Colonial Activism: The Global March to Gaza

There's a global march to Gaza reportedly being planned for mid June with activists intending to walk from Al Aresh to the Rafah border in an effort to force open the crossing for humanitarian aid. What are your thoughts on the march?

Well, my question would be, why Rafah? Why are you putting Egypt on the spot for what Israel is doing? You know? I mean, seriously, why don't you fly into Tel Aviv and march to the Erez Checkpoint, the Erez Crossing Checkpoint from Ashkelon? Israel is the only one who's legally responsible under international law for what's happening in Gaza and for the Palestinian, well-being.

Israel is the one that's imposing the siege. Israel is the one that's committing the genocide. Israel is the one that's blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. And Israel is the one that's claiming to be a democratic state. You know?

Democratic state with human rights and all the so called western values and so on. So why on earth are you putting pressure on Egypt? Why why are you not putting Israel on the spot instead of Egypt? What's the real motive here? I don't mean the motive of the what I what I rebutt as the probably well intentioned but naive participants, But I mean the motive of the people who planned this, the people who are behind this protest, the organizers.

Because it seems to me that the real intention here, quite clearly, is to antagonize and destabilize Egypt, which is a country, by the way, that has held the line against Palestinian expulsion. A country that has mediated the only cease fires that there have been. Egypt is a country that has provided millions of tons of aid to Gaza, As the it's the country that's gonna do most of the heavy lifting when construction starts, when reconstruction starts in Gaza. So why are you basically targeting Egypt instead of targeting Israel? That's strange to me, and suspect.

Because that is what you're doing, whether you understand it or not, that is what you're doing. Again, I'm not talking about the well intentioned participants, but the planets. Because I think the planets actually know exactly what they're doing. I I don't think that they don't understand what they're doing. They know perfectly well that this action is nothing but a swipe at Egypt and at the Egyptian government.

They know that perfectly well, and that's their intention, in my opinion. And you can see that very clearly in their own social media posts, in their own statements, in their own interviews. They put a heavy emphasis on criticizing the governments. Their goal is not to open Rafah, which anyway, very obviously is not going to happen. Their goal is to antagonize and to blame and to redirect public anger towards Egypt and the Arab states, which is a tactic that we've seen the West trying to implement ever since the genocide began.

And most likely the participants, the people who have registered to participate in this, they are most likely from among the people who do not actually truly know or understand the region. They're people who are remote from the Middle East. And therefore, are the most susceptible to ideologically driven propaganda and to emotional rhetoric. I don't think we're talking about particularly savvy people, even if they're good hearted people. They're very emotional people.

Obviously, there are also people who have enough disposable income to fly halfway around the world to perform their savior complex. I mean, I'm sorry, but that's the only type of people in the world who would actually think that this is a good idea, in my opinion. So these people most likely have only followed English language alternative media about Palestine. And this sort of media is dominated by the Ichwan, by the Muslim Brotherhood, and by people who are enamored with the so called axis of resistance mythology about Hezbollah and so forth, quasi revolutionaries and leftists and so on. And they very easily believe that the Muslim governments, that the Arab governments have done nothing for Gaza, when in fact they are the only governments that have done anything for Gaza in reality.

No, I don't respect this at all. I don't respect this this action at all. And furthermore, the people who are organizing this, who are organizing this protest, to be honest, to be frank, they don't respect the people who are registered to participate in it. They're literally just using you as props in their play against Egypt. Believe me, this has nothing to do with Palestine.

This this action, this, protest has nothing to do with Palestine, nothing to do with Gaza. It's just, Palestine and Gaza is just a hook to get gullible people to participate because otherwise, again, if you were serious, you would be going to Israel, not Egypt. You'd be protesting the the the siege of Gaza where it is actually being imposed. You'd be going to the Era's checkpoint or the Kareem Kareem Shalom checkpoint instead of Rafah. You'd be putting the spotlight on Israel, but that's not what you're doing.

You're trying to put Egypt on the spot when Egypt does not have unilateral control of the Rafah border crossing, but you're trying to put pressure on them. You're putting them under the gun. No. The goal here is not actually to open the border. The goal is to provoke Egyptian authorities to crack down on activists, so then you can make Egypt look bad.

So then you can make Egypt look like it's the bad guy, that they're complicit with the Zionists, which is something that you've always said. That's what the organizers want. Yes. This is absolutely what they're hoping for. They're hoping that you're all gonna get detained.

