CAIRO: Protests in solidarity with the ongoing protest in and around Egypt's Tahrir Square will hit the Palestinian city Ramallah, in the West Bank, on Tuesday. Calling for protesters to “support our brothers and sisters,” the protest is to bear but one simple message: support for the Egyptians. “Egyptian flags only,” the calls to action read on Twitter on Monday. The protest will be staged at 8:30 PM from the city's main square, al-Manara. Twitter activists called for Palestinian action to back Cairo protesters, which have often taken to the streets to support the Palestinian's own fight against Israeli occupation. “… the Egyptian people would stand with us for Jerusalem, now the least we can do is go to the streets and support them,” one comment on the Facebook page for the event read. “We will meet in Manara tomorrow to support the Egyptians as they engage in the second round of their noble revolution. Revolution, revolution until victory,” another participant to be stated. As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Gaza-bound Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal are set to meet in Cairo within days, reports still to be confirmed said that PA President Abbas will pay an official visit to Egyptian Army chief Hussein Tantawi on Tuesday. These reports angered Twitter activists over the Palestinian leadership, giving voice to a growing distrust in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Since Abbas' popularity was boosted heavily as he filed his quest for statehood in September, Hamas' prisoner exchange with Israel and other factors have caused the PA to lose popular support. “Palestinian ‘leadership' meeting with Tantawi on Thursday does NOT represent us,” a tweet from East Jerusalem read. Egyptians have often protested in commemoration and support of the Palestinian cause. Especially since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted this February, renewed popular support for Palestine has sought to end a tradition of political and economic support for Israel. Most recently, as the Egyptian Rafah border to Gaza was re-opened after 5 years of closure, Egyptians flocked to the border to welcome Gaza citizens out. At the Palestinian commemoration of the establishment of the state of Israel, or Nakba (catastrophe), every year in the month of May, Egyptians this year marched in large numbers towards the Rafah border. Egyptians protesters said at the time they were marching to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on the coastal enclave, and to support the Palestinians' struggle for liberation. Since February, Cairo and Alexandria have seen several large protests demanding that the interim government cut diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, permanently reopen Egypt's border with the besieged Gaza Strip, and withdrawal from Camp David, which led directly to the Egypt-Israeli peace treaty of 1979. This peace treaty, which resulted in Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat sharing the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize, has been much celebrated by Western governments. It called for the return of the Sinai Peninsula, occupied by Israel in 1967, to Egypt. In exchange, Egypt established full diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, making it the first Arab country to do so. BM
