again they took my passport and told me to wait about 2 hours ago from mobile web

În timp ce unii conaționali Web2.o critică din greu World Blogging Forum 2009, Wael Abbas, unul dintre cei mai mediatizați bloggeri-jurnaliști din lumea arabă, are iar necazuri cu autoritățile. El încearcă încearcă doar să revină de la București la Cairo, fără să fie arestat. Asta, după ce-a făcut la Palatul Parlamentului o prezentare cât se poate de clară a freedom of the speech din țara sa și formele ei de reprimare. Prezentare care n-a fost pe placul oficialilor egipteni.

De data asta, Wael ar fi trebuit să intre fără probleme. Nu mai e un pericol public. Calculator nu mai are. Autoritățile  l-au confiscat în iulie. Încă-l studiază. La București, n-a putut face nicio prezentare web. A păstrat însă niște linkuri offline către experiența lui, pe care nu v-ați dori-o niciodată.

Iată mesajele transmise pe Twitter de Wael Abbas.

just landed in cairo airport about 3 hours ago from mobile web

waiting in the passport control line, ya mosahhel about 2 hours ago from mobile web

7alawet el zobbat we homma maskeen seb7a about 2 hours ago from mobile web

again they took my passport and told me to wait about 2 hours ago from mobile web

they are stopping algerian people who came 4 the match too at passport control about 2 hours ago from mobile web

still waiting, it’s been 30 minutes so far about 2 hours ago from mobile web

i argued with an ameen shorta about 2 hours ago from mobile web

they now took me to a waiting place about 2 hours ago from mobile web

i met a lawyer called tarek el beltagy, he recognized me, he told me he is a human rights lawyer about 2 hours ago from mobile web

he was coming back from Jordan, and they stopped him 4 an hour and a half about 2 hours ago from mobile web

i think i’m sitting in front of state security office about 1 hour ago from mobile web

a77a howa feeh eeh! I’m really tired and sick! Eeh welad deen el kalb dool! about 1 hour ago from mobile web

a77a howa feeh eeh! I’m really tired and sick! Eeh welad deen el kalb dool! about 1 hour ago from mobile web

el zabet shtam wa7ed min elly a3deen 3ashan alloh en ba2alo sa3teen about 1 hour ago from mobile web

argued with a high ranking officer about 1 hour ago from mobile web

he is giving me nonsense about tashaboh el asmaa2 #a7a about 1 hour ago from mobile web

modeer el amn hina wel zobbat metkahrabeen about 1 hour ago from mobile web

SR
/Fröken Sverige

Contributed by Sarika Arya and Meredith Morrison

The first time we tried to interview the internationally famous Egyptian blogger, Wael Abbas (WA), he was returning from a conference on global interdependence on Sweden. A week later, back in Egypt (and with a vengeance to blog), Wael sat down with the YJHR. His style is not to complain. It is to expose, clarify, provoke and, ultimately, inspire. He’s pretty good at it – especially the provoking part.

Q: Why do you blog?

WA: I blog because I am. This is going to sound cliché but no that’s not the answer. I blog because I – well I started blogging for totally different reasons but then I discovered another reason. I have a voice and I wanted this voice to be heard. I wanted to discuss issues that weren’t discussed in the traditional media about religion, society, politics, stuff like that. That’s how it started. But afterwards, I decided that I’m blogging for change. I want change in this country. At least I want to leave a little impact, make a small change in three specific areas which are: the civil society, political parties, and the media.

Q: Who accesses your blog? Is it banned anywhere in Egypt? I read an article in which the reporter indicated that some blogs are banned to certain business and publications (like news outlets), according to a “state security apparatus”?

WA: It’s banned in China, that’s what I heard, but it’s not banned in Egypt. Well, they used to use this policy before 2005. They used to block some blogs and websites. This was mostly for the radical Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood. But not anymore; sometime they block websites, but only tactically, for one day, or two days, or a few hours. Like on the 6th of April where they blocked Facebook for only one day, the day of the general strike. Other than that, they have other ways that they attack blogs to get them shut down or report them to the hosts, saying they have a lot of inappropriate material. They did that with my YouTube account, my Facebook account, my email – they’ve shut down my email several times, like five times.

Q: Why? Are they allowed to know what’s in your email?

WA: They don’t have that technology yet, but there is a technology called packet inspection – they can inspect every single packet of data that comes into or out of your computer. I think the Chinese are doing that but I’m not sure the Egyptians are doing it yet.

But this is not the only way they attack bloggers; I can tell you about other ways – they’re not only electronic. They arrest them and torture them, like the owner of the Facebook group of the strike. They target reputations; this is what they’ve been doing about me for some time, spreading rumors saying I’ve converted to Christianity or I am a homosexual or something like that.

Q: Is that what happened last week at the airport?

WA: No, what happened at the airport was a direct attack. Well, I traveled a lot in the last three years, like my passport was almost full, and I’d never been in a situation similar to this one. I took a late flight from Stockholm, and there was a short time transit in Frankfurt, then I took a flight to Cairo. In Cairo, I arrived in the airport, in Terminal 3 at around 3:00 am. So as you can imagine I was really exhausted, tired, hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten. I also took a bus right from Talberg to Stockholm for four hours. When I arrived in Cairo, I thought, “I am finally home.”

So I approached the passport control desk, and I gave them my passport, and one of them he checked my passport on the computer, and he asked me these questions: “Do they always stop you when you arrive in Cairo?” I said, “No, it has never happened before.” And he said, “But this time you’re going to have to stay for a while.” So I said, “Okay.” I thought would be five minutes or something like that. So I waited. One hour, two hours, three hours, and nobody is telling me what is going on. And they stopped other people, like people with big beards, people who came from Yemen, but they let them go after five or ten minutes until I was the only one who was staying there.

I kept asking questions, but nobody would give me any answers, until one of them told me discreetly: “Your passport is, at the moment, with State Security.” When I asked, “Why?” he told me, “I don’t know, I’m not with State Security; I’m just with passport control.”

So I waited and kept asking the officers for my passport back, but they wouldn’t give it back to me. So I decided to start a sit-in. I took a big piece of paper out of my bag and wrote, “THIS IS A SIT-IN; STATE SECURITY TOOK MY PASSPORT,” and I sat on the floor and faced people coming from the planes. And at first they were ignoring that, but then it started to piss them off, after a while one of them started trying to persuade me to end this, and then he started harassing me, saying, “This isn’t good. It’s going to end up ugly.”

I told him, “I know my rights. What I’m doing, according to the laws and institutions, is right.”

So they told me, “Just end the sit-in and we’ll give you back your passport.” And I said, “No, give me back my passport first and I’ll end it.” They brought my passport back to me after 5 minutes.

So I passed the passport control and went to the baggage carousel to get my bag but unfortunately my bag had disappeared; it had been over four hours at this point, and somebody had moved it. I asked a guy at the airport what I should do and he said to exit customs and go to Lufthansa and ask them for your bag. So I went through the customs, but they stopped me and said, “No, just wait here and we’ll get it for you.”

I waited for two hours, and he pretended they were trying to get my bag. During this time, they had my passport with them, and they wouldn’t give it back to me. And they kept talking to each other discreetly, like kneeling with each other and saying something I could not hear, until suddenly they tell me, “Okay, now we have to search your bag.” I was carrying this laptop bag of mine.

They started searching the bag. At first, I thought it was a joke – they took out every single thing that was in the bag, no matter how small, like the medicine. They kept asking me questions about the medicine and talking about the medicine. Then they took all the conference papers to a room inside, and I don’t know what they did with that, but I suspect they were photocopying the papers. They took out my camera and the laptop and put it inside.

Eventually, they brought back the papers and the camera and asked me to go inside for something similar to a strip search. I went inside and they searched every pocket of my clothes and almost every curve of my body. He took my wallet out and searched everything inside my wallet – credit cards, ID cards, driver’s license, stuff like that – and then put everything back in the wallet. This is something that is really weird for customs people to do; they’re supposed to be looking for goods.

They gave me back my passport and my wallet, but they told me they had to keep my laptop because they want to show it to this agency we have here, which is responsible for copyright software and piracy and stuff like that. But this is totally irregular. They never do this to anybody, never to me before; I’ve flown hundreds of times and they’ve never done this to me.

And I said that taking my laptop was illegal, and I know it’s illegal, and I know by customs law that I am entitled to carry one laptop for personal use, and they cannot take it away from me, and they can’t make me pay customs for it, and they’re not authorized to open it or inspect the software inside unless they have approval from a judge. But still, they insisted they are not giving me back my laptop, so I sat there for two or three hours more demanding my laptop back, but they refused. I demanded to talk to the head of customs, and, after negotiating, he told me, “We have orders from a higher entity, and we cannot give you back your laptop.”

After this, I decided that staying in the airport was useless, so I decided to leave. I met friends who were waiting for me outside, met lawyers, and we went to Lufthansa to look for the bag. And they obviously knew about my bag, they knew my full name, and the whole situation. They told me my bag was with storage in the other Terminal, in Terminal 2. So I went to this other company that is supposed to be handling the baggage, and they told me that you need permissions to go to the storage room to get your bag back.

We had to go through a lot of red tape to get permission to get my bag, and during the process there was a permission that was supposed to be from state security. This one alone took 2 hours. They claimed that they have my name on the list that belonged to State Security. This list of the names, was totally new. It was never there before, they never had reason to stop me.

I finally managed to get the permission and got my bag back and then I filed a report in the police station about the illegal detention and confiscation of my laptop, which I didn’t get back till now.

Q: Why do you think that this happened to you?

WA: I don’t know, but I have inside information from the state that says that somebody filed a report about me from Sweden that I said stuff that was harmful to the Egyptian government state. But I know for sure that there were two people from the National Democratic Party that were there.

