedy Epstein, were processed took 3-4hours and then said they would no longer process anyone else – since it took too long! – and told us to go to a manual processing office. The first office we went to we could not be processed because there were not enough staff, the second office we were given a similar story and we had to trek across Cairo to another government office who were unable to do it. The height of bureaucratic ineptness!

Finally, we got to a fourth office where they were able to process us. However, the head civil servant there seemed intent on putting us off eventually leading to a shouting match between our interpreter and the civil servant. I may be being cynical but it seems each office was tipped off about our arrival and wanted to make it as hard as possible for us to put our names down for the appeal, perhaps hoping we would become tired and give up instead – they don’t know us Scots! Eventually we managed to sign up and hopefully this appeal can have an impact as Mr Yousri has shown he can defeat the Egyptian state previously.

PETITION TO APPEAL AGAINST THE BUILDING OF THE WALL - ADD YOUR NAME!

I also urge everyone to read this article in the Guardian. Click here for Seumas Milne's article on the GFM and Viva Palestina Convoy's lac of media coverage in the West and also the complicity of the West in the problems of the Middle East.

Protest in Cairo 31 December

2009-12-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

Last night it was decided a the French Embassy that we would have a major protest to stand in solidarity with our friends marching in Gaza. A meeting was held between the representatives of the nationalities involved. The Scottish representatives at this meeting were Mick Napier, Abbas Ali and Omair Manzoor. We decided on a plan to target the Egyptian Museum to make a high impact statement. The plan was to protest at exactly 10am, we selected around 10 women to lead the march who would raise a flag, this would cue the hundreds of people around them it was time to march and join immediately. We would march until the police forcibly stopped us moving, when we would sit down and block the road.

The plan was set and ratified at a follow-up meeting late last night.However, last night we noticed a heavy police presencde all around caro and especially around our hotels. Looking out over the balcony we seen a number of police cars and paddy wagons parked outside as well as barricades being stored, leading us to fear a plan to block us in. We decided the best way to get around this was to leave our hotels early.

Getting up in the morning the atmosphere was tense, we had a decent plan but so many things could go wrong. However, we got a call to tell us the Lotus hotel, only a few yards up the road from ours had been blockaded and people could not get out. Also, we feared the Egyptians were onto our plans so a decison had been made to move the protest 10mins early. This had been poorly communicated and people only found out very late on plus there was no confirmation.

As we approachd Tahir Square, people started to congregate and although we had been told to act like tourists, we could immediately spot other activists and the police probably could. The protest started superbl though, couldn't have went any better. As soon as people seen the white flag raised people joined from all over the place meaning the police didnt know who to stop and where to guard. We managed to march for a short time (a few mins) bringing chaos to the police and stopping traffic. Eventually the police held us back and we sat-down and protested for a good while before the polie came in to forcibly remove us. The plain-clothes police were the ones who came in, many kicking protestors and a few even punching. What was sickening to see were old ladies being hit and pushed around and also many girls and women had their hair pulled with ridiculous force. The police managed to remove us all and put us onto the street where we set up camp.

COVERED BY THE GUARDIAN WITH VIDEO WATCH HERE

Gaza activists surrounded by Egyptian riot police in central Cairo

Omair and Abbas (pictured) from the SPSC listening to the speeches

This was a great affair. We had blocked the road on one of Cairo's most busy areas surrounded by an Egyptian icon; the Egyptian Museum. The people of cairo have never seen anything like this and we hope it will give them hope and courage to challenge their corrupt, dictator government. The actions of the police show they are nthing but hired thugs with badges. Many people in cairo were supportive of us, beeping their horns, giving us the thumbs-up and waving; the people support us, they kno the Egyptian government should be helping the Palestinians and some Egyptians even joined us for the protest, an act of great courage. For we are fortunate, privileged foreigners, mostly Western if we were Egyptian we would have ben badly beaten, taken away for torture and even killed. These Egyptian men and women took this risk and we have great respect for them.

