Quietly charismatic Mavi Marmara survivor speaks out

Go to the website of Fakhoora.org and see this short video of Fakhoora director Farooq Burney describing his experiences aboard the Mavi Marmara during the raid.
Burney was on the boat to embody the solidarity that Fakhoora has with the besieged people of Gaza and also take 65 computers to Gaza for the use of students there, and perhaps “to establish a computer lab in one of the institutions in Gaza.”
He talks about having someone close to him shot by the Israelis during the raid– and his sense of helplessness at being unable to prevent him from bleeding to death. He also talks about the humiliations he suffered while in Israeli custody, and about how upsetting it was for his family, including his children, to be left so long in the dark about whether he had survived, or not.
This page on Fakhoora’s website tells us,

Fakhoora.org is an international campaign which aims to secure the freedom to learn for Palestinian students in Gaza and the West Bank.
Access to education is a basic human right, recognized by Article 26 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today, school children and university students in Gaza and the West Bank are not able to fully exercise their right to an education. During Operation Cast Lead, schools were bombed and destroyed. Many of those schools remain damaged or destroyed. And the current blockade deprives students and teachers of some of the basic necessities that no school can do without. It is an emotionally challenging environment in which to learn.
… The campaign gets its name from a United Nations school in Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp that was the scene of an attack by Israeli tank shells on January 6, 2009. The attack resulted in at least 43 fatalities, including children, and 100 injuries. The school was being used as a shelter for those fleeing hostilities.

It sounds like a fabulous campaign.