Dozens of Egyptian activists gathered at the Arab League's Cairo headquarters on Tuesday to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, marking the day when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were terrorised off their land by Zionist paramilitary forces. Despite the internal political division currently facing Egyptian activists, the memory of the Nakba was taken as a chance to highlight an ongoing hunger strike waged by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Starting at 12pm, dozens stood at the Qasr Al-Nil Bridge near league headquarters, carrying banners proclaiming: “The people demand the liberation of Palestine,” and “Your hunger strike is freeing a country.” Throughout the day, increasing numbers joined the symbolic stand chanting slogans vowing Palestine's liberation.
But the numbers this year were minute in comparison to last year’s Nakba commemoration, when thousands marched to Israel's Cairo embassy, eventually succeeding in forcing its closure.
Since Egypt's revolution early last year, Israel has been the target of numerous demonstrations and the subject of many political debates. While activists have repeatedly called for severing relations with the self-proclaimed Jewish state, several presidential candidates have vowed to "renegotiate" the unpopular Camp David peace agreement between the two countries.
In August of last year, hundreds of protesters attempted to storm the Israeli embassy after five Egyptian soldiers were killed during an Israeli cross-border raid into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. One Egyptian activist, 23-year-old Ahmed Shahat, succeeded in scaling the 23-storey apartment building housing the embassy and removing the Israeli flag. Shahat, later dubbed "Flagman," became a popular hero overnight.
Demonstrations were not the only means by which Egyptians expressed their opposition to Israel and Israeli policy. Since last year's revolution, the pipelines carrying Egyptian natural gas to Israel were bombed 14 times before Egypt unilaterally cancelled the unpopular gas-export deal on 23 April.
For years, the Mubarak regime had been accused by its critics of supporting Israel by sealing its borders with the Gaza Strip, completing Israel's siege of the territory. The gas deal, which allowed Israeli buyers to purchase Egyptian gas at bargain-basement prices, was seen as a symbol of Cairo's subservience to Tel Aviv.
At Tuesday's demonstration, protesters also voiced solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who recently succeeded in wringing several concessions from their Israeli captors after a 28-day hunger strike. Palestinian hunger strikers have also influenced dozens of Egyptian activists currently held in Egyptian military prisons to launch their own hunger strike.
Some 300 detainees, arrested during a 4 May protest against military rule, have threatened to start a mass hunger strike on 20 May unless they are released without facing military trials. Sixteen of them have reportedly already begun the strike.
Notably, the Egyptian intelligence apparatus – which many see as the primary tool by which the Egyptian state maintains its connection with Israel – mediated the deal between Israel and the Palestinian hunger strikers. According to official state news agency MENA, Egypt's intelligence apparatus held talks with the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian political factions and prisoner representatives – as well as Israeli authorities – to reach an agreement that eventually ended the strike by meeting several of the prisoners' chief demands.
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