Mass protest at Rafah: Nation supports President Sisi
Thousands of Egyptians staged a powerful demonstration at the Rafah border crossing in North Sinai on Friday, sending a clear message to the world: they categorically reject any attempts to displace Palestinians from their homeland.
Chanting “we are with you, Sisi”, Egyptians from all walks of life rallied in front of the Rafah border crossing, voicing their support for the rights of the Palestinian people to return and self-determination in their homeland.
The rally comes in response to US President Donald Trump’s remarks regarding Egypt and Jordan receiving Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Cairo and Amman rejected Trump’s remarks at the official and popular levels.
The demonstrators sent a message of support and solidarity to the Palestinian people, and to confirm that they stand by them in the face of all challenges they face.
Moreover, crowds of Egyptians performed Friday prayers in front of the Rafah crossing, and continued their rally, waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags, as an expression of their rejection of any displacement plans and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause.
Political leadership’s strong stance
The rally reflected the political leadership’s strong stance against Trump’s remarks earlier last week. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has made it clear that Egypt will “not participate in the displacement of Palestinians”, describing it as an ‘act of injustice” that would threaten Egyptian security.
The president said on Wednesday at a press conference with visiting Kenyan President William Ruto, that Egypt would work with Trump to reach peace between Israel and Palestinians based on a two-state solution.
“Regarding the ongoing discussion surrounding the potential displacement of the Palestinians, I want to make it unequivocally clear to the Egyptian people: we will absolutely not tolerate or accept any infringement upon Egypt’s national security. And I want to assure you that we are committed to working with US President Trump, who seeks to achieve peace to reach the desired peace which is based on the two-state solution,” President El Sisi said.
“We believe that President Trump is capable of achieving this long-awaited goal of establishing just and enduring peace in the Middle East region,” he said.
President El Sisi pointed out that Egypt has consistently argued for the past 15 months that the events unfolding since October 7th until now are a direct result of decades of failure to resolve the Palestinian issue, noting that the root causes of the problem “have never been addressed”.
“The unresolved Palestinian issue fuels a recurring cycle of violence, culminating in situations like the one we are seeing or have seen before, in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
