Author: Sonia Farid

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/01/01/Egypt-s-diplomacy-fix-Walking-the-Israel-Trump-Palestine-tightrope-.html

Last week, Egypt submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution that condemns the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

But following a call Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received from US President Elect Donald Trump, Egypt withdrew the resolution. Four other countries—New Zealand, Senegal, Malaysia, and Venezuela—submitted the resolution again and it was approved by the majority of Security Council members.

The United States abstained yet, contrary to what was expected and to what usually happens, did not veto the resolution. Egyptian diplomacy instantly came under fire as accusations of its subordination to the upcoming US administration and Israel started coming through and many tried to understand the logic behind such a move.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt, as the only Arab non-permanent member of the Security Council, submitted the draft resolution yet had concerns about the reaction of permanent members. “In an unprecedented move, the future US administration announced its rejection of the resolution and called upon the current administration to veto it,” he said.

“The situation got confusing and Egypt was uncertain whether the current administration would listen to the future one and that is why Egypt called for postponing the vote until things become clear.” Abu Zeid added that as a major mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, Egypt had to be extremely careful in its following step. “Withdrawing the resolution was only a procedural step that does not change Egypt’s position on Palestine and in all cases the resolution was passed while Egypt managed to strike that delicate balance between its stance on Palestine and its relation with the future American administration.”

Former Deputy Foreign Minister Sayed Qassem al-Masri said that Egypt lost a lot upon withdrawing the draft resolution. “Egypt led the negotiations that preceded the resolution then drafted it and it is originally Egypt’s initiative. Then all this effort went down the drain when the resolution was withdrawn and Egypt wasted the chance to be the country behind the passing of such a historic resolution,” he wrote. “Think of the credit Egypt would have taken in the Arab and Muslim world and think how unsettling the resolution was for Israel.” Masri added that withdrawing the resolution means that Egypt succumbed to pressure from the United States and, consequently, Israel. “Netanyahu was shocked to know that the US would not veto the resolution so he called Trump to put pressure on Egypt so that Israel can buy time until Trump assumes office and uses the veto. Egypt just complied.”

Journalist Hossam al-Hindi said that Egypt’s decision to withdraw the resolution is the culmination if a series of steps that underline the recent rapprochement between Egypt and Israel whose ties are expected to become even stronger after Donald Trump, known for his support for Israel, comes to power.

“The Egyptian delegation drafted the resolution and garnered support for it from several non-permanent members and only two days after the resolution was submitted it was withdrawn without even consulting the other members,” he wrote. Hindi argued that it was only when news that the Obama administration will not use the veto that Netanyahu and Trump had to convince Egypt to change its position. “This is not the first time Egypt supports Israel internationally for in September 2015, Egypt voted for Israel’s membership at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which Israel considered a diplomatic victory.”

Hindi called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri “the orchestrator of normalization with Israel,” and cited his visit to Jerusalem, his reservation on calling Israel a “terrorist state,” and his presence at the funeral of Shimon Perez to indicate the new tendency of Egyptian diplomacy.

Expert in Middle Eastern affairs Feras Abu Hilal said that the Egyptian regime failed to read the political situation properly when it was certain that the US will veto the resolution: “Egypt could not predict that Obama would want to take an expected move that would later be part of his legacy especially in the light of his tense relations with Netanyahu,” he wrote, adding that not submitting the resolution at all would have been much better for Egyptian diplomacy than submitting then withdrawing it.

“It is also extremely embarrassing for Egypt that countries from outside the Arab world such as Venezuela and New Zealand would support the resolution while Egypt, commonly known as the Arab’s ‘big sister’ would withdraw it.” Abu Hilal argued that the resolution itself is not significant since Israel never respects UN resolutions anyway, but the problem with this particular resolution is the way Egypt let down Palestine and the Arabs.

Professor of political science Khalil al-Enani argued that it is the Egyptian regime rather than Egyptian diplomacy that is to blame for the withdrawal of the draft resolution. “Members of the Egyptian delegation were smart enough to read the current relationship between Obama and Israel and to know that the former will not use the veto against the resolution in order to deal two blows before leaving: one to Netanyahu and another to Trump who would have definitely used the veto had he been in power at the time of the voting,” he wrote.

Enani argued that the withdrawal of the resolution was a unilateral decision on the part of the Egyptian president who wanted to establish strong ties with the Trump administration and avoid antagonizing Israel, hence ordered his foreign minister to withdraw the resolution. “This placed the Egyptian diplomacy is an extremely embarrassing and humiliating position on both the regional and international levels.”

Meanwhile, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Egypt’s action was justified since it was concerned that the resolution will not be passed. “It was a matter of timing and that is why Egypt wanted to wait until making sure the resolution will not be obstructed by a veto and when it did it voted for the resolution,” he said.

“At the same time, Egypt managed to deal diplomatically with the upcoming American administration.” Erekat denied allegations that Egypt let the Palestinians down and said that had it not been for Egypt, the resolution would not have into being at all. “We and the Egyptians are one team and we thank Egyptian diplomacy for this effort.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2016/12/15/ISIS-in-Cairo-Serious-challenge-for-the-Egyptian-state-and-its-people-.html

In what seems like a mixture of a question, an exclamation, and a feeling of utter disbelief, ‘ISIS in Cairo’ is a phrase that has become part of almost every attempt at understanding the December 11 church bombing that killed 25 Coptic worshippers as well as the December 9 explosion that killed six police officers.

The statement in which ISIS claimed responsibility for the church bombing not only linked the two incidents, but also gave rise to concerns over targeting the capital, which had for a while been a far-fetched possibility with all terrorist attacks being mainly concentrated in the Sinai Peninsula.

