MENA House: Egypt as "A Nation Without Trust"?

In a heated discussion, television commentators Amr Adeeb and Amal Othman raised the subject  "A Nation Without Trust" (Watan bila thika).

The reason for this debate? In recent weeks, headlines have featured events bringing into question the integrity of the judiciary, medical examiners, and police forces.  In the words of  Adeeb, this is a "catastrophe".

MENA House: The Pharaoh’s Music in Today’s Egypt

Case 1: The Beating of Khalid Saeed

On 6 June, Khalid Saeed was assaulted and murdered by, according to eyewitnesses, two policemen.  Al Masry Al Youm obtained exclusive material, including more eyewtiness accounts and testimonies revealing the attack caused severe bruising and bleeding.  Pictures of the victim were then released matching  the description.

The events that followed that raised even more eyebrows throughout the nation.  Saeed's brother Ahmed claims that, informed of his brother's death, he went to the morgue.  Officers refused to let him enter and took him to the police station, where he was given a story completely different that of all the eyewitnesses.

The prosecutor interrogated the medical examiner at the morgue, "Afify Abdel Al Afify", who claimed that there was  a "bruise under Saeed’s left eye and scratches on his lips, but no other injuries".  The examiner added that the victim's mother and brother did in fact visit the morgue, however, he "forgot" to add this to the visitors' logbook.

A new medical report is being written to confirm/revoke the previous account.

Case 2: Lawyers vs. Judges

Two lawyers were convicted and sentenced to five-year prison terms for assaulting the district attorney in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, northwest of Cairo.  It is alleged that the lawyers slapped the prosecutor.  However, accounts of the event differ over who initiated the scuffle.

At the hearing, a judge ruled in favour of the prosecutor, a decision which defense lawyers claim was biased.  This led to numerous protests against prosecutors, with lawyers handing out leaflets condemning judges of not being objective and failing to do their job properly.

While the judges, defence lawyers and prosecutors argue amongst themselves, it is the Egyptian citizen who is affected. Videos show empty courtrooms, in contrast to the normal rush of judicial business.

In the words of Adeeb, the Egyptian citizen is being abused twice over.  First, their legal dealings are stalled because of the dispute within the judiciary.  Secondly, their trust is being killed.

Returning to the Khalid Saeed case, what happens if the final report is published and it states that he was in fact murdered by policemen? This means that police officers and the forensice medical examiner can change their reports from one extreme to another.  Whom does an Egyptian citizen trust?

What on the other hand happens if the report concludes that Saeed was not killed, contrary to all eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence of the assault? Again, whom should an Egyptian citizen trust?

Middle East Inside Line: Arab League & Israel-Palestine, British PM on Gaza "Prison Camp", Separation Fence Scandal

Thorny Road to Direct Israel-Palestine Talks: Arab League Foreign Ministers are meeting today in Cairo.

Talking to Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that continuing the construction freeze on West Bank settlements would be impossible politically and would bring down the coalition.

A Palestinian official told Reuters, "Abbas will tell [the Arab League] that, until this moment, there is nothing to convince us to go to direct talks.”

Israel-Palestine: Abbas’ Conditions, Netanyahu’s “Eastern Front” Response

Haaretz claims from Palestinian sources that Abbas will seek unequivocal clarifications from the US that the framework for direct talks will include a declaration that the Palestinian state will be based on the borders of 4 June 1967, with adjustments will be based on agreed exchanges of territory. The PA also wants an Israeli declaration that the construction freeze on settlements will continue and that building in East Jerusalem will stop.

Israeli cabinet minister Isaac Herzog (Labor Party) summarizes the dilemma of a "chicken-and-egg" situation. Talking to Israel Radio, he said:

Abu Mazen (Abbas) says: "I don't want to enter direct negotiations until I know what the final result will be."

Netanyahu says: "Enter direct negatiations and I will also tell you what the final result will be."

Each one looks at it opposite, and we are in a sort of political trap.

Britain's Cameron in Turkey, Comments on Gaza: British Prime Minister David Cameron made his first official visit to Turkey, warning European countries about anti-Muslim prejudice and the slow pace of accession talks with Turkey. He told Turkish businessmen:

When I think about what Turkey has done to defend Europe as a NATO ally and what Turkey is doing now in Afghanistan alongside European allies, it makes me angry that your progress towards EU membership can be frustrated in the way it has been. I believe it's just wrong to say Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent.

