Mr. Olmert, Tear Down this Wall!

The Egyptian government mounted a small demonstration of defiance of the Olmert government in Israel on Thursday. Palestinians destroyed the blast walls that artificially box them in to the tiny, slummy Gaza Strip and cut them off from their natural markets in Egypt. Perhaps a fourth of Gaza's population then flooded into the nearby Egyptian city of Rafah to buy food and supplies, breaking the Israeli blockade on these innocent civilians.

Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, appears to have ordered Egyptian troops not to interfere, though he did try to block Palestinians from traveling into Egypt from Rafah.

Helena Cobban has insight and analysis on this issue, blaming the fiasco in part on Bush's recent clumsy visit to the region.

See also Richard Silverstein.

And here is the video:

posted by Juan Cole @ 1/24/2008 06:15:00 AM