Solidarity struggle

Egyptians are fed up with their government's indifferent reaction to the Qana massacre, report Pierre Loza and Mohamed El-Sayed

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Demonstrators in Tahrir Square, Cairo, protest the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and brandish placards of Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Hassan Nasrallah

"Demonstrate against Qana massacre, today 7pm, Talaat Harb Square." The 50-year-old Laila Sweif received the short message from an unknown source on her mobile at around 3pm on Sunday. Traumatised by the bloodbath scenes in Qana she had watched on TV earlier in the morning, Sweif was the first to show up in Talaat Harb Square to vent her anger at "the Egyptian regime's shameful response to the war crimes committed by the Israeli army in Qana".

As the number of demonstrators rose, security forces were given orders to curb the demonstrators and prevent others from joining them. "Get out of here! We don't want soldiers in this area," shouted the defiant Saada while brushing aside a column of soldiers.

Perhaps Saada dared to fight with riot police because she has been attending demonstrations for the past 30 years. But the unprecedented amount of destruction and bloodshed inflicted on Lebanon prompted other people who never thought about politics or demonstrations before to join the crowd. "What I have seen this morning in Qana on TV is beyond belief," said Sophie, a girl who has never been to a demonstration before. "The least I can do is to show support for the victims of this war," she explained. From now on, Sophie will join every demonstration and will be "silent no more", she declared.

So vociferous and passionate was veteran leftist demonstrator Kamal Khalil's voice that it echoed in the country's landmark square. "Down with Mubarak! Long live Lebanon and Palestine," shouted Khalil at the top of his lungs. He accused Mubarak of betraying the Lebanese and Palestinian causes. "Today it's Lebanon, tomorrow it will be Egypt," he warned.

As has been the habit in the pro-Lebanon demonstrations, domestic issues like the recent surge in commodity prices, corruption, inheritance of power and the escape of Al-Salam ferry owner featured prominently. "We have gone bankrupt, Mubarak!" shouted Khalil glancing at the statue of Talaat Harb, founder of Egypt's modern economy in the beginning of the past century, standing in the middle of the square that bears his name. The wave of high prices due to raising the price of petrol drew harsh criticisms from demonstrators. "Neither the World Bank nor the CIA will control us," the clamorous crowd yelled. They wondered about the whereabouts of the ferry owner who caused the death of more than one thousand passengers in March.

Asked whether the demonstrations would pressure the government to do something, Sweif said that "if we managed to force the government to stop exporting natural gas to Israel, then it would be a success." The aim of the demonstration, she added, was "to convey a message to the Lebanese people that it's the Arab rulers, not peoples, who betrayed them."

On Monday, another big demonstration took place in Tahrir Square. As has been the habit in the past demonstrations, the word spread through mobile phone SMS messaging. What would have taken activists days to organise, now can be done in a matter of hours. Last Monday's Tahrir Square protest spurred by Israel's Qana massacre, was probably the most emotional. At least one thousand people gathered in Tahrir Square to voice their outrage at Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Palestine and the alarming surge of civilian casualties. As usual the security presence was overwhelming, Central Security cordoned protesters off in the hope of not obstructing the flow of traffic. At one point a senior security official began screaming at Central Security officers, whose units began squeezing protesters into a ring of security personnel. At his orders, Central Security retreated easing the pressure on protesters and allowing them some mobility within the expansive ring. Protesters ranged from everyday people of all ages, to political activists, who sometimes used props to get their political message across. One demonstrator was carrying a doll which resembled the corpse of a child, while another had plastered his mouth with a black ribbon to signify the silence of the international community. Anti-Israeli as well as anti-American slogans were chanted with the occasional jab at the Egyptian political establishment. The ubiquitous tradition of burning the American and Israeli flags was one of the climaxes of the demonstration. Harsh criticism of Arab leadership was quite prevalent in the protesters' chants, which portrayed Arab leadership as a tool of American policy in the Area. A new phenomenon that emerged was the rising popularity of Hizbullah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. There were a couple of scuffles with security personnel at around seven o'clock, as the demonstration was slowly dwindling to its end.

On Friday, as has been the habit since the beginning of the Israeli aggression against Gaza and Lebanon, more than seven thousand demonstrators demanded the expulsion of Israeli and American ambassadors from Egypt. They also asked the government to let them travel to Lebanon and Gaza for a holy war. On the same day, 3000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood organised a demonstration in Shubra following the Friday prayers. In Giza Square, the banned group organised another demonstration in which more than 2000 protesters harshly criticised the fatwa issued by Saudi clergymen denouncing any support for the Shia Hizbullah.

In the western Delta Governorate of Beheira, the Brotherhood organised two separate demonstrations. One of the protests included 1,400 children. And in Mansoura, more than 20,000 protesters took to the streets holding Hizbullah flags and Hassan Nasrallah's photos. And in Fayoum, security forces banned members of the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kifaya) from demonstrating.

Other demonstrations are scheduled to take place on Saturday and throughout the coming week.

"Why don't you let us freely express our feelings?" Sweif, who broke out of the siege organised by riot police forces, angrily asked the senior riot police officer.

"We sympathise with you but we can't let you do as you please," the annoyed officer replied. The heated discussion between the demonstrator and the officer ended with Sweif being beaten and dragged away.