CAIRO: On Tuesday night, a fair number of Palestinians from the West Bank city of Ramallah met up to voice their concern and support for those protesting against aggressive military rule in Egypt's Tahrir Square. Building on a proud tradition of protesting in loud and firm voices, Ramallah citizens stood by the side of Egyptian activists today as Cairo saw its fifth day in a row of massive fighting between protesters and state security forces. As Tuesday is coming to an end, the Cairo death toll increases to a mere 71, with thousands of injured in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. As Palestinians walked the fairly cold streets of Ramallah, chants were strong and posters were many. “From Manara, we salute the eyes of Ahmad Harara!” one chant sounded, referring to Egyptian activist Harara, who lost his one eye on January 28 in the fighting that eventually led to the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak. He has recently lost his remaining eye in the violent crackdown by army and police forces ongoing mainly around Tahrir Square since Friday. “We walked the streets, the demo is so powerful,” one tweet from the protest read on Tuesday night. The march was planned yesterday, as activists called on fellow Palestinians to “support our brothers and sisters, who stood with us for Jerusalem.” Organizers pleaded to give something back to the Egyptian activists, as support for the Palestinian struggle has been particularly strong since the ousting of Mubarak and an end to an era of political support for Israel. Reports that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was set to pay an official visit to Egyptian Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling military council, on Tuesday have not been confirmed. Abbas is to meet head Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Cairo within days, and rumor said that Abbas would also greet the infamous army chief. This angered Palestinian activists tweeting that, “Palestinian ‘leadership' meeting with Tantawi on Thursday does NOT represent us.” BM
