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“How to protest” from Al-Ahram Weekly

January 11, 2010 By Anonymous 6 Comments

The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly has a remarkable editorial titled “How to Protest” about the effects of the Gaza Freedom March and the events that unfolded in Cairo after the Egyptian government refused to allow 1362 international delegates to go to Gaza. Please substitute “internationals” for “Europeans” as our delegates represented 44 countries.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/980/op4.htm

How to Protest
By Salama A Salama

European protesters took over our streets last week. In a show of solidarity with Gaza’s inhabitants and to protest against all sorts of injustices and blockades, European demonstrators marched through our streets, picketed our public squares and told us what they thought of the wall we’re building on Gaza’s borders.

Several hundred protesters came from 42 European countries to take part in pro-Gaza protests. So what did we do? We sent our security forces to contain them. We also prevented them from going to Gaza. Interestingly, the protesters refused to be intimidated. Instead, they picketed the French Embassy, they marched around the Giza Zoo, and they even stood guard at the famous steps of the Press Syndicate.

Curiously enough, the police did not prevent them from demonstrating in front of the Israeli Embassy. But clashes took place, and in some instances the Europeans had a taste of what Egyptians regularly experience at the hands of the police and their karate- trained auxiliaries.

During the past few days, Egyptians had proof that our police can act humanely, but only with foreigners. In front of the French Embassy, I saw a foreign man standing alone, surrounded by three circles of policemen. He was carrying a picket sign, but the police refrained from harming him in any way.

The Europeans came all the way to express their views, peacefully and orderly. In doing so, they gave us a rare glimpse into the working of peaceful resistance. And they stood for what they believe in. They vented their anger at a policy of blockade into which some Arab countries have become actively involved, either out of fear or desire to placate the Israelis.

The demonstrators slept in the streets and the squares. They occasionally obstructed traffic. And they sent to the Egyptians, Arabs, and the world a clear message, one which television stations relayed without delay across the world.

In this country, we don’t have a culture of protest. In this country, protest is treated as an act of sabotage, as a challenge to law and order. This is why we missed a rare opportunity to expose Israel’s crimes. How hard would it have been to let the European demonstrators walk into Gaza? Why did we fail to give them the chance to come face to face with an Arab nation living under occupation?

In Egypt, we don’t know how to encourage protest marches against Israel. But we know how to come up with lame excuses for building a controversial wall on our borders with Israel. Are we really worried about our own security, or are we protecting Israel?

In this country, it is wrong to protest. It is even wrong to be different. This is why our government gets so angry when opposition parliamentarians demand an explanation for the wall. Even in a parliament that prides itself on being a leader of all Arab parliaments, the opposition is demonised and abused for asking the right questions.

Worse still, our Islamic Research Council found itself pressured into issuing a statement in support of the wall. You would think that Sharia has nothing to do with security walls, but no. Our leading clergymen have decided to call anyone who opposes the wall an apostate. Don’t ask me why.

Many may ask what’s the point of it all. Did the Europeans achieve anything by marching in our streets? If you ask me, they achieved a lot. For starters, they sounded the alarm bells for the entire world, which is more than what our governments and nations have done so far. The protesters not only put Israeli actions on the line, but also underlined our own failings.

Photos from the Gaza Freedom March

January 10, 2010 By Anonymous 3 Comments

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Democracy Now! covers the Gaza Freedom March (VIDEO)

January 8, 2010 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

Check out Democracy Now!‘s amazing coverage of the Gaza Freedom March in Cairo!

In Egypt, hundreds of solidarity activists from around the world are being prevented by the Egyptian government from entering Gaza. Dubbed the Gaza Freedom March, organizers were planning to cross the border last Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of Israel’s assault on Gaza that killed 1,400 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis. We get a report.

