Gaza Freedom March Dispatch #3

By Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn January 1, 2010 CAIRO, EGYPT—Yesterday [December 31], a spirited, highly visible and noisy demonstration held sway at a central traffic point—the Nile Corniche—across from the Egyptian Museum for seven hours, affixing huge banners in Arabic and English to trees and fences. In Gaza, a peace march took place including the 80 Gaza Freedom March [GFM] participants who were able to enter the blockaded and occupied part of Palestine. More than 500 people converged in small groups at the museum at 10 a.m. to press for freedom for Gaza and Palestine. Police blockaded the small hotels where marchers were staying, preventing dozens of people from leaving for several hours, and harshly attempted to contain the demonstration. As the groups came together in the street, numerous marchers were clubbed to the ground, kicked and thrown into the center of Tahrir Square where police barricades and circles of Egyptian security quickly closed in. Those covering the action, observers, and members of the legal team, were seized by security police and pushed into the square. Medical team personnel treated gashes, lacerations, broken noses and bruised ribs. As has been true all week, Egyptian citizens who joined in or manifested support were treated most severely or taken away. The day before, the French GFM delegation had gone to the pyramids; someone faked an illness and while security forces moved in to respond, they unfurled a giant Palestinian flag across the pyramid. From that photo, they made an enormous color streamer, stamped with GAZA, now rippling in the square. The endless stream of Cairo traffic (23 million people live in this city), buses, taxis, cars and crowds, heard and saw the protest. At 11:30 p.m., under a full moon, we participated in a candlelight vigil in Tahrir Square, where we danced and sang in the New Year. Five days of rallies, actions, frustration and setback: The GFM wanted to enter Gaza 1,400 strong to express solidarity with civil society, witness their struggle for survival and self-determination, and join in a massive peace march. Instead, we found ourselves in Cairo for the week, a determined group from 42 countries trying mightily to realize our original goal in different circumstances. In the end, we found unity among differences, common ground, and new alliances. There was a gallant effort to make a way out of no way, to keep focused on Gaza and the needs and desires of the Palestinian people, and to press forward to a more robust international peace and justice movement. If there was a silver lining here, perhaps this was it.