Activists from around the world are arriving in Egypt ahead of the Global March to Gaza, set to launch June 15, when thousands plan to march to the Rafah border to call for an end to Israel's genocide against Palestinians and its blockade of the territory. Dozens who flew to Cairo for the march have reportedly been detained, interrogated and deported by Egyptian security forces, but organizers say the event will proceed as planned. Former U.S. diplomat Hala Rharrit, who is taking part in the march, spoke with Democracy Now! earlier this week and said she could not turn a "blind eye" to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. "What type of world are we going to be allowing our children to grow up in, if we stand by while an entire civilian population is forcibly starved?" Rharrit asks.
Rharrit was the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department before she resigned in 2024 to protest the Biden administration's Gaza policy. She accuses her former colleague Matthew Miller of "careerism" after he recently admitted on a podcast that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, even though he regularly denied that while serving as a spokesperson for the State Department under Biden.
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