ANGRYEgyptians are planning massive demonstrations outside four key mosques in the Egyptian capital on Friday, to protest Israel's fatal raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine activists on Monday. The demonstrations coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the 1967 War, in which Israel invaded and occupied Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Syria's Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem in Palestine. "Barbaric Israeli acts should never go unpunished," said Ahmed Mahmoud, a Cairo University student yesterday as he and his colleagues were planning for today's protests after the congregational Friday prayers. “We want this day to be ‘a day of anger' against the Zionists, who respect no morals or humanity,” he added. Protesters will take to streets near the mosques of Al-Azhar in downtown Cairo, Amr Ibn al-Aas in Old Cairo, Al-Fatah in Ramsis Square, and Moustafa Mahmoud in Giza, according to organisers. Israeli marines on Monday stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for the Gaza Strip,which is controlled by the Islamic movement of Hamas and blockaded by Israel for around four years now. Nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the attack, which sparked widespread condemnation. In response, President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday ordered the unlimited opening of the Rafah border crossing, the only way to the Gaza Strip that bypasses Israel, allowing people, food aid, power generators and other supplies into Gaza. Meanwhile, Arab states have said they will ask the UN Security Council to demand an end to Israel's siege of Gaza, said the Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa yesterday after foreign ministers met to mull a response to Israel's attack on the flotilla. They vowed to bust Israel's inexorable siege of the impoverished enclave. Defending Israel's enforcement of its blockade, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the blockade was vital for security and would stay in place. “The Arab League will go to the Security Council and demand lifting of the blockade from Gaza,” Moussa stated at a news conference after the talks. “There must be steps taken to end the siege,” Moussa said. “We ask all nations to disregard the Gaza blockade and send aid to Gaza to break the blockade.” Egypt's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, welcomed the Arab decision to approach the UN Security Council, saying that this showed the Arab outrage at the Israeli act. Turkey, a Muslim country that had been Israel's strategic ally, accused it of ‘state terrorism' and recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and demanded that Israel lift its blockade. These calls have been echoed by European leaders as well as the United Nations Human Rights Council, which has voted to set up an independent fact-finding mission into the incident.
