We've run a few posts from Susan Johnson, a Pennsylvania grandmother who was invited to Gaza by two groups and has not been able to get in. Her latest, from Cairo:
I know it's a Friday because there were Friday Prayers and a sermon was booming from a loudspeaker...that only happens on Friday. It is now September 24th, I think.
and I am still sitting in my cheap little hotel. Time is moving slowly. There have been calls back and forth from the U.S. Embassy and from Gaza. I'm told The Egyptians won't answer their phones. The US Embassy and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry can not agree on a procedure for US citizens wanting to go to Gaza. The Egyptians will not agree to let me go to Gaza using the old procedure. There is no procedure right now....it's being negotiated. I'm also told the Egyptians won't answer their phone.
Yolanda turns me over to her assistant Ann...I know it's not a good sign to be passed on to an assistant. I decide I must win Ann's interest and commitment, have her decide she's going to devote herself to getting me into Gaza....."Susan I'm trying they don't answer the phone....I am so sorry I don't have any thing to tell you. I'll get back to you with good news before the end of the day."
The day ends and I haven't heard from Ann with good or bad news.
I call Yolanda the next morning...
Ann didn't find out any thing? She didn't get back to you? "Let me talk to..." I think she says her boss. When she returns the tone of her voice has changed "...Susan, this could take weeks to resolve...I don't want to give you false hope..We are negotiating a new procedure...the Egyptians aren't answering their phone...."
There is a question running around in my head, "where does the information come from? The Egyptians won't answer their phones; fact or fiction?" They must be communicating...maybe by email?
I try calling the Egyptian Ministry's man responsible for Palestinian Affairs...no answer....no answer..... And I'm surprised Palestinians are having affairs...and what's an Egyptian doing in charge of them...I apologize, I couldn't resist. If I lose my sense of humor, warped as it is, I'm sunk. I call a few times more and discover the Egyptians aren't answering their phones.
I am sighing....Yolanda, maybe you should try using another phone. They may have caller ID...see it's you calling and not answer. Why not try another phone....What Susan? Another phone? oh, like a cell phone. Oh!
Why don't they look for other solutions? Changing phones could be a good idea; it's worth a try. What about going to the Foreign Ministry on an errand...or appointment..and then stop by the office of the Palestinian Affairs man ...you just happened to be in the neighborhood.
Those in Gaza have contacted everyone they can think of and run out of people to call. We have difficulty remaining cheerful; encouraging each other; maintaining a positive attitude.....actually we aren't maintaining positive attitudes...we're putting up good fronts...wearing masks...speaking in tongues. They have so many things to juggle, problems to solve, situations to work around....I wanted to be a help....not another problem.
I email them and don't receive replies....why don't they email....we keep having power cuts.... it's best to text, use your mobile. I sigh...tell myself I can do it.
I hate trying to send text messages. They take me forever....become lost...I wipe them out.....Worse I send them quickly, in the heat of the moment...zoom...they arrive right away. I don't wait, re-read them as I should....my grand daughter and her new husband were insulted and angry by one such email...and they were completely justified.
I send my text messages to Gaza carefully watching each word ..don't want to cause those wonderful people even a tiny bit of concern....have them find out I'm so close to falling apart.
What would happened if I send text messages to the Embassy, Yolanda, Ann, even to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry....people love cell phones...stop what they are doing as soon as they ring...read the message...take the call. Maybe I could reach people right away...even the Egyptians. Wow! I have to be careful...not slam out a text in the heat of the moment.....they control Gaza's comings and goings. On second thought maybe I could scare them into sending me out of Egypt....send that wild woman to Gaza, it would serve her right.
Now...all I need are their cell phone numbers!
Susan–hang in there! Just remember, whatever happens–keep telling us. Every bit of information helps us all to better know the facts on the ground; you are arming all of us, keep it up!
RE: “We have difficulty remaining cheerful; encouraging each other; maintaining a positive attitude…..” – Susan Johnson
MY CONTRIBUTION:
Rufus Wainwright ~ Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk (VIDEO, 04:42) – link to youtube.com
Susan, Susan — they’re waiting you out.
Buy that case of Marlboros, offer it to the tunnel guys for free if they’ll let you personally schlep it across.
When the front door is barred, you have to avail yourself of the ‘debrouillard’ back door.
You might want to start with simpler requests — just ask to talk to the guy for Palestinian Affairs, and by all means show up in person! Don’t be intimidated. These are just bored, low-paid functionaries. If it’s easier to blow you off than to help you, they will blow you off. If they see someone in person suffering, it becomes harder. So the probabilities begin to tip in your favor. I saw this in my travels all over Russia, Israel, Egypt, Belarus…
Another option is to go through another embassy. Try the Dutch. Ask them questions. Just that — try to get the answers out of them that you’re not getting out of the Americans. The American embassy was ZERO help to me in Israel. Other embassies were much more friendly and helpful. They may even be able to get you in! The Americans don’t want you there. Europeans get into less trouble if they help people get into Gaza. Worth a shot. Worst case scenario, you meet some nice Dutch people!
Ten packs of Marlboros says that US pressure is actually behind this. They’re jerking your chain.
LOL!!!!
Oh the conspiracies, yes the US government is in cahoots with the Egyptian government to keep a single US grandma out of Gaza.
Reminds me of the Kennedy assassination….
Well, you have to accept that all the powers that be, American and Egyptian, just don’t want you or any other sympathetic Westerner finding a way into Gaza. I suspect that they’re not going to relent and am sure that they are never going to give their true reasons. I wonder, though I very much doubt, whether Euros would stand any better chance, whether the UK has ‘a negotiated procedure’?
If the upshot of your visit is only to demonstrate how devious and malevolent is the bureaucracy people face on the way to Gaza that will be a small, though important, piece of information and your time will very much not have been wasted. The first hand nature of your experience will have been valuable. Please have no thought of falling apart!
I think you forgot that Gaza remains one giant prison camp.
I have every sympathy for Susan Johnson in her Kafkaesque ordeal in Cairo, and would like to offer every encouragement to her to persist, and keep reporting.
I am not in the least surprised that people suspect US conspirators in the affair. This is a very brave and persistent lady, who must be a right royal pain in the ass to US government agencies who are supposed (but unwilling) to be assisting her.
My own experience is that your own country’s embassy is the very last place to expect genuine support.
All power and strength to you Susan!
The precedents of US citizens abandoned by the US authorities: Rachel Corrie (murdered for trying to stop a house demolition), Furkan Durgan (murdered for taking photos on the Mavi Marmara), Emily Henochowicz, Tristan Anderson, Eva Bartlett and others working in the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine, suggests the US government, in its overwhelming support for whatever Israel does, is simply too impotent to help any other American activists in any way to become nuisances to Israel.
The US government has offered no support for any of the above, or protested at any of their murders or injuries, so I don’t expect much for Susan.
Sorry, Susan, but please keep trying, stay brave and undefeated, and keep reporting. Give us names, chapter and verse on who is blocking your trip.
Hi Susan.
I read (and responded to) your comment on another thread about meeting some Palestinians in Cairo. It’s definitely worth a read and I encourage everyone to head on over and give it a read:
link to mondoweiss.net
It should still be posted as an article, not just a comment.
The US pays Mubarak a lot of money to provide Egyptian guards to secure the west wall of the Gaza Concentration Camp.