Whether or not it is ISIS, the fact remains that Cairo is obviously becoming quite accessible and that a serious challenge is awaiting the state and the people in Egypt if this proves true.

General Ahmed al-Awadi, Member of Parliament and member of the Defense and National Security at the House of Representatives, argued that the shift in terrorist attacks from Sinai to Cairo is an extremely serious move on the part of militant groups. “Casualties in Cairo will definitely be much higher, especially among civilians, and terrorist attacks carried out in the capital are bound to be more shocking on both the local and international levels,” he said.

Change of location

Another reason for this change of location, according to Awadi, is the intensification of army attacks against militant groups in Sinai. “When those groups were besieged in Sinai they started looking for another place,” he explained, adding that moving to Cairo is also linked to an increase in funds received by these groups from foreign parties. “The more money they get, the more capable they will be to carry out operations in the capital,” he said.

Awadi noted that with the attacks now focused on Cairo, terrorists have made it absolutely urgent for security forces to start monitoring them closely: “There has to be enough updated intelligence on their whereabouts and their movements.”

Hamdi Bekhit, Member of Parliament, said that the two attacks are not just directed against police officers or Christian worshippers, but against Cairo in general. “But the problem is expected to expand beyond Cairo, for terrorist groups might take advantage of the fact that security forces are currently preoccupied with Cairo after the two attacks and take their operations to other governorates across Egypt,” he said, adding that this would be specifically the case during Christmas holidays when security is expected to be tightened around churches in Cairo.

Also read: Cairo cathedral blast suspects reveal new info

Salah Eissa, Writer and Secretary General of Supreme Council of the Press, said that militant groups’ decision to take terrorist attacks to the heart of Egypt is linked to their relative failure in Sinai. “They realized that attacks in Sinai, which mainly target police and army officers, are not that effective and their losses there are more than their gains,” he said. “When attacks took place in Sinai, most Egyptians felt this was happening far away from them, but when they take place in Cairo, all Egyptians will feel vulnerable and frightened.”

According to Eissa, instilling fear into the hearts of Egyptians constitutes a success for terrorist groups. “They also doubled this success when they targeted Christians in particular in the second attack because it is in their best interest to prove to Christians that security forces are not capable of protecting them, thus turning them against the regime that they previously supported in toppling the Muslim Brotherhood.”

More effort needed

According to journalist Bashir al-Bakr, this is the first time two major terrorist attacks have taken place in Cairo within 48 hours, which is a very dangerous sign. “This means that ISIS and groups affiliated to it are getting out of control and that the Egyptian regime is not learning from the repercussions of such development in other countries in the region,” he wrote. Bakr said that the state is partially responsible for the attacks on two levels.

“On the level of security, the state has to make more efforts in order to block all the possible sources of terror and terrorists. On the political level, the state has to realize that the security measures it has been adopting cannot alone eliminate terrorism.”

Concerning the latter, Bakr argued that the Egyptian regime does not want to look at the bigger pictureand see the situation from all its dimensions. “The state only takes the parts that suit it out of context so that at the end terrorist attacks are seen to happen because a group of evil people want to kill innocent civilians and spread chaos.”

Also read: The moment when Cairo cathedral bomb went off

Ahmed Ban, an expert in Islamic militant groups, argued that the Egyptian police are partially responsible because of the strategies they have been following in the war on terror. “For decades, the Egyptian police fought terrorism through torture and killing outside the law, thus creating a monstrous virus that mutates in a frightening manner,” he wrote.

“On the other hand, the police do not develop whether in terms of ideology or training and that is why terrorist groups manage to take them by surprise.” Ban said acceptance of such “lousy performance”makes the police an “accomplice” in such attacks.

‘It is a war’

General Mohamed Nour al-Din, security expert and former Deputy Interior Minister, refused to consider terrorists’ ability to reach the heart of Cairo as an indication of failure on the part of security forces. “Terrorism is targeting the entire world and not only Egypt, and terrorists managed to reach capitals that are presumably more secure and where security systems are supposed to be more advanced such as Paris and Brussels,” he said. “Nobody said then that security systems in France and Belgium are incompetent.”

Al Din added that Egypt, like the rest of the world, is facing a terrorist group that managed to destroy entire countries. “Egypt is up against a ferocious enemy and this is shown in the Cairo attacks that took place despite the clampdown on militant groups by Egyptian security forces,” he added. “In the war on terrorism, breaches are always possible and terrorists do score victories at times. This is why it is a war.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2016/12/11/Egypt-s-shifting-foreign-policy-Why-Portugal-and-Slovenia-.html

For the first time in 20 years, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made an official visit to Portugal. Two weeks later, Sisi received the president of Slovenia in Cairo. The two visits were given extensive media coverage in Egypt and were greeted by many as the first steps toward a new foreign policy the current regime is planning to adopt. The choice of countries, however, aroused considerable curiosity and made many wonder if Egypt is drifting away from the leaders of the European Union and forging new alliances that in the long term could be quite beneficial or whether this new approach is a reaction to the uncertainty that shrouds Egypt’s relations with superpowers.

Political analyst Moataz Abdel Fattah believes that interest in Portugal could be related to the similarities between them, particularly between the 1974 Carnation Revolution and the June 30 protests that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. “It was the army that toppled Salazar’s dictatorship and General Spinola became president later on,” he wrote. “The Portuguese people took to the streets to support the ‘coup’ and this turned it into a ‘revolution.”’ For Abdel Fattah, Portugal has gone through “a political and economic cycle” that is very similar to what Egypt is going through at the moment and that explains why the two countries are getting closer. “Through dealing with very similar conditions to ours, Portugal eventually managed to reach the relative stability it is currently enjoying.”

