EGYPT BANS FOREIGN ACTIVISTS TO ENTER GAZA

Cairo, 5 Jumadil Awwal 1435/6 March 2014 (MINA) – Dozens of Gaza-bound female activists have protested at Cairo airport after they were barred from entering the country.

A delegation of 58 activists, mostly French, arrived in Cairo on Thursday morning from Paris and planned to travel to the blockaded Palestinian enclave through the Egyptian Rafah border crossing, Egypt’s Ahram reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

“Only fifteen of the 58 women have been barred from leaving the airport. Six have left and the others refused to enter the country in solidarity with their banned colleagues,” an airport security official told MENA.

At least eleven women later left on flights to Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt after the French consul asked the French nationals to leave, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Egyptian authorities have previously stopped activists from entering Gaza claiming, the Rafah border crossing has been closed since last month while troops ‘destroy smuggling’ tunnels and wage an offensive against militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

Some officials say the activists could have been used to embarrass the interim Egyptian government.

Egyptian authorities are in dispute with Gaza’s ruling Hamas, which they accuse of inciting violence in the country, while  Hamas insists the party never interfered Egypt’s internal affairs.

Airport authorities plan to deport the women, who have begun a sit-in and have refused to leave the airport. At one point, they laid down draped in Palestinian flags.

Egypt has deported 13 international activists this week, including Northern Irish Nobel Laureate and peace activist Mairead Maguire, and held up others who had been planning to visit Gaza.

The co-founder of US-based anti-war group Code Pink, Medea Benjamin, said on Tuesday that Egyptian police had fractured her shoulder while deporting her from Cairo airport. 

Egyptian officials deny Benjamin was assaulted, saying she refused to leave despite being told the Rafah border was closed because of military operations in the area.

The delegation of pro-Palestinian activists was supposed to be led by Djamila Bouhired, an icon of the Algerian war of independence from France, but it is unclear if she arrived in Egypt.(T/P03/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)