Global March

Image from Global March to Gaza X Page

We were pushing our baggage carts through Cairo International Airport when I spotted my mom waiting outside through the double gates. I curbed the instinct to call out and wave furiously because I knew my mom would run towards us to hug all of 5 of us in the middle of the walkway. An age-old tradition that I’m sure irks whoever is stuck behind us in the meantime. We walk out and are hit by a familiar – and in that moment, very welcome – blast of thick hot air. Amina and Sina yell “Vivi!” and run towards my mom as she scoops them up in a welcome home hug. A few minutes later, we meet up with my dad and Mariam. Ahmed and Salah were in Sahel to help Salah chill and unplug before his wedding which was coming up in a week – a bachelor’s trip. Before long, we’re all nicely situated in my dad and Mariam’s cars.

We arrived Thursday June 12^th, just a few days before the Global March to Gaza and the allied Tunisia-led Sumud Convoy towards Rafah were scheduled for take-off on June 15^th. So of course, after general check-ins, the March is the first topic we launch into. Cole casually asks, “so what’s been happening in Egypt?” and my dad doesn’t skip a beat. He acknowledges the nobility of the March sentiment but very quickly swerves into the security risk it poses. He talks about the thousands who would come in - some known entities and many not. About the Sudanese and Libyan border threats and weapons leaking in. About Tunisian activists describing how this is a Muslim Brotherhood/Zionist plot to overthrow Sisi and destabilize Egypt. About the general sensitivity of the Sinai border with Gaza and Israel. About the inevitability of escalation – whether planned or not – and the position that puts the Egyptian army in.

I acknowledged the undeniability of the security threat. It wasn’t hard to imagine feelings getting heated when Israel inevitably did not respond to the mass of protestors demanding that the border be opened for humanitarian aid. Maybe one protestor yells in frustration. Another throws a stone. Before you know it, others are following suit. It’s not hard to imagine the Israeli side opening fire in response. What is the Egyptian army to do then? I certainly don’t ascribe to the cheap “it’s a ploy to embarrass Egypt” line, but I understand that many Egyptians will find that compelling. And I acknowledge that it is a tricky situation. And can easily turn into a flaming crisis that swallows an already tempestuous Egypt whole. And that wouldn’t further the Palestinian cause by an inch.

For me, it wasn’t that these weren’t real hypothetical threats. It’s just there is also a real non-hypothetical active crisis already happening. It’s been almost 2 years and governments – including the Egyptian government - haven’t done much to change the situation for Gazans. There’s been UN resolution attempts and a lot of mediation. I have lost faith in all these diplomatic behind-the-scenes measures but no longer blame the Egyptian government for its failure on that front. The whole system of international law is broken and biased. Even though I wish the Egyptian government had the balls to take a stance that was steeped in dignity and a refusal to bow down to all the political calculations that plague the Palestine Question and ultimately freeze it – and us - into this same unpalatable stalemate. And I wish Egypt would lead a global south revolution against the affectations of such a broken system. I also understand that Egypt is not that hero right now. I also understand that as an average citizen, I do not see the full geopolitical picture – security and otherwise - and do not bear the same responsibility that decision-makers bear if things go to shit and thousands more die. So I have the freedom to dream and speak revolution without necessarily bearing the weight of the repercussions of said revolution.

At the same time, I do not believe then we – as civilians, citizens, individuals - should just roll over and succumb to the security-heavy analysis that governments often have. If I accept that governments have information that I as an individual am not privy to, and that this necessarily informs their decisions, then I will also have to accept that my job as a citizen is different than that of government.

I am not making the decisions. I am trying to inform and affect them. I have virtually no power as an individual. But as a collective, maybe we do?

Each of us sees things in the world too and have our own analysis of how they fit in our own personal moral paradigms. And when something happens out in the big bad world that is mighty enough to shake our collective moral foundation, it is our job to express that as a priority so our respective governments can take note and, ideally, act accordingly. I think this surpasses the traditional democratic-authoritarian government calculus. Even authoritarian governments don’t want massive discontent among their populations.

This where I see the global march being significant.

