Egypt denies U.S. rights activists entry to Gaza
Dozens of U.S. citizens hoped to ask the American ambassador in Cairo to arrange entry to Gaza.
By DPA Tags: Gaza Israel newsEgyptian security forces on Tuesday prevented dozens of American activists from reaching the U.S. embassy in Cairo, where they hoped to ask the ambassador to help them reach the Gaza Strip.
Riot police surrounded 41 U.S. citizens and one Egyptian trying to reach the coastal strip to protest Egypt and Israel's blockade of the territory, preventing them from approaching the embassy.
The police stopped the activists on a side street near the embassy and kept them there for hours, before allowing them to see consular officials in groups of 10 at a time.
"We have three people inside the embassy right now. We believe the U.S. embassy asked Egyptian state security to act against its own citizens and prevent them from entering the Embassy," Gael Murphy, one of the activists, told the German Press Agency dpa.
"We are outraged as U.S. citizens about being detained simply for trying to get to our embassy," she said.
U.S. embassy spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.
Organizers of the Gaza Freedom March say 1,300 people from around the world came to Egypt to try to enter Gaza to deliver aid and to participate in a peaceful march protesting the closure of the Gaza Strip's borders.
Since the activists were told last month that they would not be able to march on Gaza, they have staged a series of small protests around Cairo.
U.S. citizen Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, on Monday said she would go on hunger strike to protest Egypt's refusal to allow the march to proceed.
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No nation has an obligation to have an open border with a neighbour, and certainly not one which is lobbing rockets at the same nation. If Gaza wishes to carry on foreign trade it is free to do so by its seaport!
I, for one, consider the Jews who escaped Europe just ahead of the extermination camps just as much "Holocaust survivors" as the ones who were rescued from them after the end of the Third Reich. If anything, they deserve props for being able to see the danger and getting out before the Nazis kicked in their doors.
CJ what are you waffling about? The period from 1935-1939 is characterized by laws afgainst the Jews. The term "holocaust" defines the 1939-1945 period, the years of the extermination.
Who stand up for what is right and just. There used to be much more of them. And shame on the US-backed Mubarak dictatorship. We pay them billions of US$s per annum to support Israeli state policies. Mubarak is equally complicit in the immoral lockdown of the Gaza ghetto
Thanks for the info. Actually all european jews (even those born after WWII) are holocaust survivors.
Go read the hate infested Egyptian media against Israel and the U.S to see their a Jihadist country
This siege must end now! i don't support you anymore!
The false claim that she is a Holocaust survivor is made only for propaganda purposes
these fools don't know what a 'peace march' even is, but it's a good thing egypt is not just letting these idiotic unwitting human shields for terrorists cross the border. we don't need them enabling any suicide bombers in the name of 'peace'!
I got an idea! Instead of wasting time in Gaza with people that are simply not interested in peace, but instead looking to strap bombs onto 5 year old kids. Why not send these protesters over to Iran to protest there? These people are being killed right and left by their own government! It seems our wonderful U.S. president, who claims he's for the little people, is certainly not interested in Iran's freedoms because he believes it's not his business to get involved. Didn't realize "hope and change" also meant "ignore and tax".
It always strikes me as to how fat people are in Gaza and how much food and material they have. Its a welfare land that has more food then it knows what to do with. The garbage bins of Gaza have more food than most people in the world ever see in their lives all wasted. These people are spoiled and the lies about hunger are just that, lies. Like the Goldstone report and many other fabrications.
are you talking about the mainstream media? if so, look up the word...COMPLICIT!
martin luther king jr.once so famously said "we will either learn to live together as human-beings, or we will surely die together as fools"!
It is such a shame that Egypt is only receiving orders from Israel and the US. It has no shame to support this cruel boycott of Gaza. All activists shall be blessed for their personal curage to break the siege. I am sure that there are quite some Holocaust survivors that are identifiing with them and who feel ashamed to see Israel acting with such a cruelty against its native people in Gaza.
This whole aid thing is a scam. There is no starvation happening in Gaza. Too many examples of pictures showing oveflowing food markets make my point. If the Gazans were starving to death .....the news media would be filled with the stories.
hey Bibi,it is time to show some spine and some self respect and not to jump whenever your master Hussein Obama says jump
Hedy Epstein is a fraud. She is not a Holocaust Survivor. She fled to Britain in 1939.She calls herself one for public relations.
She has made a career of lecturing about the Holocaust, but she is not a Holocaust survivor. She was part of the 1939 "Kindertransport" to the UK and spent the war years in England. Her behavior and her claims shame real Holocaust survivors.
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to get to Gaza. Whether it works or not, you made my Christmas this year. A Palestinian Christian from Nazareth wishes you the happiest of new years and hopes for justice for Gaza in the months and years to come.
A sign of emerging greatness! Shows what a little common sense can achieve. Bravo Hossni! The UK could learn a thing or two.
Egypt classes itself as a sovereign state, but in reality it's just another marionette of the US and Israel. The thirty pieces of silver it receives from the US government each year, apparently more important than human rights - no wonder the Muslim Brotherhood are so popular in Egypt!
There is no great love for Israel from Egyptians, but keeping Israel happy seems to be necessary for Egypt to receive annual payments from America. Israel has such a stranglehold on the American congress, they can have Egypts allowance cut in a flash. This happened three years ago when Israel complained to America that Egypt was doing a poor job of border security. Within a week, the congress made a substantial cut from their annual payment to Egypt. In response, Egypt began shooting to kill anyone that approached the border of Israel. Jordan is in a similar situation regarding bowing their head to Israel. Israelis are tolerated for economic ties, but they are hated just as much as they are in other Arab nations. Maybe more.
Seriously, these people are just bumming around Jordan and Egypt trying to get to Gaza? Where does their money come from? No need for a day job? Looks like lots of these foreign trouble makers are just career students (private school, then undergrad, then grad, then phd, then teaching in private schools, and the cycle repeats itself). Don't know -- doesn't seem too serious of a group. Forget these guys. Let them into Gaza, and then don't let them out. Problem is that there are so many terrorists there that their security can't be guaranteed. So they will go there, get in trouble, and then others will have to risk their lives to save them. Like people who climb mountains, unprepared, and then others have to go up and get them. Let them make their own beds, and deal with the consequences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Epstein