Reactions in Egypt to Israel's bloody attack on the Freedom Flotilla attempting to break the siege on Gaza have been resolute and loud, Amira Howeidy reports News of Israel's killing of international activists attempting to break the three-year-old blockade of Gaza in the early hours of Monday resonated fast in Egypt. Starting as early as 6am, various activist and political groups in Cairo exchanged anxious and frustrated phone calls to address the compelling question: How will we protest? But the response -- a series of nationwide and massive demonstrations -- needed very little planning. While the vast majority of sizable demonstrations were led by Egypt's largest and most organised opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, other opposition groups, political and rights activists, intellectuals and journalists actively protested Israel's killing of internationals onboard the aid flotilla heading to Gaza. In every demonstration organised in the massacre's aftermath, and every one of the abundant statements issued here by various political groups, the wording and demands reflected one mainstream sentiment: revulsion and outrage at Israel, despite its 31-year-old peace agreement with Egypt. The other pressing and unrelenting sentiment and demand, voiced repeatedly over the past three years -- and flatly ignored -- has been demanding the opening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza to end the siege. Amid the tension and seething anger here, Cairo's surprise decision on Tuesday to open the crossing for humanitarian aid until "further notice" was a welcome development, with activists working to capitalise on to make it permanent. A few hours after Egypt's Rafah crossing announcement, Alexandria's Pharmaceuticals Syndicate -- whose elected board is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood -- began collecting and packaging tons of medical and food supplies which continued until after midnight, taking off towards the border in the early hours of Wednesday. Alaa Abdallah, a doctor with the syndicate who accompanied the convoy, told Al-Ahram Weekly Wednesday morning that the convoy of seven aid- packed vehicles was stopped by state security forces on Al-Salam Bridge in the Suez Canal's Ismailia governorate -- 120 kilometres from Cairo -- for more than two hours, from 9am to 11:30am, before it was allowed to proceed. According to Abdallah, the Pharmaceuticals Syndicate in Alexandria acted promptly on Tuesday evening upon request of the Cairo-based Doctors Syndicate-affiliated Relief Committee (RC). The committee, which is active in sending aid to Arab and Islamic countries, particularly to the occupied Palestinian territories, was given the green light by the Egyptian authorities on Tuesday to "send anything to Gaza", reported Abdallah. The norm since Israel's blockade of Gaza in June 2007, and Egypt's subsequent decision to impose restrictions on movement from and to the Rafah Crossing -- the only gateway to the outside world for Gaza that is not controlled by Israel -- was to allow some medical supplies to cross the border via the official Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC). Only in rare circumstances did authorities allow other aid supplies not carried via the ERC to pass through to Gaza. Attempts to break the siege on the Strip via the Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Gaza 14 kilometre-long shared border have failed repeatedly. Security forces went as far as stopping aid convoys heading towards Gaza from departing Cairo itself. Cairo's justification has been that the Rafah crossing, specifically, is subject to an access and movement agreement struck between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel a year before the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections brought Hamas to power. It managed the border through PA and European monitors directly linked -- via TV monitors -- to Israeli army operatives a few kilometres away. But that agreement expired a year after it went into effect and was not renewed. When Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and subsequently the border crossing from its side, Cairo was left in an awkward position. Israel had imposed a tough siege -- backed by the US -- on Gaza as a punishment for the election of Hamas, and with the objective of removing it from power after its victory in 2006. If Egypt operated the Rafah crossing as it did all other border crossings -- those with Sudan and Libya -- it would render Israel's siege useless and practically end it. In the end, Cairo chose to sustain its good diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv and conducted a policy of opening the border for a few days every few months, and only for individual passage from and to Gaza. It directed aid supplies to the Ouja crossing with Israel. As a result, Egypt was repeatedly accused by local and international critics of contributing to the siege of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants. Criticism mounted on Egypt during Israel's 22-day war on Gaza from 27 December 2008 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and destroyed most of the Strip's infrastructure, with Cairo allowing occasional passage of injured Palestinians through the border. Last January, Viva