Following Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip last winter, George Galloway, a member of the British Parliament known for his support of the Palestinian cause in the Arab-Israli conflict, embarked on a nationwide tour in the U.S. calling for Americans to take action and help the people in Gaza exercise their right to live freely.

He emphasized that change will not be realized until citizens of the U.S. stand up and tell Israel its unilateral siege of the Gaza Strip cannot be tolerated. According to Galloway, the most tangible way to help would be to send a humanitarian aid convoy to the besieged area.

Attending his stops in Ann Arbor and Dearborn, I was inspired by his words and ready to take action. A few weeks after Galloway’s trip through the Midwest, a group of students from the University created an organization known as ActionGAZA.

Fast-forward to October 2009, and the group found itself collaborating with Viva Palestina — an organization led by Galloway. In November, ActionGAZA decided to send money we had raised with Viva Palestina’s December convoy. In an effort to ensure that our money would be used to buy necessary medical equipment for the impoverished Palestinians in Gaza, I signed up to travel with the convoy. While I understood the dangers and risks involved with the trip, I was totally unprepared for what was in store.

On December 24, I arrived in Amman, Jordan, and took a five-hour taxi ride to Aqaba, a southern coastal city in Jordan. Upon arrival, I realized how large our convoy was and how many trucks of aid we had. This had been Galloway’s third convoy in one year and was by far his largest, with 515 participants and 250 trucks ready to be filled with medical aid, food and clothing.

The medical supplies had already been purchased in Amman but were not set to arrive until the next morning. The plan was to load up the trucks the next day and leave for Egypt that evening. From the port of Aqaba, we would sail to Nuweiba, Egypt, and drive to Rafah, which borders Gaza.

Egypt had been notified of the convoy’s plans, expressed its support and posed no problems to the route we had chosen. However, it wasn’t until we arrived in Aqaba, filled our trucks with the supplies and prepared to leave that Egypt suddenly imposed a new policy: to enter Gaza, we had to abide by three guidelines.

First, the Egyptian Authority made it impermissible to sail from the port of Aqaba to Nuweiba, stating that our only option would be to sail from Latakia, Syria, to El-Arish, Egypt. This would mean traveling backwards hundreds of miles — a waste of time, money and energy. Second, Egypt demanded we coordinate our efforts with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, thereby surrendering all humanitarian aid to the United Nations. Third, the Egyptian authorities demanded the convoy’s leaders must negotiate with Israel to get into Gaza, despite the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip according to international law.

We drove hundreds of miles back to Latakia, Syria and remained there, stuck, for four days before securing a boat to carry our trucks to El-Arish. We were then forced to take a charted flight to El-Arish airport because it was “illegal” for both passengers and trucks to travel on the same boat.

Afraid that Egyptians would take our aid hostage, we got permission for 12 convoy leaders to ride on the ship. With knowledge of our aid convoy, Israel arbitrarily expanded its patrol of the Mediterranean Sea from five kilometers off the coast to 25, making the sea journey longer. Our ship was also followed until it passed the border of the occupied territory, and at one point, was confronted by the Israeli naval fleet in an attempt to intimidate the passengers to end the journey.

Meanwhile, the chartered flight only fit 120 people at a time, so the convoy was forced to split into five groups. The entire American convoy was scheduled to fly on the first plane, but due to a last minute decision, Galloway decided to board the first plane. I was one of five who volunteered to take the second flight to allow Galloway onto the first. Coincidentally, it was this second flight that nearly crashed into the Mediterranean Sea due to an engine failure. After another day’s worth of delay, we made it to El-Arish, but were still far from entering Gaza.

After landing, we immediately headed for the seaport to regain control of our trucks. Upon arrival, we were locked in and barred from leaving. Although we had made it to the port, Egypt created another obstacle for our convoy — refusing to let 50 of our trucks in and stating the only way for any to get in was to send them through an Israeli checkpoint.

Negotiations took place at the leadership level with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but the efforts were futile.

Refusing to take our vehicles anywhere but Gaza, we protested and the Egyptian Authority sent 2,000 policeman to stop us from leaving El-Arish.