/ 30 December 2009

Anger as 100 activists leave Egypt for Gaza

One hundred international activists left Cairo on Wednesday for the Gaza Strip, after Egypt denied passage to another 1 200 who planned to march in solidarity with the besieged enclave’s Palestinians.

”Two buses with 100 delegates on board left this morning for Gaza,” Ann Wright, one of the organisers of the Gaza Freedom March, told Agence-France Presse.

Egyptian authorities had banned the activists who have come to Cairo from 42 countries to take part in the march from entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, the only entry that bypasses Israel.

They were hoping to join Palestinians for a march on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza that killed 1 400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis also died.

Ziyaad Lunat, a member of the march coordinating committee, said they rejected Egypt’s offer to allow only 100 protesters into Gaza as a ”token gesture”.

”We refuse to whitewash the siege of Gaza. Our group will continue working to get all 1 362 marchers into Gaza as one step towards the ultimate goal for the complete end of the siege and the liberation of Palestine” said Lunat.

The move to allow 100 protesters through came after intervention from Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, Wright said.

”It’s a positive breakthrough. It shows that six days’ of pressure has worked,” she said.

But Wright said those left behind in Cairo would still try to push for entry into the blockaded enclave.

”It’s not the Egyptian government policy we are trying to take on. We are trying to highlight what is going on in Gaza,” she said.

‘Sell-out’
The South African delegation, led by Judge Siraj Desai, which also includes members of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, opted not to send delegates, with a view that it was a ‘sell-out position”, and ‘dilutes” the political campaign against the occupation of Palestine.

Other countries choosing not to go included Canada, Greece and France.

Haroon Wadee, a coordinator of the South African delegation, told the M&G: that international solidarity was crucial to freeing the Palestinian people. ‘We don’t want to see this diluted. In going from sending 1 400 people to sending 100, we are not only diluting the group, but we are diluting the message.”

Sensitive situation
After months of discussions with the organisers, the Egyptian government announced last week that they would not allow any of the contingent through the border due to what it termed, ‘the sensitive situation in Gaza”.

This led to a number of large international protests against the Egyptian government in Cairo since Monday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the South African delegates found a large police contingent awaiting them outside their hotel in the morning, who then questioned and accompanied them for most of the day.