Akashma Online News

Published by Akashma Online News

by Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem from Turkish/Syrian border

Three convoys converged in Turkey to deliver much needed aid to the people of Syria suffering a three years internal violence.

Omar Karem, 30 years old from Gaza with an uncertain future. He it is a refugee himself but regardless of his precarious situation, his humanitarian heart does not allow him to stay idle, he is adding his helping hands around in the Aleppo Halab Syrian Refugee Camp. He is stranded without visa, but this does not stop him from helping others in need.

Refugee Camp set up by UN on the border of Turkey/Syria receiving every day people running from the violence inside Syria.

It is very difficult to be Palestinian, he said. You have no rights in your land, and you have no rights in other people’s land.
The Palestinian Nabka since 1948 had left Palestinian without rights. They are denied visas to work, or to visit other countries on the ground of  being Palestinian. Omar said, that most of the times they refuse to grant them visa just because they are Palestinians.
The word refugee is not new for Palestinians. The refugee status of Palestinians, it is wore as stigma. A painful one, that follows them every where they go.

“All Arab governments  and specially the ones called national government are unchanged. Omar, said. They filled history with revolutionary slogans.  They said that they will liberate Palestine, they set up thousands of festivals. Printed millions of posters and after 65 years of Nakba, nothing changed one meter of Palestine’s land, he said.

Omar, that victoriously broke Gaza siege last year had seen the end of his triumph. Now stranded in the border of Turkey/Syria in Aleppo Syria in a refugee camp for displaced people forgetting his own struggles and his uncertain future, he moves around in Halab refugee camp helping and documenting the atrocities of the war.

He better than anybody knows the horrors of the war, he lived the Israel occupation all his life. He knows the terror in the eyes of a child after a bomb had destroyed half of his home. Israel did not spared the terror of the bombs, the white phosphorous, the sonar bombs, the drones flying every day above their heads. Omar knows the aftermath of war, now he sees himself as a refugee in a foreign land, but still hoping for a better tomorrow, and helping Syrian refugees to cope with the lost.
What to do, when you are Palestinian?  Add your voice to the Palestinian Struggle, he said,  let’s help to end the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.  Now witnessing the horror of the Syrian violence that does not forgive, women, children and elderly, he said, “Syria will be free.”

thousands miles away from their Land, Omar Karem and Ebrahim Musaji Aleppo Syrian Refugee Camp

From all the oddities of life, Ebrahim Musaji, 27 Mavi Marmara survivor and humanitarian peace activist from the UK comes to Syria in a convoy to bring Aid, and find Omar Karem from Gaza, Palestine, stranded yet in another no man’s land. When Ebrahim went to Gaza 2 years ago, Omar still in Gaza was part of those in need, now circumstances had changed. They both meet in another country, with conditions similar to Gaza. Undoubtedly the times changed but the situation is the same.
In a skype interview,  Ebrahim Musaji, speaks of his many humanitarian enterprises. He has been in Gaza in three occasions, With Viva Palestine convoy, Road to Hope, and the attempted Mavi Marmara organized by İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri İnsani Yardım Vakfı – İHH. He had been in Syria as volunteer 2 times, the first time he stayed 3 months inside Syria helping displaced people. This would be his third time in a convoy from UK delivering aid to the people inside Syria.

Ebrahim Musaji, Omar Karem with members of the Libyan Red Crescent delegation arriving to Istanbul in their way to Syria.

Ebrahim spent 3 months in Syria on January, delivering the ambulances and donated aid and cash to school inside Syria and in the refugee camps.

25 ambulances from Libya crossed  Thursday Turkish territory, loaded with tools and medical supplies, to the Syrian territory. The Ambulances were accompanied by 14 people, including three doctors, that crossed the Syrian-Turkish border from the crossing Gelovaguzo the “Gate of fancy”, in Rihaniyya area city Turkish Hataa. The coordinator of the Red Crescent in Libya, “Nasser Mohammed Dou,” said, that Libya provided so far 235 ambulance to Syria since the start of the crisis, and to support the Libyan humanitarian aid will continue on an ongoing basis to the Syrians. He explained, “Dou” that three doctors came with the delegation, in order to provide medical services to the Syrian refugees who were forced to leave their homes and stay in tents and camps inside Syrian territory.

Omar Karem and Ebrahim Musaji meet in Aleppo refugee camp on May 27, and made their way back to Istanbul to welcome the Libyan Red Crescent delegation arriving with 25 ambulances, and the group from IHH, once they all meet they started their journey to Syria.
Circumstances unite people more than they can imagine.