In the camp e set-up outside we put up banners, stickers and chanted continously. Morale was always high because we achieved this protest with aplomb; it couldn't hav went better for we we won. We planned to stay for 12am and see in then new year at the protest as symbol of unity with the Palestinians. However, we noticed the numbers were slowly starting to dtop and 2 or 3 times the Egyptian secret police came in and were throwing their weight around indicating to us they were sounding out the situation to perform another action. We were concerned that by midnight not many people would be left and we also had some Egyptians with us allowing the people to employ a much more aggresive policy and possibly idenifying and detaining the Egyptians. On this basis a meeting was held which decided we leave in a short time as a pre-emptive measure to avoid possible police brutality.

The police allowed us to leave after which we met up in a cafe and relaxed a little before seeing in the New Year with a quiet one; with one another in the hostel. Omair and I were so tired that we missed all this and the bells and slept instead! On the whole the day was a fantastic achievement, we never thought an act of unity would be possible after the much publicised differences within GFM but we pulled it off to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters marching in Gaza and indeed in Israel and elsewhere around the world. They may have stopped us going to Gaza but we never gave up hope and worked tirelessly march for the people of gaza. The Egyptian authorities wanted us to act like tourists after denying us entry to Gaza, everything we did was a thorn in their side and i can comfortably say success has been ours, those who stand by the Palestinians win and those who stand by Israel are the losers, complicit in war crimes and denial of human rights.

BBC

AL-JAZEERA

DEMOCRACY NOW

International solidarity

Written by Abbas Ali

Update 30th December

2009-12-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, most of our group went down to the British embassy, and found it surrounded by police, and found no way of getting in. The American embassy was road blocked, police refusing entry, and a small group of Americans were being detained on the street. The secret police on the side of the road were moving other Internationals away from the area. These police were being physical and aggressive, and we got grabbed and pushed. We were informed that their was a group of Internationals talking to diplomats in the embassy trying to appeal for support in Cairo. The Egyptian government is continuing its support for Israeli war crimes and the Israeli block aid on Gaza.

Meanwhile others in our group went down to support the French at their embassy, where they are still occupying the pavement outside the embassy building. However, they are now able to come and go, they are not being detained. They held a meeting, which resulted in the rejection of dispersing as a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

We then came back into down town Cairo to get ready for the demonstration at the Journalist Institute called by the Egyptian journalists. This was the first time that the Egyptians had gathered with the Gaza Freedom March, to show solidarity with the people of Gaza. It is very dangerous for Egyptians to demonstrate because, unlike Internationals, the government can detain and torture Egyptian citizens.

Over 500 people gathered on the steps of the Institute, united calls in Arabic and English were chanted, like.. 'free the people of Gaza' ,'bring down the wall', 'let us into Gaza', 'Down Hosni Mubarak'....And, 'Down Netanyahu!!', (who disgustingly visited Egypt to ratify a U.S and Israeli peace deal, which will continue illegal settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza. To reiterate the point before, Egypt is completely complicit with the Zionist plan of obliterating all Palestinian life.

Amongst the chants, there were many journalists interviewing global activists. And, at approximately 7.30pm with news that the Egyptian government were going to let 100 International delegates into Gaza. Mediating with Codepink, the government had given two hours for 100 names to be put forward securing the places on the buses. Codepink divided the two hours into a ten minutes time frame for each group/country of delegates to put forward their names. We were told that two names were allowed from Scotland and two from England. We have no idea why we weren't all informed instantly, and given the two hours to decide. Furthermore, the number of people from each delegation was to be representative of the number attending the march, but considering there are only 12 Scottish and over 60 English, why were both countries given 2 delegates? Also, the French out number the Greeks, and yet the Greeks were given an extra place. We also are unaware of how the many people outwith a group were to be represented. In our ten minutes, we could not gather the whole of our group, and quickly decided on two names.

Later that evening, after the march, we discovered that the South African group did not want any part in this dirty trick. They wanted ALL their delegates to go to Gaza or none at all. Shortly after, our Scottish group decided that we wanted to decline the places offered to Gaza.