Cameron's counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel’s raid on the Freedom Flotilla an act of “piracy” and compared Israeli officials to Somali pirates. Cameron said that the incident was “completely unacceptable” and called for a speedy and transparent Israeli inquiry into the incident. Cameron also sharpened his tone on Gaza:

The situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.

The Israeli embassy in the U.K. responded to Cameron quickly:

The people of Gaza are the prisoners of the terrorist organization Hamas. The situation in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas’ rule and priorities.

We know that the Prime Minister would also share our grave concerns about our own prisoner in the Gaza Strip, Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage there for over four years, without receiving a single Red Cross visit.

Separation Fence Scandal: EA has already reported that Walajeh, a village in the Bethlehem Governorate 8.5 kilometres (5.3 miles) to the southwest of Jerusalem, is in danger of being cut off from the rest of Palestinian lands, leaving 2,000 villagers encircled by Israeli settlements, roads, and security barriers.

In a court hearing on Sunday, it emerged that the order to expropriate village lands for the fence, which enabled the work to begin, had expired a year ago. However, instead of ordering a halt to the work, the court issued an injunction requiring the state to explain within 45 days why construction should not be stopped.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and Palestinian villagers say that since the injunction was issued, the Defense Ministry and the contractors have been working much faster than before.

The Cost of an Eye: Emily Henochowicz, an Israeli-American studying at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, lost her left eye when Border Guards fired a tear gas canister during a demonstration following the raid on Freedom Flotilla.

According to Henochowicz, one policeman shot a canister directly at her face. Haaretz says that one of its reporter also witnessed the incident.

Following her treatment in Jerusalem, her father was handed a bill for NIS 14,000 (around $3,600). The Ministry of Defense refused to pay, claiming the tear gas was not fired directly at Henochowicz. The statement accused Henochowicz of putting herself at risk by voluntarily participating in a breach of the peace and accused:

From our reports, we know that the Border Police acted in accordance with the law at the violent demonstration at Qalandia, and that the shooting of tear gas canisters at demonstrators was justified. Of course, we regret that Emily Henochowicz was wounded in her eye. But under such circumstances, the Defense Ministry does not cover the expenses of medical treatment.

MENA House: The Pharaoh's Music in Today's Egypt

Rafael Pérez Arroyo, author of "Music in the Age of the Pyramids" describes the music of that era: "A reasoned transcription of metre is a creation of the human spirit, while rhythm is a natural dynamic phenomenon. When we immerse ourselves in it we see the whole rhythmic form as one single indivisible movement and we begin to understand why some rhythms are uniform while others increase in tempo."

Dr Khairy Ibrahim Il Malt, composer and lecturer on music at the Academy of Arts in Cairo, has taken matters into his own hands and encouraged his students to perform the sounds of Ancient Egypt. Interviewed on 90 minutes, Dr Khairy said that he was inspired when he was touching down at Luxor Airport. Seeing a flashback of how his ancestors lived, he was prompted to immerse himself in the art of pharaonic music and bring it home to Cairo.

MENA House: “The Popular Coalition to Support Gamal Mubarak”

The instruments Dr Khairy encourages his students to use are similar to those depicted in drawings at the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings: pipes/flutes, stringed instruments similar to harps/guitars, hand-held drums, and cymbals. Each instrument depicts a symbolic element of Ancient Egyptian life. Rafael Pérez Arroyo explains:

Flutes and other wind instruments were held in particular regard because they are ‘breathing’ instruments, produced by the life-breath of the musician. The harp was played by both men and women of high status, but perhaps the most prestigious and beautiful are the ‘Memphite’ harps, based, as the author shows, on papyrus forms.

It's easy enough to get a sense of the music through a clip on YouTube, but if you want to hear the sounds of Ancient Egypt in person, there is a daring way to do so. Dr Khalid Mourad, a local tour guide, reveals:

In April 2008 some American tourists entered a Temple in Luxor.  They walked up a  narrow ramp when they came acorss a "bald headed man with a white cloth wrapped around him". He jumped in front of them and then "rudely" pushed them out the way as he moved past....

