Oppressive Egyptian Dictator Hosni Mubarak, By Latheef Farook

Sold the soul and dignity of Egypt to Zionists

Divided and weakened the so called Arab front

Betrayed the Palestinians

Helped Israel implement its evil designs and consolidate its gains of aggression

Egyptian police attacks in Cairo on the group of people who brought urgently needed food and medical supplies to starving Palestinians in Gaza exposed the lowest depth to which the oppressive Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has sunk.
In the Middle East there are 22 Arab countries with a population of around 300 million. Some of them are floating in wealth. As pointed out by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza? we are proud of the fact that we are 1.5 billion people, one in every five is a Muslim, have 53 Muslim countries, built the tallest building, biggest airport, and biggest racing track and control the petroleum needs of the world.

?However when it comes to Gaza-Muslim world simply does not exist?.

No Muslim country or Muslim organization lifted a finger to help the 1.5 million Palestinians who were forced to starve by Israel and Egypt due to their economic blockades which deprived them of food, medicine, fuel and all other essential supplies since June 2007.

While the Muslims, especially the Arabs turned  blind eyes to the sufferings of Palestinians in Gaza, around 1400 compassionate people from 42 countries, belonging to all religions, races,  languages and cultures, marched almost a month from London to Gaza to help the starving Palestinians. They are peace loving Americans, Arabs, Jews, Africans, Australians, Britons, Canadians, French, Malaysians, Norwegians, Turks, Swedes and Venezuelans

They included high-profile figures from author Noam Chomsky, 85 year old American Jewish woman and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire to diplomats, doctors, lawyers , students, inter-faith groups that included rabbis, priests, imams and others

With the money raised from neighborhood they bought food and medical supplies, food for babies, ambulances, mini-buses, vans and lorries and left London in a convoy of around 250 trucks on 6 December 2009  with the hope of reaching Gaza on December 27–marking the anniversary of Israel’s 22-day military strikes and  draw the world’s attention to Israel?s horrendous crimes in Gaza .

Jointly organized by Viva Palestina known as ?Gaza Freedom March?, founded by British Parliamentarian and international activist George Galloway and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK, this humanitarian gesture was as a sign of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and highlights their sufferings aimed at lifting the blockade.
While the entire Arab and Muslim world with all their wealth and human resources slept, 85-year old Jewish lady Hedy Epstein embarked on a hunger strike in Cairo to protest the ongoing blockade of Gaza. She is a Jewish Holocaust survivor whose parents perished in Auschwitz in 1942, emigrated to the US in 1948 and first visited Palestine in 2003. Revolted by the Israeli Government?s oppression of the Palestinians, she has devoted her life to drawing public attention to Israeli cruelty.

On its way the convoy enjoyed safe passage through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria and Jordan where they awaited at the port town of Aqaba  to enter Egypt. However Egypt refused permission. Inevitably they went to the Syrian port city of Tartu?s – a 230 km long around five hour journey before going by ship to the Egyptian port of El Arish in the hope of reaching Gaza via Rafa.

85-year old Jewish lady Hedy

Tired and exhausted they spent New Year?s Eve under tents in dreadfully cold temperatures at night while the rest of the world ushered the arrival of 2010 with cheers and fireworks. Extensive illuminations and celebrations turned some wealthy Gulf Arab cities into mini Vatican.

Disgusted at Hosni Mubarak?s inhumanity the British anti-war activist Galloway said: ?We feel very sad that Egypt has turned us away on Christmas Day, but we hope they will reconsider. This is a very determined convoy and we’re not going anywhere except to Gaza." 

Egypt, subservient to Zionists and having sold its soul to the US dollar, tried to split and weakened activists by allowing only 84 of the 1,400 to enter Gaza. However the activists rejected the offer and around 200 of them demonstrated in Central Cairo on 31 December 2009. Meanwhile the French delegates camped out on the grounds surrounding the French Embassy in Cairo, flanked by two lines of Egyptian police. Hundreds of activists demonstrated and started sit-ins when the police, in its barbarity, punched and kicked them in their faces that resulted in the broken ribs of one of these jewels of human beings. 

