Pakistanis for Palestine fully endorses the demands of the striking prisoners for:

1.    Ending the policy of solitary confinement

2.    Ending the ban on college education for prisoners

3.    Ending the policy of collective punishment, including the denial of visits, and imposing financial penalties on prisoners

4.    Ending the policy of provocative incursions and invasions of prisoners’ cells

5.    Stopping the policy of shackling the hands and legs of prisoners during visits by family members and lawyers

6.    Improving the health conditions of hundreds of sick and injured prisoners and providing them with the needed treatments

7.    Allowing books, newspapers and clothes to enter prisons

8.    Allowing the broadcast of satellite TV channels that have been banned by Israeli Prison Service (IPS)

9.    Ending the policy of restricting visits to 30 minutes every month, and the arbitrary denial of visits

We urge the international community to endorse the call of the striking prisoners and to hold the Zionist regime accountable for its violations of international law regarding prisoner’s rights. In 1951 the occupying regime ratified their membership in the third Geneva Convention concerning the treatment of captured prisoners of war. Since then, from arbitrary detentions to the use of torture during interrogation, denial of family visits, denial of access to a lawyer, denial of medical treatment, the rights of Palestinians prisoners have consistently been violated by the regime. It is the international community’s duty to ensure that it abides by the treaties it has ratified.

- We stand with our people in Palestine as in one trench for the liberation of the entire Palestinian soil, and we stress on the right of all Palestinians to return to their homes and land.

- We stress on the struggle for the liberation of all prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the Zionist occupation.

- We stand in solidarity with resistance by all means against occupation.

The Egyptian authorities have refused to unload the materiel sent by Iran, and have turned over the rest to the Israelis for inspection. According to Iran’s PressTV, the Caravan members have vowed to remain in Gaza until all the aid has indeed reached the people for whom it is intended.

We have also heard that the bribe paid to the Egyptian authorities to let the Salam dock came to $10,000! If this is indeed true, it brings to light the disgusting manner in which Egypt – and other collaborationist regimes like it – profit from the plight of the Palestinians.

Sources:

1. Egypt halts full aid delivery to Gaza
2. Asia2Gaza on twitter

EGYPT STALLS HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA



The activists from the Asian Caravan to Gaza are calling for protests and press conferences all over the world to urge the Egyptian government to allow the aid ship to dock.

The good news is that 110 delegates were allowed into Gaza yesterday around midnight after hours of protests. It seems that all the Iranians delegates as well as some others have been denied the Egyptian visa and were stopped in Syria. Those who could make it through had to fly from Syria to Egypt.

Watch the video of the arrival at Gaza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwLAlRRiNsE

It is Sunday, the 5^th of december, 10AM when our phone rings “Guess what, they are coming, they will be crossing the border, maybe around 12 PM”. And around 12 PM we find ourselves at the Wahga border with a group of about 30 comrades from Lahore, all very excited to welcome the Asian Caravan to Ghaza in Pakistan. They finally arrived just before the closing, a group of 27 activists, 26 Indians and one Japanese, carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs. Some families who had come to see the border ceremony join us to welcome them with garlands of flowers. Several press vans are there to interview the activists and take pictures while they others are chanting slogans.

We were especially pleased to see our Indians (and Japanese!) friends because we had stopped expecting them to be able to make it to Pakistan. Their initial plan was for the 51 members of the group to travel across Pakistan from India towards Iran. Of the 51, only 31 finally got a Pakistani visa and that too only for Lahore – of which none of the 3 Kashmiri activists. It was then decided that the 31 would come to Lahore to hand over the baton to the 2 Pakistani activists that could then take it all the way to Iran where the whole group would reunite in Zahedan. But then at Wahga on Saturday the 4^th of December, the Indian Government refused to let the reduced group through under the pretext for the need of a “No Objection Certificate” to cross as a group. This permission was formally requested by them a month earlier but it seems that there was a pressure from both Indian and Pakistani government as well as from abroad not to let the Caravan through. After a sit-in protest on the Indian side while the Pakistanis chanted slogans on their side, the caravan had to make their way back to Delhi. Only when they were about 2 hours away from the Indian capital did they receive the news that their request was finally accepted and that they could go through the Wahga border. Because it was symbolically important for them to hand over a Palestinian flag to the Pakistanis to be carried across Pakistan and, because for the Indians it was symbolically important to cross into Pakistan to show that the activists of both theses countries can be allied and fight together against the height of imperialism that is ravaging Palestine; most of them came all the way back towards the Pakistani border. The next day just before the closing of the border we finally had the great honour to welcome them in Pakistan.

Unfortunately we knew we could enjoy the company of the activists of the caravan only for one night as they had to leave the next morning. We were fortunate that the management of a local rooftop restaurant allowed us to take our visitors up on their roof, just to enjoy the view on to Badshahi mosque at night and then on their request we headed towards Food Street to have Kashmiri chai (did you know that Food Street is famous even in India?) and then dispatched the group to their respective hosts’ homes.

On Monday morning, some of us accompanied our friends to the border from where they were going back to Delhi and then flying to Iran.

After that, our 2 Pakistani members of the caravan as well as the Japanese activist were escorted to the train station from where the journey to Ghaza with the Caravan continued.

We wish a fabulous journey to the courageous activists of the Caravan, knowing there will probably be more pitfalls on their way. Let’s hope for them to arrive safely in Ghaza!

Asian Caravan to Palestine - Main Route

We send our best wishes to our comrades as they flag off this afternoon from Rajghat (the resting place of Mahatama Gandhi) in New Delhi.

Itinerary and programme in Pakistan:
1. Entry at Wahga border, around noon or 1 PM, 4th Dec.
2. Welcome on the Pakistani side
3. Press Conference at the Lahore Press Club, 3 PM, 4th Dec
4. Dinner for the Caravan members and organisers in Lahore
5. Public Meeting, Bakhtiar Hall, Nisbet Road, 3 PM, 5th Dec
6. Departure for Karachi, 11 PM, 5th Dec
7. Arrival in Karachi, 8 PM, 6th Dec
8. Public Meeting, 7th Dec
9. Departure for Quetta, 7th Dec
10. Departure from Quetta for Zahedan, 8th Dec
11. Arrival in Zahedan, 8th/9th Dec

UPDATE: The Pakistani Deep State seems to have decided to disrupt the Caravan by denying the visa applications of most of the Indian members of the Caravan. The organisers in India have nevertheless resolved to go ahead with their flag-off ceremony in New Delhi this afternoon while at the same time negotiating with the Pakistani High Commission to at least give them permission to go up to Karachi by road.

If this fails to move the High Commissioner, the organisers will consider other channels for bringing pressure to bear on the Pakistani authorities.

We, the Pakistani coordination of the Caravan, wish our comrades in India the best of luck in their difficult task today and urge our wn government to view the Palestine question and the Caravan endeavour in a holistic perspective that goes beyond their narrow and short-term calculations of their personal or their clique’s interests.