The initiative, organized by the Global March collective, brought together nearly 5,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries. The objective: to denounce organized famine, the blockade and the genocide in progress in Gaza, and to put pressure on the European Union (EU) to suspend its association agreement with Israel.
Some 250 people left Belgium on June 12 in the direction of Cairo, planning to reach a few days later the surroundings of the Palestinian enclave. But the march has never started, the movement having been thwarted by the Egyptian authorities, which multiplied arrests, expulsions, intimidation and repression at the airport.
On Saturday, around 4.30 p.m., several dozen participants in the action walked the arrival hall of Zaventem airport. Denouncing the “severe repression” on the part of the Egyptian authorities, pro-Palestinian activists explained to return “upset but determined” to make what they saw and lived.
Many arrests – sometimes accompanied by violence – have taken place in hotels, bars and on the street, followed by evictions to countries of origin, preventing the demonstrators from acting and meeting. Not wanting to provoke disorders in Egypt and after intensive consultations between the various delegations, it was finally decided to conclude the action.
War Israel-Hamas: Belgium is dragging to bring members of Gaza refugee families
Three reasons prompted volunteers to take part in this peaceful mobilization. First of all, it was a question of drawing attention to “humanitarian needs in Gaza, the famine deliberately caused by the blockade and the genocide that Israel organizes there”. Then, to put pressure on Belgian and European political representatives to suspend the association agreement between the EU and Israel. Finally, they intended to concretize, organize and express their international solidarity with the Palestinian people.
