The unprecedented inrush of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt dominated the press, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed Foreign, or rather regional, concerns hit the headlines. The mass influx of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai border town of Rafah stole the limelight. Images of thousands of Palestinians crossing into Egypt in order to buy commodities that the Israeli economic blockade denied them were pertinent enough to encourage pundits to comment. The old conspiracy theory of Israel having designs on Sinai also re-surfaced this week. Writing in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom, Hassan Nafaa wondered whether there was an Israeli plan to take over Sinai. "There is no shadow of a doubt that Israel is currently preparing a plan to tackle the recent developments in Gaza. In my estimation, this plan constitutes a great danger to Egyptian national security and the Palestinian cause as well." The writer, an academic teaching at Cairo University, added that the plan aimed at transforming Sinai into a solution to the overpopulation in the Gaza Strip. The people of Gaza have had enough and the Egyptian authorities permitted the Palestinians to freely cross the border and purchase the goods they have long been denied. And, these are not luxury goods, but basic commodities. Gaza, virtually the world's largest concentration camp, has been severely impacted by the Israeli economic blockade that has practically brought economic life to a standstill. In much the same vein, Editor-in-Chief of the daily pro-government Rose El-Youssef Abdallah Kamal devoted his column to this prickly subject. In a provocative article entitled "Have they colonised us?" Kamal pleaded with the "decision- makers not to be too moved by humanitarian considerations when allowing our brothers to occupy our own land." The Palestinians must leave, and immediately, he concluded. "Otherwise we [Egyptians] will not be in a position to help them." Rose El-Youssef ran a headline about the current crisis at the Egyptian-Palestinian borders. "We helped them, and they [the Palestinians] attacked our soldiers." Writing in the daily leftist Al-Badeel, Mohamed El-Sayed Said tackled the same subject, but from a radically different perspective. Said warned about militant Islamist incursions into Egypt via Sinai. The problem, according to Said, is not the Palestinian influx into Egypt but rather the infiltration of Hamas activists. "It seems that Hamas decided to 'occupy' part of Northern Sinai, especially Rafah and Arish." Said called upon Hamas to apologise immediately for what happened on the Egyptian-Palestinian border. "Otherwise, we should impose sanctions on the leaders [of Hamas]." Commentators also looked into the question of sovereignty in the context of Gaza and Sinai. Writing in the daily official Al-Ahram, Makram Mohamed Ahmed argued, "it is Egypt's responsibility to categorically reject any Israeli policy based on besieging the Palestinian people and turning Gaza into a prison. Egypt also has the right to the management of the Rafah crossing point in a manner that prevents starving the Palestinians so as to protect Egyptian national security from the recurrent transgressing of the border," Ahmed wrote. He continued, "Egypt has the right to take all measures to guarantee that Gaza's problems are not exported to it, as Israel is constantly trying to return Gaza to Egyptian administration," Ahmed concluded. Writing in the daily official Al-Gomhuriya, Mohamed Ali Ibrahim blamed the current crisis at the Egyptian borders on Israel. "Israel is fighting us using the Palestinians... Gaza is still an occupied territory, and Hamas is defaming the Palestinian cause and Egypt as well... Sinai will never be the solution for the refugees problem or part of a settlement." The paper also highlighted the steady increase in the price of commodities in Sinai due to the flocking of the Palestinians from Gaza Strip to North Sinai. The daily opposition Al-Wafd expressed what many Palestinians who crossed the Egyptian- Palestinian border were saying: "Fatah and Hamas ignored our cause and we're busy fighting each other." Writing in the same paper, Wahid Abdel-Meguid blamed the recent exodus of the Palestinians from Gaza into Sinai on the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas. "The two fighting factions have succeeded in what all Israeli terrorist leaders have failed in. They just looked on as their people escaped from Gaza," warned Abdel-Meguid. Writing in the daily official Al-Akhbar, Ahmed Ragab called upon the Palestinians to behave themselves when they cross into Egypt, as news reports had it that many Egyptian border guards were injured during the Palestinians' crossing. "Hosting our brethren Palestinians in Egypt is a duty stemming from humanitarian reasons due to the difficult circumstances they are facing. However, all what we need is that our Palestinian guests behave well, since Egypt has a lot of other problems." Writing in Al-Akhbar, Galal Dweidar criticised Hamas. "The aim of Hamas, the organisation that governs Gaza, is to embarrass Egypt in an attempt to get out of their dilemma," Dweidar remarked. All those who adopted an aggressive approach towards Egyptian security personnel should realise that what they do is an act of barbarism that will endanger the interests of the Palestinians, and will benefit Israeli interests." Other issues also hit the headlines, including the disagreement between the Egyptian authorities and the European Parliament over Egypt's human rights record. In an interview with the daily liberal-leaning Nahdet Masr, Bahieddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies, was quoted as saying that Egypt is violating human rights, and deserves to come under fire from the European Parliament. "The Egyptian government is mainly responsible for the criticisms leveled by the European Parliament." He added, "Negotiating with the government has become unfruitful, especially after the [recent] constitutional amendments." Along the same lines, Al-Wafd quoted former prime minister Aziz Sidqi, who passed away earlier this week, as criticising the government's poor performance on economic, political and social matters. "The current government should be dissolved," Sidqi was quoted as saying a few days before his death. The weekly pro-government Rose El-Youssef magazine ran an interview with Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli. "Prisons are not slaughterhouses," the magazine quoted El-Adli as saying. "The campaign [of criticism] against the police is aimed at undermining stability," he was quoted as saying.
