From the Egypt Independent:
PalFest organizers were granted on Thursday afternoon travel permits by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to travel to Gaza via Rafah. Participants will depart on Saturday morning to run a series of free public events and workshops in Gaza....
The Palestinian festival, which is supported by the UK Arts Council among other international backers, is scheduled to take place in three days and would mark the first time Gaza hosts the event. It is intended to reflect the changes in Egypt’s policy toward the besieged strip since the 25 January revolution....
“When a straightforward, independent literature festival can’t go and spend a few days with its neighbors people need to question why Egypt’s policy hasn’t changed since the revolution,” [organizer Omar Robert] Hamilton said in an interview.
...“Opening the border was very high on the list of the goals of the revolution, combined with the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood controls Parliament, we think and hope that the border has to become more flexible,” Hamilton said in reference to Rafah, and the fact that the Brotherhood has long supported the Palestinian cause. ...
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#PalFestGaza is going to be one of the most remarkable events taking place in#Gaza since several years! Make it happen! =)”, Yasmeen al-Khoudary, blogger and columnist, also tweeted on 29 April.Khoudary and her father have been renovating a historic building in Gaza, where on the closing night of the festival a free public concert by Eskenderella and Gaza-based bands Jafra and Al-Salam is scheduled.
I am guessing the boycott is off the table now ha ? :)
OlegR,
What does this have to do with the boycott and BDS? I see no connection between a nation, Egypt, loosening travel restrictions between Egypt and Gaza and refusing to participate in Israel’s illegal Blockade of Gaza and the moral responsibility of human beings to carry out boycott activities.
It made perfect sense to Phil just yesterday. :)
link to mondoweiss.net
LMFAO and ROTFL- simultaneously. Good job, Phil. You’ve shown the true faces of those evil Egyptian Zionists.
dim, i am sure this makes sense to someone.
Read the post day before that.
I assume you speak of the Egyptians controlling the Rafah border when we all know who ultimately controlled it. Perhaps the Egyptians do control it under the new regime which could only be described as a good thing.
You’re assuming correctly- I wish they would open the border. Good riddance for us in Israel.
Israel doesn’t get off that easily dimadok.
Even if Egypt opened the border Gaza remains under military occupation by the IDF. Gaza remains part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and can never be excised from them – not by a border opening with Egypt or by you or any other ziobot closing your eyes tight and wishing.
I assume you speak of the Egyptians controlling the Rafah border when we all know who ultimately controlled it.
you would be right. they like to pretend egypt has no obligation to coordinate with israel over the border. it’s not as if israel would get out off of gaza’s coast anyway. israel monitors the rafa border from that other crossing with egypt and any ais that comes in is all monitored by israel. so this is a game played by the hasbaraists for a long time now.
Once the border with Egypt is open full time, it is the beginning of the geographical separation of Gaza from the still occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank. It will mark the beginning of a Palestinian state.
I respectively disagree-it’ll mark the slow immersion of Gaza under Egypt control. Any Palestinian state form will emerge in West Bank only. Nobody wants Gaza under its control, but Egypt would have no choice but govern it in order to prevent Islamist rebellion at his borders. On the other side, should Islamist have the complete power in Egypt it would make even more sense for them to “extent” their protection upon Gaza from all those war mongers in Jerusalem.
>> Once the border with Egypt is open full time, it is the beginning of the geographical separation of Gaza from the still occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank. It will mark the beginning of a Palestinian state.
IMO, without the West Bank there is no Palestinian state. A more likely scenario is that Gaza simply becomes part of Egypt (and is perhaps eventually returned/traded to the Glorious Jewish State of Greater Israel).
Neah, nobody is insane enough in Israel to take it back.
There is no way Israel will allow any Palestinian state to emerge since it will be a rallying call to all Palestinians and all the encouragement they need to demand more. Israelis are invested in taking things away from Palestinians, not giving anything to them. The disengagement from Gaza by Sharon was not designed to give Gazans anything life freedom or statehood or independence. It was punishment. And it continues to be punishment. That’s why you have CCTV, remote control killing in the buffer zones, regular flyovers and bombing, restrictions on coastal fishing, restrictions on anything that would make life easier on Gazans like parts and fuel for electricity generation, water treatment, food, parts, building materials etc.
