Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

A coalition of Arab human rights organizations are starting a movement to freeze Israel’s UN membership. I looked quickly through the list, and while some major ones are missing, the list does contain some of the most courageous rights groups in the region. Here’s an excerpt from their statement, and links to download the press [...]

Kifaya’s most recent close-but-no-cookie oneupmanship campaign (see my comments at the Arabist post) reminded me of something i had written not long after May 25. Here it is, slightly amended:We has just finished off our ta`meyya and batates sandwiches and were waiting for our shishas (we were biding time not too far from the press [...]

Journalist, rights activist, and long time friend Sally Sami has launched her own blog. Check it out: SalamanderMabrouk ya Sally. I look forward to following your blog.

Sameh Naguib, a Socialist activist with Kefaya, speaks on Hizbollah and how the war transformed the region. You can find the interview here.

للأسف الشديد لا أعرف صحيفة مصرية واحدة لها تلقيمة أخبارnews feed و حتى بعض المواقع العربية الكبرى مثل الجزيرة لا يبدوا انهم سمعوا بهذه التقنية حتى الآن. ما علينا، لقد قمت بكتابة بريمج ويب يدعى “زاجل” و هو يولد تليقمات أخبار من بعض تلك المواقع عن طريق web scraping و قد بدأت بجريدة المصري [...]

I just read that Kifaya has started to work towards collecting a million signatures for a petition calling for the cancellation of the Camp David peace treaty. Can anyone confirm this?I’ll have more to say about this soon, but want to confirm it first.

Hussam El-Hamalawy, a friend and a “The Arabist” Contributor, has this link to a video on “street activism“. I hadn’t seen it before and found it quite interesting.What interested me most was the bit near the end. The group of young people that the Journalist/Reporter talked to were, as far as I could tell, AUC [...]

I found this short video clip on Egyptian activism, via this blog. Check out Alaa Seif, Hossam Bahgat, and other rights activists talking about street activism.Current TV: Democracy in Egypt

The Li-Beirut solidarity campaign for Lebanon will be launched on Sunday, 20th August at 8 pm at CiC – Contemporary Image Collective (20 Safeya Zaghloul off Kasr El Aini St., Mounira).Related posting:Li-Beirut: Cairo activists needed for solidarity campaign

Youth for Change, Kefaya’s youth wing, has called for a demonstration tomorrow Saturday, 6pm, in front of the Lawyers Syndicate, to celebrate Hizbollah’s victory and to denounce any planned move to disarm the resistance group.

I received this from HRinfo…

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a professor at Beirut’s Lebanese Arab University, got in a good sound bite in the New York Times today. Denying that Hizballah is a state within a state, she characterized the organization instead as “a state within a non-state.”The piece reports on Hizballah’s rebuilding activities in the south, casting it as some kind [...]

I watched a documentary on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict last March during a visit to DC, directed by activist and friend Tarek Maassarani. Tarek has set up a website for the film equipped with trailer, blog, etc. Check it out: Sour Milk and HoneyThe film is quite long, but the 52-minute version has been accepted to [...]

Maria Golia, author of Cairo: City of Sand, wonders in this latest dispatch why two years of street protests have achieved so little and rallied so few — a question on many of our minds.Egyptians surely rank amongst the most patient and non-confrontational of peoples. But every now and then they get fed up [...]

Check out this interesting blog… LENIN’S TOMB

One of my favorite Ahmad Fouad Negm’s poems… البتــــاعEgyptian blogger Fantomas dedicates it to el presidente.

I’ve uploaded more photos of pro-resistance demos, that took place over the past week, to my flickr account.-A pro-resistance women’s candle vigil in Tahrir Square, on 2 August-I’ve added more pix by Amr Abdallah of Artists & Writers For Change’s pro-Hizbollah demo, on 3 August-Muslim Brothers’ protest at the Lawyers’ Syndicate in solidarity with the [...]

I received this from a friend…10th August, 2006We, the undersigned writers, gathered for a festival of literature in the idyllic Brazilian town of Paraty, cannot but help think of the innocent victims of wars in the Middle East.The Israeli invasion of Lebanon is only the most recent addition to the litany of war and occupation. [...]

Thousands demonstrated today at Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque, following the Friday prayers, in solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance.The mosque came under the siege of security forces since the morning. Plainclothes thugs were deployed by the police inside the mosque’s courtyard. The thugs clashed with the demonstrators, banning them from marching in the streets.Photographer and [...]

I came across this funny, arty Egyptian blog, run by a political cartoonist named Fathi Abul Ezz.Check it out… BLACKANDBLACK

Kefaya has called for a demonstration in support of the Lebanese resistance tomorrow Friday, 11 August, in Zagazig, capital of Sharqiya governorate. The demonstration will take place following the Friday prayers at Al-Nahda Mosque, in front of the Zagazig Security Directorate.Kefaya is also organizing a children’s march on the same day in Damanhour, capital of [...]

Passing on an appeal for Cairo-based activists wishing to join a solidarity campaign for Lebanon:A group of energetic activists in Cairo have started campaigning in solidarity with Lebanon. They’re doing many activities and more are to come (see below). This effort is significant and plans to go on for months, way after TV viewers become [...]

Picture of Hosni Mubarak held up at a recent demo, labeled “Israel’s ambassador to Egypt”:Via Elijah and his Flickr account.

Have received this:Lebanon: An Open Country for Civil Resistance Beirut August 7, 2006On August 12, at 7 am, Lebanese from throughout the country and international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity will gather in Martyr’s Square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and [...]

I don’t know the history of this author nor do I have any information regarding her knowledge of Egyptian politics or anything of the matter (possibly because I’m at work and don’t have the time to research).Her article is interesting never-the-less.I find myself in agreement with many of the points she makes.

This is going around, from the well-known Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi:There is a very important matter I would like to discuss with you. I conduct my human rights activities through the Defender of Human Rights Center (DHRC). I am the president of this center and we have three important responsibilities:a. We report the [...]

I won’t be posting a report on today’s Kefaya pro-resistance demo, as I couldn’t go. But you can check some demo pix here.Jano Charbel of dpa who attended the protest told me he was punched and beaten by batton-wielding CSF, who took his bag, and returned it later without his mobile phone nor the money [...]

I won’t be posting a report on today’s Kefaya pro-resistance demo, as I couldn’t go. But you can check some demo pix here.Jano Charbel of dpa who attended the protest told me he was beaten by security, who took his bag, and returned it later without his mobile phone nor the money that was in [...]

The Actor’s Guild and the Artists’ Syndicate have called for a sit-in at the UN office in Cairo, today Monday, to protest the Qana massacre.The actors and artists will assemble in front of the Guild, located in el-Bahr el-A3zam Street in Giza, at noon, and will move in buses and cars to Garden City, where [...]

The Actor’s Guild and the Artists’ Syndicate have called for a sit-in at the UN office in Cairo, today Monday, to protest the Qana massacre.The actors and artists will assemble in front of the Guild, located in el-Bahr el-A3zam Street in Giza, at noon, and will move in buses and cars to Garden City, where [...]