Q: Was it something you said – what kind of stuff?

WA: I said a lot of stuff, of course. I criticized the regime and I criticized the European position on our regime. I said that it was hypocritical that they know what the regime does to the opposition but they are aiding this regime and this is totally different from their approach to the “iron curtain” or the Eastern bloc during the Soviet Era… so this is probably what pissed of the National Democratic Party.

Q: Is that what you blog about – what do you blog about?

WA: I blog about that and other stuff too. Stuff that doesn’t get enough coverage in media.

Q: Why do you think this happened this time?

WA: I don’t know. I think there is a state of panic in state security right now. I think something is going on. I don’t know why but they have arrested people in the Muslim Brotherhood – maybe President Mubarak is dying. I think they are preparing a military tribunal for the Muslim Brotherhood, something similar to what they did last year. [Last year], they sent some Muslim Brotherhood members to jail accusing them of funding an organization or something like that – terrorist attacks, an illegal organization, stuff like that.

Q: How do you find your material?

WA: In the beginning all the material I got was mine. They were like pictures I took myself, videos I took myself. But after I started gaining some credibility people started sending me their old material: stuff they shot on the street or stuff that leaked out from police stations. People sent me videos of train accidents, terrorist attacks, car accidents.

Q: How did you get into blogging?

WA: I was always interested in journalism, ever since I was a kid I was reading opposition papers. I was interested in this new experience, because it was new in the 70s. It was new in the reign of Sadat. I always felt there was something missing from this opposition in independent media. I wanted to work in media but I found out its hard, you have to know somebody in a good position in order to get a job. So I quit for a while until I saw the potentiality of the Internet back in 1994. You’re able to interact with people from other countries in long distance, you can be anonymous and discuss anything freely in censorship. It all started actually in chat rooms, then forums, then reading groups, then electronic newspapers, which I wrote articles for and sent to. Then in 2004 I took the major turn and decided to start my own blog, because there was a lot of activity in the Egyptian state and I felt like they were not getting enough coverage in the traditional media, even from the opposition. So I decided to go to these police stations and take my camera and do interviews and my own stuff and put it on my own blog. The blog enabled me to post, photos videos, and links provide technology.

Q: Have you ever been scared to blog? (Especially because of the potential consequences?)

WA: Not really.

Q: Have you ever censored yourself?

WA: Maybe when there is something that doesn’t have to do with politics or the rights of people. If it is a personal scandal of somebody I abstain from posting it.

Q: Do you censor comments from people?

WA: Yes.

Q: Why?

WA: Because they are personal and offensive. I am my own authority, I am proud of that. I will be a fascist. I would never take a government position. I keep away from that because I know that I have a fascist quality.

Q: It seems that you’re suspicious of many people, professions, and things in general – who or what do you trust?

WA: I’m not suspicious!

Q: Okay, well you seem to find faults in a lot of things. What profession do you find most admirable? Journalism?

WA: Journalism has been really a dirty job in Egypt for fifty years now. Journalism is not honest at all its only after advertising and power and stuff like that. I hate that.

Q: So then what job is honest? What about human rights activists can you find something wrong with them?

WA: Yes, of course! Of course! There are people who dealing with double standards. Like human rights who don’t recognize the rights of gay and homosexuals, and people who don’t recognize the rights of people from other religions like Bahai’s. You have people like that in your Council. Don’t write that down it will piss of [your boss]. And you have people who do it to make money, there is a lot of money in human rights. Donations. They put in their pockets.

Q: So what is the admirable profession for you? What can change the world?

WA: Any profession you do with love and honesty and you are willing to serve people with. This is the profession I respect, even if it is a garbage collector.

Q: How do you react when Yahoo, Youtube, and Facebook close your accounts?

WA: I complain against them.

Q: How does that happen? Like why does Facebook shut off your account?

WA: Google and Facebook cooperate with the regime, which I know for sure they are. Or they get false reports like people reporting me for spamming or posting violent material or abusive photos or like kinky sexual stuff. Like I have videos of torture: the police officers who shot the videos of torture took pleasure in shooting them.

Q: Why do you think this happens specifically in Egyptian society – like what is going on the police officer’s brain?

WA: We have been living under a tyrannical dictatorial military regime for over 50 years. And this has empowered and enforced the position of army officers and police officers at the same time. They have unlimited power so they feel like gods. The motto of the police used to be, “The police are in the service of the people.” But now they changed it so that now it is, “The police and the people are in the service of the nation,” – whatever the hell that means. And by the way they give courses in police academy to be arrogant or to be superior to people. They tell them not to take public transportation like the ordinary people.

The soldiers are paid very little but the police officers are very good. And they have lots of good stuff: a good pension, good health care. They can buy cars, apartments, they have touristic villages where they spend the summer with the families, they have these like five star hospitals. So they are basically being bribed to be like the guard dogs of the regime. But the soldiers of course are basically being paid pennies.

Q: What is your relationship with the American government like? We heard that you have a certain relationship with the American government.

WA: Yeah I have relations with the CIA, FBI, MI5.

Q: Are you making fun of us?

WA: Of course.

Q: So, can you be honest?

WA: [Laughs.] No I don’t have any relationships with anybody. I go on scholarships and training programs that are organized by the civil society. Nothing to do at all with any government.

Q: So what do you think about the American government? This is something of interest to us, because we’re Americans.

WA: Would your government hire people like me or pay people like me? Do you really think so?

Q: Well yeah, because you’re exposing the humanitarian face of your country. You’re an insider with access to all this material. Look, we’re basically trying to find out if you’re a spy.

WA: Is that doing any good to the American administration? Like exposing the Egyptian regime or exposing Egyptian torture? Are you planning to invade my country and am I helping you? Are you angry with Mubarak are you going to impeach him?

GIVE ME A BREAK! The US government is sleeping with Mubarak in the same bed! I get stopped at the American airports every single time that I arrive and depart there.

(Q): I mean to be honest, that might not have anything to do with your profession, but because you’re coming from the Middle East. Right? And because you’re Arab… America has a policy of discriminating against certain people so… okay clearly you don’t seem very impressed with American politics because they’re “sleeping with the regime.”

W: No, they’re very hypocritical. Sometimes they are supporting the regime. I refuse this kind of support. I consider it interference. It is hypocritical because they are supporting my country just to save face but on the other hand they are handing millions and billions to our regime.

Q: Right, but in America it would be very very rare, especially under Barack Obama, for someone to be detained for blogging. There is a pretty well respected policy for freedom of speech, at least under President Obama.

WA: I don’t think so, I don’t think so. So far, Barack Obama has not been doing anything about freedom of speech in other countries.

Q: Do you think that there is censorship in America?

WA: There is censorship in America because the media is controlled by a few corporations. There’s very little effective private media not like in the 70s. After Reagan came to power these corporations are buying all of the local stations and newspaper making them all a part of one huge network; turning into one network abiding by one policy. So censorship is very easy.

Q: We read on your blog that you basically compared Barack Obama to the Muslim Brotherhood.

WA: Well yeah, because he was, like, addressing the religious sentiment of the people not their mind, not their thoughts. So it is basically the same thing; reciting verses from the Koran and reciting the hadiths [oral stories] of the prophet. Oh my God. What the hell? Is he going to fool me like reciting stuff that? What is he thinking? What is he thinking? Yeah, there are some people who will be fooled by stuff like that but not me. Not the people like me who use their minds. Not the liberals, not the secularists, not the leftists.

Q: Well, that’s a valid point but don’t you think that some people might respond by saying that there is a religious –

WA: Fuck that. I don’t want that. I want that to be eliminated actually. I want a civil state.

Q: But don’t you think you can have a civil state with religion? You don’t think so?

WA: We can have a state with religion, but for everyone to be free to be able to practice their own religion. They are arresting Shia Muslims, because they don’t accept that there are Shia Muslims. They are arresting Christians, and they are persecuting Baha’is.

Q: So, did you watch Obama’s speech? Or did you attend it?

WA: I was there yeah.

Q: You weren’t one of the people in the back screaming “I love Obama!” where you?

WA: [Laughs] No. I was sitting next to someone who loves Obama. He is a famous actor actually.

Q: Were you appalled by him [the actor]?

WA: Everyone is free and entitled to his own opinion. He loves Obama, he was happy that Obama was there and recited verses from the Koran as if it’s adding honor to the Koran. Some people have this mentality. Some people need to be slapped in the face for thinking this way. It feels like there is this ugly old woman that men don’t approach at all, and then suddenly a man started flirting with her. (The Muslim world is the ugly old woman.)

Q: For you, what would be the ideal way for America to approach Muslim politics?

WA: I’d like America to start addressing mentality, to stop dealing with double standards, to stop aiding tyrants and dictators.

Q: What do you mean by “addressing mentality”?

WA: In the Cold War, there was a whole different approach towards the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union and a lot of criticism in the media. I don’t see that anywhere at all in the Muslim media. Saudi Arabia is the biggest ally of the United States and the biggest funder of terrorism in the world. It is building schools in the jungles of Africa, in the jungles of southern Thailand, and the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is where the Taliban came from. This is where the people who explode embassies come from. From these schools. And all of these schools have pictures of the King Abdullah, the king of Saudi Arabia, and his son. The United States always yields to pressure from Saudi Arabia. Hollywood bows to pressure from Saudi Arabia- all the time, the perception of Arabs in the media. They want to sell the most movies in the Gulf countries, the oil- rich countries. So they rarely attack Saudi Arabia, and the traditions, and the religion there.

Q: Do you vote in your country?

WA: No, because we don’t have voting. We don’t have real elections.

Q: A lot Egyptians are very impressed by Obama –

WA: Because he looks like us. He is the first black guy to be president and so he is the embodiment of a dream. We want something similar here in Egypt like where anyone can be president of the country.

