End the Siege of Gaza! Solidarity Caravan from India to Palestine

End the Siege of Gaza!

Solidarity Caravan from India to Palestine

Saturday 24th June, 2010

4-6pm, Dosti Trust office, Sadhbhavna Sangh, Arya Soap Premises, 16 Hansraj Lane, Kiddy Land Nursery, Mankeshwar Mandir, near Byculla Police Station (East), Mumbai

Our proposal is that an Asian land convoy leaves from New Delhi mid-September and travels across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and ultimately through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza-Palestine!!

Come September and all international road, air and shipping routes will lead to Gaza!

Israel’s occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories has lasted for decades in violation of international law, international humanitarian law and numerous United Nations resolutions. The occupation of Palestine must end! Gaza has been turned into a vast prison with the Palestinian population there under continuous, murderous assaults and a permanent state of siege. The Palestinian people must have the freedom to exercise their right to self-determination including their right to establish, on all the territories that Israel has occupied, an independent state of their own in any manner they see fit. The structure of apartheid that Israel has established must be dismantled and it must grant equal rights to all its citizens including the right of return to the Palestinians refugees. The Palestinians have the right to resist the occupation through all legitimate means.

The terrible massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara on 31 May 2010 has brought a sea change in international opinion against the inhumane siege on the people of Gaza.

Citizens around the world have responded to the plight of the Palestinian people and are taking action to help break the blockade which is suffocating the lives of the people of Gaza and denying them their very right to exist. Far from deterring people from seeking to bring that siege to an end, the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla is spurring on even more people to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and to end the blockade.

We as Asians must do our part. We must join with movements from across the world to support an end to the imperialist occupation of Gaza and the disenfranchisement of the Palestinian people in their own land.

There is an ongoing international effort to lead a gigantic land convoy to reach Gaza at the same time as the armada by sea reaches the shores of Gaza towards the end of September & early October.

Viva Palestina has organized more than 500 vehicles & 60 Ships, whilst the European campaign to End the Siege of Gaza will be sending more than 9000 delegates. Convoys from North and South Africa are also due to join. It is our proposal that there must be a strong Asian involvement in the global movement.

Our proposal is that an Asian land convoy leaves from New Delhi mid-September and travels across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and ultimately through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza-Palestine. The Asian convoy will be joined by delegations and vehicles in each of the nine countries through which it passes. In each country public meetings, press conferences, meetings with mass organizations and political parties will be organised along the way.

This historic venture will also provide us with an opportunity to deepen the processes of Asian solidarity.

We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their quest for a state of their own. We express our solidarity to the Palestinian liberation movement in its struggle for democracy and social, economic, political and civil rights and salute the courageous Palestinian people in their struggle against imperialism.

Please make it possible to attend a meeting to prepare and join in this solidarity action to resist imperialism.

In solidarity,

Prakash Ambedkar (Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh, National President), Comrade Prakash Reddy (CPI, Mumbai Secretary), S S Yadav (Advisor, RPI-Athawale), Namdeo Dhasal, Com. Saeed (CPM, State Committee), Brigadier Sudhir Sawant (Shivrajya Party, State President), Com. Sanjay Singhvi (CPI-ML, Central Committee), Nazar Mahdoo (Jamat-i-Islami, State President), Maulana Mustakeem Azmi (Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind), Sarfaraz Arzu (Editor, Hindustan Daily), Meraj Siddiqui (Muslim Intellectual Forum), Com. Vasudevan (Blue Star Union), Sunil Khobragade (Editor, Mahanayak), Aslam Ghazi, Fazal Shaad, Sudhir Dhawale (Republican Panther), Farouk Mapkar, Yavar Ali Qazi, Jyoti Bedekar (Vidyarthi Bharti), Ghazala Azad.

On behalf of the India-Palestine People’s Solidarity Forum:

Ashim Roy (NTUI), Feroze Mithiborwala (Bharat Bachao Andolan), Kishore Jagtap (Awami Bharat), Varsha Vidya Vilas (Sadbhavna Sangh), Sandeep Pandey (Asha Pariwar), Dr. Tasleem Rehmani (Muslim Political Council of India), Akshya Kumar (Navnirman Samiti).