Denied Entry into Jerusalem

January 5, 2010 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

Our last day in Cairo was the 3rd of January. Our original plan was to fly to Amman then cross over into Jerusalem and spend a couple days there before heading back to Amman on the 6th to fly back to Canada. Our main goal was to visit and pray in Masjid Al-Aqsa. After everything that happened in Cairo, we left Cairo with the intention to just find the earliest flight out of Amman and get home as quickly as possible, completely bypassing our plans for Jerusalem.

Once we arrived in Amman and realized that all flights were overbooked, we decided on a whim to just go ahead and try to get to Jerusalem anyways. We took a taxi to the King Hussein bridge (about $30 JD). Once at the bridge entrance, we gave our passports to the departures clerk who then told us to get on the charter bus. We got our passports back on the bus with a white stamped paper tucked inside. We paid for our luggage/bus fare ($8 JD) and were on our way. The bus went through a couple checkpoints, one of which someone came on the bus and collected those white stamped papers. The bus then finally made it to the Allenby Terminal where we and our luggage were unloaded from the bus. The baggage clerk took our luggage and put a white sticker on our passports. Then a window clerk looked at our passports and put a red sticker on the back.

After all this, we were finally inside the terminal and went through the security check. The clerk held onto our passports and motioned us off to the side and told us to wait a few minutes for questioning. There were a few other people waiting as well and they said this was normal if you had recently been to other areas in the middle east. After about 2 minutes, we were taken into individual questioning: who we are, where we just came from, why we were there, how come we came through Amman (and not another crossing), how long we were staying, if we planned to visit any other areas, etc. After about 10 minutes of questioning, they gave us back our passports and told us to wait in line to get our entry visas. Five minutes later, we were at the visa window and were asked some more redundant questions. The clerk asked if she could stamp our passport and we asked her to stamp a separate paper instead.

She then gave us a tourism information sheet to fill out. It had basic questions which mirrored those that were asked of us earlier. When they asked where we were coming from, we wrote “Egypt” and when asked what we were there for, we wrote “tourism”. We didn’t disclose the fact that we were there for GFM because that whole plan ended up not happening. After we turned in the form, we were told to wait in the waiting area for further questioning.

It was probably about an hour and a half before we heard anything. First Basem was called in for questioning. The agent seemed really hung up on the fact that we looked completely different from our passport pictures; I now wear the hijab and Basem now wears his beard long and a kufi on his head. Basem was asked about our religiosity and what happened that changed our level of spirituality. After this, Basem came back and said that I did not have to go in.

We waited for another two hours before we heard anything. Finally, they asked us to come into the next waiting area with our bags. We brought our bags into the baggage check area and were told to leave them there for further security checks. We waited just outside this area and had a clear view of what they were doing inside. We saw them completely emptying our bags and checking EVERYTHING inside. Anything that could have been opened and dumped was opened and dumped. They didn’t just search our bags, they ransacked all of our belongings…it was quite the sight!

We again waited for another hour before they asked me to come in for some questioning. By this time they had found our Gaza Freedom March t-shirts and were aware of our activities in Egypt. The agent, Shabak, asked me again why were in Egypt and I told him matter-of-factly that we were there for one reason, which didn’t happen, and were forced to stay in Cairo for 5 days for tourism purposes. He said that we lied by saying we were just there for tourism and should have disclosed the GFM information. I clarified again that GFM didn’t happen and we stated tourism because that is what we put on our Egypt visas as well. I also explained to him that our Jerusalem plans were completely unrelated to the Cairo visit and that we were here on our own personal spiritual journey which we’d been planning for a long time. He said ok, and that now this process would take “an awful long time”, which I accepted and went back to the waiting area.

During all this time, I must say the agents were all very kind and polite to us; they offered us an area to pray when we asked them, they offered us water, they constantly checked on us to make sure we were alright, and one younger person came up to us to ask why we were ther for so long and expressed his condolences for the fact that we were still there after nearly 7 hours.

After about 7 hours of being at the entrance terminal, Shabak asked us to come back into the baggage check area and repack all of our stuff into our bags. After that, they told us that we could have all our stuff back, that there would be no problems, but that that we would be transferred over to the border police who would then make the decision of whether or not to let us into Israel. Just 10 minutes later, we were told to go back to the previous waiting area, where the border police would cooridinate a bus to take us back to the Amman-side of the King Hussein bridge. This was obviously embarrassing since we were the only ones going backwards in the through the terminal. Our passports, which had already been stamped with a visa, were then marked up in a red ink stamp “ENTRY DENIED from Allenby Crossing” — fairly large and obvious. We waited outside for the bus that would take us back to Amman. We asked if this meant we would never be allowed back into Israel; we didn’t get a conclusive answer, but the general idea was most likely NO.

Waiting for the bus, then on the ride back to Amman, it all started to hit me that I may very well never get the chance to enter Jerusalem or pray in Masjid Al-Aqsa. It was very depressing and saddening. I felt personally deprived of Jerusalem and the holy land. Not only were we not allowed to enter Gaza through Rafah, but we were now being denied entry into Jerusalem through Israel. All I could think about was how stupid we were for not disclosing the GFM information on our information form. Why we didn’t completely rid our bags of GFM paraphernelia. Why we didn’t just tell the truth! But then after my head cleared a little, I realized something. In retrospect, remembering everything that happened and the way that it happened made me realize that we were probably never going to be allowed in anyways.

From the second they saw our passports at the first indoor security check, they immediately held onto our passports. I think this was not only because we were just in Cairo, but also the dates we were in Cairo were the exact dates of the GFM trip, which they are obviously well aware of. Also, looking back at all the questions they asked us, it became very clear that not only did they know that we were part of GFM, but they were trying to fish that information out of us. They knew exactly who we were, why we were in Cairo, and that we didn’t get into Gaza as we’d hoped. So now we were trying to enter into Jerusalem, looking completely different from our passport pictures; they thought we had disguised ourselves to look like we were religious so they would let us into Jerusalem. I think they thought we wanted to attempt to get to Gaza through Jerusalem or the West Bank, which is completely ludicrous but I understand where they were coming from. After all we did in Cairo, they obviously didn’t want any trouble in Jerusalem or anywhere in Israel. The troubles and challanges GFM caused the Egyptian government was all over the news by then!

After my initial depression, then completely understanding exactly what happened and why, now we’re at a place where we both feel personally and spiritually deprived of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the Holy Land as a whole. Before this, we both were very passionate about the Palestinian cause, but after being denied entry into both Gaza and the West Bank, we have a much more personal passion for all of this. We now feel like the numerous Palestinians all over the world who cannot even enter back into their own homes! It’s definitely a personal struggle now. It’s a positive thing though because it gives us that real fire in our hearts to motivate us and push us even harder to fight for this issue of liberating the Holy Land, insha’Allah.

The many things we did in Cairo and the many more that will come out of our meetings in Cairo will have much more purpose and substance for us personally, and we can’t wait to get started on all of those initiatives. It would be an understatement if we said that this trip didn’t go as planned! Not one thing went as planned and our trip took on a whole new direction, meaning, and purpose! We found out that Gaza is not only under siege by Israel, but also Egypt! We learned that before we liberate Gaza from the Israelis, we must raise a revolution in Egypt to allow us to break the siege from that side first.

We learned so much about the Egyptian mind-set and just how much work there is to be done in Egypt, but we also come away from this trip with a heightened sense of accomplishment. We really riled up emotions and opened up hearts and minds in Egypt. We planted little seeds in everyone’s consciousness about the Palesinian cause and the fact that so many internationals were willing to converge on a foreign country and rally and protest against that country’s government and policies. So many locals voiced their support of what we were doing and were so happy to see that foreigners could now see the plight of the Egyptian people as well.

El horriya li Ghaza, el horriya li Masr! El shab el masry ma’ana!

(Freedom for Gaza, freedom for Egypt! The Egyptian people are with us!)

