Journalists Syndicate protests Palestinians’ forced displacement, demands humanitarian aid entry

Former and current journalists, many holding Palestinian flags or wearing keffiyehs, gathered on the steps outside the Journalists Syndicate headquarters on Wednesday to protest the mass displacement of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and into Egypt.

Signs were handed out at the protest with slogans such as “displacement is a red line” and “open the Rafah crossing,” others were showing pictures of Palestinian civilians or journalists. So far, the Occupation’s aggressive assault on Gaza has killed  at least 86 journalists.

The demonstration comes as Israel expands its ground invasion into the strip’s south, pushing hundreds of thousands of displaced people into already crowded areas near the border with Egypt and raising concerns that the Occupation is aiming for the mass displacement of Gaza’s population.

The Israeli government has proposed scenarios where the war would displace Palestinians in Gaza, with Egyptian officials rejecting the outcome in what the president referred to as the “liquidation” of the Palestinian cause.

Journalist and human rights activist Rasha Azab had called for journalists to partake in a hunger strike on Wednesday, while Journalists Syndicate head Khaled al-Balshy later called for the Wednesday demonstration at 1 pm at the syndicate’s headquarters in Cairo.

“There is a lack of Egyptian voices calling for the war to end, except for the journalists’ syndicate,” Azab told Mada Masr, “it’s a sad thing.”

“It is something that indicates the death of Egyptian society, or the living cells in Egypt’s society of syndicates and parties, and this is [their] responsibility. All syndicates have strategic locations on Ramses Street that were always used for the Palestinian case and this did not happen this time,” she said.

Wednesday’s demonstration proceeded as planned despite the few security personnel deployed to surround the area. A security member dressed in civilian clothing ordered people to stop but demonstrators continued to chant against the Occupation, for the continuity of the Palestinian resistance and the refusal of their displacement. 

“This is our right that we fought for, and generations have fought for, for years. We will not give up this right” Azab told Mada Masr. 

“We have to speak about the displacement and resettlement. The entry of aid, the entry of media and medical convoys. These are our demands since the beggining of the war,” she added. 

Demonstrators stood outside the entrance of the syndicate for an hour to demand a ceasefire and to reject the mass forced displacement of Palestinians into Egypt. 

“This is a strike in solidarity with the people facing the highest extent of a genocidal war,” said one of the demonstration’s organizers, Youssef Shaaban. “At the ground level [Palestinians] are dying of hunger and need alot more aid than what is currently entering, and they are dying as a result of the direct bombardment. They are in a genocidal war from two sides, not just from Israel. It is from Israel and with the approval of the world, whether directly or indirectly,” he added. 

“I am here requesting that the Egyptian government open the crossing in a full and consistent way. From the start of the assault on Gaza, the crossing has not been consistently open, [it] is opened sometimes very slowly and after Israeli [security checks].  The Rafah crossing is under Egyptian sovereignty. The least Egypt could offer is th eentry of aid that is congested at the crossing and lift the seige on Gaza and release all the injured from Gaza to recieve treatment at Egyptian hospitals,” said journalist Hadeer el-Mahdawy.

Wednesday’s demonstrations were the most recent set of actions taken by the syndicate to voice anger and push for action regarding the ongoing assault on Gaza.

“The strike is an open public invitation, part of many that occurred within the syndicate. We had several activities demanding a permanent stop to the war,  since the first week of the aggression. It was then that we first documented and verified the crimes of western media, and since then there have been many days of solidarity. It is one of the activities that will continue [for] as long as this war exists. We demand an end to this brutal war and support our fellow journalists in Palestine,” al-Balshy told Mada Masr.

The syndicate also tried to organize a convoy to travel to the Egyptian side of the Rafah borde to conduct a demonstration there. The convoy never departed, however, as it did not receive the necessary security permits.

“With solidarity, we dont expect anything other than [it being] an attempt to apply consistent pressure and always send a message, that the pressure of populations and governments generally is part of change and fixing the situation occuring on the ground,” said al-Balshy.

The demonstration ended at 2 pm sharp, as journalists and activists began to regroup inside and outside of the syndicate. 

The demonstration is taking place at a time when an influx of displaced people from central Gaza and Khan Younis are being forcibly moved into Mawasi, Tal al-Sultan, and Shabura, a few kilometers away from the Egyptian border, as the Occupation expands its ground incursions in the South.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warned that “the developments we are witnessing point to an attempt to move Palestinians into Egypt, regardless of whether they stay there or are resettled elsewhere,” in an op-ed published by the Los Angeles Times on December 9.