We board buses and drive to the Rafah crossing. Some of the Code Pink leaders, including Medea and Tighe left last night to attend Obama’s speech in Cairo, to demonstrate on behalf of Gaza and to deliver to Obama a letter from Hamas.
At the crossing there is a farewell demonstration We unfurl banners that Barb and I and others worked on the day before in a hotel room – calling on Obama to visit Gaza – lettered in English and Arabic. The Mayor of Rafah/Gaza is there to thank us profusely. Many pictures taken and speeches all around.
The most touching remarks are made by the family from Rafah/Gaza that housed Rachel Corrie, from Washington State, when she lived and worked in Gaza. She was killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she stood in front of it as it demolished the homes of Gazans suspected of having a family member sympathetic to Hamas. The father says “She died defending our home. I saw them take her tiny body out of the rubble. We will never forget her.”
Their home was demolished despite Rachel’s sacrifice.
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Mayor of Rafah/Gaza and Rachel Corrie’s Gaza Family
We say goodbye and board the buses again, driving a short way to the Egyptian border checkpoint. The hours go by while they check our passports and luggage. There’s not much to check. We figure they want to make sure that Obama and entourage are safely out of Cairo before they send two busloads of crazies there. Finally, late afternoon, the Egyptians get the word. In a big hurry now, they distribute our passports, load our luggage, collect some sort of entrance fee, and practically push us through the gates. Again, we are escorted by security vehicles with teen age soldiers holding the ever-present AK 47’s, sitting in the back of pickups. We hold banners out the windows and wave at people who smile and give the V sign. We sing.
During the bus ride, Norm and Roane Carey talk about a book on the Rosenbergs There are raucus stories about characters on the American Left – Max Lewis, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Carl Ogelsby, Bob Avakian, Lyndon LaRouche, Mike Klonsky, Peter Camejo, Clark Kissinger, Weatherman, SDS, SWP, PLP. Off-key renditions of 60’s songs erupt.
We drive through the Sinai and watch the sunset on the barren but beautiful landscape.
Norm points to it and says to me, “That’s your birthday card.”
We stop at a highway kebab shop and everybody loads up. Back on the bus there are spirited discussions about what constitutes a war crime by someone resisting illegal occupation; whether we should have spent so much time with Hamas officials; what comes next in the struggle to lift the blockade of Gaza. Every now and then, a black Benzie pulls along side the bus and a security honcho admonishes the bus driver to go faster.
Finally we stop in front of the Pension Roma, where it all began. Baggage is dropped from the top of the bus. We collect it and disperse. We are incredibly tired but indelibly changed, and irrevocably committed.
Dennis James
July, 2009June 4, 2009 (my birthday)
What a wonderful journal of a trip that had so many high and low moments, moments to cheer and moments to cry. The pictures are wonderful. Thanks for sharing. You need to link this to something where you get a bigger audience. There must be a website for things like this.
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