Diaries: Live from Palestine

“Masr, Masr, Masr, Masr” — the Arabic word for Egypt was the call from huge crowds on the streets of Gaza City on Friday night as Palestinians reflected on what the overthrow of Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak would mean for Palestine and the people of Egypt. Rami Almeghari reports.

People keep talking of a new war. They tell you about their neighbors — they’re probably too shy to admit that its their family, not their neighbors — who already started stocking up on food items and candles in preparation for the upcoming war.

“Where would you like to go?” asks a taxi driver a little older than my father, his thick Lebanese accent I barely understand. I reply politely, “Off the airport road to Bourj al-Barajneh.” “The refugee camp? No, I don’t go there,” he replies.

CAIRO (IRIN) - Large-scale protests across Egypt since 25 January have led to deaths and injuries, food and petrol shortages and transport chaos. IRIN interviewed some of the demonstrators demanding regime change in Cairo about their daily lives.

Yesterday I stood among more than a million people in Cairo. They came to Tahrir Square in the morning, some even came days ago and haven’t left since, and all day long they energetically called for the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Matthew Cassel writes from Cairo.

As news of the uprisings in a growing number of Arab countries spread like wildfire around the world, residents of other countries struggling under their own oppressive governments and soaring unemployment were celebrating on the streets, on Twitter and on Facebook. The occupied Gaza Strip was no exception.

Jawaher was not the only member of the Abu Rahmah family whose life was taken by Israeli military violence. In April 2009, during a similar protest against the wall, an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister directly at Bassem Abu Rahmah, Jawaher’s brother, which hit him in the chest and killed him. The Electronic Intifada contributor Alex Kane interviews Soubhiya Abu Rahmah, the mother of Bassem and Jawaher, in Bilin.

Shaban Qarmout got up early on Monday, 10 January and headed out to his farmland as he usually did. Despite there being no clashes or military activity in the area, he was killed on his land by Israeli soldiers in a nearby watchtower.

Hundreds of Palestinians, Israelis and international supporters converged in the occupied West Bank village of Bilin last week to commemorate the death of villager Jawaher Abu Rahmah and to stand up for their rights.

On New Year’s Eve, my family and I planned to escape the immense pressure we and everyone else in Gaza continue to endure. We ended up at a party that contradicted the notion that conservative Gaza is being ruled by freedom-curtailing Islamists.