Neki linkovi, vijesti (Palestina/Izrael i Egipat)

(slika: Al Jazeera)

Ali Abunimah: Egypt's uprising and its implications for Palestine
As for Abbas's PA, never has so much international donor money been spent on a security force with such poor results. The open secret is that without the Israeli military occupying the West Bank and besieging Gaza (with the Mubarak regime's help), Abbas and his praetorian guard would have fallen long ago. Built on the foundations of a fraudulent peace process, the US, EU and Israel with the support of the decrepit Arab regimes now under threat by their own people, have constructed a Palestinian house of cards that is unlikely to remain standing much longer. This time the message may be that the answer is not more military resistance but rather more people power and a stronger emphasis on popular protests. Today, Palestinians form at least half the population in historic Palestine -- Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip combined. If they rose up collectively to demand equal rights, what could Israel do to stop them? Israel's brutal violence and lethal force has not stopped regular demonstrations in West Bank villages including Bilin and Beit Ommar. Israel must fear that if it responds to any broad uprising with brutality, its already precarious international support could start to evaporate as quickly as Mubarak's. The Mubarak regime, it seems, is undergoing rapid "delegitimization." Israeli leaders have made it clear that such an implosion of international support scares them more than any external military threat. With the power shifting to the Arab people and away from their regimes, Arab governments may not be able to remain as silent and complicit as they have for years as Israel oppresses Palestinians.

Sam Bahour: Palestine is the key to Arab democracy
The obvious question is: if Palestinians are so experienced in taking to the streets, why then are there so few serious demonstrations in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem or Gaza in solidarity with the Egyptian people? The reason is that the Palestinian Authority has been co-opted by a US-dominated and foreign-funded agenda which, in times of crisis, understands a single tool: force. The same applies to the Palestinian government in Gaza, for different reasons. Since the last Palestinian elections, which ended in infighting, the US has equipped, trained and led a new generation of Palestinian security services to serve their old model of Arab world governance – police states and banana republics. Expect the US not to embrace real democracy in the Arab world, but rather to put a new, younger facade on an old and corrupt system of governance. If you want a barometer for today's Middle East political temperature, follow Egypt; however, if you want a barometer for tomorrow's possibilities for serious, sustainable reform, keep your eye on the Palestinian people who are in a dual struggle – one to shed themselves from 43 years of a brutal Israeli occupation and one to create the first Arab model of truly representative and accountable governance. The main factor preventing the Palestinians from continuing on their path to structural reform, following their first genuine elections in 2006, is the refusal of the US to accept the results of those elections. Expect a similar US veto on any forthcoming Egyptian move towards electoral reform that encompasses true representation.

Egipatski građani protiv Mubarakovog režima prosvjeduju svugdje, pa tako i ova dvojica ronilaca s transparentom pod vodom u egipatskom Crvenom moru. Na transparentu piše: "Otiđi prije nego nam ponestane kisika".