Freeing Gaza from the Pyramids (Photos & Video)

January 2, 2010 By Anonymous 2 Comments

Today, for our last day in Cairo, we decided to take a group and head over to the pyramids for one last group activity while doing exactly what Egyptian authorities have been wanting us to do since we’ve been here: tourism! But of course, for GFMers, no activity is complete without a little activism sprinkled in 🙂

So, what we originally planned to do was to go to the pyramids and take a picture in front of it. We intended to just gather as a group at the base of the pyramid, hold the signs, and take the picture. However, in all the excitement and confusion, at the last minute it was just a 4 or 5 of us that spontaneously decided to run up the side of the pyramid, drop the flag, banner, and signs, and pose for the picture. Needless to say, Egyptian cops were NOT happy with this.

After we took the picture (we also had a member of the Egyptian press capturing the moment as well!), we scurried and raced down the pyramid to avoid further complications. As we’re on our way, we realized they had gotten a hold of Basem and his backpack which was packed with the signs we held, as well as many of our valuables, ie: money, laptop, camera, etc. The rest of our group converged on the scene (with our cameras, of course) to dissolve the situation, but the cops were just not having it.

I arrived to the scene yelling and screaming at the cops in Arabic — BIG mistake! Once they saw I spoke perfect Arabic with an Egyptian dialect, their attention shifted from Basem and his bag, to me and my Arabic. They were convinced that I was an Egyptian citizen although I assured them of my American citizenship. Not only this, but they were also sure that I was a journalist too! I can’t even explain the escalated rage they expressed when they heard me speak Arabic and saw my camera…if I really was an Egyptian journalist, the scene would have been unimaginable! Thankfully, the two press people who took the photo were long gone by that point.

As we tried to leave in order to extinguish the situation, we had 3 cops following us asking us to stay with them until their supervisor arrived. We obviously refused and continued walking, explaining to them that we had given them our signs and banners, hadn’t taken any pictures, and would just like to leave the pyramids area since we didn’t appreciate the way we were treated. They followed us all the way from the small pyramid to a small road alongside the large pyramid. Once we got there, the supervisor arrived in and intercepted us in a “Tourism Police” truck. By now, we were surrounded by a group of about 20 different police officers who now wanted us to get into the truck and go God-knows-where! After adimently refusing, I was advised by a member of our group to call the US Embassy to ask for help and assistance with the situation.

I called and spoke to someone at the embassy and when I tried to get any of the cops to speak to her (holding my phone up for them to take and speak into), not one man stepped forward to take the call. I said something along the lines of “Nobody wants to take this? NOW you don’t want to talk? Alright, fine I’m leaving!” I finally got someone to talk to her and when she spoke to me again, it got very…educational…The US embassy told me that I need to cooperate with the cops, that I did something illegal, and that I’m on Egyptian land and must abide by those laws. Of course I interjected after each statement in my defense; afterwhich she was on the phone with a cop again. At this time, I’d started to inconspicuously walk away from the large crowd with Basem and another friend. They were so caught up in their indecisiveness, they didn’t even realize I was gone.

At this time, the embassy called my phone back and Basem spoke to her. The only thing that came out of that conversation? That if I wanted help from the embassy, they couldn’t do anything until I offically filed a police report!!! Do you know where I could be by then? God only knows, but this really taught me a real lesson in not being too trusting or depending too much on the “power” of the US embassy to save me when I need them to. Basem even asked them if they could send someone to where we were in order to help alleviate the sitation, but they refused.

With the help of some amazing new friends, we were able to make it out of the Pyramids compound and meet at a cafe across the street. The second I walked in, I noticed the secret cop sitting in the back corner looking a his “phone” which happened to make a camera sound just as I’d turned around a few minutes later. I swear, these guys are so not good at what they do, lol! The cafe owner later referred to him as his “son” which was just laughable. Later on, the restaurant owner ordered us a minibus which he said would take us all the way downtown. I thought this was sketchy, but didn’t want to say anything since I’m obviously not an objective voice.

