Dina Ezzat examines the debate over the two walls on Egypt's eastern borders "The security measures that we apply on our eastern borders fall strictly under the jurisdiction of Egyptian sovereignty and we accept no argument on this matter," President Hosni Mubarak said this week. Speaking in a no-uncertain-terms tone, Mubarak could not have been clearer in dispelling any thoughts that Egypt would backtrack, or at least suspend, its plan to install underground steel plates across the 14km border with Gaza. As Mubarak said, in an address Sunday to celebrate Police Day, Egypt will "move on with the intensified security measures." This, he added, is not about appeasing the US or Israel, as has been suggested in some national, regional and international quarters, but to fortify Egyptian security. "Our top priority remains Egypt first and Egypt before anything else," the president stated, to the applause of a high-ranking police audience. The presidential statements came against the backdrop of unmasked criticism from Hamas on the new Egyptian security measures on the borders with Gaza that has been put under a humanitarian wrecking siege. On Monday, Mushir Al-Masri, a senior Hamas figure, claimed that such statements indicate an Egyptian-Israeli cooperation to put pressure on Gaza, under the exclusive rule of Hamas since it ousted the Palestinian Authority in the summer of 2007. Egypt has already come under considerable criticism from international, regional and national human rights quarters for its refusal to ease restrictions on the operation of the Rafah crossing point that links Gaza to the eastern Egyptian territories. Late last week, a group of over 80 NGOs, including UN bodies, accused Egypt of being a party to imposing a siege on Gaza at a serious humanitarian and economic cost. Egyptian officials continue to shrug off these accusations publicly. In a series of statements Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, among other senior state officials, insisted that Egypt is providing sufficient aid to Gaza to prevent an existing humanitarian crisis from taking a downward curve. This, they argue, is being done despite the clear dissatisfaction of Egyptian authorities of Hamas policies that, Cairo suggests, prevents an end to the internal Palestinian power squabble over the past two years. "If we want to put more pressure on Hamas in Gaza we could but we are not doing it," said an Egyptian diplomat who asked that his name be withheld. According to the diplomat, Egypt has put up with much criticism from the US and Israel for having turned a blind eye to the smuggling through the tunnels built underground between Egyptian territories and Gaza for the last few years. However, he added, recently Egypt felt that these tunnels were used in an "aggressive and shameless way" to smuggle arms through Egyptian territories. "This is a red line," the diplomat stated. Egyptian officials argue that by installing these steel plates -- otherwise qualified by critics as the underground steel wall -- Egypt is getting both the US and Israel off its back. At the same time, they suggest, Egypt is making it clear to the international community that it is strictly the responsibility of Israel as the occupying power to provide for Gaza. Senior state officials privately argue that Israel is doing all it can "to throw Gaza in the face of Egypt. This has been a systematic policy for many years. For Israel it is a dream to get rid of Gaza, the highly populated part of the Palestinian territories and the one most inhabited by Islamist militants," commented a senior government member who asked not to be identified. According to this government member, "if Egypt bows to the platitudes issued in human rights and Arab nationalist quarters it would end up being solely responsible for Gaza." This, he insisted, is both an economic and security crisis. "If Egypt is responsible for Gaza and some militants decide to launch a militant attack on Israel -- no matter how insignificant -- it would be Egypt who has to answer to the international community concerning this attack." For Egypt the concept of pursuing tightened security measures is quite convenient, even when it comes to its borders with Israel. As such, diplomatic sources say, Egypt has allegedly given a nod of approval to Israel to proceed with upgrading the security measures on the Israeli side of the borders with Egypt. According to the same diplomats Egypt has objected to the construction of a cement and electrified wall on the borders with Egypt but has condoned the instalment of metal detectors and electronic gates across the borders. Late last week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu inspected the borders to give the go- ahead to the new security measures. Israel says it is pursuing these new measures to "protect the Jewish identity" of the state in the face of the infiltration of illegal immigrants from Egypt, mostly non-Jewish sub-Saharan Africans. Egyptian officials say they "don't mind" the rationale offered by Israel since "it is on the Israeli borders that the new equipment would be placed." Egyptian security officials say they take excessive care to combat the infiltration of illegal immigrants through the borders. Egyptian security forces have at times shot some of these immigrants and consequently came under heavy criticism from human rights quarters. For Egypt the new Israeli security measures should prevent "smuggling both ways". Egyptian security officials complain of human trafficking across the borders: "Women are smuggled from Israel into the Egyptian territories." Egyptian officials refuse to link the two walls. They insist it is coincidental that the two physical barriers are being put in place almost simultaneously.
