Reprinted from The Electronic Intifada
In response to calls from our fellow human beings and comrades in Gaza who ask that we bring an end to Egypt’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza.
To all people of conscience. To all of you who understand the interconnectedness of our many human struggles for justice and dignity, we implore you to act in solidarity with Palestine as Gaza burns and bleeds, gathers and buries the lifeless bodies of her children, and contends with carnage, despair, and loss for which there is no language. From our sisters and brothers in Egypt, we ask the same.
More than 1.8 million human beings have been under a suffocating, deadly siege imposed by Israel and accommodated by the Egyptian government, that severely restricts all movement of people and products, creating in Gaza what has been described as the biggest open air prison in the world subject to frequent Israeli attacks as a laboratory to test and market new Israeli weapons. The average age in Gaza is 17 years, with half under the age of 16. They are a defenceless civilian population, densely packed into this besieged enclave with no place to run or take refuge from Israel’s full-on military onslaught.
The cynical claims that Palestinians are forcing Israel to kill their children lack the basic requirements of logic and minimal vestiges of humanity. No one is forcing Israel to commit genocide or to target infrastructure like hospitals, schools, and the only electric plant in Gaza. Purposefully, of their own volition, Israelis are using the most sophisticated death machines against civilians: children, families, medical facilities and aid workers. Meanwhile Israel maintains a violent and brutal aerial, land and sea siege on Gaza.
The Egyptian government controls one border and has the option to be part of a humanitarian response to the besieged people of Gaza rather than support the Israeli plan for return to the status quo of slow genocide. Many people in Gaza are desperate to avoid slow death by savage siege, hunger and lack of medical care and demand to live like normal human beings, but feel the only option Israel gives them is to die quickly by carpet bombings and wanton mass destruction which Israel now mercilessly executes.
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry stated that the Rafah Crossing into Egypt is “open.” “We receive injured daily from Gaza, as we pass more than 600 tons of aid through.” However, between 10 and 27 July, The Egyptian government has allowed an average of just nine wounded people a day to cross the border from Gaza to Egypt to receive medical treatment and several aid shipments of medical supplies and even doctors were denied entry. In light of the actual number of wounded in Gaza, at least 6,500 as of July 29, 2014, the Egyptian government’s allowance is condemnable.
Egypt must help their sisters and brothers in Gaza. The Egyptian government must refuse complicity in Israel’s genocide of a population they hold captive.
Here’s how you can help:
● Go to your local Egyptian Embassy or consulate and demand the Egyptian government open Rafah crossing immediately and end its complicity with Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza.
● Flood embassy phone-lines/email with messages of protest.
● Write letters to print media holding Egypt complicit and similarly deluge radio/tv and facebook etc.
● Raise your concerns with MPs and Provincial Legs.
Please communicate your actions and the Embassy responses to us via email at: openrafahnow@gmail.com
What the people in Gaza need from us right now is for us to write email or go to egyptian embassies and ask for co-ordination to go to gaza to give humanitarian assistance and when /if they refuse we make a noise and lots of it.
