AUC Caravan

by Farah Yousry:

An Israeli being burnt alive is the scene that received most audience’s applause from the Egyptian movie Welad El ‘Am (The Cousins). It was a sight of joy usually associated with happy scenes or instances of reunion or victory.

Anti-Israeli sentiment is common in the Arab region where people burn the Israeli flag in protest of attacks on Palestinians. Peace groups or professionals who collaborate with the Israelis face serious public resentment and media criticism. They are usually referred to as traitors or spies.

“It is becoming a phobia, and speaking of any dialogue with Israel usually constitutes treason or at least turns people off,” Hossam Taher, a political analyst, said.

Taher explained that a negative stigma is always the result of interaction with Israelis.

“The notion of normalization usually has a lot of bad connotations,” Taher said.

Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of The Democratic Ahram, was condemned by the ethics panel of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate for receiving the Israeli ambassador, Shalom Cohen at her office in the Al-Ahram institution. Allegedly, her actions violated the 1983 ruling saying that journalists are not permitted to interview Israelis. A panel consisting of five syndicate members issued Mustafa a warning, despite the fact that attempts of normalization with Israel sometimes result in expulsion.

“We limited ourselves to issuing a warning because it’s not the commission’s job to punish or seek vengeance against a colleague,” Gamal Fahmi, a panel member, said in a statement to Agence France Presse.

Mustafa was exempted from this rule because she was not familiar with the policy on normalization and thought that only visiting Israel is what constitutes normalization.

Other journalists have also faced the same difficulties as Mustafa. Hussein Serag, Managing Editor of October magazine, has been barred from pursuing journalism for three months.

Egyptian authors such as Khaled AlKhamissi, whose novel Taxi provides a rare insight into popular perceptions in Egypt and chronicles the social and political transformations the country has undergone in the past five decades, really support the condemnation of those journalists who show any signs of normalization with Israel.

“We cannot open any channels of dialogue or normalization because Israel is practicing violence, blockades, and destabilizing policies in the region on a daily basis,” AlKhamissi said. “I consider any author, thinker or journalist who receives a representative of the Israeli part and has dialogue with him, a traitor.”

The normalization phobia, as some critics call it, is embedded in our very culture.

“Dealing with the ‘other’, especially Israel, is a very sensitive issue in Egypt,” said Yousry Mohamed, a social sciences professor at Ain Shams University. “There are two schools of thought; one that favors dialogue with Israel and the other which rejects any kind of cooperation or communication with the Israeli part.”

“I believe that each journalist and intellect should be free to have his own thoughts and choose the school that is in consensus with his views,” Mohamed said.

The rejection of this dialogue is an attitude commonly expressed throughout Egyptian society, The American University in Cairo included.

The anti-Israel sentiment was heavily expressed within the AUC community nearly two years ago when a debate took place about whether the senate should pass an anti-normalization resolution. Students had ranted about wanting to boycott Israeli academics and students.

“It is unacceptable honestly,” said Omar Kandil, Student Union President. “This discussion happened here before and the students protested against it. I don’t accept it because it’s our education, because the person giving the knowledge is a person you do not respect as a citizen.”

Mustafa, however, holds that dialogue is a matter of intellectual freedom, believing the syndicate’s attitude is a violation of her rights to freedom of expression and thought.

She announced she would probably file a case against the syndicate for infringing on her basic citizenship rights.

Her formal meeting with Cohen discussed the possibility of holding a joint academic conference, including Egyptians, Americans and Israelis, in response to Obama’s peace initiative in the Middle East.

On the other hand, the Israeli ambassador, criticized the syndicate’s decision to punish her, saying this is another shape of the rampant Egyptian hostility against Israeli officials in Cairo.

After the syndicate reprimanded her, Mustafa published a belated response to the whole situation.

“I am pro the notion of dialogue with the ‘other’,” Mustafa said.

Mustafa said that Egypt’s stance in political arenas is supposed to be a peaceful and accepting one because it has already signed a peace agree that nobody can change.

“Saying that the peace treaty is exclusive to the leader who manifested it, Anwar El Sadat, is quite a naive and irresponsible thing to say,” she said.

“The peace treaty Egypt signed has given Egypt an advantage and put it in a position that other Arab countries aspire for, which is settling conflicts with Israel and being able to sit around one table having a peaceful negotiation.”

Mohamed added that nations usually normalize their relations even with the worst enemies because the world is becoming increasingly interdependent.

Mustafa said that in today’s world “the language of dialogue with the ‘other’ is prevalent and recognized.”

However, Kandil dissaproves of the dialogue as a concept.

“It is a matter of principle,” said Kandil when asked whether he would accept an Israeli faculty member. “It has nothing to do with the quality of his work or professionalism. You want to show that what is happening from their government is unacceptable.”