Cairo Communiqué, Pages 11, 35

Egyptians View Construction of Gaza Wall As Evidence of Government’s “Hypocrisy”

By Joseph Mayton

Egyptian supporters await the arrival of Nobel Peace Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei at Cairo International Airport, Feb. 19, 2010. Police warned supporters of the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not to celebrate of homecoming of the possible 2011 presidential candidate. (AFP photo/Khaled Desouki)

ACCORDING to eyewitnesses reports cited by local Egyptian newspapers, the underground steel barrier between the Egyptian and Gazan border was near completion in early February. While the Egyptian government never either confirmed or denied the wall’s construction, pictures and testimonies from the area have said the cement is, literally, pouring into the ground.

For many in this North African nation—the Arab world’s most populous—the move to erect a wall in a U.S. and Israeli-backed attempt to end the smuggling of goods into the besieged Palestinian enclave has left a sour taste in the mouth. Egyptians, especially activists, have noted quite openly on Twitter and other online networks that the wall represents the Egyptian government’s “hypocrisy.”

“We have always been told that Palestinians are our brothers and sisters,” said opposition activist Omar Fagr, “but when we go out to support them, the government here [in Egypt] arrests us and imprisons us. How can they say one thing and then go do another?”

Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip after ousting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ security services following a bloody, U.S.-backed coup attempt in June 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed an economic blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. The siege has forced Gazans to find other avenues for obtaining essential goods, such as cooking oil, petrol, butter and other foodstuffs. Smuggling tunnels that run beneath the Sinai desert landscape have become one of the few means of getting supplies to Palestinians, but Tel Aviv and Cairo want this to end, insisting that the tunnels are used to smuggle weapons.

Palestinians involved in smuggling, however, have told the Washington Report that the 100-foot-deep wall will not stop the movement of goods into Gaza.

“We are not going to be stopped by a wall,” said one smuggler, who asked not to be named. “Since when has that done anything—because we are talking about the lives of our families and friends here.”

Back in Cairo, the mood is one of frustration and anger. As the blogosphere lights up with attacks against the Egyptian government, activists and rights workers are pointing to what they say is the “outright arrogance and hypocrisy” of the Egyptian government.

“It is ridiculous that they would build a wall,” said Ramy Raouf, a leading human rights blogger. “They want to deflect attention away from the real problems, and this is the way they do it.”

He pointed to the ongoing debate over sectarianism and the government’s poor response to the country’s economic and political situation as reasons Cairo wants to deflect attention to the wall. When bloggers and commentators point to the government’s failings, he added, Cairo “goes crazy and starts new campaigns to distract our people from the real issues.”

Palestine is high on the list of issues that Egyptians hold dear, Raouf pointed out. Cairo supports the people “when they see it as beneficial to them,” he explained, “but when Palestine could be used as something else, they crack down and don’t want anything to do with it.”

In Raouf’s opinion, being seen as pro-Palestinian is merely part of the game being played by President Hosni Mubarak to shore up his popularity ahead of elections.

For years, Egyptians have had a strong sense of the need to support Palestinians in their cause—but each time Israel launches a new offensive in the occupied territories and Egyptians take to the streets in protests, the Egyptian security forces are quick to clamp down.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s leading Islamic opposition group, has organized a number of protests in recent years to support Palestinians. “Each time we do this—even if we inform the government beforehand—our members and leaders are arrested,” said Amr el-Sayid, a young Brotherhood member, “and the government uses this as ammunition against us, when all we were doing is supporting Palestine and opposing Israeli action our government supposedly also disapproves.” El-Sayid believes Palestine is a taboo topic because the government understands its role in dealing with Israel.

“They see that Egyptians are angry with what the Jewish [state] is doing and they don’t want that anger to be turned on them for their complicity,” he continued, “because in the end they are supporting Israeli action—and sooner or later all Egyptians will understand this and it could go bad.”

Indeed, this appears to be the crux of the matter. A former Foreign Ministry official told the Washington Report that the Mubarak government is very cognizant of how it is perceived by its population.

“The government understands that the Israeli occupation is horrendous and wrong,” the official said, “but at the same time they cannot avoid seeing clearly that many of the actions taken on the ground in Egypt are very similar to what the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) employ in Palestine. This, in their minds, cannot get out, or it could spell major protests.”

Now, with the construction of the wall and attempts to further cut off Gazans from the outside world, Egyptians are looking for ways to express their frustrations. The Internet is giving them that voice.

“We need to be stronger and use the Internet to fight and organize,” said Heba Munir, a Palestinian student in Cairo. “If Egypt wants to oppress its own people and Palestinians, we Arabs need to fight against this hypocrisy and show the world we will not stand for it.”

Joseph Mayton is a free-lance journalist based in Cairo.