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Egypt

Tear Gas, Stones, Clashes In Cairo Amid New Anti-Protest Law

November 30, 2013 Staff, rt.com ,
Police fired tear gas and used batons to beat back stone throwing protesters in Cairo on Saturday, as Egypt's constitutional panel began voting on a new constitution's final draft, amid fears that one of its laws may curb the right to peaceful protest. The clashes erupted between riot police and protesters a few kilometers away from Egypt's constitutional committee headquarters where the 50 member panel had begun debating the final recommendations for changes to the 2012 Islamist constitution. The demonstration was to condemn the detention of 24 activists who were arrested on Tuesday after taking part in an unauthorized protest. Among the protesters arrested was Ahmed Maher, who was one of the leaders in the 2011 uprising that ousted long serving president Hosni Murbarak. One of the changes to the constitution includes a law enacted last Sunday which allows security agencies to ban protests, which have not been previously reported to the Interior Ministry. It also sets high fines and prison terms for protesters who break the law.

Egypt Passes Law Restricting Public Protests

November 25, 2013 Gregg Carlstrom, ,
Egypt's interim president, Adly Mansour, has signed a restrictive new "protest law" that would require Egyptians to seek approval days in advance before organising demonstrations. The law will take effect later this week once the final text is published in the official state register. It gives police wide latitude to use force against demonstrators, which could give the government a pretext for a widespread crackdown. The law has gone through numerous revisions, but rights groups say the latest version requires protesters to seek approval from police three days in advance, and allows the interior ministry to block rallies that could "pose a serious threat to security or peace". Election campaign events are subject to a 24-hour notification period in some drafts, and "processions" of more than 10 people are only allowed for "non-political" purposes. Violators could face fines of up to $4,360.

Don’t Move, Occupy! Social Movement Vs Social Arrest

November 5, 2013 Mehmet Döşemeci, www.roarmag.org , , , , , , , ,
Regardless of their final present political fate, the global uprisings since 2011 have already established mass continuous occupation of public space as the dominant form of political struggle in the early 21st century: the coming together of people who have both withdrawn their consent to be governed by the existing order and, equally importantly, discovered the responsibility, dignity, difficulty, and — above all — joy of instituting a society outside of it. In so doing, they have challenged the periodization that separated a mass political uprising from the democracy that may follow it. The common feature of all these occupations was the creation of democratic forms within the space and time of the uprising itself. This was made possible not through a politics predicated on movement, but rather one of arrest, of occupation, in order to create sites for the collective restructuring of social relations and space.

Anarchists In Egypt, Will The Real Black Bloc Please Stand Up?

November 4, 2013 Goos Hofstee, www.yourmiddleeast.com ,
Egypt's Black Bloc grew out of their struggle for liberation from an authoritarian system, only after non-violent civil efforts had failed. While the group’s tactics originated out of a plan to protect women revolutionaries by forming a protective human shield around them at protests, the violence of the police and armed forces against peaceful protesters meant that the Bloc soon began to fight against the Morsi regime. Their mission they declare in the video, is to “fight against the fascist regime of the Muslim Brotherhood and its armed militia” Since Morsi was ousted, the Bloc has been fighting the military regime. The bloc’s goal has evolved to the “defence of the Revolution” against any dictatorial regime, be it military or religious. The Bloc’s members claim to have no affiliation with existing political parties and maintain that they have nothing against state institutions per se, "but against control by a particular system, the supremacy of a certain group." They further contend that "the best thing is to hit the existing system and its economy by sabotaging the system's institutions and not ones belonging to the public.

Hey Pro-Nuke Climate Scientists—Note Global Terror At Fukushima Four

November 4, 2013 Harvey Wasserrman, www.commondreams.org , , , ,
Since March 11, 2011, fuel assemblies weighing some 400 tons, containing more than 1500 extremely radioactive fuel rods, have been suspended 100 feet in the air above Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit Four. “If you calculate the amount of cesium 137 in the pool, the amount is equivalent to 14,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs," says Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute. Former US Department of Energy official Robert Alvarez, an expert on fuel pool fires, calculates potential fallout from Unit Four at ten times greater than what came from Chernobyl. Tokyo Electric Power says it may start moving these fuel rods as early as November 8.