After this day, we were extremely exhausted. With so many meetings, updates, and the final ten minute decision making exercise, we went to bed.

This morning the main meeting at one of the hotels in Cairo, led by Codepink was trying to organise a Gaza Freedom March for the morning of the 31st in Cairo. This will be led by all Internationals of the Gaza Freedom March, and not just Codepink. This is to coincide with the March taking place in Gaza. Messages were flooding in that most groups were unhappy that only 100 were allowed entry, and refused to get on the buses. We then also got news that Gaza's decision had changed, and they wished us not to get on the buses, as they believed we should all enter Gaza or none at all. The police were physically trying to push people onto the buses, but as the people became more unified, many more left the buses. The latest is that one bus has left with only 50 people inside, claiming not to be in connection with either the Gaza Freedom March, or Codepink.

The Egyptian government later released a press release saying that the people who left on these buses, were in support of the people of Gaza, and the remainder activists in Cairo were ' hooligans'. This has further frustrated the people of the freedom march in Cairo, and tightened the resolve that a peaceful demonstration must be made tomorrow. It is now clear that all International groups support the march, including the French, who have been relatively isolated, since camping outside their embassy for the past three nights.

Everyone is now hurrying to make banners, network, contact the Egyptian solidarity groups, in preparation for the activity tomorrow. Further good news is that the South African delegates, have issued an International call for the boycott of Israeli. The draft of this mandate is currently being written, and will further gel all the International groups. Hopefully it will create a giant network of groups and individuals working on Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. We all hope that the demo tomorrow will be large, and put on real pressure, and push for us ALL to enter Gaza.

WRITTEN BY KIRSTIE MACLEAN, PHOTOS BY ANGUS MACLEAN.

100 ALLOWED INTO GAZA

2009-12-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

EGYPTIAN AUTHORITIES HAVE AGREED TO ALLOW 1OO PROTESTORS INTO GAZA. MIXED REACTION TO OFFER WITH MANY DELEGATIONS REJECTING. MORE TO FOLLOW..........

Protests escalate in Cairo

2009-12-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

PROTEST AT UNITED NATIONS CONSULATE AND ESCALATION AT FRENCH EMBASSY

OMAIR AND I ARRIVED IN CAIRO ON THE 28TH OF DECEMER AT ROUGHLY 2AM. AFTER A FEW HOURS SLEEP WE WERE IN THE THICK OF THE ACTION ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE HARDWORKING AND SLEEP-DEPRIVED DELEGATES. WE WERE BRIEFLY INFORMED OF THE SITUATION WITH THE FRENCH THE PREVIOUS DAY BEFORE HEADING OFF. THE SCOTTISH GROUP ALSO HAD THE OFFER OF GETTING ON A COACH WITH SOME THER EUROPEAN TO TRY TO MAKE IT TO AL-ARISH, A TOWN NEAR RAFAH AND THE BORDER. WE REJECTED THIS DUE TO THE LOW CHANCE OF SUCCESS AND BETTER USE OF OUR TIME IN CAIRO.

FRENCH EMBASSY PROTEST

WE LEFT BY DECIDING IT WOULD BE BEST TO GO AND SEE HOW THE FRENCH WERE DOING. WE KNEW THEY HAD CONSOLIDATED THEIR POSITION AND WERE PROTESTING OUTSIDE OF THE FRENCH EMBASSY AFTER BLOCKING THE ROAD FOR HOURS THE PREVIOUS NIGHT.

WHILE DRIVING UP IN THE TAXI WE SEEN AT LEAST 15 RIOT POLICE TRUCKS PARKED UP ON AFTER THE OTHER. I DISMISSED THE NOTION THAT THESE TRUCKS WERE FOR THE PROTEST. YET, WHEN WE APPROACHED THE EMBASSY WE WERE ALL EQUALLY SHOCKED AND HORRIFIED TO FIND THIS UNTRUE. THERE WERE AT LEAST 100 RIOT POLICE GUARDING THE PROTEST OUTSIDE THE FRENCH EMBASSY.

