CAIRO: The former Israeli Ambassador to Cairo, Shalom Cohen, who left his post last week, harshly criticized the punishment by the Egyptian Press Syndicate against Hala Mustafa, the Editor of Democracy Magazine at the al-Ahram Foundation for hosting the Israeli Ambassador in her office last year. He said that the decision to reprimand Mustafa continued the state of hostility, “which is rampant in the Egyptian Media against Israel and its diplomatic officials in Cairo.” Cohen added that the government officials in Israel must intervene and called on the Egyptian Government to “stop this hostility.” The former ambassador described, in an interview with Israel's Army Radio, that Mustafa and other journalists who deal with Israel, are “courageous.” He told the radio station that Mustafa “deplored the decision of the Press Syndicate as a violation of freedom of opinion.” He continued: “my life was threatened more than once during my service as the Ambassador of Israel in Egypt for more than four years.” He attributed this to the state of hostility launched by the Egyptian Media against Israel. Army Radio considered that the decisions of the Press Syndicate against journalists who deal with Israel “as proof of the statements of Cohen about the Egyptian media.” Cohen said that the political relations between his country and Egypt have witnessed a “thawing and reached its highest level,” but added that the drawbacks of Cairo in the face of cultural relations between both peoples is a “tragedy.†The Egyptian editor was reprimanded by the country’s journalists syndicate on Tuesday for meeting with Israeli officials, which has been banned by the syndicate since 1985, and another editor was suspended from work for three months over similar contacts. Hala Mustafa, whose case has received much international publicity after she met with Israeli ambassador during the Islamic Eid holiday that marks the end of the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, last fall. Mustafa has often spoken out against the ban on speaking with Israeli officials. She is also a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and editor of the semi-official Democracy magazine at the al-Ahram Foundation. Her colleague, Hussein Serag, the deputy editor and Jewish affairs expert at the weekly magazine October, was suspended for three months from publishing his writing. Experts say these rulings are relatively light. Serag was handed his sentence for visiting the Jewish state 25 times. He is known for his work in Hebrew and has translated a number of texts into Arabic in recent years, most notably “Between Tel Aviv and Cairo,†a memoir written by Israel’s former ambassador to Egypt David Sultan. Ironically, Serag had his visits approved by the Editor of October and security forces before he traveled to Israel. Speaking after the ruling, he was quoted by news agencies as saying “if I don’t visit Israel how can I understand these people? This is hypocrisy, pure and simple.†BM