Later the tourists informed the tour guide that Egyptians are very rude and when asked why, they told him this story.  The tour guide took the tourists back onto the cruise and returned back to the Temple to search for this individual. To his surprise he noticed that there were no locals sitting in the area as they always do.

The next day the tour guide returned to the site and met a local.  He asked the local where they all were the day before.  The local responded that on this day, every year, all the locals leave this particular temple as they hear and see "strange"goings-on. On this day, it is the birthday of Queen Hatshepsut.  Every year there are lights, music, and strange sightings so the locals avoid the area completely.

So if you want to hear "original" Ancient Egyptian music, Luxor is the place to be in the month of April.  You might just encounter your own time machine.

Israel-Palestine: Abbas' Conditions, Netanyahu's "Eastern Front" Response

On Sunday the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said that he was under pressure from the international community to start direct talks but added that negotiations would collapse from the first minute if there were no "clear and specific references".

Ahead of Thursday's Arab League foreign ministers' summit in Cairo, these references should be seen as a future Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders and a construction freeze both in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

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In response, speaking at the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the PA for "stalling direct talks and relying on the Arab League for support." He said that first "they [Palestinians] said it was the [settlement] freeze, now it's the borders issue."

On the security front, Netanyahu put a double-edged agenda: First he said, "We won't compromise security and that's why the U.S. administration has been notified of our security needs." The he asserted, "Arrangements reached with the Palestinians must be such as to withstand any changes in the political and security Middle East map," and he went further, "The Palestinians must hold firm even if an eastern front develops, as was the case, for example, before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime."

What was meant by the "eastern front"? Any guesses?

No Israeli politician is likely stop with only an "eastern front". Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak added a "north front". In an interview with The Washington Post, he said that the IDF will attack Lebanese government institutions if Israel is again subjected to rocket attacks and continued:

We will not run after each Hezbullah terrorist or launcher....We will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to Hezbullah.

And Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was back on West Bank settlements, calling for new building to resume once the moratorium ends September 26:

From September we must resume normal life here. We do not have any intention to change the demographic situation or to create a provocation, but only to provide a normal life for the people that came here under the policies of [past] government[s].

A day before Lieberman's visit, Netanyahu had said he had not intention to extend the 10-month moratorium, saying "the slowdown was limited in time: It has not changed and that's how it will be."

So Netanyahu's "eastern front" complements the demands elsewhere on "security" and on settlements. All of this puts up a formidable wall to Abbas' conditions for agreement to direct talks.

UPDATED Egypt: Mubarak's Not-So-Secret Cancer?

UPDATE 27 July: President Mubarak, in a thank-you letter to the spiritual leader of the Israeli religious party Shas, has said he is in great shape and "fully recovered". Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had sent a "Get Well" card two weeks ago.



UPDATE 24 July: Ten days after officials said he would be his attendance at the African Union summit in Uganda would demonstrate his good health, President Mubarak has cancelled the trip. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will now represent Cairo.

On Wednesday, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad had again dismissed reports that Mubarak was ill, saying staff were "out of breath" trying to keep up with his schedule.

UPDATE 19 July: The Mubarak cancer story has now made the pages of The Washington Times: "The 82-year-old Egyptian leader is thought by most Western intelligence agencies to be dying from terminal cancer affecting his stomach and pancreas."

UPDATE 13 July: As-Safir reports that Mubarak is going to Germany this week for another round of medical treatment. The Egyptian President had been scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in advance of Saturday's arrival by US envoy George Mitchell.

UPDATE 1600 GMT: A twist in the tale....

The Jerusalem Post, where we first saw the story this morning, has now removed any reference to cancer and posted the headline, "Mubarak Has Fallen Ill". The original Al-Quds al-Arabi story does appear to refer to medical tests in relation to a tumour.

EA has had reliable reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is suffering from cancer, raising questions over the country's political future. Egyptian authorities have been keen to keep the news from emerging, but the wall started to crumble when Mubarak had treatment in Germany --- the ostensible reason was gall-bladder surgery --- in March.

Now the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi has brought out the story. Mubarak has been in Paris, nominally to meet French President Sarkozy and Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri, but the newspaper says he has also undergone a round of medical tests.