Logistics - by Ian Hodgson

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank

NOTE: This page will be constantly updated with further details right up until P10K launches on 11th September 2004. P10K started as a group of just a few individuals, who up until now have concentrated on the strategic aspects of P10K, including securing support from the Palestinian people and leadership, communicating the idea of a cessation of offensive operations for 10,000 western citizens to the militant Palestinian resistance, and preparing for the P10K announcement press conference, in addition to creating and improving the web site.

This page has been prepared in response to initial enquiries from those who completely agree with the idea and mission of P10K, but who want a more concrete vision and solid information about exactly how the P10K Force will morph from an idea to reality.

Following the P10K Press Conference, volunteers and support will flood in; everything P10K needs to organize and plan logistics. If you would like to get involved now though, please email human@P10K.net with an offer of an aspect of logistics you can research, or better still, simply choose something from below which you feel is not dealt with in enough detail and email the research to us.

Travel to Palestine
Summary - P10K will use the Jordanian capital Amman as a staging post, before entering the West Bank across the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge during late August/early September. From there, the P10K Force-West Bank will travel by Servees (cheap shared taxis) or in lifts given by the Palestinians gathered to welcome us, to towns, villages and refugee camps throughout the West Bank. The P10K Force-Gaza can either travel briefly in the West Bank or immediately congregate in Jerusalem.

From 8th -11th September, the TJP International Arts & Music Festival will take place in Jerusalem. Early in the morning of 11th September, the P10K Force-Gaza will set off in 'Servees' or lifts from Israelis and Palestinians who are allowed to travel inside Israel.

Before the Erez checkpoint at the northern border of the Gaza Strip, the P10K Force-Gaza will disembark and congregate, before marching the final few kilometres into Gaza. This has the potential to be the world's most powerful march yet seen, and it will be relayed live to the TJP Festival in Jerusalem and to millions around the world. Armed only with our humanity, the P10K Force-Gaza will defeat one of the most powerful militaries in the world. Once inside, the P10K Force-Gaza will spread themselves amongst the people of Gaza, ultimately reaching Rafah, where as I write this, the P10K Force is needed most.

Timeline
Summer 2004 - The earliest P10K Force participants enter the Occupied Palestinian Territories, intending to stay until and past 11th September 2004.

Late August
The number of P10K Force participants entering increases.

September 1st – September 10th
The vast majority of the P10K Force will enter the West Bank. Flights become cheaper on September 1st, and should the Israeli authorities choose to co-operate with our lawful right to enter the West Bank, ten days is ample time for 10,000 people to be processed at the border.

September 8th – 10th
Opening days of the TJP Festival in Jerusalem.

September 11th
First day of P10K. Whilst the final day of the TJP Festival is in full swing in Jerusalem, the P10K Force-Gaza will march the last few kilometres to Erez checkpoint and on into the Gaza Strip.

September 12th onwards
The P10K Force maintains it's presence until the end of Israel's unlawful occupation. Depending on how long this takes, additional people to increase the strength of numbers of the P10K Force, or to replace people who must leave, will be welcome for up to 6 months – a year after 11th September 2004.

Realisticly - One day in 2005?
Full Israeli withdrawal of all aspects of occupation is confirmed, including settlements and military personnel and infrastructure.

Details - Immediate action to take

1 - P10K Registration
If you have not yet registered for the P10K Force, please register online now and complete the printed copy of the registration form and send with a copy of your passport photo page to;

P10K
12 Cardozo Road
London
N79RL
England

2 - Book your Flight to Amman
Look at the P10K Flights page for more information on cheap flights to Amman. If you find something cheaper than listed or from a destination not currently listed, please email ian@P10K.net so it can be added for others to view. Include the web address / phone number, departure location, price, dates and times, and your email address if you want to communicate with others who want to travel form the same location.

3 – Apply for visas to Jordan and Israel
Contact your local Jordanian and Israeli Embassies to enquire whether your nationality requires a visa, and to obtain one if necessary.

Jordanian Diplomatic Missions Worldwide
Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
http://www.mfa.gov.jo/embassy_jordan_list.php?menu_id=4

Israeli Diplomatic Missions Aboard
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affair
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/ASPX_DIR/BalmasOnBoardEN.htm

Planning in place for late August – P10K Launch on 11th September

4 – Arrival in Jordan
Depending on the time of your arrival and the length of your flight, you may want to spend a night in Jordan before crossing into the West Bank, or travel directly from the airport. The border is open from early morning to mid afternoon.

5 – Crossing from Jordan into the West Bank
Travel from Amman to King Hussein/Allenby Bridge in shared taxi's, or in lifts offered by Jordanians (approximately 60% of Jordanians are actually Palestinian refugees).

Border Crossing Protocol
In 'normal' circumstances, you are dropped off at the Jordanian side at a bus station-like transit terminal, where the Jordanian authorities scan your baggage and check your passport. A bus then transports you for the 5 minute journey across the bridge.

On the Israeli side, the bus stops and is checked underneath and onboard, while you have to disembark and have a preliminary passport (and possible bag) check by Israeli soldiers.

You then get back on the bus and arrive at the main Israeli terminal a few minutes later. Here you are separated from your baggage, and while it goes through airport style security checks, you queue at a counter to have your passport checked, and answer various questions, such as to your reasons for traveling into the West Bank, your job, previous travel to Israel etc.

You then move into a further security zone, where your passport is checked again, and the possessions in your pockets tested for traces of explosives. You may be asked to watch while your bag is searched in your presence, or it may have already been searched.

