To Israel, Palestinians with chocolate pose a threat.

In an earlier post, I noted that, among other things, Israel has added chocolate to the list of items banned from entering Gaza. Apparently Gazan people armed with chocolate pose a threat to one of the most belligerent military powers on Earth. Perhaps even as grave a threat to the only nuclear power in the Middle East as the homemade rockets whose fire by Gazans were the supposed cause for Israel's assault of December and January.

The fact that chocolate has been added to the list of forbidden items has been haunting me since I learned of it. There is something so insidious about it. The purpose of the Viva Palestina convoy is to show solidarity with the people of Gaza by bringing medical supplies, and certainly chocolate seems frivolous relative to heart pumps and antibiotics. But the fact that, beyond these absolute necessities, Gazans are denied those things which make life sweet, feels bitterly unjust. It is difficult to imagine even the coldest, most heartless Zionist defending such a policy.

I've been mentioning the policy to others on the delegation. Some are already aware. One guy shook his head and shrugged.

"They deny crayons too, right?"

Others are shocked. That's one of the things about standing in solidarity with Palestinians. It seems that no matter how much you know about the depths of Israeli brutality, there are always crimes that Israel commits that are so cruel that they are astonishing.

"Chocolate," one woman on the trip exclaimed when I told her. "That's just evil."

And so, when we make runs to the supermarket around the corner from our hotel, we are faced with a difficult situation: of course we would love to load up on chocolate to take to Gaza. We can't though because it is a banned item, and bringing it would raise the chance of other, essential items being denied along with the chocolate, and even our entry into Gaza being denied. In fact, no food at all is allowed through the Rafah Crossing, only through the Eretz Crossing, which is controlled directly by the Israelis. Guess how sympathetic and permissive they are.

Today, a few people from the convoy returned to the hotel after venturing out into the streets of Cairo. They had several plastic bags with Adidas' logo on them.

"We got some soccer balls for the kids," Ahmed, one of the guys said with a smile. I hated to break the news to him.

"Soccer balls aren't allowed in. Last time they tried to bring soccer balls in and it was a big deal in the negotiating at the border. I'm not sure if they let them in."

Ahmed's face soured.