Occupied Palestine
May 14, 2011 by occupiedpalestineSat May 14, 2011 5:38PM
Interview with Sarah Akl, Political activist, Cairo
Thousands of Egyptian activists poured into the streets of Cairo and other major cities to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The Muslim Brotherhood, The Youth Revolution Coalition and the National Association for Change, have been leading the call. They urged people to rally in a show of national unity and support for the Palestinian cause.
What follows is the transcript of Press TV’s interview with Sarah Akl who is a political activist in Cairo.
Press TV: Sarah, we know that activists from all over the political spectrum have been calling for this protest and national unity. What can you tell us about that?
Sarah Akl: Well, I believe groups of people are uniting today for several causes. For the start, there is the cause of the unity between Muslims and Christians and unity and march against sectarianism and how we all want sectarianism to be part of our country.
We do not want to be a difference between the Egyptian workers and businessmen. It is another call for unity between the Arab world, between the Egyptian people and supporting the Palestinian uprising. A lot of people have been calling for this march for Palestine on the 15th of May.
Today, as you see in Tahrir square, there are a lot of Palestinian flags and I believe they even surpass the Egyptian flags today. There was this Arab united flags together showing support for all Arab countries and all the uprisings and revolutions in all Arab countries like Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain and so on. So I believe today is a very good call for unity among the people of Egypt, among the people of the Arab world, among the people of the revolution and the Egyptian army.
Press TV: How do you see the criticizing of the current interim government and the people, as you heard they were denouncing Yahya al-Gamal who is the Deputy Prime Minister? How do you see this?
Sarah Akl: Well, I believe there is a bit of confusion or a bit of different opinions between people regarding the new government. Some people are supporting the new government’s regulations or the way they handle things right now.
A lot of people see that it is just another extension to the old regime and Yahya al-Gamal is one of the people that the Egyptian people have a lot of contradicting views about him. Some of them find him very not pro the people or not pro the protests or the revolution and movements. He is somehow representing a lot of what the old regime has been doing to the people. A lot of statements and interviews were not very popular among the people. They do not like how he acts or talks.
Yet we can generalize this for the whole government through the past few weeks or months maybe doctor Essam Sharaf has been doing a lot of efforts to make things a bit easier internally and externally. He is trying so hard to gain much popularity from the people and from the revolution. It seems that he has been pro the revolution since the start. So I do not think that people are against the whole government. They are not actually against them but they are somehow against some people in the government who are not showing full support like they used to at the time of the revolution.
Press TV: How do you see the anti-Israeli stance of the Egyptian people that you can see happening?
Sarah Akl: Well, it has always been there. The Egyptian people have always been against Israel. They have been always supporting the Palestinian cause yet due to the old regime there was no channel that we could channel our support for the Palestinian people.
I recall a couple of years ago there was this march for Palestine. It was very small in number and it did not succeed in even reaching Rafah or anything near that but now the masses are growing, the people’s voices are more heard. The communication between the Arab countries has become more and more effective through the social media and through the revolutions in everywhere. So I believe the call for the support of not only Palestine but the Arab world versus Israel has been growing and growing and I believe it is taking a new shape now.
Press TV: Finally, as a political activist a message that you would like to send to the whole world today on this call for national unity among the Egyptians and among the Palestinians as well.
Sarah Akl: I would like to make it very clear that the people of Egypt have always been united, have always been together against all the hardships that they have been facing and that us as the Arab world have always dreamed of this unity we have. We the people want us back together.
We are for peace. We are for unity. We are for solidarity. We do not want anyone coming in between us either from our government or from our external governments. We just want to be there living in peace together as brothers and sisters and today is a big message for these people to show them that we are there one hand and one unity.
MSK/PKH
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