Moving out TWO Israel planes have taken out the remaining contents of the Israeli embassy in Cairo. "They are removing the contents of the old embassy building," spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. "Everything was coordinated and arranged with the Egyptian authorities," Palmor added. He said the material would be flown back to Israel by cargo aircraft. However, he did not say why Tel Aviv had taken the decision. Protesters attacked the Israeli embassy headquarters in a residential building in central Cairo on 9 September last year, forcing the evacuation of all embassy staff. Crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag. It came at a time of worsening relations between the neighbours following the killing of six Egyptian policemen on their common border. Israel claimed it was hunting down militants after a deadly attack in August. Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon returned to Cairo in November and completed his term. He was replaced in February by Yaacov Amitai. "The embassy is functioning. The ambassador is there, the staff is there, but not in the old building, of course," Palmor said. "It was understood that we would not return there." On Tuesday the Arab Affairs Committee in parliament demanded that the Israeli ambassador in Cairo be expelled and that the Egyptian ambassador in Israel be recalled to protest against the recent Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. Vague judge status DOZENS of Appeals Court judges met on Tuesday in an attempt to strip judge Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, chief justice of the Appeals Court, of his responsibilities after he was accused of interfering in a case, still being heard before the courts, which allowed six American NGO officials to leave Egypt on 29 February. Ibrahim was said to have pressured the court panel, which was hearing the NGO foreign funding case, to lift the travel ban against 16 American defendants in the case. The court panel, headed by judge Mohamed Shukri, recused themselves from the case, citing "unease". Ibrahim then assigned three judges from the technical bureau of the Appeals Court to hear the case. A few hours later, the travel ban was lifted. A judges emergency general assembly at the Higher Judiciary House was to have been held on Tuesday but was postponed. "There is no legal reason that would drive me to leave, especially as the general assembly was not held," Ibrahim said. He apparently retracted from a statement he had reportedly made earlier in which he said he was ready to give up his post as chief justice of the Appeals Court. Ibrahim's legal status as chief justice of the Appeals Court and a member of the judicial commission supervising May's presidential elections remains unclear.
