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Wed, Dec 29, 2010 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Left: Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, and Firuz Mithiborwala, senior convoy organizer, at a reception for the convoy held in Lebanon (Al-Manar TV, December 24, 2010). Right: Convoy activists at a ceremony in the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk, Syria. In the background is a poster with a broken Magen David (a familiar symbol for the annihilation of Israel) (Twitter, December 24, 2010).

The Asian Convoy^[1] Waits at Latakia for Permission to Enter Egypt

As of December 28, the members of the Asian convoy, which left India on December 5, are still in the Syrian port of Latakia. The convoy now has 160 activists, of whom 15 are Lebanese and 35 Jordanian. It is carrying 200 tons of humanitarian assistance and food, including ten generators and a number of ambulances (Al-Arab Al-Yawm, December 25; Iran’s PressTV, December 24; Masrawi, December 23, 2010).

According to reports, the organizers of the convoy managed to find a ship and all that remained now was authorization from Egypt. Apparently the Egyptian government does not want to issued entrance visas to some of the convoy’s participants. To settle the issue, on December 27 a delegation of convoy activists met with the Egyptian ambassador to Syria, who promised to help them. The director of the port of El Arish said that the port was prepared for the ship’s arrival (Al-Ahram, December 25 and 27; Jerusalem Post, December 26, 2010).

A delegation representing the convoy was received by Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus. Speaking before them he said that there was no place for a Palestinian state which waited for recognition from the rest of the world but that the Palestinian people were looking forward to a country “on all the Palestinian lands whose capital is Jerusalem.” He said it was his belief that “the resistance [i.e., terrorism] and jihad” were the only way to liberate Palestine (Hamas’ Palestine-info website, December 22, 2010). Later on the delegation visited Hezbollah’s “Jihad Museum” at Melita (south of Beirut), where they were received by Abu Ahmed Ghazi, a member of the headquarters of Hezbollah’s southern district. The members of the delegation expressed their esteem for the “jihad fighters” who had resisted the “Israeli enemy” for so many years (Al-Manar TV, December 24, 2010).

With respect to the possibility of a confrontation with Israel, the members of the delegation claimed that they were “not violent” and that they had no weapons but were preparing themselves “for the worst.” They also claimed that if Israel “attacked” them they would deal with the attack as “soldiers of Mahatma Gandhi,” that is, without violence (Iran’s PressTV, December 24, 2010). The Iranians in the convoy claimed that as far as they were concerned, they were willing to stand up to Israel “to the last drop of blood” (Iran’s PressTV, December 21, 2010).

Firuz Mithiborwala presents a plaque to Ramadan Shalah, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization (Photo courtesy of MEMRI, December 21, 2010).

Note:

[1] For further information about the convoy see the December 16, 2010 article, “The Ideology Behind the Asia2Gaza Solidarity Caravan”.