Arab Spring: Egyptian military beat demonstrators, arrest journalist

From AFP:

Egypt's military arrested a BBC journalist when it cleared out a central Cairo protest that left several protesters injured and dozens detained, officials with the British broadcaster said on Tuesday.

Shaimaa Khalil was detained on Monday after the military, backed by riot police, cleared the three-week sit-in in Tahrir Square, they said.

The BBC's foreign editor John Williams wrote on his Twitter account that the broadcaster was trying to secure her release.

"Very concerned at the detention of Shaimaa Khalil in Cairo -- a good journalist doing her job. Doing all we can to secure her release," he wrote.

Khalil had been posting updates on Twitter before her arrest.

""Careful!' someone just told me. 'They arrest anyone taking photos," she wrote.

Witnesses said soldiers and police beat demonstrators and broke mobile phones, targeting anyone taking pictures.

Here is what she wrote on her Twitter feed. Read it from the bottom up. The links to photos work. (Latest tweet indicates she is OK.)

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now ... surrounded by military , riot police and armoured vehicles..extremely tense #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zgqet

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zglwa

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now... remains of tents or are they banners?? #TwitPicthttp://twitpic.com/5zglho

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir main ring now.. "careful!" someone just told me.. "they arrest anyone taking photos " #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zgkkv

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir banners and monuments carried off #TwitPicthttp://twitpic.com/5zgjfs

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#jan25 monument taken apart and lifted on a truck ... #Tahrir now#TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zgiz4

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now ... military and riot police in control of the square forbidding any gathering #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zghaw

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zgf9p

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now riot police and army moving in on ppl praying ishaa#TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zgcxj

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zgajq

16 hours ago 

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now military police everywhere "there was no resistance"1 of them tells me."we came in boom!" #TwitPicthttp://twitpic.com/5zga5v

16 hours ago 

»

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

#Tahrir now armoured vehicles , police cars and traffic back to normal #TwitPict http://twitpic.com/5zg8j1

16 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Shaimaakhalil shaimaa khalil 

peeps.. who's in #Tahrir ??? I'm on my way there

17 hours ago 

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So who's setting fires to fields in Judea and Samaria?

From YNet:

Residents of various West Bank settlements have found themselves under a new threat recently – arson.

According to a report published by Yedioth Ahronoth Tuesday, more than 20 fires have been maliciously set in West Bank settlements and outposts in the past few weeks.

Police investigators determined that all of the fires were the result of arson and evidence in all cases led to surrounding Arab villages. The Judea and Samaria District Police have recently arrested six suspects.

Defense establishment sources have expressed concern that the area may be facing an "arson intifada," saying Palestinians have foregone hurling rocks and rioting in favor of setting fires near settlements and letting the hot weather and winds do the rest – i.e. feed the blaze as it spreads and threatens communities and wildlife alike.

Residents of northern West Bank outpost of Mizpeh Danny have had to conquer seven fires over the past three weeks, Neve Tzuf, Migron, and Givat Ronen outposts battle an average of one fire a week; and just last week, an entire neighborhood in the Kochav Yaakov settlement in the Binyamin region had to be evacuated after flames began devouring its outskirts.

The anti-Israel crowd, of course, refuses to believe that their pet Palestinian Arabs would do such a thing. Suicide bombings, sure - but setting fires in their beloved land?

Why, it's almost as outrageous as imagining them uprooting sacred olive trees!

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A look at the prison gates at Rafah

Remember when Egypt said it was opening up the Rafah crossing for Gazans?

Well, not so much.

An article in a blog called Gaza Youth Breaks Out describes what is necessary to leave Gaza:
Let me sequence what you need to do if you want to travel from Gaza to anywhere else;

1- You have to go the registration office in Gaza at least 3 months before the date you wish to travel on. For example, if you want to travel on October, you have to register on July. Why? Because the Great Pharaohs allow only 300 people to leave daily and the number of people wishing to leave for several reasons is huge, so there is no empty place for you before October.

2- After waiting for 3 months, you go to Rafah gate. There, you would be really really really really really really lucky if you made it in your first try; people usually go 3 or 4 days in a raw, hoping to get in and not everyone crosses in the end as thousands are waiting for their turn.

3- If you made it and crossed the gate, you’ll have to wait in the Palestinian hall for at least 2 hours until you get your passport stamped.

4- Then you get in the bus and wait for some more.

5- Then you cross to the Egyptian hall and wait for them to call your name and stamp your passport. But guess what? They don’t stamp all the passports they receive. Almost 50 out of every 300 people will be returned to Gaza; depends on the mood of the person stamping the passport.

This Al Jazeera video shows that in order to get out of Gaza, it helps to be a friend of a Hamas leader - or to pay bribes:


Al Jazeera adds:

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has announced that from Monday only students, patients and foreign passport holders will be allowed to leave the territory through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

The move is an attempt to clear the huge backlog of travel applications.

Egypt and Hamas are both working to severely limit the number of travelers through the Rafah crossing.

Where are the full-page ads calling on Egypt to stop treating Gaza like a prison?  Why isn't George Galloway or Greta Berlin going on every TV show they can find to complain about Egyptian and Hamas policies? Why aren't there people participating in demonstrations against Egypt and Hamas? You know, because they care so much about the misery of Gazans?

(h/t CHA, Jerusalem Today)

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