Posted on 12/31/2009 1:28:58 PM PST by patriotgal1787
“We hope the Egyptians get so annoyed they just want to get rid of us.” Jodie Evans, Cairo, December 29, 2009
Top President Barack Obama funder Jodie Evans and her terrorist sympathizing group Code Pink have provoked a violent crisis in Egypt over an attempt to deliver ‘humanitarian aid’ to Hamas-run Gaza to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s response to repeated provocations by Hamas terrorists. Evans was joined in Cairo by Obama pals Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorhn, both former terrorists with the Weather Underground.
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Jodie Evans appealed to Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak for help after the Egyptian government refused to allow the nearly 1400 leftist activists from a reported forty-three nations gathered in Cairo to cross into Gaza through Egyptian border crossings to join the so-called Gaza Freedom March scheduled for December 31st in Gaza. 1400 was the number of Palestinians reported killed in Israel’s defensive operations in Gaza last December.
Jodie Evans blamed the Israeli government for Egypt’s refusal.
It’s obvious that the only reason for it is to make Israel happy. Israel is behind the refusal – what other excuse could there be?
After first accepting the government’s offer to allow 100 select activists and aid to cross that came through the intercession of Mrs. Mubarak, the activists rejected the offer and have engaged in protests that have brought a strong reaction from the government.
After much internal struggle, a group of about eighty activists crossed into Gaza on Wednesday. They met up with Palestinian activists at the Israeli border where they were addressed via the cellphone of an Israeli Knesset Member, Talab El-Sana, by Hamas ‘Prime Minister’ Ismail Haniyeh.
Haniyeh told the crowd, “We have managed to overcome the occupation plans and we will surely meet at the al-Aqsa Mosque and in Jerusalem, which will remain Arab and Islamic.”
As noted by the blog Mystical Politics, there was no mention by Haniyeh of Code Pink’s delivery of humanitarian aid or the plight of the people in Gaza.
When Code Pink last visited Hamas in June, they were given a letter addressed to President Obama from Hamas.
A press release issued by “Gaza Freedom March” claimed the activists left behind in Cairo were being attacked by the Egyptian government.
Members of the Gaza Freedom March are being forcibly detained in hotels around town (Lotus, Liala) as well as violently forced into pens in Tahir Square by Egyptian police and additional security forces. Reports of police brutality are flooding a delegate legal hotline faster than the legal support team can answer the calls. The reports span from women being kicked, beaten to the ground and dragged into pens, at least one confirmed account of broken ribs, and many left bloody.
The press release went on to describe the activists’ purpose for being in Egypt.
The marchers had planned to enter Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah Crossing on Dec. 27, then to join with an estimated 50,000 Palestinian residents to march to Erez Crossing into Israel to peacefully demand an end to the siege. However, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced just days before the hundreds of delegates began arriving in Cairo that the march would not be allowed to go forward. It cited ongoing tensions at the border. When marchers demonstrated against the decision, the government cracked down, often using heavily armed riot police to encircle and intimidate the nonviolent marchers.
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Code Pink’s initial acceptance of Egypt’s offer exacerbated divisions among the leftists.
On first arriving we had a legal ban placed on us. Europeans have organised on a basis where we do not take any notice of the law. Codepink have used those activities to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities.
The French for instance – around 300 – mobilised on the basis of resistance. The Spanish tried to get to al Arish in different ways. Similar actions were taken by others. Some of the activities in Cairo have been extremely high risk – for instance at the Journalist’s Syndicate. It was like World War III: riot police everywhere. Meetings have been bust up. Proprietors threatened. Hotel arrests. People being followed everywhere and so on and so on. Whilst the Codepink people have simply put pressure on the authorities to get all the right permission to press on in a tiny group.
The French who have had it very rough have not even had a visit from the Codepink. They have been demonised as though they were the extremists, disrupting things for everyone. I have spent a lot of time with the French and they are simply determined to expose the Egyptian role in this whole business.
