		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 7 - 13 May, 1998 Issue No.376
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Cool reception in Cairo

By Omayma Abdel-Latif

Unlike the ceremonies held in various capitals across the world which were attended by heads of state and prime ministers, the Israeli Embassy in Egypt's 50th anniversary celebration was a low-key affair. Apart from Youssef Wali, deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture, most high-level government officials failed to show up for the festivities. Even the founders of the Cairo Peace Movement, a newly-established NGO dedicated to promoting regional peace, were absent.

Coming at a time when peace-making remains deadlocked, as a result of Binyamin Netanyahu's intransigent policies, a smaller-than-usual number of Egyptians attended, compared to the annual receptions organised by the embassy in previous years, said one Egyptian journalist who did go.

An Israeli embassy official claimed that "a lot of Egyptians" showed up at the reception, but the journalist dismissed this as "an exaggeration."

The Egyptians were outnumbered by foreign guests, the journalist said.

"There was nothing special about this year's festivities except for the fact that brooches, in the form of the blue-and-white Star of David flag, carrying Hebrew and English 50th anniversary inscriptions, were handed out to men while flowers were given to women," the journalist reported.

The festivities were overshadowed by the stagnation in the peace process, which dominated conversations at the reception, the journalist added.

To the dismay of Israeli officials, none of the founders of the Cairo Peace Movement, a think tank for the Egyptian chapter of the Copenhagen Declaration, showed up at the reception. "I wonder, if they really want peace, why they couldn't attend the reception?" asked an Israeli embassy official.

Salah Bassiouni, the movement's chairman and a former ambassador to Moscow, said he attended, but only in a personal capacity.

Abdel-Moneim Said, one of the peace movement's founders, said he turned down an invitation because "I cannot celebrate the establishment of the state of Israel."

Another member of the group, speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity, said he and his peers did not go to the reception "because we are against the Israeli government and its policies. Therefore it was only natural for us to boycott an event at the Israeli embassy, let alone a celebration of Israel's 50th anniversary."

One observer told the Weekly that most Arabs "are offended by the event and do not understand why the world is rejoicing for the creation of a state that was founded on lands stolen from the Palestinians and that sowed the seeds of hostility in the region."

The observer said that Egypt and the Arab world are gripped by "sadness and despair as we see world leaders commemorate the establishment of a state at the expense of Arab territory and blood."