The closure of a private school and the appearance of more swine flu cases in other schools were causes for serious concern by many writers this week. However, there was no sign that the rundown condition of many schools had improved. Amani Sadeq wrote that people are confused because of the contradictory statements regarding swine flu. Some confirm that we could be shortly facing a dangerous epidemic while others insist the virus is weak and can be easily treated. She asked which side are we to believe, given that both are specialised officials. Sadeq said she believed meetings and discussions were not enough unless followed by action. For instance, in the airport, a decision was taken to use cameras to measure the temperature of passengers arriving in Egypt. However, there was still a possibility that some cases would not be caught on camera. In addition, each passenger is required to write his name, address and contact information on a form but there are no measures to check that the information that the passenger provides is correct. The focus now is on schools and universities, Sadeq wrote in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom, whereas there are other places that could be overcrowded, including public transportation, markets and more important the underground where passengers sit in rows close to each other in a way that facilitates the spread of the infection. Abdel-Halim Refaai Hegazi disagrees with Sadeq. He wrote in the official daily Al-Gomhuriya that the government is taking all necessary measures to combat the disease. President Hosni Mubarak declared last month that he is monitoring the efforts to combat the disease; the government held several meetings for the same purpose. The government also drew up a plan for precautionary measures to be taken to control the spread of H1N1. The government also took some measures, such as reducing the number of students in each class, proper ventilation of classes, as well as drawing up Plan B in case schools close down, which include teaching on TV and satellite channels. In addition, in the event of the appearance of a case in a school in a certain governorate, the educational and health department in that governorate should immediately close the class. However, Hegazi did not say whether these measures are being strictly implemented in all schools. President Mubarak's European tour was extensively covered in the media. Eman Anwar believed the tour was very successful. She wrote that the aim of the tour and every other presidential visit was to lighten the burden of the Egyptian citizen and increase his income. This could only be achieved by increasing foreign investment in Egypt, opening new markets for Egyptian exports and signing cooperation agreements and protocols. On the regional level, Anwar added in the official daily Al-Akhbar, the tour came amid important developments in the Middle East: the peace process being threatened, Israel carrying on with its plan to judaise Jerusalem and build more settlements and the quest for a diplomatic solution of the Iranian nuclear file in addition to Lebanon, Darfur and Iraq. The vote to endorse the Richard Goldstone report at the UN Human Rights Council was regarded as a step in the right direction but that much more needed to be done. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram regarded the endorsement as a great victory for the Palestinian cause. The report is very important because it charges Israel with committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during its aggression on Gaza at the end of last year. "Of course the endorsement does not automatically mean referring Israel to the International Criminal Court [ICC] for trial on charges of war crimes. There is still a long way to reach such a result and that requires much effort," the editorial read. Referring Israel to the ICC requires first that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon agrees to refer the report to the Security Council, which then refers it to the court, and that is something the US will never allow. However, the report still has a moral and media value, as the whole world now knows that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. This fact will affect Israel's image in the world and will pressure its leaders to begin to take real steps towards peace. And that is what everyone is expecting from it, the edit concluded. Mohamed Mustafa Shordi wrote the vote on the Goldstone Report in the UN Human Rights Council is a beginning and a thread that should be exploited by Arab countries. However, this approval does not convict Israel. It is an international adoption of the report, so we should call for transferring it to the UN secretary-general and from there to the ICC. We should demand the Security Council refer the report to the ICC where a second investigation would be launched after which a trial would begin on Israeli war criminals. The importance of the report is not only due to the accusations against Israeli leaders, but to the legal power gained by the report that documented the events through an official international council after the West had put many legal obstacles to block any attempts to prosecute the criminals. Among these obstacles was the rejection of the formal complaint made by Palestine to the court because Palestine is not a declared state. There was also the fact that the Security Council can refer the case to the court, but did not act on the Gaza crisis on the pretext that it does not have any documents and that the council is not an investigative body. Thus an investigation on what happened in Gaza was blocked from all sides until the Human Rights Council assigned the South African judge Goldstone to prepare a report. Shordi added that what is required from the Arabs now is to move in the right direction, away from rhetoric and tribal conflicts. The Arab League should form a specialised diplomatic committee to exploit the report in a practical way according to an international plan with one goal: to put Israeli leaders behind ICC bars. "If the Arabs cannot unite, the Goldstone Report will not have any significant result," Shordi wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. Besides the Arab League, Arab parliaments, particularly the Egyptian parliament, should push in all international forums to refer the report to the Security Council.