Displaying its savagery Mubarak?s police thugs also beat women to the ground, detained them violently into pens at Tahriri Square and forcibly detained them in hotels around Cairo. In the process a French citizen Marie Renee, traveling with a French delegation of approximately 300 nationals, died in the Cairo Hospital from injuries sustained at the hands of security forces.

Criticizing the Arabs over their failure to send aid convoys to the besieged Gaza George Galloway added that ?It is a shame that this convoy [Lifeline 3] is coming from Europe and not from the Arab countries?.    

British MP George Galloway in Damascus on December 21, 2009, during his campaign to aid Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Why this Jewish-Arab Cruelty on Palestinians in Gaza?
In a spotless democratic election held in January 2006 under the supervision of former US President Jimmy Carter who described it as free and fair, Hamas was elected with an overwhelming majority. This is what democracy is about. However Israel and its partners in crime against Palestinians – US, UK and France – wanted their Palestinian stooge Mahmud Abbas of the PLO who obediently implement their evil designs on Palestinians.

However Israel, to starve and punish Palestinians in Gaza into submission, cut off the flow of all money needed by Palestinians to keep body and soul together. It was not the end.  Israel and its prot?g? US entrusted the dirty work of overthrowing the Hamas government to Mahmoud Abbas who was given a bribe of $ 42 million and arms by Anti Muslim war monger George Bush, a servant of Zionism, to precipitate a civil war, shed more Palestinian blood and crush Palestinian democracy. George Bush also established a secret military camp in Jericho at a cost of US$20 million – part of the cost for this was met by some Arab regimes claiming to be guardians of Islam and Muslims.

As a result the Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to cruel forms of starvation since June 2006. The situation continued to deteriorate on a daily basis with Egypt, in collaboration with the Palestinian Authority, also sealed its borders with the Gaza Strip to please US and the Zionists and cut off the coastal enclave from the rest of the world in mid 2006.

Unprecedented shame. However that is the reality the Middle East where the dictators who rule the region have sold their souls to US and Israel.
In the midst of all this, while the world was busy watching the World Cup Football Championships Israel, under the pretext of responding to the alleged kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, bombed Gaza Strip with its F-16 fighter planes and destroyed within days roads, bridges, power plants, water supply, universities, schools, hospitals, play grounds, mosques, tombs and ministry buildings causing untold misery to the already starving Palestinians. In an unprecedented lawlessness and violation of international law Israel also killed 275 Palestinians including 46 children and started mafia-style abduction of Hamas cabinet ministers, mayors and parliamentarians.
As usual Arab dictators with their medieval mindset turned blind eye while there was deafening international silence.

As a result Gaza?s local industries were forced to shut down, leaving 90,000 labourers jobless. There was no fuel to keep the plants running because Israel imposed a complete blockade with no movement in or out of the Gaza Strip for people, or any kind of shipments in of vital food, fuel supplies and medicines. It was a slow death described by many as a form of genocide. Palestinians were made virtual prisoners in their own homes. This was a grave war crime and in the aftermath of World War II German leaders were sentenced to death for lesser crimes. 
This situation continued for 20 long months until 17 January 2008 when Israel imposed a complete blockade and shut down Gaza?s only power plant, plunging the entire territory into chaos. They were only allowed to breathe the air which Israel Egypt and their other Arab collaborators could not block.

The fuel shortage affected every aspect of life in Gaza. People could not go to work, patients? hospital attendance dropped and universities were forced to shut down before the end of the school year as students and teachers could not travel.
Medical facilities lacked specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, hospitals have been under even greater pressure, due to shortages of equipment, spare parts and other necessary supplies.

People started queuing for bread, but there was no bread – as it could not be made without electricity. Connections with the outside world faded as mobile phones and laptops ran out of battery power. In desperation, Palestinians tried to enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing, but the Egyptian border guards drove them out. Over 1000 Palestinians went out to the streets begging the world to end this cruel enforced starvation to death.

