TORONTO – The Canadian coordinator of the Gaza Freedom March and three other activists ended their 30 hour hunger strike at 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, satisfied with the media and public attention they brought to the killing of humanitarian aid activists by Israeli Defense Forces the day before.

“Many times things like this happen and it goes unseen,” said Ruch, searing under the mid-day sunshine on the sidewalk outside the Israeli Consulate on Bloor Street.

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.

I am honored to be a part of the latest international citizen effort to break the Israeli and Egyptian governments’ siege of Gaza.  This week, hundreds of persons from 20 countries will challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in an eight ship flotilla.

An international coalition composed of Free Gaza Movement, European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza, the Malaysian humanitarian organization Perdana  and the Turkish non-governmental organization Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) is sending three cargo ships and five passenger vessels to Gaza from Ireland, Greece and Turkey.

The Gaza Freedom March (GFM) was an intense roller-coaster-ride of a week, from the divisive lows of name-calling and recriminations to the high-points of collective action in the streets of Cairo.

So as I settle back into my comfortable life in Canada,  I am resigned, at least for the moment, to that frustrated, incapacitated feeling of sitting in my living room, hearing about airstrikes by Israel against Gaza, shattered windows in houses of innocents, and threats of war.  At least when we were in Cairo, even though we weren't allowed to enter Gaza, we felt like we were doing something.  Here at home, with a prorogued, inaccessible government and mainstream media that is choking on its own vomit, I turn to music and poetry and memories to help make sense of things.

in her provocative way
she fills the space
with ferocity
rendered gentle by her
beauty
do not be fooled
for when she speaks

this,
the

great

mother

she does so
from the earthy depths
of fire
don't look back
lest you be scorched
engulfed
only forward
complexity in
simplicity
the sacred womb

tomb

erupts,
convulses

stop
killing
the

children

stop
killing
the

babies

she calls
on her
earthly sisters
she calls
on her
earthly daughters
whose ears
are tuned
whose eyes
are open

eyes wide open
drawing it in
surge of light

There are many events and memories of my time in Cairo that are etched in my mind, and I want to say how grateful I am to all the people who supported me and donated to our cause that allowed me, and ten other Londoners to have this incredible experience.  It has been said before, but I am deeply saddened that we were not permitted to enter Gaza.  My western born and trained mind does not often allow for the possibility of "What if the answer is NO".  My usual response is (expletives deleted), "Well, how do we turn that into a YES".  And then we do just that.  Not so in Cairo.  We were detained, coralled, subdued and beaten.  But only for a week.  The Egyptian people, as it became so clear, live in constant fear of a police state.

(Now back home in London, Ontario with a few bruises and scrapes courtesy of the Egyptian police, frustrated at being blocked from traveling to Gaza but more resolved than ever to build international solidarity with the Palestinian cause).

While their government did everything it could to block our efforts to join our sisters and brothers in Gaza and to spread falsehoods about the nature of the Gaza Freedom March and its participants, the response we got from ordinary Egyptians was overwhelmingly positive.

It wasn't meant to be a day of activism. Honest. Exhausted by a week of intense protesting and meetings, I slept until almost noon and missed a plan for additional actions this morning. Some Canadians at our hotel wanted to  at least catch a glimpse of the Pyramids during their time in Egypt, so we decided to do what the Egyptian government has been asking us to do all along and just be tourists. Thought it was already mid-afternoon, we decided that a little bit of Pyramids was better than none, so five of us jumped in a cab and after what seemed like an eternity in noisy traffic we were there.

Others have already describe parts of yesterday's events elsewhere. As Starhawk writes about the process of moving us from the street to the sidewalk.