PINKtank » Cairo http://codepink.org/blog the Personal is Political Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:23:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Mubarak Mobs and Street Vendors: Welcome to Egypt http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/mubarak-mobs-and-street-vendors-welcome-to-egypt/ http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/mubarak-mobs-and-street-vendors-welcome-to-egypt/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:12:37 +0000 Medea http://codepink.org/blog/?p=9850 I was in the middle of buying some mints from a street vendor on Cairo’s Talat Harb Street—right off Tahrir Square--when the rocks started flying. I had given a 20-cent coin to the vendor. He gave me one pack of mints, and all hell broke loose.
“Run, run,” people yelled at me. I saw a group of men running down the street, carrying a man whose face was streaming with blood. Then I saw the pro-Mubarak thugs, armed with rocks, metal pipes, whips. “Run, Run,” the Egyptians on the street told me. I ran for shelter as fast as I could.

]]> I was in the middle of buying some mints from a street vendor on Cairo’s Talat Harb Street—right off Tahrir Square–when the rocks started flying. I had given a 20-cent coin to the vendor. He gave me one pack of mints, and all hell broke loose.
 
“Run, run,” people yelled at me. I saw a group of men running down the street, carrying a man whose face was streaming with blood. Then I saw the pro-Mubarak thugs, armed with rocks, metal pipes, whips. “Run, Run,” the Egyptians on the street told me. I ran for shelter as fast as I could.
 
This has become a pattern the past few days. Thugs hired by the regime, many of them plain-clothes police, try to create chaos on the streets just outside the entrances to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian Revolution. They randomly attack people, including us foreigners. Many of us have been beaten, our cameras smashed. My CODEPINK colleague Tighe Barry had been picked up on this very street two days ago, thrown into a car, roughed up, and later dumped out with a warning to stay way.
 
Tighe refused to stay away, and so did a million Egyptians who, despite the threats of violence, teemed into Tahrir Square today in what was termed the “Day of Departure.”  Young, old, rich, poor, religious, secular—they defied the desperate acts of a dying regime.
 
Ever since this uprising began on January 25, the determination and bravery of the Egyptians has been overwhelming to witness. The democracy forces in Tahrir Square have braved tear gas, water cannons, rocks, sniper fire and mobs storming in on horses and camels. All the while, they have stood their ground and continued to hold on to this sacred square.
 
Today they were determined to liberate the outside streets as well. While I was running away from the Mubarak mob on Talat Harb Street, a huge crowd came rushing out of the square, running towards the thugs. Just the sight of this oncoming sea of people was enough to frighten the thugs. The Mubarak mob disappeared as quickly as it had formed. Talat Harb Street, the site of street battles the last few days, was once again liberated. People cheered “Horreyah, horreyah”—freedom, freedom.
 
Out of breath from running so fast, I turned around and saw the street vendor who had sold me the mints. He had run after me. It turns out that the 20-cent coin I had given him was enough to buy two packs of mints, not one. He had come me to give me the second pack. 
 
“Welcome to Egypt,” he said, smiling.
 
Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the peace group CODEPINK (www. codepink.org) and the human rights group Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org), is part of an international delegation of solidarity with the Egyptian democracy movement. For media interviews, call  +011 20-107148431 or contact medea@globalexchange.org.

]]> http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/mubarak-mobs-and-street-vendors-welcome-to-egypt/feed/ 1 Update from CODEPINK Peace Delegation in Cairo http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/update-from-medea-in-cairo/ http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/update-from-medea-in-cairo/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:38:44 +0000 Rae http://codepink.org/blog/?p=9834 Tonight our CODEPINK delegation in Cairo returned to Tahrir Square after the terrible events of this afternoon, when Mubarak's thugs busted up their peaceful protest with rocks, sticks and molotov cocktails. Hundreds have been wounded--their hands, legs, arms wrapped in bloody bandages. Despite the beatings, thousands of people are still camped out in the square--absolutely determined to stay there until Mubarak goes.
Now is the time that the Egyptian people need our solidarity. Don't let there be one more "Made in the USA" teargas canister hurled at these people. Don't let there be one more U.S. bullet or U.S. weapon aimed at them.

