Campaign started by revolutionaries for Gaza flotilla to sail from Egyptian ports

From Gulf News

Dubai/Cairo: The organisers of the Gaza aid flotilla are not ruling out the possibility of the fleet sailing from Egyptian ports should their efforts to sail from Greece fail to materialise.

Pro-Palestinian activists in Egypt have taken up the flotilla's cause, inviting organisers to launch the fleet from Egypt after Greece made it clear that it would not allow the Freedom Flotilla 2 to launch from its ports.

However, Hani Sadeq, a professor of political science at the Suez Canal University, said that Egypt's military rulers were unlikely to allow the flotilla to sail from the country.

"It is unlikely that they will agree to allow the sailing of the flotilla [from Egypt's ports] lest tensions with Israel... escalate. Instability inside Egypt would not encourage them to run the risk of opening another front of turmoil with Israel," Sadeq said.

The Egyptian government, he said, was more likely to evade public pressure by permanently opening the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
"The corporatist interests of the Egyptian military do not necessarily match the interests of the people of Egypt," said the source close to the flotilla's organisers...

..."The way we're pitching it is that one issue doesn't take priority over another, that all the issues are connected, and that this is one struggle against oppression," she said, adding that she has already seen positive signs. The campaign, she said, was being organised for two reasons.

"Firstly, Egypt's post-revolution position towards the blockade of Gaza must change completely. Egypt should [now] play an active role in ending the blockade. Second, it is an opportunity for Egypt to rewrite a rather shameful history of having contributed to the blockade under the Mubarak regime."

Lina said slogans supporting the campaign had already started appearing in Tahrir square and the response by the paper's readers has been overwhelming.

Narmeen Saleh, a pro-Palestinian activist said that because of growing public anger at the government's policies, "officials will not block public support to the campaign".

"This step will reassert Egypt's regional status, which suffered terribly under Mubarak," she said.

From Gulf News