Bloody hell at Tahrir Square in Cairo + other news

Bloody hell broke out at Tahrir Square this weekend.

There have been so many deaths and injuries — including a shocking number of protesters injured by rubber bullets in eyes, many of whom have reportedly lost their eyes as a result — that the figures are unreliable, and the tallies by various volunteers and news organizations keep mounting. One observer Tweeted that the soldiers/police were blinded themselves by the fast quantities of strong tear gas that was shot around, and as a result they fired wildly [hitting so many protesters exactly in the eyes???]. A group of three Egyptian men — one photojournalist [Ahmed Fatah, in the middle/background], + 2 well-known activists [Malek Mostafa and on the left, Ahmad Hararah] — with almost identical injuries are shown in this photo here.

At a certain point, the Muslim Brotherhood turned out. Then left. A few politicians showed up, then left.

A new terminology had to be learned: who are the ULTRAs? [It seems they are the almost-mythical “football fans” who have been on both sides of this revolution, but who now appear to be against the present military rule and therefore now on the side of the Tahrir activists…]

The situation is still evolving, three days later.

UPDATE: Al-Jazeera Arabic reported Monday night that the entire Egyptian Cabinet tendered its resignation — but the Supreme Military Council has not yet accepted the resignation.

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How Israeli forces really play ball – Bil'in responds to Israeli Cellcom Ad

The IDF, we now know, has no sense of humor, as the Israeli Cellcom phone company tried to imply in a misleadingly untruthful “feel-good” ad that we have previously reported on here.

The Bil’in village website has posted a video send-up here of the Cellcom ad, but there was no light-hearted athletic exchange last Friday 17 July when Palestinians kicked across a soccer ball at the site of the weekly protests against the The-Wall-where-it-is-a-fence, in an “unbuilt-up area” at the edge of Bil’il village, east of Ramallah in the West Bank.

Only tear gas was returned.

The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the IDF to re-route The Wall (here, in its fence-like form), but that order has been left un-implemented.

Meanwhile, peaceful demonstrators are regularly tear-gassed, kidnapped, detained, and occasionally injured and killed, and Bil’in village is now subject to frequent nightly IDF raids to detain even more Palestinians who are accused of supporting these protests.