By Mohammed Baali
Albawaba.com - Cairo
An Egyptian committee is working to secure one million signatures on a petition demanding that the government throw out the Israeli ambassador and shut down the Jewish state’s embassy.
The official spokesman of the Popular Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada, Abdel Aziz Al Husseini, said his group had canvassed at the neighborhood level to collect thousands of signatures, and that 35,000 had already been handed over to the Egyptian president’s office.
Husseini told Albawaba.com that the campaign, which started in October 2000, had three elements: First, the demand for the closure of the Israeli embassy and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Egypt.
The second and third elements, he said, involved demanding that the UN secretary general provide the Palestinians with an international protection force and bring Israeli war criminals to justice.
Husseini said the president’s office had “received the first list of signatures, but without issuing any official comments on it.”
He added that a source close to the president’s office told the committee that the mere willingness of the Egyptian authorities to receive the signatures meant stepping up the tense diplomatic situation with Israel.
The committee, which was established shortly after the eruption of the Al Aqsa Intifada last fall, has assumed responsibility for organizing political campaigns and collecting donations on behalf of the Palestinians - Albawaba.com
