Anger in the streets

In protests against the deteriorating situation, the calls to expel the Israeli ambassador get louder

(cairolive.com, April 3, 2002) 

Some of the thousands of people protesting against Israel's treatment of the Palestinians after Friday prayers at Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo on April 5, 2002. Photo by Tarek Atia/cairolive.com

Al-Wafd's front page headline on Tuesday screamed out, "The Egyptian Street is Boiling". Making it boil even more, the opposition paper headlined its Wednesday edition with, "A crazy Nazi war against the Palestinians."
Al-Akhbar provides extensive coverage of the demonstrations and protests going on around the country, including one comprised of artists and intellectuals who marched to the Foreign Ministry building on Tuesday to deliver a written message to the Foreign Minister asking him to freeze Egypt's relations with Israel and kick out the Israeli ambassador.
Amongst the signatories were prominent writers and commentators like Mohamed Sid- Ahmed, Bahaa Taher, Radwa Ashour and Osama Anwar Okasha, as well as film luminaries Youssef Shahin and Hanan Turk, and pop star Latifa.
In addition to its own coverage of the demonstrations, Al-Ahram reports that the National Democratic Party has decided to hold a series of meetings with the nation's youth to discuss the dangerous regional situation. 
In Al-Wafd Magdi Mehanna also argues strongly for expelling the Israeli ambassador from Cairo. He says telling the ambassador to go home is a separate issue from both normalization with Israel or the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
In Tuesday's Al-Wafd Mehanna posited that Yasser Arafat is a hero, and will go down in history as one of the greatest freedom fighters of all time.

update:
Responding to the masses
Egypt has decided to suspend all contacts with the government of Israel, keeping open only those diplomatic channels that could help the Palestinians.

Related stories:
Don't listen to the TV generals
Sharon's one-way ticket
The summit begins
Deciding what to do
Friedman's peace plan?
Moussa's message to Sharon

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