Color Purple Author Goes to Gaza

By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 7, 2009 4:06 PM CST
Color Purple Author Goes to Gaza
Members of the Yassin clan pose in front the remains of their destroyed houses outside Gaza City in the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 3, 2009.   (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Pulitzer-prize winning author Alice Walker, who wrote The Color Purple, is traveling to Gaza along with other female activists to highlight the devastation of the Israeli offensive on Gaza's residents. "I love people, and I love children and I feel that the Palestinian child is just as precious as the African-American child, as the Jewish child," said Walker, speaking by telephone today as her group waited to travel into Gaza.

Walker is part of a group of about 60 women going to Gaza to deliver aid and meet with NGOs and residents. The group plans to stay in Gaza until March 11 and deliver baskets filled with personal items such as shampoo for women. The trip, organized by the US anti-war group Code Pink, is intended to push both Israel and Egypt to open the borders into Gaza. (More Alice Walker stories.)

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