They're hoping that you're gonna get arrested, that you're gonna get stopped. The ideal scenario for them is for the Egyptian authorities to allow you to get as far as Rafah, and then have riot police deployed against you. So then they have good dramatic footage for social media. That's all they care about. They don't care about Gaza, and they don't care about the people who care about Gaza.

This whole thing is a sham in my opinion. Because look, first of all, you need government permission to carry out a protest in Egypt. You need permission. And that's permission that they haven't gotten as of now. And even if you have permission to protest in Egypt, foreigners are still not allowed to participate in that.

Can't be a foreigner and participate in political activities in Egypt. Now they've stated that their plan is to proceed with or without government approval. Okay. That is called a declared intent to break the law. You're not putting all of those people, all of the people who are participating in that, you're putting them at risk now.

Not to mention you need a permit to even go to Northern Sinai. Not to mention Rafah is a militarized zone. No. The Egyptians who participate in this, if they get any to join them, they're gonna go to jail. The foreigners are gonna be detained, and either jailed or deported, most likely deported.

That's either gonna happen before or when you reach Rafa. There are several possibilities of how the authorities can handle this, and depending on when they do it, at what stage of your protest or your march they do it, it gets progressively worse. The best case scenario for you is actually that they just deny you entering into Egypt, and they squash the whole thing right then and there. Most likely, you'll arrive in Egypt, the organizers will most likely be detained at the airport, probably arrested. Because, listen, I don't know if you think that Egypt is some sort of primitive undeveloped backwater or what, but they have an intelligence and a security apparatus, and it's not a joke.

Egyptian immigration officials profile travelers, you know, especially, travelers who have activist backgrounds. If if participants are flagged via their social media posts or or past participation in protests or their declared intentions, they'll probably be refused entry. They'll confiscate your equipment. They'll confiscate your devices, your cameras, your whatever protest materials you have. The airport authorities are probably gonna search your luggage for any sign of demonstrations, flags, banners, what have you, and they're gonna confiscate everything.

They will interrogate you and they will deport you. That's best case scenario. That's the best case scenario what you have to look forward to. And they don't even have to tell you why they're doing it. They don't have to tell you why they refuse your entry.

You can get refused at any country's border without explanation. I know that might be shocking for westerners who think that they have magical passports, but that's the way it is. And if that doesn't happen, the next possibility is that they just, prevent you from leaving the city, from leaving Cairo. Prevent the buses from leaving Cairo, or stop them at checkpoints along the way to Al Araj. That's maybe an 80 to 90% probability.

If they don't stop you, if they if they let you in, they don't deny you entry, then they can stop you on the way. And then everything else that I mentioned is gonna happen. They'll stop you, they'll stop your buses, you'll get detained, you'll get interrogated, you'll get deported. As for any ejections who might be participating in that, well, they're gonna go to jail. And I wonder if those ejections who participate with you, when they go to jail, you gonna help them? Are

Are you you gonna pay their legal fees? Are you gonna get them good lawyers and get them out of prison? I doubt it. Like I said, travel to Sinai generally requires military approval. Buses with foreigners heading to Rafah will very likely be halted under counterterrorism pretexts.

The drivers might be arrested. They could be jailed. The transport operators, whoever is operating those buses, they could lose their licenses for assisting protesters, for assisting foreign agents, because that's what you will be. That's what you'll be seen as, and in fact, that's what you are. Foreign agents, instigators, provocateurs.

So they can block all the roads to Al Araish with security forces. That's normal. The military tightly controls Northern Sinai access. Even Egyptian civilians generally need permits. See this isn't a movie, this isn't the movie that you think it is, or the movie that you think it's gonna be, this is real life.

And then if none of those things happens, and these people actually get to Rafah, that's when you get into a worst case scenario territory. Literally riot control police, tear gas, rubber bullets, truncheons. I mean, the organizers preparing you for this? Are you ready for that? I know you I I know I know that the organizers told you that there's gonna be ambulances accompanying you along the way.

But you have to understand that that is not even slightly under their control. I mean, think for a second. A bunch of foreigners, a bunch of westerners marching on the road to Rafah with ambulances trailing them. How does that look to the Egyptian authorities? It looks like you're looking for a fight.

They can stop those ambulances. Arrest anyone inside those ambulances, and that's that. You have no more medical backup, and you have nowhere to run. It's not your country. If you get to Rafah, you're gonna be corralled into military police vehicles and shuttled off to detention centers before you even know what happened.

And you won't even get to live stream it because they will have taken your devices already. This is what you need to understand. This is what the organizers want to have happen. Do you understand? This is exactly the actual point of this whole thing.

