by John Zangas
Activist Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK Women for Peace, says she was detained overnight at Cairo International Airport on her way to join an international delegation of women traveling to Gaza. She claims that she was confined in a frigid cell there and beaten before being deported to Istanbul, Turkey the following morning.
“They never said what it was about, and they did not ask me any questions,” Benjamin said from Istanbul.
Unlike Benjamin, her traveling companion was not detained, and several other members of her group entered Egypt separately without incident on their way to Gaza on March 6. They are participating in an effort to bring attention to the detrimental effects of the Gaza blockade on International Women’s Day.
“We have been planning this delegation with the Egyptians for months, and everything was set to go,” Benjamin said. “It was totally unexpected.”
While confined, Benjamin had a cell phone and could most easily access Twitter. At 3am local time she tweeted, “I’m being held in a jail at Cairo airport!!!” Later she tweeted, “Help. They broke my arm. Egypt police.”
When Egyptian police came to take her to deport her to Istanbul, she says they brutally assaulted her. “Two men threw me to the ground, stomped on my back, pulled my shoulder out of its socket and handcuffed me so that my injured arm was twisted around and my wrists began to bleed,” she said in a statement. “I was then forced to sit between the two men who attacked me on the plane ride from Cairo to Istanbul, and I was (and still am) in terrible pain the whole time.”
She is presently at hospital in Istanbul and being treated for a fractured arm and torn ligaments. She plans to return to the U.S. tomorrow.
“Medea is safe now and on medications for pain,” said Alli McCracken, National Coordinator of CODEPINK. “We are concerned for her well-being but want the delegation to continue.”
“It is outrageous they would treat me like this,” Benjamin said. “I am anxious to get back to the U.S. for medical attention. I plan to go to the Egyptian embassy to demand an apology.”
Benjamin is an outspoken critic of drone bombing in the Mideast and the Israel lobby in the U.S. CODEPINK had just organized a protest of the annual AIPAC conference in Washington, DC. (Video of Benjamin speaking at the protest on March 2.)
As the political situation in Egypt has deteriorated, Egypt’s military-backed government has discouraged free speech by detaining and arresting numerous people opposing it, including journalists who speak to them. It’s not clear whether Benjamin’s detention has any relation to internal politics.
“If they can get away with treating a 60-year-old American citizen like this, just imagine what they’re doing to their own people,” Benjamin said.
UPDATE:
BREAKING: email from @medeabenjamin comes through with photo of her attackers in border detention in #Egypt: pic.twitter.com/LG5iZCZN4d
— CODEPINK (@codepink) March 5, 2014
