Saturday 20 December 2008

Children's presents stopped at Egypt-Gaza border

A van carrying presents from London children to Gaza's children was stopped by the Egyptian police at the Rafah border with Gaza on Thursday. This was after setting off 2 weeks ago from London and driving through Europe and the Middle East to Egypt. Arriving by ferry in Egypt at Nuweiba on Sinai from Aqaba in Jordan the van was held for 2 days by the Egyptian authorities and the driver told to pay a £500 deposit. 

The first humanitarian mission by the Justice for Gaza organisation tried to bring medicine to Gaza in the summer but it wasn't allowed to cross over and spent a month at the Rafah border. The deposit paid that time has still to be returned by the Egyptian authorities.

At Nuweiba a policeman was assigned to the van for 'protection' which was increased to two as the van passed from South to North Sinai. At the regional border crossing the North Sinai police spent an hour and a half checking the van, not trusting the work done by their counterparts over 2 days previously.  

Click here for photos of the van.

Some more photos of the journey from London can be found here.

Sunday 7 December 2008

Egyptian security prevent Gaza caravan gathering in Cairo

A massive Egyptian security presence prevented a humanitarian convoy to break the siege of Gaza from gathering in Cairo on Saturday 6th December. Journalists and political activists were attacked and detained as various security force branches prevented people gathering at the State Council. This location was chosen as the starting point for the Gaza caravan as a lawyer had recently obtained a court order there confirming Egyptian citizens' freedom of movement after previous caravans had been similarly repressed. At an October caravan security prevented people from reaching the meeting-point by kidnapping them as they left home and holding them for the day before releasing them.

100 managed to make it to a spontaneous demo at the Press Syndicate, which was similarly swamped by security, although the protestors were allowed to make speeches and shout slogans in solidarity with Palestine on the steps of the union. Plain clothes thugs stood opposite the demo looking menacing and moving on people who lingered for more than a minute.

One tourist was detained for 30 minutes for taking photos of the security forces and questioned in detail about his presence outside the State Council. The photos were deleted. A security force officer said that taking photos was prohibited due to 'police work' being carried out and that a 'permit' was required.

However, even press with the correct credentials were attacked and harrassed both at the demo and at other locations in the centre of Cairo where they attempted to interview people. A security force officer said that taking photos was prohibited due to 'police work' being carried out and that a 'permit' was required.

For more visit on the Cairo demo visit:
http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=189468

A demo of 700 was held at the Egyptian cultural centre in Paris protesting the Egyptian government's complicity in the siege of Gaza by preventing any humanitarian aid or other supplies into the strip:

http://www.ism-france.org/news/article.php?id=10550&type=temoignage&lesujet=Blocus


Egypt now controls the southern Gaza borders after the collapse of the 2005 Philadelphi agreement between Israel, Egypt, the EU and the PA, which since June 2007 has not been in control of Gaza.

For repression of a recent Gaza solidarity demo in Cairo visit:
http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1791.shtml

Human rights abuses Egypt has been criticised for this year include the murder of immigrants on the Egypt-Israel border, the killing and continued imprisonment of protestors during the General Strike at Mahalla in April (both condemned by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch) and the continuing persecution of workers at the Mahalla factory. Opposition figures, mainly Islamist, are routinely rounded up and held without charge.

For more on the recent disappearance of a student blogger visit: http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=18302

Egypt is the third largest recipient of USAID after Iraq and Israel and has had a State of Emergency in force since 1981.