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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Normalisation group fractures
By Nadia Abou El-Magd"Where are the peace supporters?" wondered Reda Helal in his weekly column in Al-Ahram last Thursday. "Peace advocates in Israel have disappeared. And peace advocates in Egypt were even more disappointing. Except for a statement that was distributed to Egyptian newspapers, the Egyptian peace movement remained silent," wrote Helal, who is a founding member of the Cairo Peace Society (CPS), a non-governmental organisation.
Helal complained that the least CPS should have done in light of Israel's "racist and barbaric brutality" was to cancel its scheduled conference in Tel Aviv with Israeli peace activists next month and freeze its activities for as long as the Israeli army continues to shoot at Palestinian civilians.
"I froze my membership of the CPS because defending peace is not by attending conferences, travelling abroad and receiving international awards," Helal told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I had to distance myself from them [the CPS] until they become real peace activists."
Abdel-Fattah Asaker, a writer on Islamic affairs, also walked out of the CPS. In a statement, Asaker said that his resignation was "a scream directed at peace advocates around the globe."
Asaker is also one of 30 figures who founded the CPS in 1998. Since its establishment, members of CPS were accused by many intellectuals and nationalists of acting to break the "popular boycott" of Israel and, worse, of being "traitors". Following the Al-Aqsa uprising and the Israeli massacre of children and unarmed Palestinians, the verbal attacks on the peace advocates were stepped up.
In a recently published column, Ma'amoun Fendi, a professor of political science, alluded to the CPS as "the Israeli lobby in Cairo." And in his popular TV programme Ra'is Tahrir or Chief-editor, veteran broadcaster Hamdi Qandil vowed never to host any of them in his show, not even to "see their embarrassment."
Salah Bassiouni, CPS chairman and Egypt's former ambassador to Moscow, defended his group by saying that it supports the Al-Aqsa uprising which is a "very legitimate weapon against occupation."
Bassiouni added that the Tel Aviv conference and contacts with their Israeli counterparts were put on hold, especially since he believes that the latter are partially to blame for failing to stop Israeli aggression. Bassiouni concedes that his group is in a precarious position and under severe pressure, but he is not worried about the future of his 300-member society. "We remain fighters for a just, comprehensive and balanced peace. We are against war and have no alternative but to go back to the negotiating table," he said.
Related stories:
Copenhagen reignites 1 - 7 July 1999
Misconstrued and misinterpreted 2-8 July 1998
Truthful lies, respectable murder 18 - 24 June 1998
The bureaucrats behind the people 25 June - 1 July 1998
'Peace offensive' hits Cairo 11 - 17 June 1998
Blocking normalisation with Israel 9 - 15 July 1998
Cool reception in Cairo 7 - 13 May, 1998
Cairo's answer to 'Peace Now' 30 April - 6 May, 1998
See also Intifada in focus 12 - 18 October 2000
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