Students join convoy to Gaza

While the rest of campus prepares to head home for the holidays, Warwick third-years Nu DeVrede and Fred Stevens-Smith are gearing up for an entirely different kind of Christmas break.

The two finalists are set to drive nearly 4,000 kilometres in a convoy of 300 vehicles, organised by U.K. charity Viva Palestina, as part of an overland journey to Gaza where they will deliver essential medical and educational supplies to some of the 1.5 million people blockaded inside.

The blockade enclosing Gaza, whose refugee camps are some of the most densely populated places in the world, was first imposed by the Israeli authorities in June 2007. The humanitarian situation has steadily deteriorated since then, and was exacerbated last year by fighting that left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.

Leaving from Folkestone on Saturday 5th December, DeVrede and Stevens-Smith will work their way through Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan before reaching Cairo in late December. There they will be met by friends and fellow activists, Marie Sophie Pettersson and Katerina Elias-Trostmann, also Warwick finalists, who are flying out to the Egyptian Capital from London on Christmas Day to join volunteers for Code Pink: Women for Peace.

After meeting in Cairo, the Warwick students hope to enter Palestine and on the 27th December – the anniversary of last year’s conflict – will gather with thousands of other protestors at the border to break the blockade.

Once inside Gaza, the students plan distribute the supplies they have brought from the U.K and on 1st January 2010 they will end their trip with a freedom march for peace.

The foursome have known each other since they were Freshers. Elias-Trostmann says they initially became interested in campaigning for the Palestinian cause through their friendship with DeVrede, who is herself Palestinian and has family living in Gaza whom she has not seen for nearly ten years.

DeVrede states, “The blockade and occupation is not only stopping aid being transported to and from Gaza, but stopping people – from accessing hospitals and treatment outside, stopping students from taking up scholarships and positions in universities abroad and stopping people visiting their loved ones… my mum was unable to attend her own father’s funeral as a result.”

While they are away, DeVrede, Stevens-Smith, Pettersson and Elias-Trostmann will be producing a documentary of their experiences. They will be supported from the U.K. by friends, family and University societies including Friends of Palestine and Amnesty International. A team will track and report the progress of the convoy, and ensure its security by raising awareness of their efforts in local and national media, as well as among members of parliament.