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Egypt Police, Activists Clash Over Gaza
At least three people were injured on Tuesday in clashes between Egyptian police and pro-Palestinian activists trying to get a relief convoy into the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.
A convoy from pro-Palestinian organisation Viva Palestina, led by independent British Member of Parliament George Galloway, disembarks from an airplane upon arriving from Syria at El-Arish airport, 344 km (214 miles) northeast of Cairo, January 4, 2010. The convoy, which has been granted entry to Gaza by the Egyptian authorities, arrived in Arish on Monday before proceeding to Rafah to enter Gaza with 200 truckloads of basic food and medical supplies. Picture taken January 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer) Some 500 activists belonging to the convoy - led by charismatic and outspoken British MP George Galloway - broke down the gate at the port in El-Arish to protest against an Egyptian decision to ship some of the goods through Israel.
They blocked the two entrances to the port with vehicles, and clashed with police. A policeman and two protesters were hurt in the violence.
The protests were sparked by an Egyptian decision to allow 139 vehicles to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, about 45 kilometres from El-Arish, that requires 59 other vehicles to go via Israel.
Talks in which Galloway and a delegation of Turkish MPs sought to change the Egyptians' minds proved unsuccessful.
The convoy of nearly 200 vehicles arrived in the Mediterranean town on Monday after a dispute with Cairo on the route.
The arrival came after a bitter dispute between its organisers and the government, which banned the convoy from entering Egypt's Sinai from Jordan by ferry, forcing it to drive north to the Syrian port of Lattakia.
Cairo accused convoy organisers of trying to embarrass Egypt, which has refused to permanently open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza after the Islamist Hamas movement took control of the Palestinian enclave two years ago.
Israel and Egypt have severely restricted travel to and from the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power there in June 2007, after winning Palestinian legislative elections in 2006.
Hamas' takeover of the impoverished and densely populated territory led to an Israeli blockade that allows in only very basic supplies. Gaza was devastated in a war last winter between Hamas and Israel.
6 Comments so far
Show Alllet's see; hamas wins internationally supervised elections; so, israel and egypt begin to block suppplies, in other words, control their trade. israel and the u.s then cut off monetary aid from international bodies, and israel refuses gaza any money from an existing account set up for gazans. they then undercut hamas by drying up other sources of international aid. then, and only then, do the hamas rocket attacks start. now, under international law , was it illegal to respond to that economic quarantine with force? am i correct in saying that the isareli and u.s. economic strangulation occurred in response to hamas' electoral win, but not in response to actions taken by hamas in the discharge of its elected governance? that the sanctions were levied preemptively, in anticipation of the bad things israel expected from hama? like the june 1967 war? then the tin can missles from hamas were the realization of israeli's self -fulfiling prophecy. hamas is bad. cut off their supplies. stop their money. they're gonna hit us soon. see, i told you, see that missle! then, israel killed 100 gazans for each of 13 israaeli casualties. some sense of proportionality!
"let's see; hamas wins internationally supervised elections; so, israel and egypt begin to block supplies,"
Israel has its own vile motives, but Egypt enforces the blockade on the direct orders of the US on pain of losing its $2B aid from the US.
chet380: in agreement, sir. we give the money, mubarak buys the weapons, and the u.s. arms manufacturers deposit the money in the banks of america. the velocity of money circulating between washington and cairo is stunning. i see that mubarak is as evil a dictator as he has ever been, but no u.s. diplomat complains, since the u.s. has, since the days of camp david, basically bribed the egyptians to lie back and let israel have its way. the israeli never lived up to that part of the camp david accord that called for a palestinian stae, which egypt agreed to help implement. the bribes kept egypt at bay, away from isarael, and mubarak never cared about palestine anyway. overthrowing mubarak would go a long way toward restoring balance in the middle east.
I love the twisting of language in this story. It states that Hamas "seized power" in Gaza, then concedes that it was after "winning....elections". The final sentence is even more Orwellian in that it states that Gaza was devasted in a "war" last winter. That was no war; it was an attack on the people of Gaza by the IDF. Israel allows very little into Gaza, not even macaroni for god's sake. The zionists are committing genocide and the US is aiding and abetting same. When is the US going to cut off the funding to Israel?
I know what you mean. I think Agence France Presse has a few petrified phrases that it pulls out of caves somewhere whenever it decides to do an article on Palestine and Hamas. There was a column it did abt. 10 days ago-- I swear it could have been this one.
There was quite a clash between the Viva Palestina people tonight at about 22:00-23:00 Egypt time, with brought-in plainclothesmen throwing stones (looked like hail flying through the air), riot police on the scene, and some convoy people locked up behind a compound's wall along with their vehicles.
I hope Israel and Egypt don't push things too far, because they will be mightily sorry. I know that I don't like the idea of violence being done to my body-- in fact, it makes me more stubborn than I would have been if treated decently.
Damn fools.
Time to take some action: Here is the text of an e-mail message I received which has a different take on the situation than the article above:
To all friends of Palestine
Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish.
This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.
He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.
We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid.
The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.
We are now calling upon all friends of palestine to mount protests in person where possible, but by any means available to Egyptian representatives, consulates and Embassy’s and demand that the convoy are allowed a safe passage into Gaza tomorrow!
Kevin Ovenden
Viva Palestina Convoy Leader
http://www.vivapalestina.org/
For further info also contact Caoimhe Butterly on the ground in Cairo
Caoimhe Butterly, Ireland +96 2796837463