Despite increased public criticism of Israel, Egypt has imprisoned several students who were attempting to support boycotts and solidarity movements in favour of the Palestinian people. This is the latest indication that Egypt does not want to allow room for activism over the Gaza conflict.
The students are among the many individuals jailed concerning demonstrations against Israel’s war campaign; several were arrested in October when gatherings authorized by the state erupted into unapproved locations, such as Tahrir Square in Cairo.
There are concerns by Egyptian authorities that protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could rekindle domestic political unrest, which has been put down during a massive crackdown that has lasted for more than ten years.
Since the Gaza war started in October, at least 125 people have been arrested, 95 of whom are still being held in pre-trial detention on charges including spreading false information or belonging to a banned group, according to the independent Cairo-based organization Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
Human rights attorney Nabeh El Ganadi, who represents two of the students, said that three students were arrested earlier this month for trying to form a club named Students for Palestine. Among them is Ziad Bassiouny, a 22-year-old student at a Gizan arts school.
In the wee hours of May 9, some forty security personnel were dispatched to arrest Bassiouny at his flat, as his mother Fayza Hendawy told Reuters.
“They pointed their rifles at us so that none of us could move,” she said, describing the overnight raid.
The students “did not call for protests or anything like that”, she said. “It’s not a political group, they’re just students calling on Egyptian students to stand with Palestine and show their support publicly like the rest of the universities globally.”
A request for comment from Reuters was not answered by Egypt’s state information agency, and an official from the interior ministry could not be reached right away.
Egyptian leaders have harshly criticized Israel’s military operation and openly expressed their support for Palestinian rights in the context of the conflict.”What is astonishing is that this is their official position,” Hendawy said.