When we all went downstairs, the same cop from upstairs was waiting downstairs and the guy asking us to get into the bus looked like one of the guys from inside the pyramids area! I got really scared and told everyone that we’re not getting in the bus and we refused the offer. We walked all the way to the main road and took a public bus (which was crawling with secret police) to the metro station and back to Tahrir Square.

Later that night, we found out that a small group of Canadian GFMers also went to the pyramids that day, wearing their GFM shirts. They were spotted immediately and yelled at by the tourism police. To learn more about their experience, go here:

[youtube v6x-gtnDCWc Egypt pyramids Gaza Action to Open Borders]

Video: Ziyaad Lunat

[youtube hnulP_ng0jg Egyptian police have run-in with GFMers]

[youtube kV8WKXJt0No Egyptian police escort GFMers out of pyramids]

Photo: Danah Abdulla

I called and spoke to someone at the embassy and when I tried to get any of the cops to speak to her (holding my phone up for them to take and speak into), not one man stepped forward to take the call. I said something along the lines of “Nobody wants to take this? NOW you don’t want to talk? Alright, fine I’m leaving!” I finally got someone to talk to her and when she spoke to me again, it got very…educational…The US embassy told me that I need to cooperate with the cops, that I did something illegal, and that I’m on Egyptian land and must abide by those laws. Of course I interjected after each statement in my defense; afterwhich she was on the phone with a cop again. At this time, I’d started to inconspicuously walk away from the large crowd with Basem and a new friend, Ziyaad. The police were so caught up in their indecisiveness, they didn’t even realize I was gone.

When we all went downstairs, the same cop from upstairs was waiting downstairs and the guy asking us to get into the bus looked like one of the guys from inside the pyramids area! I got really paranoid and told everyone that we’re not getting in the bus and we refused the offer. We walked all the way to the main road and took a public bus (which was crawling with secret police) to the metro station and back to Tahrir Square. The public bus ride experience deserves a whole blog post in itself! 🙂

Photo: Ziyaad Lunat

Our story was covered by Al-Shorouk newspaper and can be viewed here (in Arabic):
http://www.shorouknews.com/ContentData.aspx?id=168212

Note: This post would not be complete without mentioning the inspiration for our actions at the pyramids today. Earlier in the week, members of the French delegation visited the pyramids, created a diversion to detract attention from themselves (someone “fainted” to bring police attention to her instead), then quickly climbed about half-way up the small pyramid and hung a 30 foot Palestinian flag down the side. The sight was absolutely amazing; the image became an icon of our week in Cairo and the French immediately made a name for themselves! Below is some video and photos of this awesome action in Cairo:

[singlepic id=1125 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[youtube gUNUMHCyhT4 French hang Palestine flag on Pyramids]

Where are the buses?!?! (GFM Update 12/30)

December 31, 2009 By Anonymous Leave a Comment

Good morning all,

It is 5am here on Thursday morning and we are waiting to begin our march here in Cairo. A lot has happened in the last couple days but the fact still remains that the Egyptian government has still refused to let us into Gaza for the Gaza Freedom March.

Last night we got word that organizers from CodePink met with Mrs. Mubarak and negotiated a deal to allow 100 people and 2 buses leave for Gaza the next morning. We were given just one hour to make the very tough decision of choosing 2 people from each delegation (more or less, depending on proportion) to send on those buses. After submitting the names, the Canadian delegation met and decided that this deal was just one big slap in the face. 100 people on 2 buses is NOT the Gaza Freedom March! This back-door deal ultimately dilutes our message, divides our groups, and really affects our morale. Because of this, we decided that if all of us don’t go, then NONE OF US will go!

We, as Canadians, told other countries’ delegations and succeeded in getting many others on board including Sweden, Italy, France, and the New York groups. Later that night at a meeting, Wendy Goldsmith, leader of the London (Ontario) delegation, announced our decision to boycott the decision to allow just 100 people to enter Gaza. This sparked a whole debate and discussion in the meeting showing us that we had support from many more delegations than we’d expected. Scotland, South Africa, New York state, and others were among the supporters of our decision.