]]> Tonight our CODEPINK delegation in Cairo returned to Tahrir Square after the terrible events of this afternoon, when Mubarak’s thugs busted up their peaceful protest with rocks, sticks and molotov cocktails. Hundreds have been wounded–their hands, legs, arms wrapped in bloody bandages. Despite the beatings, thousands of people are still camped out in the square–absolutely determined to stay there until Mubarak goes.

Despite the danger on the streets, we went to the square carrying with two big banners. One said “World Says Time To Go, Mubarak!” and the other said “Solidarity With Egyptian People” in both English and Arabic. When the people in the square saw us and discovered we were Americans, they erupted into cheers. “Thank you, thank you,” they cried. “We love you.” We were crying as well. It felt so good to help lift their spirits after such a terribly violent day.

I saw a friend who is a professor at the American University in Cairo. He had a big gash in his head. “Please, help us tell the world what is happening. Tell them how we were viciously attacked,” he said. “Tell them we will die here if we have to, but we will NOT turn back.”

I couldn’t believe that after today’s attacks, there were still women in the square who planned to spend the night. A group of young women ran up to us and started hugging and kissing us. “You don’t know what your presence means to us,” one of the students said. ” Please tell Obama that we need him to do more to push Mubarak to go NOW, before more of us get killed.”

One way Obama can send a stronger message to Mubarak is to announce that the United States will cut off all aid to this regime. For 30 years the U.S. government has been supporting this autocratic, repressive state. Cutting aid now will send a clear signal that the U.S. government is finally distancing itself from this regime.

Tomorrow, a group of us will go to the U.S. Embassy with this message. We will sit outside the Embassy, despite the risks of being attacked by government thugs, and call on our government to immediately stop all aid to Mubarak’s regime. Please join us by taking the same action back home.

Now is the time that the Egyptian people need our solidarity. Don’t let there be one more “Made in the USA” teargas canister hurled at these people. Don’t let there be one more U.S. bullet or U.S. weapon aimed at them.

The Egyptian people are writing a beautiful chapter in the history of nonviolence revolutions. Let’s show them we are on their side.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace.

See photos of the delegation here.

If you are a member of the press and wish to contact Medea in Egypt please see phone numbers in our press release here.

Sign onto CODEPINK’s Call to the President to cut military aid to Mubarak here.

]]> http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/update-from-medea-in-cairo/feed/ 7 Cairo’s Rebellion: A Personal Report from an Egyptian-American http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/cairos-rebellion-a-personal-report-from-an-egyptian-american/ http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/cairos-rebellion-a-personal-report-from-an-egyptian-american/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:43:28 +0000 admin http://codepink.org/blog/?p=9802 Today belongs to the youth! Using Twitter and Facebook and who knows what else, tens of thousands young men and women took to the streets of Egypt. They gathered to protest the Mubarak regime. Twenty thousand filled Cairo's Tahrir square. They protested in Suez, Fayoum, Ismailia, Kafr el Sheikh, Bultim, Mahallah, Mansour and cities from Alexandria in the North to Aswan in the South. Nothing of this magnitude this has happened in Egypt before.

]]> by Amal Sedky Winter

January 25, 2011
Today belongs to the youth! Using Twitter and Facebook and who knows what else, tens of thousands young men and women took to the streets of Egypt. They gathered to protest the Mubarak regime. Twenty thousand filled Cairo’s Tahrir square. They protested in Suez, Fayoum, Ismailia, Kafr el Sheikh, Bultim, Mahallah, Mansour and cities from Alexandria in the North to Aswan in the South. Nothing of this magnitude this has happened in Egypt before.

The government had warned the leaders of the few political parties Egypt allows to stay away. The leaders obeyed but their people turned out. The Mufti (highest Islamic authority) issued a fatwa forbidding participation but Muslims turned out. The Church forbade its members from participating; Christians turned out too. The Muslim Brotherhood refused to back the demonstrations—less than 150 of them came. Still, the government claims the Brotherhood incited the protests and admits to jailing 212. For years the Mubarak regime has raised the specter of “Islamic fundamentalism” to scare the Western powers into supporting it.