Canadians Held 50 Days In Egyptian Prison After Documenting Massacre Speak Out Following Release

November 1, 2013 Staff, www.democracynow.org ,
"As Egypt sets a date for ousted President Mohamed Morsi to stand trial for inciting the murder of protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood calls for mass demonstrations, we speak with two people who witnessed one of the bloodiest massacres of Morsi supporters by Egyptian state forces. Acclaimed Toronto filmmaker John Greyson and emergency room medical doctor Tarek Loubani were in Cairo on August 16, en route to a humanitarian mission in Gaza, when they went to film a protest and then rushed to the scene of a massacre — Greyson reportedly began filming the shooting’s aftermath while Loubani treated some of the injured. Then, along with 600 Egyptians that day, the pair of Canadians were swept up and detained without charge. They were held in cockroach-infested jail cells with as many as 36 other inmates. Greyson and Loubani launched a hunger strike, while supporters in Canada mounted a massive campaign to lobby for their release. Then, in early October, the pair were freed. They have since returned home to Canada, where they continue to call for the release of their Egyptian cellmates who remain imprisoned. We go to Toronto, where we are joined by Greyson, who is also a member of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. And in Ontario, we’re joined by Tarek Loubani, an assistant professor at Western University. He is a Palestinian refugee and one of the architects of the Canada-Gaza academic collaboration, a project that brings doctors from the West to Gaza to train physicians."

Where Are The Secular Egyptian Revolutionaries?

October 10, 2013 Sam Kimball, www.wagingnonviolence.org ,
Activists from the Third Square movement are at work. Squeezed between a military clearing all obstacles to its rule and the Muslim Brotherhood, enraged by its swift removal from power in Egypt, revolutionaries who oppose both are counting their numbers after violent eviction from the streets. The Third Square is one of these movements, composed of revolutionary activists who came together to resist the country’s turn from revolution to civil strife following the mass demonstrations of June 30 against the rule of Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Since the Egyptian military’s bloody dispersal of Muslim Brotherhood protesters in mid-August and a curfew instituted since, Third Square has been forced into retreat. The movement’s future will have much to tell onlookers about the state of the Egyptian revolution. The young movement calls itself the Third Square because it deems itself the inheritor of the 2011 revolution and rejects what it sees as a reactionary religious order which, before being dispersed, was headquartered in Cairo’s Rabaa El-Adawiyya Square and a pro-military movement that had made its home in Tahrir Square. Third Square’s vision of an Egypt free of military and religious rule can’t become reality, however, without the mass of Egyptians behind them — the patience of many ordinary Egyptians is wearing thin. “I wouldn’t be surprised if people wake up soon to realize that the military won’t give them what they want, unless they fight for it.”

In Egypt, Demonstrations, Death Mark Anniversary Of 1973 War

October 7, 2013 Staff, www.america.aljazeera.com
A day of demonstrations has left at least 51 dead and 268 injured across Egypt, according to the government's Health Ministry. The toll has risen steadily through Sunday and includes at least one dead in the province of Minya, 150 miles south of Cairo, where police are reported to have fired live rounds into a crowd protesting the military-backed government. Police have used tear gas to disperse protesters in Cairo, near Tahrir Square, and in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian authorities warned against anti-government protests Sunday as the country planned to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October 1973 war -- often referred to as the Yom Kippur War -- saying that protesters would be treated as foreign agents.

Egypt Releases Two Canadians Held Without Charge

October 6, 2013 Patrick Kingsley, www.theguardian.com ,
he renowned film-maker John Greyson and emergency medic Tarek Loubani had been detained for over seven weeks after being arrested while observing protests in Cairo on 16 August. Like many of the protesters arrested that day, they were held on suspicion of murder and intention to kill. In a letter their lawyers later smuggled from prison, the pair said they had been beaten in custody, and were being held in an overcrowded, cockroach-infested cell. Their release this weekend came as a surprise, coming shortly after Egyptian authorities ordered their detention for another 45 days. Officials had also recently implied the pair had been acting as foreign spies, a symptom of widespread nationalism and xenophobia that has spread across Egypt since the overthrow of ex-president Mohamed Morsi in July. The news sparked jubilation in Canada, where the pair’s detainment had become a cause célèbre, with Alec Baldwin and Charlize Theron among 150,000 people who had signed a petition calling for their release.

