Just One Reason

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالإِنسَ إِلاَّ لِيَعْبُدُونِ [Qur'an, 51:56]

Anonymous

Gaza Freedom March Under Siege in Egypt!!!

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The Gaza Freedom March delegation in Egypt has taken over Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo in front of the Egyptian Museum! We began marching from the Egyptian Museum and blocked off the streets. Riot police was on the scene IMMEDIATELY and was very violent with our peaceful, non-violent protesters!

They have cordoned us off onto the sidewalk right in the middle of the square and we are making a huge scene! We’re on live news coverage from Al-Jazeera, PressTV, Reuters, AFP, etc. We’re here with our packed bags, sleeping bags, and plan on staying here until they release us…we are under siege in Tahrir Squaren in downtown Cairo!!



SILENCE NO MORE

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By: Dave Bleakney

If governments don’t want peace in the Middle East Gaza Freedom Marchers Do

Later this morning the Gaza Freedom Marchers will attempt to walk to Gaza for peace and to stop the siege. They are organizing at a level of cooperation that represents the new world of people’s assemblies. People all over the world are losing faith in their governments to seek peace and dialogue. It is becoming clearer that governments and their hidden masters do not desire peace and dialogue in the Middle East but more of the same. There is an inhuman siege on Gaza that some would like the world forget while keeping the Palestinian people in their Middle Eastern jail surrounded on all sides.

Last night, in a most vibrant and grass roots process imaginable, the people, in the absence of any official support decided to walk to Gaza to break the siege. As the lifeline to Gaza and the tunnels that keep food, water, and medicine flowing are cut off with the help of the U.S. army corps of engineers, the Gaza Freedom Marchers have grown stronger daily and will march to open the border as the state refuses buses to carry them or to open the border.

The claim of the authorities is that the closure of tunnels must be done to cut off arms. The official border crossing is closed or occasionally opened to allow token passage. An open border would permit food, people, and necessities to enter and would allow screening for undesired weapons. But this is not in the interest of those that would maintain a military solution for Gaza. There is but one army in Palestine, and it is an Israeli one, proven to be capable of using widespread lethal force on civilian populations, including massacres from bombs and chemical weapons, and pure economic strangulation. Everyday Palestinians are harassed for living. Toxic waste is dumped on Palestinian land while the theft of water and other resources, and the destruction of livelihoods and lives continue.

But massacres of innocent people no longer occur in silence. A French astrophysicist said yesterday that a colleague had his home targeted and shot up when the Israelis unleashed their firestorm on innocent people last year resulting in the death of his son. Ibrahim, far from being a “terrorist”, was a boy of ten with a lifetime ahead of him. He reported that last year the Israeli forces deliberately attacked the homes of the educated class in order to cripple Palestinian society even further. These attacks were not random acts.

Later this morning in Cairo people will march to Gaza. Undercover police and state agents are everywhere but this protest has never been about the Egyptian state. The state has now created conditions that appear to be running interference on behalf of Israeli and U.S. government objectives and therefore have created their own public crisis.

What compels people to accept the role their governments will not? Olivia Zenor, representing Euro Palestina, and blockaded at her own embassy by riot police (three rows deep twenty four hours a day), said that as a result of the terror of the Second World War we now ridicule those that remained silent. They were complicit in crimes against humanity and are labeled cowards for their unwillingness to act before it was to late. Today, those trying to prevent clear and unacceptable murder of civilian populations are stropped from acting on those important lessons of history.

Sixty one years ago and Israeli state was created. How perverse that the Palestinians and the decedents of a people who have lived in the region thousands of years are not only prevented from having the same but punished for living.

They are not alone anymore. People will do what their governments won’t.

Dave Bleakney is a national union representative of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers currently in Cairo.