Instead of protesting in distant streets, it was aiming to protest at the border. Turn things up a notch. Raise the stakes and force governments to weigh people’s discontent differently. Maybe break the humdrum of the news cycle. Since as individuals we often feel powerless in the face of the ongoing atrocity, this was an attempt to amplify our collective voices. I read it as an attempt to primarily pressure the Israeli government and other governments of the world, and not Egypt per se. The global march explicitly said as much. That its efforts were aligned with the Egyptian government’s efforts.

But then the inevitable crackdown happened. People were deported, detained, and attacked. Those coming from Tunis were stopped at the East Libyan, Haftar-controlled, and Sisi-aligned city of Sirte. Those who made it to Isamilia were harassed by police and allegedly by government-sponsored thugs (an all too familiar phenomenon in Egypt and elsewhere). That said, the fear of some Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy has been ramped up enough that it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine “concerned citizens” taking matters in their own hands. Either way, the effect is the same. The March’s progress was halted and the whole effort soon after aborted.

A shame.

Part of me imagined they would actually make it to Arish and eventually to Rafah and was curious what would happen. Another part was not at all surprised that it didn’t even make to Sinai.

And I think the activist backlash against the Egyptian government was both understandable and justified, but also redundant. We already know the Egyptian government is weak and repressive. I also found myself being frustrated by the fact that the security arguments of the anti-March camp were not being acknowledged and addressed as legitimate concerns. It felt like both parties were talking past each other in a familiar counter-productive manner. There’s no denying that Egyptian government has had a horrible human rights’ record (always but particularly these past 10-12 years), particularly when it comes to handling protests. It is not qualified. But even democratic government’s as stable as the US were being guided in their belligerent response in the LA anti-ICE protests for example by a similar set of tropes. It saddens me to say it, but why would or should we expect a highly dependent peripheral government like Egypt’s to employ a more sophisticated approach to perceived security threats than the US? I can’t even imagine what the US or European response would’ve been if it was flooded by thousands of people that weren’t “vetted” ahead of time by some rigorous visa-application process (since you can just get visas at the border in Egypt). Though the Egyptian government originally welcomed the effort, they also stressed the need to follow regulations - which in and of itself is a reasonable request. Some complied and coordinated with embassies ahead of time, but many wouldn’t have needed to. And I imagine it would have been difficult to parse out. A justifiably paranoid Egyptian government (especially from the Sumud Convoy branch) was just never equipped to handle that scenario. Even though I wish it had acted differently and used that global support more intelligently to bolster the Palestinian cause, I guess it would’ve been unreasonable to expect it to behave otherwise.

**

My dad and I continued ping-ponging thoughts in the car with a healthy dose of cordial yelling. This time there were no hard feelings. We got home and got together for a late lunch: mesaqa’a, mahshy warq-enab, kofta Dawood-basha.

The next morning, we woke up to news of Israel attacking Iran. A few hours later, I bed my trio farewell and left to Sahel with Mariam and Cole to join my brothers and Salah’s friends. It was a delightful mix of swimming, beach lounging, tawla-playing, Ali-Nada teasing, Ali Talaat delicious meat grilling, fish-eating, middle of the night Ahly-match-watching, and play station games. Lots of belly-cramping laughter. We unplugged and celebrated Salah. But the March and Iran were always weaved in our conversations.

A few days after we returned from Sahel, Salma came over for a morning run with me and Cole. At the end of which, we were greeted with my dad and – of course – we started talking about the March and the crackdown. By then, my dad was more solidly in the Egypt’s-security-comes-first camp and was more quickly agitated. Salma works in the human rights field and was relaying all the talking points from the complete opposite side. I felt like I was caught in the middle agreeing and disagreeing with both. It got heated pretty quick and shortly after I found myself crying in the bathroom and avoided my dad till the next day.

Salah’s wedding was the next day though, so we had to make peace. I apologized because I got way out-of-line with him and we let it go. But some remnants of some thing still lingered in the air between us.

Salah’s wedding was Friday June 20^th. We haven’t yet talked about the March or anything political.