Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters gathered at the Israeli Embassy early on Sunday to mark the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, commonly known across the Arab world as the “Nakba”, or catastrophe.
Among other demands, the protesters called for the “right of return” for Palestinians forced to flee after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
The protesters displayed Palestinian flags of varying sizes, some of them hung from nearby lamp posts. They simultaneously called for the removal of the Israeli flag from the embassy.
The crowd seemed mostly comprised of younger, independent activists, unaffiliated with any particular movement or party. However, some identified themselves as members of the Youth of the Revolution, an umbrella organization uniting several Egyptian revolutionary youth groups, while a small number wore green headbands that read “Mohamed’s Army”.
“In the old days, the Jews feared Mohamed’s Army,” said Amr Ghoneim, one of the protesters. “We have our religion and God’s strength to support us, and they know this. If we waver now, we will never succeed.”
Not all the protesters present were motivated by religion.
“The Israeli government is worried by the revolutions now happening in the Arab world,” said Ibrahim Helmy, 29. “They will benefit by putting them down, and we can’t let that happen. We all deserve freedom, including and especially the Palestinians.”
The crowd also included a minority of Palestinians, including a mother who claimed that her sons had been killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Protesters chanted in praise of her courage and in honor of her children.
“This is a message to the world, to all of humanity,” said Ali el-Sholouki, a middle-aged protester with a kofeya, or Palestinian scarf, draped around his shoulders. “Egypt does not want ‘normal’ relations with Israel. The past Egyptian regime does not represent the Egyptian people and it never has. We have always supported the Palestinians and their right to freedom.”
“The intifada will never die,” protesters cried out in unison; one of an assortment of chants designed to champion the Palestinian people, and insult the “Zionist government”, labeling them as “thugs” and “thieves”.
“The people demand the liberation of Palestine,” went one chant, an echo of a popular chant from the 25 January revolution, and other uprisings across the Arab World.
Many in the crowd also voiced frustration with the armed forces, who, two days earlier, prevented a scheduled convoy of protesters from reaching Gaza for the commemorative day.
“Those who quarantine their own people are nothing but conspirators,” one protester with a megaphone led the crowd into repeating. “They are nothing but foreign agents.”
A row of armed soldiers guarding the embassy refused to acknowledge the protester’s attempts at involving them through chants questioning their allegiance to their country and the Palestinian people.
The entrance to the building was heavily barricaded by two large steel barriers, a truck, and soldiers.
Residents of the building that houses the embassy showed their support for the protest by hanging Egyptian flags from their windows. The crowd erupted in applause when one resident unfurled a Palestinian flag.
An almost deafening cheer swept through the crowd shortly afterwards, when several protesters succeeded in hanging a large Palestinian flag from the minaret of a mosque directly across the street from the embassy.
Protesters also burned Israeli flags and then drew replicas of the flag on cardboard and burned those.
At the time of publication, the protest is continuing to grow as activists who were unable to reach the Rafah border crossing with Gaza make their way back to Cairo.
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