Palestina, a relief convoy from Britain that attempted to break the siege on Gaza via its border with Egypt, failed to gain entry to Gaza when Cairo refused that the convoy's aid supplies pass through Rafah. Might all this change now? Says Abdallah: "If we get to Rafah with our aid supplies, which contain foods for the first time, as per instructions received from the Relief Committee, we might know if Egypt has indeed changed its policy regarding the crossing." Otherwise, "it will be political PR." As the Weekly was going to press Wednesday, the convoy was stopped in Balouza, North Sinai and was not allowed to proceed. Abdallah accompanied two previous convoys with medical aid approved by the authorities to Rafah. Speaking from Balouza by phone, where the convoy was suspended for over an hour, he voiced frustration at the "unprecedented difficulties being imposed on this specific convoy". A group of Palestine solidarity activists operating with the Doctors Syndicate have already started planning for another aid convoy to head to Rafah within the next few days. According to one of the organisers, the rationale behind the convoy is "to precisely test the seriousness and true nature of Egypt's decision to open the border". If the authorities subject the convoy to the usual harassment and prevent aid from passing through Rafah and direct it instead to the Israeli Ouja Crossing, "it will mean that there is no political will on Egypt's part to open the border. But this will only embarrass Cairo because the world is watching the repercussions of its decision to open the border," an activist who requested anonymity told the Weekly. The convoy was originally planned for 25 May, when a group of leftwing and Muslim Brotherhood activists announced in a press conference that it requested a court order on 27 March by the State Council to allow all aid convoys to travel towards Egypt's Gaza border by law. Gamal Fahmy, a columnist and one of the plaintiffs who filed the case with the State Council to allow convoy movement, said, "We really ought to know the meaning of the official decision to open the border, because the wording is vague and does not set a date as to when Egypt will open the border." This means, he added, that Cairo might, if faced with "very likely pressure from Israel", choose to reverse or postpone its decision. As to the demonstrations, Cairo's first protest took place at 1pm Monday in front of the Foreign Ministry and attracted hundreds of activists representing various political forces, labour unionists, and MPs. Protesters chanted slogans against the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty and demanded its "termination". The demonstrators -- some of whom were wrapped in Palestinian flags -- laid out five demands: closure of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo; expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Cairo; ending the siege of Gaza; full opening of the Rafah crossing; and stopping the export of Egyptian gas to Israel. On Monday evening at least 2,000 Egyptians convened at the Fatah Mosque in Ramses Street in central Cairo for the maghreb (sunset) prayers. This was followed by a two hour-long demonstration at the mosque's vicinity that was led largely by the Muslim Brotherhood. Protesters echoed chants against Israel and repeatedly shouted "Turkey! Turkey!" and "Recep Tayyip Erdogan!" Thousands of state security police conscripts surrounded the area and prevented protesters from marching to the street. Massive demonstrations in Upper Egypt and the Delta governorates ensued, mainly led by the Muslim Brotherhood. The biggest was held in Fayoum, 85 kilometres south of the capital, where at least 4,000 protesters demonstrated for hours in front of the city's main Abdallah Wahbi Mosque. On Tuesday, the Kifaya Movement held a demonstration in front of the Shura Council (upper house of parliament) where radical anti-Israel and anti-Egyptian government slogans were reiterated for over two hours under the blazing sun. "We shall say it," they chanted, "Generation after generation will continue to hate Israel." At least three Egyptians were on the Freedom Flotilla: Muslim Brotherhood MPs Mohamed El-Beltagui and Hazem Farouk, in addition to Tarek Tharwat, a Qatar-based member of the International Union of Islamic Scholars. Both El-Beltagui and Farouk returned to Egypt on Tuesday after the Egyptian consul in Tel Aviv escorted them from Ashdod, Israel, where they were detained with the 500 flotilla activists. The two MPs appeared for two hours in one of Egypt's most rated talk shows "10 o'clock" on Dream TV, where they recounted their ordeal in detail. The next day they made headlines in the private press, a statement to their newly acquired national hero statuses. The opposition bloc in parliament issued a statement Monday, entitled "A Statement of Anger and Denunciation Against the Nazi Zionist Crime". The statement said that the Israeli attack "only affirms the ugly face of the Zionist forces that execute state terrorism." The bloc, constituting approximately 24 per cent of Egypt's parliament, also called on the United Nations to act under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and bring Israel to the Security Council as a threat to international peace and security.
