Message from the Gaza Freedom March

Australian activist and Gaza Freedom March member writes:

Dear Friends,

We’re not heading for the Promised Land, but I do have some sympathy for the ancient Israelites as they struggled to leave Egypt a few thousand years ago. We don’t require the Red Sea to part, just to be allowed to get on the road to the northern town of Rafah and cross the border into Gaza , but the Pharoah, President Mubarak, and his heavily armed men will not allow us.

The Gaza Freedom March has attracted about 1400 people from around the world to Cairo in a bid to cross the border and break the siege of Gaza , by entering with aid and solidarity. For five months organisers have been negotiating with the Egyptian authorities to allow the entry of the marchers at the Rafah border. The negotiations were positive and amicable. Egypt had already allowed CodePink, the US women’s peace group organising the march, to have seven delegations enter Gaza just this year. But a few days before the scheduled entry, Egyptian authorities announced they would not give permission for this one.

By then most participants were already in transit. We can speculate the many possible reasons for this, but just to give you an idea of the kind of police state Mubarak runs here, this is what Gaza Freedom Marchers have had to contend with: – Egyptian authorities withdrawing permits from bus drivers so that they could not drive the buses we booked to Rafah for Monday morning. – Withdrawing a permit to hold an orientation meeting at a Catholic School in Cairo . – Announcing we are not allowed to meet in groups of more than six people. – When we tied messages and flowers as a memorial for those killed in Gaza on a busy bridge, police and security forces ripped down the notes and flowers. We when asked “what is the reason?” the reply was: “we don’t need a reason.” – to avoid the meeting rule organisers booked feluccas (boats) to sail on the Nile River so we could receive briefings in groups of 25. Authorities shut down the boat hire company so we could not even get on the boats. – Instead we stood on the footpath by the river and held our candlelight vigil, about 400 of us, surrounded by hundreds of riot police. – Still unable to meet, we decided to gather in the busiest square in Cairo and just started. Police were not amused and asked organisers to stop talking, but the feisty CodePink women just kept going and we were able to do some organising.

This was a great outcome and locals were bemused and very supportive. – Various groups have tried to leave Cairo for the border but have been turned away at checkpoints and had their passports confiscated – Bus companies have been ordered not to drive any internationals towards the border area. – As a protest at having their buses cancelled, a French delegation of about 300 have camped outside their embassy for the last 3 days and nights, surrounded by about 1000 Egyptian riot police. – We occupied the plaza outside the UN offices in Cairo on Monday for five hours and ignored initial orders to disperse, we then were barricaded in by lines of hundreds of police.

We are under constant surveillance by less-than-subtle security agents who wear dark glasses and talk into their collars or walk-talkies – We were invited to a demonstration organised by local Egyptian activists to protest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Egypt today. It was an honour to be in solidarity with these brave activists who risk much to be so outspoken. Again we were surrounded by hundreds of armed riot police and security agents. Despite all this intimidation, participants are still passionately focused on the main issues: ending the illegal siege of Gaza , and lobbying our Governments to take diplomatic action to allow that to happen.

We have a large group of people here currently on a hunger strike, led by 85 year old Holocaust survivor Heddy Epstein. The Australian contingent went to the Australian Embassy in Cairo today and demanded to present our concerns about the Australian government’s silence on the crisis in Gaza .

After some time we were granted a meeting with the Ambassador. She acknowledged that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “utterly tragic” but that the Australian government had no influence on the policies of Egypt or Israel . She warned us about the dangers of entering Gaza and we reminded her of UN head in Gaza Richard Falk’s recent exhortation saying that since the international political community has failed Gaza , it is now time for civil society to step in and act. And so we are here hoping to do that.

There’s a group from the women’s delegation that is lobbying the President’s wife, Suzanne Mubarak, who is the head of a humanitarian organisation, to intervene and allow the international contingent through, considering we are carrying a large amount of humanitarian aid. We still hope to get to Gaza and will continue to call on the Egyptian government to let us leave Egypt – please Pharaoh let us go, we wish no plagues of locusts to come upon you, only justice and freedom for Gaza, for Palestine and for your people.

Your pilgrim

Donna

For latest news and updates see www.gazafreedommarch.org