Egypt's Bittersweet Reality - Power to the People

Egypt's heart is with the Palestinian people.

Photo from 25 January 2011 in Cairo

(SALEM / GAZA) - The world has been moving ever so slowly toward something right; the revolution has begun and the people of Egypt took to the streets to show Hosni Mubarak that they are simply done with their corrupt government's ways.

They're taking the lead from Tunisia, where people have stopped accepting tyranny; a widespread problem in the world almost exclusively related to US and Israeli influence. The extremely moving video below was sent in by Ken O'Keefe in Gaza. Ken believes in the principle of Truth, Justice and Peace. This system of belief does not involve other principles and it does not place money and power above humanity. Regarding Egypt, we learn several thing from Ken's video:

a) people can only take so much abuse

b) any violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights will not be tolerated

c) the notion of 'Power to the People' is vibrant and useful

Egypt revealed its real character to me in late 2009. I never will forget the heated moments relayed to our newsroom during an international hunger strike in Cairo that was held at the US embassy to raise awareness about the need to open Gaza's borders.

Hedy Epstein Courtesy: Intifada-Palestine.com

I was horrified by Egyptian police when they threatened Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein who intended to make a strong political statement about Gaza.

Hedy draws more of my admiration than almost any other living human being. She knows the horror of the Nazi genocide that claimed six million of her people, hundreds of thousands of Roma, and a large number of other people; and she fights for the freedom of the people of Palestine. That is beautiful. Humanity doesn't know religion or color or language or culture. Hedy Epstein is humanity.

She said, "It is important to let the besieged Gazan people know they are not alone. I want to tell the people I meet in Gaza that I am a representative of many people in my city and in other places in the US who are outraged at what the US, Israeli and European governments are doing to the Palestinians and that our numbers are growing."

When Hedy was 14 in 1939, her parents found a way for her to escape the persecution, sending her on the Kindertransport to England. Epstein never saw her parents again; they perished in Auschwitz in 1942. After World War II, Hedy Epstein worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. After moving to the US, Epstein became an activist for peace and social justice causes; one of the causes she has taken up is that of the Palestinian people.

When Max Ajl of Brooklyn wrote the article: Gaza Freedom March Rumbles Into Egyptian Security Services we knew the heart of this mystic land was tainted.

...Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, continues on her hunger strike. Twenty other participants have joined her, including Father Louie Vitale, 77, and Mary Hughes, 76, from the United States. Nearly all of the rest of the hunger strikers are over 50, many over 60. Most are from the USA, a few from France, Spain, Italy and Canada. They have released a statement, reading,

We are doing this hunger strike in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza who are hungry for food, shelter and, most of all, for their freedom. We call upon people everywhere to join us in short fasts and other non-violent actions to help end the siege of Gaza.

Meanwhile, the marchers at the US embassy have been released after being detained for a few hours by Egyptian security forces. Medea Benjamin, one of the march's organizers, said that the Egyptian security forces treated them quite "roughly," pushing them around, herding them into pens.

In her article about that day, Shoeless in Cairo Mary Hughes-Thompson says they tried to keep space around Hedy, as Egyptian Security Forces were pushed and squeezed.

Mary said she feared her ribs would be crushed as she was squeezed tighter and closer to people around her. A few people fell or tried to sit in the middle of the circle and the police went after them.

"Perhaps the police thought I had been sitting, because they grabbed my arms and began to drag me along the ground. I felt my one shoe fall off, then the other. I tried to hang onto my things as some French people came to my rescue, reaching out to help lift me to my feet, then leading me away next to the wall and away from the police."

She says her shoes and cane were "swallowed up and could not be located amid the mass of people." They stayed together for many hours, held tightly in their circle by the police. Finally members of Americans from Veterans for Peace came to her rescue. They ultimately persuaded Hedy to move to a better location and they helped her reach it.

You never hear good things about some groups but they are our friends; by this I mean the group in Cairo that day which include Veterans for Peace and Code Pink. People in the US who live lives highly wrapped up in their day to day affairs can not comprehend the heart of a person like Hedy Epstein, or Ken O'Keefe for that matter.

