{"id":882899,"date":"2022-11-14T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T16:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=414239"},"modified":"2022-11-14T16:22:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T16:22:12","slug":"the-hunger-striker-vs-the-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/11\/14\/the-hunger-striker-vs-the-dictator\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hunger Striker vs. The Dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many of the<\/u> tens of thousands of delegates attending the United Nations climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, go to these gatherings year after year on a kind of autopilot. They update their\u00a0PowerPoint presentations, pack their organizational banners, and brush up their talking points. Next come the same warnings from the scientists and activists. The slightly tweaked technical solutions from the entrepreneurs. The same pledges<\/a> and promises from the political leaders.<\/p>\n Every year, the expectations for what all of this can accomplish dip lower and lower, while cynicism about the traffic jam<\/a> of private jets headed to the summit reaches new heights.<\/p>\n So far, however, this year\u2019s summit, known as COP27, has been anything but routine. That is less because of its content than its location. It is taking place under the most repressive regime in the history of the modern Egyptian state, headed by Gen.\u00a0Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who seized power in a military coup in 2013 and has held on to it through sham elections ever since. Sisi\u2019s regime is known for its barbarity under the best of circumstances but, like every dictatorship, Egypt\u2019s rulers are on particularly high alert because of the Iranian uprising<\/a> \u2014 fearing that, like the Arab Spring in 2011 which leapt across borders toppling regimes, this moment of spiraling living costs could prove equally volatile.<\/p>\n All of this has created a highly unusual and tense context for the summit, with several extraordinary elements.<\/p>\n For one thing, the most prominent figure<\/a> at the summit is not even there<\/a>: Alaa Abd El Fattah, Egypt\u2019s highest-profile political prisoner, whose first name became synonymous<\/a> with the 2011 pro-democracy revolution in Cairo\u2019s Tahrir Square that ended the three-decade rule of Egypt\u2019s dictator Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n Alaa\u2019s words have been quoted<\/a> in several speeches from the floor; his sister Sanaa Seif attended the summit\u2019s first week and was surrounded<\/a> by a press gaggle everywhere she went; and young delegates have been seen wearing<\/a> #FreeAlaa T-shirts. On November 10, many delegates wore white<\/a>, the color worn by Egypt\u2019s prison inmates, and raised banners that said, \u201cNo climate justice without human rights. We have not yet been defeated\u201d \u2014 an invocation of Alaa Abd El Fattah\u2019s book<\/a>, published earlier this year, \u201cYou Have Not Yet Been Defeated.\u201d This has prompted the regime to respond with highly orchestrated<\/a>, heavy-handed counter-demonstrations of its own.<\/p>\n\n The intense focus on Alaa\u2019s case is taking place because the writer and technologist, behind bars for most of the past decade, chose to intensify his hunger strike to include a water strike<\/a>, timed with the first day of the summit. In doing so, he was attempting to force the regime to choose between two options: free him and let him emigrate to the U.K. (he is a dual citizen), or let him die in the middle of the highest profile international event to take place in Egypt under Sisi\u2019s rule. (It is worth recalling that the uprising that is still raging in Iran was sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.)<\/p>\n Sisi appears to have tried a third option: On November 10, Alaa\u2019s sister Mona Seif posted<\/a> on Twitter that \u201cwe have just been informed by the prison officers \u2018Medical intervention was taken with @alaa with the knowledge of judicial entities.\u2019\u201d This was interpreted to mean some kind of forced feeding, which is (yet another) violation of his rights, as Human Rights Watch has said<\/a>. On Monday, November 14, Alaa\u2019s mother finally received, outside the prison gates, a handwritten note<\/a> from Alaa confirming that he is alive, has received medical attention, and has just started drinking water. The letter was dated two days earlier.<\/p>\nThe most prominent figure at the summit is not even there.<\/blockquote>\n