Despite the warnings, the young people of Egypt protested by the thousands. They demanded change not as party loyalists, not as members of NGOs, and certainly not as Muslims or Christians but as Egyptians—the most for the first time. This is not an ideologically driven event. It is certainly not religiously inspired. It is populist and nationalist.

While organized by those with access to the Internet, the youth of all Egypt’s social classes met in the streets; students from the elite American, German and British Universities of Cairo and the 20-year-old peddler near my building. The three men buying cigarettes at his kiosk had been in the Tahrir Square demonstrations and planned on returning. One, a gardener in the small park across the street said, “I can’t live on 240 pounds a month.” (40.00$) I didn’t say that teachers make less. Students from the elite American, German and British Universities of Cairo.

The government was blindsided. It permitted the ‘standing’ demonstration thinking, as did the rest of the country, only the usual 200 activists would show. Local media coverage was virtually non-existent; a function of surprise and self-censorship. I heard of the demonstrations from my daughter in the States who’d heard about them on NPR. Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, was probably the first to air here but most of us followed the events on YouTube because of the ‘functional’ blackout in the news.

The most immediate impetus is likely a soaring cost of living and grinding poverty.  But people don’t need political science to know that dictatorships support the corruption of their cohorts who siphon off public coffers. People know they can’t survive on the dregs.

They chanted “Change. Liberty. Social Justice.” “No to dictatorship. Mubarak must leave. This government must fall.” Some carried pictures of Gamal Abdel Nasser (1952 revolution.) The have specific demands: Mubarak must resign. His son Gamal must not inherit the presidency. Parliament and councils elected in the country’s most fraudulent election must be dissolved, the constitution revised, and new election held which are fair and free.

There were echoes of Tunisia in the air. In Cairo, protesters were and remain peaceful to a fault. The police was reasonably restrained—at first. By afternoon, everything changed. They set upon the young people with batons. They shot water cannons, tear-gas and rubber-tipped bullets and used cattle prods. They killed four in Suez and bloodied hundreds  in Cairo and the rest of the cities. By evening, the situation took a turn for the worse. Surrounding the thousands in Tahrir  Square, they closed off the routes of escape, blanketed it with teargas and shot into the crowd. They jammed the airwaves and blocked cell-phone reception. Armed vehicles, sirens wailing, sped across the bridge near me. Despite Ministry of Interior guarantees it arrested hundreds and hundreds of people, including 80 journalists. One was from the UK Guardian newspaper. You can hear his moving report from a police van on the paper’s electronic home page. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2011/jan/26/egypt-violence-jack-shenker-arrest-audi

The protestors pledged to stay the course. No one quite knows what this means but everyone I’ve met is cheering them on. And, true to the Egyptian sense of humor, they say, “When we win this round, we’ll have a rematch with Tunisia!”

January 26, 2011

Although the Hesham Center for Human Rights has 1000 confirmed names and knows of many more arrested, the government has admitted to only 500. Today it called for the use of ”all necessary” force to disperse any gathering and strict enforcement of Egypt’s notorious Emergency Law that makes it illegal for over 5 people to congregate.

The streets are choked with security: policemen in riot gear and dusty blue vans, armed vehicles and water cannons. Facebook and Twitter were closed down for a while—the internet savvy youth used proxy sites. And though bloodied and reduced in numbers, people are still demonstrating: ‘walking’ in Cairo’s streets to offer less of a convenient target, calling for by-standers to join.

And as I write tonight, 500 people are demonstrating at the Lawyers’ Syndicate while literally thousands of police are dispersing supporters with batons to the legs and head.

The EU and France, even the United States has called for respecting the right to peaceful demonstration and called for police restraint and non-violence.

Egyptians are still demonstrating and, while in smaller numbers, they’re all over the country: in Cairo, Alexandria, Mansoura and Suez.
Change will happen;  maybe not this week or next. Maybe not even this year. But things are going to change. They already have.
Calls have gone out for a ‘Friday of Rage’ tomorrow, January 28th, 2011. Demonstartions scheduled for after noon-time prayers.