Professor of political science Asharf Singer noted that Nasser’s Egypt had very strong ties with Yugoslavia, of which Slovenia was part, under Josip Tito so current relations are some sort of extension of this historic alliance. “As part of the Yugoslav union, Slovenia was a strategic industrial base and this continued after it gained independence then joined the EU in 2007,” he said. “In addition to economic cooperation, Slovenia is one of the countries that identify with the transitional conditions through which Egypt is going at the moment and Egypt needs this kind of support in the European Union.” Singer also added that Donald Trump’s wife is of Slovenian origins. “Establishing ties between Egypt and Slovenia will, therefore, be beneficial in US-Egyptian relations,” he said. He did not, however, explain how exactly the two issues are linked.

Professor of political science Gehad Ouda argued that Sisi’s visit to Portugal and the Slovenian president’s visit to Cairo reveal a new strategy he is following as far as foreign policy is concerned. “Sisi is replacing countries in the European Union that still have reservations on their relationship with Egypt such as France and Germany,” he said, adding that while France sells weapons to Egypt, there is no real partnership between the two countries. “Egypt has problems related to tourism and investment with several European countries including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.” Sisi, explained Ouda, is accessing Europe through “untraditional paths.”

The recent rapprochement with Portugal and Slovenia also revealed other significant changes in Egypt’s foreign policy that are not related to either country. For example, Sisi announced his support for the Syrian army on the Portuguese TV network RTP: “The priority is that we support the national armies to impose control over the territory, deal with the extremists, and impose the necessary stability in Libya, Syria and Iraq,” he said.  According to Tyler Durden, this shift is not only significant in the way it reveals a tendency towards supporting the Russian position on Syria, but also because of the way it alters the entire global perspective on the Syrian conflict: “In the West, the war in Syria has been widely believed to be a conflict between Sunni and Shia forces… Now the largest Arab Sunni state has taken the side of Syria’s government to become a coalition ally with Russia. The sectarian interpretation of the conflict is not valid anymore,” he wrote, adding that such transformation is bound to impact the balance of power in the region: “a regional anti-terrorism entity or even a military block independent from the US might emerge at some point in future.”

Journalist Mohamed Abul Fadl said that the new shift in Egypt’s foreign policy is directly linked to three major lessons that Egyptian diplomacy has learned lately. “First, you cannot bet on one horse since there isn’t one single party that is capable alone of resolving a conflict or ending a crisis. Second, there is no place for political feuds and wars no longer erupt to settle old scores. Third, it is important not to put all the eggs in one basket through being fully allied to one country or group of countries because part of power is always having alternatives,” he wrote.  Journalist Moustafa al-Saeid argues, on the other hand, against Fadl’s theory, which according to him does not work for a long time. For Saeid, Egypt has been shifting between too many parties, which made its foreign policy seem too confused. “No matter how good you are at maneuvering, you can never satisfy all parties or send mixed signals because in real crises, avoiding polarization is extremely difficult,” he wrote. Saeid said that Egypt is not currently in a position to take risks in its foreign policy because it already has too much on its plate domestically. “At this moment, Egypt could simply detach itself regionally and internationally and only get involved when there is a direct threat to its security,” he explained. “Otherwise, Egypt should better focus on education, healthcare, and unemployment.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2016/11/28/Nubia-s-disenfranchisement-a-decades-long-crisis.html

Residents of Nubia, the southernmost region of Egypt, have for several days been staging protests against the state’s 1.5 million-acre reclamation project that would encroach on their historic land. The project, managed by the Egyptian Countryside Development Country, entails offering parts of two Nubian villages for sale to investors.

Protestors also reiterated Nubian condemnation of presidential decree number 444 from 2014 that designated large swathes of Nubian border lands, comprised of 16 villages, as restricted military zones. Protestors’ indignation was intensified by their disillusionment regarding the promises of the 2014 constitution, article 236, about Nubians’ right of return to lands from which they were evacuated. All such issues led to the resurfacing of the decades-long crisis of the disenfranchisement of Nubia.

Journalist Emad al-Din Hussein blames the state for its inability to deal with Nubians in particular, and minorities in general. According to him, the disenfranchisement of Sinai is the main reason behind the emergence of militant groups there and the same scenario is likely to be repeated in Nubia.

“Nubians were evacuated from their villages in 1964 because of the construction of the High Dam and ever since have been complaining of not being on the state’s development map,” he wrote. “The state knows all this and is still taking steps that make things worse.” Hussein accused the state of rushing into the 1.5 million acre project without calculating the consequences, thus intensifying feelings of resentment on the part of the Nubians.

“Then the state and pro-regime circles use the conspiracy theory once more and accuse foreign parties of inciting sedition in Nubia. If this is partly true, then the state is definitely making it easier for those parties.”

Archeologist Ahmed Saleh said the Nubian crisis dates back to the 19th century when lands were submerged every year by the flooding of the Nile, and the government never interfered to help. “And when the government decided to solve irrigation and electricity problems, this was done at the expense of Nubians by the construction of the Aswan Reservoir then the High Dam,” he wrote. “Their problems increased in the villages to which they were transferred because there wasn’t enough land for them and because of the loss of their heritage and culture as a result of the evacuation in addition to unemployment rates that reached 80 percent among their youths.”

Saleh, who is also head of the Aswan Antiquities Department, said that despite all the injustice from which they suffered, Nubians never resorted to violence nor developed any separatist discourse, yet they are still accused by pro-regime media and a sizable number of Egyptians of destabilizing national security. “Their protests now are only the result of years of marginalization coupled with the failure of dreams that followed the January 2011 revolution and the 2014 constitution.”