They want Egypt to crack down on you. They don't care what happens to you, and they don't care what happens to any Egyptians that might join you. They could care less. Wallahi, you're fools. I'm sorry to tell you.

There is exactly 0% chance of you actually forcing open the border of Raqqa. So you have to understand going in that this is purely symbolic. What you're doing is purely symbolic. But what you likely do not understand is that what the organizers want to symbolize is the oppression and the alleged complicity of the Egyptian government with Israel. That's their goal.

So let me tell you something about Egypt. I mean, I know I said it already, but let me tell you something about Egypt. Now, if you don't know me, you can check. I'm no friend of Abdul Fatah Sisi. But as Muslims and as realistic mature people, we have to tell the truth.

Egypt defied president Biden. They defied president Trump. They defied Netanyahu. They unequivocally refused the expulsion of the Palestinians into Sinai. And they did that with the backing of all of the Arab governments in the GCC.

They've been the main mediator. They negotiated the only cease fires that we've had. And they've been the only ones delivering aid into Gaza. Main the main ones delivering aid into Gaza whenever there was an opening. They even moved secretly moved reconstruction materials and equipment into Gaza already to to to start trying to help rebuild Gaza.

No. A strong and stable Egypt is absolutely essential for defeating Zionism. It's essential for cornering Israel and for building a stable Middle East. Egypt is not your enemy, and if you make yourself an enemy of Egypt, then you are an enemy of Palestine, and you are a friend of Israel. Pure and simple.

Now maybe the organizers of this thing have made a kind of a calculation that they think that Egypt will decide that cracking down on you, cracking down on the protesters would bring too high of a cause in terms of negative backlash in the media. That might be their calculation, but if it is, it's incredibly ignorant because you also have to consider the other side of the equation. What does Egypt gain from allowing you to do this? And what do they risk by allowing you to do this? Because it's much more than a negative beat media backlash.

Egypt is under multiple legal agreements to maintain security at the Rafah border crossing. You understand that? Do you want them to lose that authority? Would you like for Rafah to be exclusively overseen by the Israelis or by the Americans? I mean, there's a breach in the crossing, what do you think Israel's gonna do?

I mean, I know in your imagination, you probably picture a scene like the the fall of the Berlin Wall, where you all get to break it down, and, you know, pass out bread and cookies to the people of Gaza under some beautiful rainbow. That's probably what you think is gonna happen. That's what you see in your mind. Also, what could happen is that you get mowed down by live bullet gunfire. And by the way, did you consider the possibility that if by some completely implausible turn of events, if you actually get the border open, did you consider the possibility of desperate Palestinians now flooding through those gates to the relief trucks and so on, which would mean that you have now expedited Israel's expulsion agenda, trapping Gazans, now as refugees in Sinai because of you?

Now, of course, that's not gonna happen. But the only reason that it's not gonna happen is because Egypt will probably not even let you reach the Rafah Crossing at all. That's the only reason that that's not something that could happen. It's not because you yourselves even considered what you would do if that did happen, because you haven't thought this through. I mean, also consider the precedent here.

Does Egypt really wanna sanction a precedent of foreigners, mostly westerners, intruding into their country and forcing the government to do this or that. You know, basically having their sovereignty undermined, having their sovereignty sabotaged and commandeered by a bunch of foreigners who have no respect for that country's laws and for that country's interests. How is that a good idea? What would motivate them to go along with that? That is an incredibly arrogant and obnoxious and self important attitude and so typically western.

Yes. I said it. It's a colonizer, Western supremacist mentality. That's what's working in your mind whether you know it or not. Just like the colonizers of old, you're telling yourself that you know best, that you have to sort out all of the affairs for these primitive Arabs.

You have to show them how to how how to be civilized and how to be just. I mean, the sheer ego is just breathtaking. You're basically colonial activists, in my opinion. Everyone is corrupt and everyone is incompetent except for us, so we just have to go to Rafah and do it ourselves. You must be joking.

I already know what people will say. Is hating on a genuine popular effort. You know, Shahid is against real grassroots activism. He's anti protest. He's pro Arab regime.

He's criticizing for providing those solutions, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Honestly, that whole script is dog eared by now. Well, look. Like I said, here's an option. You could do the same thing that you are doing, but do it in Israel instead.

Do it where it's actually more appropriate and where it's more strategically useful to do it, where it's more symbolically useful to do it. Let the Israelis crack down on you. Provoke a backlash against the Zionists, not against Egypt. And here's the thought. If you're really willing and ready to face detention, to face jail, to face tear gas, to face security forces and bullets and so forth, well, do it in your own country, Stan.

