28th Day: #FLAGMAN and the Resurrection of Karama

 Around 3:00 AM, again on Twitter, there was a mysterious new Hashtag: #FLAGMAN.

the AMAZING FLAGMAN- by Carlos Latuff

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, hashtags are "keywords" one inserts within the available 140 characters allowed to express oneself. They are preceded by the pound (#) sign. Twitter explains that this is an easy way to find similar posts (tweets) to follow, or posts of common interest. It is pretty addictive actually. I think I personally had started few Hashtags that never "trended" on twitter.

It did not take me a long time to find out that FLAGMAN was a mysterious Egyptian guy who climbed, ropeless, 14 stories yielding to the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, to replace the Israeli Flag with an Egyptian one.

The guy became an instant hero.

I was following the tweets of his arrest as he climbed down then his immediate release upon the demands of thousands of cheering demonstrators. The guy became a national hero within seconds.

His Hashtag trended on twitter becoming the top tweet within minutes. In less than half an hour, a new Facebook Page was created for him dedicated to an Anonymous Hero who "climbed and took down the Flag" referring to the Israeli flag which was soon in ashes. Within seconds of it's creation, it already boasted 1000 members (please click on the highlighted link to see the current count).

First tweets about his identity came from strangers claiming his name was Mustafa Kamel, which coincided with the name of an Egyptian nationalist from the late 19th century. I joked about the name of #FLAGMAN claiming his mother had planned for this coincidence to happen from the day he was born.

But soon the real name was out. Not as impressive as the first it was Ahmad as-Shahat BUT it was a perfectly Egyptian-sounding name: The Egyptian "Average Joe". It was baffling to watch the video later on during the day, to see what the thousands upon thousands of chants were all about. The best tweet, retweeted by someone I follow on twitter came from @LadyBlueeeeeee who wrote "Egyptian Beans give you wings!" in Arabic. Egyptians were proud, and made everyone else proud. They certainly boasted my ego as a Palestinian.

It was clear that Egyptian do not want Israel on their soil. The Camp David peace treaty with Israel is worthless to them, and one Egyptian with wings can take down the lie about peace that was forcibly shoved down their throats for decades.

Egyptians are clearly some of the most stubborn, yet good-humoured people I am coming to find out about. Within an hour of the incident a new online game with a theme song was created for #FLAGMAN and the infamous caricature artist Carlos Latuff created an iconic picture of #FLAGMAN depicting a Spiderman-like character holding a burning Israeli flag.

The peace treaty with Israel, I come to learn, is part of the past that Egyptians now want to be completely done with. Their former dictator Hosni Mubarak has suffocated their freedoms in the name of Israeli safety and an alleged national security that they never felt. It was a big lie, everyone knew it, and now they don't want to live it anymore.

#FLAGMAN ignited a new hope for Egyptians who after months of ecstatically celebrating their winning revolution were yet to truly experience a complete change, and were tired of feeling Israel was placed before their own interests as Egypt's priority. "The People Want" was not just a slogan they perpetually repeated for 18 bloody days, they want their demands to be met. Israel's safety is not on their list of priorities. They toppled an entire system, a dictator who ruled them with corruption and an iron fist, and secret agents that counted their every breath. It was not hard for them to at least decide who stays and who leaves Egypt after they have won, to decide who they consider a friend and who they do not welcome. Very simple yet profound logic.

With the Israeli flag down and people calling against the acts of normalization with Israel, I anticipate that the Egyptian-Israeli relationship will no longer stay the way they used to be under Mubarak. The Egyptian people want, and their wants are not to be ostracized by their own people in favor of what they consider enemies/ outsiders, and their natural resources given away practically for free to a foreign obnoxious and unwelcomed power.

Egyptians demonstrating in front of the Israeli Embassy
in Cario- used with permission from Ghazala Irshad

#FLAGMAN gave back to the Arab World a feeling they almost thought they lost. al-Karama. Karama is a word that should enter the Merriam Webster dictionary with a simple explanation: Origin: Arabic First use in English: 2011. It should explain how the sense of pride, the demand for respect, dignity and self-worth, were combined together on that day. Arabs felt they regained their own Karama. Israel, they know, was part of the oppression they experienced through their dictators and tyrants. The feeling of regaining one's Karama is the same one felt when Tunisia was Free from it's Dictator, when Mubarak was overthrown by the people, and when the next dictator is stomped over by people long-suffering people who deserved much better all along.

#FLAGMAN will be a decisive day in the Arab History, which will directly affect the Palestinian history. Egyptians will now play their strategic role but with Karama and not merely answer to a higher authority, represented by the US and other foreign powers, and certainly not by Israel.

