Masri: Mubarak’s insistence on building the wall contradicts earlier statements
Posted on January 25, 2010 by realistic birdGAZA, (PIC)– Hamas MP Mushir Al-Masri has regretted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s assertion that his government would continue to build the steel wall along its borders with the Gaza Strip.
Masri in a press statement on Sunday said that the assertion contradicted Mubarak’s earlier statement that he would not allow the starvation of Gaza people.
The MP charged that the Egyptian insistence on continuing to build the wall contradicts human values, and added, “We expected Egypt after four years of siege and a year on the unprecedented Israeli war on Gaza to adopt daring steps but we were surprised with the contrary”.
He said that the “Zionist enemy is the first and foremost party to benefit from that wall”, emphasizing that it was not built for the Palestinian nor Egyptian interests.
Masri underlined that Hamas was and would remain to be keen on Egypt’s national security, adding that if the wall fell in line with pressures to persuade Hamas away from national constants then it would only fail. “Neither the cast lead nor the cast steel would force our people to recognize the international quartet conditions,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, tens of Arabs and Palestinians picketed the Egyptian embassy in Berlin on Saturday to protest the Egyptian construction of the underground steel wall.
They handed the embassy staff a message denouncing the construction of that wall and calling for opening the Rafah border terminal.
They asked Cairo to live up to its humanitarian and ethical commitments towards neighboring Gaza by halting the construction of that wall and immediately opening the Rafah crossing.
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Egypt's Mubarak defends Gaza border barrier
(AFP) – 1 day ago
Egyptian authorities say they built the barrier to stop Palestinian smugglers
CAIRO — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday defended the construction of an underground barrier on the border with the Gaza Strip as a matter of national security and sovereignty."The works and reinforcements on our eastern border are a matter of Egyptian sovereignty. We do not accept a debate on the issue with anyone," Mubarak said in a speech to mark Police Day.
"It is the right of the Egyptian state, and even its duty, its responsibility. It is the right of every state to control and protect its borders," he added.
Khaled Meshaal, exiled leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement which has controlled Gaza since June 2007, recently called on Egypt to halt construction of the barrier.
"What we do not accept, and will not accept, is that we take our borders lightly, or that our territory is violated or that our soliders or installations are targetted," Mubarak said.
"We continue with the construction and reinforcements on our border, not to please anyone, but to protect our national security from violations and from terrorist acts such as those in Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab and Cairo," he added.
A series of bombings from 2004 to 2006 killed a total of 130 people in Red Sea resorts on the Sinai peninsula and a 2009 bomb attack at a Cairo bazaar killed a French teenager.
Egyptian authorities started building the underground steel barrier in a bid they say to stop the smuggling of goods and weapons into the Gaza Strip via a network of underground tunnels, but officials have remained tightlipped about the details of the construction work.
Egypt has also been more vocal in its pressure on Hamas, which it accuses of refusing a reconciliation agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has sealed the Gaza Strip off to all but very limited supplies of basic goods ever since the Islamist group seized control in 2007, ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
On January 6, an Egyptian policeman was killed and five people wounded during clashes on the Egypt-Gaza border after Palestinian demonstrations to protest at the construction of the barrier.
Copyright © 2010 AFP
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