'If Egypt is free, Gaza will be free,' says activist who locked Cairo embassy
An Egyptian activist who chained shut the gates of Egypt’s embassy in The Hague has told Middle East Eye that he did so in protest against Cairo’s “complicity” in Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Last week, Anas Habib filmed himself attaching a bicycle lock around the gates of the embassy in the Netherlands, as a symbolic gesture in solidarity with Palestinians besieged by Israel and Egypt in Gaza.
He went on to do the same act at the Jordanian embassy in response to the kingdom’s response to Israel’s war.
The action went viral on Arabic social media, prompting similar demonstrations in other countries, including Turkey and the UK, where activists also chained shut the gates of Egyptian embassies.
“I know for 100 percent sure that the Egyptian regime is complicit in the genocide,” Habib told MEE’s live show on Tuesday. “This is just not an accusation, it's a fact.”
He said that in the first two months of Israel’s war, in late 2023, before Israeli forces had occupied the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Cairo had the ability to allow aid and food into the enclave but refused to do so.
“After it got occupied by the [Israeli military], now they are saying: 'No, it's closed',” said Habib.
He added that the late former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s role in ending a previous Israeli war on Gaza in 2012 showed what the country was capable of achieving.
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