Q: We met a taxi driver who like Obama because he thought he was Muslim.

WA: Some people are ignorant stupid people and think he’s a Muslim

Q: So, you’re not impressed by Obama?

WA: I was impressed by Obama before he came to power, but when he started giving those stupid speeches like he thinks he’s smart, and he thinks he’s fooling people around the world. I don’t like it. I’m simple, I’m not like him. He’s patronizing people around the world.

Q: So who is your favorite political leader in the entire world?

WA: Anwar Sadat, Mahatma Gandhi.

Q: Someone who is alive? If you had to choose – someone with real power, so you can’t say the Queen of England.

WA: No, I don’t like her. I hate monarchies. How about that guy – what’s his name? The guy who was in prison? … Nelson Mandela.

Q: Okay but someone who is in power RIGHT now.

WA: NONE! Really! No country is perfect; even Sweden, even Norway, even Finland- even those countries that have those kinds of democracies because they have their own problems. So nobody is perfect. I can only choose from the dead, from the people who are no longer in power because I can see their achievements and their contributions to politics. So these are the only people I can judge.

Q: Why did you turn down a meeting with President Bush in 2008? It was an opportunity to talk to a political leader.

WA: I wanted to talk to him as a journalist, but not as an activist that he was supporting because he was not. Bush was like leaving office and he wanted to give a message like okay I was supporting these movements. He was using me, and not just me, others too! People from South America, from former Soviet Republics. All these people praised Bush, and I was expected to do that? HELL NO. I was offered to meet Rice in 2007 and I refused that. I also hated people who met with Hilary Clinton. I don’t believe in meeting with officials from any government, especially like controversial figures. I can meet with the Prime Minister or President of Israel but only as a journalist or as an interviewer. That’s it.

Q: If you had the opportunity to tell Mubarak anything, what would it be?

WA: Lots of bad things. Lots of very horrible, horrible, nasty, ugly, obscene stuff you know. I cannot think of anything rational that I would say.

Q: If you don’t believe in working through the established method of power, then how do things get change?

WA: Things are going to change if they change their ways. The government are not fighting for their rights or to do the things they are supposed to do. If we accept censorship and security then civil society must accept all of the regulations that are forced upon them.

Q: When you say no to these meetings, do you ever feel like you are missing an opportunity to tell government officials what you think?

WA: No. I can say whatever I want through the media and through meeting with other people from civil society. The governments are working only for their own interests.

Q: What’s the best way to rule a country?

WA: By the people themselves. I believe in democracy, but I believe in enlightened democracy. People should be aware first. I don’t want people to choose Mubarak. I don’t want people to choose Hamas. I don’t want people to choose Taliban. I don’t want people to choose businessmen because they bribe them. I don’t want people to choose someone because they are oppressing them. I hate people who use people, who use democracy for their own interests. I want people to be able to realize that democracy is for their own good and they shouldn’t give it up for bribe, for a promise, for anything- just because these guys are religious, or having religious sentiment. People should think before they vote.

Q: Who has influence on you? Any writers, intellectuals, or political theorists?

WA: Charles Dickens and the x-ray machine. The x-ray machine because it doesn’t provide a cure. Some people accuse me of not providing solutions. That’s what Charles dickens and the x-ray machine do. Like, Charles Dickens was like pointing his fingers at the problems of society, the problem with institutions, the British institutions, the abuse of children and women, but he never gave answers to that. But eventually the British society was able to reform itself, to reform its institutions. So, I don’t have to provide answers. I don’t have answers. There are other people to think about it. I can only point out the problem. I point it for people to solve it.

I’ll give you an example. I published a video of torture inside a police station, of a truck driver who was physically sodomized with a stick. The video was circulated for over a year and the people didn’t care, they were so apathetic. They exchanged the video as if weird or absurd, not a crime that needed to be reported. I took this video and I posted it on my blog and I made a scandal out of it, and I said somebody should do something about it. And it was taken to court and the officer sentenced to jail. So people have a problem in awareness. People don’t know what is a crime and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Police torture was acceptable for a long time and now it’s not because people are talking about it. And I didn’t propose a solution but it’s better now. The problem is not totally solved, but the people became aware. They came forward, and they became more use to exposing that kind of torture.

Q: What do you think is the biggest humanitarian problem facing Egypt today?

WA: The biggest is a collection of all of these. I cannot say that there is a specific main problem. There is a problem of awareness – awareness of many things –people’s awareness of their own rights: what is right to do, what is right not to do, what is right to choose, what is not right to choose. So it is, basically, awareness.

Q: Do you think it’s the same for the rest of the world as well?

WA: Maybe so. This is something that our leaders and government and media and businessmen exploited. They know how to exploit very well. This is the thing that frightens me.

Q: When did you realize you were being exploited and how?

WA: After I graduated. Well, the government was like having all this propaganda all the time on television that the youth are not doing anything, that the youth are worthless and useless, that they are only into drugs. And they never thought of empowering them. And I always thought that you have to develop yourself and gain more knowledge and gain more training and stuff. I found out I had a university degree and I spoke, like, two to three languages, and certificates, and couldn’t get a job for God’s sake. So they were telling us lies. It’s not about having qualifications, it’s about, like, being corrupt and knowing somebody who is corrupt who can get you a job. I found somebody who has less qualifications than mine and just because he knew some people he had some very good jobs. I was always very critical, even before I graduated.

Q: So you’ve always been critical of your country?

WA: Not my country. The people who are running my country.

Q: Do you think you’re more patriotic for criticizing your country and trying to improve it? Would you consider yourself patriotic?

WA: That’s for other people to call me.

Q:How would you describe yourself?

WA: Not optimistic, but still if I was not I wouldn’t be working on changing stuff. If I were pessimistic I could have stopped working altogether and left the country and emigrated and started a family somewhere else. But I’m still here; that must mean something. Even if I deny it, I do desperately hope things will change. I hope at least. There is still hope.

Q: What do you want to tell our generation?

WA: You are the problem, the United States. You guys are all studying now business and engineering and chemicals, and stuff, stuff that are really radical. But nobody’s studying literature and philosophy and these arts, these kinds of arts. This is really horrible in my opinion. People are studying things that will get them jobs and get them money. This is what your regime really wants, people that are running your country want: your regime, your government, the government you choose, the government you vote for. Your democracy! They’re controlling you! The media, the corporations, and business, the corrupt people in politics. They want you to be practical and not to think and not to criticize them, not to be philosophical, not to make your mind work. They had this is in the 70s and this made them really worried: the hippies and the beat generation, people who thought and were really critical of the government, and thought the Vietnam war was wrong, and started these sit-ins and demonstrations and Woodstock festivals, and music, and rock, and stuff like that. Maybe it sounds funny now but your government made them look like that. They made them look funny. They made them look like people who were only after free sex and smoking and LSD and stuff like that. But this is not the truth. Most people were really thinking about their country and the future of their country now. There is something really wrong, it’s odd. This is not the case now. Most people are not studying philosophy, arts. I think by studying these arts, we can change the world.

Young people should study the history of the world so as not to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, and then the Iraq- these are mistakes that are being repeated deliberately because some people are making money out of it, believe it or not. Some people are making HUGE bucks out of it. So people should learn history, should learn philosophy, should make their mind work; not be like lab rats and be like cogs in a machine that only move the machine that never works, that never stop to think, that never stops to think or reflect. Maybe I am using, like, communist terminology here, but I am not a communist.

Q: So we have this blog right? It’s a human rights blog, and human rights issues actually from a creative standpoint: so we have people who submit literature, and photos, and poetry, and songs? What tips do you have for this blog?

WA: My approach was to address the young people, no matter how trivial I think they are and no matter how I think that their education or knowledge is inferior. I try to talk to them in their own knowledge. I try to attract young people in their own language and tell them that first we understand them, and second that we are interested in having a conversation with you. Don’t make them feel intimidated, don’t make them think that you are an elitist. You know, this is a problem here in Egypt because some people were speaking in classical Arabic, and they have this sophisticated language, and using these expressions all the time that young people maybe don’t understand and they don’t care to understand those issues that they are discussing. That’s why I’m using obscenity and slang language in my blog. It’s actually what provokes people to interact, and understand, and absorb what I’m telling them. Also, always try to support what you’re saying with pictures and videos and stuff like that – multimedia, it gives you more legitimacy. And never censor people or opinions – you can always censor offenses; like towards your mother and so on and sister and so on and so on.

(Q:) That hasn’t happened to us yet.

WA: Well, maybe people have more respect for your mother, and your mothers’ sexual organs. [Laughs.]

(Q:) Well, we won’t censor that. We don’t censor.

WA: [Smiles] Inshallah. [Arabic for God willing.]

there has been a very interesting war of words brewing on twitter the past couple days, which began in response to the egyptian regime’s crackdown on resistance against the zionist entity. what began as a war of words between the moral and just hassan nasrallah and the american-zionist tool hosni mubarak has been replicating itself on twitter. at the center of it was @waelabbas, an egyptian blogger, who was recently arrested and beaten up by the egyptian authorities (along with his mother). here is one screenshot of the argument:

the tweets pictured above were his directed at particular people and written in general. you have to click on the various @ links to see the replies. the extreme venom this blogger was spewing at nasrallah and anyone else who supports him was deeply disturbing. nasrallah’s speech and what nasrallah was calling for is for arab support for palestinians in gaza, and more generally. but, of course, mubarak has shown his true colors. we know where he stands. there were other bloggers debating, however, in a way that seems more hopeful and helpful: mostly with respect to thinking about panarab unity in support of palestinians. 3arabawy is one such egyptian blogger. another such blogger is a socialist in egypt.

this resistance in egypt against the regime and in ways that supports arab unity more generally is important as egypt seems to be deteriorating daily into more and more of a tool of the zionist-american empire. today, for instance, they confiscated fuel from palestinians:

Egyptian sources reported on Tuesday that Egyptian border policemen located and confiscated 19.000 liters of fuel that were meant to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip via underground tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.

