Egyptians Rally in Support of Palestine and President el-Sisi’s Gaza Policy
Tapping into deep solidarity for the Palestinians, as well as widespread anxiety that Israel’s actions in Gaza could create up to a million new refugees in Egypt, government-controlled groups encouraged thousands of Cairo residents on Friday to support President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s stance on the Gaza crisis.
On the previous Wednesday, President el-Sisi informed visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that if he were to call upon the Egyptian people to publicly express their rejection of Israeli actions in Gaza, “millions of Egyptians” would take to the streets.
Immediately following a nearly decadelong ban on public protests, state-managed associations of teachers, civil servants, doctors, and engineers began organizing marches in support of Palestine.
State-run television aired footage of hundreds of students assembling at the private American University in Cairo as well as public colleges in Alexandria and Mansoura.
Officials scheduled the demonstrations to coincide with the eve of a Peace Conference, organized by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry “to de-escalate the situation in Gaza, help reach a cease-fire, and solve the decades-old conflict through the two-state solution.”
Protests outside Al-Azhar Mosque took place immediately after Friday prayers. Protesters echoed the Sunni seminary leader, Sheikh Ahmad Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, calling for Palestinians to “cling to their dear homeland, regardless of the cost.”
Young men initiated chants with slogans that ranged from “There is no God but Allah. Israel is the enemy of Allah,” to “Open the borders for us and we will destroy the Jews.” [Note: In Arabic, the words for borders (hedud) and Jews (yehud) rhyme.]
Organizers of the Friday protests utilized social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook to alert members to gather in the northeastern neighborhood of Nasr City.
State-run media outlets released a list of approved locations for pro-Palestinian protests, while also urging Egyptians to express their support for el-Sisi in anticipation of the presidential election scheduled for December.
The Nation’s Future Party, which is the president’s primary parliamentary bloc, instructed supporters to gather for demonstrations between Cairo Stadium and the Unknown Soldier Monument, the site where fundamentalist army officers assassinated President Anwar Sadat in October 1981.
President el-Sisi is the one who made me come today, and I always affirm his wise positions because he is the most patriotic president who has ever ruled Egypt
“President el-Sisi is the one who made me come today, and I always affirm his wise positions because he is the most patriotic president who has ever ruled Egypt,” Marwa, a middle-aged Nasr City resident, told The Media Line. “He will never allow the destruction of our Palestinian brothers and will provide all the aid we can supply,” she said.
A father from October City was eager to attend with his wife and four children. His wife waved the Egyptian flag alongside other demonstrators, chanting proudly, “These are Egyptians!”
He told The Media Line, “I’m here to support the president and condemn what is happening in Palestine,” specifically mentioning the explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
A march for Al-Nour, the political party of the Egyptian Salafi group al-Dawa al-Salafiya. People in the photo were chanting against the Jews, calling them enemies of the Prophet Muhammad, Nasr City, Cairo, Oct. 20, 2023, (Mina Nader/The Media Line)
Ashraf Singer, an analyst and fellow at the California-based Trans-Research Consortium as well as a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, views the demonstrations as a broad public endorsement of el-Sisi’s approach to the Gaza crisis.
“I think this the final inflection point for Egypt and the Arab world to say that they are rejecting a proposal to transfer Palestine to Sinai or to Jordan, and a warning to the West that their partners in Cairo and Amman can’t accommodate Israeli plans to force civilians out of Gaza as the Israelis conduct their war against Hamas,” Singer told The Media Line.
“I think President el-Sisi has reached a crucial moment and cannot move against the will of people now in this situation where there are innocent people in Gaza being killed,” Singer added.
Being here is the least we can do for our brothers and sisters in Palestine. To come and say no to displacement, yes to aid to the civilians, a cease-fire, so even if the president did not call for the demonstration, we would have gone to the street ourselves.
Sahar, a housewife, told The Media Line, “Being here is the least we can do for our brothers and sisters in Palestine. To come and say no to displacement, yes to aid to the civilians, a cease-fire, so even if the president did not call for the demonstration, we would have gone to the street ourselves.”
Some demonstrators, more militant in their views, risked entering Tahrir Square to make it clear that their pro-Palestinian stance was not an endorsement of el-Sisi or his two-state solution. Tahrir Square is the barricaded heart of the city and the birthplace of the 2011 revolution that overthrew the late President Hosni Mubarak.
Plainclothes police couldn’t prevent crowds from entering Tahrir Square. Opposition politician and defense lawyer Khaled Ali posted on social media that authorities had arrested 43 individuals at unsanctioned demonstrations throughout Cairo, primarily near the square.
Some protestors, not officially sanctioned, chanted anti-Israeli and Islamist slogans like, “With our soul and blood, we will sacrifice for you, O Aqsa.” Others revived Arab Spring demands for “bread, freedom, and social justice.”
Egyptian progressives, such as peace activist and Cairo Liberal Forum founder Amr Bakly, find the recent surge in antisemitic rhetoric both disheartening and predictable, given the failure of international initiatives to establish Palestinian sovereignty and prosperity.
“I cannot deny, as an activist for democracy and human rights, that Hamas is a terrorist group with a fascist ideology, which has previously been internationally condemned for using the Palestinian people as human shields,” Bakly told The Media Line.
“However just as there is no legitimacy for Hamas to target Israeli civilians, any notion that Hamas will be wiped out by a military operation is an illusion stemming from a totalitarian mentality on the Israeli right, which only wants a cold peace, blocking the two-state solution, and is nothing but a lie that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu repeats only to preserve his electoral bloc,” Bakly said.
“Israel insisted on weakening the Palestinian Authority [PA], giving more influence to Hamas over the PA and people of Gaza, and now the people of Gaza are facing collective punishment,” Bakly added.
