I've been in many campaigns at a community level. We had a picket of probably 200 people and Muldoon came out and I happened to be in the way and he threw a punch at me and I can still picture him standing in the middle of Queen Street yelling out: I'll take you on one at a time! Yeah, I've been involved in some pretty hairy events over the years.
It was certainly a tragic stand-off in the last peace flotilla, but our hope is that there be so many people involved the Israelis would be extremely stupid to do anything outlandish. It's pretty scarey, yeah, and it just shows you the desperation that the Israeli military sometimes will descend to.
We weighed up the pros and the cons, and the pro was here were one and a half million people in a desperate situation. On the other hand were the big cons, a whole lot of reasons, really good reasons why we shouldn't go or shouldn't do anything about it. Of course, we come down on the side, yes, we have to go.
This is going to be an international convoy and it's important that Kiwis are part of that. I was very apprehensive [when my son wanted to join up] but I respect his wishes and, yes, I'm extremely proud of him.
My personal feelings and anxiety don't even come into the picture compared to the desperation of the people of Gaza. There's one and a half million people there living in a tiny sliver of land which is as big as East Coast Bays here in Auckland, up to Browns Bay. That's how big it is. Everywhere you look it's completely desperate.
Some consumable items are allowed in. It takes a long time for them to get in and they're only dribbling in. The people of Gaza now have the luxury of being able to get chocolates and mayonnaise and things of that nature, but I'm sorry, their need is much more desperate than that. I mean, the country's been bombed to shreds. They can't get building material to rebuild their houses. They can't even get a bag of cement.
It's one of many [pressing issues the world faces] but the main thing that differentiates this issue from everything else is that it's a man-made issue. The people of Gaza are suffering, and suffering every day, 24x7, as a direct result of Israeli government policy, and that can be changed.
It is definitely a stand. We also know about our peace flotilla in Auckland which changed the situation where we were having unwanted nuclear warships visiting our harbours and we were able to turn that around.
All packed and ready to go. I would hope that one day if my grandchildren ever ask me what did you do Poppy to try and stop the wars in this world, that I'm not going to be stumped for an answer.