Princeton academic Richard Falk described Israeli-Egyptian siege as ?a prelude to genocide? while John Dugard, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories described it as serious violations of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention which governs Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Unable to bear the suffocation, Hamas demolished the towering iron and concrete border wall that Israel erected since 2003 and broke open the Rafah border allowing hundreds of thousands to burst out and shop for desperately needed supplies in Egyptian border towns. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans crossed into Egypt. In this unbelievable movement of joy and freedom they traveled by foot, car, truck and donkey cart .The highway was jammed with packed taxis and pick-up trucks whose beds were filled beyond capacity and racing from Egyptian Rafah to al-Arish. Some journalists have called it a huge ?jail break? and Gazans felt a deep exhale of relief and some joy – both rare commodities in this forsaken land. However this was short lived freedom as the border was closed once again. 

Essential services jeopardized.

With no other alternative the trapped Palestinians later started digging underground tunnels to smuggle essential supplies from Egypt to ensure their survival. As if these oppressions were not enough on December 2008/January 2009 Israel, the fourth largest military power in the world, fully backed by the US and Europe declared war on Palestinians who had only stones and mortars to fight with. They killed around 1400, men, women, children and the aged. In this genocide Egypt, Palestine Authority, Jordan and Saudi Arabia collaborated with the Israel.

Even a year after the war today there was no end to their sufferings and, despite the billion dollar promises from Saudis, not a cent reached the Palestinians. Their destroyed houses remain in shambles and they are in sheer desperation and frustration. Despite this unprecedented cruelty and crime against humanity, on the request of US and Israel, Egypt started building an underground electronic iron wire fence wall to prevent Palestinians from using even the underground tunnel to bring in their essential supplies which keep them alive.

This shameful iron fence was justified by the Al Azhar University?s Islamic Research Council. However there was swift condemnation of this barbarity as its intention was to block all outlets to Gaza, aggravate the Palestinians hunger, humiliate them and intensify the pressure to force them surrender to Israel.

Condemning the statement Hamas said; our beloved Prophet said ?When a pin pricks a Muslim the entire Umma should feel the pain". What is happening in Gaza is not a pin prick, but outright genocide. The support of non – Muslims put to shame these so called Islamic scholars who are nothing but paid servants of Mubarak and their learning are like donkeys carrying massive load of knowledge.

They asked how come Al-Azhar issued an edict that allows the starvation of one and a half million Palestinians instead of condemning the closure and demanding the opening of the Rafah crossing to help the besieged people in Gaza.

Dismissing the Al Azhar statement well known Islamic scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, President of IUMS, said: Egypt has no right to support the killing of its brothers and neighbors in Palestine. This is clearly unacceptable.

In the Glorious Qur’an, Almighty Allah says, (The believers are but brethren) (Al-Hujurat 49:10). Also, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "The Muslim is the brother of another Muslim; he does not wrong him, let him down, or desert him." He (peace and blessings be upon him) also said, "Support your brother, whether he is the oppressor (by preventing him from being so) or he is the oppressed." The Prophet did not say, "Besiege him, starve him, or put him under pressure in service of your enemy."

It is Egypt’s obligation to open the Rafah Crossing for the Gazans, because it is their only way out. This obligation is enjoined both by the Islamic Shari’a and by law. No law authorizes the tightening of the grip over the people of Gaza or consents to becoming accomplices in killing them.  Blocking the tunnels by Egypt is tantamount to saying, "Palestinians may die, but Israelis must live."

Each and every Egyptian, Arab, Muslim and honorable person have demonstrated chagrin over this senseless and inhuman construction of iron wall. This is very similar to the road map of Israel. It is hard to believe that after Palestinians suffered oppression from the Israeli’s erection of the apartheid wall that, Egypt would follow suit and construct another wall that is mainly in service to the Israelis.
I appeal to all my brothers in Egypt to stand united against their regime and urge it to refrain from committing this crime. I call upon the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to stop this tragedy.

I wish that Egypt (Hosni Mubarak) would fear Allah and support our wronged and besieged brothers, and that it would safeguard itself against the supplication of the oppressed and afflicted brothers in Palestine. Allah raises the call of the oppressed one over the clouds and opens for it the gates of heaven and says, "By My Might and Glory, I will render you victorious, even after a time."