Riot police outside French Embassy

INCREDIBLE CREDIT TO THE FRENCH, WE WERE BLOWN AWAY BY THEIR GRIT, PASSION AND FAITH IN SHOWING SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIANS. THERE WAS AN EXCELLENT ATMOSPHERE TO THE PROTEST AND EVERYONE WAS IN GOOD SPIRITS. NEGOTIATIONS WERE TAKING PLACE WITH THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO GET BUSES BOOKED FOR THE FRENCH AND ALSO TO GAIN ENTRY INTO GAZA FOR THE FREEDOM MARCH

Protestors at the French Ebassy

PROTEST AT U.N.

AFTER BEING INSPIRED BY THE FRENCH WE HEARD OF A PROTEST ORGANISED BY CODEPINK A THE UN OFFICE IN CAIRO. WE WENT ALONG WTH THE INTENTION OF GOING ALONG TO SHOW SOLIDARITY AND ALSO RECRUIT SOME MARCHERS TO COME BACK AND SPEND SOME TIME WITH THE FRENCH PROTESTORS WHO WERE DOING SO MUCH TO PROTEST OUR FIGHT T ENTER GAZA.

AT THE UN HEDY EPSTEIN, THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, WAS CONTINUING HER HUNGER STRIKE AND THE CODEPINK OFFICIALS HAD SET OUT DEMANDS BY THE UNITED NATIONS. THERE HAS BEEN AMBIGUITY AS TO WHAT THEIR DEMANDS WERE AND IF THEY WERE MET. ALTHOUGH A SIGNICANT NUMBER OF MARCHERS TURNED UP (APPROX. 500)

HEDY EPSTEIN AND YVONNE RIDLEY AT UN OFFICE, CAIRO

LITTLE WAS HAPPENING AT THE UN. WE RECEIVED WORD THAT THE FRENCH PROTESTERS WERE BEING THREATENED WITH REMOVAL TO A FRENCH HOSTEL FOR 5 DAYS BEFORE DEPORTATION AND THEY PLEADED WITH US FOR SUPPORT. WE RECRUITED AS MANY AS 20 INDIVIDUALS AND HEADED BACK TO THE FRENCH EMBASS. THE POLICE INFORMED US ANYONE ENTERING COULD NT LEAVE SO SOME OF US DECIDED TO SPEND THE TIME WITH THE FRENCH AND PREPARED FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF DEPORTATION. THE REST OF US PROVIDED FOOD, MORAL AND LOGISTIC SUPPORT TO THEM BEFORE HEADING BACK TO OUR HOSTEL. FORTUNATELY, THE POLICE ALLOWED PROTESTRS TO ENTER AND LEAVE LATER THAT NIGHT SO OUR MEMBERS WERE ABLE TO LEAVE AFTER 5 HOURS.

UPDATES OF THE MARCH AT WWW.GAZAFREEDOMMARCH.ORG

VIDEOS CAN BE SEEN ON THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL

A long-awaited update: chaos, confusion, passion and drama in Cairo

2009-12-29T12:09:00.000-08:00

DEMONSTRATIONS IN CAIRO: FRENCH EMBASSY TARGET OF PROTEST

OMAIR AND I (ABBAS) ONLY ARRIVED IN CAIRO ON MONDAY MORNING. WE WERE FILLED IN THAT MUCH HAD DEVELOPED PRIOR TO THIS:

EGYPTIAN REFUSAL TO ALLOW PEOPLE INTO GAZA
INDIVIDUALS WHO TRIED TO MAKE THEIR OWN WAY TO GAZA WERE DETAINED EN-ROUTE TO THE BORDER
300 FRENCH DELEGATES PROTESTED AT THE FRENCH EMBASSY

The Egyptian government have refused entry to the registered 1400 activists and cancelled the contracted with the bus companies.

The French protestors, numbering 300, took direct action as a result of this to become a nuisance to the Egyptian authorities. They carried out protest by blocking the roadl, greatly upsettings the Egyptian authorities and taking them by surprise. They also managed to raise morale 110% for almost the entire March particpants since news of the denial by the Egyptans was know to everyone and people started to lose morale.