Do it in the countries that are financing the genocide, arming the genocide, and providing political cover for the genocide. I mean, you're literally already over there. No plane ticket is necessary. No passport required. I mean, I know that you're all mostly coming from the West anyway because obviously.

So you're already over there where the real masterminds and the real financiers and the real bosses of Israel are. So, I mean, escalate your tactics there if you mean it, if you are serious, if you're really that willing to go to jail, if this isn't just a a delusional activist tourism excursion, be more confrontational at home. But don't bring your western style performative protest to our part of the world just to destabilize and undermine our countries and undermine what our people are doing or what our governments are doing because they're doing a lot. I mean, if you're ready for jail and you're ready for riot police, what's holding you back Right there where you are. You're already inside Israel's life support system over there in America, over there in Europe, and so on.

I know that's where most of you are coming from. You can't think of anything better to do than to come put Egypt on the spot. You know? You're literally leaving the places, where useful things could be done to come over to where nothing useful can be done, and that's supposed to be activism. Well, you could make sure that all of the companies on the BDS boycott list not only don't get customers, they don't get to operate at all.

If you have that kind of conviction, if you truly have that kind of commitment, you can do that. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, then just look at the early labor movement, and you can learn about their tactics. You can learn about their strategies. Well, you have tactical options. Yes.

You do. But they're not necessarily Instagrammable. See, this is why Middle Nation emphasizes actually trying to understand, actually trying to realistically understand how power dynamics work, how geopolitics works, how narrative and propaganda are different from factual reality and the understanding of factual reality. Because clearly to me, these are people who are absolutely under a completely unrealistic, unserious misapprehension about the entirety of the situation. This is also why we focus on trying to be objective, trying to be unemotional in our analyses.

You're clearly motivated now by feeling, not by thinking. And so, of course, we all feel something about Gaza. You wouldn't be a human if you didn't feel something about Gaza. But what you're supposed to do is to use that feeling to motivate you, to drive you, to mobilize your intelligence and your deliberation and your discernment, your creativity and your analytical insight to determine practical strategies. But you let your feelings overthrow your intellect.

It's a coup against your own mind, and you let your own feelings and your own emotions take over. And I'm sorry to tell you, that will always just make you a pawn of the people who don't do that, the people who don't let their emotions take over. And you're only gonna recognize what satisfies your emotions. This is a problem. So if others are pursuing strategies that are intelligent but emotionally unsatisfying, then you will not even understand, much less appreciate those strategies and what those people are doing.

It's a whole mentality that ultimately leaves you, with no, intellectual sovereignty. Because, honestly, you will just end up being completely under the control of whoever can spin narratives that resonate with your emotions, with that resonates with your feelings, like the Muslim brotherhood types, like the axis of resistance fanboy types, and so on. These the the emotional rhetoric types, but they're all lying to you. But your feelings make you believe it. And that means that you're not only not gonna do anything useful, you will most likely do things that are misdirected and counterproductive.

You'll be doing all of that. You'll be doing really destructive things all the while feeling that you're paving the way to liberation. And as far as me being a pro Arab regime, well, I've said it before. I am pro Muslim. I'm pro Muslim stability and prosperity in the Muslim world.

And I am anti colonization, and I am anti imperialism, and I am pro sovereignty for our countries. And there's no way that you can claim to be any of those things while also being against our leaders, against our governments. That's oxymoronic. I mean, you've got Western Muslims cooperating with Kufar, cooperating with, you know, left wing, right wing, atheist, LGBT, red pill, feminist, communist, capitalist, on and on and on and on and on. But they draw the line at supporting our own Muslim governments.

Allahi, this is absurd. And it's obvious to any intelligent Muslim that the only thing that you have in common with all these people, and the only thing that all of these people have in common, that the only thing that they agree upon, their biggest common interest is destabilization of our countries. Will you tell me how destabilizing Egypt is good for Gaza and not good for Israel? You know? You tell me how throwing Egypt into chaos is good for Palestine and not good for Zionism.

I mean, think it through. The Western savior complex has never saved anyone. It has only ever increased and intensified the misery of every victim who they allegedly wanted to help. No. You need to get over yourselves and start working with your team, assuming you even know whose team you're on.

But I'll tell you this. If you are on the team of the Muslims and if you're on the team of the Palestinians, and of the people of Gaza, then you have no business participating in team colonizers activities, and that's exactly what this March is.