Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000 Issue No. 505
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Information campaigns

By Fayza Hassan

My cell phone rang as I stood in a shoe shop trying on one pair of shoes after the other, unable to decide which was less uncomfortable. The woman on the other end whispered that her name was Susan, and that she had important information on developments in Sinai that I would like to know about. I have always wondered why so many foreigners are keen to espouse the "cause" of Sinai's indigenous inhabitants and the reasons that I have been able to gather have always been of a distasteful nature. Much as I wished to ask Susan politely to go away, professional instincts prevailed, and I made an appointment to see her later at the office.

A middle-aged woman, she had the spaced-out, lost look I have come to associate with Westerners who haunt the beaches of the Red Sea. I did not have a good feeling about Susan, and I would be lying if I claimed that what followed came as a total surprise. Her name, she said, was not Susan, but Anna. Apart from her British papers, she held an Israeli passport. She had not told me her real name over the phone, because she suspected that journalists were under surveillance, but she had decided to be honest now and lay her cards on the table. She was afraid to be deported for her activities on behalf of the Tarrabin tribe who were being pushed out of Nuweiba by developers keen on importing an Egyptian work force to build the new tourist resorts in the desert. "Why not use the Bedouins from north Sinai?" she suggested. "At least they are the same people."

I reflected that she was being very prudent for someone who had come to uphold the rights of the Bedouin to their spot of Sinai and whose activism, it appeared, consisted mainly in selling beads on the beaches to help an indigenous population impoverished since the Israeli evacuation of the area. Here it comes, I thought, suddenly more alert. "They don't have deeds to the land, they understand that," she was saying; "but they have nowhere else to go," she made the mistake of adding, wringing her beaded fingers.

Listening silently to her prattle, I cursed the Egyptian tradition that had browbeaten me into being always civil to my guests, no matter how obnoxious. "What about the Palestinians who do have deeds irrefutably proving their rights to the land and houses you and your cronies are occupying? Why aren't you helping them instead?" I wanted to ask. My daughter, who had wandered into my office, left in disgust at this point. My visitor did not fail to notice her hasty retreat. "Your daughter does not like me because I have an Israeli passport," she whispered sorrowfully. "Quite right," said my daughter, who has not enjoyed the benefits of an old-fashioned education and therefore feels free to express her opinion. "But I am apolitical," moaned Anna. "I do not necessarily approve of what my government does." My daughter advised her to give up her Israeli passport in a sign of protest. Anna looked pained. She was fifty, she explained, and needed the care of Israeli doctors. Prodded more, however, she could no longer keep up the charade. "Israel is such a small, defenceless country," she almost sobbed, holding up two fingers a few millimeters apart to show us just how small. "I know for a fact that Netanyahu felt quite vulnerable trying to protect his tiny state against 70 million Arabs."

She delivered that part of her speech with a straight face, playing with a small iron cross on her chest. Was she inviting us to show Christian charity? Did she expect pity? Or was the cross just one of the many props of "Susan's" disguise? I wanted her out of my office so intensely, she must have felt the hostility and, mercifully, rose to leave. Later, she called me, thanking me for my attention and sympathy (sic).

I was reminded of this unpleasant incident a few days later as I watched Rick Lazio, the aspirant mayor of New York City, stating on the Larry King Show that, if elected, he would put an end to the Palestinians' murderous activities, which Hillary Clinton seemed unaware of, as made obvious by the kiss she bestowed on Soha Arafat. According to this self-righteous, well-informed young man, it was a known fact that Palestinians had "schools" where they taught terrorists how to kill and maim little Israeli children. Why should they need schools, Mr Lazio? I wondered. They can learn from the occupiers of their land, who have perfected the practice. In fact, what he was probably referring to was the long-established Israeli policy of breaking Palestinian children's bones and maiming them, so that they could never grow into healthy adults.

I could not wait to share Lazio's bit of wisdom with a colleague who was the force behind the series published in 1998 by Al-Ahram Weekly, entitled 50 Years of Dispossession. "The poor klutz may really believe what he says," she commented. "He probably does not know any better. The Israelis managed to invent their ancient history; they are now in the process of bullying their way through re-writing their modern one."

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