Egypt continues to detain students in an effort to quell activity in Gaza

In spite of increased public criticism of Israel, Egypt has imprisoned a number of students who were attempting to support boycotts and solidarity movements in favor of the Palestinian people. This is the latest indication that the country does not want to allow room for activity about the Gaza War.

The students are among the many individuals jailed in relation to demonstrations against Israel’s war campaign; some were arrested in October when demonstrations authorized by the state erupted into unapproved locations, such as Tahrir Square in Cairo.

According to analysts, Egyptian authorities are worried 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.

She described the raid that took place during night, saying, “They pointed their rifles at us so that none of us could move.”

According to her statement, the students “did not call for protests or anything like that”. “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.

In the midst of the conflict, Egyptian officials have openly expressed their support for Palestinian rights and harshly denounced Israel’s military effort. “What is astonishing is that this is their official position,” Hendawy stated.

DISSENT CRACKDOWN FOLLOWING MASS UNREST

Rights organizations claim that since 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi, who had been duly elected the year before following protracted “Arab Spring” unrest, tens of thousands of people from across Egypt’s political spectrum have been arrested for dissent.

An offshoot of the Brotherhood, Hamas is the leading Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza. Egypt assisted Israel in enforcing a siege on Gaza following Hamas’s takeover of the region in 2007.

Sisi’s supporters assert that the court is independent and that the security crackdown was necessary to stabilize Egypt. Sisi has been president since 2014. Although some claim the improvements are mainly cosmetic, officials assert that they have taken action to uphold rights and increase political engagement.
Generally speaking, public demonstrations are forbidden.

According to EIPR, nineteen activists were arrested at the end of April while participating in a protest outside a UN building in Cairo in support of women in Gaza and Sudan. They were later freed on bond. Security forces arrested people at a protest in the capital’s downtown earlier this month while anti-Sisi slogans were being chanted.

Human rights attorney Ganadi claimed that the arrests were consistent with a pattern of attempts by the government to thwart organized movements, such as groups of professionals and students.

“No one is doing anything, but they might, so since they might do something and this is something on the table, why shouldn’t we arrest them or hold them accountable?” He stated.