The Gaza Freedom March in Cairo

More than 1,000 people from 40-plus countries gathered in Cairo just after Christmas, headed for a December 31 march in Gaza to commemorate Israel’s attack on Gaza in December of 2008 and to demand an end to the blockade of the besieged territory.

Only a handful—80-odd—reached Gaza. The rest, banned by the Egyptian government from crossing the border, held a week-long movable protest in Cairo.

Among other actions, on December 29, a few hundred gathered at the Cairo U.N. headquarters to request U.N. assistance with the Egyptian government; some 200 French freedom marchers camped out in front of their embassy for five days, urging their government to intervene; and on December 31, the day of the originally scheduled Gaza Freedom March, 500 people marched a few hundred yards in Cairo’s main square and then, stopped by police, sat in the square for much of the day, hanging banners demanding “Free Gaza!” over the heads of the police cordon.

The protests got front-page attention in Egypt and considerable international coverage; thus, although the march didn’t reach Gaza, it focused worldwide attention on the suffering there—and on the Egyptian government’s complicity with Israel’s brutal siege.

The march was organized by an international coalition that included Palestinian organizations in Gaza and, in the United States, the San Francisco-based CODEPINK. WRL activists among the marchers included, in addition to the reporters for this piece, Mike Levinson of New Rochelle. A fourth, Ellen Barfield of Baltimore, was scheduled to be there but was serving a 25-day sentence in Washington for a protest there last May.

For more details, see stories at www.indypendent.org/category/indyblog.