"... The Nakba demonstration demonstrates the Egyptian public's very real and continuing sympathy with the Palestinian cause!"

FLC

"... The final protest marked the annual celebration of the Palestinian ‘Nakba' (catastrophe), a demonstration in commemoration of the May 1948 declaration of the State of Israel. Egyptians and Arabs at large have marked this day with demonstrations and memorials to Palestine, the Palestinian refugees, and Jerusalem. This annual demonstration now came as an open rebuke to the common Western theme that the Egyptian revolution did not care about the Palestinian issue. This was never the case.  Western analysts had made much -- too much -- of the fact that during the uprising in January and February earlier this year there had been little focus on Israel in the protests. The Nakba demonstration demonstrates the Egyptian public's very real and continuing sympathy with the Palestinian cause -- one, which this weekend's violence across Israel's borders shows, remains a burning issue able to mobilize Arab protestors..... Public opinion at large is certainly not friendly to Israel, and the attention to domestic affairs in the protests against Mubarak never meant that Egyptians had lost interest in the fate of the Palestinians.  The reality and intensity of those feelings may become evident in the election campaigns we are about to see unfold in Egypt.

Egypt is emerging as a prime testing ground for the revolutionary energy of the Arab world.  It is a key experiment in how religion in the Arab world can be properly accommodated in a pluralistic political framework, where civil society can be born anew after decades of repression, how citizens can actually affect change in their country.  And it will test whether a new kind of regional stability can be built on the shoulders of public opinion, as opposed to a Western backed strong-man. While the Friday protests in Tahrir might not be the most scientific way of judging public opinion in the country or the region, one would be foolish not to pay attention to them -- even if does cut into Washington's weekend."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 5:45 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian