Did anyone think about
spending the Eid holidays with our stranded
brothers in El Arish - Egypt to bring them
joy instead of their families in Palestine?
They've spent Ramadan, Eid Al-Fitr and Eid
Al-Adha far away from their families?
We thought .. and we've
done it ..!!
The group of internet
activists who went there for the first time
last July, went back and spent the holidays
with the "Prisoners of Crossings"
caught in El Arish.
We surprised them and they
were happy to see us "again".
We all felt the joy of Eid among them and
their children.
They told us that at the
first day of Eid they were crying of
oppression and grief for being away from their
families for over 6 month now and in the most
beautiful days, and everyone wonders and so do
we... For how long is this tragedy going to
continue?????
The kids have missed the school year, the
people there became ill because of the
oppression and humiliation and for being away
from home and family..!!
The first thing we thought
about was visiting our brothers in custody in
El Arish police stations.
After they were grouped together in El Arish
Police station 2, they have been deployed to
all El Arish stations which are 4.
We went to all 4 stations and visited the 12
people there in custody, we said happy Eid and
we left them money. They were so happy to see
us and they said they knew we'd come back to
visit them. Abdullah was so kind, he refused
to take the money and asked us to give it to
his friends in station 4 as they need it more
than him.
Then we went back to the
stranded, we brought them some winter clothes,
as those people have been here since summer,
some meat and money.
All of these things were
too little for the 1700 people stranded in El
Arish as they were the efforts of individuals
not associations..
Our main goal was to be present among them in
Eid holidays, we wanted to be there instead of
their families in this occasion.
We heard stories that break the hearts, we saw
the tears of men and women, and we knew that
an Egyptian family in Rafah is hosting 5
Palestinian families after they ran out of
money and have no shelter. Those people are
good and respectable people who were
humiliated by the Egyptian government and
Abbas.
As for Our brothers in El
Arish Airport, they are facing tragic conditions
and they're completely isolated from the world
and no one knows anything about them. We call
on international organizations to intervene to
know what is happening to them in El Arish
Airport and Why can't we visit them?
All of them ask a very
simple question which I have no answer for,
"For how long" is this going to
continue ???????
And I ask the government of Egypt, President
Hosni Mubarak ..For how long is this tragedy
going to continue?
For how long they will remain away from their
children and their families??
Really and truly no one can take it
anymore..!!
Our stranded brothers are
suffering beyond belief, we, they and the
Egyptian people ask the government of Egypt to
"Release" them and let them return
back to their families and their homeland with
the return of pilgrims to Gaza, and to open
the Egyptian-Palestinian Rafah crossing
PERMANENTLY..
These are our DEMANDS and
we insist on them..!!
On behalf of the Internet
Activists,
Iman Badawi
