Activists reject Egypt's Gaza offer

[Muslimah]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleea...1947605152.html


Activists reject Egypt's Gaza offer


Protesters have stages a series of rallies around Cairo [Middle East Children's Alliance, via Flickr]


Members of an international group gathered in Cairo to protest against the siege of Gaza have rejected an Egyptian offer to allow 100 of them entry into the Palestinian territory.


Organisers of the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), which is comprised of 1,300 people from 42 different countries, declined the offer on Wednesday, saying "we refuse to whitewash the siege of Gaza".


Egyptian authorities had initially said the group would not be allowed to cross the border, citing security reasons and a "sensitive situation".


The activists were hoping to march into Gaza on the anniversary of Israel's 22-day offensive on the territory as a sign of solidarity with its people, carrying with them aid and supplies.


Egypt's Rafah border crossing point is the only entrance point into the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel.


However, both it and the Israeli-controlled border points have largely remained sealed since 2007, when Palestinian faction Hamas took full control of the territory after brutal infighting with rivals Fatah.


Cairo concession


March organisers had called the Egyptian government's concession a "partial victory" but said the offer was not sufficient.


Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada and a participant in the march, posted to his blog, saying that "it's not enough and the pressure and protests should be kept up".


"This is not about getting some or even all into Gaza, its building global support and pressure to end the siege of Gaza"


Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada


"However, getting 100 or 1,300 into Gaza does not end the siege by itself. This is not about getting some or even all into Gaza, its building global support and pressure to end the siege of Gaza," he said.


Roqayah Chamseddine, a US student attending the march, told Al Jazeera: "Our mission is not to be divided and sending only 100 of over 1,300 would be doing just that.


"For anyone to claim that Egypt was doing us a favour by offering to allow 100 GFM members to go is asinine and baseless.


"Those borders must be opened and as long as Egypt continues to seemingly aid Israel in subjugating the people of Palestine we will also continue to resist an protest."


Gaza Freedom March members have held multiple small protests in Cairo, as well as on Tuesday joining Egyptian activists to demonstrate against a one-day visit by Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister.


Earlier on Tuesday, around 40 US citizens marching to their embassy in the Egyptian capital were met along the way by riot police, who corralled them into groups of 10 before allowing them access, participants said.


On Sunday and Monday, about 80 people held a sit-in oustide the French embassy to try to rally international support for the movement.


Others, such as US citizen Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, have gone on hunger strike to protest against Egypt's refusal to allow the march to proceed.


Viva Palestina


A separate aid convoy, which had been trying to reach Gaza by way of Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, has meanwhile agreed to travel via Syria instead.


The Viva Palestina convoy, carrying 210 lorries full of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, crossed into Syria on Tuesday after spending five days in Jordan, negotiating with the Egyptian consul there.


It is now expected to set sail from the Syrian port of Latakia to the Egyptian port of El Arish on the Mediterranean, and then cross through Rafah into Gaza from there.


A statement from the Egypt's ministry of information said that George Galloway, the British member of parliament leading the convoy, had been told by November 10 that the group had to travel through El Arish, even though it is not the most direct route

[Muslimah]

Bismillah


From another source, I know that some may be surprised, but just read:


Press release 1.1.2010


Hundreds of peace activists from forty two countries, in confrontation with the Egyptian police of in the center of Cairo


Hundreds of peace activists from all over the world are engaged in a prolonged confrontation with the Egyptian police at Tahrir Square that in the heart Cairo, protest the government of Egypt's decision to prevent them from entering the Gaza Strip. Some 1400 activists had arrived from forty two countries all over the world, intending to arrive at the Gaza Strip and to hold a protest parade towards the Erez Checkpoint, together with Palestinian residents, and demand the lifting of the siege which is causing grave daily suffering to the million and half inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. However, the government of Israel applied heavy pressure on the Egyptians to prevent the activists' entry into the Strip. Finally, only one hundred of them were allowed to cross the border, who did participate in a demonstration opposite Erez Checkpoint, simultaneously with the rally held on the Israeli side.


The activists who were forced to remain in Cairo were indignant at the government of Egypt, and continued to demand to be allowed to get the Gaza Strip and hold the "Gaza Freedom March" for which they had come, at their own expense, from all over the world. . This morning Egyptian policemen besieged the Lotus Hotel in Cairo, where many of the activists are staying, preventing them from going out to the streets of Cairo and demonstrating. However, many of the international activists succeeded in avoiding the police and mingle with the stream of tourists arriving at the Egyptian National Museum on Tahrir Square.


Suddenly, hundreds of them took off their shirts, revealing t-shirts bearing the slogan "Freedom to Gaza – Remove the Siege!" and blocked for half an hour the traffic in the central streets of Cairo. Also after the police pushed them to the sidewalk they continued to demonstrate, raising signs, reading "We Shall Overcome" and chanting "Free Gaza!", while surrounded on all sides by hundreds of police.


The whole affair causes considerable embarrassment to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who feels unable to use against European and American activists the level of violence often used by the Egyptian police in dispersing demonstrations. Moreover, the president is at the same time also strongly criticized by the opposition in the Egyptian Parliament, as well as by influentual Moslem sages, for authorizing the construction of "The Underground Steel Wall", designed to block the tunnels in Egypt's border with Gaza.


Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, says that the Netanyahu Government was in grave error in pressuring the Egyptians to prevent the entry of international peace activists into the Gaza Strip. Instead of regarding the peace between Israel and Egypt as a major asset, to be used as a bridge in order to achieve peace with the Palestinians and to the entire Arab World, the government pressured President Mubarak to adopt an unpopular policy which harms him and makes Israel's "Cold Peace" with Egypt even colder. That is a highly short-sighted policy".


Detailed report on the confrontations in Cairo:


http://www.indypendent.org/2009/12/31/gaza...-march-at-last/


Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson,