Israel and Egypt eye movement on peace process

Moves to do so, however, have raised anger in Cairo, not only with Egyptians but with international protesters marking the anniversary of the Gaza war, which started this week a year ago.

Bad time for Netanyahu visit?

In Cairo, local press focused on reports of a new Egyptian security wall on the border and autonomous cells of international left-wing activists staging disruptive protests across the capital. Given that, some in Cairo say Netanyahu’s visit is coming at a bad time.

There is concern that Egypt has little to gain from the talks and could wake up on Wednesday feeling – and looking – like Israel’s accomplice.

“I am afraid that my country will find itself in the same position that it was this time last year during the Israeli invasion of Gaza,” says Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst at the government-funded Al Ahram Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Egyptian government will look like a partner in Israeli action against Gaza and Palestinians in general, and that also looks like action against the Egyptian people themselves.”

For the past week, Egypt’s Gaza woes have been a hotter topic than usual in parliament and the press.

Its leading independent newspaper has published daily reports on the construction of a new underground steel wall along the border with the Gaza town of Rafah, which is meant to sever smugglers’ tunnels used to supply the embargoed Hamas-controlled enclave.

Activists blocked

Then there are the activists. Egypt has blocked as many as 2,000 international activists from travelling to its border with Gaza, leaving 500 stranded in the Jordanian port of Aqaba and 1,500 in Cairo.

Unable to deliver their humanitarian supplies, the activists, part of the Gaza Freedom March, have decided to protest at Western embassies and UN buildings across the city, sparking havoc in some neighborhoods with sit-ins and an overwhelming response from Egypt’s feared state security service.

On Sunday, between 250 and 300 French nationals staged a sit in outside the French Embassy in the Cairo district of Giza, completely obstructing a major eight-lane thoroughfare and block traffic for three hours.

Cairo is unaccustomed to this kind of direct action. In response, state security corralled the demonstrators onto the sidewalk in front of the embassy and held them there with several hundred baton-wielding riot police for two days.

On Tuesday morning, weary-looking French protesters wrapped in black-and-white checkered Palestinian scarves and bright green t-shirts that said “Viva Palestina!” – including a number of elderly women – were being slowly released from their makeshift pen in twos and threes.

Some seemed intent on regrouping elsewhere in the city for another protest, while others looked badly shaken and just wanted to leave.

“The police said we have to get out of here now because otherwise they are going to assault us,” said one young girl, who would not give her name. “They say we don’t have a right to be here.”

Loubna Amar, another protester leaving the scene of the sit-in, was angry at Egypt for blocking their attempt to travel to Gaza, despite having previously approved their plan to travel to the Rafah crossing.

Gesturing at the bedraggled group of protesters, and the rows of riot police surrounding them, she joked, “we started to call this the Giza Strip.”

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