When German foreign affairs minister Joschka Fischer travelled to Cairo to attend the dead terrorist’s funeral, he was made to wait in line while guests from Islamic countries cut ahead of him; in the end, not a single European guest participated.

But Fischer is fine with that, because after all, it’s “the gesture that counts:” Joschka Fischer treated like annoying demonstrator. (Thanks to euroguy for the translation.)

Minister of foreign affairs Joschka Fischer was never treated this disrespectfully abroad: not only that his plane had to fly loops for a very long time. He also had to push his way through a crowd. In the end the Europeans missed the funeral service for Yassir Arafat.

Cairo: According to data from western diplomats not a single European guest could participate in the central funeral service at the airport in Cairo, because guests from islamic countries were preferred by the supervisors.

First many airplanes, among them the airplane of the german minister of foreign affairs, could not land because of the large traffic on the airport. After many waiting loops Fischer and his delegation had to wait another three quarters of an hour in his machine.

When they finally arrived at the ceremony, the security forces closed the gate. “It is over” they told the germans. In the delegation were SPD secretary general Klaus Uwe Benneter and the 82 year old former near-east delegate Hans-J�rgen Wischnewski.

In front of the gate of the military airport there was complete chaos for a time. The bodyguards of the different european delegations pushed and shoved the egyptian safety forces and each other to get their delegations through the chaos. The french minister of foreign affairs michel barnier was violently pushed against journalists. Wischnewski, who is in a wheelchair, had to be shielded by german security forces to protect him. The european minister of foreign affairs Javier Solanar was also stuck in the crowd.

Since there were many guests missing after the beginning of the main ceremony, a second ceremony was held close to the cairo airport. Like many others, Fischer was not allowed to participate in this ceremony either.

Fischer nevertheless remained calm. “This was a big challenge for the egyptians and nobody is to blame”, he said. After two hours in egypt he flew back to berlin. His visit has not been in vain, he said. “I think the gesture is what counts”.

At least Fischer managed to have a short talk with solana, a brother of arafat and the UN emmisary for the near-east peace process Terje Roed-Larsen.