CAIRO: April 6 movement’s activists are calling on Egyptians and Arabs to go on strike on Jan. 1 to protest the Israeli raids on Gaza as well as Egypt’s policies regarding it.
The group’s online call is expected to draw thousands of supporters over the next few days.
The strike comes in reaction to Israel s assault on Gaza, which entered its third day on Monday. The group also objected to what they called the Egyptian way of handling the situation in Gaza.
Activists called on people to go on strike by not going to work on Jan. 1, but excluded doctors and aid workers.
They also expect citizens in other Arab countries to join the strike, in an attempt to pressure their respective governments to take a stronger stand against Israel.
The Arab League postponed a meeting to discuss the situation until Wednesday, further fueling anger across the region.
Thousands of activists and members of opposition groups and parties protested across Egypt in the past three days against the Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, which many labeled the Gaza holocaust.
Rallies, estimated to have attracted about 55,000 demonstrators in total, swept through Egypt’s cities.
Furthermore, the government was heavily criticized in parliament by opposition MPs for allegedly having prior knowledge of the attack based on Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni s visit to Cairo one day before Gaza was hit. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit denied that Egypt had any knowledge of the attack and accused those who blamed Egypt of trying to shift the blame. He did, however, call for a ceasefire. We call for an immediate end to Israeli military operations. We cannot allow these attacks to continue. We cannot permit the murder of Palestinians.
