Egypt Protesters Attack Israel Embassy, Take Down Flag

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Some protesters managed to sneak into the Israeli embassy building in Cairo through the balcony: Al Arabiya correspondent #alarbiya #Mubarak

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Hundreds injured in clashes after Egypt’s protesters smash wall protecting Israel embassyhttp://goo.gl/lwEiv

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Egyptians rallying for reforms attack Israel embassy wall

Some hundreds of Egyptian activists demolish a concrete wall built
around a building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt,
to protect it against demonstrators, as they raise their national
Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. Photo: Amr Nabil / AP              

 

(AFP) Posted Friday September 9, 2011– 12:00pm
A large group of Egyptians rallying for reforms branched off from a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square and destroyed a protective wall outside a high-rise building housing the Israeli embassy.

Thousands of protesters massed in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of an uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February, to demand reforms and an end to military trials of civilians.
The protesters, who had gathered under a scorching sun, filled a section of the square to listen to the weekly Muslim prayer sermon.
"It would be shame on the Egyptian people if they forget their revolution," the preacher said.
He criticised some of the prosecution witnesses in the ongoing murder trial of Mubarak and his security chiefs for testifying this week that they had not been ordered to use deadly force against protesters during the revolt.
"They must be charged with false testimony. How can a prosecution witness turn into a defence witness?" the cleric asked.
The preacher also denounced military trials for civilians. The military, which took charge after Mubarak's ouster, has sentenced thousands of people to prison since February.
Protesters chanted slogans against the military ruler and current de facto head of state Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi after the sermon ended. Tantawi is set to take the witness stand Sunday when the trial of Mubarak resumes.
Ibrahim Ali, an agricultural engineer, said he had come to the capital from northern Egypt to attend the rally.
"None of the revolution's demands have been met," he said. "There is still injustice in the country."
Roughly 1,000 protesters branched off to the Israeli embassy several kilometres (miles) away and began destroying a concrete wall recently built to protect the mission.
They gathered outside the building housing the mission and attacked the wall with sledge hammers and a large metal bar, as military police nearby did nothing to stop them.
The wall, about two metres (6.5 feet) high, consists of cement slabs that were recently installed around the building that houses the embassy overlooking a bridge in Cairo.

They brought down almost half of the dozens of metres (yards) of wall, chanting: "Lift your head high, you are an Egyptian."
Last month, outraged Egyptians staged huge protests outside the embassy and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over the border deaths of Egyptian policemen killed as Israel hunted militants.
Egypt has asked Israel for an official apology and demanded a probe into the deaths of the five policemen.
Others, mostly football fans, left Tahrir Square for the nearby interior ministry to protest against Tuesday night's clashes with police in which nearly 80 people were injured and dozens of cars torched.
There were no police guards outside the ministry, leaving the protesters to scrawl anti-police slogans on its front gates.
Several protesters lined up to urinate on the gate while others peeled off a steel and brass eagle emblem from the gate, scrunched it up and threw it over the wall.
One protester threw a glass bottle at an officer inside who peeked over the gate, yelling: "Stay inside you son of a whore."
Witnesses said some protesters pelted the building with stones in the evening but local residents came down to stop them.
Friday's protest was called by mostly secular and leftist activists, and is being boycotted by the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement and other Islamist groups.
Mohsen Rady, a senior Brotherhood member, told state television his movement, which is showing growing strains with the military, believed Egyptians were weary of protests.
"People have grown bored of these demonstrations," he said.
Secular activists are concerned the military's current timetable for parliamentary elections this autumn will play into the hands of the Brotherhood by denying new political movements the time to organise into parties.
The activists are also demanding an end to the military trials of civilians.

Egyptians demolish a concrete wall built around a building housing
the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, to protect it against demonstrators
Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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by Naharnet Newsdesk

Egyptians demolish a concrete wall built around a building housing the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, to protect it against demonstrators Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

An Egyptian protester on Friday took down the flag at the Israeli embassy atop a Cairo high-rise after protesters destroyed a protective wall outside the building.

He threw the flag, only recently hung after a protester clambered up the building last month and tore it off, down to the street as thousands of protesters cheered him on.

Last month, protester Ahmed Shehat became a national hero after he climbed up the embassy and replaced its flag with an Egyptian one during a protest denouncing Israel for the deaths of five Egyptian policemen on the border.

The policemen were killed on August 18 as Israeli troops chased militants along the border after a series of ambushes in the Negev desert that killed eight Israelis.

Earlier on Friday, a large group of Egyptians rallying for reforms branched off from a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square and destroyed a protective wall outside the building housing the Israeli embassy.
Roughly 1,000 protesters branched off to the Israeli embassy several kilometers away and began destroying a concrete wall recently built to protect the mission.

They gathered outside the building housing the mission and attacked the wall with sledge hammers and a large metal bar, as military police nearby did nothing to stop them.

The wall, about two meters high, consists of cement slabs that were recently installed around the building that houses the embassy overlooking a bridge in Cairo.

They brought down almost half of the dozens of meters of wall, chanting: "Lift your head high, you are an Egyptian."

Last month, outraged Egyptians staged huge protests outside the embassy and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over the border deaths of the Egyptian policemen.

Egypt has asked Israel for an official apology and demanded a probe into the deaths of the five policemen.

Friday's protest at Tahrir Square was called by mostly secular and leftist activists and boycotted by the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement and other Islamist groups.

Mohsen Rady, a senior Brotherhood member, told state television his movement, which is showing growing strains with the military, believed Egyptians were weary of protests.

"People have grown bored of these demonstrations," he said.

Secular activists are concerned the military's current timetable for parliamentary elections this autumn will play into the hands of the Brotherhood by denying new political movements the time to organize into parties.

The activists are also demanding an end to the military trials of civilians.

Source Agence France Presse

Egyptian protesters attack Israeli Embassy wall in Cairo

A demonstrator holds an Israeli flag with shoes
on it as he attends a protest in front of the Israeli
Embassy in Cairo on Aug. 26. (Khalil Hamra/AP)   

Al-Jazeera aired live video of the attack on the wall Friday, with images of protesters praying outside the compound, some pounding on the wall with tools and others scaling the wall.

Sherine Tadros, an al-Jazeera correspondent, wrote on Twitter that police were not yet at the embassy. She took this photo, writing that men were waving the Palestinian flag on top of the demolished wall:


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