WATANI International
18 September 2011
The attack against the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday 9 September was the subject of widely divergent views. While law experts and politicians—inside and outside Egypt—branded it as a breach of international diplomatic principles and obligations, and demanded that the Egyptian government take on its responsibility on that head; a significant sector of populist opinion regarded the attack as justified. They cited the repeated Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, and the killing of six Egyptian soldiers last month on the Egyptian Israeli border by Israeli fire.
Anarchy
The attack came as a prelude to a night of violence and rioting that saw Giza governorate set on fire, police cars burned, civilians and their houses and cars attacked, and which left more than 1000 injured and three dead. A mob broke into the Israeli embassy after tearing down a cement barrier that had very recently been built around the building for protection. The following day the ruling Military Council declared the activation of the much-hated, some-60-year-old emergency law. Whereas the application of that law was limited under the Mubarak regime to crimes of terrorism and drug and arms trafficking, it has now been extended to cover thuggery, violence, sabotage, road blocking, and circulating or broadcasting false information or deliberately propagating rumours.
Earlier in the day, Cairo’s Tahrir Square had been the scene of wide demonstrations, under the slogan “Correcting the path of the Revolution”, that called for a civil State and full citizenship rights. Fingers were quickly pointed at the Tahrir Square demonstrators as the instigators of the attack against the Israeli embassy in the Greater Cairo district of Giza and the subsequent mobbing in the neighbourhood.
But Emad Gad, who is an expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic studies, a specialist on Israeli affairs, a liberal activist and a strong advocate for a civil State in Egypt, vehemently denies the allegation. “It was a well-played out scenario,” Dr Gad says, “that aimed at dragging the public into a battle that would draw them away from the [liberal] goals of the 25 January Revolution, as yet unachieved. Its purpose is to persuade Egyptians and the world that a stable dictatorship is better than anarchy.”
Israeli benefit
Political movements in Egypt across the spectrum were quick to denounce the re-activation of the emergency law which, they insist, will be used to repress the revolution, intimidate revolutionaries and restrict freedoms. The Revolutionary Youth Union calls for mass protests on 16 September for a “No to Emergency Law” Friday.
“For the sake of Egypt,” Dr Gad publicly pleaded with the ruling Military Council, “do not give up on freedoms or on Egypt’s upper interests.”
Dr Gad believes Israel does not intend any escalation against Cairo, but would endeavour to exploit the recent attack as a bargaining chip to realise some long-term benefit at Egyptian expense. For now, he says, the incident may work to weaken the position of Egypt as it negotiates with Israel for the rights of the families of the Egyptian soldiers who were killed by Israeli fire.
In full agreement with Dr Gad is Ahmed Fawzy, professor of International Law, who insists that the attack goes against Egypt’s interests, and was not justified in the sense that the Military Council had severely condemned the Israeli aggression and was engaged in constructive talks with Israel to make changes to the 1979 peace agreement, that would be in Egypt’s favour. Israel, he points out, has shown remarkable flexibility on that head, and has moreover expressed its deep regret for the death of the Egyptian soldiers.
Hamas and Iran
For his part, the military expert Major General Abdel-Moneim Katto demands that those who stirred up the Friday 9 September riots should be brought to justice. He says he has information, through intelligence sources, that the plan for the attack was hatched by Egyptians who get generous finance from outside Egypt. The aim, he explains, is to spread chaos and destabilise the country, so that specific political forces may have a good chance to reach power. Such forces, Major General Katto says, are no more than opportunists desiring to portion out the Egyptian cake among themselves, regardless of the country’s interests. The ‘remnants of the previous regime’, so frequently accused of any unrest or misfortune that befalls the country are, in his opinion, innocent of planning or executing the 9 September riots which do not fit with their mindset. These riots, Major General Katto insisted, are more in line with Iran and Hamas.
“It does not at all help,” says security expert Major General Fouad Allam, “that there is an entrenched hatred and distrust of the police among Egyptians.” He believes that re-activating the emergency law inevitably leads to a popular sentiment that it is being exploited in favour of the security authorities which were not able to adequately deal with the wrath of the masses.
Operating elections under the emergency law, Major General Allam says, requires a military decree, and does not sit well with voters.
Losses in numbers
A number of economic experts have publicly applauded the reactivation of the emergency law. Their argument is that Egypt has seen months of protests and strikes since Hosni Mubarak stepped down, steeply hurting the economy, and leading to an increase in crime and thuggery.
Dr Farouq Shuqeir, former deputy of the finance ministry, has said that reactivating the emergency law would bring in a climate of trust and optimism among businessmen and investors in the Egyptian market.
The damages incurred as a result of the attack against the Israeli embassy, according to Giza governor Ali Abdel-Rahman, amount to some EGP4 million. The damages include broken windows, air-conditioners, shops, light columns and rare trees on both sides of the street.
Egypt’s benchmark stock index fell 1.2 per cent on Sunday, weighed down by investor unease after the storming of Israel’s embassy and the protests in Cairo over the weekend. Inflation, meanwhile, eased in August to 8.5 percent on a slower increase in food prices.
In another reflection of Egypt’s challenges in boosting its economy after the 25 January Revolution, the government reported that tourism arrivals fell over 35 per cent in the second quarter of the year.
A ‘Yes’ vote for emergency
More than 80 per cent of Facebook visitors stressed their total support for strictly and promptly applying the emergency law to stop the series of indignities committed against the State, the Military Council, the judiciary, and the mainstream Egyptians who wish to resume their lives and their productivity.
All the supporters agreed that the ordinary citizen is the most harmed by the security lapse and the rampant thuggery, violence, and protests. The unrest, many bloggers said, meant there was a wide gap between the political forces and the ordinary Egyptian citizen. Several insisted this signified that the movements on the political scene seek nothing but their own interests.
Those who reject the emergency law, the supporters wrote, are afraid of being accused of hiring thugs.
Two Internet polls by the online papers al-Masry al-Youm and al-Youm al-Sabei yielded the same results: 69.7 per cent were for re-activating the emergency law, 28.9 per cent were against, and 1.32 per cent were undecided.