Here comes a short report on my stay at the Rafah border. I found it very difficult to put in words my feelings as I am shocked by what is going on there... Indeed, how is the situation in Gaza? seems that every thing is OK, israelis stopped their bombing, right? a worldwide conference promised a huge amount of money to reconstruct, right? No... every day, we receive news that do not appear in the well guarded media. Who knows that patients are still dying due to the siege? (death toll reaches 349 on June 9th, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza). Most of the aid (food, medical aid, construction material, etc) is roting at Port Said, El Arish, and near Rafah border. A well organised and profitable traffic of goods is going on through the famous tunnels, etc.
On June 13th 2009, an international camp set up at the Rafah border, to claim for the end of this criminal siege. The 9th of July, Chris, my husband, and myself joined this small group of wonderful people, to support their action. We decided at the last moment to travel, leaving in the lurch all what we had to do... Chris had been there at the very beginning of the camp and had told me how they managed to impose its existence at the Rafah gate, how life in the camp was a daily challenge, how the Palestinians trying to get in were grateful to these witnesses of their misfortune. We are also deeply convinced that we all should ask for a political solution for Palestine, urgently and firmly demanding the end of the siege of Gaza. Humanitarian aid is for sure not a solution.
Here is a short summary of what happened during the few days of our stay at the Rafah border.
We arrived on the 10th. It was not easy to reach the camp. First, on the Suez Canal Bridge (also known as the Mubarak Peace Bridge ;) ), all passengers of the bus were asked to present their ID. Both of us, because we were foreigners, were asked to go out of the bus, and had to answer a series of questions (where are you going? why? etc)... When we arrived at El Arich, we took a collective taxi which was stopped at one of the numerous check-points on the way to Rafah. There we had to leave the taxi, and the officer wanted us go back. He explained that we should have an authorisation from our embassy to go to Rafah! We tried to negociate during more than one hour, without any success. He just told us that we were right but that he could not act against the orders he received. We went back to El Arish, and took another taxi which agreed, on payment of a much higher price, to take us to the border by the small roads where there are no or few check points. We finally reached the border, at night. I relate this travel because we realised that the Sinai, and particularly the region around Rafah is under military occupation, with a huge number of check-points.
It is difficult to relate the joy of all at the camp when we arrived, and the astonishment of the policemen to see Chris again!! I will not detail the life in the camp. Enough to say that it is a extraordinary experience to share this common willing for justice with people who can be so different and to realize that these differences make our strength, they are the beauty of humanity. I just want to relate few stories on these palestinian families trying to reach their relatives or their own home in Gaza.
On the 10th of July, a very sick Palestinian woman was lying on the ground in front of Rafah gate. She has serious diabetes problem and needs a kidney transplant urgently. As such intervention could not be done in Egypt nor she could be allowed to travel abroad from Egypt, this woman needed to return to Gaza to try to be treated in Israel or to travel to another country. She was accompanied by her older son, wife and little child, and by her nephew. They presented a series of certificates from the egyptian hospital, describing the terrible health state of this woman. When we protested and argued that this woman might die here, the officers answered "let her die". Finally, she was transported to an hospital in El Arish and could enter Gaza few days later, after a lot of negociations... We received the visit of a Palestinian living in Norway, who came to check the possibilities to get in with his wife and three children (who were waiting in an hotel in El Arish). He told us that the egyptians confirmed that the border was closed, and that he hoped to be able to get in with the famous convoy of US citizens organised by a british deputy, G. Galloway. Few days later, a family with five girls, an older woman and two men arrived from Saudi Arabia, wanting to get in. The women were crying, telling us that they made all this travel to meet their relatives in Gaza, they were denied to enter. As we offered them some water and fruits, the police came and shouted that they should not talk with us. These are few stories of the Rafah gate... When the convoy arrived (in fact a small part of it, as the Egyptian authorities made all kind of difficulties to let them reach Rafah), a number of Palestinian families tried to take the chance to cross the border. But they were brutally retained by the egyptian soldiers, and the US activists went in without protesting against this injustice. All these families are waiting in El Arish, for days, weeks, months, coming from all around the world, to try to get into Gaza, to reach their home, their relatives... We know a German woman, with her six children, who is trying to join her Palestinian husband in Gaza. She has been waiting there for over a month... Is it more important for foreigners to enter Gaza and deliver few humanitarian aid than to demand the end of the siege of Gaza and the freedom of movement for Palestinians?
In solidarity
Claudine
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