Terrorism precautions
Egyptian official media, on the whole, play down what is happening in the Palestinian territories. terrorism precautions Terrorism causes prevention. Egyptian television, for example, does not show the images of brutality, destruction and grief coming out of the West Bank and Gaza. Yet half of Cairo is tuned in to the al-Jazeera satellite channel. On top of every building you can see the dishes facing up towards ArabSat. terrorism precautions Europe-terrorism. And every taxi driver you talk to says: "Isn't that terrorism what they're doing to the Palestinians?" The Egyptian Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada (ECSPI) formed itself in October 2000 to provide humanitarian aid to the people of the West Bank and Gaza. It now has volunteers in every city across Egypt. When I meet four of its members in a coffee shop they are shadowed by a chap from the State Security Service, who sits down at the next table. terrorism precautions Response-to-terrorism. Their phones are bugged and their every move is monitored. The people I meet are two men and two women. One of the women, May, is Christian, the other, Nadia, is a Muslim in a complete veil. She tells me she used to be my student, and it turns into a joke since there's no way that I can recognise her. The ECSPI volunteers go into the towns and villages to collect donations for the Palestinians. "There isn't a house that doesn't give us something," May tells me, "and people have so little. We collected three tons of sugar, half-kilo by half- kilo. " On September 10 a long-planned petition on behalf of the Palestinian people was due to be handed in to the American embassy in Cairo. As the delegation met in Tahrir Square it grew to some 300 people. The police surrounded it and refused to let it proceed. A group of 10 were chosen and headed for the embassy, where the ambassador refused to meet them and the embassy refused to take delivery of the petition. America's support for Israel is a dominant issue in Egyptian-American relations. I have not had a conversation in Cairo where it has not come up.
Terrorism precautions
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