Labour unions boost Egypt protests
Radnici diljem Egipta štrajkaju (9. veljače 2011.)
Egipatski radnički sindikati pokrenuli su štrajk diljem zemlje i na taj način poduprli i ojačali prodemokratske prosvjede koji se već 16. dan održavaju u glavnom gradu Kairu i drugim egipatskim gradovima. Al Jazeera izvještava da je u Egiptu oko 20 000 tvorničkih radnika štrajkalo u srijedu. Dio njih tražio je veće plaće i veća radnička prava, no dio ih se pridružio zahtjevima prosvjednika za smjenom diktatora Mubaraka i njegovog režima u Egiptu. Prosvjednici na kairskom Trgu Tahrir (Trgu oslobođenja) i u drugim gradovima u Egiptu najavljuju da neće prekinuti prosvjede sve dok Mubarak ne odstupi s položaja predsjednika. Prosvjednici su također u srijedu prosvjedovali ispred zgrade parlamenta na koju su izvjesili transparent na kojem piše: "Zatvoreno do pada režima". U Egipat također iz cijelog svijeta pristižu Egipćani koji žive izvan svoje domovine kako bi se pridružili pro-demokratskim prosvjedima za okončanje brutalne Mubarakove diktature u svojoj zemlji. Postoji čak i organizirana kampanja mobilizacije tisuća Egipćana koji žive u inozemstvu kako bi se što lakše vratili u Egipat i podržali narodni ustanak protiv diktatora. Prosvjednici osjećaju da su sve jači, a Mubarak i dalje ne želi odstupiti do isteka svog "mandata" u rujnu ove godine, dok postavljeni "potpredsjednik" Suleiman - inače dugogodišnji glavni egipatski špijun kojeg mnogi sumnjiče za mučenja brojnih zatvorenika u egipatskim zatvorima, uključujući nekih koje je navodno osobno mučio i kojeg Egipćani jednako kao i Mubaraka doživljavaju kao osobu koja radi za interese SAD-a i Izraela, a ne egipatskog naroda - prijeti nekakvim "udarom", no nije pojasnio da li pod time misli da će vojska napraviti vojni udar ili "udarom" smatra demokraciju i poštivanje volje naroda. Na slobodu je tijekom protekla 2 dana pušteno 34 političkih zatvorenika, uključujući pripadnike zabranjenog Muslimanskog bratstva, a broj nestalih osoba još je uvijek nepoznat, uključujući nestale aktiviste za koje se vjeruje da su ih vladine snage uhitile tijekom prosvjeda. Organizacija Human Rights Watch je izvijestila da se broj poginulih od 28. siječnja popeo na 302.

Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'
Egipatska vojska prtivara i muči prodemokratske prosvjednike (9. veljače 2011.)
Egipatska je vojska u tajnosti od početka masovnih prosvjeda protiv predsjednika Mubaraka pritvorila stotine, moguće i tisuće, osoba koje sumnjiči da se protive vladi. Prema svjedočanstvima pritvorenih prosvjednika barem neki od njih bili su tijekom pritvora mučeni. Vojska je do sada tvrdila da je neutralna, te da jedino odvaja protuvladine prosvjednike od onih koji su odani Mubarakovom režimu, no aktivisti za ljudska prava tvrde da je jasno da tome nije tako i optužuju vojsku da je upletena u nestanke i mučenja - kršenja ljudskih prava kakvima su Egipćani bili godinama izloženi od strane zloglasne državne sigurnosne službe (SSI), ali ne i vojske. Oni koje je vojska do sada pritvorila tvrde da su bili premlaćivani, te da su pretrpjeli druga zlostavljanja od strane vojske u sklopu organizirane kampanje zastrašivanja. Neki od pritvorenika mučeni su električnom strujom, premlaćivani i prijećeno im je da će zauvijek nestati u egipatskim zatvorima ili biti ubijeni. Brojne obitelji očajnički traže svoje članove koji su nestali i za koje vjeruju da se nalaze u vojnom pritvoru. Neki su pritvorenici bili držani u Egipatskom muzeju u Kairu koji se nalazi na rubu Trga Tahrir. Oni koji su oslobođeni opisuju kako su ih vojnici fizički zlostavljali i optuživali ih da su agenti stranih sila, uključujući Hamasa i Izraela. Među osobama koje je pritvorila vojska nalaze se aktivisti za ljudska prava, odvjetnici i novinari, no većina njih je do sada puštena na slobodu. Međutim, stotine, a moguće i tisuće običnih građana su "nestale" diljem zemlje, a jedini razlog zbog kojeg ih je vojska pritvorila bilo je nošenje političkog letka, prisustvovanje prosvjedima ili čak samo zbog toga kako izgledaju. Još uvijek nije poznato gdje se nalaze mnogi od pritvorenih građana. Ovi su postupci vojske bez presedana. Nakon mučenja i višesatnog pritvora vojska bi pritovrenike upozoravala da se više ne vraćaju na Trg Tahrir. Među nestalima je i Kareem Amer, istaknuti kritičar vlade i bloger koji je tek nedavno pušten iz zatvora, nakon što je odslužio 4-godišnju zatvorsku kaznu zbog kritiziranja Mubarakovog režima. Vojska ga je uhitila u ponedjeljak navečer dok je napuštao Trg Tahrir. Vojska na ovaj način pokušava zastrašiti prosvjednike da prekinu prosvjedovati protiv režima i to unatoč obećanjima egipatskog premijera Ahmeda Shafiqa da protuvladini aktivisti neće biti proganjani. Human Rights Watch tvrdi da je dokumenitrao 119 slučajeva uhićenja civila od strane vojske, no u toj organizaciji vjeruju da je mnogo više građana uhićeno. Vojska ne priznaje da uhićuje civile pa trenutno nije moguće doći do točnog broja uhićenih građana. Vjeruje se da vojska na isti način kao u Kairu građane uhićuje diljem Egipta. Članovi njihovih obitelji ne znaju gdje se nalaze uhićeni kojima je također uskraćen pristup odvjetniku i pravo na pravičan postupak.