The French activists then sat in outside the French embassy and demanded negotiations with the French ambassador - which they got. They wanted new buses to be booked for themthat they paid for but waited and waited but they didn't turn up...cancelled by the Egyptian police. They still demanded negotiations, exceeding all expectations of disheartedness,. Amongst other things they demanded assurances no protestors would be phyiscally hurt and entry to Gaza. Negotiations are on-going but no concrete progress has been made. It is also important to note they did not have anywhere to stay and have still not been gven their money back. Furthermore, they are living in poor condition, with only one toilet and often only 2 people are allowed out at a time.

Meanwhile we have contacted the British Embassy here but...they are closing for holidays! Afew individuals did manage to get through to them but were told they couldn't guarantee their safety and some were even mocked by staff for getting themselves in this situation.

The Egyptian police continue to cancel hotels boooked for meetings, no bus company will sign a contract with us because they are too fearful of the consequences and even peaceful commemorations of the bombing of Gaza are stopped by the police.

THE POLICE AND MILITARY PRESENCE HAS SHOCKED US ENTIRELY - THIS REALLY IS A POLICE STATE.

Scottish activists protesting in Scotland

2009-12-26T17:22:00.000-08:00

On the 31st of December 2009, 11 members of the SPSC will take part in the Gaza Freedom March alongside 1,300 international protestors and 50,000 Gazans. We are: Abbas Ali, Omair Manzoor, Poppy Kohner, John Porter, Kirstie MacLean, Angus MacLean, Tom McVitie, Ken Imrie, Zara Murphy and Michael Napier.

We are proud to represent Scotland for an event which will add to the pressure on Israel to end the illegal blockade of Gaza.

AGAIN PLEASE SUPPORT THE MARCH AND THIS BLOG BY SPREADING THE WORD TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

WE WILL BE UPDATING THIS WITH VIDEOS AND PICTURES WE HAVE TAKEN IN GAZA ALONG WITH OUR OWN PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Biographies of some of the protestors:

Mick Napier

“I left school at 18 and worked with VSO in West Africa for a year before going to university and, like many others, opposing the US devastation of Vietnam. From that experience I saw that the US and UK were perfectly capable of using military force to thwart popular movements for independence. Nothing that has happened since has challenged that conclusion. I also learned that an alliance of colonial resistance movements with citizens and soldiers of the imperial power can defeat even the world’s most powerful militarism. I have been interested in Palestine since reading, with rising horror and indignation, Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle during the summer of 1987 in Montreal, shortly before moving to the Middle East to teach English.

I visited Palestine during the first intifada and founded the Scottish PSC at the start of the second to mobilise grass-roots opinion against British complicity, now in its 90^th year, in the violation of the people of Palestine. I have led SPSC fact-finding Delegations to Palestine during recent years, to prepare people to come back to Scotland to support the call from Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel.

In my day job I teach English to non-native speakers.

Contact: chair@scottishpsc.org.uk

Tom Mcvitie

I am a member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and going to Gaza to show solidarity with the people of Palestine and to be part of a demonstration that let's Israel know that a growing number of people are becoming active to bring about justice for the Palestinians. I am focusing on boycott and looking to make links with other delegates so that we can learn from each other and strengthen the boycott campaign.

Contact: tom_mcvitie@hotmail.com

Abbas Ali

I am a postgraduate student at the University of Glasgow with a keen interest in world affairs and the Israel/Palestine conflict especially. I intend to take part in the Gaza Freedom March to show solidarity with the people of Palestine. I hope this protest will add to the growing pressure on Israel to end the blockage of Gaza and also allow international co-operation to strengthen the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Contact: abbas5001@hotmail.com

Ken Imrie

Ken Imrie is Head of Programme Development for the Prince’s Trust-Scotland and Founder of YouthSchool, a Glasgow-based charity seeking to help disadvantaged youth living in developing countries.

