DSE: Dokki court hears case to ban human rights websites

Dokki court hears case to ban human rights websites

By Liam Stack
First Published: April 12, 2007

CAIRO: The Sixth District Court in Dokki heard the first session of the case between Alexandria Judge Abdel Fattah Mourad and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo) over the weekend, in a hearing that group activists described as encouraging.

In early March Mourad filed a case with the State Council Court to block the website of HRInfo and 20 other organizations or individuals. In a March 2 interview with state-run daily Rose Al Yousef, Mourad alleged that the groups in question “tarnish the reputation of Egypt and insult the Egyptian president” and “pose a threat to the national security, stability and supreme interests of Egypt and Arab countries."

Among those Mourad wants to see banned are El Ghad Party, the Kefaya National Movement for Change, and the Iraqi News Agency.

HRInfo claims that Mourad’s accusations are driven by a personal vendetta against the organization after it began preparing to sue him for copyright infringement.

They claim that Mourad plagiarized more than 50 pages of his recent book, “Scientific and Legal Principles of Blogs on the Internet," from a report the group published entitled "Stubborn Adversary: The Internet & Arab Governments.”

"The judge violated our copyrights and when we exposed this he filed a lawsuit to block HRinfo's website and 20 others," said the group in a statement. "This campaign does not only target HRinfo but targets all those who support it. We will not give up our rights. This judge plagiarized large parts of our report and paraphrased some sentences for a book he sells.”

Mourad, who has written many other books on law and society, rejects the charges. The Daily Star Egypt could not reach the Judge for comment by press time.

According to Gamal Eid, the Director of HRInfo, at the beginning of the hearing Mourad requested a closed trial, with a ban on media coverage, which the court denied. He then launched an attack on human rights activism in Egypt.

“[Mourad] said that human rights organizations that receive funding from abroad are a kind of terrorist organization because they insult the president, Hosni Mubarak, and harm the country of Egypt,” said Eid.

After that, Mourad quickly turned his attention to the plagiarism charge, which is the subject of an entirely separate lawsuit, says Eid.

“When Judge Mourad started to talk about our report, he told the court that he referenced our report in his book 27 times,” Eid said. “The court told him that he was bringing up a completely different legal issue, so they asked me to speak on behalf of HRInfo to comment and tell him our side of the story. So I did.”

Hussein El-Sawy, a lawyer representing the state, was also present to argue against Judge Mourad. Technically, the lawsuit is between Mourad and the Ministry of Interior, and demands that they block the websites. As such, HRInfo is a third party bystander in the case of its own site.

In an unusual turn of events, El-Sawy was present to defend the government against the suit, and also implicitly to defend a coalition of human rights organizations which usually take an antagonistic stance towards the regime.

According to witnesses present at the hearing, El-Sawy argued that it is technically impossible to completely block or ban a website because the site can quickly be re-launched on a proxy server. In addition to being impossible to fulfill Mourad’s request, he told the Court that trying to do so would be a waste of the Ministry’s time and resources.

The Court asked both Mourad and lawyers for HRInfo to prepare legal briefs outlining each side in the case. In addition, Mourad was asked to submit a copy of his book and HRInfo a copy of their Internet report, and each will be entered as evidence.

No court date has yet been set on separate charges filed by Mourad against Eid and bloggers Alaa Seif and Manal Hassan. The Judge has accused both of defamation and insult.

In the meantime, HRInfo continues to petition the Judges Club to remove Mourad’s judicial immunity so that he can be prosecuted for copyright infringement. It is unclear how the events of Saturday’s trial will effect the separate plagiarism case.

The 20 other groups named in Mourad’s lawsuit are all organizations or private individuals who have been publicly supportive of the plagiarism case against the judge. They claim they are being punished for voicing that support.

The case is being closely watched by human rights groups, and has raised concerns about the regime’s commitment to freedom of expression. For many it has become a showcase for the abuse of power, and how far one influential man will go to avoid prosecution on charges of plagiarism or other petty crimes.

The next hearing on Mourad’s request for the blocking of the human rights websites and blogs will be held on May 5 in Dokki’s Sixth District Courthouse.

DSE: Word on the Street: Torture "happens," says vox populi

WORD ON THE STREET: Torture “happens”, says vox populi

By Liam Stack
First Published: April 13, 2007

According to a report published earlier this week by human rights group Amnesty International, Egyptian authorities are systematically abusing prisoners — including torture and years of detention without trial.

The rights group warned that recent changes in Egypt’s constitution could further increase such abuses. The Al Jazeera Documentary Channel recently aired a program which alleged police torture in stations and precincts.

But the Egyptian government has repeatedly denied such reports saying that there are attempts to tarnish the image and reputation of this country.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the authorities were actively working to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the country.

The Daily Star Egypt took to the streets of Cairo and asked people their thoughts on the issue.

“People say it happens here a lot, but I don’t know how much it really does. I haven’t seen the show on Al Jazeera about it but I saw a clip on YouTube about a bus driver getting raped in jail, and it was really bad.”

Mohamed, 22, student, Zamalek.

“Of course there is torture here, its normal — it’s just the way the police always do things. I don’t think it’s a good thing but it’s hard to make them stop. A lot of the police here are low-class people. I haven’t seen that documentary but you know it happens.”

Omar, 25, student, Heliopolis.

“I don’t know anything about prison, thank God. I have never been arrested and no one in my family has ever been arrested, thank God. Egypt is a great country, but our lives here are hard.”

Mohamed, 46, taxi driver, Downtown.

“Well I haven’t seen the documentary so I can’t really comment. But I would imagine that it’s going on for sure and that it’s pretty wide spread. You really shouldn’t be asking random people questions like this, unless you want to find out for yourself how much torture there is in jails here.”

Ghada, 26, marketing executive, Heliopolis.

“I don’t know how much torture happens here but you hear about it a lot. My friend saw a video clip on the internet about a man being treated badly in a police station, but I didn’t want to watch it. I haven’t seen any movie about it on Al Jazeera either.”

Mona, 31, business woman, Dokki.

DSE: Choice of Sharm for peace summit displays Egypt-Iran tensions

Choice of Sharm for peace summit displays Egypt-Iran tensions

By Liam Stack
First Published: April 12, 2007

CAIRO: Sharm El-Sheikh, long the destination of choice for package tourists and aspiring peace-makers alike, will play host to a high-level ministerial meeting on the future of Iraq from May 3–4.

The meeting will bring together Foreign Ministers from the United States, Iraq and its neighbors, Egypt, Bahrain and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

The meeting promises to be tense, and may be the first time that American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her Syrian and Iranian counterparts.

The bi-partisan Iraq Study Group, composed of senior American statesmen, urged such meetings in their December 2006 report, although little diplomatic headway between Washington, Tehran and Damascus has been made.

The Iraqi government hopes that the Sharm El-Sheikh summit will lead to more substantive discussions between the three and help to defuse tensions growing on each of its borders.

But far from easing tensions, the very choice of Sharm El-Sheikh as the summit venue has already caused strains among the participants.

Iran has objected to the choice of Egypt as the summit venue, and has said that if the conference is not held inside Iraq then it is not sure it will send a delegation to attend.

"Iran has not yet decided and Tehran's decision regarding this conference will be announced in due course," Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Reza Baqeri told the Fars news agency.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran wants the conference to be held in Baghdad or one of the cities in that country but if the conference is to be held outside Iraq then they should get the agreement of all relevant parties," he added.

Baqeri has also insisted to Iranian media that no member of the Iranian delegation will meet one-on-one with Secretary Rice.

