Egypt police injure 7 Gaza Freedom Marchers

Seven protestors were injured as Egyptian plainclothes police turned violent at a Cairo street demonstration organized by peace activists.

Nearly a thousand Gaza Freedom Marchers, representing 42 different nationalities, brought the Egyptian capital to a standstill at one point when they sat down on a main road in Tahir Square, Press TV’s Yvonne Ridley reported.

The surprise demonstration took Cairo police by surprise after they blockaded a hotel nearby where nearly 30 of the GFM were staying.

Around 700 maintained their sit-in for 20 minutes until police reinforcements arrived to remove the defiant peace activists who were chanting: “We want to march to Gaza.”

Mick Napier, the chair of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said, “The police used excessive force and at one stage several female protestors were punched and kicked. A couple had their hijabs ripped away from their head.”

“Many of us were taken aback by the naked aggression of the police as this was a non-violent protest. Around 1,400 of us arrived in Cairo a few days ago to go to Gaza but a travel ban was imposed and we’ve been stuck in the capital.”

The 10am protest moved to a nearby stretch of pavement where around 400 activists remained throughout the day until dusk before dispersing. They were surrounded, at all times, by hundreds of riot squad officers with hundreds more on standby.

Several days earlier the Gaza Freedom Marchers were publicly criticized by the Egyptian Foreign Minister who particularly attacked the European section calling them “hooligans, conspiracists and anarchists” and labeled them “bad Europeans.”

Ahmed Aboul Gheit’s remarks so incensed the campaigners that 100 delegates who had been chosen to go on two buses to Gaza as a token gesture from the Egyptian Government that they refused to go.

Hedi Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, who was due to go to Gaza on Wednesday said, “We decided we either all go or none of us go and that’s exactly what happened. All the chosen delegates withdrew.”

Their seats were taken instead by around 20 Palestinians who wanted to see their families in Gaza as well as a group of visiting journalists from South America, the US and Europe. There was also a small delegation from the American anti-war group Code Pink and a handful of rabbis from the anti-Zionist movement Neteuri Carta.

The seven injured yesterday were said to be not in a serious condition although a couple were being monitored overnight.