Trade Not Aid UK Tour - July 10 to July 28

The Trade Not Aid Mission to Gaza (a partnership of Aloha Palestine and the Samouni Project) is beginning a 17 city tour of the UK on July 10th in Birmingham at the Reading Mela (Asian Music & Culture Festival) in Palmer Park.  I will speak at the festival and at select cities on the tour.  Topics will include what I saw on my recent 6 month visit to Gaza, the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, and of course the details of the Trade Not Aid Mission.  I will also discuss the status of the Samouni Project and the classroom and educational program we will complete upon our arrival in Gaza.  I will also address the well-orchestrated Zionist attack attempting to defame me. 

Most importantly however, we will connect Palestinian supporters in the UK with Palestinians in Gaza in a physical, tangible way.  We will even have beautiful hand made items “Made in Palestine” for sale at our marquee tent, as well as products made by the Samouni family themselves. 

Mahmoud Samouni collecting Chili Peppers on Samouni land in Gaza.

Trade Not Aid Press Conference

Inter-Trade Project Press Release

Samouni Project Convoy

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Samouni Project Convoy to Gaza July, 2nd depart London.. Please Support our efforts

Samouni Calss Room. Progress.

Listen to the beautiful Samouni children get excited about painting the classroom. They helped you know :)

Samouni Bee Project

Samouni Bee Project

By: Tom Baker

Here at the Samouni project we are looking for sustainable, traditional projects to help people help themselves and not rely on handouts. In our newest project we aim to provide the Samouni clan with several beehives and local beekeeping training with a view to export the produce they make from the hives. This will not only help provide work and income for the Samouni project but it will also help pollination of crops in Gaza.

Beekeeping is a Palestinian tradition nearly seven millennia old - the oldest archaeological remnants shows mud beekeeping in the Canaanite era in the Babb El Wad area, now West Jerusalem. Honey is a highly regarded food source with recognized medical properties, the bee even has it's own 'Sura' in the Koran where the healing properties of honey are talked about.

We are looking to bring in the materials to make 10 hives for the Samounis on our 'Samouni Project Convoy' leaving the UK on July 2^nd and we are calling in the help of the Zaqzuq family, who have been keeping bees for many years in Gaza.

In exchange for training the Samounis in how to keep bees We also are looking to provide the Zaqzuq family with materials to rebuild their hives that were damaged in Israeli attacks. (See Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1nj8Wc4AA). The materials will be purchased in the UK, cut and made to measure for assembly in Gaza at the Samouni project.

To clarify, the $1500 is for materials for 10 hives for the samounis including multiple 'supers' (honey storage units) 'Nuc' hives (for new swarms), hive tools and bee suits. Any additional materials will go towards making up to 20 hives for the Zaqzuq family'

Tom Baker

Samouni Beehive project

To contribute, CLICK HERE 

Ken O'Keefe: I am really excited about this and to arrive here with our convoy in the middle of summer with surfboards and all sorts of water sports equipment with trainers and have a big water sports camp for the kids will just be incredible. A great, great blessing for all. TJP

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine, Trade Not Aid

Today my team heard from mothers, fathers and children of the Samouni family their story of the Hell on Earth created by Operation Cast Lead.  Twenty-nine people were killed in this family: children shot in front of parents, parents shot in front of children, 97 people in one home blasted to bits by rockets and mortars.  They were made to live amongst the mutilated and dead for several days; while ambulances were kept away some died slowly over hours and even days. 

Ken O’Keefe (Gaza, March 2011)

Our MissionSamouni Inter-Trade Palestine (SIP) is a social enterprise international trade mission. We endeavour to catalyse the end of Gaza’s charitable dependency through import and export trade.  We do not seek simply to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza. Our ultimate objective is to eliminate preventable, blockade-derived suffering.  We recognise the loss of dignity that is inherent in compelling a people to live on aid.  We are focused on the root of the problem and thus we are committed to replacing aid with trade.

Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine logo

Our motives are humanitarian and non-profit. Our objective is to regularly transport people and cargo through Rafah Crossing without obstruction, which is an essential prerequisite for viable trade.  In the long-term, our goal is for Gaza to be rebuilt with its infrastructure functioning to capacity, for an egalitarian economy to develop and a transformation from despair to prosperity to take place.

First Board Meeting for the Samouni Project

Our MethodWe will take an international trade convoy from London on July 2, 2011, intending to arrive in Gaza on July 22.  Among our drivers will be members of the Samouni family.  Our cargo will include raw materials such as textiles and building materials, industrial machinery and equipment geared towards economic development and the rebuilding of Gaza.  Upon offloading our cargo we will immediately begin to reload our trucks with ‘Made in Palestine’ products. Our task then will be to export these products to markets abroad.

Aloha Palestine CIC & the Samouni Project

This convoy is comprised of two primary partners, Aloha Palestine CIC and theSamouni Project.  Both are EU registered, non-profit companies, with Aloha Palestine being a community interest trading company.

The Samouni Project mission is to provide long-term quality education along with community services to over 200 members of the Samouni family, as well as residents of the surrounding community of Zeitoun in Gaza.  To date the Samouni Project has planted an olive tree orchard, built a playground, procured our classroom/community centre, and recruited teaching staff who are currently developing the curriculum.  In addition, we have painted the classroom and collected textbooks, computers, arts and crafts, school supplies, a microscope, telescope, globe, screen projector, and musical instruments in order to create a welcoming and well-supplied classroom.  Our next essential task is to transport all these materials from London and to secure running costs for teaching staff and administration of approximately £2400 a month.