The tensions may stem from Iran’s fraught relationship with Egypt.

Iran’s relationship with Egypt has been on the rocks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the Iranian monarchy. Iran’s king, the Shah, fled into exile in Egypt, where he spent the rest of his life. His body now lies in an ornate tomb inside the Mosque of Al Rifai in Al Qala’a Square, in the shadow of Cairo’s looming Citadel.

When former president Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords, making peace with Israel, the Islamic Republic fully cut diplomatic relations with Egypt. After Sadat’s death, the Iranian regime named a Tehran street after his assassin.

Ties have improved in the quarter century since Camp David, but neither country has fully resumed diplomatic relations with the other.

DSE: Parliament Speaker’s Comments on Prosecuting ‘Terrorist’ Media Raise Eyebrows

Parliament Speaker’s Comments on Prosecuting ‘Terrorist’ Media Raise Eyebrows

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6571

By Liam Stack
First Published: April 11, 2007
CAIRO: Fathi Sorour, speaker of the People’s Assembly, raised eyebrows this week with comments he made at a counter-terrorism conference which suggested that Egypt’s draft anti-terror law, slated to replace 26-year-old Emergency Law by next year, could be used to prosecute journalists and media outlets.

The Muslim Brotherhood was quick to condemn the statements, although media observers affiliated with the National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak say there is little cause for alarm.

“If any journalist is part of a terrorist cell or terrorist organization and is seen to be spreading the ideas of his organization, he will suffer the full extent of the anti-terrorism law,” said Sorour at the First Annual Anti-Terrorism Conference held at the Al-Gomhouria Studies Center. The event drew anti-terror experts from across the Arab world.

Responding to concerns that any prosecutions under the law would unfairly target the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been banned since 1954 but long tolerated, Sorour sought to reassure the audience.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is permitted to have political activities as long as they are within the legal parameters and as long as there are no covert activities that could be classified as terrorist,” he said. “The freedom to demonstrate and express one’s opinion democratically will always be upheld, but anything other than that will be considered criminal activity.”

He also told the audience that “the Brotherhood have political objectives, so they should set up a political party.” Sorour declined to comment on whether the state would allow them to do so.

Later in his remarks, Sorour told the conference, “Every nation has the right to fight terrorism in order to protect its sovereignty, security and stability. Fighting terrorism is a means of protecting human rights, and sometimes, in special circumstances, it supersedes personal rights and freedoms.”

When asked about potential abuse of anti-terror legislation by security forces, Sorour said: “Violations could take place, but they are the exception to the rule.”

Ibrahim El Houdaiby, an advisor to the Muslim Brotherhood and contributor to its website, www.ikhwanweb.com, does not find these reassurances convincing.

While he maintains that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a terrorist organization, Houdaiby says the vagueness of the Speaker’s language is cause for alarm.

“There was no direct reference to the Muslim Brotherhood in Fathi Sorour’s statements,” he told The Daily Star Egypt. “He spoke about any outlawed terrorist organization, and we are not terrorists. We are a civil organization that has a clear agenda of reform and a moderate orientation.”

“But he used very broad language that could be applied to anybody, so considering this I am sure it will be used to crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood,” he continued. “Looking at Sorour’s exact words against terrorism, of course we support them. But given the regime’s history, they will just be used to crackdown on opposition. That is a threat to all opposition groups, not just the Brotherhood.”

According to Hussein Amin, Chairman of the Department of Mass Communications at the American University in Cairo and a member of the Policy Committee of the National Democratic Party, Sorour’s comments are not a threat to anybody.

“These laws that Sorour is talking about have not even been passed yet. They still have to be discussed in the People’s Assembly,” he said. “What Sorour said are just his own comments, what he thinks the laws will deal with. He’s just thinking out loud.”

While he does not see the comments as an anti-Brotherhood maneuver in the making, Amin agrees that any legal move towards restricting freedom of the press would be bad for Egypt.

“I don’t think there should be anything restricting freedom of expression and the press,” he said. “Are we going forward or backwards?”

“In an era where anyone can say anything anywhere because of the internet and transnational media, why should we put restrictions on what journalists can say?” He continued. “What is going to be said is going to be said, whether we like it or not. Freedom of expression is one of the most important pillars of society, especially in a society where people have access to broadcasting and the transnational media.”

According to Amin, in a vibrant media environment in which television, radio, print and the internet all compete for the same stories, regulation of the media is important. But anti-terror legislation is not the right way to do it.

“Although there is a need for regulation, I don’t think that the governing body for the press should be the anti-terrorism law,” he said. “Maybe then more people would go to the political extreme because of stupid actions taken by the government to limit the free expression of journalists.”

On this, he and El Houdaiby seem to agree.

“Because of the regime’s continued crackdown on moderates and opposition groups, they are paving the way for radicals to emerge,” said El Houdaiby. “They are encouraging radical sentiments.”

DSE: Closure of Upper Egypt NGO condemned

Closure of Upper Egypt NGO condemned

By Liam Stack
First Published: April 7, 2007

CAIRO: A coalition of 37 civil society organizations has called on the governor of the Upper Egyptian province of Qena to re-open the offices of a workers rights organization which was closed by the city government of Nagaa Hammadi last week.

The local branch office of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) was closed on Thursday, March 29, after an order to shut down the group was issued by the Chairman of the City, General Al Sherbeeny Hasheesh.

A broad range of Egyptian civil society organizations have endorsed the call for solidarity with the CTUWS, including the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

According to a statement issued by the coalition, the closure of the Nagaa Hammadi office came at the end of a campaign of state harassment against the labor rights group.

“The issuance of this decision completes the series of administrative provocations against that branch throughout the last week,” read the statement, “the latest of which was summoning the staff of the said branch to the police station where the Chief Officer told them that the branch must be shut down and that as a police officer he is mandated to implement the decision regardless of its validity or legality.”

According to the CTUWS, the week before the shut-down its local staff in Nagaa Hamadi were summoned to meetings with both the director of the labor relations office of the Ministry of Manpower as well as the director of the social solidarity regional office of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

Both directors said their offices were investigating the activities of the CTUWS, and told local staff they had been ordered to write a report on the organization by General Magdy Ayoub, the Governor of Qena.

The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services has complained of harassment since the government accused it of inciting disruptive strikes and protests in the Delta last December and January.

“The government has tried to lay all the blame on the CTUWS and say that we instigated it all,” Kamal Abbas, the group’s leader, told The Daily Star Egypt.

“It’s an honor we can’t claim, although we would have loved it if this had been the case. But just because some of the strike leaders were either members of the Tagammu Party or the CTUWS or any other organization does not mean that these organizations were the ones that mobilized them for the strike.”

The largest of those strikes took place at the Ghazl El Mahalla textile factory, where 27,000 workers protested against low pay, dangerous working conditions, and corruption within the state-dominated General Federation of Trade Unions, formed by President Nasser in 1957.

After the strike ended, Mahalla workers began an ongoing campaign to impeach their local union representatives. They have threatened to secede from the General Federation and form the country’s first independent union since 1957 if their impeachment drive fails.

If the Mahalla workers are successful in either impeaching their union or forming an independent one, the regime will be put on the defensive, says Joel Beinin, the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Cairo and an expert in Egyptian labor history.

“If the factory committee is impeached it implies that either there will be a new election within the framework of the General Federation, and of course if the textile workers can arrange that, then if the General Federation tries to impose an undemocratic solution on such a well-organized group of workers it will be very difficult; or they will become independent,” says Beinin.

