[R-G] Egypt Blocks Gaza Aid Convoy

[Aaron Aarons]

>Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:15:26 -0500
>From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages at gmail.com>
>
>To save Gaza, we need, at the very least, a political revolution in Egypt. -- Yoshie

While an Anwar Sadat-style retirement of Mubarak would be something to celebrate, it would only be, at best, a small step in the right direction. A working-class-based revolution in Egypt would be a really world-shaking event, but what are the possibilities?

 - Aaron

><http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/10/2008106132845762868.html>
>Egypt blocks Gaza aid convoy
>Five Palestinians were killed when a tunnel collapsed beneath the
>border recently [EPA]
>
>Egyptian police have blocked an opposition convoy carrying medical
>supplies to the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.
>
>Abdel Fatah Rizq, who helped co-ordinate the convoy, said police had
>arrested 50 activists on Monday when they tried to gather at the
>Journalists' Syndicate in downtown Cairo.
>
>The convoy was preparing for a 300km journey across the Sinai desert
>to reach the Palestinian border.
>
>Conflicting reports from a security official, who chose to speak on
>condition of anonymity, said that at least 20 protesters were arrested
>after they surrounded campaigners where the convoy was due to depart.
>
>"Activists from all over the provinces were planning on joining the
>convoy on its way through the Sinai to Rafah crossing,'' Abdel Rizq
>said.
>
>Police said three members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main
>opposition group, were arrested at the Suez Canal on Sunday night
>while trying to reach the border.
>
>Another 14 activists from Kefaya, another Egyptian opposition
>movement, had been arrested in Rafah, also on Sunday, while staging a
>protest.
>
>Many Palestinians living in Gaza depend on smuggled goods siphoned
>through underground passages between Egypt and Gaza.
>
>Israel has maintained that the tunnels are used to smuggle arms and
>explosives, having sealed off the coastal strip after Hamas seized
>power in Gaza in June 2007.
>
>Continued closure
>
>Campaigners included judges, independent members of parliament, Muslim
>Brotherhood members and other party figures who want to protest the
>continued closure of the Rafah crossing by Israel and Egypt.
>
>Police have set up checkpoints on the road between Ismailiya and the
>town of El Arish in northern Sinai, at least 45km from Rafah where
>only residents are allowed to enter, a security official said.
>
>Last month, police blocked a similar convoy headed to the Rafah
>crossing, Gaza's only exit to the outside world that is not under the
>control of Israel.
>
>Sympathy for the Palestinians blockaded in Gaza by Egypt and Israel
>runs high among Egyptians.
>
>Egypt occasionally permits people to enter and leave Gaza, but has
>refused to open the Rafah crossing permanently.
>
>Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, said on Monday that Egypt would
>not reopen the crossing as long as Hamas controls Gaza.
>
>State media reported Mubarak as saying: "We are still committed to the
>2005 agreement," referring to the agreement under which the Palestinan
>Authority, Israel and EU monitors supervise the Rafah crossing.