Ater Hanoura, director of the Egyptian Countryside Development Country, said Nubians can only get the land when they submit documents that prove their ownership. “We have been in touch with Nubia’s representative in the parliament MP Yassin Abdel Sabour for the past two weeks, but he hasn’t yet brought us any documents,” he said. “If this is their land they will have priority in buying it.” Hanoura added that late president Anwar Sadat verbally promised to give Nubians this land, but this cannot be considered a legal proof.

MP Yassin Abdel Sabour, who said that Nubians are always “the first to obey and the last to rebel,” noted he has a written approval from the Egyptian Armed Forces designating 44 regions as Nubian, which means that Nubians should have the right to return there.

Abdel Sabour criticized the official response to the protests, especially obstructing the progress of the Nubian Return Caravan as it attempted to reach the disputed areas. “The caravan aimed at making a statement about this land being Nubian and it was totally peaceful. When they were prevented from reaching their destination by security forces, they had to stage a sit-in in the middle of the desert,” he said. “Then they were besieged by security and food was not allowed in, which escalated the situation.”

MP Moustafa Bakri, who took part in the negotiations between the government and Nubian protestors, said Nubians have always had a trust issue with consecutive governments including the current one because none of the promises they got materialized. “The 2014 constitution promised return and development, then Nubians were asked in 2015 to draft a law towards this end and they did submit their proposals to the Ministry of Transitional Justice, but not one single step was taken.” Bakri, however, objected to protestors’ decision to block main highways and railway tracks to voice their anger at the security response to their protests.

Aswan representative in the parliament MP Ahmed Saad Darwish said that while he supports the demands of Nubians, it is totally against actions that violate the constitution. “It is wrong of protestors to block main roads and obstruct tourism in the area,” he said. “Protestors drained security forces.” Darwish objected to referring to Nubia as representative of the governorate of Aswan. “Nubian land only constitutes 10 percent of Aswan and the actions of Nubian protestors are rejected by residents and tribes of Aswan.”

Aswan governor Magdi Hegazy said there is no justification for what protestors did and noted its negative impact on residents and on the economy in general. “There are always legal channels for people to put their demands forward. The country has been unstable for years already and this might have led to inability to respond to all demands,” he said, adding that protestors are very few compared to the number of Nubians. “In fact, most Nubians are not happy about what the protestors are doing.”

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2016/11/20/Egypt-s-food-crisis-a-bitter-blow-to-all-social-classes.html

Egypt could be plunging into a food crisis or at least this is how it seems. Complaints about a shortage of basic goods have been echoing across the country and reached their peak with the lack of sugar supplies in many stores. Such complaints varied according to social class for while the upper middle class is affected by the remarkable decrease of imported goods, which might seem a luxury for average citizens, the working class is voicing its discontent about the soaring prices of local foodstuffs. True, coconut milk, chocolate chip cookies, and salmon are not in any way comparable to food needed for survival, but the wide-ranging effect of the crisis across different echelons of the Egyptian society denotes a serious problem. Added to that is the fact that the relatively affluent are also starting to complain about food prices, which had always been unlikely to happen.

While the crisis included a substantial number of foodstuffs, nothing equaled the problem triggered by lack of sugar in the Egyptian market. According to Raafat Rezeika, head of the Sugar Division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the sugar crisis is directly connected to the dollar shortage.

“The unavailability of dollars made importing sugar much harder and created a parallel market where the price of available sugar doubled,” he said. What aggravated the situation, he added, was the government crackdown on several warehouses owned by traders who hoarded large amounts of sugar and who were blamed for intensifying the crisis. “The government confiscated all the sugar they had so there was practically no one selling sugar.”

Shawki Serag al-Din, head of planning at the Delta Sugar Company, accused the government of taking part in the crisis. “We had 37,000 tons in our warehouses and the state-owned Food Industries Holding Company bought them for LE 4,500 per ton, that is LE 4.5 per kilo. Then the company asked to buy the sugar of the new season with the same price without taking into consideration that the cost has increased for us,” he said, noting that the kilo is then sold for LE 7. “The cost of one ton is now LE 6,000. Who is going to pay the difference? How can we pay farmers for their crops? And how can we pay workers’ wages?,” he added. Serag al-Din pointed out that the chairman of the Delta Sugar Company Abdel Hamid Salama, resigned for this reason.

Farag Amer, chairman of the Egyptian Food Company, said the several food industries are about to close down because of the shortage of basic commodities. “None of the food factories is working with full capacity because there is a shortage in basic materials such as sugar, oil, and marjoram,” he said. Amer complained that the Food Industries Holding Company is not providing factories with sugar because it keeps raising its prices. “Now one kilo of local sugar is LE 10 and imported sugar is no longer available,” he added. “The prices of flour have also soared insanely.” Amer dismissed rumors that business owners are the reason behind the crisis. “Honest business owners are highly suffering now.”

A rice crisis started emerging as the government decided to reduce land plots in which rice is cultivated due to a shortage of water and imposing fines on violating farmers. Former Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Nasr Allam said that rice consumes large amounts of water and it was necessary to limit the number of lands where rice is cultivated. “Egypt does not have enough water for all this rice. Two years ago we had around 2.5 million acres of rice which is insane,” he said, adding Egypt is on the verge of a drought. Allam noted that he is against calls by several MPs to lift the fines on farmers who exceed the limit and which amounts to LE 3,000 per acre.

The rice crisis was aggravated by disputes between rice farmers and the government over the prices of rice. According to Agriculture Export Council member Samir al-Naggary, the devaluation of the Egyptian pound led most of the farmers to see the prices offered by the government as unfair. “This drove many farmers to sell to traders for LE 3,000 instead of the state-affiliated Public Authority for Supply, which insisted on only 2,400,” he said. “Even the few farmers who agreed on the state’s price retracted because of terms of payment that they viewed as unfair.”  Meanwhile, the Ministry of Supplies also announced raising the price of rice by 18 percent.

