"The story has not yet ended"

Ghazzawiyya's article in alquds alarabi "The Story has not yet Ended"

Egyptian revolution does not have Gaza on its mind?

Ghazzawiyya received this email last night:

a letter to the Egyptian embassies about the Rafah crossing that will be endorsed by solidarity groups and civil society orgs because the crossing seems to be the last thing on the Egyptian agenda now. Thousands of Palestinians are stranded at the Cairo airport, and all over the world. some have gone on hunger strike and the last decision taken by the deposed government was to ban Palestinians from renting Egypt..

We call on you to sign the attached letter and fax it to the the Egyptian embassy where you are based. Demand an immediate action.

Best,

The letter

15. Feb.2011

OPEN THE RAFAH CROSSING

The situation for the hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children in Egypt who
have been trapped at the airport since 25.Jan.2011, the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution, is dreadful and getting worse each day. Most people don't have money for food or medicine. Some of them went on hunger strike for some days. The vulnerable are getting sicker and some are in urgent need of medical treatment. There are other more Palestinians waiting elsewhere in Egypt to cross into Gaza, not to mention those waiting in other countries.

It has come to our knowledge that on 8.Feb.2011, the deposed government issued new travel regulations with regard to Palestinians effective immediately and till further notice. The following categories of passengers are NOT ALLOWED TO ENTER EGYPT, even if they are holding visa or security approval or resident permit:

- Holders of Palestinian Passports.
- Holders of Jordanian Passports without national number.
- Travel documents for Palestinian issued by Egypt.

This is unacceptable. All the Palestinians at the airport and those using the Rafah Crossing, the only exit Gaza has to the external world, are civilians. Under the Geneva Conventions they are entitled to freedom of movement and protection from
collective punishment.

The great sacrifices of the Egyptian people were for human rights and democracy. These demands are supported by all freedom loving people, who also oppose the suppression of Palestinians by Israel. It is time for the new rulers of Egypt to annul the decision taken by the previous government and open the Rafah Crossing immediately so that people and goods can pass.

OPEN THE RAFAH CROSSING NOW.

Signature,

Mubarak Resigns

I just wanted to have this as the first post on the blog. Now, I will retreat from blogging for a while.

Ahmad Fouad Najm

He is being interviewed by Aljazeera now. He is being asked if he was with his soul mate Sheikh Imam Issa he would have sang together... they asked him if he has written a qassida (poem), he said that he didn't write a qasssida, that the Egyptian people just wrote a qassida

Bahrain

Bahraini police prevent demonstrators from heading towards the Egyptian embassy (Aljazeera) Mind you, Bahrain and the gulf is next...

Mushir Tanttawy

... who is taking over now, is more corrupt than Mubarak

Abdel Rahman Abnoudi

He is just being interviewed by Aljazeera from Ismaeliyya, he recited a poem he wrote just for the demonstrations, and he refused to recite all of it out of modesty because he said it was too long, and he was the only one who said that now we could embrace our brothers and sisters in Gaza!
He is one of my favourate contemporary Arab poets, and he wrote/writes many of Mohammad Mounir's (the King without dispute) songs...

Mubarak resigns

Ghazzawiyya will not blog for a while. She wants to absorb this moment of happiness, these overwhelming emotions... Palestine will soon, very very soon, be liberated

"Hungry Gazans Feed Egyptian Troops"

"We heard the Egyptian soldiers calling out to us, saying they had run out of food," a policeman in Gaza told IPS. Gazans are now "sharing their limited food with Egyptian soldiers."

Even the New York Times

The New York times (from Aljazeera): Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Emirates have pressured the US not to give up on Mubarak.

I knew it!

The people are marching to the headquarters of the national Egyptian TV! ha!

Mubarak and Suleiman's speeches

Notice how they are trying desperately to persuade the people, 'laqad daqqat sa'atu el-amal' (it's time for work), or Mubarak's constant 'I did this for my country... live this... saw my country during this...' it's over. It is over. Tomorrow, more people are going to join the demonstrations. There was already a breakthrough in the last few days with the Egyptian media that was unspoken of before: who would have thought AlAhram editor-in chief give up his loyalty to Mubarak (I mean that is a good sign), the demand for the resignation of the editors in chief of Mubarak voices such as Abdullah Kamal or Karem Jabr not to mention workers in national tv and radios announcing their full support of the Egyptian people's revolution.
Now I am going to listen to Azmi Bechara, so will stop blogging

Don't be fooled

Despite the US speaking about the need for him to step down, and despite all requests for him to step down by the official international community, Husni Mubarak and his clan will not stay a single minute on the throne if he was not supported to do so. His constant ply about a so-called international (western) conspiracy and interference, Abu el Gheit's interview on a US TV outlet speaking about the American attitude, this is also just a plot intended to deceive us. But, they are trying hard, and believe me, this is the United States of America working here. This is all the frightened dictators/torturers in the Arab world wanting him to stay. Husni Mubarak would not have stayed for a single second if his masters didn't tell him so.
Tomorrow, is going to be another big day. ..

Copernicus called and you are not the centre of the universe!

People are going to look back at this moment of history and it will be a moment for them to laugh. It's a joke, the man just lost all his dignity. He's an embarrassment, just today the NDP asked him to go down. And the racist attitude against preventing Palestinians to enter 'Egyptian soil' is a tactic to divert the people, and pathetically and unintelligently find a scapegoat. Now they're angrier exactly what is required for them to take over government buldings, he will not resign, the people will fire him. And, who the hell is your advisor ya Husni? Go run to Jeddah or the Emirates. One message to Husni Mubarak from Ghazzwiyya: Copernicus called and you are not the centre of the universe!
Can you just hear the roars from Tahrir Square? In a word, "it is resilience, in a word it is defiance, in a word it is resistance!"

Mubarak

The man is a vegetable, a record stuck on the same tune. Can you hear the chants? They want you down ya Mubarak!

Zionist crimes this week

Israeli warplanes bombarded a number of targets in the Gaza Strip where a medicine warehouse of the Palestinian Ministry of Health was heavily damaged resulting in 11 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, were lightly injured. IOF continued to target Palestinian workers, farmers and fishermen in border areas in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian workers, including a child, were wounded.IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank. A Palestinian civilian was wounded. IOF arrested 4 human rights defenders.IOF conducted 46 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and a limited one into the Gaza Strip. IOF arrested 27 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children.IOF harassed a Palestinian family in al-Khader village near Betlehem. Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
Source: PCHR

Goodbye Sadat-ism

I can't believe I am witnessing this day. No more Arab and Muslim loathing by heads of state in Egypt and no more acceptance of war criminals such as Livni and Barak... end of a short lived era, and mind you, one that was obviously self-destructive. The master is dead the slave is free because she revolted, and realized that the master is only a master in her consciousness, in her mind. It's over, the domino effect will continue.

Walid Bin Talal's taste in Music

While he imposes his taste on what we watch on Arab satellite channels, his loyals come to the rescue. These are Bin Talal's artists of music and Fann. I bet you, this re-emerging revolutionary consciousness in the Arab world will no longer welcome the like of Husni and Wehbe etc. Rotana and ART will not be surviving. The end of the tribal regimes in the gulf will be next.

Mubarak resigning

Just now, Mubarak is going to resign tonight. A coup will be forthcoming. let's see what will ensue...
update: the US did not let him leave

Workers in Egypt

Egyptian rail workers have announced their strike and refusal to go back to work until Mubarak retires. A witness from Aljazeera said that they sat on the rails to prevent any train to depart

1977 revolt

"Nearly thirty-four years to the day, the slogans of that generation of protesters are not out of place in the streets of Cairo, Suez, Alexandria or Mahalla. In 1977, a deteriorating economic situation had already exasperated the population, that chanted batl al-ubur, feyn al-futur? ‘Hero of the Crossing, where is our breakfast?’, and ‘Thieves of the Infitah, the people are famished’. For all his political grandstanding, Sadat did not deliver even the basic standards of living for the great majority of Egyptians, living standards made worse precisely by liberalization and rising corruption [...] It was this level of political and economic marginalization that provided one of the basic causes of the revolt, and which produced the ‘leaderless opposition’ of which many Egyptians spoke so proudly: given half a chance, ordinary Egyptians did not need parties, movements, or El-Baradei – much less the Muslim Brotherhood – to tell them how to protest, why or against whom. The political and economic inequalities which come with contemporary neoliberalism pose concrete limits to the speed and depth of any such neoliberal reforms. More importantly, these limits and their political implications ought to lead to a re-evaluation of the neoliberal policies themselves."

"Egypt does not need a revolution but a series of radical reforms"

This is like telling Stalin to make radical reforms or/and asking the British to give the Indians (back then) just a tiny bit of political representation...please? What those people who are still camping in Midaan e-Tahrir want counts, and not what the author of this article in London thinks.