“Especially if the workers succeed in that locale, which is not only the largest industrial enterprise in Egypt, but also probably the largest industrial enterprise in the entire Middle East, then that is a very serious blow to the regime. If that happens they will have lost something very substantial and will set a very bad precedent for them.”

According to Abbas, despite these high stakes the state has not suppressed this winter’s labor unrest as hard as it has in the past. But in the midst of an ongoing crackdown against opposition groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, the environment is still a dangerous one for organizing workers.

“The government hasn’t acted with the heavy-handedness that it was once infamous for, although I don’t rule out the chance that this might happen eventually,” he said.

“There was talk last month in the Shura Council about the strikes, and members from the National Democratic Party were suggesting that the recent strikes were nothing but the Muslim Brotherhood’s general plan for civil disobedience in the country.”

DSE: Human rights lawyer, bloggers detained in latest twist of copyright case

Human rights lawyer, bloggers detained in latest twist of copyright case

By Liam Stack
First Published: April 6, 2007

CAIRO: Human rights lawyer Gamal Eid and popular bloggers Manal Hassan and Alaa Seif spent yesterday in police custody after being accused of defamation by Alexandria Judge Abdel Fattah Mourad.

Their detention and the defamation charges are the latest development in a tangled copyright battle between Judge Mourad and Eid’s organization, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo).

Last month the case turned into a test of Egypt’s commitment to freedom of expression and a showcase for abuse of power when the judge filed a lawsuit to block the web sites of HRInfo and its allies.

“We were called in to the Dokki prosecutor’s office on Wednesday morning and we thought it was just going to be a simple, easy case,” Eid told The Daily Star Egypt. “But when we got there, the case was four pages long and full of inaccuracies. They said that HRInfo was a group of bloggers receiving foreign funds, not an NGO, and that we were a threat to the government of Egypt. They even called witnesses against us.”

Among those was Mohamed Daoud, a prosecutor in the case of imprisoned Alexandria blogger Kareem Amer, who Eid defended in court. During the trial, Daoud accused Eid and the rest of the legal team of apostasy against Islam for agreeing to represent the
21-year-old.

Eid, Seif and Hassan were released by prosecutors at 1 pm, but were held until midnight by police and transferred back and forth between the Dokki and Giza prosecutor’s office several times.

No court date has been set for a hearing into the defamation charges, although the State Council Court in Dokki will begin proceedings on the case of the blocked blogs on Saturday, April 7.

HRInfo alleges that Mourad plagiarized more than 50 pages of his recent book, “Scientific and Legal Principles of Blogs on the Internet," from a report published by their organization entitled "Stubborn Adversary: The Internet & Arab Governments.”

The rights group has filed a lawsuit against the judge for copyright infringement, and has attracted support from many political parties, media outlets and non-governmental organizations.

Mourad, who has written many other books on law and society, rejects the charges.

In early March, he filed a case with State Council Court to block the website of HRInfo and 20 other organizations or individuals who had expressed support for the rights group on an internet petition. Among those Mourad wants to see banned are El Ghad Party, the Kefaya National Movement for Change, and the Iraqi News Agency.

In an interview with state-run daily Rose Al Youssef, Mourad alleged that the groups in question “tarnish the reputation of Egypt and insult the Egyptian president” and “pose a threat to the national security, stability and supreme interests of Egypt and Arab countries."

But according to Eid, the case is not about national security, it is about how far one man will go to avoid prosecution on copyright charges.


"The judge violated our copyrights and when we exposed this he filed a lawsuit to block HRinfo's website and 20 others," said Eid. "Today he is raising a criminal case against Alaa, Manal, and myself, and we know of another criminal case against Ahmed Seif Al-Islam, Director of the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law.”

The Daily Star Egypt was unable to reach Judge Mourad for comment.

In addition to directing the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law, Seif Al-Islam is also working as Eid’s attorney in the plagiarism case. He is also the father of blogger Alaa Seif and father-in-law of Manal Hassan, who were both detained alongside Eid.

"This campaign does not only target HRinfo but targets all those who support it,” charged a statement released by the organization. “We know that the battle is not easy and we will understand if others surrender, but we will not even if this entails the shut down of HRinfo and the imprisonment of its director. We will not give up our rights. This judge plagiarized large parts of our report and paraphrased some sentences for a book he sells.”

In the meantime, HRinfo has filed complaints with the Public Prosecutor, the Supreme Council of Judiciary, and the Minister of Justice demanding an investigation into the alleged plagiarism and the lifting of Mourad’s judicial immunity so that he can be charged.

"We are looking for a neutral investigation into this case regardless of who the parties are,” said Eid. “This is the foundation of justice.”

DSE: Demonstrators beaten at protest

Demonstrators beaten at protest

By Liam Stack and Alexandra Sandels
First Published: March 26, 2007

CAIRO: A Downtown demonstration against controversial amendments to the constitution was suppressed in a violent crackdown on Sunday, as hundreds of state security riot police and thugs under their command beat and detained a crowd of several hundred pro-democracy activists and journalists.

Among those assaulted was 20-year old political activist Salma Said who was beaten and kicked in the stomach by the thugs.

“They beat me and screamed at me. I kept telling them to stop,” Said told The Daily Star Egypt, crying.

Activists from across the political spectrum planned to hold a rally in Tahrir Square at 6 pm, but the area was filled with thugs and baton-wielding police from the early morning hours. Downtown was filled with more than 50 military transport vehicles.

A crowd of over 200 loud protestors began marching up Talaat Harb Street chanting “Down with Hosni Mubarak!” As they approached the square, the demonstrators were crushed by police and thugs.

About a dozen protestors, including journalists, were herded into a tight security perimeter on the corner of the square, where they were and physically assaulted.

“Help me, please help me,” screamed one woman inside the perimeter. “I can’t breath.”

Police pulled foreigners out of the crowd and confiscated cameras and memory sticks from journalists and by-standers, then began to beat the remaining Egyptians more harshly than before.

According to witnesses, several demonstrators passed out inside the tight ring and the air in Talaat Harb was filled with screams.

“When people were trying to go to the actual square where the sit-in was supposed to be, the police surrounded them and started to beat them up,” said Miral, a student. “When people started walking away from the square the police surrounded them and kept beating them up.”

“I could hear girls screaming for 15 minutes but I couldn’t see them, I could just see police officers surrounding all the protestors,” she continued. “Then they brought a big police truck and filled it with protestors, and they took them all and left.”

Police arrested between 10 and 20 demonstrators, including blogger Malek Mustafa, leftist activist Adham El-Safty, blogger Omar El-Hadi, blogger Mohamed Gamal, activist Ahmed Droubi, blogger Kareem El-Sha’er, blogger Omar Mustafa, and journalist Jano Charbel.

At press time, several detainees, including Mustafa and Charbel, were released in remote locations in the outskirts of Cairo. Most of the current detainees are held in undisclosed locations.

Human rights activists expressed particular concern for the welfare of Ahmed Droubi, a diabetic without access to necessary medication while in police custody

Activist and blogger who writes under the alias Sandmonkey witnessed the assaults and arrest of his friends and colleagues.

“I saw them beat and arrest my friend Malek Mustafa and a group of young girls,” he said, preferring to remain anonymous for personal security. “It’s disgusting.”

Following the confrontations in Talaat Harb, a crowd of 250 activists gathered on the steps in front of the press syndicate, where they chanted slogans and waved banners.

The adjacent street was filled with hundreds of riot police and thugs, who encircled the demonstrators.

Outside the headquarters of Al Ghad Party many activists and party members were barricaded inside their Talaat Harb offices for the duration of the protest.

A crowd of roughly 30 thugs, commanded by two uniformed police officers, blocked the entrance to the building, which also houses the Greek Club restaurant. No one was allowed to enter or leave.

“We simply have no freedom here,” said Sarah Gemeinder, a student. Although she is not a member of Al Ghad, she was trying to enter the building to be with activist friends trapped inside.

“They are not even allowing me to go up to the Greek Club,” she exclaimed on the sidewalk. “These guys say they are low grade officers, but they don’t even have any badges or identity cards, nothing at all to say who they are. So obviously they are not police, they are just bought off.”

Every major opposition movement opposes the amendments, which Amnesty International has called the “most serious undermining of human rights safeguards in Egypt since the state of emergency” began at the start of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

The Muslim Brotherhood has called for a nationwide boycott of yesterday’s referendum.

“Based on these amendments, unless God shows mercy on us, the future for this country is dark,” said Supreme Guide Mohamed Mahdi Akef in an interview with Reuters.

“It’s 100 percent rigged,” he continued. “Watch the balloting stations tomorrow. It’ll succeed. [Egypt] has armies of civil servants and factory workers [to vote in favor].”

Activists argue that the constitutional changes undermine nascent democratic reforms made in the past several years.

Among the most controversial amendments are those banning political activity based on religion, seen as a direct attack on the Muslim Brotherhood; reducing judicial oversight of elections, after Judicial whistle blowing on vote-rigging in 2005; and giving the President wide-reaching security powers including the authority to transfer civilians to military courts, which offer no appeals.

“The proposed amendments limit the freedom of the Egyptian people and strip them of their rights,” said Magdi Hassan, a member of Al Ghad. “The only people who will gain from the new laws are Mubarak and businessmen. The Egyptian people will only keep suffering.”

DSE: Opposition groups urge all Egyptians to boycott referendum

Opposition groups urge all Egyptians to boycott referendum

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 21, 2007

CAIRO: Mohamed Habib, deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), announced that his group will boycott Monday’s referendum on the amendments to the constitution.

He says the MB, the largest and most well-organized opposition group which has long been banned by the regime, will boycott the referendum in solidarity with other political movements which have also decided to boycott.

“We will refuse to take part in this referendum,” Habib told The Daily Star Egypt.

According to a statement released on the MB website, www.ikhwanweb.com, “Habib demanded all Egyptian people boycott the referendum and not to participate in this farce that will lead to more dictatorship, repression and tyranny in Egypt.”

The site also reports that the Karama Party as well as opposition members of the People’s Assembly, drawn largely from the Brotherhood but registered as independents “have declared their boycott to the referendum and called on all sections of the society do the same.”

The announcement came one day after opposition members of the PA at a press conference, accused the ruling National Democratic Party of manipulating the constitution.

The opposition — which includes Muslim Brotherhood, Wafd and El Karama MPs — had boycotted parliamentary discussions of 34 constitutional amendments which were approved by the PA on Monday night.

They had spoken to the press amid tight security which blockaded the entrance to Meglis El Shaab Street, preventing anyone but journalists from entering.

The independent MPs claimed that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) rushed the discussion of the amendments to avoid a confrontation with the opposition and the public that reject the proposed changes.

Al Wafd party’s MP Mohamed Abdel Alim Daoud said the newly adopted amendments reaffirm dictatorship.

He reaffirmed what the opposition has been saying about the amendments and reform.

“They take us a step back. They take us to the age of political arrests … and disrespect for the dignity of the Egyptian citizen.”

The wording of the amendments, especially the article concerning the introduction of anti-terrorism legislation “will increase political inflammation,” said Mohamed El Katatny, head of the MB bloc in parliament.

The Brotherhood will not, however, go into a confrontation with the regime, El Katatny had said during the press conference. “We want peaceful succession of authority.”

El Karama’s Hamdin Sabbahy said his party also plans to boycott the referendum.

He added that the parliamentary discussion was “murdering the constitution” and that the NDP was like “a criminal who wants to cover up all traces of his crime.”

DSE: Brotherhood condemns Gaza kidnapping of BBC reporter

Brotherhood condemns Gaza kidnapping of BBC reporter

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 18, 2007

CAIRO: Mohamed Habib, the Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a statement condemning the Gaza kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston and demanded his unconditional release.

“These despicable acts aim at causing a state of confusion and fear among foreigners living in Gaza Strip, especially journalists,” said the statement, published on the Muslim Brotherhood’s website.

“This will make it harder for them to show the tragic reality and suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation, and distort the image of the Palestinian government led by Hamas.”

Johnston, the only foreign correspondent currently based in Gaza, has been reporting from its troubled cities and crowded refugee camps for the past three years.

“Alan Johnston has dedicated the past three years living and working among the people of Gaza so that their experiences can be reported fairly and accurately to the outside world,” said the BBC in a statement.

“We would therefore urge everyone with influence here to continue their efforts so that Alan may be reunited with his family and colleagues at the earliest opportunity.”

Details about the abduction are sketchy. His abandoned car was discovered after work one evening, and Palestinian police report that gunmen were seen in the area. No further information about Johnston has been released to the public, nor have his kidnappers come forward or made demands.

Habib’s statement comes on the heels of the formation of a national unity government, which will bind Fatah and its Islamist rival Hamas together in a cabinet heavily stacked with technocrats. Both parties hope that the deal will help the Palestinian Authority overcome an international financial and aid embargo that has been levied against it in the year since Hamas’ electoral victory.

In that time, the Muslim Brotherhood has tried to maintain a stance of distanced support for the Palestinian Islamist group.

In recent weeks, more than 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been detained amid a government crackdown on opposition groups. On February 6, the government referred the cases of 25 members, including Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat El-Shatir, to a military tribunal where they face charges of funding a banned organization.

With a crackdown in full swing, and images of Palestinian infighting broadcast around the world in recent months, the Brotherhood has been careful not to appear too supportive of a group which both the United States and Europe condemn as terrorists.

In January, Brotherhood Chairman Mahdi Akef issued a statement blaming both Fatah and Hamas for the violence then gripping the Occupied Territories. Analysts saw the move as a sign of the balance that the banned Islamist group is trying to strike.

Dr Hussein Amin, the chairman of the department of mass communication at the American University in Cairo and a member of the Policy Committee of the ruling National Democratic Party, said Akef and Habib’s recent statements are not surprising.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is not aligning themselves with Hamas or against Hamas,” he said. “If they appear to direct their criticisms directly against Hamas, then a lot of other Muslims will get angry at them.”

“Criticizing both groups is a nice political move that makes both Hamas and Fatah happy. As long as what they say is derived from the Quran, then both sides ill accept it. No one can dispute that.”

According to Dr Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the once-jailed democracy activist and chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, the Brotherhood fears being caught in this backlash against Hamas or in any political fallout that stems from Palestinian civil strife.

“Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, so that’s why the Brotherhood feels partially responsible for Hamas’ actions,” He told The Daily Star Egypt. “Whatever bad press Hamas gets will affect the Muslim Brotherhood here, so they have been critical. But in order to make it more palatable, they criticize both sides and call for restraint on both sides.”

“I think the Brotherhood is generally embarrassed by mistakes made by affiliated groups. The regime always uses tactical mistakes like these as an excuse to crack down even more.”

