'Land-for-security' slammed

Sid-Ahmed gives his acceptance speech for being awarded the French Légion d'Honneur at the residence of France's ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière,

The award ceremony was held at the residence of Jean-Marc de la Sablière, France's ambassador to Egypt, and attended by Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, renowned political writer Mohamed Hassanein Heikal and Khaled Mohieddin, president of the left-wing Tagammu Party. The following are extracts from his acceptance speech.

"I want to believe that I received the Légion d'Honneur in recognition of a vision that I have been able to share with France, and which may lead our two countries to launch great projects together which could one day liberate the trans-Mediterranean space from the horrors which continue to torment its people.

"During a recent visit by President Chirac to Cairo on the eve of the bicentennial commemoration of Franco-Egyptian relations, I had the privilege of remarking to him on how these relations still suffer from an ambivalence that dates back to their origins. Can Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition be defined as an emancipatory mission which led to the deciphering of hieroglyphics, the discovery of Pharaonic Egypt and the establishment of a modern Egyptian state? Or was it simply the first colonialist venture of the 19th century? I believe it is necessary to address these questions, so that we can go beyond them, in this era of "globalisation".

"Throughout my life, I have been confronted with the multiple facets of France. During my childhood, I discovered the community of the Suez Canal Company in Port Said, where my father was governor -- a very conservative "Old France" community with whom my mother socialised. Later, at the French Secular Mission, I met the Free French Forces, whose central figure, René Granier, a professor of literature and philosophy, was to have a profound influence on me. In the wake of Stalingrad and El-Alamein, he introduced me to Marxism, without explicitly using that term. It was through the prism of French culture -- of Aragon and Eluard -- that I discovered the Resistance, Marx, historical determinism -- and the glorious futures which were being prepared elsewhere, but not in our part of the world. History was made elsewhere. Elsewhere was where one had to be.

"I did not realise then that what appeared to me to be inalienable truths, in fact served to camouflage much more complex and unstable realities. A few years ago, when I was invited to join a Consultative Committee on the Freedom of the Press for UNESCO, each of the committee members was given one minute to define himself or herself. As my turn came, I heard myself say: 'I studied electronics and law, but I became neither an engineer nor a lawyer. I thought that I had devoted my life to the cause of socialism; I realise now that instead I became totally involved in the Israeli/Arab conflict. [Thus, I realised] that the identity we proclaim does not necessarily coincide with the identity we assume.'

"The Middle East conflict was initially defined by a shortage of land. Now, growing water shortages point the way to new conflicts, new alignments, new wars. While Franco-Egyptian relations are still marked by a certain ambivalence, their persistence over two hundred years demonstrates that the vast deserts which surround us never signified emptiness, were never an absence of the human, social, historical and cultural dimensions -- were never an absence of civilisation. On the contrary, Franco-Egyptian relations played an essential role in resuscitating this most ancient of civilisations. Our common history, therefore, totally contradicts Netanyahu's assertion that Israel is surrounded not only by a physical desert, but also by a void in terms of negotiating power, modernity and development, and that as a result has the right -- nay, the duty -- to impose its conditions on others.

"I, however, believe that if we can work at removing the ambivalences which have so far seemed inherent in Franco-Egyptian relations, we can by the same token seek to redress the unequal balance of power between the Arabs and Israel. If France and Egypt were jointly to initiate a project worthy of the 21st century, such as the desalination of the Mediterranean, with France taking responsibility for mobilising world opinion and Egypt enlisting the financial support of the Arab Gulf states, then we could perhaps intervene in time to prevent a potential war over limited water resources. We will have shown that the Arab world cannot be reduced to the dimensions of a physical and symbolic desert. At the same time, we will have helped redress the unequal balance of power and realised the necessary conditions for a true negotiated peace."