Gaza continues

The Israeli military atrocities in Gaza continue. The death toll nears 400.
Meanwhile, Obama 'monitors' and Brown has little twitches of conscience while figuring out which bank to nationalise next. In Tehran, Iranian Jews demonstrate for Palestine, and in Israel, Ha'aretz reports that the Israeli military has been cooking this up for months, during the 'ceasefire.'
It's very hard to know what to do here, of course. Yesterday, my first day properly out of bed after a week of 'flu, I took myself off to the vigil outside the BBC in Manchester. The previous day's demonstration apparently attracted maybe a couple of hundred, according to my friend Hannah. The vigil had perhaps 70. There will be one every evening that this continues, so I guess I'll be down there again tomorrow at 5pm before I head off to friend Ruth's to try and not be too much of a spirit of depression at the New Year party. And at 3pm on Saturday there will be a bigger demonstration.
It always amazes me that Palestinians in such appalling circumstances draw hope from what feel like the most tiny things we do here, but a text from my amazing friend Sharyn just after I sent her news of these two demonstrations and the bigger ones outside the Israeli embassy in London read as follows:
"Fatima is so happy telling her family what you just said. 10 people just gained some strength for this night under the bombs."
Of course I cried and felt inadequate. Doh.
What else to do? There's not much I can usefully write - my only attempt at getting into Gaza, 7 years ago, ended up with me in al-Hussain Hospital in Beit Jala, shot full of pethidine, thanks to a little altercation with the lovely Captain Joseph Levy of the Erez border crossing. I can draw on the words of friends - including Sharyn - who are there. I can help to spread Free Gaza movement press releases and the writings of those with useful things to say and reports from the ground, including Sameh Habeeb. I can keep making sure that the Free Gaza Facebook group stays up to date and also that the stupid, hateful, vile anti-semitism that Israel's stupid, hateful, vile actions engenders is not allowed to find its voice through any channel that I can stop up. And, I suppose, I can not give in to the grief and guilt that so many of us who have spent time in Palestine feel at not being there at this hour, and keep working in the ways that I can here, even if it's not there. But it feels so very little.