Israel Matzav

Yes, they still hate us

The Jerusalem Post talks to Egyptian demonstrators about Israel and discovers that more than thirty years after Camp David, they still hate us.

"After Camp David, all the Arab world sees that we are no longer a leader. Camp David made us a slave”

Like many at Tahir square on Tuesday night, 26-year-old Mohammed Salama of Cairo spoke of an eagerness for Egypt to shelve its nearly three decade old peace agreement with Israel, but insisted he does not want the country to go to war with Israel. In his hands he held a sign reading in Arabic “Netanyahu is worried about Mubarak”, which he said he wrote because “this is my country and my leader, I don’t want him to care about Israel, only about my country.”

Salama spoke moments after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gave a nationwide speech vowing to hold new elections in six months in which he would not run. Like all of those spoken to by The Jerusalem Post after the speech, Salama said he didn’t feel the speech represented a victory for the movement, only a new ploy by Mubarak to stall and stay in power. Salama and all others spoken to by the Post vowed that they would stay in the square as long as it takes until Mubarak leaves and that the revolution is far from over.

Salama’s friend, Hazan Ahmed, 29, said the years of peace with Israel are tinged with the sting of humiliation, and that Egyptians still feel they’re country is not completely free of the Israeli occupation of the Sinai which ended under Camp David.

“The Egyptian army can’t enter Sinai, we feel that it is still Israel. There are Israeli people there all the time, but when we go, we have to stop at checkpoints and we get turned back. We don’t feel that Sinai is Egyptian.”

Ahmed said he didn’t want Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel completely demolished, but for it to undergo a serious change.

“It should be remodeled. With Mubarak leaving, we know that whoever comes next will remodel the agreement.”

When asked about the fact that Israel and Egypt have not gone to war since the agreement was signed, Ahmed, an unemployed medical school graduate said “yes, we have peace, but we have no dignity.”

Cairene Mohammed Gadi, a 33-year-old sales manager, walked around Tahrir square Tuesday holding a placard of Mubarak with a star of David drawn on his forehead. When asked about the sign, he said he wrote it because “we don’t want to take our orders from Israel anymore. We will keep the peace, but we won’t let Israel or any other country tell us what to do anymore. We don’t need to take orders from the world.”

Abdel Aziz, 27, from Mubarak’s hometown of Kfar El-Meselha, held a sign Tuesday saying “Bollocks to you Mubarak, it’s all over”. When asked about Israel, Aziz said “this is not about Israel, this is about our country first, we don’t care about other countries. This is not why we are doing this.”

Ahmad Ragab, 42, spoke more vehemently towards Israel saying “look, all Egyptian people hate Israel, only Sadat wanted Camp David. We know that Israel will be mad about what is happening here, and we know that Netanyahu can’t sleep now. We know that with the change here, there won’t be peace with Israel. There won’t be a war, but I don’t think there will be an Israeli embassy in Egypt any more, we will have only the most minimal relations.”

Ragab, who studied Chinese and works in Egypt-China business relations, said “we know the revolution will change this and that’s that, we see every day what Israel is doing with the Palestinians.”

At the same time, like all others asked by the Jerusalem Post after Mubarak’s speech about the revolution’s meaning for Israel-Egypt relations, Ragab said the issue was not at all at the heart of the January 25th upheaval.

After more than 30 years, we want peace, and they want 'honor.' What could go wrong?

Labels: Cairo demonstrations, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, honor killing, Politics, World Politics

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:56 AM