US Press Ignores Egyptian Suppression of Gaza Freedom March
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/29-5
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
CommonDreams.org
US Press Ignores Egyptian Suppression of Gaza Freedom March
by Robert Naiman
Cairo - The government of Egypt is taking a spectacularly hard line
against international solidarity efforts in support of civilians in Gaza
on the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion, blocking peace
marchers from the U.S., Canada, and Europe from even approaching the
Egyptian border with Gaza and blocking an aid convoy that has the
support of the Turkish government from entering Egypt at Nuweiba. Even a
peaceful protest at UN offices in Cairo was largely walled off from
public view by Egyptian police.
It seems that any pretense of Egyptian government concern for the
suffering of Palestinian civilians has been dropped, along with the
pretense that there is anything less than 100% cooperation from Egypt
and its US and European patrons with Israel's program of punishing
Gaza's population for the political crime of having provided majority
support to the Hamas movement in a legislative election.
Meanwhile there is largely a U.S. press blackout of these striking
developments. A search of the New York Times and the Washington Post
only turns up a tiny AP story on the websites of the Times and the Post.
As has frequently been the case, Agence France-Presse [AFP] pays more
attention to these developments. On Monday, AFP reports that Hedy
Epstein and other members of the Gaza Freedom March have begun a hunger
strike to press the Egyptian government to allow them to enter Gaza:
An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was among a group of grandmothers
who began a hunger strike in Cairo on Monday to protest against Egypt's
refusal to allow a Gaza solidarity march to proceed.
American activist Hedy Epstein and other grandmothers participating
in the Gaza Freedom March began a hunger strike at 1000 GMT.
"I've never done this before, I don't know how my body will react,
but I'll do whatever it takes," Epstein told AFP, sitting on a chair
surrounded by hundreds of protesters outside the United Nations building
in Cairo.
On Sunday, AFP reported on the efforts of the Viva Palestina aid convoy
to enter Egypt, with the support of the Turkish government:
An aid convoy trying to reach the blockaded Gaza Strip through
Egypt was still stranded in Jordan on Sunday amid Cairo's refusal to let
it cross through its territory.
Members of the convoy, which is led by British MP George Galloway,
were however hoping for a solution thanks to mediation by Turkey to
enter Gaza through the Red Sea port of Nuweiba, the most direct route.
The British-initiated aid convoy has at least been mentioned by the BBC,
but NPR has not reported on the U.S.-initiated Gaza Freedom March.
Wouldn't you be a little bit curious to know what explanations the New
York Times and the Washington Post would provide for ignoring these
developments? Why not send them a little note?
Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy
--
Dan Clore
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Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"