Protestors face backlash over criticism of Egypt’s role in aiding Gaza

A Monday demonstration at the Journalists Syndicate received backlash from pro-government voices for calling on Egypt’s administration to do more to help Palestinians.

“If you want to stop displacement, you must be a big brother — send them aid without [requiring] permission and coordination,” said some of the chants that echoed on the stairs of the Journalists Syndicate on Monday night. “Open the Rafah crossing.”

Since then, pro-government voices have painted the protestors, particularly prominent activist and once-political prisoner Ahmed Douma, who was among those leading the chants, as serving an Israeli narrative that they say blames Egypt for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Egypt has categorically denied responsibility for limiting the flow of aid into Gaza since its name was mentioned in Israel’s defense against the genocide charges it faces at the International Court of Justice in the ongoing case filed by South Africa.

The demonstration at the Journalists Syndicate, called for by the syndicate to mark the 100th day of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, was organized to call for a ceasefire.

Journalist Eman Ouf, whose group Egyptian Women Journalists was involved in instigating the demonstration, said the demonstration also criticized the Egyptian government for the low quantities of aid entering Gaza and the slow pace of passage for wounded to exit Gaza for treatment abroad via the Rafah border crossing.

A video of the chants criticizing Egypt’s role was shared by Israeli journalist Edy Cohen on social media.

Not long after, pro-government figures came out to criticize the demonstrators. “I was against his release and warned against it,” MP Mostafa Bakry said in a post on X on Monday. “The servants who echo the words of the Israeli defense team before the International Court of Justice must read the statements of the Commissioner General of UNRWA today, in which he said: Egypt opened the Rafah crossing from the first day and provided aid, and Israel was the one preventing it.”

Similarly, pro-state TV anchor Ahmed Moussa attacked Douma and the protest on Monday night during his program. “There is a criminal boy named Ahmed Douma who burned down the Institut d’Egypte in 2011. Today he was standing in front of the Journalists Syndicate with a group of revolutionary socialists, cursing the country and insulting Egypt. These words are what the terrorist [Muslim] Brotherhood organization is repeating and are in line with the position of the Zionist entity,” said Moussa, warning that the event must not go unpunished.

Douma stressed on Monday his opposition to Zionism and the Israeli aggression on Gaza, emphasizing that his words were not intended to minimize Israel’s responsibility for the killing and starvation of Palestinians.

“The crime of genocide, the siege, the use of hunger as a weapon against our Palestinian people, and the targeting of international and relief organizations, health, cultural and religious facilities, among others, are exclusively Zionist crimes, and no attempt to evade them can be accepted,” Douma said. Egyptian Women Journalists echoed the same sentiment in a post on their Facebook page.

Ouf stressed to Mada Masr the group’s opposition to Zionism, explaining that the protest demands Egypt take a more firm and active position in aiding the Palestinians in Gaza, including joining South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ and facilitating the entry of aid into the strip.

“We have objections to the methodology the regime is adopting in supporting Gaza. There are children trapped in the cold, and, so far, the aid that entered is not equal to tenth of their needs,” Ouf said.

She also demanded for journalists to be allowed to cover the aggression on Gaza more closely, such as reporting events on the border and visiting the wounded Palestinians who entered Egypt more easily. 

Facing political pressure in recent months to open the Rafah border crossing to allow for goods and people to flow in and out of the Gaza Strip, Egypt has repeatedly blamed Israel for obstructing the delivery of relief supplies to the Gaza Strip, which aid organizations say falls far below the volumes required to sustain life for the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped under Israel’s aggression.