Samouni family members authorising Samouni Project Mission

The aims of the Samouni Project complement and empower the mission ofAloha Palestine, whose function is to transport the cargo in order to complete the classroom and begin classes.  Any attempt to block Aloha Palestine will be publicised as highly injurious to the Samouni family, and tantamount to denying this family and its children the education they deserve.

Samouni Family Project. From A to Z.

In this video, Ken O'Keefe talks about how the Samouni Family Project started, and why the Samouni Family in particular. He discusses the ultimate goal of the project among other things :)

Israeli Drone War Crimes in Gaza Exposed

Video by Ken O'Keefe. Article by Bonnie King Salem-News.com.

Everyday people living the best they can, suffer death and destruction under the guise of "rightful" retaliation.

(GAZA CITY / SALEM) - Israeli air strikes and artillery fire hit Gaza nine times in one of the bloodiest sprees since "Cast Lead", leaving eighteen dead.


"Just another Israeli war crime in Gaza. A mother and her four daughters preparing for the daughters wedding in a couple of weeks... and then a Israeli rocket explodes between them as they sit in their yard," said Ken O'Keefe. "A family is destroyed. This is Israel."

It began with air strikes on April 7, when five Palestinians were killed in raids hitting targets that the Israeli military described as 'positions where projectiles had been fired from'.


Two women and an elderly man were killed in separate strikes near Khan Younis, and two unidentified men were killed near Gaza City.


The two women were a mother and daughter, who were sitting in their back yard, planning details of the girl's upcoming wedding. Three younger sisters were there also, and they had all spent the day baking bread and preparing for the big event.


The men of the family were away, attending Friday prayers. Suddenly, and without warning, an Israeli rocket exploded between the women, killing them both. One sister was seriously injured and remains hospitalized, in a coma.


The youngest daughter, five years old, was far enough from the blast to remain uninjured, but unfortunately she was first on scene. First to see her dead family members. She and her older sister, and all of the remaining family are suffering from PTSD.


Ken O'Keefe visited the Qudeih family and spoke to them about this unnecessary tragedy, and gave them the opportunity to share their grief, and want for justice- and peace.

More on the Samouni Project. Contribute!

Ken O'Keefe: Only 2 days left to meet our target. Please support the Samouni Project, we are bringing members of the family to Europe and part of the funds go to pay for this. We are getting a lot done with very little, help us to do more.


To learn about the project and make a contribution, click here

In the aftermath of our brother Vittorio Arrigoni being murdered by traitors of Palestine, with their intention clearly being to try and make us abandon the true people of Paelstine, we are going to do the reverse and make this convoy and the upcoming flotilla that much stronger.  In order to honour Vik and our Palestinian family we must do this. We will post more detailed information later today but money being soght here is to further the Samouni Project by covering costs to transport aid from London to Gaza. There are about 112 Samouni kids, two years on from Operation Cast Lead with hardly any support in so many regards, so the sooner we make a difference the better.  For 112 kids the requested items that follow are pretty modest; we will look to expand the facilities for sure, with a full educational complex planned, but the goal at this moment is ambitious yet realistic, it really is up to all of us.  I am hoping everyone who reads this will give something, big or small.  Now is the time to have a functioning classroom and community centre ASAP for this family. We have met with the family and consulted them at length, what they want, including the children, is a real learning facility where the kids can get back to where they were before Operation Cast Lead.  We have the teachers ready to go here in Gaza, teachers the kids love, we just need to get the classroom up and running. We have managed to arrange an Internet connection for the classroom; this took some bargaining as the Samouni’s are not in the urban part of Gaza.  We are building the official Samouni Project website right now, we have some great people on this; the site is going to be outstanding.  The website will have photos and videos of the family, the children are keen to begin writing blogs (with automatic translations from Arabic to English), and there will eventually be a forum where the family can interact with people from around the world.  This is one of my primary goals, to connect people outside of Gaza with the family, to create an extended Samouni family.

Samouni Family Project. In Progress...

Samouni Family Community Centre & Classroom

By: Ken O'Keefe


We are looking at sending at least one bus from the UK to Gaza, loaded with materials to set up the Samouni Family Community Centre/Classroom.  We would like to do this in the next couple of weeks so we need many things to happen very fast if we are to meet such a deadline.  Keep in mind that there are about 112 Samouni kids, two years on from Operation Cast Lead with hardly any support in so many regards, so the sooner we make a difference the better.  For 112 kids the requested items that follow are pretty modest; we will look to expand the facilities for sure, with a full educational complex planned, but the goal at this moment is ambitious yet realistic, it really is up to all of us.  I am hoping everyone who reads this will give something, big or small.  Now is the time to have a functioning classroom and community centre ASAP for this family. We have met with the family and consulted them at length, what they want, including the children, is a real learning facility where the kids can get back to where they were before Operation Cast Lead.  We have the teachers ready to go here in Gaza, teachers the kids love, we just need to get the classroom up and running.

Yesterday we managed to arrange an Internet connection for the classroom; this took some bargaining I can tell you as the Samouni’s are not in the urban part of Gaza.  We are building the official Samouni Project website right now, we have some great people on this; the site is going to be outstanding.  The website will have photos and videos of the family, the children are keen to begin writing blogs (with automatic translations from Arabic to English), and there will eventually be a forum where the family can interact with people from around the world.  This is one of my primary goals, to connect people outside of Gaza with the family, to create an extended Samouni family.