Online Dating With A Twist: A Terrorist From Gaza?

Just my luck! I join the online dating forum, Hotdate.com and what do I get? Some terrorist moaning about Israel’s recent bombardment and mass killing spree in the Gaza Strip..

Really, if I wanted that type of hot date I could’ve just logged onto Sky News.

Did sound hot though.

Having just read Sameh A Habeeb’s op-ed in The Palestine Telegraph, I was reminded of how the Western world sees Palestinians merely as terrorists; thus my analogy.

This encounter flies in the face of those that mock online activism as ‘virtual’ having friends you’ll never meet in real life; but I did..

On Wednesday of last week I joined members of the Bristol branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on a journey to London. The PSC’s national hierarchy had called an Emergency Lobby of Parliament after Israel’s latest onslaught on the Gaza Strip and its beleaguered people. Seventeen of us filled a small mini-bus, keen to attend, express our disgust and outpour our concerns to our individual MP’s.

I was doubly keen to attend this lobby. I last saw my MP in November 2007, regarding the siege being imposed on Gaza. I was concerned that something akin to Lebanon 2006, where over 1,000 civilians had perished by Israel’s brutal military might, was about to befall Gaza. My worst fears were realized; the situation in this part of Palestine, was now at its worst since 1967.

Sameh A Habeeb, my online friend of almost two years and a photojournalist from Gaza City, had recently secured a visa to visit the UK and I expected he would be floating about the halls of Westminster.

The Bristol crew hadn’t been in Westminster half hour before I was talking to my MP, Ian Liddel-Grainger, Conservative. We were sifting through the demands of the PSC, trying to find a mutually acceptable course of action that had a realistic chance of fruition.

We had a written assurance from the UK’s Foreign Office as a result of our last meeting, that the UK arms supply to Israel amounted to little more than 0.1% of their annual total of weaponry imports. It seemed a futile call.

What with the European Parliamentary elections coming up, I mentioned the Appeal for the removal of Hamas from the EU terror list. This fell on deaf ears, but to me sounded like a promising initiative considering the numbers of children killed by either side, Israel or Gaza, during 2008. One side kills 200 or more of the others children, the other kills none- slightly paradoxical when you think who is designated as a terrorist.

Besides the obvious call to pressure Israel to open the borders of Gaza to goods and people, after the recent postponement of the vote in the European Parliament in early December regarding the upgrading of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement, my MP and I both agreed that this was an area where our meeting might actually achieve something. He offered to write to the Foreign Secretary on my behalf calling on the UK government to push for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel meets its obligations under international law.

While we were rounding off and me agreeing to keep him informed with updates from Gaza, we were joined by one of this life’s heroes and old stalwart of the Left, Tony Benn, my good day, got better!

I had a relatively early appointment compared to those I had travelled up with so I was left free to roam and mingle but first, where’s Sameh? I phoned and learned he was outside. It was in the queue to get into Parliament where I first met Sameh, my old friend and fellow online campaigner against the cruel siege of Gaza. We had been working together since he created and I joined the Yahoo and Facebook groups, both entitled Action4Palestine. Amongst his first words to me were the honour to be described as a ‘natural Gazan’ as I thrust my belongings on the floor and proceeded to roll a cigarette..

We spent the rest of the day talking to the various groups that had made the trip to the Lobby, such as Jews For Justice For Palestinians and the big-wigs, from the newly formed, Labour Friends of Palestine.

I had to return home that day whereas Sameh remained for an evening meeting at the House of Commons where he addressed members of the above groups, the PSC, British MPs, representatives of Islamic and Christian institutions, labour and student unions. All called on the British government to take actual steps to lift the unjust Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.

It wasn’t long though before I saw Sameh and members of Bristol PSC again. To be continued…

Andrew J Silvera – from the West Country, UK, used to think horse racing was an infinite science, then he found Zionism and has been busy ever since.

http://blogs.news.sky.com/skynewscom/Post:1d2d11a3-913b-40db-b597-04d58190f3fd

http://www.paltelegraph.com/index..php?option=com_content&view=article&id=208:we-will-change-our-world&catid=25:the-project&Itemid=275

http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6060&Itemid=229 http://palestinian.ning.com/forum/topics/british-mps-demand-their