Ken's life has impacted and changed the lives of people in Gaza. When he and others aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship Mavi Marmara last May were attacked by Israeli commandos, they were part of a world changing event that led to the opening of the border at Rafah, though Egypt has wavered back and forth. Today Israel even has plants and spies in the free Palestine movement and they are waging attacks on Ken because of his effectiveness.

The same holds true for women like Hedy. Surviving the Holocaust and losing her parents to the racist Nazis; nobody could tell her about suffering. Yet her life is not dedicated to seeking 'security', indeed she ventures into any situation with the heart of a lion.

It is also interesting to note that the people attempting to reach the powers to be in Cairo that day talked with many young members of the Egyptian Security Forces who sided with Palestinians in their hearts. It is hard to imagine Egypt's Mubarak hanging onto the spirits and wills of these men with the changes moving as they are.

Knowing who the enemy really is can sometimes be difficult, at other times it is not. The photo accompanying this report says it all. It also would be worth the time of these young Egyptian soldiers to study the history of their own nation's interaction with Israel in the Six Days War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and they should ask about Israel's mass executions of captive Egyptian soldiers.

There is a reason for hope and I know Ken would highly applaud the direct action that is underway. People can change the future if they want to badly enough. We should not stop focusing on this; it is also noteworthy that at this time, Egypt is in a total informational blackout.

Egypt and Israel

Those who know the history don't need background, but it is important to understand that Israel has surrounded the Gaza Strip in an illegal blockade for the last several years. Walls with guard towers, snipers and sections of fences represent one side, and a deadly fleet of navy boats monitor the coastal side often killing unarmed fishermen who traditionally comprise Gaza's fishing fleet.

The southern of the Gaza Strip borders Egypt. That connection with Egypt gives hope to the Palestinians, because Egypt in the past was a strong ally to the Palestinian people, and Israel is a self-declared enemy of Palestine, so they won't be offering concessions any time soon.

'Zionist' religious beliefs which many in Israel follow, state that the Palestinian land; including Gaza, is actually Israel's - because of a statement in the Bible. This has been the excuse for Israel to carry out a literal episode of genocide. Nobody will ever know the real death toll among Palestinians. They are a battered population who human rights are continually violated. Perhaps Israel thought the world would follow the American lead by ignoring the plight of Gaza and Palestine forever, but it was a bad gamble.

The persecution of the entire Palestinian culture is based around the notion that God gave the land to Jewish people. What God didn't define were the borders. Israel has taken/annexed/seized well over 90% of the land today, but their main goal is taking the last 10%. Land that is clearly owned by Palestinians are routinely seized by Israel for the creation of Israeli religious colonies known as 'settlements'. These are area completely restricted to Zionist Jews, and they have their own system of roads that Arabs and Christians and others can not drive their car on.

Everyone else takes the Arab roads and they constantly pass through Israeli military checkpoints were military behavior is not regulated for the most part. Palestinian people are regularly humiliated, abused assaulted and killed by the Israeli military.

Every Friday Palestinian protest this and Israel's answer is the cold blooded shooting of people.

For years now Egypt has been under the control of both Israeli and American interests. Within this there is almost no concept of 'humanity'- the only emphasis ever being the "safety and security of the Israeli people'. If anyone really can't see why that is racism, then they are simply racist. The fact that Arab people in different nations work with Israel and the US, is based in a combination of two elements; fear and economic need.

Ken O'Keefe is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently spoke out about the use of depleted uranium as a "crime against humanity" and the US military using soldiers as "human guinea pigs" with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome. He is also a social entrepreneur utilizing direct action marine conservation, he is more widely known for leading the human shield action to Iraq and as a survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara in which he participated in "defending the ship" and "disarming two Israeli Commandos". On January 7, 2004, O'Keefe burned his US passport in protest of "American Imperialism" and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq. He replaced his US passport with a "World Passport", subsequently proclaiming himself a "Citizen of the World" with “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth." Ken is also legal citizen of Ireland and Palestine citizenship. Read Ken O'Keefe's Biography, you can also visit Ken's Ken's Website alohapalestine.com

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 65 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com