[ 07/03/2011 - 09:53 AM ] 
GAZA, (PIC)-- Gazans have high hopes after Nabil al-Arabi, the former Egyptian ambassador to the UN, was named the new foreign minister of Egypt in a new care-taker government after the former regime was ousted by popular demand.Arabi has gained popularity in Gaza because of favorable political choices that include a strong stance against the economic siege on the region.
Hamas: Honorable stands waiting to be translated
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has told the Palestinian Information Center: ”Dr. Nabil al-Arabi has honorable political stands, especially his position rejecting the imposed siege on the Gaza Strip, as well as his considering the Camp David Accords as damaging to the Palestinian cause.”
Arabi had written an article in the Egyptian Al-Shurooq newspaper on February 19 criticizing foreign policies under the former minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, strongly attacking his involvement in the Gaza siege.
”Egypt's foreign policy should not be characterized by serious violations of fundamental principles in international law, such as the position Egypt has adopted in the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip,” Arabi said.
Abu Zuhri expressed hope that Arabi would translate his political stances on the ground while serving in his new post as foreign minister. ”Hamas hopes Dr. Arabi will translate and defend these honorable positions in order to end part of the suffering of people of Gaza caused by the blockade” he said.
Satisfaction on the Gaza street
The PIC went to the streets to ask Gazans their opinions on the turnout of the Egyptian revolution.
”Almost everyone knows that the Palestinians in Gaza are rejoicing the most at the success of the Egyptian revolution, because it gave hope of changes to a stage of suffering because of the former Egyptian regime,” said university student Tamir Ahmed.
Before the revolution, Egyptian authorities had complicated solidarity activists to deliver humanitarian aid to the strip and arrested many activists.
”We hope these statements and positions are turned into concrete and practical steps, and that the Rafah border crossing will be opened, and traffic will be allowed to pass through without hindrance, and that commodities are imported without being transferred to Israeli border crossings,” said Abu Ibrahim Sharab.
”We have suffered enough from Aboul-Gheit's threats to break legs. Now we want a new page that will restore Egypt's honor,” he said.
Aboul-Gheit had threatened to break the legs of Palestinians who crossed Egypt borders to trade there.
”Now I can raise my head and say I am Egyptian after I had sometimes been avoiding that,” said Mansura Abdul-Raheem, an Egyptian woman married to a Palestinian for 20 years.
"... In some sense, it already has changed. Palestinian officials from Hamas have been allowed to travel from Rafah. The border crossing has also been re-opened after a month-long shutdown following January 25, although it is still only taking 300 people a day. But fundamentally, the official position is the same for now. It's based on a legal reality that the siege of Gaza is Israel's responsibility, since it is the occupying power, as well as more convoluted legalism that the border cannot fully be reopened until Gaza is part of an independent Palestinian state..."
Posted by G, Z, or B at 10:49 AM
Uprooted Palestinian
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