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Email Alert: 10/02/2007 #2 More than 100 vehicles, a mile long and £1 million of aid
What a phenomenal achievement so far. Made possible by you. Thank you. You are an inspiration. Here is an update and some further information. France We are being given an official welcome and use of the Town Hall by the mayor and cabinet of Begles – a town near Bordeaux. It means we won’t get bogged down in the inner city traffic, but will still make a media impact. Spain Our friends in Paz Ahora – a large pro-Palestine campaign organisation – are working with others to ensure a huge welcome in the cities of San Sebastian in the Basque country and in the capital of Spain, Madrid. We are already in the news there and people are expecting us. We will again receive official receptions and will then head down to the south to get the crossing on the morning of Wednesday 18 February. Assembly Point – Saturday 14th February – 9am We have now agreed an excellent assembly point: it is on North Carriage Drive, which is on the northern side of Hyde Park running parallel to Bayswater. The assembly time is 9am on Saturday morning. It is imperative that people arrive with their vehicles at this time as we have a lot of last minute organising to do, drivers and team leaders packs to distribute and so on. Among the materials we will be distributing are Palestinian flags for every vehicle, stickers with the convoy logo (and also your team number) and T-shirts donated with great generosity by the Philosophy Football T-shirt company. It’s going to look great with everyone in the Viva Palestina T-shirts. We need plenty of time to ensure everyone has all the paperwork and packs before we head off to Ramsgate. It takes time to clear customs there and the ferry will not wait for us. Aid and Egypt A lot of people are asking about organising to pick up aid in Egypt. Here are a number of points that should help:
1) Money from Viva Palestina will be transferred to Egypt and turned into aid which can cross into Gaza.
2) If you want to bring cash into Egypt, you can. We would advise you not to bring very large quantities of cash. It can be safely transferred to Egypt by banking it through via Viva Palestina account. Arrangements are in hand for the safe handling of money. We are working with all the necessary people.
A lot of people are planning to fly into Egypt to join the convoy. We are suggesting that they fly in on 6 or 7 March. We anticipate that the convoy will definitely be in Egypt before then. We are making allowances for two distinct eventualities: a) there are bound to be some problems on the road – we are crossing borders, vehicles breakdown, some people may get ill. We need flexibility to cope with that and we do not want to leave people behind if we can possibly help it b) the factors surrounding opening the Rafah crossing are very complex and involve high level diplomatic negotiation. We will be in ongoing discussion to achieve our aim. We must allow the necessary time for this while in Egypt. You will be briefed on the journey about where things stand. It is for these reasons that we believe we must be prepared for crossing into Rafah as late at 9 March. If people need to leave before that, then there are drivers who can take the vehicles in. For those planning to fly in to Egypt to join us there will be constant updates on the website of where the convoy is.
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