The Egyptian state is a cancer

As Egypt deals with internal tension, the possibility of mass civil disobedience and an intifada in Mahallah, the brutal nature of this oppressive regime is exposed for those of you too naïve to have noticed yet.

Sadly, the Egyptian authorities aren’t content with starving their own people. Gaza has been under a suffocating siege for over a year now, denied medicine, food, fuel and basic goods by Israel. And yet, Gaza has an independent border with Egypt. The Egyptian authorities have sealed this border (save for the brief period of time earlier this year when Gazans destroyed the border fence and streamed into Egyptian Rafah to restock on basic necessities) for over a year, also denying the entry of fuel, supplies and medicine. And although Israel remains, as the occupying power, fully responsible for Gaza, there can be no excuse and no sugar coating of Egypt’s
direct complicity in this crime against humanity.

What is the rationale behind allowing Gazans to die due to a lack of medical attention or food? What is the reason behind banning the entry of essential supplies into Gaza to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure of the territory? Why would allowing building materials into Gaza compromise Egypt’s security?
There is no justification. A state that is willing to impose emergency law on its citizens for 28 straight years, that is willing to detain and beat and kill those protesting against rising food prices and deplorable wages, that is willing suppress any form of dissent and that shamelessly steals the sham elections it holds to appease an uninformed Western audience is a state that sees no problem in imprisoning 1.5 million people and subjecting them to inhumane living conditions if the requests to do so come from Washington, Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

Because things have calmed down militarily since Israel murdered 130 Palestinians in Gaza last month, the Strip and the suffering of its people are barely mentioned in the press. But the suffering goes on, and is getting worse. Yesterday, my dad tried to send a package of clothes to our family there. He was told that all packages are banned from entering Gaza. Paper for stationary is also banned. Oddly, so are tampons. Try as I might, I can’t figure out the reasoning behind that one, unless Avi Dichter fears fiery tampons raining down on Sderot.

In all seriousness though, the notion of normality is not applicable in Gaza. Over 60% of Gaza’s ambulances are idle due to a lack of fuel, and for weeks thousands of university students have not shown up for classes, either unable to afford the taxi fares, or unable to actually find any transportation. The number of patients who have died since the siege was tightened last June due to Israel and Egypt banning them from travelling abroad for medical attention has now surpassed 125 men, women and children. Sewage is running freely in the streets with no electricity or fuel to power sewage pumps. John Ging, the head of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, claims that prisoners in European jails receive better medical attention than civilians in Gaza.

Things are reaching breaking point, and in recent days Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees have all stated clearly that they will breach the borders again soon if things don’t improve. There have been weekly protests and sit-ins at the Rafah border, but without bombs and shocked Israelis running around there is little incentive for the media to report on the resistance of an occupied people.

So while the Egyptian government sends thousands of security thugs to crush the protestors at Mahallah, it announced tonight that it is sending reinforcements to Rafah, just in case the other nation it helps oppress decide that they won’t take the repression and abuse sitting down.