KUALA LUMPUR: Even after two months, I can still remember the rush I felt from hearing the sounds of gunshots fired by an Israeli navy ship over the Malaysian humanitarian ship MV Finch on May 16. I recall vividly the day before the incident when I could barely sleep. Emotions aside, the spectre of being arrested by the Israelis was real. On that fateful day at 3am, I joined the other non-essential members of the mission sitting on the open deck of MV Finch as it made its way to Palestinian waters from the El Arish Port waiting area in Egyptian waters. There, I joined reporters Mohd Faizal Hassan from Bernama and Canadian Julie Lévesque from Global Research, Mohd Radzillah Abdullah from the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department and Irish humanitarian activist Jenny Graham. It was a cold night with a visible full moon. We waited for what seemed to be long hours on a wetmattress laid out on the deck before dawn broke. This was when we began to see fishing boats with fishermen waving at u...

Readers will remember The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (MV Finch) first entered Palestinian waters some time ago - on 16 May to be precise, and has only now been allowed to unload its Cargo by the Egyptian authorities who still appear to be doing their best to collude with Israel's blockade and siege. From Global Research The Spirit of Rachel Corrie finally was allowed to berth at the El-Arish Port on Tuesday July 5, 2011 at 7.10 pm (Egypt time) for the unloading of the UPVC pipes to Gaza. The cargo of 32 tonnes took almost 4 hours to be transferred to 7 awaiting trailers. The humanitarian aid cargo will be taken to Ouja at the Israeli border where it will be reassigned to other trailers sponsored by the Palestinians to be delivered to Gaza via Karem Shalom. The impasse finally ended after Perdana Global Peace Foundation President, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad met the Prime Minister of Egypt, Dr. Essam Sharaf on June 29 in Cairo. The Perdana Global Peace Foundation records with sincere grat...

From Bernama JITRA, May 21 ( Bernama ) -- The Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) will continue with its mission to send humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza Strip despite its aid ship, the MV Finch, encountering a number of problems and obstacles. PGPF advisor Datuk Mukhriz Tun Mahathir said the foundation had from the outset realised the risks involved in undertaking the endeavour. Mukhriz hoped that the cargo vessel, which had been blocked by Israeli forces from approaching Gaza, would be allowed to berth at the El-Arish port by the Egyptian authorities... ... "Food supplies have been brought to the ship but it's facing dwindling water supply," said Mukhriz. He expressed hope that the Egyptian authorities would be more considerate, given that the sole objective of the mission was to deliver much-needed humanitarian supplies to Gazans. "We also hope that Wisma Putra (Malaysian Foreign Ministry) would be able to help us out. We consider Egypt as a friend of ours,...