What is going on right now is meetings, lots of wind and blaming the Codepink for a lot of the duplicity and betrayal. They have had hell of a job to get enough people to go with them and the Egyptians have exploited their compliance something terrible. So now the media here is full of this story about the moderate, reasonable Americans who are working in complete harmony with the Egyptians whilst the rest of us are extremist anarchists who disobey law as a matter of routine.
Musician Roger Waters issued a video statement urging Barack Obama to intervene:
So I hope Barack Obama will respond to this, and I hope he makes a statement about it. And I hope he will come out and support this march. And I hope he will come out and say, “Listen, this siege of this country is illegal, and we must support—we must support the law. We must support the rights that human beings have under the law.”
Speaking from Cairo, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada, spoke with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now December 30th about the pressure activists are putting on their home nations’ embassies in Cairo
[J]ust a short while ago, I came from the encampment at the French embassy, where hundreds of French citizens and others are still camped out on the sidewalk in front of the French embassy, absolutely surrounded by phalanxes of riot police in Cairo.
Yesterday we were at the US embassy for many hours, surrounded by police. But I think really the responsibility in that situation has to lie with the US embassy and the United States, which absolutely stonewalled and was unresponsive to the demands of its citizens to speak to their representatives. And when we finally did get a meeting, it really became very clear, from the US representative that we met, the senior political officer at the US embassy in Cairo, Greg Legrefo, that the United States was not going to do anything to support our effort to break the siege, that the policies of the United States remain unchanged.
And Mr. Legrefo did confirm in that meeting that the United States Army Corps of Engineers is providing technical assistance to Egypt to build an underground barrier along the border with Gaza to prevent the digging of tunnels, which have become the last lifeline for people of Gaza in circumventing the siege.
Author Philip Weiss wrote of witnessing Ayers and Dohrn getting caught up in the debate over whether to accept Egypt’s offer for a small number of activists entry to Gaza.
The people staying on the buses leaned out the doors to say that the Gazans wanted them to come so as to to join their march to the Israeli border on the 31st. But they wavered. Indeed, you saw some of the most resolute activists on the planet—Bernardine Dohrn, the law professor and former member of the Weather Underground; Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada; and Donna Mulhearn, an Australian woman who was a human shield during the beginning of he Iraq war, board the bus and get it off it, and then board it again and get off it, and on and on.
HHmmmm..
death penalty should be in order.
Egyptian prison time will do them all some good.
Just doing Obamao’s dirty work while he’s on vacation,
Bill Ayers & B. Dohrn?
Why aren’t these known terrorists and cop killers behind bars?
She’s a loose cannon. Obama will be sorry he ever associated with her.
(Pink Floyd founding) Musician Roger Waters issued a video statement urging Barack Obama to intervene:
So I hope Barack Obama will respond to this, and I hope he makes a statement about it. And I hope he will come out and support this march. And I hope he will come out and say, “Listen, this siege of this country is illegal, and we must support—we must support the law. We must support the rights that human beings have under the law.”
They make me ill, completely and totally ill!
Well, Ayers said he didn’t do enough.
Let’s see Egypt deal with WeatherUnderground types.
I hope they do.
If someone had told the Palis that these three were secretly converting Muslims to Christianity under the guise of their radical activities,....
“Let’s see Egypt deal with WeatherUnderground types.”
They’ve had plenty of experience dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood...;)
The thought of this treasonous pack in an Egyptian prison brings a smile to my face.
Ayers and Dohrn, the angry violent hippie movement goes on
Agreed! :D
The Egyptians may get rid of you in an unpleasant and permanent manner.
I hope they get stuck in Gaza with no way to get back to Egypt or Israel without having to spend many hours with the “great unwashed”, their fellow travelers, in the most deplorable of conditions and yes Egyptian prison has that certain ambience I think they should become aquainted with.
That would be a dream come true.
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