Residents are being evicted from a strip of land adjacent to the border with Gaza. The area being cleared to create a buffer zone is about 14 km long and half a kilometre. The process is expected to be completed in a week: once homeowners sign the official evacuation order at the local municipality they are given 48 hours to clear out their belongings. Security sources say the response to the evictions is more positive than some local residents imply. Recent terrorist attacks have girded the resolve of security, police, army and local officials involved in supervising the evacuation process to complete the process regardless of the obstacles. Security sources have told Al-Ahram Weekly that aerial photography have revealed the existence of at least 200 tunnels below houses slated for evacuation, and that in some cases two or more tunnels lead from a single home. The inhabitants of houses with tunnels mostly moved out without asking for compensation. Before the evacuation process began the local authority notified residents that homeowners with tunnels beneath their homes would not be eligible for compensation. Said Atij, a resident of Sheikh Zuweid, says many people unaffected by the current evacuations are nervous and fear they too could be evicted from their homes if it is decided to extend the border strip. It is thought that some tunnels extend as far as two kilometres into Egyptian territory. A security source told the Weekly such concerns were unwarranted. The Army Engineering Corps, he says, is perfectly capable of dealing with longer tunnels without the need for further evictions. Some residents complain the evacuation notices allowed too little time for them to make the necessary preparations. Others are unhappy at the amount of compensation they are receiving. A one off cash payment, estimated at LE900, is supposed to cover the rental of alternative accommodation for three months. Yet according to Mohamed Ibrahim, a North Sinai resident, the rent of a suitable home could be as much as LE700 a month. Security sources say there is no truth in claims the evacuation plan came as a surprise. It was been announced over a year ago. “Inhabitants along the border knew perfectly well that the area would be evacuated,” said one. “Perhaps they hoped the authorities would not take serious action because moving 802 families would be too difficult.” The source recalls that when Al-Sisi was minister of defence he issued a decree in his capacity as commander in chief of the Armed Forces prohibiting the sale or purchase of land adjacent to the border. In Sinai it is difficult to acquire legal title to land though buying and selling does occur in accordance with local laws. A Bedouin sheikh, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Weekly that the Egyptian government had taken the decision to evict years ago and notified tribal elders of the plan. Some threatened the government, via the local authority, warning that if acted on the plan would incite “jihadists” into mounting operations against the Armed Forces. Their sole purpose was to safeguard their tunnel operations from which they reaped vast fortunes. The government at the time — he was referring to the post-25 January 2011 period — was weak and facing a security crisis and unable to carry out the plan “but today the government is looking at its borders like a wounded lion that seeks revenge”. “One of the elders who took part in the tunnel smuggling had a hand in the attacks against the Armed Forces in 2012,” continued the sheikh. “They believed that the government was going to seize 40 km of land near the border. Because of the military operations the smuggling trade has dwindled to almost nothing. The matter is no longer as important as it used to be.” Major-General Abdel-Moneim Said, former governor of South Sinai, revealed some of the background to the issue. “When the Sinai Affairs Committee took possession of the land there was a Bedouin culture that held that they were the sole proprietors and that it was theirs for the purposes of tending their flocks. The tribes did not identify their property by measurable areas and, in their view, the government had no right to build anything on the land. If it wanted to it would have to negotiate with them. It was decided that it was better if the government retained control over the land without taking it away from the Bedouins but without establishing their ownership in any formal way.” But the situation, says Mohamed Al-Osta from Al-Arish, is more complex. One muddying factor is identity papers, or their absence. Some people in the affected area do not have identity cards showing they are Egyptian citizens. This affects their right to own land and obtain other services. The problem, argue many, feeds government suspicions of Bedouins who are unable to enrol in public schools, enlist in the army or benefit from other citizenship rights. Al-Osta adds that extremist groups have been quick to exploit grievances stemming from this problem. Atij, Said and other sources are keen to underscore the loyalty of those being evacuated in Rafah. They also note that President Al-Sisi offered them an official apology in the speech he delivered while taking part in the Badr manoeuvres this year. The president affirmed that he had issued instructions that people were not to be pressured and that they must be given their rightful dues. He said that the compensation paid to evacuated residents could be as much as a billion pounds. Al-Sisi also stressed a specialised council had been created under the supervision of the president's office to monitor and follow through on details related to this matter. Al-Osta said that his home, a one storey building with four rooms, could accommodate some of his cousins who will be arriving from Rafah. They will not be able to find regular work but, he said, Sinai families do not spend much. There are fears that up to a third of the families being evacuated from Rafah will be unable to find adequate housing and will suffer from the winter cold. Others will be able to afford relatively luxurious housing because of the profits accumulated from a decade of tunnel trade. Many of these wealthier families had kinship connections on the other side of the border which made it easier to build and operate tunnels from their homes. The people who worked in tunnels as day labourers will not be so fortunate. Ibrahim says he will never forget the place he has to leave and his memories will be filled with the bitterness of displacement.
