FORMER EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR: ‘I’LL SUE CAIRO GOVERNMENT FOR CLOSING RAFAH CROSSING’

Cairo, 26 Ramadan 1435/24 July 2014 (MINA) – The official Egyptian position not to open the Rafah border crossing a crime against humanity, adding that “this position is not consistent with international law, or at least Egyptian law”, former Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ambassador Ibrahim Yousry said.

Yousry continued, in remarks published by the newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, saying: “The United Nations confirmed, in a report it issued, that the closure of the Rafah crossing is considered a crime against humanity,” Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting Thursday.

He revealed that he “would file a lawsuit against the Egyptian judiciary to compel the current powers to open the crossing forthe wounded Palestinians.” He said he “had filed a similarlawsuit during the rule of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, demanding Mubarak, former Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi, and former Interior Minister Habib Al-Adli be tried for war crimes.”

Sorry Gaza

Mahmoud Sadeeq in his article titled “Sorry Gaza, Egypt is besieged at the moment” published in MEMO, 22 July 2014, wrote The events happening today are what the Zionists wanted out of the 3 July military coup in Egypt. They understood the coup early on when they made an effort to overthrow President Mohamed Morsi’s government when he surprised them by dealing direct blows during their 2012 war on Gaza.

The current period is when Israel will test its new strategic treasure in Cairo and reap the rewards of their plan; it will also test how much control it has over neighbouring governments after the coup against the elected president, by seeing how strong its contacts are in the new government.

“I would like to remind those who stay silent about Gaza that Morsi turned Egypt into an operations room to respond to the Zionist aggression and Egypt was a link between all the political and resistance forces in the region; it was visited by the Turkish prime minister, the Emir of Qatar, and the head of the political bureau of Hamas.

Morsi played all his cards at once against the Zionist enemy to exhaust all political options and put Israel’s aggression directly in the line of fire of the angry people. This was understood by the political circles in Israel. He also recalled the Egyptian ambassador from Israel, opened the Rafah crossing and sent the Egyptian prime minister to Gaza while it was being attacked. Supplies and aid were sent in, putting a political stranglehold on the other side,” Sadeeq said.

Today, we see the standard of loyalty from those who claim to be the elite as they fuel popular fascism with their rotten understanding and make their livelihood by calling on Israel to hit Gaza and end the Palestinians’ resistance to the occupation. Some have called Netanyahu directly to tell him to strike Gaza.

Do not be surprised; this is the stage that Egypt is going through at the moment, a time when its evil has spread across the country and honourable individuals have all but disappeared. I never imagined before now that I would see in Egypt individuals who want to bury the resistance and regard the resistance members as their strategic enemy, regardless of whether or not they agree politically with Hamas. However, our national constants, values, ethics and conscience do not allow us to overlook these matters as easily as the corrupt media does now.

The Zionist enemy exploits the region’s preoccupation

The Zionist enemy does not work in vain and has always been skilled at corralling the unruly people in the region, until Morsi was elected president and surprised Israeli decision-makers with the accuracy of his moves during the 2012 crisis. However, normal service was resumed very quickly, albeit less discretely. The Israelis exploit the region’s preoccupation with the hot topics of Iraq and Syria in order to strike at the capabilities of the resistance and provoke the situation in Egypt even more, putting the coup alliance and opposition groups under more pressure.

In addition to this, launching a military strike on Gaza tests regional reflexes, especially after Iran’s rapprochement with the US over its nuclear programme. Moreover, the timing of the strike is a political brownie point for Israel’s ruling coalition and weakens the Palestinian negotiators. Israel will not provide the coup leader with services in exchange for those provided to Israel; instead, it will gather more points from the mess made by the politicians in Egypt.

The Palestinian issue cannot be uprooted from the hearts of the Egyptians who have been raised to believe that the enemy threatening us are the Israelis and their supporters, not the resistance fighters who defend the honour of the nation. We are past the point of talking about the revolutionary slogans that ignite the hearts of the people and drive them to support the Palestinian cause, and we will not assess the coup government and its performance during the confrontations and conflicts along the eastern border of Sinai.

I cannot say that we are at a standstill, although the political elite and forces in Egypt have imprisoned the Muslim Brotherhood and are now counting on the positions of the men who had betrayed their religion. Where are they now and what are their positions? Can they voice their anger at the murder of innocent children and the violation of all international conventions and international laws, the support for which they insist upon continuously? Or was that macho-rhetoric only reserved for Morsi’s rule, and has the coup leader been successful in not only locking up these men, but also taking their voices away?

We are sorry Gaza; those who were defending you are now in prison. However, your cause remains in our hearts, and although the positions change and vary, victory is coming. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)