Pro-Gaza rallies scarce in tense, weary Egypt

CAIRO - In the wake of 2011’s popular uprising, Egyptians staged a number of major demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause against the Israeli occupation.

But three and a half years later - particularly since last summer’s protests which led to the ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi – demonstrations supporting the next-door Gaza Strip have been scarce despite an ongoing Israeli assault which left over 1,500 Palestinians dead in less than a month.

“There can be no comparison between Egypt’s current political mood towards the Palestinian cause vis-a-vis the immediate aftermath of the 2011 uprising,” Tarek Fahmi, Israeli affairs expert at the Cairo-based National Centre for Middle East studies, told Middle East Eye.

According to observers like Fahmi as well as youth activists in Egypt, there is more than one reason for this apparent change.

Then and now

In the first two years since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Egypt saw a number of major pro-Palestine demonstrations.

In September 2011, The Israeli ambassador to Cairo was forced out of Egypt for several weeks after thousands of angered Egyptian protesters attempted to storm the Israeli embassy headquarters following the killing of Egyptian soldiers at the border with Israel.

The ramifications of the incident posed a level of tension unprecedented since the signing of a 1979 peace treaty between Cairo and Tel Aviv.

In November 2012, thousands of Egyptians also rallied in several Egyptian cities at the onset of an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip which left scores of Palestinians dead.

Such massive show of support sharply contrasts with a near-absence of popular pro-Gaza mobilization in Egypt - a crucial force in the perennial Arab-Israeli conflict -, largely linked to harsh restrictions now imposed by Egypt’s military-backed government on the smallest of protests.

“The brutality of security forces in quelling protests has drastically affected the ability of any group to organize massive rallies,” activist Zizou Abdou, a  member of the now-outlawed April 6 youth protest movement, said.

“It’s difficult to gather large numbers of protesters behind any cause when protests are met with live fire and a massive number of protesters are in already in jail,” he added.

Ever since last July’s military ouster of president Morsi, The Egyptian government unleashed a continued crackdown on dissent which entailed a zero-tolerance policy for demonstrations.

The crackdown largely targeted Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails. The decades-old Islamist group had been a key mobilization force for pro-Palestine rallies, largely due to its ideological links with Gaza-based resistance movements.

Over the course of the past year, hundreds of protesters – mostly from the Islamist camp – have been killed and tens of thousands said to be behind bars.

Last November, the heavy-handed security approach was exacerbated by the issuance of a legislation which includes imprisonment penalties and allows security forces to forcibly disperse unauthorized protests.

 “Security forces fire at our protests within minutes of setting out,” Hamza Sarawy, a spokesman for the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy - Morsi’s main support bloc - said.

“This overwhelming degree of repression has grossly hindered our ability to organize widespread street activities in solidarity with Gaza,” he asserted.

Morsi’s supporters, who continue to stage limited rallies in parts of Egypt against the government, have included pro-Gaza slogans and banners in their recent rallies in response to calls by the Alliance.

“Gaza will remain an essential cause to Egyptians,” Sarawy said. “We cannot forget about this cause no matter the restrictions we’re facing” he added.

Moreover, after the country saw continuous protests which often turned to violent clashes, many Egyptians have now become apathetic to demonstrations altogether especially after protracted political turmoil took a heavy toll on Egypt’s already debilitated economy.

“I don’t have the energy to even follow the news anymore,” teacher and mother Marwa Naguib, 32, said.

“I have enough on my plate from increasingly heavy daily burdens,” she added, citing the government’s recent decision to raise energy prices as a “necessary measure” to relieve a swollen budget deficit.

This sense of weariness has also contributed to an inability to mobilize for the Palestinian cause by grassroot youth groups which spearheaded the call for the 2011 uprising, Abdou argued.

“It was easy to bring normally apolitical people out to the streets amidst the revolution’s initial momentum,” Abdou said.

“However, it’s almost undoable now, especially when the youth force itself is drained,” he added.

In 2012, scores of activists were able to get into the embattled Gaza Strip during Israel’s eight-day “Pillar of Defense” assault which ended after Cairo – under Morsi – brokered a truce between Israel and Palestinian factions.

But earlier this month, security forces stopped Abdou and dozens of other activists short of the mostly-closed Rafah border, stating security concerns for barring their entry despite Abdou’s assertion that the convoy had obtained all the required permits.

“We managed to raise 2.3 million pounds in donations for aid supplies to deliver to our brothers in Gaza but our real purpose was to assure them that the Egyptian people haven’t forgotten about them,” Abdou said.

Campaign on Hamas

The Egyptian government’s repression of the Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group has included a campaign against Hamas, the group’s ideological offshoot which remains in de facto control of the Gaza Strip since 2007.

The campaign was supported by most pro-army Egyptian media as well as a number of political and public figures, with much of the rhetoric backing a harsher Egyptian stance on Gaza as long as Hamas is in power.

“I no longer consider Hamas a resistance movement nor trust its political leaders,” 33-year-old accountant Mostafa Ahmed said.

“Hamas is using Israel’s assault on Gaza’s innocent people to win back the sympathy they have lost due to their links to the Brotherhood,” he added.

In the wake of Morsi’s ouster, Egypt outlawed Hamas’ activities and prosecuted a number of its members in absentia on charges of espionage and sponsoring militancy in the country. The decision came a few months after the government designated the Brotherhood as a “terrorist organization.”

Moreover, the government imposed tighter border restrictions with Gaza and destroyed hundreds of tunnels built to get around a years-long Israeli siege on the strip, accusing Hamas of involvement in a series of deadly attacks on security forces in Egypt over the past year.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Hamas is at least coordinating with terrorist groups in Egypt,” Ahmed said.

“President al-Sisi is just trying to secure our border,” he added.

Former Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, widely considered the chief orchestrator of Morsi’s ouster, was declared the winner of a late May presidential poll.

Abdou, the activist, says the approach towards Gaza’s plight by the Egyptian government and media over the past year has been “disastrous.”

“The government is trying, through the fanatical media, to convince people that supporting Gaza means supporting terrorism and that Palestinians are traitors,” he said. “It makes me feel deeply ashamed.”

Sarawy echoed the same sentiment. “The military regime and its media machine in Egypt seek to turn people against the resistance only because it’s led by Hamas,” he added.

The regime’s actions against Hamas as well as skewed media coverage in Egypt, especially by private outlets controlled by pro-regime businessmen, has significantly affected the public’s view of the Palestinian cause, Fahmi opined.

“For the first time there was no massive popular mobilization across the Arab world against an Israeli assault on Gaza,” Fahmi noted.

“To a great extent, this is a reflection of the shift in Egyptian public discourse towards the Palestinian cause,” he said.

Yet, in symbolic challenge to the status quo, pro-Gaza slogans could still be heard on Egypt’s streets during Morsi’s supporters’ dwindled protests as Israeli attacks rage on: “Gaza, you’re our pride.”