Tag: doctors

Aid workers on hunger strike at Rafah-Gaza border

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following statement:

Aid workers to enter into hunger strike at Rafah-Gaza border
18/05/2009
British, Belgian and Greek doctors, nurses and aid workers will go on hunger strike tomorrow over the Egyptian Authorities’ refusal to allow entry into Gaza.
After constant attempts aid workers, doctors and nurses, have been refused entry in to the Gaza strip by the Egyptian authorities. Some doctors have been waiting for forty days. Out of utter desperation and witnessing the treatment of Palestinians by the Egyptian authorities, aid workers and activists have been left with no choice except to go into hunger strike and stay at the Rafah crossing until they are allowed through into Gaza.
Although the Egyptian authorities had said the border was open for two days the fact is that non-Palestinians were not allowed to enter, even though some were Palestinian but held different nationalities.
Contact Dr Omar Mangoush
Tel: 0020193764783
Assed Baig
0020178126819

Police thwart doctors’ protest

Posted on By 3arabawy

The doctors’ planned protest in front of the parliament was aborted by police intervention:

Security prevented doctors from holding a protest outside the People’s Assembly on Tuesday.
The Doctors’ Syndicate had called for a protest just after midday, to coincide with Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali’s presentation of the annual state budget to parliament.
Groups of plain-clothed men, some of whom were carrying truncheons or walkie-talkies, were spread out along the length of Cairo’s central Qasr El-Aini Street. Riot police had been stationed outside both parliament and the Doctors’ Syndicate.
A large number of high-ranking police officers and state security investigations officers — but no doctors — were congregated opposite parliament at 12:30 pm when the protest was scheduled to begin.
Daily News Egypt was told by state security investigations officer Hisham El-Iraqi that the protest had been banned, and that doctors had been instructed to go to the Doctors’ Syndicate. The press was ordered to leave the area in front of the parliament.
An identical scenario occurred at the syndicate, where journalists were told that they were not allowed to enter the syndicate building and could not stand in its vicinity. They were also informed that the protest had been banned.
When a journalist enquired about the reason for the ban, an officer said: “There is no reason.”