"Keep your weapon alert"

I am stuck on this song for Abdel Halim. Was also appropriated by Hezbullah
It goes like this (excuse Ghazzawiyya's lousy translations!)
Keep your weapon alert, alert, alert
If the whole world slept
My weapon will wake it up again
My weapon in my hand
Night and day alert
Calling upon the revolutionaries
Beware the cunning enemy

"committee of the wise"

How lame and arrogant. There should be no negotiation just resignation of Mubarak. Once talks begins, it is an insult to the blood that has been spilt, it is dissapointing to the protestors and it's to the advantage of Mubarak thugs and the American Empire and its allies.

Interview with comrade Iman who has been camping in Midaan e-Tahrir

"The Front Line in Cairo" also conducted by Max Budovitch on his blog Crosstalks

My interview on Crosstalks

"The Media of Resistance" interview conducted by Max Budovitch student of philosophy at Yale. Though I disagree with Max when he says Israel's war with Hamas. Hamas is not equal to Israel in military power, it could be considered as a paramilitary group and does not own F16s, F15s, Apaches, Merkava tanks, and White Phosphorous. Also, Israel launched a (genocidal) war against the Gaza population, and not on Hamas (Cf. Report by PCHR and the Goldstone report)

Newsflash

Amr Mousa stopped watching Aski e-Memnu and went down to demonstrate with the revolutionaries. He thinks he could begin reforms from now, surely, if anyone recognized him, he would be kicked out of the square. So, be on the look out for a disguised Amr Mousa

Hate mail from the Lebanonese Phoenicians

"Hello,
I saw your interview on Al-Jazeera English while you were in London. I am informing you as a Lebanese that you should be embarrassed for your statement that you are "Arab First, and Lebanese Second". What?
I'll tell you to your face proudly: I am not Arab and I am a proud Lebanese. I am Phonecian, not Arab. If you like Arabs so much, I implore you, please go to Saudi Arabia.
It is disgusting to hear you place being Lebanese second to being Arab."

No more dehumanization

This was published on facebook. Killed by the NDP (with complicity of the US and Israel and the official international community) I am quoting:
Ahmad Bassiouny
31 years old
A helping professor of Art at Helwan Uni.
Father of 2 kids : Salma and Adam
He was killed in Tahrir Square‬

Salma Salah
"her friend told me that she was at the protest on Friday, she got a big hit on her head with a stick by amn markazy soldiers, she felt very tired after that and went home, and then she died AT HER HOME on her bed as it turned out that she had [internal bleeding]"

Eslam Bakir
DOB: 01-03-1989
BA of Arts in European Culture , 2010

Ahmad Ehab
Killed on 25 of January Demonstrations

Hussien Taha
born 1992
Studies Law
killed in Alexandria on January 28 (Friday of Anger)

Amr Gharib
25
a graduate from the faculty of Law, Ain Shams University
lives in Hadayek Al Qubba (a walking distance from Mubarak Palace)
Amr was not part of any political party or group. Just one of the unemployed Egyptian youth who has waited for so long for a chance to speak up their minds

Karim Banona
29
Technical Team leader
Father of 2( Omar and Mariam)
Shot in the head by a sniper in Tahrir Square

PS I dislike numbers

Video of the Vodophone demonstration

This is a video of yesterday's demonstration. Thanks Ash (though not sure about the ending!)

Chirping?

Is Hillary still chirping reforms?

They are just trying to scare people

These rumours that are spreading in Midaan e-Tahrir and those calls to Aljazeera speaking about frightening attacks to come are being fabricated by Mubarak goons, by the regime that is trying to hold on to power at any cost, and they are terrorizing people. They are not to be believed. Yes, there will be attacks, but the people have shown that they are much stronger and more determined than ever to bring that regime down.

Ghazzawiyya almost beaten up

While demonstrating today in front of Vodophone in Oxford Street, a woman passed by me and looked at the banner I held. She spoke Arabic, and I asked her to join us. She realized my Lebanese accent and started to scream at me for not being Egyptian and blamed 'people like [me]' for allowing for 'chaos' to happen in Egypt! She said she loved Mubarak and because of '[our] troublemaking' she will lose her beloved Egypt. I told her she could go join her beloved Husni in Sharm el-Sheikh and be his slave on her own. (I never identify myself as a Lebanese but as an Arab first and this is because the territories we were divided into and the nationalisms that emerged after is something we should all be aware of. This is every Arab's responsibility, to go to the streets and demonstrate--if not every subaltern and dissident voice) How pathetic can it get? She reminded me of the March 14 demonstrators and how I was harrassed at school for objecting to their Potato revolution! This is the consciousness that state propaganda and ideology succeeds in creating and consolidating and this is how fascist states persuade their people. Surely people are not dumb, and history has taught us: yes, fascism shocks us with its crimes, but it is extremely stupid and self-destructive--just like colonialism. People get more and more aware of their oppression and they will rise, they have risen. And this is not only about the Arab world, this is about all so called 'third world countries' and people who have been taught by their (hypocritical pro-western) states that they are helpless and can do nothing. Long gone are those days now. Good Bye America, Good Bye Israel

