Egypt's Blow-torched Wall of Shame
Wall of Shame
Of Greed and Shame
Prejudice - Shame of All Nations
Maid In Lebanon: A List of Shame
Inclusion of Veena Malik - A shame
This is the real Egypt. The shame of Mubarak is only on Mubarak and his ilk. Real Egyptians love and stand with the Palestinians.
The authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak is building a wall with $400million of American aid and the assistance of the U.S. military. The wall is not to the benefit of the Egyptian people, but simply meant to further blockade the besieged Gaza Strip.
Since Israel has imposed a blockade in 2006, the 1.5million Palestinians in Gaza have built literally thousands of tunnels underneath the border with Egypt where Egyptian merchants are eager to sell to Palestinians both for profit and nationalist solidarity.
This has undermined the blockade, albeit the blockade still has an awful effect on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. And many Palestinians are unable to make a living due to the blockade. But as bad as it is, it would be worse were it not for these tunnels that allow Palestinians to import thousands of goods with everything from food to cars to the "special goods". These are professional tunnels running miles and with air ventilation systems.
Egypt's wall is meant to block them by being build tens of meters into the ground and made of heavy material. This is too the great shame of Egypt. But the American Congress, at Israel's behest, cut aid to Egypt because of alleged listlessness in stopping the smuggling tunnels.
And Egypt, being a client regime, does not want to disappoint its patron and the regime wants something from the U.S.: Mubarak wants to see his son Gamal succeed him. And Arab regimes believe the path to Washington's heart leads through Tel Aviv. So Egypt is punishing the Palestinians on Israel's behalf in order to avoid a backlash from Washington and secure future favors.
Alas for Egypt, America and Israel the back-up wall has been turned into a big humiliation by the resolute Palestinians:
The smugglers who sneak consumer goods, cash and weapons into the blockaded Gaza Strip have cut hundreds of holes in an underground steel wall Egypt is building along the border to try to stop them, two Egyptian security officials said Thursday.Rare footage filmed by AP Television News showed one smuggler cutting through the barrier with a blowtorch. The smuggler, his face covered by a scarf, said it took him five hours to breach the obstacle. Hundreds of tunnels running under the Egypt-Gaza border deliver consumer goods to the Hamas-run territory, bypassing a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt three years ago. In recent weeks, Israel has eased its blockade by allowing most consumer goods into Gaza again through land crossings, and smugglers say they are more concerned about the competition from legitimate imports than about the wall.
Hurray for Palestine!!!
