Ready, Set, Go!

What a wonderful time of the year to be preparing to go on a peace team! Our MPT peace team is making final preparations for the journey. Throughout the week we have been talking to local media sources, packing, and taking care of last minute details.

Actually Yusif Barakat left on December 23; Kim Redigan, Isabella Rowan, Dorothy Ritter, Sheri Wander, and I depart on December 25. We will land in Cairo and participate in an orientation there, travel the Sinai Pennisula by land, stay in Al Arish, Egypt and then go to Rafah Entrance to Gaza.

We are joining over 1,350 internationals for the march. The neat thing is that Gaza Freedom March will draw world wide public attention to the suffering people in Gaza, whether internationals are allowed entry into Gaza or standing outside at the gates of Gaza. I say this because over 60,000 Gazans will march in Gaza, thousands of Palestinian and Jewish groups are planning marches in Israel and the West Bank, and over a thousand solidarity events are scheduled to happen around the planet!

The Gaza Freedom March that will take place in Gaza on December 31 and January 1 is an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million people who live there. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and nonviolent resistance to injustice worldwide, the march is gathering people from all over the world to march—hand in hand—with the people of Gaza to demand that the Israelis open the borders.

Here are some ways to stay involved in this important Earth Community effort:

1. Follow our MPT Gaza team by clicking on the address you have open right now: http://mptingaza.blogspot.com/ Our team would be MOST grateful if you would check the blog often!


2. Follow the Gaza Freedom March by clicking on: http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/


3. Click on the MPT web page michiganpeaceteam.org.


4. Join the Detroit area solidarity event on December 29 and the Lansing area solidarity event on January 1. See MPT web page for details.


5. Contact your US Congress person and US Senators during the Christmas break. Urge each to support efforts to open the borders and end the siege on Gaza.

Your grateful sister,
Liz Walters, Member of the MPT Special Team to Gaza