GAZA FREEDOM MARCHERS REJECT EGYPTIAN OFFER TO LET JUST 100 ENTER GAZA (VIDEO)

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After three days of vigils and demonstrations in downtown Cairo, Suzanne Mubarak’s offer to allow just 100 of 1,300 delegates to enter Gaza was rejected by the Gaza Freedom March Coordinating Committee as well as many of the larger contingents – including those from France, Scotland, Canada, South Africa, Sweden and New York State (U.S.).

The Canadian delegation voiced their decision the night the offer was made, at the Netanyahu protests being held on the steps of the Journalist Syndicate, to a crowd of 500 strong composed of Egyptian activists and Gaza Freedom Marchers. Here’s Basem Emara sharing the sentiments of the Canadian delegation:

[youtube eP0590Qm48A Journalist Syndicate]


“We flatly reject Egypt’s offer of a token gesture. We refuse to whitewash the siege of Gaza. Our group will continue working to get all 1362 marchers into Gaza as one step towards the ultimate goal for the complete end of the siege and the liberation of Palestine” said Ziyaad Lunat a member of the march Coordinating Committee.

The morning the buses were to leave with the 100 people, the rest of the delegates showed up to the bus stop with their backpacks to protest and boycott the decision and ask the question, “Where are the rest of the buses?” Basem Emara speaks to the crowd:

[youtube 4a9mpCHxuc4 Bus Boycott]


The Gaza Freedom March was organized to focus attention on the one-year mark since Israel’s 22-day assault, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, injured more than 5,000. Although the invasion technically ended, the effects on the ground have only worsened in the past 12 months. No re-building materials have been allowed in and more than 80 percent of Gazans are now dependent on handouts for food.

The marchers had planned to enter Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah Crossing on Dec. 27, then to join with an estimated 50,000 Palestinian residents to march to Erez Crossing into Israel to peacefully demand an end to the siege. However, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced just days before the hundreds of delegates began arriving in Cairo that the march would not be allowed to go forward. It cited ongoing tensions at the border. When marchers demonstrated against the decision, the government cracked down, often using heavily armed riot police to encircle and intimidate the nonviolent marchers. Egypt’s decision to allow 100 people into Gaza shows that the “security” argument is bogus.

(GFM Update 12/27)

