Khaled Mudala, a Palestinian student trapped in Gaza since June, landed in the UK on Tuesday after being allowed out of Gaza alongside 240 others. All movement in and out of Gaza for Gazians has been fully stopped since Gaza was declared a hostile entity in September.
We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in the campaign for lifting the travel restrictions for Palestinians. Khaled Mudala’s case has been focused on in order to highlight the restrictions on others. With your help we have been able to gain a great deal of media attention and support as well as support from key organisations and individuals. Through the support that we have gained we have been able to apply significant amounts of pressure on the Israeli government. Both the Israeli government and the Israeli Supreme Court cooperated to make the situation for the Palestinians in Gaza worse by refusing to interfere and stating that the matter was in the hands of the Israeli Army.
Several MPs supported the campaigns alongside key teaching and student organisations, such as the NUS and UCU. Also different student unions passed motions to support the campaign. After all this pressure both the Israeli Embassy and Israeli Government were forced to give several statements about Khaled’s situation. All of these statements were full of lies and false promises that Khaled would be allowed out Gaza within days hoping that these statements would diffuse the campaign. However the pressure was kept up and played a vital role in Khaled leaving Gaza a few days ago.
This is a very positive step forward – Khaled and a few others were able to leave Gaza but the situation in Gaza is still very dire. The campaign used Khaled’s name but it was always about the basic rights of Palestinians. This is also Khaled’s view as in a press conference earlier this week at special press conference in London, Khaled said, “I am very glad that I am here today but this is not a victory as whilst 140 people have been let out of Gaza there are still 1.75 million people living under siege, imprisoned, terrorised, being starved and in the canton of Gaza.â€. The pressure from the campaign needs to be maintained as Palestinians are still living under a dire situation and every right of the Palestinians is being seriously violated.