The Palestinian Authority, long passively submitting to all foreign powers against the people's wants, will soon have to look for alternative ways to appease a very likely public outcry and discontent. The PA is not different than the rest of the Arab Dictators, except with the privilage (and curse) of ruling under an occupying foreign power, and allowing for a bantustanized situation to formulate in Palestine (Israel). The PA now is fully aware that it has lost it's back-up support after Mubarak. They cannot wait for September 20th to arrive to see what they will do next.

During the Tahrir Square celebrations following the overthrowing of the Mubarak regime, there was seen a young man standing above a thin and high street-light pole, he was relaxed and waving an Egyptian flag as if he was standing on the most solid ground. It took us months to find out his identity. It was the same #FLAGMAN, and with him comes a new hope for all of us fearing a complete fracture in our already stained history of surrender and bad-leadership. We know that if we give up, our closest neighbour to the West [the Egyptian people] won't allow it. They're already challenging Israel's bid on building a wall separating Israel's Negev from Sinai Desert saying: "you can build all the walls in the world, we have 80 million flagmen."

And I say, "climb it, like an Egyptian".

29th Day: Gaza Fires Back (& SCAF Lied?)

More people died today. 

Nothing came as a surprise to me as I witnessed the Show-de-Force everyone was suddenly too eager to boast. 

Israel continued its airstrikes on Khan Younis in the “wee small hours of the morning”, right after Suhour. I got my updates instantly from Twitter: the unfortunate tragic irony of being excited about knowing you're the first to know about the strikes from twitter followers and followees, yet knowing they are right in the center of not only a dangerous zone but a potentially fatal situation. I recalled the horrors of air-strikes ten years ago, they don’t have to be F-16s to terrorize you to the bones. Just knowing you could be mistaken for the next target or knowing your refuge is in fact the actual target. It is not so much about death as it is about surviving then living with a permanent disability: lost arms, limbs, sights, or any sort of dis-figuration. 

Graphic pictures today surfaced from yesterday’s deadly attacks on Gaza Strip: Men who have been blown up to pieces, weeping women, a child completely disfigured, burnt and his viscera exposed. I knew I saw too much, but surprisingly like most fellow-Palestinians I have grown too used to seeing blood (or bodies cremated by missiles and fire). 

Today Gaza fired back. I must assert that Gaza was plunged into this for few apparent reasons. Located relatively far away from the site where an attack took place near the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat (the ethnically-cleansed Bedouin Palestinian village of Imm-ar-Rashrash), completely besieged by Israel and Egypt, and not having a single faction adopting this highly-moderated attack: Gaza was the first to take the blame and the people living there were anticipating a fast response from Israel. 

On the far-right of the Palestinian political spectrum: Today Hamas abandoned the seize fire and vowed not to stop firing its rockets on Israel until Israel stops its raids. Some of Hamas’ rockets reached the Israeli town of Be’er Shiva (formerly the ethnically cleansed Palestinian desert city of Beer as-Sabe’, literary: the Lion’s Well), killing two Israelis and injuring others. 

On the middle-right: Fatah claims Israel is turning the region into turmoil to delay their “heroic” attempt to declaring a “statehood” in September. Ironically, but not surprisingly, a Fatah-spokes man vowed to defend Gaza in every way possible. ‘nought said. 

And on the hippie-socialist left-side-that-bows-to-dictators: The PFLP (having lost all credibility, supporters, and position since the late 1980s) was back on stage firing few rockets into Israel, but not getting much applauds. 

The news were not all sarcastic today though.

Egyptians demonstrated in the thousands in Cairo, Alexandria, and else-where in front of the Israeli embassy and consulate offices since last night. At 3:00 AM, there were hundreds of angry men chanting and waving Palestinian flags, demanding a firm response from the Egyptian government following Israel’s attacks on Sinai- Egypt, which killed three Egyptian soldiers and injured others. The chants also called for an end to the peace treaty with Israel, and the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador from Egypt. By the early hours of the morning, when thousands stormed the streets across the Israeli embassy, SCAF issued two statements announcing bringing home the Egyptian ambassador until Israel officially apologizes. Until now, SCAF has not delivered it’s promises, and Egyptians are only growing further resentment towards them. 

So why am I bringing Egypt into this? 

A new generation of Egyptians who want it their way- [Reuters]

The simple answer is that Egypt is Gaza’s only Arab neighbor, Gazans have strong ties with/ and feelings toward the country that ruled the Strip prior to the 1967 War. Also, because for decades under various dictatorships, Egypt has been the mediator and anchor to [the Western influence and] America’s policies in the region. Egypt has been the substrate that balanced the region through war and peace, and the change that took place there is yet to show some decisive consequences with an orphaned Palestinian Authority following the fall of Mubarak, and a new generation of Egyptians who want over with the old ways of not having things their way. 

