Deborah Mardon, her two children Jenna Bitar, 18 and Joel Bitar, 23 will be traveling this month with their uncle Farid Bitar to the Gaza Strip to take part in the Gaza Freedom March. 

After arriving into Cairo, Egypt, the Bitar family and more than 1,300 other international delegates from 42 countries will caravan into Gaza to witness the unchanged devastation from last year's Israeli assault. On Dec. 31, they will join a projected 50,000 Palestinians in a non-violent march from Northern Gaza to the Erez/Israeli border to call for the border to be opened. On the Israeli side of the Erez border Palestinians and Israelis will also be rallying to urge the Israeli government to end the siege. 

“After the attack on Gaza by Israel, I began to read a lot and attend talks and panels about what was going on,” shares Ms. Mardon, a New York City School Supervisor.  “I went to a slide presentation by a Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, who was working in the hospital during the assault.  I was horrified and sickened, seeing the children who had been killed and maimed. Then to know they continue to suffer under a suffocating siege where bare essentials of life are denied them was so shocking. I bring to Gaza my heart, my hope and my voice, to let them know that people do care and they are not alone.”  

Over 100 students will be joining the march and two of them are Ms. Mardon’s son and daughter Jenna and Joel. “My reason for going to Gaza is to finally meet the people there and continue speaking out for them once I return to America.” explains Jenna. Joel, a student at Hunter College and a member of its Campus Anti-War Network adds, “As an American citizen I am extremely concerned about the situation in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians there are reeling from the massive destruction of their infrastructure by Israeli attacks funded with American tax dollars. As human beings inhabiting this world we need to stand in solidarity with people who are being punished simply for existing…We demand full justice for all the victims of the Israeli attack and an end to the blockade.” 

Other participants in the Gaza Freedom March include Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker, leading Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, South African anti-apartheid leader Ronnie Kasrils, French Senator Alima Boumediene–Thiery, author and Filipino Parliament member Walden Bello, former European Parliamentarians Luisa Morgantini from Italy and Eva Quistorp from Germany, President of the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights Attorney Michael Ratner, Japanese former Ambassador to Lebanon Naoto Amaki, French hip-hop artists Ministere des Affaires Populaires and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein.  Families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 100 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women's delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.  

Inside Gaza, excitement is growing. Representatives of all aspects of civil society, including students, professors, refugee groups, unions, women's organizations, NGOs, have been busy organizing and estimate that at least 50,000 Palestinians will participate. People from the different sectors will march in their uniforms--fishermen, doctors, students, farmers, teachers, etc. Local Palestinian rappers, hip-hop bands and Dabbkeh dancers will perform on mobile stages. 

For more information:

To contact Gaza Freedom March Organizers: 
Ann Wright in Egypt (19) 508-1493, Gaza (599) 501-517 
Tighe Barry, in Egypt (19) 481-2932, Gaza (598) 289-860 
Medea Benjamin in Egypt (18) 956-1919, Gaza (599) 501-519 
Haider Eid Gaza (599) 441 766 

For more information see www.gazafreedommarch.org