this morning, 17 cyclists set off on their 100 day journey to palestine. they were supported by a small critical mass ride for the london stage of their journey, visiting the israeli embassy, downing street, and cable street on their route.

the 'pedal' group set off this morning from 'grow heathrow', the farm defiantly located on land near sipson where heathrow's third runway was planned. when they arrived at hyde park, a small critical mass of another twenty cyclists joined them.

we heard various speakers before setting off from there. the first from BRICUP (http://www.bricup.org.uk/), the academic boycott organisation. then an israeli activist who spoke of menacing telephone calls, pointing out that this shows unarmed civil resistance has an effect and is seen as dangerous to the israeli occupiers. he said that the pedal people would link struggles on their journey, and would gain power through learning and teaching. he called for the relentless advocacy of human rights, respect, peace, justice and equality. another speaker from 'grow heathrow' (http://www.transitionheathrow.com/) wished them well on their trip, and the last speaker described the pedal crew as a living instrument of resistance, linking issues such as food autonomy, anti-poverty, immigration, and repression, providing practical solidarity and understanding through meeting and sharing face to face.

blessed by beautiful spring weather today, the mass set off across hyde park, past kensington palace and into the crown estate road that houses the israeli embassy at the invitation of the queen. security there was tight, and the police quite edgy, but the cyclists accomodated requests to stay off the road and negotiated a space opposite the embassy for some short speeches, watched by twitchy israeli spooks, and some police diplomatic motorbike re-inforcements, and then, as they moved off, the mood was light.

although small, the cyclist group stuck together and held the roads to downing street via a quick spin in front of buckingham palace. the plan at whitehall was to meet other activists who were going to speak about david cameron's patronage of the 'jewish national fund'. this is a very normalised organisation described as the largest israeli environmental organisation, which plants huge numbers of trees. guess where they plant them though! on israeli settlement stolen land after ripping up palestinian olive trees. they do this on a huge scale, and cameron condones it.

however, when the group arrived at downing street, things were complicated by the fact there were two heated libyan protests already underway. at first, the critical mass took over the road, held up traffic, and received cheers from the the libyan protestors, but some of the group were concerned that the flags were pro-gaddaffi, and as the situation seemed complicated, the ride carried on east to cable street, scene of historic anti-fascist and anti-racist riots back in the 1930s.

from there, the core group began the next stage of its journey, heading into kent and camping there tonight, dining on boiled cabbage. they are hoping to cover 60 miles towards dover tomorrow.

after an overnight stay in kent, they are planning to ferry to calais and visit the immigration solidarity camp there, before heading across belgium to the graz farm collective in austria where they will seed-swap and skill-share.

if all goes to plan they will finally arrive in palestine in three months' time after passing through eastern europe, turkey, syria and jordan.

www.100daystopalestine.org