[ 2011-08-21 ]

Egypt 'Spiderman' becomes hero with Israel protest
CAIRO (AFP) - A lone protester became a hero to an
exultant crowd of Egyptians and many more online
by hauling down the Star of David flag atop
Israel's embassy in Cairo after the border killing
of Egyptian policemen.

More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the
Israeli embassy early Sunday and let off
celebratory fireworks when the man clambered to
the top floor of a high-rise housing the mission,
replacing the flag with an Egyptian one.

Egypt's cabinet said an Israeli statement
expressing regret for the deaths of the policemen
was not enough, but stopped short of saying if it
would recall its envoy from Tel Aviv.

Tensions between the Jewish state and the most
populous Arab nation have surged since the deaths
on Thursday of the police officers, which occurred
as Israeli troops pursued militants responsible
for deadly attacks near Eilat.

Rockets fired from Gaza early Sunday landed across
the border in Egypt but caused no casualties,
Egyptian state television reported, while a source
said they could have been fired by mistake.

"Several rockets from the Gaza Strip landed this
morning in Egyptian territory in the region west
of the Rafah terminal, without causing
casualties," the television reported.

The Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees and
the armed wing of Islamic Jihad said they had
lobbed rockets at an Israeli army post near Kerem
Shalom which lies on the Israel-Gaza border, some
two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Egyptian
frontier.

The latest tensions represent the most serious
test of Israel's landmark 1979 peace treaty with
Egypt since an uprising overthrew Egyptian leader
Hosni Mubarak in February.

Egypt's military rulers and caretaker cabinet are
under populist pressure to take a firm stand.

The man who took down the flag, identified as
Ahmed Shehat, was led away by protesters after he
descended, but not before some tore up the Israeli
flag he carried down with him and kept bits as
souvenirs.

Shehat became an instant idol with one Egyptian
presidential candidate, Hamdeen Sabahi, hailing
him as "the people's hero" on Twitter.

Shehat was labelled the "Egyptian Spiderman" and
"Flagman" on Twitter and he trended rapidly on the
social networking site as Egyptians and others
worldwide expressed their admiration for his
stunt.

"This is for Palestine. This is for Egypt. This is
for every Arab. This is for every free person,"
one Twitter user posted.

"Forget Spiderman, Batman, or Superman. My kids
are going to grow up wanting to be like FlagMan,"
wrote another.

In telephone call to a television station, Shehata
said he felt "undescribable happiness" after the
risky feat.

"We want to expel people who are killing us. Those
Jews and Zionists are part of the old regime, and
we want to cut all our ties with the old regime,"
he said.

Military police in riot gear stood outside the
embassy building but did not intervene to halt the
protest. Two military police generals walked into
the crowd to try to calm the demonstrators.

"Look, what happened as Israeli soldiers were
chasing some gunmen on the border, they opened
fire and hit our men by mistake. That's all there
is to it. They didn't enter our territory," said
one of the generals.

But they were rebuked by the protesters, who
demanded that the military take a firmer stand
against Israel. Hundreds of protesters remained
outside the embassy on the Nile River as dawn
broke over Cairo.

Egypt's cabinet insisted on a firm timetable to
execute an Israeli offer of a joint investigation
into the border deaths, according to the state
news agency MENA.

Source - AFP

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