'Viva Palestina' accorded grand welcome at Jaber crossing

By Mohammad Ben Hussein

AMMAN - Activists on Tuesday gave a grand welcome to a humanitarian aid convoy en route to Gaza to mark the first anniversary of Israel’s offensive on the coastal enclave.

Some 200 trucks entered the Kingdom through the Jaber border crossing yesterday afternoon, and were greeted by professional association and opposition activists.

The Professional Associations Council (PAC) organized a special event for the convoy, named “Viva Palestina” at the border crossing, including a press conference in which activists called for lifting the siege on Gaza.

Among the speakers was PAC President Abdullah Obeidat, who is also president of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA), British MP George Galloway and former Islamist MP Ali Abul Sukkar, who also heads the JEA freedoms committee.

Obeidat said popular pressure by Arab people on their governments must be stronger in order to lift the siege on the Hamas-controlled strip.

He also called on Palestinian factions to reach reconciliation very soon, warning of dire results if the status quo continues.

"The humanitarian condition in Gaza is deteriorating from one day to the next. In the meantime, Gaza continues to suffer under siege while Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are unable to reach an agreement… Reconciliation is the answer to Israel’s agenda," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Galloway lauded efforts to help the Gazans and called for international pressure on Israel to open Gaza borders.

They said the humanitarian aid is a good step "but not enough".

Nicknamed “Return to Gaza”, the convoy is the third of its kind following the 2008-2009 Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

The 210 trucks - 100 from Britain, 50 from Turkey and the rest from other parts of the world - left London on December 3 and are expected to enter Gaza by December 27, the first anniversary of the attack, which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and injured 5,000.

The humanitarian aid includes basic food items and medical assistance, according to Obeidat.

He said a festival will be held at the Professional Associations Complex on Tuesday and a similar event is planned near Karak and Aqaba.

"This is the least we can do to honour these people who gathered to help our brothers in Gaza," Obeidat noted.

The convoy, organized by the charity Viva Palestina and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), includes ambulances, trucks, vans and jeeps, hopes to land in Egypt on Christmas day, following a ferry crossing from Aqaba, according to a PSC statement sent to The Jordan Times.

It will attempt to break Israel’s three-and-a-half year blockade of Gaza by passing through the Rafah crossing to deliver its cargo of medical, humanitarian and educational aid, the statement said.

More than 400 people from around the world are now traveling on the convoy after volunteers from as far afield as Italy and Malaysia joined up in Damascus, according to the PSC.