When I finally entered the Gaza Strip on October 18, 2012, I wept. The trip across the Sinai and the crossing at the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza (as described in detail by my colleagues Máire Noonan and Verena Stresing) seemed long and fraught. This was my fourth attempt to reach Gaza, so it was emotional for me to finally arrive. We were there for a linguistics conference, and had the opportunity to meet some wonderful young people who were thirsting for contact with the outside world.

Seventy delegates from 20 countries, including Parliamentarians from 11 countries, last week saw the disastrous effects of the 22-day Israeli attack on Gaza two years ago and the five-year naval and land blockade on Gaza. The trip was organized by the Council for European Palestinian Relations.

Q: You’ve done human rights work in various countries, could you talk a bit about that?

Kevin: I started in Guatemala where I worked a human shield for opposition leaders during negotiations that led to the peace accords, including (Nobel peace Prize winner) Rigoberta Menchú, some deans from the university and a couple of labour lawyers. I also went to El Salvador a couple of times as an elections observer to their legislative and presidential elections. All those trips were under the auspices of the Central America Support Committee (CASC) in Victoria.

As we mark the second anniversary of the brutal 2008-2009 Cast Lead assault against Gaza, we remember the more than 1,400 killed -- most of them civilians, many of them women and children -- and the thousands more who were injured. Their recovery is still hampered by the ongoing crime of the illegal and inhumane blockade, now in its fourth year.

Free Gaza Flotilla

Don't hang up
Keep talking

    Three boats approaching
    helicopters hovering

Stay on the line
I am Tweeting

    They're getting closer
    ... they're firing

Are you all OK?
Any one wounded?

    We are being boarded

I am typing

   78 miles from shore
    In international waters
    This can't be happening!

Please keep talking

    This is pira ...
    This ... cri ...

Your breaking up ...

What's happening?
What's happening?

This poem is called, "in memory of the nine brave, courageous peace activists whose lives were stolen by murderous war criminals who spin lies, black out independent media, violate international law repeatedly! repeatedly! yes, this is for them...in memory of the nine brave, courageous peace activists who were murdered by Israeli soldiers, in the name of TRUTH."

as long as the israeli lunatics
float down to deck
guns blazing like a bad scene in a low budget spaghetti western
or a disney kids' movie

as long as conventions and international laws
mean no more than the toilet paper i use every morning

for as long as democracy rhymes with hypocracy

One year a go, at this time, I entered the besieged Gaza strip with a convoy of about 60 people from different origins and professions. We wanted to show solidarity with Gazans who suffered from a terrible war, death, destruction and devastation.

Our journey ended safely one week after we arrived. We all returned home, each one of us with a story, pictures and tears to share with families, friends and communities. Unfortunately, the tragic events that happened yesterday where one of the boats of the flotilla bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza was attacked in international water by an Israeli commando and more than 10 activists were killed, were totally opposite.

This just in from Justice for Palestine:

Dear Friends and Activists,

In response and commemoration of the barbaric attack on the Freedom Flotilla today, we are launching the Global Day to Break the Israeli Siege as an international day of action and protest in front of Israeli embassies and consulates around the world.. Please help us mark Saturday the 5th of June as the Global Day to break the Israeli Siege by organizing protests on this day in your city in front of Israeli consulates and corporations and institutions tied to Apartheid Israel around the world.

I am outraged at Israel's latest criminal act.  I mourn with my fellow Free Gaza travelers, the lives that have been lost by Israel's needless, senseless act against unarmed humanitarian activists.  But I'm even more outraged that once again, Israel's actions have been aided and abetted by a U.S. political class that has become corrupted beyond belief due to its reliance on Zionist campaign finance and penetration by Zionist zealots for whom no U.S. weapons system is too much for the Israeli war machine, and the silence of the world's onlookers whose hearts have grown cold with indifference.

By the time you read this, we will be on the high seas of the Mediterranean (we hope the seas will not be too high).

Our two U.S. flagged Free Gaza boats, will join two other passenger ships, a 600 passenger ship from Turkey sponsored by the Turkish humanitarian organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) and a 50 passenger ship from Athens sponsored by the European Campaign Against the Siege and the Greek/Swedish Ships to Gaza campaign, to sail to the shores of Gaza to break the Israeli naval blockade of the 1.5 million citizens in Gaza.