DNA’s Cairo correspondent rushed to see the action when the wall at the Gaza border came downCAIRO: When the wall came down and the border to Gaza opened, I got into a cab with a professor and a couple of friends from the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo and headed over.
Trucks carrying brand new scooters for sale accompanied us as we passed through the Suez and Sinai checkpoints on the seven-hour journey to Rafeh.
We reached Al Arish well after dark and met my Gazan friend, Wesam, who had come up from Cairo the day before.
Al Arish looked like an all-night mela town. Palestinians were swarming the streets, chilling in cafes, sitting around small fires. My vision was also struck by the fact that most of them there were men. I was told it was because the women were “too conservative to jump over the wall”.
Besides the sense of freedom-induced jubilation on the streets, Palestinians were also on the shopping spree. All along street corners, Egyptian vendors were selling and Palestinians were buying all sorts of goods, stocking up in massive quantities: from Coke- to carpets, cattle to computers.
In absolute Arab style, cartons of cigarettes seemed to be one of the most sought for commodities. Prices for some items were doubled, and even tripled.
But where had the money come from? If people had been dying in desperation due to the Israeli-imposed blockade, how were they able to afford all these things? Families had lent each other money, I was told. Rumour also had it that Hamas had given supporters 1000 shekhels.
At around 11 o’clock, as we sat on the steps of the Nasser masjid downtown, where a lot of the Palestinians had slept the night before, a police van came around announcing on a loud speaker that the border would be closing in an hour.
The announcement fell on deaf ears. The night was still young, the Palestinians flirted with their freedom and partied on.
