Hala Mustafa, the editor of Al-Dimoqratiya, was questioned by the Press Syndicate following her controversial meeting with the Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Gamal Essam El-Din reports The Press Syndicate this week questioned Hala Mustafa, the editor of Al-Ahram's quarterly magazine of Al-Dimoqratiya, after she was accused of violating a 1984 resolution that effectively bans members from meeting with Israeli officials or taking any other steps towards normalising relations. Mustafa met with Shalom Cohen, the Israeli ambassador to Egypt, in her office in Al-Ahram on 14 September, provoking an outcry among her journalist colleagues. Both the Press Syndicate and Al-Ahram's board decided to question Mustafa. Abdel-Mohsen Salama, the Al-Ahram journalist who heads the syndicate's investigative committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the committee had questioned Mustafa for three hours and that the entire process was conducted in a friendly atmosphere. Salama added that the committee met again on Tuesday to listen to a number of witnesses Hala said would support her case. "Hala said she was not normalising relations with Israelis and asked us to listen to some witnesses, such as her personal secretary," said Salama. "She believes that these witnesses will testify that Al-Ahram approved her meeting with Cohen and that she did nothing wrong or was not involved in violating regulations or syndicate resolutions." Salama said, "the syndicate has no malicious intentions against Mustafa", but that journalists are concerned to see the resolutions of the general assembly fully respected by syndicate members." Salama indicated that once a final report is prepared by the investigative committee it will be referred to Bassim El-Tayeb, a legal counsellor at the State Council. It is the prerogative of the State Council to decide if Mustafa should be prosecuted further. "We are not in a hurry to prepare this report. It is better to take time and be completely neutral in the investigation," said Salama. On Tuesday the investigative committee is due to question Hussein Seraggeddin, deputy editor of the state-run weekly magazine October. Seraggeddin is accused of visiting Israel several times in violation of syndicate resolutions. Mustafa's lawyer, chairman of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights Naguib Gibriel, strongly refutes allegations that his client was involved in normalising relations with Israeli officials. "Mustafa's meeting with Ambassador Cohen was procedural. It was intended to probe the possibility of organising a seminar about the future of peace in the Middle East," said Gibriel, adding that "the meeting was organised in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry and approved by the board of Al-Ahram." Mustafa strongly defends her actions. "I have many arguments in response to the accusations levelled against me. First of all, I met ambassador Cohen not as a journalist but as a political observer closely concerned with developments in our region." Mustafa says her meeting with Cohen was arranged to prepare for a seminar about US President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo last June and his vision for peace in the Middle East. "Al-Ahram and the Foreign Ministry knew about my meeting with Cohen beforehand," she insists. Mustafa also says she has alerted the attention of the syndicate's investigate committee that "many prominent Egyptian journalists, such as Chairman of the Press Syndicate Makram Mohamed Ahmed and Board Chairman of Al-Ahram Abdel-Moneim Said, have met with Israeli officials and counterparts." Mustafa also says she is not the first person to have received the Israeli ambassador in the Al-Ahram building. "I assure that there are many precedents," she says. "The word normalisation provokes a knee-jerk reaction in Egypt. But it is wrong to believe that all journalists have a single way of thinking," Mustafa argues. "There are a lot of Egyptian journalists who believe in opening up to the outside world and in the value of dialogue with other cultures." Mustafa urged that the 1984 resolution banning journalists from meeting with Israelis be revoked. "This resolution was adopted almost 25 years ago. It is high time that it is annulled in favour of encouraging dialogue with the Israelis," she said.
