Open Letter to Egyptian Ambassador

Lift the Siege of Gaza

Sunday, 27 December 2009

Hatem Saiful Nasr
His Excellency
The Ambassador
2 Lowndes Street
London SW1X 9ET

Fax: 09065 540 833

E-Mail to: eg.emb_london@mfa.gov.eg, consulate.london@mfa.gov.eg

Dear Ambassador Nasr,

Collaboration with Israel’s Blockade of Gaza

There was a time when Egypt was rightly considered a leader in the struggle for Arab independence from colonialism and its Zionist offshoot. Even today the name of Gamel Abdul Nasser reverberates in a way that thatthe name of that political pygmy, Mubarak, never will.

I understand that when you are the second largest recipient of US military aid, after Israel itself, that it is hard to retain your independence. After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune. However your behaviour, in refusing to allow access to Gaza for an international convoy is shameful by any standards.

That Israel doesn’t want the delivery of urgently needed medical supplies is understandable. That you are complicit in that is disgraceful by the standards of even the most servile and corrupt regime.

Maybe an analogy might help clarify your mind. When the Nazis placed the Jews of Eastern Europe in ghettos, the first thing they did was appoint a Jewish Council (Judenrat) to help them achieve their objectives. Your behaviour in maintaining the blockade of Gaza is no different from that of the Judenrat, except that you have the power to make your own decisions, whereas they were powerless.

Your demand that the convoy sail around North Africa to El Arish is just a senseless playing of tricks. There is no good reason for it and it is clear that this is just a pretext.

If you have any shred of decency or morality you will allow the convoy to pass and you will also refrain from allowing the United States army to build a metal wall on the Southern border of Gaza, thus doing Israel’s work once again.

Yours sincerely,


Tony Greenstein
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods