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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Fracas on the left
By Mona El-NahhasSix leading members of the leftist Tagammu Party have decided to boycott the meetings of a committee promoting opposition to the normalisation of relations with Israel. They insisted, however, that the decision does not represent a change in the party's anti-normalisation policy.
The move followed a clash with two communist committee members -- Ahmed Sharaf and Ibrahim Badrawi. The two, who are members of the underground Egyptian Communist Party (ECP), had accused the six Tagammu figures of normalising relations with the "Zionists," and attempting to transform the ECP into a Tagammu "tail." In a statement issued in July and attributed to the Central Committee of the ECP entitled "Our party cleanses itself of the traitors", it was claimed that the six Tagammu figures had been dismissed from the ranks of the ECP because of their "treachery."
(Some members of the Tagammu Party used to hold posts with the ECP in an unofficial capacity, because ECP membership is illegal). The statement was distributed to national and opposition publications.
In response, Mahmoud Amin El-Alem, a leading Egyptian Marxist, was keen to reject as "false" the information contained in the statement. Moreover, he asserted that the statement was not issued by the ECP's Central Committee, but by a group of its members in a personal capacity. El-Alem nominated two other members of the ECP to attend the meetings of the anti-normalisation committee.
However, Hamed Mahmoud, rapporteur of the anti-normalisation committee, decided not to exclude the two old communists, Badrawi and Sharaf, because of their past contributions to the committee's activities.
For their part, the six Tagammu figures insisted that they would not attend the meetings of the anti-normalisation committee as long as the two communist members were present.
Hussein Abdel-Razeq, head of the Tagammu Party's political committee and one of the six, said that it was illogical to work with people who "accuse us of treachery. However, this does not mean any shift in our policies. We'll go on fighting normalisation, using our own efforts." Abdel-Razeq filed a lawsuit against Badrawi, asking for LE50,000 in compensation.
Hamed Mahmoud, of the Nasserist Party, expressed regret for the position taken by the Tagammu, one of the main founders of the anti-normalisation committee. "Since the establishment of the committee in 1994, the Tagammu Party has been keen to play a distinguished role, which enriched the committee's activities," he said. Mahmoud expressed hope that he could work out a solution for the crisis, or else it could negatively affect the committee's activities. "We also hope that the Tagammu Party continues its remarkable contributions to the committee's work once again," he said.
Ibrahim Badrawi, a self-styled spokesman of the ECP, commented on the Tagammu's decision: "Leading members of the Tagammu Party boycotted the meetings of the committee simply because they want to normalise relations with Israel. So, there is no need to cite weak pretexts in an attempt to justify their position."
Badrawi asserted that he has irrefutable evidence which proves the contacts between Tagammu members and several Zionist bodies, such as the Israeli Academic Centre. "These people have been openly working with the Zionists and the issue has become very serious. We have no other choice but to clear the name of the party before everyone."
According to Badrawi, Hussein Abdel-Razeq has no chance of winning the lawsuit.
