new year's at the israeli embassy

This is the first of what I think will be several posts of reports and analysis of the remainder of our actions on the Gaza Freedom March, which I would have loved to have written more promptly, but was too busy and/or tired to do so.

On New Year's Day we staged one final large group protest at the Israeli embassy. This was a location we had not yet targeted during the five days of protest that the Gaza Freedom March morphed into. Many people thought we should have gone there on the first day, but as it played out, we ended up there on the first day of 2010, pledging our commitment to a new year of resistance.

I feel a bit ashamed to admit I almost didn't go. It was our fifth day of protest (after two days of flying for most of us from the US) and I was exhausted. Between waking up early to sneak out of our hotel before we were barricaded in by riot police, staging mass civil disobedience and resisting the cops in downtown Cairo, and then staying up until 3:30 in the morning to report it all, my adrenaline reserves were completely spent. It sounded like it might be a high-risk action and I didn't think I had another one in me.

As it turned out, for whatever reason, the cops were chill--maybe because we'd publicly announced that we would only be there for two hours and were planning to stay on the sidewalk. For whatever reason, they were back to their earlier strategy of just containing us, and the action ended up being comparatively low-key, although very important.

The Israeli embassy in Cairo is in a nondescript residential high-rise apartment building overlooking a busy bridge over the Nile. For years it was referred to as "the secret embassy" and not even marked by a flag. (They have a flag now, because they ultimately can't resist putting flags on shit.)

We were a bit late in arriving due to some adventures with the Cairo metro, which is fast, clean, and very cheap but unfortunately did not let us out anywhere near where we needed to be. So we missed the initial flash-mob convergence, but apparently it worked great, again, and the cops didn't arrive in force for 20 minutes. By the time we got there several hundred people (I've heard estimates between 250 and 400) were holding a very long stretch of sidewalk right on the on-ramp of the bridge directly across the street from the embassy. As on previous days, hanging places for flags and banners were found in conveniently located trees, fences and lamp posts. There was spirited chanting led by a great contingent of the French, and as it was Friday, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb led a Shabbat service for the Jews among our group, of which there are many.

But the highlight of the demonstration by far was seeing people who lived in the apartments on the floors below the embassy come out on their balconies to watch, to wave, and in one case to give us an enthusiastic victory sign (as did one speedy taxi driver who tooted his horn in rhythm with our chants as he zipped over the bridge.) I have some good picture of the demo, but they're currently trapped on my other computer which doesn't seem to want to recognize the modem in my apartment. I'll upload them once I schlep over to campus where there's wireless.

I'm really thankful that Mateo, one of our new friends who was staying at the same hotel as us, was there to convince me and my two protest buddies that it was important to go, even when we were all running on empty. "It feels good not to give up, even when you're tired," he said when we were at the demonstration. And it did.

This protest in particular has apparently had a significant impact in Egypt. "First ever protest at the Israeli embassy" announced the headline of a major Egyptian newspaper, and folks who are still in Egypt are reporting that the impact of our protests is still being felt. There are activists in Egypt, who organize at great personal risk and under far, far more dangerous conditions than most of us have ever faced. There is nothing we need to teach them about organizing--and indeed, much we have to learn from them--but if anything we did in any way helped them, by creating political space or simply some minimal protection due to the presence of internationals, then that is worth the whole trip to me. It wasn't what we set out to do, but in the end I think it may end up being even more important that what we could have done in a few days in Gaza.