Janet Simmon: Former journalist is biking across US to take stand for Gaza

To The Daily Sun,

On May 31, I attended a small send off party for Bob Sanders who is riding his bike across the U.S. to take a stand for Gaza and Palestine. Bob named his feat RAW Gaza X-Country: Ride Against War on Gaza (RAW Gaza) USA Tour.

Bob will ride 4,000 miles from San Francisco, California, to Portsmouth. He plans to arrive in New Hampshire in September. Bob, a Jewish 70-year-old former reporter, will do this solo and unsupported except for stops with friends along the way.

Bob biked across the U.S. 50 years ago in 1975, when he embarked from the Bay Area on his last transcontinental trek as a college student, a year before the “bike-centennial,” a feat memorialized in Newsday, his first published article.

The purpose of this RAW GAZA ride is to raise awareness of the horror of slaughter and the injustice of what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank, and especially reach Jews who oppose Israel’s policies.

“I feel compelled as a Jew to speak out, considering what the Nazis did to us,” Sanders said. “How can I then remain silent when a Jewish nation is systematically destroying and starving an entire population of two million people with my tax dollars?”

Bob is a founder of Not In My Name, NH, a group of Jewish residents who signed a letter calling for ceasefire in Gaza. He is also founder of BikingOLD (BOLD).

You can see his route at NH Peace Action nhpeaceaction.org/event/raw-gaza-x-country-tour.

Bob started Granite News Service and reported for the NH Business Review for 30 years, where he won numerous awards, including being named NH Journalist of the Year in 2019. He retired two years ago.

Janet Simmon

Laconia