Monday, January 18, 2010

Gaza Freedom March (b)

So there we were. Cairo, Egypt. Amidst a swarming sea of riot cops, Cairo was steeped in foreign activists: France, Italy, the US, Greece, Australia, Turkey, Canada all were represented on the Gaza Freedom March. Concerned citizens of 42 countries had converged on the Egyptian capital with hopes of gaining entry into Gaza, one of the most isolated places in the world, and the world's biggest jail. It was apt that in the morning of our first full day in Cairo we all hopped in cabs from the Sun, the Lotus, The Swiss, The Tulip, even the Hilton, to gather at the UN Agencies and World Trade Center on the highly-developed banks of the Nile River. After all, both the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly have issued resolution after resolution condemning Israel's treatment of Palestinians, Israel's decade-long refusal to grant right-of-return to Palestinian refugees, Israel's harassment of Palestinian fishermen and farmers, Israel's building of a "security wall", and Israel's deportation of Palestinians, just to name a few.

So we gathered on the plaza, peacefully demonstrating,
joyfully singing, meeting one another, sharing our stories, listening to each other's causes and stories. I met Ali, a graduate student from San Francisco who is studying women's issues in the Middle East, and we waxed Judaism and how it has impacted my current activism. I met Nuha, an undergraduate student from Berkeley (who would later that day be punched in the face by an Egyptian policeman) and she told me of actions she had organized on her campus back home. Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor declared her hunger strike and was joined by about a dozen other individuals of all ages of all origins.

Within the hour we were joined, as was expected, by Egyptian riot police, though this time they had no shields or weapons. Towards the end of the afternoon Kelly snuck two of them "Gaza Freedom March" t-shirts. Their excitement clearly betraying their responsibility to keeping us intimidated, a boss quickly came over, confiscated the shirts, and returned them to us. To think that these young men were tasked with containing us, intimidating us, being a "presence" to keep us in line, yet many of them have no where else to turn for work, forced to follow orders which they themselves don't agree with and at the same time have sympathetic views for the Palestinian struggle. Egypt is called by many a police state. Local activists are often jailed for peacefully demonstrating and Hosni Mubarak has ruled with an iron fist for 28 years, essentially serving as dictator.

Throughout the afternoon a small group of organizers went upstairs to meet with UN officials. Included in this group were Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, and Walden Bello, a member of the House of Representatives in the Philippines. And throughout the afternoon the team would leave meetings without having received anything but bureaucratic maneuvers. It was just after the pair approached the megaphone aroun 4:00 pm, announcing that they had heard from the highest-up UN representative they had been given access to and had received no help at all, when they gave word that the Egyptian Police had given the dreaded 30-minutes-and-you-are-taking-a-risk-for-your-physical-well-being-if-you-don't-leave-by-then warning. Having made promises both to ourselves and our parents, we decided to leave (though five or six brave souls held the space through the cold, distressing night) unharmed, exhausted from shouting, filming, photographing, traveling, and experiencing life (and the pursuit of justice). "Tonight we'll finally get a good night of sleep." Tomorrow, after all, would be yet another day in paradise.

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