The police arrested drivers of four trucks carrying fuel and is said to be chasing two other drivers who left their trucks and escaped.

The arrested drivers were identified as Samir Mohammad Suleiman, Nasser Abdul-Wahab, Al Dosouqy Mohammad Al Dosouqy, and Rashid Mohammad Hasan, the Maan News agency reported.

Also, the Egyptian police confiscated a truck the contained clothes meant to be sent to Gaza.

Sand was placed over the clothes for camouflage purposes. The police located the truck and arrested its driver, Adel Sbeih Oweidh.

Furthermore, the Egyptian police confiscated a truck filled with cement and was parked close to the entrance of a tunnel of the border with Gaza. The driver and others who were with him apparently escaped through the tunnel.

Earlier on Tuesday, Egyptian security sources said that two tunnels were located in the border area, in addition to the tunnel that was used for smuggling cement and concrete.

and now the egyptian zionist regime is harassing the families of those they have arrested because they are accused of working with hezbollah:

Families of Egyptian men detained on suspicion of plotting attacks against Egypt on behalf of the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been warned against meeting with rights lawyers, one of the lawyers alleged on Wednesday.

Officers from Egypt’s domestic intelligence agency, State Security Investigations, telephoned family members and warned them against attending a meeting with rights lawyers in the north Sinai town of al-Arish, according to Sayed Fathi, a lawyer with Cairo’s al-Hilali Foundation for Human Rights.

Fathi, who said he was seeking to represent some of the detainees, told the German Press Agency dpa that family members had planned to meet at the al-Arish headquarters of the leftist Tagammu Party, a local centre for opposition, on Tuesday night.

However, family members had cancelled the meeting following warnings from security officers not to attend.

In remarks published in the independent daily al-Masri al-Youm on Wednesday, Islamist lawyer Montasser al-Zayat said that a purported confession from his client, Lebanese national Sami Shehab, had been false.

i find it fascinating that the mubarak regime is so willing to attack people who are willing to risk their lives to help palestinians resist. but there are other bloggers like antoun issa who gives us a sense of the bigger picture including its shameful use of all that american aid that it never uses to help its own people, many of whom are impoverished:

Boasting a large population, and receiving more than US$2billion in US aid on an annual basis, Egypt should be leading the Arabs on every level. But it isn’t.

The vast majority live below the poverty line, and are hungry and restless. Falling into line with most Arab dictators, Mubarak has splashed his extraordinary wealth on resorts, villas, palaces and an extensive security service that is effectively keeping 80 million Egyptians from storming the Presidential Palace.

The infrastructure is crumbling, and to cut even further at the heart of Egyptian pride, the country’s natural gas deposits are being sold to arch rival Israel at a lower-than-market rate. Freedom is nonexistent, torture and kidnappings are rampant, and the Egyptian people are struggling to put food on their plates. The country’s middle class has dwindled.

To compare with another Arab dictator, such as Saddam Hussein, Mubarak is among the worst. For all his shortcomings, Saddam invested in the country’s infrastructure, and had developed Iraq long before Dubai’s first skyscraper. The Iraqi tyrant also ensured a healthy middle class kept the economy afloat, most of which currently reside in Syria and Jordan awaiting their return. Of course, Saddam wasn’t perfect, his treatment of Shi’ites and Kurds was abhorrent, but Iraq was, economically to say the least, a healthy state before his wild adventures brought the world crashing down upon him. Certainly, Iraq’s growing wealth, economically and militarily, was worrisome for all around it. Fortunately for Iraq’s alarmed neighbours, Israel had a buddy named the US, who successfully lured Saddam into Kuwait and destroyed him.

Mubarak, on the other hand, has showed no interest in developing Egypt’s economy nor investing in its people.

On the regional level, Egypt has gone from discreetly co-operating with Israel to taking public photo shots with Israeli leaders. Its public support of Israel against Lebanon in 2006, and again against the Palestinians earlier in the year riled the Arab public. Hizballah, Syria and Iran took advantage, and made sure every angry finger in the Arab and Muslim world was pointed squarely at Mubarak.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and other angry dissenters in the country, took to the streets and joined the chorus of condemnation of Egypt’s suffocation of Gaza.

Mubarak, suddenly, felt paranoid. I noted in a lengthy feature piece during the Gaza War that public condemnation between Arab leaders is rare. Hizballah’s criticism of Mubarak during the war not only highlighted a change in dynamics, but also signalled a dangerous intent … Iran’s eyes are on Egypt. Well, at least that’s what Mubarak currently fears.

So when Egypt’s intelligence successfully captured Hizballah operatives, it was quick to point out Iran’s grand scheme to subject Arab Sunnis to Shi’ite domination as a justification for its alliance with the country most Arab Sunnis hate … Israel.

But Arab operators are everywhere in the Middle East, including those of non-state actors. Fatah, for example, was caught out spying on Saudi Arabia and Jordan on behalf of the US when Hamas took over its police compound in the Gaza counter-coup. It would be fair to say that Hizballah has been operating networks in fellow Arab countries for years, and most Arab regimes are aware of it.

Hizballah even has operatives in Israel, which prove useful during times of conflict when these cells provide the Shia movement with intelligence on IDF positions. Certainly, that was the case in 2006.

Egypt’s capture of Hizballah operatives, and its public parade, is more a PR stunt to take the heat off its back re Gaza. Nasrallah didn’t seem too concerned when he confirmed the capture over the weekend, calmly stating that Hizballah was providing arms to Hamas, has been doing so for a while, and will continue to do so.

However, the need of Egypt to parade this capture speaks volumes of its paranoia and insecurity. Mubarak knows he sits atop a boiling Egyptian bubble waiting to burst. He fears an Iranian-style and provoked revolution. No doubt, the Egyptian people are capable of it and are perhaps pondering means to depose of their highly detested leader.

Mubarak also knows that his succession plan to pass the presidency to his son, Gamal Mubarak, is a vulnerable point that can be exposed by his foes, domestic and regional. His succession plans have caused much anger in Egypt, and a persisting fear that Mubarak’s rivals may attempt a coup are mounting.

The Sunni Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt stated during the Gaza War that they have no issue with Iran proselytising Shi’ite Islam. In other words, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition movement, has now cemented its links with Iran.

Is Hizballah trying to destablise Egypt? No, I don’t think so, and I believe the Egyptians know that too. What bothers Mubarak, however, is that Hizballah can destabilise Egypt, and have the team already placed on Mubarak’s turf, awaiting the orders.

when we compare how the egyptian regime deals with lebanese leaders like nasrallah to leaders from the zionist entity we see something quite different. they are unwilling to meet the most visible racist fascists in the zionist entity’s government, but not the others (all of whom are equally racist and fascist):

The hatchet is far from burial between Egypt and Israel’s new Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

In an interview with Russian television on Wednesday Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, warned that his country would not welcome Lieberman so long as his divisive positions remained unchanged.

“When a man speaks he must be aware that the words traveling from his brain to his tongue will have consequences,” said Aboul Gheit, speaking from Cairo.

“Therefore, we will work with the government of Israel but not through the Israeli foreign minister. I do not imagine that he will set foot on Egyptian soil so long as his positions, which we have seen before, remain as they are.”

to understand why lieberman is not any different from any other israeli terrorist politician one must read jonathan cook’s excellent assessment of the ways in which they all overlap (this is from an older article in electronic intifada):

Lieberman, a Russian immigrant, is every bit the populist and racist politician he is portrayed as being. Like many of his fellow politicians, he harbours a strong desire to see the Palestinians of the occupied territories expelled, ideally to neighbouring Arab states or Europe. Lieberman, however, is more outspoken than most in publicly advocating for this position.

Where he is seen as overstepping the mark is in arguing that the state should strip up to a quarter of a million Palestinians living inside Israel of their citizenship and seal them and their homes into the Palestinian ghettoes being created inside the West Bank (presumably in preparation for the moment when they will all be expelled to Jordan). He believes any remaining Arab citizens should be required to sign a loyalty oath to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state” — loyalty to a democratic state alone will not suffice. Any who refuse will be physically expelled from Israel.

And, as a coup de grace, he has recently demanded the execution for treason of any Arab parliamentarian who talks to the Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories or commemorates Nakba Day, which marks the expulsion and permanent dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1948. That would include every elected representative of Israel’s Arab population.

These are Lieberman’s official positions. Apparently unofficially he wants even worse measures taken against Palestinians, both inside Israel and in the occupied territories. In May 2004, for example, he told a crowd of his supporters, in Russian, that 90 per cent of the country’s Arab citizens should be expelled. “They have no place here. They can take their bundles and get lost.” His speech could have had second billing with one by Adolf Hitler at a Nuremberg Rally.

Despite Lieberman’s well-known political platform, Olmert has been courting him ever since Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) upset the expected three-way struggle between Olmert’s Kadima party, Labor and Likud in the March elections. Lieberman romped home with 11 seats in the 120-member Knesset, making his party a sparring partner of both Likud and the popular religious fundamentalist party Shas.

According to opinion polls, [Lieberman] is now the most popular politician in Israel after Binyamin Netanyahu. According to reports in the Israeli media, Lieberman has not joined the coalition until now because he has been playing hard to get, making increasing demands of Olmert before agreeing to sign up for the government. His hand has grown stronger too: according to opinion polls, he is now the most popular politician in Israel after Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party.

