Information about Mahalla and the Egyptian labor movement is available in German here.
Year: 2008
Israel offers to help build Egypt-Gaza wall
Via the Daily News Egypt:
Israel has offered to assist Egypt in building a technologically advanced wall along its border with the Gaza strip, the Israeli press reported Monday.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited an Israeli defense source as saying that fears of another breach like the one in January, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into the Egyptian side of Rafah, prompted the Israeli offer.
The newspaper also reported that Egypt is reticent about the idea for fears of inflaming domestic criticism, but has agreed to discuss the issue following US pressure to prevent arms smuggling through tunnels beneath the border.
Israel is proposing a three-tiered wall with concrete walls, an electronic fence and tech-savvy system able to locate tunnels under the ground.
According to the paper, Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad and a senior Shin Bet (the Israeli Security Agency) official will travel to Cairo next week to discuss arms smuggling across the border with Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
Portsmouth: Solidarity with Mahalla
Here’s a video of the rally held in Portsmouth, during the British public sector workers’ strike 16 July. The solidarity statement sent by Egyptian labor organizers in Mahalla, Cairo, Giza and Helwan was read out during the rally by a striker from the SWP.