Solidarity fatigue

While Palestinian prisoners continue their hunger strike, Mona El-Nahhas finds Egyptian solidarity efforts feeble and half-hearted

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On 15 August, more than 1,800 Palestinian prisoners began a hunger strike to protest against the conditions they are being subjected to in Israeli occupation prisons. The prisoners vowed to continue their strike until Israeli security bodies responded to their demands for proper and humane treatment. With Israel seemingly intransigent to the prisoners' demands, analysts lamented what they called the lack of regional, and specifically Egyptian, support for the prisoners' cause.

Critics said the only thing Egypt had done on an official level was to contact international organisations with the aim of putting pressure on the Israeli government. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit sent a letter to UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan urging him to immediately intervene to contain the escalating situation.

On the non-governmental level, meanwhile, support was limited to the convening of symbolic gatherings and conferences. One such event took place at the Press Syndicate headquarters on 25 August. Expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, conference speakers condemned the brutal crimes committed against the detainees. The conference accused Israel of violating the Geneva Convention stipulations regarding the treatment of civilians during times of war, as well as all the other principles laid down by international human rights covenants.

The conference also called upon Arab media entities to expose the Israeli crimes and activate the boycott campaign against Israel.

Ahmed Gabara and Zeyad Abu Ein, two Palestinian prisoners who were released last year, were in attendance to provide first hand accounts of the torture they had been subjected to in Israeli detention centres. Palestinian singer Abeer Sansour was also there to express -- in song -- her support for the prisoners.

A similar gathering took place at the Lawyers Syndicate on 26 August. Amidst a heavy security presence, dozens of lawyers gathered in front of the syndicate building chanting anti-Zionist slogans and condemning the Israeli occupation.

Another protest took place before the headquarters of the International Red Cross in Mohandessin last Monday. Organised by the Popular Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada, a group established in the wake of the September 2000 Intifada, the protest only lasted for 30 minutes. Invitations had been widely distributed, but the turnout was relatively weak. In fact, the security contingent, which had cordoned the street and stood on alert, outnumbered the participants, the majority of whom were members of the committee itself. A delegation then submitted an official appeal to the Red Cross calling for the protection of the prisoners' rights, before the gathering quickly disbanded.

Opposition party solidarity was also similarly lukewarm and rote. Only the leftist Tagammu Party issued a statement voicing its complete support for the striking prisoners, and called upon the Egyptian government to bring greater pressure to bear on Israel. The party also held a solidarity conference on 19 August; during which participants staged a symbolic two-hour sit-in strike. Tagammu Party Secretary-General Hussein Abdel-Razeq admitted that the party, along with the rest of the opposition movement and civil society, had not done enough. Abdel-Razeq said the current state of affairs reflected an unfortunate reality: that the popular support movement that burst into action in Egypt following the Intifada had been tremendously weakened in the meantime.

Whereas people with vastly differing political affiliations had previously been eager to take action to express their support with the Intifada, the trend has clearly fizzled out. Throughout 2001 and 2002, large demonstrations took place in Tahrir Square and at universities. Thousands of people had participated, and numerous sit-in strikes and rallies organised by different civil society organisations had taken place. Abdel-Razeq blamed a widespread crackdown on anti-war political activists following the start of the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 for the gradual deterioration of the popular movement supporting the Palestinian Intifada.

Bar Association Secretary-General Seif El-Islam Hassan El-Banna said the US adventure in Iraq had actually diverted much public and media attention from the Palestinian issue.

Abdel-Razeq also blamed the worsening economic conditions in Egypt itself for the slackening of popular interest in the Palestinian cause.

In any case, he said, the ongoing gap between official and popular attitudes towards the issues of Palestinian resistance and normalisation with Israel had demoralised many of those who had previously been active in the popular solidarity movement.