In the newly established post of Minister for Strategic Threats, Lieberman — the self-avowed Arab hater — will shape Israel’s response to Iran, leading the chorus threats being made by Israel that it is only a hair’s breadth from dropping bombs, possibly nuclear warheads, on Tehran. After that, he will presumably help the government decide what other “strategic threats” it faces.

While Olmert enthuses over Lieberman, most in the Labor party seem quietly resigned to his inclusion. Labor’s elder statesman and former leader, Shimon Peres, says he has no objections, so long as Lieberman does not challenge the core policies agreed by Kadima and Labor. This, of course, is precisely what Lieberman is doing — it was the price of the bargain he struck with Olmert. Lieberman wants no peace overtures to the Palestinians, and favours the hardline neoliberal economic policies pursued by Kadima.

On Wednesday the Labor leader Amir Peretz, a supposed socialist and former head of the Israeli trade union movement, accepted Lieberman’s entry to the coalition, as Olmert surely knew he would. In typical Labor style, Peretz bought off his conscience by insisting on a package of modest benefits for Arab citizens, the same Arab citizens Lieberman wants expelled. The last time the government made a similar promise to its Arab minority back in late 2001 — when the prime minister of the day, Ehud Barak, needed their votes — the $4 million pledge was broken immediately after the election.

So why are Israel’s politicians, of the left and right, so comfortable sitting with Lieberman, the leader of Israel’s only unquestionably fascist party? Because, in truth, Lieberman is not the maverick politician of popular imagination, even if he is every bit the racist — a Jewish Jorg Haider or Jean Marie Le Pen.

In reality, Lieberman is entirely a creature of the Israeli political establishment, his policies sinister reflections of the principles and ideas he learnt in the inner sanctums of the Likud party, a young hopeful immigrant rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu and, of course, Ehud Olmert.

From their political infancy, the latter three were schooled in the minor arts of Israeli diplomacy: feel free to speak plainly in the womb of the party; speak firmly but cautiously in Hebrew to other Israelis; and speak in another tongue entirely when using English, the language of the goyim, the non-Jews.

But Lieberman, who arrived in Israel as a 21-year-old immigrant, was not around for those lessons. He imbibed nothing of the principles of hasbara, the “advocacy for Israel” industry that has its unpaid battalions of propagandists regularly assaulting the phone lines and email inboxes of the Western media. He tells it exactly as he sees it, even if mostly in Russian.

Inside the Likud party, his political training ground, that hardly mattered. He rapidly rose through the ranks to become director-general of Likud from 1993-96 and soon afterwards to head the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. For many years he was the darling of the Likud, a party that today exists in two halves: its original incarnation, once again led by Netanyahu; and the renovated, sleeker model, Kadima, founded by Sharon.

But it was in breaking from Likud and founding his own party, Yisrael Beiteinu, in 1999 that Lieberman finally found his voice outside the Likud’s smoke-filled rooms. The audience for his message was as untutored in the deceits of Israeli politicking as Lieberman himself.

Lieberman immigrated to Israel from Moldova in 1978, leading the vanguard of a wave of immigration from Russia and its satellite states that reached a peak in the early 1990s as the Soviet empire broke up. By the time most Russian speakers began pouring into Israel, Lieberman was already well ensconced in the Israeli political system.

Yisrael Beiteinu’s openly racist agenda spoke to the darkest instincts of the one million newly arrived Russian speakers. Many of them poor and struggling to adapt to Israeli culture, they live far from the prosperous centre of the country in their own neglected ghettos, Little Moscows, where the signs and street language are more than a decade later still in Russian. They feel little affinity for the Jewish state — apart from a loathing for everything Arab.

The state has found it easy to manipulate these immigrants’ emotions. They have little understanding of the historic reasons for Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, and like other Israelis learn almost nothing more at school. With no context for appreciating why the Palestinians might carry out suicide attacks, Russian speakers assume the Palestinians are simply the hate-filled barbarians as described to them by their politicians.

When young Russian men do three years of active duty in the occupied territories, all these prejudices are confirmed. One of the largest blocs of Israel’s citizen army, the Russians are assigned some of the toughest spots in the West Bank and Gaza, often their first experience of meeting “Arabs”.

When they return home, they find it hard to make sense of Israeli officialdom’s lip service in distinguishing between Arab citizens, who have some rights in the Jewish state, and the “Arabs” of the occupied territories, who have none. Many Russian speakers wonder why Israel does not simply kill or expel the lot of them.

And this is where Lieberman steps in. Because usefully this is exactly what he not only believes but also openly declares. Lieberman can tap the support of nearly a million voters, a huge reservoir of support for any prime ministerial hopeful trying to assemble the coalition needed to form a government under the fractious Israeli political system.

Neither Olmert nor Netanyahu can afford to say what is really on their minds: that they want to cleanse the region of as many Palestinians as they can manage — most certainly those in the occupied territories, and later the even bigger nuisance of the ones who have citizenship and undermine Israel’s Jewishness.

But instead they can let a Lieberman, the charismatic leader of a popular party who does dare to say these things, join the government with minimal damage to their own reputations.

They can also let him use the platform provided by a cabinet position to shape a new coarser political language in which ideas of expulsion and transfer become ever more mainstream. Until one day the policies Lieberman advocates, reflections of the values he imbibed during his long years spent in Likud, become acceptable enough that a Prime Minister — Olmert or Netanyahu or Lieberman himself — will be able to put them in the government’s programme.

Instead of using words like “disengagement”, “convergence” or “realignment”, Israel’s politicians of the near future may simply call for the expulsion of Arabs, all Arabs.

Even now they do little to conceal the fact that such thoughts are uppermost in their minds. Netanyahu, currently Israel’s most popular politician and the leader of the opposition, has repeatedly called the 1.2 million Arab citizens of the country a “demographic timebomb”. Back in 2002, for example, he told an audience of policymakers: “If there is a demographic problem, and there is, it is with the Israeli Arabs who will remain Israeli citizens … We therefore need a policy that will first of all guarantee a Jewish majority.”

Unlike Lieberman, Netanyahu never spells out what policies he is advocating. But most Israelis understand that in practice, if he felt free to speak his mind, his platform would not look much different from Yisrael Beiteinu’s.

Olmert too uses code words readily understood by his Israeli audiences. In late 2004, in an interview with the Haaretz newspaper, he said: “There is no doubt in my mind that very soon the government of Israel is going to have to address the demographic issue with the utmost seriousness and resolve. This issue above all others will dictate the solution that we must adopt.” He added that he feared the Palestinians would soon be a majority in the area comprising both the occupied territories and Israel, and that then they could launch a “dangerous” struggle for “one-man-one-vote” similar to the one against apartheid in South Africa. He concluded: “For us, it would mean the end of the Jewish state.”

What “solution” was Olmert referring to? Israelis know only too well. Every year since 2000 Olmert, Netanyahu, Peres and other senior policymakers have been meeting at the Herzliya conference, near Tel Aviv, to draw up ideas about how to deal with the demographic threat: the rapidly approaching moment when the Palestinians, either those with Israeli citizenship or the non-citizens living under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, will outnumber Jews.

The solutions they have proposed have been similar to Lieberman’s. Both the disengagement from Gaza and the planned limited withdrawals from the West Bank came out of Herzliya. But so did a range of measures to deal with the country’s Arab citizens: land swaps to lose areas of Israel densely populated with Arabs in return for the settlements in the West Bank; loyalty oaths as a condition of citizenship; stripping the Arab population of their right to vote; and forcing all political parties to subscribe to Zionist ideals.

Israel already has legislation requiring all parties running for the Knesset to support Israel remaining a “Jewish and democratic state.” These are not fanciful ideas; they are now firmly in the mainstream. Israel already has legislation requiring all parties running for the Knesset to support Israel remaining a “Jewish and democratic state”. Technically, the only non-Zionist parties — two Arab parties and the small joint Jewish and Arab Communist party — could quite legally be disqualified from all general elections under the current legislation. They expect that at some point in the near future they will be too.

The two previous prime ministers, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, both secretly favoured land swaps in which large numbers of Arab citizens would be removed from the Jewish state. Barak proposed such a scheme at Camp David in the summer of 2000, as several participants later confirmed. And in February 2004 Sharon floated the same idea during an interview in the Maariv newspaper. When it caused a storm, he backtracked, but investigations by the paper revealed that he had been formulating a land swap for some time with his advisers and had even consulted the then Labor leader and his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, on its feasibility.

At the top of Lieberman’s list of demands before agreeing to enter Olmert’s coalition are major changes to Israel’s constitution, including the introduction of a presidential system to replace the current parliamentary system. Israel already has a President, currently Moshe Katsav, who is facing a string of rape and sexual harassment allegations, but the post is entirely symbolic.

Lieberman wants a president who has the authority to make major legislative changes, even constitutional ones, without having to make the backroom compromises to keep together the coalition governments that characterise Israel’s current political system. The president Lieberman has in mind would be more on the lines of an autocratic ruler.

Olmert is apparently sympathetic to Lieberman’s plans to change the political system. It is not difficult to understand why.

and yet somehow egyptian ministers think they are saving face when they say they won’t meet with lieberman, but they will meet with netanyahu. they are the same. the net result for palestinians is the same.

interestingly while the egyptians try to outzion the zionists, it seems that the world zionist organization is quite upset with coca-cola in egypt and is launching a boycott campaign of coca-cola there:

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) condemns the Coca-Cola Company for continuing to engage in immoral behavior and refusing to rectify the wrong it has been perpetrating against a Jewish family, the Bigios. The ZOA calls on the public to boycott Coca-Cola products, and for Jewish members of the public to boycott the company’s kosher-for-Passover products during this Passover holiday.