DSE: Alexandria judge files lawsuit to block 21 advocacy websites

Alexandria judge files lawsuit to block 21 advocacy websites

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 12, 2007

CAIRO: Alexandria judge Abdel Fattah Mourad, who will arbitrate the appeal of jailed Alexandria blogger Kareem Amer, filed a lawsuit to shut down 21 human rights advocacy websites and popular blogs.

The move raises concern about freedom of expression in Egypt and has caused alarm among human rights activists and bloggers.

But far from a simple act of repression, rights activists say that Mourad’s move stems from “wounded pride.” One of the targeted organizations has accused him of plagiarizing their work in a recent book he authored and threatened a court case against him for copy-right violation.

According to a report published on March 2 in the local Rose Al-Youssef daily, Mourad filed a case before the State Council Court to shut down the websites, which he says include reports and photographs that “tarnish the reputation of Egypt and insult the Egyptian president.”

At the end of his complaint, he also accused the groups of libel, with reference to the plagiarism allegations hurled against him.

The list of websites Mourad singled out includes those of a number of opposition newspapers and human rights organizations: Nahdat Misr newspaper; the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo); Al-Ghad party’s newspaper; the Kefaya National Movement for Change; Good News company; the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; and the Iraqi News Agency.

In addition, the judge seeks to block access to several popular personal blogs, such as bentmasreya.blogspot.com and others.

According to an HRinfo statement, the judge is lashing out to deter them from filing a lawsuit against him and to punish others for their support of the suit.

HRinfo claims that Mourad lifted 50 pages from their report on internet freedom for his book, publishing the work as his own without citing them as a source.

“The judge has re-published large parts of HRinfo’s report on freedom to use the Internet in the Arab world in his book without referring to the source,” said HRinfo head Gamal Eid in a statement. “In addition, he distorted the content of the report. His attempts to threaten and instill fear in us will fail as well. We defend the right to freedom of expression and our rights despite who is violating such rights.”

Eid says his organization has demanded that the Judges Club step in to address their plagiarism concerns. If the Club fails to find a solution, he says, HRinfo will request that the public prosecutor and the Supreme Council for Judges lift Mourad’s immunity and prosecute him for violation of copyright.

“The crime is worse when the violator is a judge, who should supposedly be the first to defend such rights,” said Eid.

“We gave the judge a long time to own up to his crime,” said Eid. “However, he preferred to take the path of threats by raising this case to dissuade us from demanding our rights.”

Mourad’s suit also seeks to block the sites of groups allied with HRinfo to punish them for supporting a court case against him. One such group is the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, led by Hossam Bahgat.

According to Bahgat, this is a case of abuse of power. When judges use the law to settle personal scores, it only highlights the need for legal reform.

“Rather than apologize for what he did, he decided to turn his public humiliation into a court case utilizing the arsenal of repressive laws on insulting the president, damaging the country's reputation and threatening national security,” Bahgat to The Daily Star Egypt.

“This is just another reminder of the need to bring outdated provisions of the penal code in line with human rights norms."

“Obviously the judge went to the HRinfo website and just copied the list of organizations linked there,” said Bahgat.

“He says we all threaten national security and the president, but at the end of his complaint he says he is also suing for libel because while we all insulted Egypt, we insulted him in the process. His motivations are very clear.”

DSE: Referendum day marked by tightly controlled protests

Referendum day marked by tightly controlled protests

By Alexandra Sandels and Liam Stack

First Published: March 26, 2007
CAIRO: Human rights and pro-democracy activists from the political opposition staged a day of protests in Downtown Cairo to coincide with the national referendum on amending the constitution.

Forty demonstrators from the Kefaya National Movement for Change were held on the steps of the press syndicate since beginning their protest last night at 6 pm. They were surrounded by legions of uniformed state security officers and groups of government-organized thugs.

“Most of us have been here since last night,” said Kefaya organizer Ahmed Abu Steit, a Kefaya banner flying above his head. “I myself have been here since 5 pm, and I still haven’t slept. But I will stay here until the end.”

According to Abdel Wahab Al-Messiri, the new coordinator of Kefaya, the demonstration is meant to send a message to the regime.

“Kefaya has not perished. On the contrary, we are back in full force. And we are coming from many different political movements and backgrounds — we have the Muslim Brotherhood, the revolutionary socialists, the liberals. We have everybody, everybody.”

Despite Al-Messiri’s optimism, a group of young Kefaya activists stared into the crowd with gloomy eyes anxiously smoking cigarettes. They said they had been with the protest for two days. At press time, demonstrators were not allowed to leave the steps of the press syndicate. For some, the situation was desperate.

“Let me out, please!” screamed one middle-aged woman, tears rolling down her face. “I want to leave. I want to eat, we haven’t eaten in so long. Shame on you all, let us out!”

A number of foreign residents, mainly Americans, took part in the rally chanting along with Kefaya activists. According to witnesses, some foreign protestors were denied exit from the demonstration, while others were free to go.

Journalists and on-lookers were pushed from the scene by plain-clothes officers and were repeatedly told they were “breaking the law.”

Nearby, members of the Lawyers’ Syndicate voiced their discontent with the constitutional measures in a loud rally held on the steps of their club. Most of the protesting lawyers were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, although representatives of the Wafd, Tagammu and the Nasserist parties were also present.

“Freedom, where are you, where are you?” chanted the lawyers, as their flyers fluttered down onto a gathered crowd of onlookers and soldiers from the roof of the syndicate. “The constitution comes between us! The NDP comes between us! Corruption comes between us!”

Egyptians went to the polls yesterday to vote on 34 amendments to the constitution, which have been widely criticized at home and abroad as undermining democratic reforms.

DSE: Angry bloggers and activists call for Tahrir Protest against amendments

Angry bloggers and activists call for Tahrir Protest against amendments

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 23, 2007

CAIRO: Sitting outside a quiet ahwa in the heart of Downtown, frustration and doubt hung in the air around bloggers Wael Abbas and Malek Mustafa like the smoke from their shishas. Both men write widely read blogs — part of the much commented-upon blog scene in Egypt — and have been active players in the country’s reform and protest movement for the past several years.

Faced with looming constitutional changes, the bloggers’ confusion and anger is widely felt within the country’s reform movement.

“I don’t think that anyone knows what to do,” said Mustafa, a the 24-year-old author of www.malek-x.net. “We just keep trying and we lose. And we try again, and we lose. It’s like gambling. We don’t have a clear vision of what we’re doing anymore.”

Last Monday the People’s Assembly approved a long list of constitutional amendments that weaken judicial oversight over elections and give the President strong new powers, such as the unfettered ability to dissolve parliament and refer civilians to military trial. The amendments will be presented to the country in a referendum on Monday.

Every major opposition movement opposes the amendments, which Amnesty International has called “most serious undermining of human rights safeguards in Egypt since the state of emergency” began at the start of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

The opposition is planning to boycott the vote and hold a large sit-in in Tahrir Square on Sunday, March 25 at 6 pm.

Among Egyptian activists and bloggers, the sense of despair is palpable.

“I can’t tell you what should be done because I am lost myself,” said Wael Abbas, 32, who blogs on www.misrdigital.com. Abbas played a key role in organizing demonstrations for judicial independence last year, a move which has earned him a life of police harassment and constant threats of arrest.

“Before, I was following a compass, but now it is lost,” he said. “Before, I was stealing my freedom from the mouth of this monster, or dog, or lion or whatever you want to call this regime. I was forcing myself on it by forcing freedom of expression on the Internet. I thought I was accomplishing something, but I was wrong. They cracked down on us just like that.”

For the past several months, the country has witnessed its largest crackdown on opposition in almost a decade.

