In the heart of Cairo

Demonstrators took to the streets yesterday to mark the 54th anniversary of Al-Nakbah, reports Amira Howeidy
The news had been buzzing for days: a demonstration was being planned in Cairo's main square, Al-Tahrir, to mark the 54th anniversary of Al-Nakba (the catastrophe), when the Palestinians were dispossessed of 80 per cent of their homeland to make way for the state of Israel. Members of the Egyptian Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada (ECSPI) had sent announcements of the coming demonstration by every possible means ó fax, e-mail and SMS ó in a bid to ensure the largest possible turnout.
Very few, though, expected the demonstration to materialise at all. Tahrir is, after all, at the very heart of the Egyptian capital, and the emergency law in force since 1982 is strict in its prohibition of street demonstrations.
But by 2.00pm yesterday several thousand people had gathered in front of Mugamma Al-Tahrir, headquarters of the central administrative offices of the government. Dozens of TV crews, photographers, reporters and hundreds of anti-riot police closely followed the rally. Rows of anti-riot police surrounded the participants, effectively marking the boundaries of the area in which those gathered would be allowed to demonstrate. Dozens of armoured vehicles lined up in a larger circle around the Mugamma itself, and effectively cut off Tahrir square from the roads that feed into it. Central Cairo, temporarily at least, came to resemble a military zone.
Despite eyewitness reports that in the morning police had arrested a small number of activists with Palestinian flags and banners present in the area, the demonstration proceeded peacefully. Anti-riot police displayed an unaccustomed flexibility, allowing people in and out of the area without the kind of harassment that in earlier pro-Palestinian solidarity events had provoked much criticism of the security forces. Nor was there any evidence of the tear gas canisters and water canons that had been a prominent feature of earlier pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Arab nationalist, Islamist and left-wing slogans filled the air for hours as demonstrators voiced, again and again, their anti-Israeli, anti-American, pro-Palestine sentiments.
"Palestine is Arab"; "National unity against American hegemony"; "We're all on the front line, from the left to the right"; "No initiatives and no to normalisation"; "Revolution, revolution, till victory, from Egypt to Palestine"; "There is no God but God", the loud speakers blazed away, their slogans echoed by students carried on shoulders, women holding banners and intellectuals, public figures and celebrities who had showed up to join in with the chanting.
"This demonstration is sending a message to the Palestinians, telling them that the Egyptian people support them," veteran leftist lawyer Nabil El-Hilali, who was present at the demonstration, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "It is also sending a message to the Zionists and their American supporters telling them that if they are relying on Arab regimes they must know that it is the people will determine the fate of the battle, and the people are determined to stand side by side with the Palestinians till victory."
Others who were present expressed concern about the arrest of a small number of pro-Palestine activists in Cairo and Alexandria earlier this week. Three of them, all members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, were planning a march in Alexandria yesterday to mark Al-Nakba that they hoped would attract one million demonstrators. Until the Weekly went to print sources close to the organisers were continuing to say that the march would take place along the city's Corniche.
Demonstrations to mark Al-Nakba also took place at the Downtown headquarters of the Bar Association where dozens of anti-riot police blocked the syndicate's entrance to prevent participants from marching onto the street. And on Wednesday morning anti-riot police prevented the left-wing Tagammu party from beginning a planned 100-metre march from its Talaat Harb Square headquarters to nearby Champollion Street. Tagammu party leader Refaat El-Said made a point of informing those present that he had obtained a licence for the march from the Interior Minister. "He has now obviously changed his mind," he said.
As it enters its seventh week, activists within the Palestine solidarity movement in Egypt say it has firmly established itself as part of the daily lives of Egyptians.
Demonstrations may not break out on a daily basis anymore but the "momentum has not stopped" remarked Radwa Ashour, a university professor at Ain Shams University who was holding a paper Palestinian flag in the Tahrir Square demonstration. "The challenge is to keep it going, especially now that the summer holidays are about to begin and students won't be on campus anymore," she told the Weekly.
Abul-Ela Madi, until three years ago a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, supported Ashour's view and said that several Palestine solidarity popular committees, his included, were currently drawing up strategic plans to sustain their activities "as long as the Intifada continues."
Since 29 March and Israel's re-invasion of Palestinian towns on the West Bank, tens of thousands of Egyptians have participated in demonstrations of solidarity, protesting Israel's aggression and calling for the expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Egypt.
Nor is support of the Palestinians limited to the solidarity committees and their immediate associates. On street corners and at traffic lights vendors are now offering Palestinian kufeyas and flags, and they are selling like hot cakes. And before last weeks' Ahli-Goldi football match at the Nasr City stadium dozens of vendors lined up along Salah Salem street selling not just the flags of the teams but, prominently positioned along the fluttering streamers, the red, green, white and black of the Palestinian flag.
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