Top leaders of the Egyptian Bar Association and the Muslim Brotherhood said Sunday that a general strike called for by the association next Monday to protest Israeli attacks on Palestinians would be coordinated with the Ministry of Justice.
The association’s deputy chief and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Tosson made the joint announcement.
Tosson told Albawaba.com that Egyptian lawyers would go to court Monday morning to register their strike, after which the courts would suspend their work for a period and then resume it on the same day.
He predicted a high level of participation in the strike, particularly in view of the lawyers’ “ongoing involvement with Arab and Islamic issues.”
The Egyptian Bar Association followed its latest meeting with a statement calling on its members to participate in the strike to protest against the “Israeli aggression, led by the slaughterer Sharon and his gang against the people and land in occupied Palestine.”
The statement, a copy of which was obtained by Albawaba.com, calls upon Arab countries to cut all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel and expel Israeli ambassadors.
It also condemns the US for supporting the “Zionist regime” and calls for a political and economic boycott of USA.
Meanwhile, however, a number of Egyptian lawyers predicted only light participation in the strike, saying the association had not advertised it adequately.
One of the lawyers said he had not heard about the strike until Saturday, and that the association had not posted anything about the event in its various buildings.
The association also called on Egyptian political parties, other associations and trade unions to participate in a public conference on Monday at the bar association headquarters in Cairo.
In July, the bar association organized a “people’s prosecution” of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon for war crimes committed against Palestinian civilians – Albawaba.com