Freedom for John and Tarek

October 5, 2013 Omar Robert Hamilton, www.madamasr.com , ,
John is a filmmaker. A daring, funny, experimental, activist filmmaker. His films fuse politics, humor and music in a way that manages to be eclectic, populist and erudite all at once. His charming agitprop pieces have been some of the key mainstreamers against the occupation of Palestine. His last major film, Fig Trees, is a documentary opera about AIDS activists, sung in part by an albino squirrel puppet. It’s totally brilliant. And now he’s in jail. He’s in jail because he was trying to get to Gaza, with his friend, Dr. Tarek Loubani. Tarek travels to Gaza every year to train emergency physicians at Shifa hospital – the main trauma center of our besieged neighbors. He and John met at last year’s Toronto Palestine Film Festival. They hit it off and hatched a plan to travel to Gaza together, John with his camera, Tarek to his medical students.

Greyson & Loubani: Canadians Held In Egyptian Prison End Hunger Strike

October 5, 2013 Staff, www.thestar.com ,
Two Canadians who have been detained in an Egyptian prison for more than a month have ended a hunger strike they began more than two weeks ago. Dr. Tarek Loubani of London, Ont., and filmmaker John Greyson of Toronto were arrested in Cairo on Aug. 16 and have yet to face formal charges. A website set up to draw attention to their case posted a statement Wednesday evening saying Loubani and Greyson ‘‘have resumed eating solid food under medical supervision.‘‘ The statement adds that both men have seen a doctor and were visited Wednesday by staff from the Canadian Embassy. Loubani and Greyson began their hunger strike on Sept. 16 to draw attention to their detention leading up to a hearing slated for Sept. 30. A secondary demand was more exercise time while in custody, and the website statement says “this was won.”

Statement from Dr. Tarek Loubani and John Greyson

October 2, 2013 Staff www.socialistworker.org/ , , ,
"WE ARE on the 12th day of our hunger strike at Tora, Cairo's main prison, located on the banks of the Nile. We've been held here since August 16 in ridiculous conditions: no phone calls, little to no exercise, sharing a 3-meter-by-10-meter cell with 36 other political prisoners, sleeping like sardines on concrete with the cockroaches; sharing a single tap of earthy Nile water. We never planned to stay in Egypt longer than overnight. We arrived in Cairo on the 15th with transit visas and all the necessary paperwork to proceed to our destination: Gaza"

Canadian Filmmaker And Doctor Imprisoned In Egypt Without Charges, Abused After Witnessing Massacre

October 2, 2013 Staff, www.democracynow.org , ,
"Two Canadian citizens — acclaimed Toronto filmmaker John Greyson and medical doctor Tarek Loubani — have been jailed for more than a month and a half in Egypt without charge after witnessing a massacre by state forces on August 16 in Cairo. The two were traveling through Egypt en route to visit Gaza, where Greyson was to film Loubani as he trained emergency room doctors. In a statement smuggled out of their prison cell, Greyson and Loubani say they were arrested after rushing to the scene of a mass shooting of supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi. Greyson says he began filming the shooting’s aftermath while Loubani treated some of the injured."

Egyptian Arrested for Naming Donkey After General

September 24, 2013 Mariam Rizk, www.freedetainees.org , ,
The state news agency says a farmer in southern Egypt has been arrested after putting the military chief’s name and an army-style cap on his donkey while riding it through town. MENA news agency said that Omar Abul-Magd was arrested late Friday in Qena province for allegedly insulting Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the popularly-backed coup against President Mohammed Morsi. Since Morsi’s ouster, authorities have cracked down on critics of the powerful military. Earlier this week, a military court ordered five pro-Morsi protesters to serve up to three years in prison for chanting against the army. Three were tried in absentia.

Egypt Joins Israel As Gaza’s Jailer

September 22, 2013 Medea Benjamin & Pam Bailey, www.codepink.org ,
"There was a time when activist groups that focused on helping the Palestinians in Gaza reserved their harshest language and protests for Israel, which long has prohibited both air and sea traffic in and out of Gaza; tightly limited exchanges through its Erez terminal; and banned exports altogether[...]However, in the two months since the Egyptian military took control, it has made clear it will no longer serve as that “bridge”. In fact, as the military and other opponents of ousted President Mohamed Morsi increasingly blame Palestinian “elements” for growing unrest and violence, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, the interim government of Egypt has increasingly allied itself with Israel in strategy and actions – becoming just as much Gazans’ jailer as its neighbor to the east."
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