This did of course cause divisions and rifts within our group but we all believed that this was the right thing to do in order to keep our message and our purpose for this march focused and clear: we want to break the siege on Gaza, not simply provide a humanitarian aid convoy. The people of Gaza receive aid convoys all the time and while we fully support those convoys, the Gaza Freedom March was never a humanitarian effort; it has always been a political mission since the start. To accept the Egyptian government’s bread-crumbs offer would be a huge blow to our mission and an even larger victory to the corrupt regime that is the Egyptian government.

Basem (Bassem Omar) was quoted by the AFP as saying:

“This just gives the Egyptian government a photo-up and the chance to say we allowed people through,” said Bassem Omar, a Canadian protester.

Furthermore, the governments decision to allow 100 people into Gaza on two buses shows very clearly that all the excuses that they have been providing about why they cannot let us in (dangers and tensions on the border) are completely unfounded and absolutely ridiculous! If you can allow 100 people in through the Rafah border, then what’s to say you cannot also allow the rest of the 1,360-strong delegation? This was clearly a strategic move by the Foreign Ministry to trap us into accepting a token gesture based on lies and deceit. To illustrate just how deceitful it was, Ahmed Aboul Gheit held a press conference in which he said that the 100 people allowed to go on the buses were hand-picked by the Egyptian government as the 100 most peaceful delegates in Cairo, referring to the rest of us as members “from organizations that are only interested in subversion and acting against Egyptian interests, to sow havoc on the streets of Egypt” referring to the continuous protests and actions we have had over the past week.

[singlepic id=1061 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=1095 w=320 h=240 float=center]

This morning at 7am the buses were to depart for Gaza carrying the 100 delegates as well as the aid and supplies that were brought in to Cairo with all 1,360 marchers. The 100 chosen people to go on the buses were at the bus stop as early as 6am. The rest of the delegates who were not going also showed up with their bags packed, ready to board the buses, but with one message in mind: “Where are the rest of the buses?” We came to show our support and solidarity for those going, but wanted to make it clear that this was in no way a victory for the Gaza Freedom March, nor was it something to celebrate!

[singlepic id=1068 w=320 h=240 float=center] [singlepic id=1084 w=320 h=240 float=center]

As delegates began boarding the buses, the rest of us begged and pleaded with the chosen ones to get off the bus, and ensure our entire group was united. We chanted slogans such as “Don’t go!” “Where are the buses?” “Please don’t go!” and “The people united, will never be defeated!” Eventually, some people began to get off the buses, and were welcomed by our shouts and screams of support for their decision to get off. Unfortunately, there was some back and forth yelling between those on the bus and those of us begging them to get off. Later on, Ehab Lotayef, international steering committee member, made a phone call to his counterpart in Gaza, put him on speaker phone for the bus to hear, and asked him if the 100-person convoy should still come despite the missing 1200 delegates; he said no! So basically, Gaza said no don’t send the 100 people because it just wouldn’t be the same march as that which was planned for the past several months.

[singlepic id=1077 w=320 h=240 float=center]

A couple hours later, we were barricaded off by some light-security riot police.

[singlepic id=1098 w=320 h=240 float=center]

We had signs and banners voicing our pleas and to the press, the 100 on board the buses, as well as the Egyptian locals and police. By the time the buses left, there were 60 people on-board (many of whom were replacements for those who decided not to go). Unfortunately, there were 2 Canadians on the bus, but they did not go as part of the Canadian delegation, nor did the 100-person convoy go as the “Gaza Freedom March.” So, as of this writing, the 60 people are on their way to Gaza with 2 bus-loads of aid and donations. Of those, about 15 people were of Palestinian descent and had family in the strip with whom they had hoped to be united. We support them on their independent, personal missions but cannot support them as the Gaza Freedom March or as part of any type of political effort.