The largest target of the crackdown has been the officially banned Muslim Brotherhood. More than 300 Brotherhood members have been taken into custody, and dozens more are arrested each week.

Forty members of the Islamist organization, including Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat El-Shater, will face a military trial for charges of funding a banned group. The military courts do not allow appeals, and are empowered to hand down death sentences.

“Now people are going to jail just for the things they say — just look at Talaat El Sadat, Kareem Amer,” continued Abbas.

Blogger Kareem Amer was sentenced last month to four years in prison for insulting the president and defaming religion in his writings. Last fall, MP Talaat El Sadat was sentenced to hard labor for comments he made in an interview with the German News Agency that were deemed offensive to the military.

Faced with all this, Mustafa said it can be hard to stay hopeful for the future.

“Everything has been hit by the crackdown and it all feels useless,” he said. “Right now I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Maybe in two years, or five or ten, there will be a revolution in Egypt, but it will not come from people like us or from parliament or the Muslim Brotherhood,” he continued, punctuating the air with the nozzle of his shisha. “It will come from the hungry, from the poor. Everything in Egypt is going downhill. Some people are doing very well, but 90 percent of the country is going downhill.”

“People will revolt,” he said. “When it happens, it will be a big mess. It will be anarchy.”

Abbas and Mustafa are two of the many people who believe that Monday’s nation-wide referendum will be neither free nor fair. Groups like the Brotherhood and the Wafd Party hope their boycott will draw attention to potential vote-rigging.

“The vote will be rigged, I just know it,” said Abbas. “But I wish there would be real elections where the votes counted. If the votes counted, of course I would go and vote, but I know they won’t.”

So far unable to overthrow the regime or derail the amendments, the activists behind Sunday’s protest hope to show the world that there is still some fight left in the Egyptian opposition movement.

The demonstration falls on the same day as a planned visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will reportedly meet Egyptian officials in Aswan to discuss the peace process.

According to US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, the amendments represent “a process of political reform” in Egypt.

"I, quite frankly, don't want to insert the United States government in the middle of what should be a domestic political event in Egypt,” he said.

Like many Egyptians, Abbas and Mustafa are cynical about America’s democratic credentials. Rice’s visit, one day before the referendum, only drives the point home.

“America is like Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar or Genghis Khan,” said Abbas bitterly. “They are all the same. They are all after expanding their empires and getting more resources. The United States is an empire, just like the rest of them.”

Mustafa agreed. “America was never serious about democracy, here or anywhere else. I don’t even think America’s rulers care about their own people, so why should they care about us?”

“I have a lot of faith in the American people,” he continued, “but I don’t know if they can change their democracy. America’s government is like the Roman Senate. There is a very thin slice of rich people governing a lot of poor people, when really they don’t care about them at all. It is kind of like here in Egypt. Only here it is much, much worse.”

DSE:Brotherhood children launch ‘Children for Freedom’ movement

Brotherhood children launch ‘Children for Freedom’ movement

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 22, 2007

CAIRO: Children of detained Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members gathered at the Al Azhar Park and called on Egyptian authorities to observe human rights on last week.

They used the event to launch of the “Children for Freedom” campaign.

The event brought together some of the children of more than 300 Brotherhood members who have been detained in recent months in a security crackdown some say is the worst in a decade.

Organizers say the children miss their parents and want the state to release them.

In a statement which appeared on the Muslim Brotherhood website, Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdy Akef applauded the children’s bravery.

“They [are] … seeking and demanding one thing: freedom for their loved ones and care-givers, the Muslim Brotherhood leaders who were detained by the Egyptian autocratic regime,” he said. “These youngsters did not fear the central security soldiers who surrounded the court in which their fathers were standing trial; they insisted on attending these trials to express their anger at the Egyptian authorities.”

Zahraa El-Shater, 29, is the lead organizer in the children’s movement and its oldest member. She is the daughter of Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat El-Shater, one of the 24 members of the Brotherhood who have been referred to military tribunals.

The families of the other 22 members were present as well.

“The idea of establishing the Association of Children For Freedom emerged due to the circumstances and incidents that the children faced,” said Zahraa. “We thought of establishing an association for the children of the detainees to make them vent their feelings, defend their issues and their natural right to demand the release of their fathers.”

The detentions have brought politics crashing into these children’s lives, and many have been left with nagging questions about the charges against their parents and the police brutality that they have often witnessed.

According to Brotherhood advisor Ibrahim El Houdaiby, the Brotherhood hoped that a day in the park would be a source of stress relief.

“Police officers come to their homes at night and make threats against their families,” he said. “They have to go to court or to prison to visit their parents. They have to read and hear what the state media outlets are saying about their families. So we brought these children out for the day because we wanted them to see some happiness again.”

El-Shater's husband, Ayman Abdul Ghany, and father are both currently awaiting military tribunals.

The 24 men were originally charged with supplying Al Azhar students with weapons and combat training after television footage appeared to show young Brotherhood members training in paramilitary style during a university protest last December.

A Cairo criminal court acquitted the men of all charges on Jan. 20, although the Brotherhood plaintiffs were all arrested again on the same charges before they were allowed to leave the courthouse that day. They were later referred to military courts, where they will be tried without the chance for an appeal.

Brotherhood sources told The Daily Star Egypt that El-Shater and the others are to be tried before Judge Adel Abdel Salam Gomaa.

Gomaa achieved notoriety as the judge who handed down prison sentences both former Presidential hopeful and Al Ghad Party Chairman Ayman Nour and democracy activist professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

DSE: Activists fail to reach parliament for planned demonstration

Activists fail to reach parliament for planned demonstration

Police employ zero-tolerance policy

By Liam Stack and Maram Mazen
First Published: March 20, 2007

CAIRO: Opposition groups, including the Kefaya Movement for Change, called for a demonstration on Tuesday outside the People’s Assembly to support opposition MPs who staged a walk-out in protest of the passed constitutional amendments.

In response, security police festooned downtown’s busy Kasr El-Aini Street and blocked off several streets to both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

Demonstrators and a number of journalists were not allowed to approach the People’s Assembly and were chased from the scene in small groups. Police employed a zero-tolerance policy against individuals such as blogger Wael Abbas and human rights lawyer and anti-torture activist Raba’a Fahmy, alerting each other via walkie-talkie to their presence.

Police also detained several would-be protestors in Tahrir Square, including bloggers Mohamed Gamal, Mina Gerges and Malek Mustafa, as well as Mohamed Abdel Qodous and Essam Fadl, both journalists and political activists.

At press time, both Fadl and Mustafa were released after brief detentions.

DSE: Debate over banned political activities rages on

Debate over banned political activities rages on

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 12, 2007
CAIRO: Police arrested four students in the delta town of Kafr El Sheikh in early morning raids, accusing them of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, a Brotherhood source told The Daily Star Egypt.

“This is part of the crackdown escalating from the regime’s side,” said Ibrahim Al Houdaiby, an advisor to the Brotherhood’s website www.ikhwanweb.com.

He speculates that the regime is cracking down on the Brotherhood, the largest and most well-organized opposition group, in the run-up to next month’s referendum on the constitutional amendments. Elections to the Shura Council, (the Upper House of Parliament) will also be held in April.

According to Al Houdaiby “the regime wants no opposition on the streets at that time. They are trying to have Gamal Mubarak inherit the Presidency from his father and they don’t want anyone to oppose that. This crackdown will not end until they are sure they have destroyed all opposition.”

The regime has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood in the last several months, and currently holds more than 300 members in detention, including third-in-command Khayrat El-Shatir, who has been referred to a military court along with 29 others. They stand accused of terrorism and financing a banned organization.