Dr. Winter is an Egyptian-American psychologist in Seattle who currently lives in Cairo, Egypt during the academic year where she is Visiting Professor of Practice at the American University in Cairo’s Graduate School of Education. She is a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, the Arab American Community Coalition in Seattle, and the Arab American Institute’s Pacific Northwest representative. Her numerous consulting positions include the U.S. Department of State where she trains women in the Middle East to run for public office and the creation of training programs for panels of mediation specialists in over 450 Egyptian family courts. She and her colleague, Sheryl Ga Feldman, operate the website www.myeyeonegypt.net

]]> http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/cairos-rebellion-a-personal-report-from-an-egyptian-american/feed/ 1 CODEPINK Travels to Cairo to Stand in Solidarity with the Egyptians http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/codepink-travels-to-cairo-to-stand-in-solidarity-with-the-egyptians/ http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/codepink-travels-to-cairo-to-stand-in-solidarity-with-the-egyptians/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:13:32 +0000 Medea http://codepink.org/blog/?p=9796 After several canceled flights, I am finally on my way to Egypt to join my CODEPINK colleagues who are already there. We were supposed to be leading a delegation to Gaza right now, traveling through the Sinai to get to Gaza's southern border. The Rafa crossing into Gaza has been closed, our delegation is unable to leave Cairo, and we have been caught up in the breath-taking people's movement that is sweeping Egypt. CODEPINK’s Tighe Barry has been out on the streets of Cairo all week long. You can hear a compelling report from him here.

]]> After several canceled flights, I am finally on my way to Egypt to join my CODEPINK colleagues who are already there. We were supposed to be leading a delegation to Gaza right now, traveling through the Sinai to get to Gaza’s southern border. The Rafa crossing into Gaza has been closed, our delegation is unable to leave Cairo, and we have been caught up in the breath-taking people’s movement that is sweeping Egypt. CODEPINK’s Tighe Barry has been out on the streets of Cairo all week long. You can hear a compelling report from him here.

When CODEPINK was in Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March last year, we led and participated in small, peaceful protests that were set upon by hundreds of riot police at the behest of repressive Mubarak regime.

But now there has been a seismic shift. There are not 50 people rallying in Cairo, but hundreds of thousands protesting across the nation. Dozens have been killed; hundreds have been wounded.

But the Egyptian people will not be turned back. They feel their power and are determined to seize the moment.

The US has given Egypt $68 billion since 1948, and since 1979, Egypt has been the second-biggest recipient of US aid after Israel. Our government currently gives $1.3 billion a year of our tax dollars in military aid to the Mubarak regime.

Join us in telling President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Congress to stop funding the Mubarak regime now, to call on Mubarak to resign, and to expressly say that our government stands with the Egyptian people. After all, in his recent State of the Union Address, President Obama declared: “The United States stands with the people of Tunisia.” Shouldn’t we also stand with the Egyptians?

Sign here to stand in solidarity with people who are giving their government, our government and the world a lesson in democracy.

Mubarak is refusing to leave. But our government can—and must—break its ties to this dictator. As courageous Egyptian citizens are being assaulted with U.S. tear gas and other Made-in-the-USA weapons, we must say: Enough.

Solidarity with Egyptians

News

]]> http://codepink.org/blog/2011/02/codepink-travels-to-cairo-to-stand-in-solidarity-with-the-egyptians/feed/ 0 Official release: U.S. group returning from Gaza to deliver Hamas letter to Obama in Cairo http://codepink.org/blog/2009/06/official-release-us-group-returning-from-gaza-to-deliver-hamas-letter-to-obama-in-cairo/ http://codepink.org/blog/2009/06/official-release-us-group-returning-from-gaza-to-deliver-hamas-letter-to-obama-in-cairo/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:27:20 +0000 Jean http://codepink4peace.org/blog/?p=1727 CAIRO — An American group arriving here tomorrow from war-torn Gaza will deliver a letter penned by Hamas officials to Pres. Obama, who will be in Cairo delivering his landmark speech to the Arab world.

At 9 a.m. June 4, the delegation of journalists, social workers, professors and activists will carry the letter to the U.S. Embassy here along with a petition signed by more than 10,000 Americans asking Obama to go to Gaza to witness the impact of the recent Israeli invasion there and its ongoing blockade of the Gaza border.