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Dear all,
Today, on this one-year anniversary of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the Gaza Freedom March had a very busy and eventful day here in Cairo. As you all know, our plans have been derailed time and again by the Egyptian government and today was no different.
After our morning briefing meeting, we all met at the Kasr al Nil Bridge to tie flowers and letters to the wrungs of the bridge as a sign of solidarity with the people of Gaza. We were at this for about an hour and managed to attract some attention. The Associated Press, PressTV, and other local media were there to cover the memorial. It was truly a beautiful sight to see!
Unfortunately, after about an hour, we were approached by Egyptian military officials who asked us to stop what we were doing and move off the bridge. It took a while to get everybody mobilized, but we eventually began heading towards the end of the bridge, but were still in a large mob formation…the military officials did not like that. Apparently any group of more than 6 people is illegal without a permit. We were slowly herded like cattle all the way down to an open field where we were left alone but still watched from the sidelines.
After this, we all decided that it would be better to split up into smaller groups so as not to attract attention and cause more problems. Basem and I went back up to the bridge to look for some people we’d lost contact with, and saw that the officials (or someone) had ripped down all our flowers and letters to the people of Gaza…such a terrible feeling to see the bare yarns and ribbons hanging, empty on the bridge.
We had some time to kill until the next planned action for the day, so Basem and I spent some time with his cousin – an Egyptian citizen who, because of his citizenship, is not allowed by the Egyptian government to even sign up for this march, sadly.
Next item on the agenda for the day: Take a bunch of felucca (boat) rides and light up 1,400 candles to place in the Nile River; one candle for each life lost during the assault on Gaza last year. We were really counting on this making a huge visual impact for the media and for the Egyptian people. Well, by the time we got to the meeting place on the corniche, there was a huge mob of Gaza marchers in front of the entrance to the felucca boats, which had apparently been shut down because of us.
I don’t know what they expected we’d do after this; but we definitely didn’t back down! We stood our ground on the corniche and inadvertently staged a protest and rally in support of the people of Gaza and pleading with the Egyptian government to let us in to the strip. We held our candles in our hands, chanted, sang songs, etc. It was really something! This in a country where it is illegal to assemble and protest in public places without prior permission and a permit to do so! Needless to say, we commanded the attention of all those passing us by on the very busy Nile River Corniche.
Before we knew it, more and more members of the press showed up to our event including Press TV, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, and some local and foreign media as well. Many of us were interviewed and photographed during the event and we are sure it will make local and global news! Fun Fact: I gave 2 Arabic-language interviews! God only knows how those turned out, lol!
As the night went on, our crowd got larger and the Egyptian authorities made their presence known by blockading off the sidewalk to keep us off the street. They attempted to employ some basic crowd-control tactics, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t; but the entire night was completely peaceful and non-violent. Near the end of the night, retired Colonel Ann Wright began negotiating with the authorities to allow us to secure a meeting spot for our scheduled orientation meeting at 7pm (they revoked our permits for the original meeting location). After a few back-and-forth exchanges, they agreed to let us meet in front of a large building near the Egyptian Museum at 7:30pm. Ann (along with Ehab Lotayef from Canada)was later interviewed by Al Jazeera and others. To sum up her main request: “If you would like to us to leave and clear this road for you, all we ask is for you to allow us to enter El-Arish and Rafah. We are not here to cause problems for Cairo; we are simply here for the people of Gaza.”
At 7:30pm, nearly all 1,360 delegates convened on the front garden of the large “Mogamma” building in downtown Cairo for our “orientation meeting”. There were a few speeches, some updates on other information, and then we broke up into our regional/affinity groups to figure out our plans for the next day.
As per our schedule, we are supposed to be boarding the buses tomorrow morning (Mon.) at 7am to head to El-Arish, but the Egyptian government has revoked our permits for the buses and informed all buses not to take any foreigners towards El-Arish or Rafah. Last night, a smaller delegation made up of French, American, and Greek citizens managed to make it up to El-Arish on their own, but we found out today that many of them were detained in El-Arish and questioned for hours. Today, the rest of the French delegation has staged a sit-in in front of the French embassy here in Cairo and they managed to get the French ambassador and his wife to come out and negotiate with Egyptian officials!
Here’s the plan for Monday:
7am – Meet at the bus station with our backpacks to look like we are ready to travel. We know we will not be going, but we want to show through the media that we were packed and ready to go but Egypt will not let us leave.
8am – Join the French delegates at the embassy and stand in solidarity with them.
9:30am – Daily briefing meeting
11am – Small Press Conference
12pm – Action at the UN
3pm – Women’s contingent will meet and deliver a letter to Mubarak’s wife.
4pm – Hopefully visit the Canadian embassy


Dear all,

Today, on this one-year anniversary of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the Gaza Freedom March had a very busy and eventful day here in Cairo. As you all know, our plans have been derailed time and again by the Egyptian government and today was no different.

After our morning briefing meeting, we all met at the Kasr al Nil Bridge to tie flowers and letters to the wrungs of the bridge as a sign of solidarity with the people of Gaza. We were at this for about an hour and managed to attract some attention. The Associated Press, PressTV, and other local media were there to cover the memorial. It was truly a beautiful sight to see!

Unfortunately, after about an hour, we were approached by Egyptian military officials who asked us to stop what we were doing and move off the bridge. It took a while to get everybody mobilized, but we eventually began heading towards the end of the bridge, but were still in a large mob formation…the military officials did not like that. Apparently any group of more than 6 people is illegal without a permit. We were slowly herded like cattle all the way down to an open field where we were left alone but still watched from the sidelines.

