Philip Rizk

Aku baru membaca tentang Pilip Rizk hari Minggu yang lalu di Jews Sans Frontieres. Berita lain ada di Reuter.
Kemudian hari ini di facebook kutemukan update terbaru dari keluarga Rizk.

LATEST UPDATE FROM JEANNETTE and CHRISTINA RIZK

Monday Feb. 9th 5:40 am

At 1:30am when we had just gone to bed the doorbell rang. 5 plain clothed men and two in full riot gear and machine guns stood outside our door. They wanted to enter to search the house. We found out that they were looking for evidence against Philip. Two men entered and began searching through the papers of our home office. In the meantime we contacted a German Embassy official and a professor from AUC as well as some friends. They all came immediately many others were awake and praying.

The police left but returned soon after to ask my father to go with them and write up a report about the fact that they had searched our home. Of course, we did not trust them. Then they insisted to pass by his office where they would continue the search. In the meantime Amnesty International had contacted us and an wonderful lawyer arrived just in time to firmly tell the secret police that they could not take any further actions without a police warrant. We closed and locked the front door and settled in to see what would happen next. The secret police was waiting downstairs for orders that never came. At 5a.m. they finally left.

Philip, 26 tahun, adalah seorang aktivis kemanusiaan, pembuat film dan penulis yang pernah tinggal di Gaza selama 2 tahun. Dia menulis tentang gaza dan palestina di blognya Tabula Gaza. Ini adalah tulisan terakhirnya sebelum ditangkap polisi Mesir.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Rafah to Close

Word on the street is that Egypt is closing Rafah crossing to all journalists and doctors entering or exiting Gaza on Friday.

Does this mean more bloodbaths to come?

Hal ini membuatku mempertanyakan lagi suatu hal yang sejak setahun lalu kupikirkan ketika menulis Breaking the Silence. What the hell is wrong with Egypt????
Sementara ini yang kutemukan tentang pemerintah Mesir dan perbatasan Rafah, satu-satunya perbatasan Gaza dengan negara selain Israel. Setahun yang lalu Aljazeera menjawab beberapa pertanyaan seputar perbatasan Rafah.

Seperti yang kita tahu, toh pintu Rafah tetap ditutup selama blokade Gaza.Pemerintah Mesir memberi kontribusi yang cukup besar terhadap penderitaan penduduk Gaza dengan menolak membuka pintu Rafah tanpa ijin dari Israel.

Anyway,
I hope Philip Rizk will be released soon, safe and sound.