The Bigios owned property near Cairo, Egypt since the early 1900’s; Coca-Cola had been leasing the property and contracting with the Bigios, until the property was illegally taken from the family by the Egyptian government in 1964 during a campaign of anti-Semitism. In 1979, the Egyptian government ordered that the Bigios’ property be returned to them, but the Egyptian courts refused to enforce the order. In 1994, Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Egypt “purchased” the property when it was “privatized.” When the Bigios contacted Coca-Cola to remind the company of the family’s right to the property and requested to be justly compensated, top Coca-Cola officials cavalierly brushed the family aside.

The Bigios brought a federal court action against Coca-Cola in 1997. Since then, Coca-Cola’s lawyers have used numerous legal maneuvers to avoid reaching the merits of the Bigios’ case. All of their procedural objections have failed – twice in the U.S. Court of Appeals and once in the U.S. Supreme Court.

ironically this is the reason many of us boycott companies like johnson & johnson, nestle, and yes coca-cola: because they are on the land of destroyed palestinian villages in 1948 palestine (as in photograph above). but those of us involved in boycott also boycott coca-cola. here is why (from the boycott campaign in lebanon):

According to Coca-Cola’s Hebrew web-site, Abe Feinberg’s Central Bottling Company (CBC) was granted in 1968 the license to sell Coke in Israel as a way to support the Zionist state, despite the losses that an Arab boycott of Coke would mean for the company.

Coca- Cola’s Hebrew web-site details how the company operates in Israel economically, socially, and politically, to enact a Zionist state.

Coca-Cola bought the Golan Heights Winery in 2002 and uses it to distribute wines throughout Europe.

Coca-Cola sponsors Israel’s national basketball team, “in which it invests great amounts of money annually” as well as Israeli national marathons, tennis competitions, etc.

While the local Israeli market is small and unable to generate significant tax revenue, approximately 40% or more of government expenditure goes to military. Thus, little money is left over for other social services. Social giving literally saves the state money.

In 2003, Coca-Cola paid $8.4 million to the Israel Land Administration for land on which to build a Coca-Cola factory in Askalan. To capture Askalan for Jewish-only settlement, 
Israelis ethnically-cleansed
 the Palestinian villages of 
Al-Khisas, Al-Jura, and 
Al-Ni’ilya of their 
5000+ inhabitants 
in Operation Yo’av 
on Nov. 4 -5, 1948. The inhabitants fled to Gaza, and their land was confiscated as national Israeli property.

Furthermore, in July 2002, Coca-Cola announced that, in return for millions of dollars in tax breaks from the Israeli government, it will build a new plant in Kiryat Gat where it will employ 700 more Israelis. Kiryat Gat is built on land of Iraq al-Manshiyya and al-Faluja whose inhabitants were expelled through force in 1949, in contravention of the Egyptian-Israeli armistice which guaranteed the safety of the residents and their property. By international law, the land still belongs to those Palestinians, but Coke paid the rent to the occupiers not the lawful owners.

Likewise, Coca-Cola’s investment in the Golan Heights Winery helps make the occupation economically viable and put economic pressure on the Israeli government not to return the Golan to Syria. Thus, Coca-Cola helps build “facts on the ground” intended to preclude return of occupied lands to the rightful owners.

On October 11th 2001, Coca-Cola hosted at its headquarters in Atlanta, the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Eagle Star Awards Gala at which awards were given out by Israel’s Economic Minister to North American companies that had invested in Israel. In turn, Coca-Cola USA was 
itself honored by the
 Israel Economic Mission 
at the Israel Trade 1997 
Award Dinner.

Money received from licensees is given by Atlanta headquarters to the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, a branch of the United Jewish Charities (UJC). Coca-Cola USA’s donations to the UJC are made by the corporation, not its individual employees. Part goes to finance lobbies that are “strongly proactive and vocal in support of Israel,” and to “send solidarity missions to Israel, allowing thousands of North American Jews to show their support … speaking out on Israel’s behalf when they return.” And “part goes to meet overseas needs through our partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC). These dollars help build the Jewish homeland and 
rebuild strong Jewish communities in over 60 countries around the world….” “Assisting immigration to Israel claims a significant portion of JAFI’s budget, with services such as pre-immigration preparation, absorption centers…and resettlement programs. “JDC also works to help strengthen the social service system as a whole … by offering leadership and management training programs …”

Thus, while Palestinians are denied the right of return and social equality by Israel, money donated by Coca-Cola USA enables Jews to live in Israel as if they really were “the chosen people.”  

“…the Jewish Agency for Israel [has been a] full partner in setting up and supporting the Confrontation Line communities, rescuing Jews from countries in distress and helping them settle in the region…” Since 2000, “Recognizing the urgency of the [post-withdraw] situation, the Jewish Agency has already contributed to the rural settlers of the Confrontation Line by forgiving $40 million in debts.”

if those are not enough reasons to boycott coca-cola (and this is aside from the horrible health consequences from drinking such beverages) i don’t know what is. but there is more. because palestinians think that coca-cola is palestinian because a palestinian businessman set up coca-cola in al bireh here. however here are some startling facts that palestinians should consider before they purchase coca-cola products (aside from the fact that portions of the proceeds go to the same exact places as stated above after giving its portion of the proceeds to its u.s. owner):

Until 1998, Israeli company Central Bottling Company owned the license for marketing Coca-Cola throughout Palestine. Zahi Khoury led Palestinian investors in buying the license for marketing Coca-Cola products in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and in 1998 re-designed the National Beverage Company located in Betounia Industrial Park to produce Coca-Cola products.

The venture cost $20 million. The contract gave Coca-Cola International 15% ownership of the venture and the Palestine National Authority another 15%.

Moving the management of sales to Palestinian to a Palestinian businessman was seen to be in Coca-Cola’s best interests according to Ian Shackleton, Coca-Cola’s Israel manager because, “Sales to the territories have dropped over the past few years, with the decline beginning already from the [1988] Intifada.”

The opportunity for Coca-Cola was not only in Palestine but in the Arab world at large, which had been boycotting Coca-Cola until 1993 for its support for Israel. As it looked to invest $200 million in Arab regional ventures to surpass Pepsi in regional popularity, Coca-Cola needed Palestinians to overcome the long popular objections to the company. However, the venture implicates Palestinians in an important political compromise because East Jerusalem remains under the jurisdiction of the Israeli supplier. In this act, a private company has imposed a political vision that counters international agreement about the legitimacy of Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem. Indeed, this act should be seen as part of Coca-Cola’s wider corporate support for Israeli occupation.

Some questions to consider: Prior to being purchased by Coca-Cola the factory in Ramallah was the site of production for Club refreshments. How many workers were employed by it? How many local competitors are there to Coca-Cola now (beyond the toot, jallab, and other refreshments producers) — we have heard of Star Cola as one locally made competitor? Do you have a sense of how many people they employ? In terms of Palestinian economic productiveness, what would be wrong with people simple switching to these products and their eventually hiring people formerly employed by Coca-Cola?

these are strange bedfellows here with respect to the boycott coca-cola campaign to be sure. but if the zionists want to help us boycott coca-cola more power to them. and there are so many more reasons to boycott coke for its horrible practices in other parts of the world. see killer coke’s website for more of these reasons.

and just to be sure that i am not picking on egypt, but rather its refusal to help palestinians and its collaboration with the zionist-american regimes, clearly jordan is acting up today too:

A Jordanian court sentenced three Jordanians to five years in prison for conducting espionage for Hamas on Wednesday.

A Jordanian judicial source said that Thabet Abu Al-Haj, 37, Azzam Jaber, 36, and Salim Al-Husani, 27, were accused of collecting information about Jordanian military and government installations for Hamas.

The three were convicted of spying on military posts along the Israeli border and the Israeli embassy in Amman.

The court reduced what was originally a ten year sentence, taking into consideration that the three are relatively young and have families.

Two other suspects, Muhammad Al-Khujah, 43, and Taleb Abdallah, 46, were charged in connection to the same activities, but were released in early October.

The five were arrested by Jordan between early August and 25 September 2007. The public prosecution also accused them participated in military and security training in a neighboring country.

The Islamic Front, the political wing of Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan claimed that four of the men were affiliated with the movement.

and the zionists are trying to get in on the action today too by claiming that israeli terrorists who smoke marijuana are supporting hezbollah:

The Israeli Anti-Drug Authority launched an ad campaign linking smoking marijuana with support for Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

In one poster, Nasrallah’s head appears rising like a genie on smoke from a bong.

The poster reads: (In red) “Nasrallah aims at destroying Israel entirely.” The campaign is based on the allegation that Hizbullah funds its activities in Lebanon and alleged activities in Palestinian areas through drug trafficking.

In white font the poster reads: “Hizbullah has the obvious purpose of flooding Israel with venom which forms a strategic danger against Israel. We should not give him the chance to destroy Israel and we should counter drugs internally and externally.”

Hizbullah is the Lebanese resistance group thought to be responsible for forcing Israel to end its decades-old occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. In 2006 Israel launched an unsuccessful war against organization after it seized two Israeli soldiers.

Wael Abbas är en egyptisk bloggare, hans blogg hittar ni här, den är mestadels på arabiska men man kan få en någorlunda uppfattning av den om man använder Google translate.
Han är frispråkig, inte rädd för att hamna i trubbel med den egyptiska polisen på grund av sin kritik mot densamma genom att bland annat publicerat flera filmer som visar på polisbrutalitet i hemlandet Egypten.
Han betalar ett högt pris för detta. Bland annat har hans facebookkonto stängts ner flera gånger om jag inte helt missförstått, och i helgen blev han och hans mamma misshandlade i sitt hem av bland annat en polis. När han skulle anmäla händelsen blev han själv arresterad.
Som tur var hade han möjlighet att Twittra från arresten så hans vänner hade koll på vad som hände.