Today was certainly not just another day, the 29th day before the supposed “statehood” saw further blood and modern artillery. Palestinians still sit and look for clues. Ramallah is definitely the worst place to be at the moment if one wants solid clues. Today's funniest tweet came from @LinahAlsaafin who tweeted "#Abbashole asked Arab league whether armed resistance would be ok if UN fake statehood didn't work out. Can someone poison him already?" I just had to respond with a line from Chicago: "some guys just can't hold their arsenic!"

I guess for now, I’ll stick to twitter updates.

Pre-State Statement: On the 30th Day Towards "Statehood", Gaza bleeds

... Saeb Erekat has spoken, and the nation rejoiced! For he has finally come out on the first pages of all Palestinian Authority-controlled media on August 18th warning the Zionist entity with a firm [verbal] response if they chose to attack Gaza, calling it an irresponsible action, following a deadly attack on a bus in the South of Israel. 

Affirming how the leaks were "slander", not expressive
enough of [a worst] reality.- [The guardian]

"Israel is the occupying power.” Declared Mr. Erekat, “Under international humanitarian law, it is responsible for the welfare and safety of the Palestinian population living under its occupation,". 

The former chief negotiator in the name of the Palestinians has supposedly stepped down back in January after Aljazeera news channel made public what came to be known as the Palestine Papers which exposed him as a lying sack of shit [of candies] in the way he has literary lived his life to negotiate (confirming the title for his Semi-Autobiography in Arabic “Life is Negotiations”), and after having under-gone a face-blushingly embarrassing near-death experience on live-television on Aljazeera where he foolishly agreed to appear to defend his back-door deals with Israel and the years he bamboozled the Palestinian people into an endless cycle of negotiations that they paid for with their own blood and economic well-fare. 

The former chief negotiator was back, now in full-fledged obnoxiousness, complete with the Palestinian Kaffiyeh and the infamous threatening finger that decorates the iconic portraits of all un-voted for traitors who happened to lead all Third World Countries [and semi-countries] around the World. 

Erekat the Savior, as portrayed on Palestinian Maan-News
complete with a Kaffiyeh and a Finger. The Halo on top of
his head partially visible - [Maan News Agency]

But I must admit that for months all Palestinian-controlled media had given small doses of Erekat to the public, typically a small unnoticed news excerpt where he just had to appear wearing his Kaffiyeh and making that same finger gesture of strength and dominance for months until the meat was ripe and he was ready to be served on a plate of empty promises. 

The funniest tweet I read on that day came from someone I cannot recall (darn it), but it went something like this: “Erekat is warning Israel against any irresponsible Action in Gaza, or else… he’ll go back to negotiations” (please tweet-mate, if you ever read this provide me with the right tweet!)

Erekat was back, the hero of the Palestine Papers, the same papers that exposed how the PA probably knew about the war on Gaza back in 2009, that same war which resulted with over 1500 deaths amongst civilians and few armed men, yet did nothing to stop it and continued to negotiate their way before and after, because that is what the Palestinian Authority does best: forever negotiating.

Erekat was back when now Israel was making it no secret that it intended to retaliate (collectively punish) the entire Gaza Strip for an attack that was not adopted by any Palestinian faction, much less to be specifically linked to Gaza. 

Was that Erekat's way to apologize to the Strip after having stood in negotiative silence when a war was being planned against it? I ain’t no Conspiracy Theorist, but with only 30 days left until September 20th, I am not sure Israel wanted to lose its favorite chief-negotiator of all time. The one who has given the longest time any Palestinian would have for Israel to expand settlements, practically annex 60 percent of what remained of the West Bank, and the one whose best interest lies in an Israeli-controlled Rafah border in Gaza. 

Israel attacked Gaza again earlier this morning, I followed the tweets of, mostly, cynical Palestinians from Gaza who have grown way too accustomed to living under daily attacks of Israel and F-16 noises breaking the sound barrier. By 5:00 AM, there were six confirmed deaths and over 23 injuries. By the end of the day, there were 15 deaths and over 40 injuries. Once again, praise shall be to the political corruption of men who know they cannot save lives nor stop the blood rollercoaster, yet are in need of making strong statements that help repair their shattered reputation and gain their former spot as… chief negotiators.

With only 30 days left towards "Statehood", Gaza bleeds. 

In order to spare myself the headache of having to explain the September 20th bid (or the so-called September Entitlement) on a bantustanized and much debated PA statehood, please visit Aljazeera for further details:

(or just use your collective-memory and imagination):

Abbas: Palestine to go to UN in September - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Abbas, too ready to run a "State"?- [Reuters]