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."
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."
posted by Liam at
3:28 PM
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