As a member of the 1,400 International volunteer force taking part in the Gaza Freedom March, Ken hopes to visit Nusierat refugee camp and local secondary schools to see first-hand how the education and development of young people is affected by the siege.

Contact: ken.imrie@youthschool.org

Kirstie MacLean
I am the founder of Mzuribeads, an Ugandan bead and jewellery income generating inititive to improve the lives of women in villages around Uganda. And, the founder of Mudhut, which is home to my interests in the collaboration of Community Arts with active involvement/ promoting political awareness.

In Gaza I will be carry out a community art piece possibly involving some drama , (very large collaboration painting or scrap sculptures).
I will be blogging on this blogspot throughout the trip, and filming/photographing.

Contact : thirtiemaclean@hotmail.com

Omair Manzoor

I am a pre registration pharmacist. I graduated from the university of strathclyde in 2009. I will be filming and photographing in Gaza. I hope to increase awareness of the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the Palestinian struggle for human rights. I will also be filming for the purpose of documenting any killings of civillians (either Plaestinian or from the international delegation) by the Isreali military during the non violent protest.

contact: omairmanzoor@hotmail.co.uk
uk mobile:07728294556.

Angus MacLean

I am going to gaza to see for myself the extent of the Israeli attacks one year ago. I want to be able to learn and gather as much info about the situation so I can fully raise awareness back in Scotland. I want to build the boycott campaign against the Israeli government.

Contact: admaclean@live.co.uk

Zara Murphy

I am an anthropologist PhD student from Glasgow who firmly believes that direct action is the only way to change the desperate situation in Gaza. The siege must end, mostly for the people of Palestine, but also for every global citizen who wants to say the word 'freedom' without some sick sense of irony. My hope and aspirations for the well being of the world also rests on justice in Gaza.

Contact: Scottish PSC

Not long left...

2009-12-23T17:45:00.000-08:00

We intend to post images, videos and of course our personal thoughts and feelings as each day of the Gaza Freedom March programme goes on. We hope this will bring attention to the March and the plight of the Palestinians.

Please link this blog to your own blog to maximise the coverage of the Scottish delegation.

Dec. 27 will mark the first anniversary of the Israeli attack and invasion of the Gaza Strip. And although the Israeli tanks have left, the complete closure of the borders continues. The Gaza Freedom March will show the residents of Gaza that the international community of citizens has not forgotten them, and will call worldwide attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Through this effort and other activities, we hope to force the leaders of our governments to tell Israel “enough is enough; open the borders!”

It is expected there will be approximately 1,300 international protestors who will stand in solidarity with 50,000 Gazans on the 31st of December, 2009. The international community of government and inter-governmental organisations has stood by without action but now it is the time for the people to make their voice heard. Read Oxfam's 'Failing Gaza' Report.

The international delegates will arrive in Cairo on the 27th of December for an orientation meeting. There is not long left, some of our protestors have already left whereas others will be leaving soon.

Please support the Scottish protesters by keeping up-to-date with the blog and spreading the word to friends and family.

GAZA FREEDOM MARCH OFFICIAL SITE

CLICK HERE TO WATCH NOAM CHOMSKY'S ENDORSMENT OF THE MARCH

Welcome to the Gaza Freedom March Scotland Blog

2009-12-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

HELP BREAK THE ILLEGAL SIEGE OF GAZA

SUPPORT THE SCOTTISH ACTIVISTS JOINING THE MARCH

Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law that has led to mass suffering. The U.S., the European Union, and the rest of the international community are complicit.

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked. Yet, the siege of Gaza continues. It is time for us to take action! On January 31st, we will end the year by marching alongside the Palestinian people of Gaza in a non-violent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade.

Our purpose in this March is lifting the siege on Gaza. We demand that Israel end the blockade. We also call upon Egypt to open Gaza’s Rafah border. Palestinians must have freedom to travel for study, work, much-needed medical treatment and to receive visitors from abroad.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE MARCH AT www.gazafreedommarch.org

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GazaFreedomMarch