Israel Matzav

Arabs protest against Egyptian apartheid wall

In front of Egyptian embassies throughout the Arab world, there are protests going on against the apartheid wall being built between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Some 150 people gathered outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman, Jordan on Sunday and burned photos of President Hosni Mubarak. The photos depict Mubarak with a Star of David stamped on his forehead.

The rally was organized by Jordanian labor unions and supporters of the opposition.

In Lebanon, members of the Jamaa al-Islamiya movement demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy. A number of clerics who took part in the rally said the wall being constructed by Egypt violates Islamic law.

Meanwhile, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi reported that a number of prominent and radical Muslim clerics have issued edicts against the wall. According to the newspaper, Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, head of the Iman University in Yemen, and Egyptian scholar and Islamist preacher Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, have also voiced their objection to the wall, as have other Egyptian and Saudi religious leaders.

However, Cairo's Al-Azhar University, a major center of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning, has officially backed the government's decision to build a wall along the border with Gaza. On Thursday 25 of the institute's senior administrators issued a statement backing the "state's right to build along its walls facilities and obstacles that will enhance is security."

The wall will take 'months' to complete even if the Egyptians work at it 24/7, and although it will be an improvement over the current situation, it will not hermetically seal the Gaza Strip.

Israel has far more effective methods to deal with 'Palestinian' smuggling: Out of 3,000 tunnels that were active before Operation Cast Lead, only 150 now remain. Too bad Olmert didn't finish the job when he had the chance.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:40 PM