The Global March to Palestine sees peaceful activists from around the world joining together to bear witness to Israel’s manufactured humanitarian emergency and starvation blockade of Gaza.
Organisers claim they have co-ordinated with Egyptian authorities throughout the planning stages, but that when participants began arriving in Cairo on Friday, they have been met with obstruction, repression and violence.
On Saturday we published footage sent to Real Media appearing to show members of the Egyptian Central Security Force (CSF) attacking peaceful protestors with whips and sticks.
At checkpoints, police were seizing passports and detaining people.
Since then, organisers claim that although no criminal charges have been brought and no allegations of unlawful conduct have been made, several people have been injured, and legal proceedings to deport were underway.
Yesterday afternoon in Whitehall, supporters came together in solidarity opposite Downing Street, with local marches converging there from all over London.
This morning we hear that two of the international organisers, Hicham El Ghaoui and Manuel Tapial, were arrested. Manuel was deported to Spain this morning, and Hicham is expected to be sent back to France.
Organisers are continuing to work with respective embassies to halt further deportations and to find a way forward to continue their march, standing in solidarity with the people of Gaza, and calling for the immediate opening of a humanitarian corridor, and an end to the ongoing genocide.
