Year: 2009

MB tensions

Posted on By 3arabawy

Good remark by Per…

The inner tensions of a movement like the MB will always make its behavior contradictory and unpredictable. Leading members have a lot to loose: they can have their financial assets frozen or even be sent to military courts and jailed. On the other hand, many MB supporters is clearly willing to risk being beaten up in the streets or arrested in order to express their anger against what’s happening in Gaza. And despite the constant attempts of MB functionaries to stop them, many were happy to join the “Down with Mubarak” chants initiated by socialist and other activists at last week’s demonstrations.

UPDATES: Egyptian doctors denied entry into Gaza; Admin court orders government to stop gas exports to Israel

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the Daily News Egypt…

For the second day running frustrated Egyptian doctors were denied entry into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, as Israel continued its shelling campaign near the border.
Egyptian doctors carrying their suitcases were prevented from entering Gaza to aid the territory’s understaffed hospitals, flooded with over 2,800 wounded during the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Dr Farid Ismail, a member in the Egyptian People’s Assembly health committee, told Daily News Egypt that many Egyptian doctors had offered to cross the border into the Palestinian territory to help the injured, but their proposals were rejected by the government.
“Many doctors have signed statements taking full responsibility for anything that happens to them in Gaza, asking the Ministry of Health to allow them to go to Gaza, yet the ministry refused,” Ismail said.
“The government is saying Gaza is not safe, but since when was a war zone a safe place?” Ismail asked, adding that all the doctors who volunteered to cross the borders to help the Palestinian doctors deal with the casualties are aware of the circumstances there.
“The Palestinian Minister of Health has urged the Egyptian Health Minister to send in specialists in neurosurgery and some other direly needed branches of medicine but the minister refused,” he said.
Hamdy Al-Sayed, chairman of the Doctors’ Syndicate, told Daily News Egypt that doctors from the syndicate are there and ready to cross the borders into Gaza, but Egyptian security officials did not allow them.

And in other news…

The Egyptian state administrative court on Tuesday ordered the implementation of a previous ruling halting the exports of Egyptian natural gas to Israel at prices lower than that of international market.
Under the verdict, the government is obliged to implement the court’s decision, official news agency MENA said.
The case was brought by former diplomat Ibrahim Yousry, who is the lawyer representing the Popular Campaign Against the Export of Egyptian Gas to Israel. The suit aimed to cancel the decision of the Minister of Petroleum to export gas to Israel and to “protect the resources of the country,” a campaign statement read.
The campaign believes that Egypt’s natural gas would be better appropriated in local consumption.