Atef Yaacoub, head of the Consumer Protection Agency, launched a campaign entitled Abstain from Buying. “All Egyptians should boycott all commodities for one day on December 1 to deliver a strong message to traders who raise prices that they will not surrender to their greed,” he said. “One day will not be a problem for citizens, but will be a huge loss for traders.” According to Yaacoub, the campaign will put pressure on traders to decrease their profit margin as part of their contribution to alleviating the impact of the crisis. Yaacoub stressed that he launched this campaign not as the chairman of the Consumer Protection Agency, but as a regular citizen, saying “it is, therefore, a civil society campaign.” The campaign was endorsed by the Citizens against Rising Prices Association, which shared Yaacoub’s view that traders are the main cause of the crisis.

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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2015/09/23/Egypt-prisons-report-Did-human-rights-council-curry-favor-with-govt-.html

Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) has been suffering from internal divisions following a report it published into the high-security al-Aqrab prison, which houses scores of political prisoners and forms part of the Tora complex in southern Cairo.

The report was the result of a visit by a NCHR delegation in response to complaints from inmates about the prison administration’s practices, which they said violated their rights. There were allegations of abuse, a reduction in visit times, lack of medical care, the denial of access to food and clothes brought by visitors, cancelling of sports activities, and the closure of canteens in which visitors deposit money for prisoners.

Disputes started when several NCHR members deemed the report – which refuted most of the prisoners’ claims, and commended the living conditions of the prison – biased and inaccurate.

ElBaradei tweet

In a tweet that angered several NCHR members, former Vice President Mohammad ElBaradei wrote that national human rights councils “do not protect regimes as much as they expose their members.”

But NCHR deputy director Abdel Ghaffar Shokr argued that ElBaradei is not in a position to evaluate the report issued by the council. “ElBaradei has been away for a long time and is not aware of the situation in Egypt now,” he said in an interview with the Egyptian daily independent al-Youm al-Sabea. “Plus, this is purely his personal point of view.”

‘Muslim Brotherhood lies’

In his article “When would ElBaradei go away?” published in al-Youm al-Sabea, journalist Abdel Fattah Abdel Moneim accused ElBaradei of supporting Muslim Brotherhood members who, he argued, falsified facts about the prison. “The delegation uncovered the Brotherhood’s lies and that is why their members inside and outside the prison slammed the report and ElBaradei is helping them,” he said.

For NCHR member Salah Salam, ElBaradei did not mean to criticize the members. “This was just a way to criticize the current regime rather than the council and its members,” he told the Egyptian newspaper al-Wafd.

Hafez Abu Saada, NCHR member and director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, argued that the council did all it could to investigate prisoners’ complaints.

“The only way to do this was the prison’s official records and prisoners’ testimonies, but members of the Muslim Brotherhood refused to meet us and sent a representative to tell us they do not recognize a council that works for an illegitimate regime,” he told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. “We did not claim that the prison is a five-star hotel, though.”

According to Abu Saada, the records prove that prisoners are getting the medical care they need inside and outside the prison and field visits show that places frequented by prisoners – kitchen, cafeteria, library, and clinic – are in a good shape.

Stage-managed?

Several NCHR members slammed both the visit and the report. Mohamed Abdel Qodous, who was part of the delegation, said that the prison administration knew of the visit beforehand and prepared the place accordingly.

“The food in the kitchen is only offered in hotels. I was in jail before and I know what the food is really like,” he said in the statement he issued following the report.

Abdel Qodous accused the prison administration of fabricating visit schedules in the logs. “For example, the prisoner’s family would obtain a visit permit and the administration registers it in the logs then prevents the family from entering the prison.”

He also questioned the authenticity of prisoners’ medical reports, especially those of former Muslim Brotherhood deputy supreme guide Khairat al-Shater. “We were told he underwent a scan that cost LE 35,000. There is an unbelievable figure,” he said. Abdel Qudous also cited examples of prisoners who died in al-Aqrab prison due to an alleged lack of medical care, such as Muslim Brotherhood member Farid Ismail and head of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya consultative council Essam Derbala.

Excluded members

Ragia Omran is another NCHR member who slammed the report and, together with Abdel Qodous, withdrew from the meeting held to discuss it. “Not all NCHR members were notified of the visit. I was one of the excluded members. I took part neither in the visit nor in the report.”

Omran issued a joint statement with another two excluded members – George Ishaq and Kamal Abbas.

“The council allowed the Interior Ministry to film the visit and this is against the regulations. On the same day, the ministry broadcast the film to give a false image of prison conditions,” the statement said, adding that by doing this, the council is taking part in the ministry’s propaganda.

The statement also objected to the council’s decision to hold a press conference to reveal the results of the visit. “This is totally unprecedented,” it said.

The statement criticized the council for issuing such a report instead of pressuring the ministry to give prisoners the rights granted to them by the Internal Regulation for Prison Administration. “This means that visits should be 60 minutes, prisoners should have access to newspapers and books, sports time should be two hours daily, and proper medical care should be available to all inmates.”

For NCHR member Yasser Abdel Aziz, criticism of reports issued by the council is not new and is never restricted to one faction. In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat, he particularly referred to the council’s report on the dispersal of Islamist sit-ins that followed the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi and which accused Egyptian security of using excessive force. “At the time, regime loyalists attacked us. Now the Muslim Brotherhood is attacking us. This only proves that we are on the right track.”

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As Egypt braces for the upcoming parliamentary elections, which begin in phases starting in mid-October, the debate about the participation of religious parties is making a powerful comeback.

According to Article 74 of the 2014 constitution, drafted after the toppling of the Muslim Brotherhood government, political parties cannot be established on religious, ethnic, sectarian, or geographical basis.