PS Jaban (Jamal) Mubarak has made sure to send some of his thugs to monitor the demonstrations in London

Video of the van running over people

This is the video. It is most disturbing. This is what the US and Israel want, and they are willing to do more than that to keep Mubarak on his throne

Police cars going over civilians

Aljazeera just played a video showing a police car driving fast and hitting civilians on purpose! They drove over people!

They learn from the Zionists

How can you be perpetrator and judge? Ahmad Shafeeq is going down the hard way. It is another insult to the Egyptian people that they have to listen to someone rattle about 'the chaos' in Midaan e-Tahrir, as if he doesn't or we all don't know who caused yesterday's (and today's) attacks. But, what is the greater insult, is that he proposed to investigate! Investigate what? You're own crimes and judge them?

Hitting men and women

Mubarak goons have closed all roads leading to Midaan e-Tahrir, and, from an eyewitness now speaking on Aljazeera, Khaled Ismaeel, said that he was beaten as well as a woman who was trying to enter the Midaan. Another witness, Israa' Abel Fattah, was saying that they are stealing people's identity cards and their phones.

London demonstration today against Mubarak

At 341 Oxford street at 16:30

Mubarak thugs using Vodaphone to send pro-Mubarak messages

Just in: the Egyptian authorities are making the Vodaphone company in Egypt send messages to people in support of Mubarak. Writing this, I could only think of the following video (in Arabic!)

Zionism and its crimes this week

Two Palestinian civilians were killed and a third one was wounded by Israeli settlers in Nablus and Hebron. A Palestinian child was killed in the Gaza Strip by the explosion of a mysterious object apparently left by IOF. IOF continued to target Palestinian workers, farmers and fishermen in border areas in the Gaza Strip a Palestinian worker was wounded.IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank and a Palestinian child was wounded. Israeli warplanes bombarded a tunnel on the Egyptian border south of Rafah. IOF conducted 31 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and arrested 23 Palestinian civilians, including a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and 7 children. Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.Israeli soldiers positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians, including two children. IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. Israeli settlers burnt a car belonging to a Palestinian civilian south of Nablus.
Source: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

Aljazeera source

Three killed by Mubarak thugs and more than 1000 injured from yesterday's attacks till now
(update: 9 killed)

Army complicit

Eyewitness on Aljazeera saying that the army was complicit with the police in attacks against the people. They took food and medicine from the square

Attacking the demonstraters at dawn

From Aljazeera: Preparation are made [by Mubarak thugs] to attack the demonstraters in Midaan e-Tahrir at dawn

Ghazzawiyya

will refrain to blog for just a few hours

Just now from a comrade in the Midaan

A comrade in the Midaan just told me (like what was said on Aljazeera), Mubarak police were wearing normal clothes and attacking the demonstraters. They were throwing gas canisters and shooting at them randomly. My friend also said that a massacre happened today in Midaan e-Tahrir and he estimates around a 100 killed (if not more) and more than a 1000 injured. He said there were paramedics in the Midaan. Women, men, children, elders, are all present in the Midaan. My friend was injured; his right eye and leg, and head were injured. He told me that electricity was cut off, and that only from the place where the goons are attacking, light posts were kept on. His call ended just as he was saying that there were attackers heading his way...
(Ghazzawiyya respects her comrade's wishes to remain anonymous)

Massacre

Just now from Aljazeera, reporters and journalists in Midan e-Tahreer are calling for the army to interfere before a massacre takes place

Mubarak Police force

Hundreds of Mubarak's police force wearing regular clothes in Midan e-Tahrir. They are attacking the civilians

This is exactly what Mubarak kooks want

Chaos. But, we all know what is happening. I mean no state propaganda machine will convince people otherwise. Mubarak and his kooks will try everything they can do... anything at any cost, to stay in 'power' (it's gone) and everything that is happening now in Midaan e-Tahreer was planned and now performed. More bloodshed is expected.

It's a psychological game

And they want to dissapoint the people, hoping they'd agree to their terms. It won't work. There is no dissapointment when you are insulted, you get angry when you are insulted. Angrier and angrier in this case, and anger is (was) not only in Egypt, this anger already spread. Everything is possible now that what was thought to be impossible just happened.

