40 American Activists Detained at US Embassy in Cairo, Viva Palestina Accepts Egyptian Condition of Docking at Al-Arish

Gaza activists detained at US Embassy in Cairo

Published today (updated) 29/12/2009 16:51

Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Egyptian police detained 40 American protesters at the US Embassy in Cairo after they arrived seeking assistance to enter the Gaza Strip, pro-Palestinian activists said.

“Forty were detained outside the American Embassy,” said Ziyad Lunat, a spokesman for the Gaza Freedom March.

Another activist, Gael Murphy, said in a statement that she believed US Embassy staff asked Egyptian security to detain the Americans.

Organizers say more than 1,400 people from 40 countries have gathered in Egypt for the Freedom March. They had planned to enter the Gaza Strip on Tuesday through the Rafah border crossing in time for a march to Israel’s Erez border crossing.

Egypt informed the group that they were not allowed to travel to Gaza due to the sensitive situation on the border.

The marchers were at the US Embassy to ask officials’ help in negotiations with the Egyptian government.

After negotiations, Lunat said that the marchers were permitted to meet with embassy officials in groups of 10.

He added that Egypt imposed a “media blackout” on the incident. “Journalists were expelled out to the perimeter – miles away.”

Separately, Egyptian forces turned back another group affiliated with the Freedom March who tried to make their way to the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday night.

Yasser Hassan, a Belgian union activist said the group was turned back in the city of Ismailia, on the Suez Canal.

Lunat, speaking on the phone from Cairo, confirmed that a group of nearly 100 protesters, including Turkish, Greek, and German delegations, were stopped when they set out for Rafah.

A third group of activists is “barricaded” by Egyptian police in their hotel in the city of Al-Arish, close to the Gaza border.

Also in Cairo, Freedom March delegates planned to join a demonstration organized by the Egyptian Journalists Union against a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu was expected in the city for talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Joining the protest against Netanyahu would be Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor who on Monday declared a hunger strike against Egypt’s ban on the march’s entry to Gaza.

Egypt: Viva Palestina must obey our rules

Published today (updated) 29/12/2009 17:00

 Bethlehem – Ma’an –

The Egyptian government has the right to determine through which port aid convoys to Gaza can arrive, and to request cooperation from the activists, Husam Zaki, spokesman of the Egyptian foreign ministry told Egyptian TV on Monday.

Zaki told Egypt’s Channel Two that activists had finally listened to government orders, saying they would re-route the convoy to travel via Al-Arish, the Mediterranean port, rather than Nuweiba, the Red Sea port.

Viva Palestinian organizers lamented in a statement that the demand would "add days and costs to the journey, as it [would] entail hiring ships and sailing around the Sinai Peninsula through the Suez canal." The first two convoys also traveled to Gaza via Al-Arish, and organizers did not explain why they had changed course for this trip.

The first Viva Palestina convoy, backed by British MP George Galloway, started in the UK, went south to Spain, then across North Africa to Egypt. For second convoy, in June, delegates flew into Cairo and drove equipment to the Rafah crossing.

The latest convoy travelled through Europe to Turkey and down to Jordan via Lebanon and Syria. Egyptian spokesman Zaki said he understood why the group chose to travel through Turkey.

“We realized the political goals behind passage through Turkey, most of the participants and the aid were from Turkey,” Zaki said. He said Egypt had no problem with Turkish aid and Viva Palestina delegates coming into the country, but asked that participants respect the government decision.

He explained that a route for the convoy via Al-Arish had been approved by Egypt's security services, adding that all aid destined for Gaza was required to clear at the port in Al-Arish only.

Zaki said the convoy organizers were informed of the rules, but said the "did not even bother to reply" to the Egyptian communiqué.

Organizers told Ma'an they notified Egyptian officials of both the route of the third convoy and details of all the participants "well in advance" of the travel date, and added that they were only told of the rules preventing them from using the Nuwbia port on 21 December.

Zaki said the route for the convoy via Al-Arish had been approved by Egypt's security services, adding that all aid destined for Gaza was required to clear at the port in Al-Arish only.

Zaki said the convoy organizers were informed of the rules, but said the "did not even bother to reply" to the Egyptian communiqué. A spokeswoman from the Viva Palestina office in London said the accusation was false.

Pro-Gaza protesters 'besieged' in Cairo

Published yesterday (updated) 29/12/2009 15:26

London – Ma’an –

Surrounded by police, an international group of human rights advocates staged a demonstration at a UN installation in Cairo on Monday after the Egyptian government denied their request to enter Gaza.

Former EU parliament vice president Luisa Morgantini, Filipino Senator and president of the Transnational Institute Walden Bello and others held a news conference outside the UN building in Cairo in hopes to negotiate their entry in Gaza via the Rafah crossing.

Another member of the Gaza Freedom March group, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstien, 85, declared a hunger strike in protest of Egypt’s decision. More than 600 others joined the demonstration at the UN building, one of the event’s organizers told Ma’an in a telephone interview.

“We have a lot of police surrounding us – we are besieged,” Ziyaad Lunat said, speaking from outside the UN compound on Cairo’s Mourad Street.

“It is a visual show. We are camping [outside the UN building] and so many different banners are flying.”

Lunat added that the demonstrators are surrounded by hundreds of Egyptian guards and will remain outside the UN building until the negotiations are complete.

The Gaza Freedom March delegates, a group of 1,400 activists from 42 countries, intended to enter Gaza with humanitarian aid to commemorate Israel’s Cast Lead operation.

The group was meant to leave for Rafah via Al-Arish on Monday, but were told that Egyptian security forces would not allow busses to take transport them. Egypt informed the group they could not travel due to the "sensitive situation" along the Gaza border.

Negotiations are underway to allow the transit of the delegates into Gaza, where they intend to march to Israel’s Erez crossing on 31 December to bring an end to blockade on the coastal strip.

Meanwhile, several hundred French activists who amassed on Sunday in front of the French embassy in Cairo, demanding that buses be allowed to take them to the Rafah crossing, remain camped out in front of the embassy in an attempt to secure their entry into Gaza.

The activists, from the solidarity group EuroPalestine, erected several tents in front of the French embassy. The French Ambassador, as a result, met with the activists to negotiate on their behalf, a statement released by the US anti-war group CODEPINK, which organized the Gaza Freedom March.

Lunat said that the “French Ambassador has promised to help.”

Olivia Zemor, the coordinator of the French group said in the statement, “we are waiting for the buses, we are staying in front of the French embassy, even if it’s not comfortable, it’s much more comfortable than Gaza.”

The commotion in Cairo also comes amid controversy around Egypt’s construction of a steel wall along the border with Gaza intended to cut of underground smuggling tunnels.

The tunnels represent a lifeline for Gaza’s 1.5 million residents, who rely on them to import food, fuel, medicine, and other goods made scarce by two and a half years of an Israeli blockade.