Members of the group, which is officially tolerated but frequently faces crackdowns, won a fifth of the seats in the People’s Assembly elections in 2005. Since then, they have been subjected to a pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention, according to an annual human rights report released last week by the US State Department.

Israeli filmmaker denies Egyptian POWs were killed, Egypt analysts skeptical
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6043
By Liam Stack
First Published: March 9, 2007

CAIRO: After sparking an international outcry over claims that Israel executed Egyptian prisoners of war in 1967’s Six Day War, the Israeli maker of “The Shaked Spirit” Ran Edelist now says the documentary made no such claims.

According to a report published in The Jerusalem Post, Edelist said that the incident in question which took place outside Al Arish in Sinai was a battle between the famed Israeli battalion and Palestinian commandos technically under the auspices of the Egyptian military.

The battle was controversial, Edelist says, not because it ended with the execution of unarmed prisoners, but because some of the Israeli soldiers feared they used disproportionate force against the poorly armed Palestinian fighters.

"In Egypt, some opposition members took what they said, twisted it and added a simple lie to harm the peace process and Mubarak," Edelist said.

He says part of the problem is that few people have actually watched his film, despite the uproar it has caused.

Israeli Infrastructure Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, has also firmly denied the war crimes charges against the Shaked battalion, which he led during the Six Day War.

Due to the outcry caused by the film, Ben Eliezer cancelled an official visit to Cairo this week.

“It's true that in that war the unit killed fedayeen [resistance fighters] who operated in the Gaza Strip against Israel and against the battalion I commanded. But they were not murdered, they were killed in battle," he said.

Responding to the suggestion that troops under his command used disproportionate force against a weaker enemy, Ben-Eliezer said that the army’s conventional wisdom at the time was that "there was no problem to say 'the battalion is retreating ... (but) they are armed and we need to chase them.”

In a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the government expressed alarm "that certain elements in Egypt are misrepresenting the documentary film, without checking the facts or substantiating what actually happened, with the intent of sabotaging our two countries' relationship."

DSE: Interview: "We do not teach hatred" : Nasser Eddin Al Sha'a

INTERVIEW: “We do not teach hatred”: Nasser Eddin Al Sha’a


By Liam Stack
First Published: March 8, 2007

RAMALLAH: Nasser Eddin Al Sha’a is the Palestinian Minister of Education who was detained last fall during an Israeli sweep of West Bank members of the governing Islamist party.
A neatly shaven technocrat in a well-tailored suit, his term in office has been challenging. In addition to his arrest and perennial charges over alleged militancy in Palestinian school curricula, Al Sha’a has been faced with the financial hardship of Israeli sanctions on his government for its refusal to renounce violence, respect previously signed agreements, or recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Al Sha’a sat down with The Daily Star Egypt’s Liam Stack to discuss some of these challenges.

DSE: Many people consider Palestinians to be some of the best-educated in the Arab world despite the persistence of the conflict with Israel. What impact has the conflict and Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories had on the Palestinian education system?

AS: We really suffer from Israeli actions in the area. There are hundreds of checkpoints which humiliate teachers and students and physically damage education institutions and infrastructure. In the past few years there has been over $220 million worth of damage to educational institutions, including housing buildings and the education ministry itself. There are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are subject to security measures and must pass through security gates to cross the wall and access schools on the other side.
But although we are living in a very, very dramatic situation, enrollment rates in our schools are over 98 percent. Compared to the rest of the Arab world, this is among the highest. We are one of only five countries in the Arab world to have an enrollment rate over 97 percent, and over 50 percent of the students in general education and at the university level are women.

Although we are in a very high-pressure atmosphere, we guarantee every Palestinian student access to quality education.

DSE: Critics of your government say that since Hamas took power school curriculums have been changed to promote both the party’s Islamist ideology and glorify its leaders. Are these allegations true?

AS: No they are not true. We use the same curriculum as before. When we talk about the Palestinian curriculum we must know that the curriculum taught before the Hamas government is the same curriculum taught now. We even continue to teach some things that were taught during the Israeli occupation.

We did not change one thing in the curriculum, or replace a single teacher. Palestinian teachers are not representatives of Fatah or Hamas. They are Palestinian teachers and they are committed to their missions.

Our curriculum is not secret or hidden. It’s all public, all you have to do is take a look. The printing of our text books is supported by the international community and the EU.
These allegations made against our curriculum is Israeli propaganda. We are not teaching our students hatred or propaganda against anybody, and studies by the UN and the international community support this.

DSE: Some critics point out that Palestinian schools do not teach students to accept Israel’s right to exist or use any maps of Israel in the classroom. How do you respond to critics who say that lessons like these contribute to attitudes that make peace more difficult?

AS: If questions about our curriculum are all a matter of Israel being on our maps, then these are not mature questions. Look at Israel itself, they do not put Palestine on their maps.
Recently when the Israeli Minister of Education proposed adding the Green Line to maps in Israeli textbooks, the whole campaign and debate around that became about political affiliations. How can they expect us to put them on our maps when they won’t even put their own internationally recognized borders on their own maps?

When we talk about Israel we must identify which Israel we are talking about. Israel 1948? Or Israel 1967? Or Israel after it has reoccupied the West Bank, or the Israel of the check points, or Israel behind the Wall? Let them recognize us and their own borders, and then we will do the same.

DSE: How has the occupation affected Palestinian children’s opinions of Israel and the outside world?

AS: To be honest with you, to our children Israel means one word — occupation. It means things like check points, killing, shooting, taking Palestinians to prison, keeping Palestinians from going to their jobs or to school. We’re not going to lie to you.

They are taking our lands, our water — believe me they are taking our water from right under us and they are selling it back to us! They are selling it back to us, and they are collecting our taxes and keeping the money, and spending it on Jerusalem.

Let them give us something. Olmert promised Abbas that he would remove some of the checkpoints to ease our lives, and he did nothing. And Palestinians know he did nothing. So let them do something.

DSE: Many political analysts say that Hamas’ victory at the polls can be seen largely as a rebuke of Fatah, and not an endorsement of Hamas. Why do you think that Hamas won the elections last year? Will the party attempt to make religion a larger part of Palestinian politics?

AS: When people win elections you can attribute this to different reasons. That could mean a program, an individual, or just popularity. But you must acknowledge that there was a winning program.

In addition to the parliamentary elections, there were elections at different institutions like universities. The results there were not that different than the results in parliament.
When talking about the relations between Fatah and Hamas you must know that these conflicts in Palestinian politics reflect international involvement. These tensions are a direct reaction to this international interference.

Hamas does not lead a religious government. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not religious groups, like some might imagine, they are political movements. These are revolutionary parties, not religious groups.

Here in Palestine, when you use the word ‘Islamic’ in your name, it does not mean you are a religious group. They are political groups, not Al-Qaeda or the Taliban, and are not importing religious ideas into politics.

That said, I think that when you are in power you should be more liberal. We are working on it and we hope to succeed.

DSE: Popular anger at Israel grows, but state does not follow, say experts

Popular anger at Israel grows, but state does not follow, say experts

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5990

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 6, 2007

CAIRO: The temperature of Egypt’s cool peace with one-time adversary Israel appeared to be heading towards record lows this week, amid allegations that the Israeli military executed Egyptian prisoners of war near the Sinai city of Al Arish during the 1967 Six Day War.