After this, we all decided that it would be better to split up into smaller groups so as not to attract attention and cause more problems. Basem and I went back up to the bridge to look for some people we’d lost contact with, and saw that the officials (or someone) had ripped down all our flowers and letters to the people of Gaza…such a terrible feeling to see the bare yarns and ribbons hanging, empty on the bridge.

We had some time to kill until the next planned action for the day, so Basem and I spent some time with his cousin – an Egyptian citizen who, because of his citizenship, is not allowed by the Egyptian government to even sign up for this march, sadly.

Next item on the agenda for the day: Take a bunch of felucca (boat) rides and light up 1,400 candles to place in the Nile River; one candle for each life lost during the assault on Gaza last year. We were really counting on this making a huge visual impact for the media and for the Egyptian people. Well, by the time we got to the meeting place on the corniche, there was a huge mob of Gaza marchers in front of the entrance to the felucca boats, which had apparently been shut down because of us.

I don’t know what they expected we’d do after this; but we definitely didn’t back down! We stood our ground on the corniche and inadvertently staged a protest and rally in support of the people of Gaza and pleading with the Egyptian government to let us in to the strip. We held our candles in our hands, chanted, sang songs, etc. It was really something! This in a country where it is illegal to assemble and protest in public places without prior permission and a permit to do so! Needless to say, we commanded the attention of all those passing us by on the very busy Nile River Corniche.

Before we knew it, more and more members of the press showed up to our event including Press TV, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, and some local and foreign media as well. Many of us were interviewed and photographed during the event and we are sure it will make local and global news! Fun Fact: I gave 2 Arabic-language interviews! God only knows how those turned out, lol!

As the night went on, our crowd got larger and the Egyptian authorities made their presence known by blockading off the sidewalk to keep us off the street. They attempted to employ some basic crowd-control tactics, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t; but the entire night was completely peaceful and non-violent. Near the end of the night, retired Colonel Ann Wright began negotiating with the authorities to allow us to secure a meeting spot for our scheduled orientation meeting at 7pm (they revoked our permits for the original meeting location). After a few back-and-forth exchanges, they agreed to let us meet in front of a large building near the Egyptian Museum at 7:30pm. Ann (along with Ehab Lotayef from Canada)was later interviewed by Al Jazeera and others. To sum up her main request: “If you would like to us to leave and clear this road for you, all we ask is for you to allow us to enter El-Arish and Rafah. We are not here to cause problems for Cairo; we are simply here for the people of Gaza.”

At 7:30pm, nearly all 1,360 delegates convened on the front garden of the large “Mogamma” building in downtown Cairo for our “orientation meeting”. There were a few speeches, some updates on other information, and then we broke up into our regional/affinity groups to figure out our plans for the next day.

As per our schedule, we are supposed to be boarding the buses tomorrow morning (Mon.) at 7am to head to El-Arish, but the Egyptian government has revoked our permits for the buses and informed all buses not to take any foreigners towards El-Arish or Rafah. Last night, a smaller delegation made up of French, American, and Greek citizens managed to make it up to El-Arish on their own, but we found out today that many of them were detained in El-Arish and questioned for hours. Today, the rest of the French delegation has staged a sit-in in front of the French embassy here in Cairo and they managed to get the French ambassador and his wife to come out and negotiate with Egyptian officials!

Here’s the plan for Monday:

7am – Meet at the bus station with our backpacks to look like we are ready to travel. We know we will not be going, but we want to show through the media that we were packed and ready to go but Egypt will not let us leave.

8am – Join the French delegates at the embassy and stand in solidarity with them.

9:30am – Daily briefing meeting

11am – Small Press Conference

12pm – Action at the UN

3pm – Women’s contingent will meet and deliver a letter to Mubarak’s wife.

4pm – Hopefully visit the Canadian embassy




Egypt May Open the Borders! (GFM Update 12/27)

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Great news! It seems like there might be an opening of the Rafah border after all and we will be re-adjusting our plans to try to leave Cairo on Monday morning, as previously planned!

