ANAHEIM, California—What were anti-Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, British MP George Galloway, Palestinian activist Reem Salahi, and anti-Iraq War mother Cindy Sheehan doing together on a Saturday afternoon in Anaheim, California? “We’re here in the name of freedom, democracy, and humanity to support the Palestinian people to regain their homeland and dignity as human beings,” said Kovic whose book Born on the Fourth of July was made into a Hollywood biopic movie 20 years ago.

Since the end of World War II and founding of Israel in 1948, the Palestinians have become a stateless group with 5.5 millions living in exile around the world. Of the nearly total 10 million Palestinians, about 3.7 millions are residing in West Bank and Gaza Strip and, for the most parts, their lives are “under an Apartheid occupation,” according to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is in the Middle East, a region thousands of miles away from America and yet their issues are very close to the American people. Peace and democracy building, access to oil, and riddance of terrorism are the reasons the U.S. government has committed troops and billions of dollars annually to this largely desert land. It is the birthplace of Christianity and Islam, two of the world’s greatest religions whose teachings espouse living justly and peacefully. Ironically and tragically, some of the longest and bloodiest conflicts in human history have occurred and are continuing to happen here.

Galloway, a controversial British MP and defiant figure against Western nations’ policies in the Middle East, has instigated Viva Palestina in January 2009 to raise funds and aids to organize a convoy to bring aids to the Palestinians living in Gaza in the aftermath of the Israeli bombing in late 2008. The convoy made a 5,000-mile trip through Belgium, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to bring aids to Feb. 14 this year. Building on this success, he is on a U.S. tour with the Al-Wada, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition organization to raise $1 million in America to organize a Viva Palestina – USA Convoy. He’s joined by Ron Kovic and Cindy Sheehan.

“I lost my son to a senseless war. I am anti-war. I sympathize with the Palestinian people who have lost many loved ones and are suffering still. That’s why I am here to support this humanitarian effort,” said Sheehan, whose son Casey Sheehan, a U.S. soldier, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Galloway, Kovic, Sheehan, and Salahi plan to lead the second Viva Palestina convoy of aids from America on the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day, to the Palestinian people in Gaza.