Egypt: the wait
Slike s prosvjeda protiv Mubarakovog režima u Egiptu (17. i 18. dan prosvjeda)

Photos From the Protests in Egypt
Slike s prosvjeda u Egiptu

Mučenici egipatskog ustanka

The workers, middle class, military junta and the permanent revolution
Egipatski radnici nastavljaju s prosvjedima i nakon Mubarakovog odlaska.
Since yesterday, and actually earlier, middle class activists have been urging Egyptians to suspend the protests and return to work, in the name of patriotism, singing some of the most ridiculous lullabies about "let's build new Egypt," "Let's work harder than even before," etc… ... Those activists want us to trust Mubarak's generals with the transition to democracy–the same junta that has provided the backbone of his dictatorship over the past 30 years. And while I believe the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who receive $1.3 billion annually from the US, will eventually engineer the transition to a "civilian" government, I have no doubt it will be a government that will guarantee the continuation of a system that will never touch the army's privileges, keep the armed forces as the institution that will have the final say in politics (like for example Turkey), guarantee Egypt will continue to follow the US foreign policy whether it's the undesired peace with Apartheid State of Israel, safe passage for the US navy in the Suez Canal, the continuation of the Gaza siege and exports of natural gas to Israel at subsidized rates. The "civilian" government is not about cabinet members who do not wear military uniforms. A civilian government means a government that fully represents the Egyptian people's demands and desires without any intervention from the brass. And I see this hard to be accomplished or allowed by the junta. The military has been the ruling institution in this country since 1952. Its leaders are part of the establishment. And while the young officers and soldiers are our allies, we cannot for one second lend our trust and confidence to the generals. Moreover, those army leaders need to be investigated. ... All classes in Egypt took part in the uprising. In Tahrir Square you found sons and daughters of the Egyptian elite, together with the workers, middle class citizens, and the urban poor. Mubarak has managed to alienate all social classes in society including wide section of the bourgeoisie. But remember that it's only when the mass strikes started three days ago that's when the regime started crumbling and the army had to force Mubarak to resign because the system was about to collapse. ... Today, I've already started receiving news that thousands of Public Transport workers are staging protests in el-Gabal el-Ahmar. The temporary workers at Helwan Steel Mills are also protesting. The Railway technicians continue to bring trains to halt. Thousands of el-Hawamdiya Sugar Factory are protesting and oil workers will start a strike tomorrow over economic demands and also to impeach Minister Sameh Fahmy and halt gas exports to Israel. And more reports are coming from other industrial centers. At this point, the Tahrir Square occupation is likely to be suspended. But we have to take Tahrir to the factories now. As the revolution proceeds an inevitable class polarization is to happen. We have to be vigilant. We shouldn't stop here… We hold the keys to the liberation of the entire region, not just Egypt… Onwards with a permanent revolution that will empower the people of this country with direct democracy from below…

Public transportation workers call for overthrowing Mubarak
The Cairo Public Transportation workers, who started a strike today in five Garages: Nasr Station, Fateh Station, Ter'a Station, Amiriya Station, Mezzalat Station, Sawwah Station, have issued a statement with a list of demands, calling for overthrowing Mubarak. No public buses will roam Cairo tomorrow, except those buses that will bring the drivers to the central station in Nasr City's el-Gabal el-Ahmar, where the strikers have announced they will declare an independent union. The strikers' statement has also called for abolishing the emergency law, removing NDP from the state institutions, dissolving the parliament, drafting new constitution, forming a national unity govt and setting a national minimum wage of LE1200 and prosecuting corrupt officials…