Tonight, the Ma’am News Agency put out a release saying, “Despite earlier announcements that the crossing would be closed until January, Egyptian officials will open the Rafah crossing for four days next week, three for general traffic and a fourth for Egyptian citizens. Head of the Administration of crossings in the de facto government Ghazi Hamad announced Saturday that the crossings would be open starting Tuesday 29 December. On Friday Egyptian nationals only will be permitted to cross. Each day 10-12 buses loaded with 60-70 passengers each will leave Gaza”

The Foreign Ministry, however, has told us they knew nothing about this and that our situation, i.e. being denied entry, had not changed. For us, however, this represents a major change because it means there might be an opening since the government can no longer say that the border is too unsafe.

I was watching Al Jazeera at family’s house earlier today and we saw Col. Ann Wright on tv! We are all over the news here and the Egyptian people are well aware and supportive of our efforts 🙂

Saturday officially marks the one-year anniversary since the attacks on Gaza and it will be a very busy day of meetings, briefings, memorials, and commemorations. Just to give you an overview, some information is below:

  • 8:30am:     Briefing meeting for plans for the rest of the week
  • 11 am:        Gaza memorial at Kasr al Nil bridge
  • 4:30pm:    Felucca (Boat) memorial at Nile River corniche
  • 6 pm:          Gaza commemoration (Egyptian supporters of the march will have a rally to call for lifting the seige and have invited us to join them!)
  • 8 pm:          Orientation meeting

On Monday morning, we will still meet at the original meeting stop for the buses where we will board buses at 7:00 and head for Al-Arish. We have been warned by the organizers that the Egyptian authorities may very well prevent us from banning buses, but we believe it is well worth the try. We will be discussing this more tomorrow night, and I’ll update you when we get more info.

Wish us luck and thanks for all the comments and support. Keep them coming!

Gaza Freedom March Update (12/26)

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Greetings from Cairo!

We have made it here safe and sound; but not without a few kinks on the way. Our flight was delayed and we ended up waiting in Amman airport for over 10 hours and arriving in Cairo a half a day later than expected. It took us some time to figure out our internet situation, but thankfully we now have a USB modem which we will just refill with Vodafone whenever we need more online airtime.

It’s been 2 days since I checked my email and I logged into my email today and found over 80 emails…kind of overwhelming but doable, lol 🙂

International citizens from around the world have already begun arriving in Cairo and we are so excited for this first of many steps that will take place for this coming week.

There have been A LOT of new developments for our trip; everything still points to Egypt boldly and blatantly targeting us and completely banning us from entering Gaza. They have even gone as far as revoking our license for the orientation meeting we were to have tomorrow night (Sun.) at a school campus in Ramses Square. We are still told to show up to the location tomorrow night at 7pm, but if there is no word by 7:30pm, we will meet at another location at 8pm.

There will be a briefing meeting tomorrow morning where I will get more information and share with you here 🙂 But other activities that are planned include:

  • Tying flowers and names (of all those who died during the assault) to the wrungs on the October 6th bridge.
  • Take felucca boat ride on Nile River where we will place 1,400 lit candles into mini-feluccas/baskets and float them down the river to commemmorate the lives of the 1,400 dead during the assault.
  • On Monday morning, Hedy Epstein (a marcher who is also a holocaust survivor) will begin a hunger strike to demand that Egypt opens it’s borders and allow us into the Gaza strip to continue with our plans.
  • Later in the day, we will converge at a location downtown for a rally and protest to Egypt’s decision to ban us from entering Gaza. We understand this is a risk (since any assembly larger than 6 people is illegal without a permit), but we are sticking to our plans and demanding that our voices be heard.)
  • Updates on further actions and activities to take place throughout the rest of the week will be coming in daily and as I receive them, I will post as much info here as I can (without sabotaging our efforts).