Dear friends,
Of course all of us from Kifaia have been watching tv and go on the internet every day, and when we could we telephoned you to hear what was going on. Our heart always is with you, but now more than ever.

It is not so easy for people in the Netherlands to understand what is happening, so I used my weblog to give as much information as I could, and now more than 5000 people daily come read my weblog.

To give you an idea of what we are doing here, to collect funds for supporting your work with the injured and disabled, I will give you an impression.

On sunday I did a small lecture on Gaza and NCCR for a meeting of young Dutch muslims, who want to do volunteer work, and some of them will collect money from mosques. Untill now we collected only with churches. Pictures from the meeting:

And I did a lecture in a church in Rijen and one in Alexandra’s church in The Hague and we had a collection.

And there was a demosntration for Palestine, and my colleague from the Socialist Party, Harry van Bommel, who has been with me in Gaza, held a very good speech. These are young people form my party, with banners, saying ‘Israel how dare you!”

And many organisations supporting the Palestinians gave a speech to the government, here you see Jaap Hamburger from Another Jewish Voice speaking talking to the Committee of Foreign Affairs.

I spoke at a benefit for Palestinians in Utrecht.

I was with a demonstration of Women in Black, in Amsterdam.

I did a lecture on Palestine in Groningen for the Socialist Party.

On a big demonstration people also demonstrated for Palestine.

I was at a meeting on Palestine, where I talked with the head of another leftist party, the Green Left, and they support the Palestinian cause as well, we work together.

And Joes and me were in a village for mentally disabled people in Scorlewald. Every year they have a market, and half of what they earned with selling the things they make this year go to NCCR in Gaza.

Here are the pictures of the people who live in the village.

And as I told you before, I held a speech at the Council of Europe.

Here is my speech.

So we try to do as much as possible, and talk to people, and demonstrate. People here onky see fighting men with masks on tv, and they are always suprprised when they see my pictures from Gaza, Palestinians are just normal people, who want a peaceful life, and the children want to go to school. People here have no idea what occupation is like. So I try to tell them, that you have a right to fight the occupation and this doesn’t make all of you terrorists.

And we talk to the politicians. Right now we are afraid that our government will continue help for Abbas and the West Bank, but not for Gaza and Hamas, so I’m writing an article for the newspapers, that Palestinians are one people, and it is up to you to choose your leaders and sort out the disagreements between you. And that it is wrong and criminal to support only half of the Palestinians, so help for Gaza should be continued.

Still it is not enough, and everyday we try to think of what we can do, in politics, to influence our government, in talking to people and do lectures, and in collecting money for practical support. And we hope we can come to Gaza again soon.