Political groups express pride at forcing Israeli ambassador to flee Egypt

Groups demand investigation into protester deaths, criticise continued detention of 150 protesters

A press conference was held in front of the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo on Wednesday, in response to disturbances at the Israeli embassy and Giza Security Directorate at the weekend.
Participants included groups that called for the protest in Tahrir Square on 9 September: the 6 April Movement, Kefaya, the Socialist Revolutionaries, the Arab-Islamic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Arab Unity Party, and the Nasserist Party.
It was divided into three segments.
In a statement, the participants expressed their pride in raiding the embassy on Friday 9 September after the government had failed to respond to the killing of six Egyptian soldiers by Israel, and claimed forcing the Israeli ambassador to leave the country was a success for the protesters.
They condemned the killing of five protesters at the embassy and demanded an immediate investigation into the deaths. They also criticised the continued detention of 150 protesters arrested near the embassy and security directorate building during the disturbances on 9 and 10 September.
They asked US president Barack Obama to refrain from meddling in Egypt's internal affairs and giving orders to Egyptian authorities.
In the second segment of the conference, eye witnesses gave their testimony on the incident. The first witness said some protesters were able to reach the embassy by climbing an adjacent building and were helped into the embassy building by local residents.
"By that time, we could see papers flying out of the building, so we wanted to get in to bring more of them" the witness continued. He also said military soldiers were protecting the embassy. "They told us we wouldn't be able to get through the steel gate."
He said security forces had already started firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the protest on street level
A second witness, a member of the Nasserist Party, began by saying it was an honour for Egyptian citizens to raid the Zionist embassy. He told how he and four others were able to access the building next to the embassy building from behind one of the army vehicles, where they entered the embassy building through the windows.
"One of us climbed the building and went up to take down the flag, while we broke the iron gate on the first floor", he added.
Writer Abdel-Hakam Diab gave his testimony on what was described throughout the conference as the concocted incidents at the Giza Security Directorate.
Diab affirmed that the building was heavily secured by a large number of security vehicles. "If the building's entrances were blocked by that many vehicles, how could it be raided?" he asked, hinting that what was said about protesters raiding the building could not have been true.
He continued, saying there is a plot aimed atdemonisingthe revolution, infavourof the old regime.
Another witness supported Diab's claim by saying he has video evidence of street children confessing to the protesters after they were captured by them in Tahrir that they were paid by the ministry of interior to infiltrate the protests.
The witness says he saw a group of similarly looking adolescents around the Israeli embassy area running through the protest spreading rumoursto instigate chaos.
The mother of one of the detainees who were arrested at the Israeli embassy protest spoke at the conference. She said her son was investigated (illegally) from inside his prison cell, by a group of men who claimed they were from human rights organizations.