Angry Twitter users decry ‘Qasr al-Aini border crossing’

Shortly after the Ministry of Interior announced it would take down the last remaining concrete walls blocking downtown Cairo’s streets, workers started doing just that on Wednesday evening — only to replace them with an enormous steel gate.

The gate is being erected at the start of Qasr al-Aini Street, a main thoroughfare leading to Tahrir Square. The gate would be remain open for traffic and only close in times of “emergency,” reported the privately owned daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY). 

Angry Cairo residents took to social media to vent their frustrations on Thursday. Some accused the construction of being another state-authored attempt to restrict freedom of movement, while others adopted a satirical attitude, dubbing the gate the “Qasr al-Aini border crossing,” akin to the violence-plagued Rafah checkpoint at Egypt's border with Gaza.

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim had ordered the removal of the concrete walls on Monday to ease traffic congestion, according to the state-owned news site EgyNews.

Aside from the Qasr al-Aini wall, which was close to the Cabinet headquarters and the Shura Council building, the other wall slated for demolition blocked Falaki Street off from Mohamed Mahmoud Street, another main artery to Tahrir.

Walls sprang up around downtown’s streets after the battle of Mohamed Mahmoud in November 2011 as the ministry sought to separate protesters and police forces. More walls were then built to prevent protesters from reaching vital state institutions in the downtown area, like the Cabinet, Shura Council or Interior Ministry.

Protesters succeeded in pulling parts of the walls down, only to have the ministry put them back up again. Rights groups had filed lawsuits against the government to remove the walls, which cause severe traffic problems in downtown and prevent access to important government buildings.

Activists painted graffiti on the walls demanding the government remove them, decrying the blockades as the state’s attempt to limit the freedom of movement in public space.