You then pass through into the exit area, where you can pick up your bag and catch a lift to Jericho or Jerusalem.

P10K border crossing protocol
Currently P10K anticipates that Israel intends prevent us from freely entering the West Bank, as is our right. This will soon become clear when the first P10K Force participants attempt to enter this summer and increasingly during late August/early September. Those P10K Force members who are refused will congregate in Amman en masse, waiting for increasing numbers of people to arrive, and hence increasing strength, instead of attempting entry in small numbers in the normal way.

"Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves." - Gandhi

P10K is making it easy for the Israeli authorities to let us in with no threat to their security. All P10K Force participants will have copies of their registration forms and passports handed to the Israeli Embassy in London in plenty of time for individual checks to be carried out and questions to be asked. If the Israeli authorities refuse entry then it's clearly for political reasons - Israel has systematically refused entry to hundreds of westerners for political reasons in the last few years, but never have people had the option to return to Amman, only to return in greater, more powerful numbers with the eyes of the world upon us; remember, we have a publicly affirmed cessation of all offensive operations in Israel by the Palestinian resistance so for Israel to argue we threaten their "security" will be laughable.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 13. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

So as the congregation of the P10K Force builds in Amman, with increasing numbers arriving hour by hour, P10K organizers will announce a day and time for entry en masse. The exact details of this will be announced and spread by email and word of mouth in Amman if the occasion arises. Think to yourself what Gandhi would do if confronted by a rogue state, that is nuclear armed and attempting to hold the entire world to ransom and preventing an act that will undoubtedly save Israeli and Palestinian life; the P10K Force will do just as Gandhi would want if he himself were with us. There is great strength in numbers.

"Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless corrupt." - Gandhi

6 - Welcome to Israeli Occupied Palestine
Checkpoints, curfews, incursions and closures aside, the P10K Force will receive an incredible welcome from Palestinians on the other side of the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge crossing. Many Palestinian people and leaders have already stated explicitly that literally thousands will offer their homes as accommodation, and provide or arrange transport. P10K is liaising with Palestinian organizations who can organize the logistics of which families can provide accommodation in various towns/villages/refugee camps. Details will be posted on the Living in Palestine page over the coming months.

Otherwise, there will be plenty of Servees to take people either to Jericho, or Jerusalem, where P10K Force participants can stay in people's houses/hostels/hotels for the duration of P10K, or travel throughout the West Bank.

7 - TJP International Arts & Music Festival
From the 8th – 11th September, the TJP International Arts & Music Festival in Jerusalem will launch P10K. It'll be the third anniversary of that infamous day when the world became even more crazy, and the powers that be made their greatest mistake – for the sake of short term political leeway to aggressively further their 'new world order', they pushed the decency limits of the vast majority of humans much too far, and hence P10K. Cheers George!

8 – 'Liberating' Gaza
On 11th September, the P10K Force-Gaza will travel in Servees and from lifts offered by Israelis and Palestinians who live in Jerusalem and are permitted to travel within Israel. A few kilometres before Erez checkpoint, we will congregate at a convenient point, before marching the final distance on foot into Gaza.

The welcome the P10K Force-Gaza will receive makes my spine shiver just thinking about it. It will be a an emotional and incredible day for the P10K Force-Gaza, but especially for Gazans, who for the first time in over 50 years, might start to believe that people are actually serious about really helping them in their struggle for freedom.

The start of a new 'New World Order'

9 - Waking up on 12th September 2004
Think back to three years before. It took you a moment to remember the events of the previous day, but then you recalled how the TV media had already accused, tried and convicted Osama bin Laden in a matter of hours through the use of their 'experts', non of whom were quite expert enough to mention his long history of connections to the CIA. This was all confirmed in the corporate print media you read at breakfast or at work or on the bus or wherever, and soon talk of invading Afghanistan was dominating the headlines.

Waking up on 12th September 2004, it'll take you a moment to remember that you're in Gaza City or Hebron or Nablus or Jenin. Breakfast will taste all the sweeter knowing it's shared with people whose lives you're helping to protect, and whose freedom we are fighting for. Then instead of reading with despair and depression about US threats of responding to 9-11 'terrorism' with even greater state sponsored terrorism – and feeling helpless and impotent to do anything to stop it – you'll go out into the streets and peacefully march arm in arm with your Palestinian hosts.

You'll be part of a new 'New World Order' – one where a massed group of people armed only with their humanity can defeat a military force armed with tanks and planes and helicopter gunships and nuclear weapons. A new 'New World Order' where people's lives count for more than a corporation's profits, a new 'New World Order' where inherent human rights are respected above the ambitions and greed of power crazed politicians and their oligarch puppetmasters, a new 'New World Order' of Truth, Justice, Peace.

10 – Long term presence of the P10K Force
If we're really serious about creating this new "New World Order', the P10K Force must maintain its presence until Israel either decides to, or is compelled to end its decade's long illegal occupation. For the agreement in principle to hold that the Palestinian militant resistance will not launch any offensive operations inside Israel, we, as citizens of the west must keep our side of the bargain, and our numbers above 10,000. But 10,000 is a low number, which we can easily exceed. The greater our numbers, the more pressure we can exert on Israel.

If you are unable to travel to Palestine before 11th September, come as soon as possible afterwards. Influxes of new people in the months following the launch will further increase our strength in numbers, as well as replacing those who can't commit for a long term stay.