Det är inte detta jag knappt tror är sant.
Vad jag däremot känner mig riktigt besviken över är att det kommit till min kännedom att han inte fick något arvode för sin föreläsning på Gräv-09.
Det fick inte jag heller. Men det är ju jag.
Jag var helt säker på att Wael Abbas faktiskt fick något för att resa ända hit och berätta om sitt arbete för demokrati och yttrandefrihet i Egypten.
Det fick han inte.
Jag tycker att det är lite pinsamt.

Bitte Hammargren på SvD:s mellanösternblogg skriver mer här.

Uppdaterat: Nu betalar Författarförbundet och Publicistklubben Wael Abbas internetabbonemang fyra år framåt. Heja!

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Wael Abbas, yttrandefrihet, Gräv-09

the palestine monitor wrote up a response to the closure those of us living in the west bank are currently under because the jews have to celebrate their holiday, passover:

At 11:59 on April 6th, the IDF began the general closure of the West Bank for the Jewish holiday, Passover.

The closure is supposed to be lifted on April 18th, but according to the IDF spokesperson, it “will be carried out in accordance with security assessments”—which means, it will reopen ‘when they feel like it’.

This closure is part of other security measures planned by the Minister of Defense and is in addition to the unreasonably paranoid increase in security forces around Jerusalem.

As usual, the IDF released a familiar statement on the closure, verbatim from past years:

“The IDF regards the holiday period as a highly sensitive time, security wise. Accordingly, the IDF will increase its alertness in order to ensure the safety of the citizens of Israel, while preserving, to the best of its ability, the daily life of the Palestinian population.”

However, the only people whose daily life will be preserved are the foreign journalists, NGO workers, doctors and other medical personnel, as well as religious workers and Christian pilgrims who will be largely “unaffected by the closure”.

The IDF also announced that there will be “free movement for Christians to Holy Sites during the Easter holiday period”. They also took the opportunity to send mass emails to journalists, known to be working in the region, to tell them about these ‘goodwill measures’ in an attempt to get positive publicity about this discriminatory closure.

Muslim Palestinians will not be allowed free movement—even for work in Israel.

This Israeli ‘lock-down’ affects thousands of Palestinians whose livelihoods depend on being able to enter Israel for work. However, because of the closure, they will not be able to go to work for at least 12 days. Their daily life will be interrupted by this unnecessary, arbitrary closure.

This closure, “for security reasons” has been called collective punishment by many Palestinians.

Palestinians who need to go to Israel for medical care will still be allowed to cross, in theory. However, that is dependent upon receiving a permit from Israel—which is a mostly random process of selection.

Even the Allenby Bridge, the only crossing that connects the West Bank with the outside world (through Jordan), will be closed for at least 24 hours starting at 10am on Wednesday.

These extreme measures are in addition to the longstanding restrictions of movement that the Palestinians in the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem have had to live with—including hundreds of checkpoints, road obstacles, and road closures.

likewise the ibrahimi mosque in khalil has been closed only for jews for the weekend:

Israeli authorities decided on Thursday to close the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to Muslim worshipers on Sunday and Monday to allow Jewish Israeli settlers to celebrate Passover at the site.

Director of Hebron Waqf (religious endowment) office Zayd Ja’bari condemned the decision as a part an attempt to take full control of the mosque and transform it into a Jewish synagogue.

Israeli settlers have taken over half of the building and for years have operated it as a Synagogue. The building is known to Jews and Muslims as the burial place of the Biblical patriarchs, including Abraham.

“The Ibrahimi Mosque is pure Islamic endowment, and non-Muslims shouldn’t pray inside the mosque,” Ja’bari insisted.

Israeli authorities often close the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshipers during Jewish holidays. The decision to impose these closures was part of the recommendations of Israel’s Shamgar Commission, which investigated the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians at prayer committed by Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein.

the bbc offers a brief description of this jewish holiday:

Passover is one of the most important religious festivals in the Jewish calendar. Jews celebrate the Feast of Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) to commemorate the liberation of the Children of Israel who were led out of Egypt by Moses.

Jews have celebrated Passover since about 1300 BC, following the rules laid down by God in Exodus 13.
The story of Passover

The story of Passover is told in the Book of Exodus.

The Children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for 210 years. God promised he would release them from slavery, but not before Pharaoh had refused their release and God had visited ten plagues on Egypt to demonstrate his power. (Exodus 3: 19-20)

an israeli archaeology professor at tel aviv university, ze’ev herzog has a different take on this narrative (and others):

This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel. Perhaps even harder to swallow is that the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom. And it will come as an unpleasant shock to many that the God of Israel, YHWH, had a female consort and that the early Israelite religion adopted monotheism only in the waning period of the monarchy and not at Mount Sinai.

Most of those who are engaged in scientific work in the interlocking spheres of the Bible, archaeology and the history of the Jewish people—and who once went into the field looking for proof to corroborate the Bible story—now agree that the historic events relating to the stages of the Jewish people’s emergence are radically different from what that story tells….

The Exodus from Egypt, the wanderings in the desert and Mount Sinai: The many Egyptian documents that we have make no mention of the Israelites’ presence in Egypt and are also silent about the events of the Exodus. Many documents do mention the custom of nomadic shepherds to enter Egypt during periods of drought and hunger and to camp at the edges of the Nile Delta. However, this was not a solitary phenomenon: such events occurred frequently over thousands of years and were hardly exceptional. Generations of researchers tried to locate Mount Sinai and the encampments of the tribes in the desert. Despite these intensive efforts, not even one site has been found that can match the biblical account.

The power of tradition has now led some researchers to ‘discover’ Mount Sinai in the northern Hijaz or, as already mentioned, at Mount Karkoum in the Negev. The central events in the history of the Israelites are not corroborated in documents external to the Bible or in archaeological findings. Most historians today agree that at best, the stay in Egypt and the exodus events occurred among a few families and that their private story was expanded and ‘nationalized’ to fit the needs of theological ideology.

of course whether or not there is any archaeological “evidence” to “prove” whether these were merely stories or not, and herzog contends they are, if you believe that these fairy tales it still does not give zionists the right to colonize someone else’s land. but still even if these are just stories there are lessons to be learned let’s look at a few of the ten commandments that are, one would assume, not just words on a page, but ideals that all people, not only jews, should live by:

You shall not kill.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

of course you can read any number of posts here and see how zionist jews who have colonized palestine not only don’t follow those commandments: they break them multiple times every single day. for 122 years. the same.

one of the chants that jews sitting around the seder table say during passover is “let my people go” when they recount the story of exodus. of course it is ironic because although palestinians are not slaves of the zionist colonists, they certainly are the ones who are crying let my people go:

* let my 11,000+ people out of prison

* let my 7.5 million kin who are refugees return to their homes

* let my land go that is stolen by zionist colonists every day

* let my people out of these ghettos in which we are imprisoned

it is also interesting, today, to think about how egypt fits into this narrative. because i kept thinking about all this yesterday when laila el haddad was imprisoned in a holding room in the egyptian airport in cairo. i kept thinking about the many ironies about this phrase “let my people go.” many of us worked hard to try to find ways to help her get out, but in the end she was deported back to the u.s., after being held for over 24 hours, even though her visa is expired. it is interesting that twitter became the means of communication–for her to seek help and to report what a detention feels like–from being told you are a security risk to running out of diapers for your child. ma’an news and global voices and even amnesty international reported on this phenomenon today. laila tweeted one last tweet (see below) @Gazamom and blogged one last entry before deportation:

the ironic thing about all of this is that the only way for her to get to gaza, which is occupied by israeli terrorists on all borders, is through egypt. but laila’s story is a clear example of how the zionist entity, and its american partner in crime, extend that border far beyond historic palestine’s borders. while zionist jews chant “let my people go” at the seder table they are always already making sure that other people cannot go. even if those people–always palestinians–are outside their country’s colonized borders. and laila said it best when she tweeted that the only thing stopping her from going home is the fact that she is palestinian. and that she wanted to go home to palestine, specifically to gaza. gaza being the world’s largest open air prison as gerry adams stated in the guardian during his visit in gaza today:

Gaza is still an open-air prison, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams said today during a visit to the Middle East.

The West Belfast MP called for an end to the Israeli blockade on building materials and urged the state to enter into negotiations with Hamas, which rules Gaza.

Adams held talks in the region with Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, and is due to travel to the West Bank to meet the Palestinian Authority.

“This is a total denial of the rights of the people of Palestine. This is an open-air prison,” the Sinn Féin president said. “People can’t travel out of here, they can’t travel in.”

notice by the way that this irish man is allowed to go to laila’s home, but she is not. this is a tremendous part of the problem. not only that adams can go to palestine, but me too. i am a foreigner and i live in nablus. i have many friends from here who have never stepped foot on the soil of their own country. and it bothers me a great deal that i get to be here and they cannot. or that my friends who are here must be confined to their prison-ghetto communities and cannot leave when we are under closure, though i could if i wanted to. or that i can go to 1948 palestine and they cannot unless i smuggle them (but even then it would be difficult to do with male friends or with female friends who wear hijab). this is because zionist colonists love racial profiling. and gender profiling.

and make no mistake about it: what happened to laila was also racial profiling egyptian/american/zionist style. but i think it is more than that. no one seems to be blogging or contextualizing the fact that there were a number of palestinians–and lebanese–in egypt rounded up and imprisoned the same day because hosni mubarak was doing more dirty work for the u.s./zionist entity. too, i think that in an egyptian context it is important to remember how much of a threat they see bloggers. so many egyptian bloggers, and journalists are often under attack and imprisoned. although not necessarily related to this kind of crackdown, today the big story on twitter was about blogger wael abbas who blogs at الوعي المصري (digital egyptian) (@waelabbas on twitter).. 3arabawy tweeted and blogged what happened:

Blogger Wael Abbas and his mother have been assaulted in their house by a police major and his brother. Wael said over the phone he had one of his teeth broken, and is suffering from a head injury. A personal disagreement with his neighbor, Wael said, evolved into this mess, by the neighbor summoning his brother, a police officer, who broke into Wael’s apartment and assaulted him and his mother.

but life for bloggers in egypt is challenging, especially those who blog to agitate for change because most egyptians do not want to have this american/zionist regime. alexandra sandals highlights just a couple of these cases for menassat:

A former student at Al-Azhar University in Alexandria, Amer was arrested in November 2006 and subsequently sentenced to a four year long jail term for his alleged tarnishing writings on Islam and the Egyptian President on his Internet blog.

