The largest demonstrations in a decade show that Egyptians are angry at more than Israel

Reported by Ashraf Khalil, Paul Schemm and Issandr
El Amrani

Egyptian campuses
had already been
bubbling with
discontent before
last week’s Arab
Summit in Beirut.
Now the somewhat
uninspiring
performance of
Arab leaders at the
summit–combined with the subsequent Israeli incursion
into Palestinian President’s Yasser Arafat’s own
compound–has kicked that frustration up to a fever
pitch.

The days following the summit have seen daily rounds
of protests and demonstrations, encompassing several
university campuses around the country as well as
professional organizations such as the Lawyers’
Syndicate (see article below).

Those protests, according to news reports, included
80,000 people around the country on 31 March, and
continued with a 1 April demonstration at Cairo
University which included the most violent
confrontation with security forces in 18 months, if not
since the Gulf War. The 1 April demonstration was
largely organized by socialist activists, who tend to take
a more confrontational stance toward the local
authorities than their rivals in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The rally began fairly peacefully and featured a mixture
of students and intellectuals, including film directors
Youssef Chahine and Ali Badrakhan, chanting slogans
supporting Palestine, condemning Israel, and calling for
a stronger stance by Arab nations than was produced by
the recent Beirut summit.

"Suddenly everything turned upside down," said Samar
Said, 18, a student at the Faculty of English. Reinforced
by students, the demonstration broke the police cordon
and moved towards the Israeli embassy approximately
500 meters away. The marchers made it as far as the
entrance of the zoo at the mouth of the University
Bridge before Central Security troops responded with
tear gas and water cannons and pushed the
demonstrators back to the gates. The rest of the day
featured a standoff at the main gate, which was
generally peaceful, and much more violent and chaotic
running battles at the side gate near the Faculty of
Commerce. According to witnesses, the number of
demonstrators inside and outside the university totaled
10-15,000 people and it included passersby as well as
large numbers of primary and secondary school students
that joined the demonstrations after schools closed early
at around 12:30pm.

The demonstrators’ ire extended well beyond just Israel
and there were many slogans condemning Arab leaders
at the recent Beirut summit for not sufficiently
defending the Palestinians and extending a peace
offering to Israel during a time of renewed violence in
the territories.

"Oh cowardly Arab governments, tomorrow your
weapons will be ours," chanted the crowd. "We swear
by heaven and earth, that the Arab summit wrecked
everything!" went another.

Anger towards the United States was also in evidence,
especially in the running clashes to the side of the
university involving about a 1,000 students. Protestors
smashed all the windows of a KFC restaurant that had
already been damaged in previous demonstrations. "It’s
because it is foreign investment, we don’t need foreign
investment," said a group of bystanders when asked
why the fast food restaurant had been destroyed.
Journalists on the scene admitting to be American were
threatened by the demonstrators, while those calling
themselves other nationalities were left alone.

Anger was also directed at the security forces
themselves and when a Central Security captain came
out of the university and seized a protestor carrying a
rock on the street, he was promptly mobbed by students
carrying stones and improvised clubs and had to be
dragged to safety–face covered in blood.

Periodically police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds
of protestors and drove armored vans through their
midst. Protestors responded by throwing stones at the
vans, reforming their ranks after the gas cleared away
and attempting to build street barricades to stop the
vans. Several times the strong winds blew the gas
clouds back into the faces of the security forces, to the
cheers of the demonstrators.

Even the ambulances which were on the scene
ostensibly to help injured protestors came under attack
from the angry crowd. Students alleged that the
ambulance drivers were accepting injured demonstrators
then delivering them into the hands of the police. At
least one ambulance was attacked by students and had
to push its way through the crowd.

After being driven back several times, security forces
advanced on students at 3:30pm–many of the Central
Security troops throwing rocks themselves. Soldiers at
the front gate also broke ranks and began throwing
rocks back at the students, but were temporarily
stopped by an angry officer shouting, "Nobody throw
anything! We do not throw rocks."

Students along the side street were forced back into the
university through the Faculty of Commerce gate and
security forces began pumping tear gas shells into the
campus, blanketing the area and prompting mass panic
as students ran for cover, handkerchiefs pressed to their
faces. Throughout the campus, even far away from the
violence, there were knots of students, crying.

In the course of the day, dozens of students were
injured by security forces batons or overcome by tear
gas inhalation. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that
the remaining students trapped in the university were
able to slip off campus and go home.

On the other side of town at the American University in
Cairo (AUC), the situation was quite different. Although
the demonstration–over 400 strong–was one of the
biggest the university has seen in over a decade, it was
peaceful and well managed. Central Security forces
allowed student to come out of AUC’s Greek Campus,
but they were cordoned off in a side alley for most of
the time. Some student leaders seemed to coordinate the
event with officers there, and clear limits as to what
could and could not be done were set. After an hour of
chanting in the alley, the demonstration was carefully
moved through Muhammad Mahmoud Street and into
the university’s main campus, where it continued for
several hours before dissipating.

Cairo has not seen this degree of violence or direct
clashes with security since the protests against the Gulf
War in 1991. Anger over the Israeli incursion into
Ramallah and the isolation of Arafat at the same time
that Arab leaders were bickering in Beirut is widespread
throughout the country. Though there was not a mass
joining of the university protests by non-students, most
Egyptians support the sentiment.

After security troops closed off the area around the
Cairo University main gate, a smaller demonstration of
about 1,000 students marched down University Street
toward Giza Square. The group held a brief rally in the
middle of Mourad Street before quickly scattering at the
sight of incoming security troops.

"We’re disgusted with ourselves and with our
governments," said one observer in a Mourad Street
storefront. "As long as the Arabs have no honor, there’s
no solution here on Earth."



The situation on the Cairo streets was still developing rapidly as of Cairo Times
deadline. On the afternoon of 2 April, there were reports of street protests in Ramses
Square and on Marouf Street in Downtown, as well as unconfirmed reports of attacks
on American fast food franchises in Mohandiseen. A delegation from the Egyptian
People’s Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising held a rally on 2 April
at the Foreign Ministry and submitted a letter for Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher
demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.