Tents and Food

There should be tents and food provided and no one would leave the Midaan until the people's demands are achieved and until the US and Israel and the rest of their dogs are taught a lesson. Just now, a political activist Jamila Ismaeel is saying they will not be leaving the Midaan.

AlJazeera

I liked the fact that Aljazeera didn't get someone to immediately comment after Mubarak's spoke. Thet just kept live transmission of people chanting against Mubarak's speech in Midaan e-Tahreer. Really amazing..

Good Bye America, Good Bye Israel

So, they sent a convoy earlier today? Here's the result! Mubarak is done and over with,khalas the man is gone. They just want to try to find someone to soothe Israel's fear. I mean, this was practically expected. It's not only Israel's fear, it's every Arab corrupt (all of them) leader's fear and definitely they are flooding Washington with calls for help. And the people are still chanting against him in Midaan e-Tahreer. It's over. Good Bye America, Good Bye Israel. Many people I know and comrades expected this. They want people to get angrier to justify future violence. I mean they tried every excuse and scenario out there... it's just not working. The people are tooooo powerful to ignore not only in Egypt... and no state propaganda media outlet or powerful media mogul can hide that

Cameron fears

The government in the UK introduced a 'Debt Settlement Order' that allows people 'struggling with debt [...] apply to have it wiped off"... I wonder why they introduced this settlement... I wonder why

A missing plane

There is a missing plane that is supposed to pick up Mubarak tonight and head to Jeddah. Anyone seen it?

Those damn planes

Rather than having planes sent to Egypt to take people out, there should be planes bringing people to Egypt who want to join the demonstrators. Bringing down Mubarak, and the Bushes, and the Blairs...

What is Amr Musa doing now?

Watching Ask-i Memnu

Down down down down

From Bashar el Asad to the sons of Hashem to Al Saud to Kuwait and the Emirates... all going down, start counting your days. As for Lebanonese warlords? Those don't go into denial. Rather, they will join Walid Jumblat for matte and pumpkin seeds in his future house in Switzerland... Lest Walid Jumblat finally achieves his long life dream of being a garbage man in New York?(Jumblat once said he would rather be a garbage man in NY than be an Arab leader..)

Fear

Who is in fear now? Who is going down now? The corrupt Arab leaders, Zionists and the evil hands of the American Empire. They are quivering from fear

2 mill

Accroding to Aljazeera, right now, around 2 mill. protestors present in Meedan e-Tahrir (Liberation Square) and its surrounding areas

Self-Orientalist!!

Aljazeera said that Egyptian artisits, performers, actors etc were supporting the people of Egypt and the decision to bring down Mubarak, and then Aljazeera interviews Omar Sharif! --OMAR SHARIF?! This is one self-orientalist (orientalism is racism). He is unprincipled, and I really dislike his acting. He is so taken by himself as someone who got 'internationally recognized' by 'Hollywood.'

'Those are from Gaza not Egypt'

Yesterday a comrade from Jerusalem told me that one of the Mubarak state propaganda channels hosted a journalist that blamed Ghazzawi men 'who came from the tunnels' for the vandalism and theft crimes in the streets! Tell her that her beloved Mubarak has been stealing from the people for thirty years. He stole what could never be retrieved; freedom, happiness, dignity and hope. Tell her that she might join him in complicity in punishment for war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza and against his own people---Ah, and tell her to fuck off!

Denial of denial!

There is nothing worse than denying you are in denial. Aljazeera went to gather opinions in the 'Saudi street" (could someone please locate that for me?), and most of the people they spoke to really repremanded Mubarak and called him an unjust dictator... what about your dictators?! I mean, hypocricy at its worse, denial at its most worrying. People are repressed in most cruel ways, blinded by a pro-western culture industry that supports state ideology. Demonstrators in Ribat in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Almansoura, Damanhour and every corner in Egypt, and one of their chants is 'from Cairo to Ribat, reactionary-ism under our shoes!' Every Arab country needs liberation (except Lebanon that will dissolve into its surrounding... again you can't 'liberate' Lebanon from a regime, it is made up of governments not one government, each sectarian warlord has his only clan and following, and there is no 'regime' inLebanon anyway)
(again, excuse Ghazzawiyya's lousy English translations!)

Erdogan

He gets very excited and supports the Egyptian people's revolution, then he says we took care of evacuating Turkish citizens and helped them leave Egypt smoothly. He speaks about democracy as a basic human right, and he forgets the plight of the Kurds in Turkey.