This article, together with concerns about another Islamist-dominated parliament, triggered the launch of a campaign called “No to Religious Parties”, which has the ultimate aim is getting those parties banned, and thus unable to compete in the elections.

“No to Religious Parties” follows the strategy used earlier by Tamarod, the campaign against former Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, which was based on collecting signatures from anti-Brotherhood Egyptians all over the country.

The latest campaign, which is also available electronically, includes a form entitled “No religion in politics and no politics in religion” and features the logos of parties against which the campaign was launched, a total of nine. While the campaign seems to be gaining momentum among Egyptians, it remains to be seen whether its objective can actually be achieved in such a short time and given the support such parties still enjoy among the Egyptian public.

Legal basis

Dalia Ziada, director of the Egyptian Center for Free Democratic Studies and a co-founder of the campaign, said that religious parties aim to repeat the history seen with the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government.

“The Muslim Brotherhood used democracy to come to power and once they did, they violated all democratic principles,” she said in an interview with the Egyptian satellite channel al-Hayat.

Ziada explained that signatures, which she said have so far exceeded 750,000, are a means of helping the campaign in the legal action it plans to take. “Parties cannot be disbanded without a court ruling so those signatures give us the right to file a request with the elections committee so it can take the matter to court and we already did that,” she explained.

Salah Abdel Maaboud, member of the higher committee of the Salafi al-Nour Party, one of the parties targeted by the campaign, argued that since only the court can disband a party, the campaign is pointless. “Is the judiciary expected to be influenced by the number of signatures?” he said in the same interview. “If the campaign is using signatures to prove that people don’t want us, why don’t we wait till elections prove that? Isn’t this what democracy is about?”

But according to Ziada, elections constitute the last phase in the democratic process. “Before elections, it is the state’s duty to make proper options available to the people and that this why parties need to meet a set of criteria. For this reason, the state should not allow a party that violates the constitution to run in the first place.”

Constitutional violation?

Salah Fawzy, professor of constitutional law and member of the High Legislative Reform Committee, argued that the campaign will not succeed since al-Nour and similar parties do not violate the constitution. “Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution states that Islam is the religion of the state and Islamic law [is] the main source of legislation,” he told the Egyptian news website DotMasr. “Therefore, parties based on Islamic principles are constitutional.”

According to Fawzi, Article 74 of the constitution does not apply to religious parties. “This article did not ban parties with a religious background, but rather [bans] using religion for political gains.”

While supporting the campaign, Hesham Ouf, co-founder of the Egyptian Secular Party, underlined the problem of Article 2, which he believes is the main obstacle to disbanding religious parties. “This article is always used by religious parties to legitimatize their existence and it is because of this article that the court might rule in favor of those parties,” he said in an interview with the Egyptian daily independent al-Youm al-Sabea.

That is why Ouf argued that the campaign cannot bear fruit just through collecting signatures. “We need to engage in thorough discussions with constitutional experts to examine the possibility of disbanding political parties in the presence of Article 2,” he explained. “If this proves futile then we will have to go for the more radical solution: demanding the removal of Article 2 from the constitution.”

Secular parties unconstitutional?

Based on Article 2, calls to disband “non-Islamic” parties have started on the other side. Sameh Abdel Hamid, leading member of the Salafist Call, from which al-Nour Party originated, argued that liberal and secular parties are unconstitutional.

“Religious parties are formed based on Article 2 while this is not the case with secular parties that do not recognize Egypt as an Islamic state and call for separating religion and politics,” he said in a statement. Abdel Hamid added that secular parties support values that violate Islamic principles, therefore violate the constitution again. “Those parties promote a Western lifestyle in which homosexuality and other vices are allowed,” he said, adding that all parties should have an Islamic background in order to be constitutional.

Former jihadist Amal Abdel Wahab noted that the campaign against religious parties made a grave mistake. “They offered religious parties, especially al-Nour, a golden opportunity to abort their attempts through using Article 2 and even started a counter-campaign,” he told the Egyptian news website al-Bawaba News. Abdel Wahab argued that the campaign should not have used the argument that those parties are religious. “They should have rather focused on the history of those parties, their thirst for power, their hidden agendas, and their former alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

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Images of a party to mark the engagement of a 10-year old girl and her teenage cousin prompted angry reactions among activists and rights organizations – but was just the latest in a long line of cases of underage unions in Egypt.

The cousins, Wagih and Noha al-Banna, are not yet married – the main reason given for their families not have faced legal action, local media reported.

But the fact that the party, at the couple’s hometown in the province of al-Gharbia in northern Egypt, was attended by hundreds of guests left some with the impression that the issue of underage marriage – unions between those under the legal age of 18 – is not being taken seriously by the public or state institutions.

Mervat al-Tellawi, director of Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW), condemned the union, which she said proves that the phenomenon is far from being eliminated, especially in rural areas.

“There are many reasons for parents allowing their minor children to get married, on top of which are poverty, illiteracy, religion, and lack of awareness,” she said in an interview with the Egyptian daily independent al-Masry al-Youm.

“Many parents marry their children without official documents because they are under the legal marrying age, and this is a crime.”

Psychological disorders

Tellawi added that underage marriages usually fail, with the mother and any children often left without any support, contributing to the number of children on the streets.

“Even if the marriage continues the wife and children always suffer from severe psychological disorders,” she said.

According to Tellawi, underage marriages are the main reason behind girls dropping out of school, noting that the dropout rate in the Delta region, in which al-Gharbia is located, has reached 60%.

She added that after the latest engagement, NCW will start an initiative in coordination with the Ministry of Justice. “This initiative will raise awareness among teenagers about the dangers of underage marriages and will offer legal support to minor girls who are being forced to marry.”

