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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Anti-treaty MPs disagree
By Nadia Abou Al-MagdThree months ago, Ahmed Taha and Mahmoud Zeinhom, both independent members of the People's Assembly, decided to give vent to their opposition to the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty by submitting a bill to parliament calling for it to be repealed. "When we refused to vote for it at the time, we paid a price. The Assembly was dissolved and I was sent to jail," Taha told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We opposed it then and still do for the same reason: Zionism and peace are a contradiction in terms. Israel has nothing to do with peace."
Taha and Zeinhom promoted the idea among other opposition representatives, 10 of whom signed a "bill" urging the revocation of the treaty. The initial plan was for the bill to be submitted to the People's Assembly on Saturday. Its signatories would then hold a news conference at the headquarters of the Wafd Party to make the announcement. However, the deputies failed to show up and the news conference turned out to be a disappointment for all except the Wafdists, who appeared to have had a last-minute change of heart.
At the press conference, deputies were surprised to hear that the Wafd Party wants to amend, not abolish, the treaty and that the Wafd believes that the approval of all opposition parties is a prerequisite for submitting the bill to the Assembly.
"What abolition? Abolition is out of the question. We only want to amend some of the provisions of the treaty," Fouad Badrawi, a Wafdist deputy, told the Weekly. "If the parties agree, the bill would be submitted to the Assembly. If they don't, the issue should be closed. We can't forget that we represent our parties. Acting independently would be very dangerous."
Sameh Ashour, assistant secretary-general of the Nasserist Party and its representative at the Assembly, disagreed. "We are not waiting for the approval of the parties," Ashour said. "This is my party's position. Even if it were not, I would have stood against my party. We thought that instead of discussing what we should do to confront normalisation, we should act to revoke the treaty."
Ashour and most of the other deputies who signed the so-called bill are members of the Committee for Boycotting American and Israeli Goods, founded nearly three years ago. The committee issues a monthly publication called The Arab Parliament.
Mohamed Abdel-Aziz Shaaban, of the leftist Tagammu Party, said he did not consult his party before signing the bill. "We have been opposing this treaty ever since it was signed. Moreover, Binyamin Netanyahu recently referred to Egypt as 'our enemy to the south'. Why should we then seek the approval of our parties?" Shaaban asked.
For Mahmoud Zeinhom, amending the treaty would be inadequate. "How can I amend something that I never accepted or recognised?" he said.
The proposed bill reads: "In the name of the people, a law to cancel Presidential Decree No 153, issued on 5 April 1979, concerning the approval of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel."
A three-page explanatory note attached to the bill explains the reasons behind the proposals to annul the treaty. The treaty, it says, is eternal, which is a violation of international law; Egypt's sovereignty over Sinai is incomplete; the treaty sanctioned Israel's military, political and economic superiority. The note, which also mentioned Israel's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, said the treaty has failed to bring a just and comprehensive peace to the entire region.
Signatories of the bill said the move was not linked with the approaching 20th anniversary of the signing of the treaty nor the upcoming Israeli parliamentary elections. "Our proposed bill has nothing to do with the 20th anniversary or with the Israeli elections; it has to do only with our continuing belief that Israel is our eternal enemy," Ahmed Taha said.
For Mahmoud Zeinhom, the "stupid" treaty should be revoked because it is dangerous. "Israel has been able to destroy us from within," he said. "In the war Israel is waging against us now, it does not use conventional weapons. It uses even more destructive weapons: drugs and AIDS for our youths."
Zeinhom is sure the "bill" will be submitted to parliament with or without the approval of all opposition parties. This will be done, he said, on 13 March.
Should the Assembly refuse to approve the bill, which is a certainty, Zeinhom and his colleagues vow to fight on. "When you believe in an idea you fight for it, regardless of the consequences," Shaaban said.