“Obama should go to Gaza and see the devastation for himself, or send envoy George Mitchell,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women’s peace group CODEPINK, which led the group through Gaza. “There is be no significant improvement in relations between the United States and the Arab world until the U.S. begins to deal directly with Hamas and shows its commitment to the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis.”

The 66-person delegation was allowed through the Rafah, Egypt checkpoints into Gaza May 30, bringing toys, school supplies and playground building supplies, and built three small playgrounds there (view photos here). The delegation met with government officials, including the Ministers of Health and Education, members of Parliament, the Speaker of the Legislative Council and the Deputy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Delegates also met with visiting schools, hospitals, mental health workers, human rights lawyers, businessmen and women’s groups.

The group was shocked by the brutality of the Israeli invasion that killed more than 1,400, displaced more than 50,000 people and destroyed approximately 4,000 homes. They were also appalled by the effects of the 21-month siege that has virtually sealed the borders and constitutes a form of collective punishment, which is illegal under international law.

“The siege in Gaza is keeping the people in a virtual prison and it must be lifted,” said CODEPINK member Tighe Barry. “We are appealing to the president to act now to stop this humanitarian crisis and truly move the peace process forward.”

For more information, please contact Medea Benjamin, at 011-202-18-956 1919 (in Egypt) or Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138.

]]> http://codepink.org/blog/2009/06/official-release-us-group-returning-from-gaza-to-deliver-hamas-letter-to-obama-in-cairo/feed/ 0 Gaza delegation: Pam Rasmussen’s diary http://codepink.org/blog/2009/03/gaza-delegation-pam-rasmussens-diary/ http://codepink.org/blog/2009/03/gaza-delegation-pam-rasmussens-diary/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:55:05 +0000 Jean http://codepink4peace.org/blog/?p=1263 Pam Rasmussen, of Maryland, shares her experiences (with great photos!) on the 60-member aid delegation on her blog here.

Here’s an excerpt from March 11:

This is my last day in Gaza before I head back to Cairo and then home to DC. And it’s strange, but I’m feeling “homesick” already. I feel both that I should stay here to show solidarity with the people  – joining the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) to help fishermen and farmers make a living — and to get to know this unique wedge of land and its population a little better. Today was jampacked with activities, starting with a tour of some of the most war-ravaged areas of Gaza (the bitter) and ending with a delightful evening with new friends I’ve made here who I hope will be lifelong acquaintances (the sweet).

Check out this excerpt from March 6:

There are 59 of us on the two buses.

Some you would expect to find in a Codepink delegation with a mission of breaking the siege on Gaza: The mother of a girl who was bulldozed to death by the Israeli army when trying to block a home demolition. A U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. A Pulitzer-prize-winning author and feminist. A producer for Democracy Now and videographer for Big Noise Films. A member of the board of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California.

Others would surprise you – perhaps even if you thought you knew them well. The owner of a small record label that specializes in jazz and blues. The manager of an art gallery and sometime candidate for mayor of Santa Fe. A high school math teacher. A veterinarian.

Most are from the United States, but they also hail from Canada, Australia, France, Turkey, Pakistan, Dubai and Egypt.

But no matter what their background or residence, we share the same mission: To focus the world’s attention on the continuing blockade of Gaza, and — in particular – to show solidarity with the women who must continue to hold their fragile families together despite extreme hardship.

A 60-member aid delegation – including novelist Alice Walker, the parents of Rachel Corrie, Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright – is currently on its way to enter Gaza, the first delegation of its size and kind to attempt to enter Gaza since July 2007. Delegates — which include members of the Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as doctors, businesspeople, lawyers and college students — will meet with Palestinian aid groups, Gazan women, and United Nations officials. They will also bear witness to the aftermath of the three-week Israeli assault earlier this year and deliver 2,000 gift baskets to Gazan women, purchased through an outpouring of donations through the CODEPINK website to honor Gazan women on International Women’s Day, March 8.

]]> http://codepink.org/blog/2009/03/gaza-delegation-pam-rasmussens-diary/feed/ 7