My guess is that Egypt it giving the visas to give the appearance of openness, particularly since it’s such a trivial act but will appease a large part of the Egyptian population that is restive (to say the least) about policy towards Israel. But rest assured SCAF is aware of their obligations under Camp David and will carry them out.
“There is no way Israel will allow any Palestinian state to emerge since it will be a rallying call to all Palestinians ”
Israel is in a trap it made for itself./ It won’t allow the Palestinians independendence and it goes futher from its own democratic facade every year the rights of the Palestinians are denied further. I can’t see Israel selling things like fruit and vegetables in Western supermarkets 10 years hence. The brand is already damaged and will be destroyed by then. Zionism is nothing more than a monolingual cult whose core value is “the Palestinians don’t belong here and are subhuman” and it is so far away from the rest of the OECD that it can only crash.
Spain and Greece are suffering economically but they’ll still be around in 20 years time. Israel won’t.
!!!!
i want video coverage, party ;)
A non-rhetorical question – why haven’t the Egyptians completely opened the crossing at Rafah and broken the land aspect of the Israeli blockade?
Every time Egypt allowed Palestinians through, Israel & Zionist-controlled media accused Egypt of “harboring terrorists” or “smuggling weapons”. With the US/Zionist-engineered “war on terror”, the situation at the Rafah border became even worse. Countries like Egypt had to be very careful under threat of being targeted as ‘sponsoring terrorism’. Egyptian regime is/was a puppet of America they must do as they told for fear of losing aid amongst other things. “Israel” also controlled who/what went in and out of Rafah as part of that “aid package” or bribe money.
Am I correct in yr post you are saying that the Israelis monitor the Gaza side of the border at Rafah?
absolutely. there’s another crossing, the Kerem Crossing, right near there and they monitor it all from there.
Am I correct in yr post you are saying that the Israelis monitor the Gaza side of the border at Rafah?
They do more than just monitor. They still have ultimate control over who may enter and when.
……….
Much more at link below. Thanks to Shmuel for originally providing this link.
link to gisha.org
It is not a rhetorical question-it is a core question. My take-Gaza is just another leverage for Egypt over Israel and nothing more. All this talk about the humanitarian crisis could be silenced once the border will be pry opened. But it is yet to happen.
Published 19:33 04.05.12
Thousands in Jordan call for end of peace treaty with Israel
In series of nationwide protests, leftist and Islamist activists call to cut ties with Israel, burning Israeli flags and chanting ‘death, death to Israel.’
By DPA
Thousands of Jordanians took to the streets on Friday demanding an end to the country’s 18-year-old Wadi Araba peace treaty with Israel.
In a series of nationwide protests, leftist and Islamist activists urged Amman to cut ties with Israel, burning Israeli flags and chanting “death, death to Israel” and “the people want an end to Wadi Araba.”
Protesters rallied in seven cities across the country, urging authorities to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman, chanting “no to a Zionist embassy on our land.”
Protest organizers, including the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and youth movements, said the demonstrations came as a direct response to King Abdullah’s recent nomination of Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh, who served as a key figure in the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace process.
Various political and social groups have expressed outrage over comments recently made by Tarawneh indicating that, if given a second chance, he would still support the controversial peace treaty.
“This is a person who obviously does not respect the people’s will and his words are proof of how out of touch he is with average citizens,” Jamil Abu Baker, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, told dpa.
Popular opinion in Jordan is that the 1994 Wadi Araba treaty is a failure, with politicians and officials accusing Israel of not respecting its obligations under the pact, particularly regarding water sharing, Amman’s custodianship over holy sites in Jerusalem, and access to the Palestinian territories.
Friday marked a departure from activists’ demands for democratic reforms, the focus of the vast majority of the some 1,000 protests that have hit Jordan since the start of the so-called Arab Spring uprisings that were triggered in late 2010.
link to haaretz.com