US Press Ignores Egyptian Suppression of Gaza Freedom March

Truthout.org - The government of Egypt is taking a spectacularly hard line against international solidarity efforts in support of civilians in Gaza on the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion, blocking peace marchers from the US, Canada and Europe from even approaching the Egyptian border with Gaza, and blocking an aid convoy that has the support of the Turkish government from entering Egypt at Nuweiba. Even a peaceful protest at UN offices in Cairo was largely walled off from public view by Egyptian police.

It seems that any pretense of Egyptian government concern for the suffering of Palestinian civilians has been dropped, along with the pretense that there is anything less than 100 percent cooperation from Egypt and its US and European patrons with Israel's program of punishing Gaza's population for the political crime of having provided majority support to the Hamas movement in a legislative election.

Meanwhile, there is largely a US press blackout of these striking developments. A search of The New York Times and The Washington Post only turns up a tiny AP story on the web sites of the Times and the Post.

As has frequently been the case, Agence France-Presse (AFP) pays more attention to these developments. On Monday, AFP reported that Hedy Epstein and other members of the Gaza Freedom March have begun a hunger strike to press the Egyptian government to allow them to enter Gaza: Read more.