By Philip Rizk, The Electronic Intifada, 30 January 2011:
Philip Rizk (@tabulagaza on Twitter) took this remarkable video of huge popular protests in Cairo on 28 January. The crowds can be heard chanting "inzel! inzel!" -- meaning "come down! come down!" -- a call to neighbors to join the march, and "The people demand the fall of the regime." Rizk adds:
"Following Friday prayers on 28 January we joined protesters marching through the streets of Imbaba in Cairo, Egypt. The crowd of 100 that we joined kept increasing and continuously joined with other marches in the same quarter northwest of downtown Cairo. By about 1pm the protesters numbered around 15,000 marching towards Galaa Square and attempting to get across the Nile to Tahrir Square, downtown Cairo. In Galaa square we met two other large marches from Giza and Mohandiseen that had already tried to cross to Tahrir and had come under heavy tear gas fire. Shortly thereafter the converged protesters stormed past the security forces and streamed into Tahrir Square. Afterwards, the security forces that had used brutal force to stop the protests disappeared and the central square of downtown filled with demonstrators sharing one united call: 'down with Hosni Mubarak.' In the early evening protesters burnt down the regime's National Democratic Party headquarters. The streets were filled with tear gas, burning police vehicles and chants of celebration."
The Electronic Intifada's Matthew Cassel also witnessed and wrote about the protests in Imbaba: "From the front lines of the Egyptian uprising."
Philip Rizk is an Egyptian-German filmmaker and freelance journalist based in Cairo, Egypt. Philip lived in Gaza City from 2005 to 2007 where he worked for a nongovernmental organization and as a freelance writer. In 2009 his documentary This Palestinian Life premiered at the London International Documentary Festival. Philip blogs and can be reached at rizkphilip AT gmail DOT com.