Legal action

While admitting that the recent engagement party is disturbing proof that underage marriages are not receding, Hani Helal, secretary general of the Egyptian Coalition for Children’s Rights, pointed out that no legal action can be taken against the parents.

“So far, this is only an engagement and there are no official records of the marriage,” he said in a statement. “We can take the parents to court when the marriage contract is signed, yet what we can do now is charging them with endangering the lives of their children.”

To solve the engagement issue, which is seen as a way of going around the law, the Union for Egyptian women issued a statement calling for a legislation that penalizes any step taken towards the marriage of minors.

“Anybody who proves to have taken part in facilitating a marriage between minors has to be prosecuted,” said the statement, adding that the engagement of the couple in al-Gharbia showed how this phenomenon is deeply rooted in a large segment of the Egyptian society, and how stricter laws are required to prevent any attempts at marrying minors. “These laws should protect both boys and girls who are subjected to this experience.”

Against Islamic principles

According to Taher Abdel Hakim, professor of jurisprudence at al-Azhar University, engagement is a marriage promise, which makes it invalid if it happens between children. “People cannot get engaged until they reach the age when they are capable of making choices and knowing what is in their best interest,” he said in an interview with the Egyptian daily independent al-Watan. “Therefore, engagement between minors is against Islamic principles.”

When asked why he decided to become engaged, teenager Wagih al-Banna – whose age has been given variously as 14 and 16 – said that his 10-year-old cousin had too many suitors and he had to “reserve” her, as he put it, and denied that she had no choice.

“Of course she approved our engagement. I would never marry her against her will,” he said in an interview with the Egyptian satellite channel Dream TV. In the same interview, the bride-to-be Noha al-Banna, who said that she still plays hide-and-seek with her friends, said the marriage will not stop her from getting an education: “I want to be a doctor,” she said.

Noha’s uncle Moustafa al-Shal refused to call this a marriage of minors. “This was just an engagement and they still have seven years to go,” he said on the same Dream TV episode. “We did this now so we can make sure she doesn’t marry outside the family.” Shal added that Noha will still live her full childhood despite the engagement. “Everything will be normal and the marriage will not be consummated until the right time comes.”

Gaining acceptance

Psychologist Alaa Ragab saw the celebration as a dangerous development which presents the practice as desirable. “When girls see the photos and the video, they would start conceiving the idea as fun and might even ask to be brides like Noha,” he said in a phone interview with the same program. “The idea will gradually become more acceptable than it already is. The same would happen with boys.”

Ragab argued that neither Noha nor Wagih are actually aware of what marriage is about. “If you ask them now about the duties marriage entails, none of them would know. Those are children and this is a crime against childhood.”

Journalist Sylvia al-Nakkadi criticized the way the story was presented in the media. “The story was run as a piece of interesting news that provides entertainment for readers but it lacked serious analysis of such a flagrant violation of children’s rights,” she wrote in Al-Masry al-Youm, arguing that the media had not done its proper job.

“News of the celebration should have been accompanied by a thorough explanation of the physical and psychological damages such a practice entails and different ways of eliminating it.”

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The killing of 12 people, eight of whom were Mexican nationals, in Egypt’s Western Desert is an incident like no other for several reasons.

Egypt has seen cases of terrorists killing tourists, and security forces killing terrorists. But this time it was security forces killing tourists.

The reason for the attack, which also injured six other Mexicans, and four Egyptians, is that security forces mistook the tourists, their guides and drivers for militants.

The controversy was taken to another level when victims were said to have ventured into a restricted area. Each relevant state authority absolved itself of contributing to the “misunderstanding” and, more importantly, where the army’s strategy in tackling the war on terror was called into question.

Western Desert

In his article “Fire in the Oasis”, published in the Egyptian daily independent newspaper al-Shorouk, journalist Abdullah al-Sinawi blamed Egypt’s security institutions for the presence of tourists in an area as volatile as the Western Desert.

“How are the tourists and their guides supposed to know that a specific zone is restricted if they are not notified in advance?” he asked. “And if this zone is really restricted, how come the convoy passed through all the checkpoints on the way to the Western Desert?”

While acknowledging that, two days before, the same area was the scene of clashes between militants and security forces, Sinawi expressed his indignation at the fact that trips to this area were still allowed.

“Why wasn’t this area closed completely until all operations are over?” he asked. Sinawi also criticized analyses that focused on the blow dealt to tourism following the incident. “This is not about tourism. This incident was politically detrimental. The attack came from the army, not terrorists and this is a factor that cannot be overlooked.”

Where were the warning shots?

Security expert General Mohamed Nour al-Din, a former assistant to the minister of the interior, called the attack “impulsive” and argued that even if the victims looked suspicious, there were wiser ways of responding.

“The army could have started firing warning shots instead of bombing the cars with heavy weaponry right away,” he said in an interview with al-Shorouk. “Whoever gave the orders to fire miscalculated the entire situation.”

According to Nour al-Din, the attack took place because only a week before, militants in four-wheel drives similar to the ones used by the convoy fired at security forces in the same area.

“So, when a similar situation happened, they fired preemptively before being fired at,” he said.

Nour el-Din argued that the Egyptian state will be in a difficult position if investigations prove that the travel agency did obtain all the required permits to visit this area, and that the convoy did not stray from the pre-planned route.

“In this case, an official apology would not be enough and compensations have to be paid to the injured and to families of the deceased,” he said.

Impact on terror war?

Hafez Abu Saada, member of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, argued that the incident would have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the war on terror.

“This war against terrorism has to be managed very delicately so that innocent people are not killed in the process,” he wrote on Twitter. “Such incidents would give a chance to many to question the validity of this war.”

Hassan al-Nahla, head of Egypt’s Tourist Guides’ Syndicates, argued that the army is not to be blamed for such a quick response to suspicious activity in an area that is already infested with terrorists.

“I rather blame the ministries of interior and tourism for absolute lack of coordination,” he explained, in a statement he issued following the killings. “The Ministry of Interior should have submitted a list of restricted areas to the Ministry of Tourism which, in turn, should have distributed it to all travel agencies.”

Nahla stressed that the tourism policeman at the hotel where the tourists stayed knew where they were heading and did not warn them – a claim not officially confirmed by Egyptian authorities. “Also how come there are no signs along the road that show where restricted areas are?,” he asked.

‘Terrorist hotbed’ risk

In his article “The complete picture in the Oasis accident,” published in the daily independent Al-Youm al-Sabea, journalist Mohamed al-Desouki Rushdi agrees that it is not the army’s fault. “This is a huge desert that risks turning into a terrorist hotbed if not properly controlled,” he said.

“Plus, it is a very critical location since it borders areas with Libya from which both terrorists and weapons are smuggled.”

Ahmed al-Mestekawi, the owner of a travel agency that specializes in desert safaris, refuted claims that four-wheel drives are not allowed in the area.

“This area is full of oil companies and quarries and four-wheel drives are all over the place,” he said in an interview with the Egyptian satellite channel Dream TV, adding that a policeman accompanied the convoy, as reported in some other news media.

“Why then didn’t he tell the drivers that this was a restricted area? They would have definitely not gone there.”

According to Mestekawi, the helicopters that fired at the convoy had a full view of what was happening on the ground. “This area is open. It has no mountains and no tourist facilities, so it was easy to see what the suspects were up to.”

Mestekawi also noted that an official decree from last year states that the road from Cairo to the Bahariya Oasis, to which the convoy was heading, is not a restricted area.

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The division of the Egyptian police commonly called “lower-ranking policemen” has always been as source of controversy.

While regular policemen graduate from the Police Academy, lower-ranking ones study at the Institute of Assistant Policemen, and can only be promoted to lieutenant – the rank regular policemen obtain when they graduate – after 24 years of service.

Assistant policemen help policemen in several duties – such as organizing traffic, guarding facilities and handling complaints at police stations – and sometimes work as informants.

The disgruntlement of assistant policemen is not new, but showing it is. Hundreds of assistant policemen in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, the third most populous governorate in Egypt, recently held protests against low salaries and deteriorating working conditions.

They demanded the ouster of the interior minister, and started a strike that saw the closure of several police stations. Though not the first of its kind, this protest has become the most alarming, not only because it shed light on disputes inside the Interior Ministry, but also since it called into question the state’s commitment to the much-debated Protest Law.

Pent-up anger

Journalist Maged Atef attributed the recent protests to the years-long accumulation of bad feelings on the part of assistant policemen, who “realized that people look down on them and only respect regular policemen. They felt this was unfair since they believed that they do all the work in the streets and get no credit.” Assistant policemen, Atef added, also came to be associated with corruption and bribery, which made them even more marginalized.

Writer Hamdi Rizq described them as “time bombs at the heart of the Interior Ministry,” since their position below regular policemen makes them constantly angry. Rizq added that being an indispensible part of the police force, assistant policemen are able to twist the ministry’s arm with impunity. “This is a real challenge for the ministry, especially at a time when it is fighting terrorism.”

Former MP Moustafa al-Naggar said the recent protests are more foreboding than they seem, citing violent clashes between protesters and riot police upon the former’s storming of the security directorate headquarters. “Confrontation between two armed factions in the state apparatus is extremely alarming, especially if the protesting party feels inferior and discriminated against.”

Protest Law

Following the protests, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) demanded the release of all activists sentenced to jail for violating the Protest Law.

“Through applying the law to hundreds of pro-democracy activists and not applying it to members of the police force, the state is exhibiting a clear case of double standards,” said an ANHR statement.

“We are against the Protest Law, but if it is there anyway then it better be applied to everyone or be annulled altogether. Otherwise, let’s just simply declare Egypt a police state.”

Journalist Abdel Rahman Badr noted how assistant policemen protests were treated differently. “They did not have prior permission as required by the Protest Law, yet the protest was not dispersed by force, and none of the protestors were arrested. On the contrary, the Ministry of Interior listened to their demands,” he wrote. “All this despite the fact that protesting policemen did get violent when they stormed the headquarters of the Sharqiya Security Directorate.”

Criminal sciences and crime scene expert General Refaat Abdel Hamid was of the same view: “So storming the directorate and closing police stations do not constitute a threat to security and an obstruction of vital services?”

Major General Abu Bakr Abdel Karim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, responded by saying assistant policemen organized a “rally,” not a “protest,” so the articles of the Protest Law do not apply to them.

“They did not use violence, and they peacefully ended the sit-in after the ministry promised to look into their demands,” he said.

“The ministry also has priorities, and containing the situation so that security services can resume was a must. The protestors also prioritized national interests when they agreed to go back to work.”

Abdel Karim had earlier slammed the protest and called its organizers “a conspiring minority” that “is violating the working regulations of the Interior Ministry and police discipline.”

In response to a question about whether the protests were instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood, he said: “I don’t find this unlikely at all.”

Following Abdel Karim’s statement, journalist Mohamed al-Desouki Rushdi published an article in which he included the definition of a “protest” under the Protest Law. Rushdi said according to Article 4 of the law, a protest is “any gathering of more than 10 people, whether marching or stationary, that aims at expressing grievances or political demands.” Article 7, he adds, says it is illegal for a protest to disrupt public order or impede public services.

“For 48 hours, assistant policemen closed the headquarters of the security directorate and several police stations, left their positions, and stopped organizing traffic,” he wrote. “Playing around terminology will only make things worse. The Interior Ministry better admit the gravity of the situation.”

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