The allegations were made in an Israeli documentary film titled “The Shaked Spirit,” aired last week on Israeli television. In it, the filmmakers examine the war-time role of that famed IDF unit, and alleged that under the command of current Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the unit executed 250 unarmed POWs.

Ben-Eliezer has adamantly denied the charges, insisting to the press that the men killed were not Egyptian prisoners of war but actually Palestinian commandos.

In Egypt, few are swayed by the Israeli minister’s defense. Earlier this week, members of parliament demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Amid the controversy, Ben-Eliezer has cancelled an official visit to Cairo which was planned for later this week.

"Following unfounded information published in Egypt on this affair and the current atmosphere not being favorable, the two parties decided to postpone to another date Ben-Eliezer's visit," Ben-Eliezer’s spokesman told AFP.

According to many Egyptian analysts and intellectuals, the incident has only fanned widespread animosity against Israel in Egypt and has placed the regime’s relationship with Tel Aviv on even thinner ice.

“The larger context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will definitely complicate things,” said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS). “You can’t separate the situation in Palestine from the reaction of the Egyptian government.”

“I think the situation has become more and more serious,” continued Rashwan.

“Yesterday in the People’s Assembly the members of parliament held a special session about this issue. The foreign minister has asked the Israelis about the incident. I have never seen such a rapid response from the Egyptian foreign minister.

“I think this shows that the government thinks this is really dangerous, and they are trying to respond as quickly as possible to the media coverage and the opposition’s reaction.”

Ibrahim El-Houdaiby, an advisor to the Muslim Brotherhood and board member of their website, www.ikhwanweb.com, urges the government to take more action but has doubts it will do so.

“They have made political calculations contrary to our national interest. We should go to international courts to sue the Israeli leaders and generals who committed this war crime,” he said.

“The government is in a very weak position right now,” continued El-Houdaiby. “It enjoys no internal support and unfortunately it gets most of its support from the United States and Israel. That means it will probably disregard the will of millions of Egyptians and our national interest and do nothing.”

According to El-Houdaiby, “This is an atrocity, and I don’t think the regime understands it. This is another Israeli war crime, in addition to the deaths of Lebanese civilians and Palestinian civilians and the millions that they have killed and slaughtered.”

But according to Mohamed Sayyed Said, head of the ACPSS, while the incident has only made most Egyptians more hostile to Israel, the ball is in Tel Aviv’s court.

“At the popular level, most people know something about atrocities like this through stories they have heard about the suffering and experiences of others,” said Saeid. “But while these things are well-known, when new things like this come up they increase the public’s negative sentiment towards Israel for sure.”

“I believe this has increased the fragility of the Egyptian-Israeli relationship,” he said.

But he believes that the Egyptian government wants to look forward and not be stuck in the past. “If Israel wants to promote positive attitudes towards justice for the Palestinian people, then Egypt can do this and keeps its eyes on the future.”

“Hopes for peace will decline insofar as Israel has demonstrated increasing intransigence towards the conflict and has not respected repeated Arab initiatives, including the 2003 Beirut initiative. The image of Israel in Egypt has become worse than ever before, and this will lead to greater coolness and fragility in their relationship.”

DSE: Saad Eddin Ibrahim and students reflect on meeting with Nasrallah

Saad Eddin Ibrahim and students reflect on meeting with Nasrallah

By Liam Stack
First Published: March 2, 2007

CAIRO: While most students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) relaxed at home over their winter break, MA candidate Sahra Gemeinder was sitting in a ramshackle hovel on the border between the infamous Lebanese refugee camp Sabra and Shatila, site of the 1982 massacre that left thousands of Palestinians dead.

“We were there in the house of a man named Youssef, who lived in these two rooms with his wife, mother and children,” says Gemeinder. “It was quite late at night and this man’s children were sleeping on the floor. He only had one eye, so he was looking at me out of his one eye, and the other eye had pieces of metal sticking out of it. It was a strange experience.”

She was a member of a fact-finding delegation to Lebanon, Jordan and Israel-Palestine led by sociology professor and once-jailed democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

One night after the group’s scheduled activities were completed, Gemeinder and a few friends snuck off to explore the destitute camps that house thousands of Palestinians on the edge of Lebanon’s chic capital.

Ibrahim, Gemeinder and other student members of the delegation related these stories and others to members of the AUC community at a panel held Wednesday night. Among the highlights of their trip, the group met with civil society leaders, journalists, and government officials such as President Emile Lahoud and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

In addition Ibrahim met privately with Hassan Nasrallah the fiery head of Hezbollah.

But behind all the glamour and intrigue of a field trip into the heart of Lebanese politics, Ibrahim reassured Wednesday’s audience that the trip had relaxing moments of its own peculiar sort.

“I want to assure you all that despite all the destruction in Lebanon, life for the AUC students who went on this trip was very pleasant,” he smiled. “They stayed up late and went to the Martyr’s Square to sit and play backgammon and smoke nargileh with the demonstrators in the sit-in. They ate homos and tehina with them. It was very festive, almost like Woodstock. It was a lot of fun. It was not as dreary and depressing as many people who stayed behind here in Cairo thought it would be.”

But the main focus of the night was Ibrahim’s private meeting with Nasrallah. What is the man like? What is he planning for the future?

“Hassan Nasrallah kept assuring me almost to the point of being repetitive that he has no agenda outside Lebanon, that Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia-based party that’s seeking to restore Shia rights in Lebanon and to defend the Shia communities on the border with Palestine and Israel,” said Ibrahim.

“Nasrallah says that they have no agenda beyond Lebanon and no agenda to help anyone outside the country. He says he is not seeking to be a leader, and he really took issue with an article I wrote after the war comparing him to Nasser. He said ‘I am not Nasser, I have never tried to be Nasser.’”

“He said: ‘Who am I? Nasser was a great leader of a great country, Egypt’ — I said thank you for that — but he said ‘who am I?’”

Ibrahim says that during the meeting, Nasrallah stressed that his primary goal was to help “the poor, downtrodden” Shia of southern Lebanon, who, he argues, have been historically neglected and disrespected by wealthier Christians and Sunnis.

When asked about charges that he seeks to create a state within a state, Nasrallah argued that this history of Shia neglect feeds directly into the conflicts within Lebanon today.

“He said ‘if you mean the provision of services, then we are the last state within this state,’” recalled Ibrahim. “‘There are already 17 such states because every major sect in Lebanon has already created these institutions — charitable, educational, medical. We are providing our community with these basic services that they have been deprived of.’”

Ibrahim also reflected on Nasrallah’s personality, a topic of great interest to many in the audience.

“The interesting thing that struck me was his citations. He is clearly very well educated and very well read. He knew all about Franz Fanon. He knew all about Mao Zedong. He knew about all the leaders of social movements that people like me teach to students in classes about social movements.”

Ibrahim and his students addressed doubts within the audience, and the global public at large, about Hezbollah’s real motives. What is the truth behind the militia leader’s claims?

“Many people doubt that this is his agenda alone,” acknowledged Ibrahim, “and they cite one of the beliefs of the Shia sect, the principal of taqeyya where you can claim to espouse certain beliefs just to protect yourself without necessarily meaning them. People say that he as a senior Shia cleric who knows this art, so therefore whatever he says should not be taken on face value.”

“People say there may be another agenda that he may not want to talk about. But I am not in the business of inquisition, I can only report to you what he said and that he sounded credible.”

“There is no truth with a capital ‘T,’” said Ibrahim. “But there are many truths with a lower case ‘T.’ In Lebanon there are 17 officials sects and each sect has written its own history of the country. It’s important for you to check them against each other and piece together your own truth.”