gaza freedom march update, dec 28-29

Under the original plan, I was supposed to be in Gaza by now, but we are still in Cairo. The Egyptian government has been blocking us at every turn, but we have been pushing back. There are delegates here from all over the world and despite the repression, amazing things are happening.

Egypt is a police state, and any political gathering of more than 6 people is technically illegal. This means not only our demonstrations but all of our organizing meetings can be broken up at the will of the police, making it difficult to coordinate between 1300 people from 43 countries. The government has made things difficult for us by revoking the permit we secured for our initial mass orientation meeting, keeping us from congregating in large spaces for organizing, and threatening Egyptians who intially promised to work with us. Buses we ordered have been canceled and cab drivers have been told they will have their cabs confiscated if they take anyone to the border, or even to the town of Al Arish, which is 25 miles from the border and the staging ground for delegations and aid into Gaza. We also heard that foreigners were not being allowed on public buses to Al Arish and that passports were being checked.

However, we also realize that, as foreigners, we have a huge amount of privilege that Egyptians who protest their own government's actions do not have. We are just not going to be subject to the same level of repression that's meted out to Egyptian activists, for whom arrest, beatings, long prison terms and torture are common features of political life. This means that we have the ability to push back against some of the Egyptian government's attempts to control us.

The day before yesterday the word from the Egyptian government was along the lines of "We've told you no, absolutely not, you are not getting in. What part of that don't you understand?"

We decided that the time for polite negotiation was over, and groups of delegates started escalating to more confrontational actions. The French delegation occupied the street in front of their embassy in the Cairo neighborhood of Giza, demanding that the French government intervene on their behalf. Although they were quickly surrounded by hundreds of riot cops and eventually pushed out of the street onto the sidewalk, they have remained strong and are calling their encampment "the Giza Strip."

Yesterday we spent most of the day protesting outside the UN offices. A few representatives met with UN officials, who basically told us they were powerless against the people that everyone knows really call the shots--the Americans and the Israelis. Meanwhile, hundreds of us gathered in the plaza downstairs, chanting, singing, waving banners and a giant Palestinian flag. Hedy Esptein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor on our delegation, announced she was starting a hunger strike until we get into Gaza. She now has about 25 people joining her.

Today many national delegations targeted their embassies, and you better believe we were at the US embassy. By sheer dumb luck I was one of about 8 people involved in a 3-hour sit-in surrouned by riot cops outside the gates of the embassy, but that story deserves it own post, to follow shortly. Although they detained us for several hours and got very physical at times (shoving and dragging people, but no batons yet) they did not arrest anyone, and all ~40 people (about 30 inside the gates and the 8 of us outside) were eventually released.

The MO of the Egyptian police seems to be twofold: to contain us in very controlled spaces, and above all to keep us isolated from the general Egyptian population. The government fears the revolt of their own population more than anything, and they know that their collaboration with Israel in maintaining the siege--and the internal repressive conditions they maintain--just makes that revolt more inevitable.

While they have been fairly successful on the first count, they have massively failed on the second one. Our actions were on the front page of newspapers in Cairo this morning. In the downtown neighborhood where many of us are staying, people who see our keffiyahs, t-shirts and Gaza Freedom March buttons have been stopping us to talk and show their support (and frequently try to plug the family shop located nearby, but that's just how it goes here.)

Perhaps most amazing of all was the protest we attended tonight on the steps of the journalists' syndicate building. In the middle of all this, Netanyahu has the gall to come visit Egypt. Egyptian activists called for our support at a joint protest. When we arrived there were, I think, about 500 people (but people were jammed so tightly onto the steps it was hard for me to get a good estimate.) I think the balance was probably about 2/3 Egyptian and 1/3 international--chanting together in English and Arabic behind four lines of riot cops. The chants were "Free Gaza," "Viva Palestina," and "Down with Netanyahu"...but also "Free Egypt" and "Down with Mubarak."

We know it is very dangerous for the Egyptians to be taking part in any protest at all and we felt honored and inspired to stand among them. "It is because of you [internationals] that we are being allowed to do this at all," one protester told us. "If you weren't here we would be locked up straight away."

Just a few hours ago, we heard that Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak had in fact reponded to a letter delivered to her by the women's affinity group. The Egyptian government has allowed us to send 100 people on two buses into Gaza tomorrow, with as much of the aid as we can assemble given the extremely short notice.

The 100 people going were selected by proportional representation from as many different countries as we could muster. I am not among them, nor was I expecting to be. Personally, I would much rather those seats go to Palestinians who have family in Gaza (who are among us) and those who have not yet had the wonderful experience of traveling there.

However, this represents a significant victory. We have pushed them and they have gone from "what part of no don't you understand?" to allowing 100 people in. We are going to keep pushing and continue our actions over the next couple of days. If 100 can go in, why not 1000, we ask?

If there's a chance for me to get to Gaza, I will be thrilled. But if there isn't, I feel that we have already done something significant here. We've put another little crack in the wall of the siege, and every crack, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction.