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Egypt workers call to expel Israel envoy, end trade deal

May 15, 2023 at 1:11 pm

Palestinian boys cycle past a convoy of bulldozers provided by Egypt arriving at the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Palestinian Gaza Strip enclave on June 4, 2021 [SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images]

A coalition of workers affiliated with 11 Egyptian opposition parties have demanded the Israeli embassy in Cairo be shut and the occupation state’s ambassador be expelled as well as the cancellation of trade deals with Israel.

The coalition said in a statement that Israel is facing a major political crisis due to the overwhelming rejection of the government’s judicial overhaul plan, adding that the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to circumvent the crisis engulfing it by attacking Al-Aqsa Mosque and Muslim worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan, and then storming Palestinian cities and towns, arresting and killing Palestinians, and wreaking havoc in the occupied territories, which resulted in the death of more than 87 Palestinians since the beginning of 2023.

“On May 2, the death of Khader Adnan, a leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, was announced in an Israeli prison after a hunger strike that lasted fr 86 days, after which the [Palestinian] resistance factions began to respond to Adnan’s death. The Zionist enemy responded with air raids, destroying homes, agricultural lands, and sites, and assassinating Palestinian resistance leaders, until the number of Palestinian martyrs from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip exceeded 31, in addition to 93 injured civilians,” the coalition said in a statement.

The coalition declared its full solidarity with the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their legitimate right to resist in all forms.

The coalition called on the Egyptian government to immediately intervene to stop the aggression on Gaza and West Bank cities, the bombing of homes and the killing of women and children.

It also reiterated its demand to expel the Israeli ambassador and sever relations with Tel Aviv, stop normalisation with Israel in all its forms, stop trade exchange including Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ). The QIZ initiative allows Egypt and Jordan to export products to the United States duty-free as long as such products contain inputs from Israel.

The coalition called on the Egyptian government to open the Rafah border crossing to receive the wounded and injured coming from Gaza, and to allow the Egyptian Red Crescent to receive donations of blood, food commodities, medicines and medical supplies for the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and to revive the solidarity committees with the Palestinian people.

The coalition includes the secretariats of workers in the Egyptian Socialist Party, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Constitution Party, the Egyptian Communist Party, the Justice Party, the Arab Democratic Nasserite Party, the Bread and Freedom Party, the Dignity Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the National Conciliation Party and the Independent Teachers Syndicate.

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