Falastine Horra shut down the road in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut on Saturday, demonstrating against the Wall of Shame's construction on the southern border of Gaza. The protest was coordinated with a demonstration outside the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate in Cairo, with upwards of 300 in attendance.
In Beirut, protesters marched from Shatila refugee camp to execute a peaceful sit-in at the Egyptian Embassy, closing Camille Chamoun Avenue for half an hour. Traffic on the prominent thoroughfare just south of Cola taxi park was funneled to a single lane, intermittently allowed past the embassy beneath a large Palestinian flag.
The sit-in's disruption brought the Wall of Shame to a popular consciousness threatened by normalization of the Occupation and complicity with the daily assault on Gaza's inhabitants. Protesters decried Hosni Mubarak's betrayal of the Palestinian cause, the international community's blind eye to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the United States' influence in the Arab regimes' complicity.
"Down with Mubarak, Netanyahu's dog," read signs at the Cairo demonstration. While Mubarak's government has repeatedly disassociated itself from the Wall of Shame's secretive construction, Al-Masry Al-Youm, and Egyptian-based news organization, has confirmed the subterranean Wall. Built of steel panels lowered 18 meters into the ground, the Wall will strangle the smuggling tunnels that have kept Gaza alive during the sustained blockade.
A local driver on the Sinai peninsula, which abuts Gaza most significantly at the typically closed Rafah border crossing, described shuttling employees of The Arab Contractors, an Egyptian construction group tasked with the Wall of Shame's construction. "Two months ago, an engineer hired me to drive engineers, technicians and workers every day from Al-Arish city to the town of Rafah," he said. The construction site has also been affirmed by Electronic Intifada, BBC News, and Ma'an News Agency.
The coordinated protests mark the beginning of a joint movement in Cairo and Beirut to inspire a popular condemnation of the Wall of Shame where Arab and international governments have hesitated to raise a finger. Falastine Horra will continue to initiate actions in Beirut in conjunction with other activist movements in the city, in Cairo, and internationally.
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