“Ushering a New Beginning”
By Sarmad Bokhari
July 27, 2009

In a historic address from Cairo last month, President Obama promised a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Muslim world. In his speech President Obama acknowledged the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a major source of tension, and affirmed America’s “unbreakable” bonds with Israel. More importantly, in a marked shift from the Bush administration, he acknowledged that, “the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable.”

Unwilling to tolerate a continued siege on Gaza and to show that Americans stand for justice and human rights, a convoy of nearly 200 American citizens – Viva Palestina USA, under the leadership of British Member of Parliament George Galloway, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and New York City Councilman Charles Barron – with more than $1 million of humanitarian aid, set off for Gaza on the American day of independence..

The two-week trip—12 days in Egypt and a mere 24 hours in Gaza—quickly opened my eyes to the brutal situation in Gaza and the lack of its coverage by the American media. Despite a commitment by the most powerful man on the planet, very little has changed on the ground in Gaza. In fact, the suffering of the Palestinians has only worsened.

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