Anti-Sisi Protests On Social Media: ‘He Sold Our Land And Humiliated Us’

JAFFA, Israel – The Egyptian opposition held a day of protest on Monday in the wake of Cairo’s decision to hand over two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia while the country marks 34 years since the “liberation” of Sinai from Israeli occupation.

Besides small, scattered street protests, the debate carried over on to social media, where President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was targeted with the Twitter hashtag #yalla_sisi_start_packing.

Hosam wrote: “Despair is treason. Struggle is the only way forward. We will continue until our freedom is achieved.”

“What have we got left? He sold our land and humiliated us,” Taleb wrote.

Osama told the President to sod off and added: “Don’t forget to take your disgusting wife and bastard children with you.”

Lulu wrote: “That’s it, Sisi. Game over.”

Without using the hashtag, Mona, a resident of Sinai, wrote: “Sisi addressed the nation on the occasion of the anniversary of recapturing Sinai, all the while 40,000 residents ran away from it after he sold off two nearby islands and the peninsula is ruled by an organization that declared itself a state.”

According to reports, security forces deployed tear gas to disperse small protests against al-Sisi’s government, with the Guardian quoting witnesses saying the move helped to deter what opposition groups wanted to be large scale protests.

Continued the Guardian:

This month, thousands of Egyptians angered by Sisi’s transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia called for his government to fall in the largest demonstration since the former military general took office in 2014.

On Monday, riot police backed by armored vehicles were positioned in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the focus of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, and at a suburban square where at least 600 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were killed in August 2013 in anticipation of protests.