Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 01.06.2024
“Egypt has detained several students who were trying to promote pro-Palestinian boycotts and solidarity campaigns, the latest sign that it does not want to leave space for activism over the war in Gaza despite growing official verbal criticism of Israel.
The students are among dozens of people held in connection with protests against Israel’s military campaign, some of them detained in October when state-sanctioned rallies spilled over to unauthorized sites, including Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Analysts say Egyptian authorities fear that demonstrations over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could fuel domestic political dissent, which has been suppressed in a broad crackdown lasting more than a decade”[i]
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent Cairo-based group, at least 125 people have been arrested since the Gaza war began in October, 95 of whom are still being held in pre-trial detention on charges including membership of a banned group or spreading false news.
Three students were arrested earlier this month over their attempt to create a group called Students for Palestine, according to Nabeh El Ganadi, a human rights lawyer who represents two of the students. They include Ziad Bassiouny, a 22-year-old student at an arts institute in Giza.
About 40 members of the security forces were deployed to arrest Bassiouny at his apartment in the early hours of May 9, his mother Fayza Hendawy told Reuters.”[ii]
At the same time the price of bread is going to jump 300%:
“Egypt will raise the price of subsidized bread by 300 percent from June, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Wednesday, announcing a change that will affect tens of millions of the impoverished population. Subsidized bread will cost 20 piastres, up from five piastres ץThe decision will affect an estimated 65 million Egyptians who rely on bread as their main food staple, said economic analyst Maged Mandour.“This could have a deeper impact than general food inflation,” he told Middle East Eye.“The consequences are clear: a rapid increase in poverty rates, which is already an ongoing process,” Mandour added. Raising bread prices has been historically sensitive in Egypt, often sparking national outrage. Bread prices have remained at the same official price since 1988, and attempts to change them were met with fatal national riots. “Bread, freedom, social justice” was the main chant of Egypt’s 2011 revolution that forced late President Hosni Mubarak out of power“[iii][iv]
The US proposal to end the war is also a trigger for the Arab mass uprising because it is an indirect admission that Israel and the US have lost the war. The US is trying to save Israel and prevent an Arab mass rebellion, but it may be too late for them.
“It’s time for this war to end and for the day after to begin,” said Biden, who is under election-year pressure to stop the Gaza conflict, now in its eighth month.
This proposal comes after weeks of Israeli incursions into Rafah and new pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at home and abroad over the deaths in Gaza and the continued captivity of the hostages.
It also comes a day after the Democratic president’s Republican rival for president, Donald Trump, was convicted of 34 felony charges, highlighting the sharp contrast between the two candidates.
The new proposal Biden laid out has three phases and differs from previous proposals because a ceasefire would continue as the parties move through all three.
During the first phase, a ceasefire lasting for six weeks, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza population centers, and hostages, including the elderly and women, would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian civilians would return to Gaza, including northern Gaza, and 600 trucks would bring humanitarian aid into Gaza each day, Biden said.
In the second phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate terms of a permanent end to hostilities. “The ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue,” the president said, a new development. The third phase would include a major reconstruction plan for Gaza.
Biden said that Qatar had relayed the proposal to Hamas.
The president called on those in Israel who were pushing for “indefinite” war to change their minds.
“I know those in Israel will not agree with this plan. And will call for the war to continue indefinitely. Some are even in the government coalition. They’ve made it clear. They want to occupy Gaza. They want to keep fighting for years, and hostages are not a priority for them. Well, I’ve urged leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal despite whatever pressure comes,” Biden said.
As someone who’s had a lifelong commitment to Israel, as the only American president who has ever gone to Israel at a time of war, as someone who just sent the U.S. forces to defend Israel when it was attacked by Iran directly, I ask you to take a step back, think what will happen if this moment is lost,” he said. “We can’t lose this moment.[v]“
The Arab revolution is at the door of Egypt!
Bread, freedom, social justice!
Down with Al Sisi the servant of American imperialism!
Down with the Zionist state!
Down with all the imperialists Western and Eastern!
For Socialist Palestine from the river to the sea as part of the socialist federation of the Middle East
Endnotes:
[i] Reuters CAIRO, May 31 https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypt-extends-crackdown-gaza-a
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Noor Bayoumi 29 May 2024 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-sisi-raises-price-subsidised-bread-300-percent
[v] https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-speak-middle-east-friday-white-house-says-2024-05-31/