Mr. Olmert, Tear Down this Wall!

by juan cole (reposted)

Thu, Jan 24, 2008 7:53AM

From a Wednesday, January 23, 2008 entry on Informed Comment, Juan Cole's blog

Mr. Olmert, Tear Down this Wall!

The Egyptian government mounted a small demonstration of defiance of the Olmert government in Israel on Thursday. Palestinians destroyed the blast walls that artificially box them in to the tiny, slummy Gaza Strip and cut them off from their natural markets in Egypt. Perhaps a fourth of Gaza's population then flooded into the nearby Egyptian city of Rafah to buy food and supplies, breaking the Israeli blockade on these innocent civilians.

Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, appears to have ordered Egyptian troops not to interfere, though he did try to block Palestinians from traveling into Egypt from Rafah.

Helena Cobban has insight and analysis on this issue, blaming the fiasco in part on Bush's recent clumsy visit to the region.

See also Richard Silverstein.

And here is the video:

For more information: http://www.juancole.com/2008/01/mr-olmert-...

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§Gaza/Egypt wall

by curious

Sat, Jan 26, 2008 10:17PM

The wall is between Gaza and Egypt. Israel has nothing to do with it. Why have the Egyptians walled off their Arab bretheren?

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§"Israel has nothing to do with it. "

by not true

Sun, Jan 27, 2008 12:55AM

The wall that was torn down was built by Israel and Israel was the one that was demanding that Egypt keep the Rafah crossing closed. Egypt is a dictatorship that fears Hamas since it is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood that would win any fair and free election in Egypt, but it also depends on US money and the US and Israel are mad about the current open border...

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