Al-Qalam 
Egypt is facing immense pressure from Israel not to allow the “Global March to Gaza” to proceed to the Rafah border this weekend, but will Egypt bow to the demands of the Zionist state?” Ismail Suder reports.
A delegation of 53 South Africans is boarding flights to Cairo to join a global solidarity protest at Egypt’s Rafah border to demand an end to Gaza’s blockade – but the event is mired in uncertainty as Israel has threatened punitive actions should Egypt allow the march to proceed.
South African delegation Coordinator Basheerah Soomar said the aim of the march, from 15th to 19th June, was to pressure Israel to open the Rafah border so that the convoy of food-laden trucks could enter Gaza to feed its 2.3m starving people.
When approached for comment by Al-Qalam, several people who were booked to fly out yesterday were understandably tight-lipped and even refused to speak anonymously for fear they might be blocked at Cairo airport.
The expected 3000 protesters aim to march from the town of el-Arish, through the Sinai Desert to Rafah, a distance of 45km, with many hoping to camp along the route.
But, according to Israeli media, the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz has warned Egypt not to let the pro-Palestinian activists – whom he labelled as “Jihadists” – to enter the country as they would destabilise Egypt and endanger the stability of other “moderate Arab governments.”
Katz said the pro-Palestinian group has ideological overlaps with Hamas and is seeking not just to help with humanitarian aid, but to help Hamas in its struggle to continue as the rulers of Gaza.
Katz threatened that if protesters were to force their way through the Rafah border gates – and should Egypt fail to stop them – Israeli forces will take “necessary measures” to prevent them from entering Gaza.
Already, reports are emerging that groups of Arab delegates have been prevented from entering Egypt.
Meanwhile, Nkosi Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, told Al-Qalam that he was on his way to Cairo to join the Global March to Gaza.
In a subsequent international press briefing, Mandela thanked the organising team of the Global March to Gaza for their humanitarian efforts.
He said South Africa’s struggle for freedom from Apartheid was tied to the struggle of the Palestinian people, saying that both the South African struggle and the Palestinian struggle were intertwined and “we continue to be a voice of the oppressed throughout the globe”
He said the Global March to Gaza was organised because many governments that were supposed to uphold international law and ensure humanitarian aid gets into Gaza have failed them.
He called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to support the Global March to Gaza, and also called on airlines in the region to bring in tons of aid for distribution to the starving people of Gaza.
Roshan Dadoo, a member of the South African Solidarity Campaign, said during an interview that the Global March to Gaza was a people’s movement to try and force humanitarian aid to get through.
“There are reportedly around 9000 trucks waiting to get in…at the same time we see pictures of devastation of the ongoing bombing – and starvation being used as a weapon of war by the Zionist state of Israel. So that’s what people are saying, ‘enough is enough’, it’s up to us, the people, but we don’t think that the Governments of the world should be let off the hook either,”
She said Western countries are “most complicit” in the Genocide, especially the US and the UK, that is funding genocide by sending arms and money to Israel.
She said it was thanks to the global BDS movement that Israel’s economy is tanking.
Dadoo (who is Jewish) said South Africa’s government, ironically, is selling coal to the Zionist state.
“We are calling on our own government to stop selling coal to Israel that fuels the genocide and fuels the occupation”, she added.