He’s currently serving his sentence at Borg Al-Arab prison outside Alexandria.

In his writings, Kareem had staunchly criticized the teaching methods at his university, referring to the school as the university of “terrorism” and saying that his conservative professors taught that freethinkers “end up in the dustbin of history.”

Amer’s 2007 conviction marked the first time Egypt had sentenced a cyber-dissident to prison, and his jailing sparked an outcry among human rights activists – attracting much unwanted media attention to the Egyptian authorities.

The online campaigners “Free Kareem Coalition” have up to date organized public demonstrations in support of Amer in several world capitals and initiated letter writing campaigns, among other solidarity actions.

Most recently, they launched a channel on the micro-blogging site Twitter where supporters of Amer can receive the latest updates on the case and the blogger’s condition.

Egyptian blogger Wa7damasrya, “Egyptian Girl”, has kept in close contact with Amer throughout his detainment and regularly receives letters from him. In the most recent letter she received from Amer a few months ago, the blogger said he was “doing “fine”.

Egyptian human rights organizations have, however, previously claimed that Amer was beaten up and tortured in his prison cell.

In November 2007, Amer’s lawyers from the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo) filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor claiming that their client had been subjected to torture and abuse by a fellow inmate and a prison guard.

They said Amer had contacted them claiming he had been assaulted and then transferred to solitary confinement where he was placed in shackles and repeatedly beaten for two days.

The alleged battery resulted in Amer suffering a broken tooth.

There are no indications that his four year jail sentence will be commuted any time soon.

i will leave you with the narcicyst’s fabulous new music video “p.h.a.t.w.a.” which i discovered on his blog today. i met him last year in la as he is friends with my friends mark and omar. they were on radio intifada together and i joined them for their interview about a hip hop for gaza event. the narcicyst is an iraqi rapper who is brilliant with language, and clearly with image too. and this video deals with racial profiling in other airports and harassment that arabs and muslims, in particular, deal with in north america:

En termes démocratiques, rien n’égale le blogue pour la liberté d’expression, puisque sa portée est immédiate et internationale, sans aucune barrière, sans éditeur pour approuver ou rejeter ni permission à demander. Bien entendu, il s’écrit bien des ordures ou des banalités sur les blogues, comme ici-même parfois. Mais dans les livres et les journaux aussi. Oublions un instant le combat média papier vs média électronique — les deux auront pour moi toujours leur place — et regardons un bel exemple de la portée blogale et de son effet :

en Égypte où des policiers tortionnaires aux manœuvres sodomites ont été écroués, fait exceptionnel, grâce à un blogueur qui a dénoncé la chose. Et, fait étonnant, le blogueur est encore en liberté (contrairement au blogueur Hossein Derakhshan qui s’est fait emprisonner en Iran).

[Cela dit, lors d'un séjour en Égypte, il y a un an, j'ai assisté à une violence policière : un chauffeur de taxi qui s'est fait battre à coups de bâton par un policier parce qu'il s'était immobilisé à un endroit interdit. L'extorsion des chauffeurs de taxi par des policiers corrompus était aussi visible (mais ces mêmes chauffeurs tentent à leur tour d'extorquer des passagers...) .

En discutant avec ma professeure d'arabe, qui aimait bien causer politique et qui n'avait pas peur de critiquer ouvertement le président à vie Moubarak (et qui fumait et ne portait pas le hidjab contrairement à la majorité des Égyptiennes aujourd'hui), elle me disait que l'Égypte est dans une espèce d'impasse. Oui, ce pays est sous une dictature et les policiers répriment les individus, mais de plus en plus de manifestations et de contestations ont lieu. Et les policiers, malgré tout, seraient plus tolérants qu'il y a dix ou quinze ans, et certaines lois plus accommodantes. Par contre, elle craignait l'avènement de la démocratie, car elle avait peur que les Frères Musulmans, très populaires et populistes, prennent alors le pouvoir et transforment l'Égypte en une république islamiste avec la Charia, ce qui serait une tyrannie démocratique pire que le régime actuel. Elle craignait aussi un nouvel Irak. Il n'y a pas selon elle d'alternative démocratique vraiment rassembleuse et souhaitable actuellement en Égypte pour désirer un renversement du pouvoir à court terme. Mais elle désirait des améliorations.

Au Caire, ville ultra-populeuse, la plus peuplée d'Afrique, il y a des mosquées à chaque coin de rue et même plus, parfois deux mosquées sont voisines. Le vendredi, jour de la grande prière, toutes les mosquées débordent. De grands tapis verts sont installés dehors sur les trottoirs afin de permettre aux croyants de pouvoir prier et des hauts-parleurs crient les prières et les sermons en compétionnant cacophoniquement avec les mosquées voisines. Voilà la majorité.

Et l'on retourne aux vieilles questions politiques antiques, à la Aristote ou à la Cicéron, sur les moins pires régimes, dépendant des contextes...]

Souhaitons que l’expression libre, via les blogues ou autres, continue de s’étendre en Égypte et dans tous les endroits où les autorités [politiques ou religieuses] veulent la garder close, et qu’elle apporte quelques remises en question et transformations de ces sociétés.

Par ailleurs, j’apprends, en faisant mes recherches (excusez mon ignorance), l’existence du blogue Internet sans Frontières que je viens d’ajouter à ma blogoliste.

This article on Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas over at Shel Israel’s Global Neighbourhoods is incredible. Makes me want to just hand in my keyboard and do something far more worthwhile with my time.

This article on Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas over at Shel Israel’s Global Neighbourhoods is incredible. Makes me want to just hand in my keyboard and do something far more worthwhile with my time.

Next Saturday I will be flying to Beirut, Lebanon to participate at the 2nd Arab Free Press Forum, a media conference organized by the World Association of Newspapers and An-Nahar daily. The conference will provide an overview of the latest press developments in the Arab world, from obstructive government policies, to case studies of newspapers that combine editorial independence with commercial success, to the rise of blogging and the role blogs play on the Arab media scene of today.

I will be speaking on the second day of the conference on a discussion panel titled “Blogs, an Alternative Way of Telling the News.” I’m humbled to be joined on the panel by Egyptian A-list blogger Wael Abbas, Jordanian blogger Mohammed Azraq, and Wadih Tueni, IT Manager of An-Nahar. The panel is moderated by Egyptian human rights lawyer Mohammed Abdelfattah.

It will be my first time to speak in a conference so I’m excited and nervous but I’m also looking forward to it. I hope I will be able to update the blog from Beirut, but I read that using the internet in Lebanese hotels is outrageously expensive. If any of you will be in Beirut at the same time and would like to meet up, drop me a line and we will see if we can pull something off.

As I mentioned in my last post, a number of the Egypt police brutality videos at the Hub had been embedded from Wael Abbas’ YouTube account.  When his account was suspended, these videos on the Hub (and everywhere else they were embedded) stopped playing.  We’ve now managed to restore some of the key videos, and you can see them over on the Hub.

News just in from Hossam El-Hamalawy…:

I’ve just received the following message from blogger and friend Wael Abbas…

disaster: youtube disables my account claiming there were complaints about my police torture videos!!!

This is un-bloody-believable. YouTube has just disabled probably the most important channel for the Egyptian blogosphere. Wael’s videos have been central in the fight against police brutality, and YouTube should be proud the Egyptian anti-torture activists have been using its channels in the current War on Torture…

Wael’s channel is, at the time of writing, still suspended. Clicking on any of the videos he uploaded results in the following message:

“This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”

Whether it’s only Wael’s account, or others too, now several videos showing police brutality embedded on the Hub from YouTube are no longer playing – including this one, this one, and this one, and more here, here, here, and here. Most of these clips have been propagated far beyond Wael’s own YouTube account, so it’s not really a question of stopping these videos from circulating. Only last week, Wael received an award from the International Center for Journalists in honour of his work to promote and advance human rights in Egypt.

Whatever the reason – a misunderstanding, a systematic campaign, something else entirely – it shows how vulnerable human rights-related media content can be in the online environment, and that the minimal extra work of uploading human rights media to dedicated sites like the Hub, or the Internet Archive, rather than just embedding it from other sites, is clearly worth it.

UPDATE on 27 November 2007:

Since this happened, I’ve been in contact with YouTube to find out why Wael’s account was suspended, and will post an update when I receive one. The Guardian’s Brian Whitaker also reported the story (one commenter mentions the Hub) and now Reuters has covered the story too:

Elijah Zarwan, a prominent blogger and activist in Egypt, said he thought it was unlikely that YouTube had come under official Egyptian pressure, and was more likely reacting to the graphic nature of the videos.

“I suspect they are doing it not under pressure from the Egyptian government but rather because it made American viewers squeamish,” he said. “But to shut them down because some people might find the truth disturbing is unconscionable.”

UPDATE on 29 November 2007:

Nothing to report from YouTube yet, but increasing speculation/coverage in the blogosphere: Amira Al-Hussaini at GV (pt/ar/de), Kevin Anderson at The Guardian (my comment here), and Stan Schroeder at Mashable.