We seek Allah’s protection against every oppressor and his arrogance. O Allah, we are defeated, so make us victorious, and wronged, so avenge us. We supplicate you, so respond to us, O You Ever-Alive and Eternal concluded Qardawi.

However reiterating his cruelty Mubarak declared on Sunday 24 January 2010 that "fortifications along our eastern border are a work of Egyptian sovereignty, and we refuse to enter into a debate with anyone [about them]." Days before Egypt tried to block sea routes for Gazans aimed at complete suffocation to force them to surrender to Israel.

Hamas’ al-Masri said "Egypt’s steel wall does not serve the interests of any Arab party." "The Israeli occupation benefits from it, because it has killed the last lifeline keeping the Gaza Strip alive after two and a half years of siege."

It was under these circumstances that compassionate Muslims, Christians, Jews and others brought the essential food and medical supplies in their food convoy only to be harassed and blocked by Egypt. Finally the convoy was allowed to enter Gaza through Rafah border crossing on and on the following day, 7 January 2009, the aid was delivered in Gaza amidst jubilation by the people. George Galloway, the hero of the day, was carried on shoulder by the people. Enraged Egyptian government deported George Galloway on 8 Friday January 2010.

Yvonne Ridley , well known British journalist  who was in Cairo as a  member of the aid convoy, pointed out that  the day after Hosni Mubarak?s  foreign minister  Ahmed Aboul Gheit  sneaked into Britain for a 30 minute  secret meeting with British Foreign Minister  David Miliband ,Egypt unceremoniously deported  George Galloway  within 48 hours after his Viva Palestina humanitarian aid convoy had victoriously reached Gaza.
She added that ? Galloway was roughly manhandled by Hosni Mubarak’s secret police – probably the very same secret police who tried to punch Yvonne Ridley in the face and rip off her hijab … these thugs succeeded in doing that to other Muslim women during a street demonstration in Cairo and video evidence is plentiful should you doubt my words?. 

Mubarak got his police thugs to attack  Galloway-a man who in the eyes of the Muslims worldwide is a hero for having led hundreds of European, American and Turkish people into Gaza bearing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of aid after an exhausting four week long journey with many trials and tribulations on the way. In a few years time the names of Aboul Gheit and Miliband will be long forgotten in their own countries never mind overseas, but I’d like to bet the name of George Galloway will live on for a few generations in the Middle East as well as London’s East End where he represents his constituents with the same passion, courage and vigour stated Yvonne Ridley.

Egypt under Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak, with his military mindset, was made president, in the aftermath of the assassination of President Anver Sadat in 1981, by forces which controlled politics and military in Egypt and not by the people. The Egyptians and the other Arabs, particularly the Palestinians, expected Mubarak to end what the Arabs considered as the humiliation caused by Anver Sadat?s agreement with Israel.
Instead Mubarak sold his soul, his country and the great Egyptian people for the US dollar and the Zionist political patronage. Starting from eight year Iran-Iraq War, Gulf war and US ?UK invasion of Iraq to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Mubarak was quite shameless and heartless in standing fully behind the US-Israeli war mongers. 
Shameful state of affairs in Egypt has been such that a leading member of Mubarak?s own party and close Mubarak aide Mustafa Al Fiqqi said in an interview with the independent newspaper?Al Masry Al Youm? on Wednesday 15 January 2010 that: ?Unfortunately, Egypt?s next president needs to be approved by the US with no objection from Israel.

No doubt Mubarak?s period will certainly go down as one of , or the, darkest chapter in the history of Egypt known for its great ancient civilizations .Mubarak?s subservient to US and the Zionists for his political survival surrendered Egypt?s soul and dignity besides divided and weakened the Arab front and betrayed the Palestinians. This in turn enabled the Zionists to continue their designs and consolidate their war gains to the detriment of not only Palestinians but to the entire region which is destined to suffer for generations to come.

Protester beaten by Egyptian police (photo -Viva Palestina)