Kodak Agfa presents : Egypt's Al-Azbakiya books market in photos and in video

There is no better time to share this than World Books Day.
It was one of my dreams and plans to visit the Cairo famous Al-Azbakiya market , Egypt and the Arab world oldest official second-hand book market.
This is the place where you can find old magazines and newspapers and secondhand books at reasonable prices in Downtown Cairo.
Its history starts officially in 1907 during the time of  Khedive Abbas Helmi II in the most unexpected way ever in the heart of the once upscale Al-Azbakiya district.
You can hear and know its full story from one of its oldest books vendor there Mr. Harbi Hassab.

Mr. Harbi Hassab inherited the job from his father and grandfather. He was kind enough to give some time for quick chitchat.
I know I still got this video shaking thing, I have not mastered yet the use of gimble because it takes a time to install the camera on it and move around quickly in a crowded place alone like Al-Azbakiya in Downtown Cairo.
Nevertheless, I tried my luck with a Go Pro fusion 360 camera but I have not still mastered editing its files.
I know that I have got a problem in sound and I have already added buying a mic to my to-do-list.

Visitors at Al-Azbakiya Market in Cairo 

EC Interview : Mulham Al Jundi , our man in #Homs

Mulham Al Jundi is the young citizen journalist from Homs who managed to get in to the city despite the El Assad forces’ strong siege. Al Jundi gained popularity in the social media as well international mainstream media as most websites now use his photos from Homs “Which I posted here , check 1, 2, 3” as well his live

Mulham El Jundi in Homs

stream footage.

The young SNC member was injured earlier last week in his leg thanks to a bloody El Assad’s sniper on some rooftop. Still he was like the ambassador of the media in Homs.

I was lucky enough to speak with Mulham for couple of minutes online on February 28,2012 after  , here is our short interview.

EC : How are things in Homs today “February 28th,2012” , is the shelling today as strong as in the past 25 days ?

MJ : Things are the same in Bab Amr yet the shelling was less tense in other quarters , the shelling today is concentrated in Bab Amr and Job Al Jandali quarters.

The Day Our Presidential Website Was Hacked !!

From couple of days ago I found a news in twitter that our Egyptian presidency official website, the official websites of our defense and information ministry have been hacked , yes they have been hacked. According to the news they have been hacked by an Algerian hacker because of football as I read in the Egyptian tweets !!
According to what I heard it seems that a group of Egyptian hackers have hacked an Algerian newspaper website despite it looks fine. “To be honest I have not heard or read anything related to this except yesterday only”
The Algerian hacker is called Kader and he posted videos on Youtube in the last couple of days to show that he did it and beat those pharaohs

Sadat Family : All For One Against The Insult

First of all I would like to share with you a small tiny online interview with MR. Anwar El Sadat JR who was kindly enough to answer my questions through the Facebook regarding the latest insult against President Sadat. For those who do not know Anwar El Sadat JR is the nephew of late President Sadat and he is an active politician in Egypt along with his brother MP Talaat El Sadat. MR.El Sadat was a former MP who lost his membership in a disgusting charade planned and implemented by the NDP in the parliament.
Here are my questions and his answers :
1-First of all is there an coordination between you and Ruqaya Sadat regarding this crisis ??
Regarding my position with MRS.Ruqaya , I would like to say that we are all with MRS.Ruqaya and her refusal to this film , we are one family in the end even if each one of us express his or her refusal for this film by her or his own way.
2- what is the reaction of MRS. Jehan El-Sadat on this insult ??
Mrs.Jehan and Gamal El Sadat certainly refuse this insult but  they believe that President Sadat is bigger than all these insults and that’s why they did not go to court ; already since the death of President Sadat they got used to the attacks on the late President’s policies whether from inside or outside.
3-What do you demand from the DreamWorks "production company" ??
At least the company should issue a statement to correct its position and should assure that it is an artistic work with no to intention to insult anybody as the film has already been shown and we can’t stop it .
4-Have you received any answer from the American Embassy or abroad regarding this issue ??
The American embassy in Cairo was very positive, the counselor for Cultural affairs at the embassy MR. Haynes Mahoney has issued a a statement saying that the United States respects the history of Sadat and his policies and that what happened is not acceptable by the American administration as the production company is a private company that does not represent the views of the American administration.
In MR. El Sadat’s opinion  the timing of the film release is part of the media siege on President Obama whom is being compared to President Sadat for his courage and his constant seek towards peace ; there is ongoing criticism against him for trying to open dialogues with Cuba, Iran and Syria at the time he demanded the freeze of the Israeli settlements in Palestine ; he has a similar start and many people even find resemblances in their skin color.
From another side the Cairo court for urgent affairs is going  to look in to the case of Ruqaya El Sadat to stop the screening of the film in Egypt on the 1st of September. Also the general persecutor office in Cairo has decided to adjourn the investigation of her complain regarding the insult to the late President till the return of her lawyer from London on August 30th. The lawyer of MRS. Ruqaya El Sadat is currently in London, it seems that the case is going to be international from there.

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EC Interview : My Uncle Saddam “3”

Dear readers here is the third part of my interview with Al-Hussain Arshad Yassin. This part will cover the pros and cons of Saddam and Iraq in general.

You can check back the first part and the second part to remember the rest of the interview.

What are the main pros and cons of Saddam?? 

He was very generous, very brave, he loved his people, he loves his country and nation, helps the poor, very frank, listens to people when talking to him, and he also helped the prisoners in Iraqi prisons, he had hope that they could practice their daily life freely outside prison when he issued a law that any prisoner if memorized certain chapters of the Quran they would be free to leave prison, this law also included prisoners that are sentenced to life imprisonment and even prisoners for political reasons. He also released all prisoners from all Iraqi prisons on the day of his 2 elections but that did not include prisoners that worked as spies of the United States, Britain and Israel, but any other spy for any other country would be released.

He was a very sensitive man, his tear could go out easily when told a tragic story, he had his own land line that he would personally answer to listen to ordinary Iraqis during the 80’s. And this number was included in the address book of public telephones too, he would pick up the telephone personally and speak to ordinary Iraqis and listen to them, he was caring sympathetic, loving, and kind-hearted. Merciful but not when it comes to deliberate murder or rape, especially child rape.

He has the ability to absorb the fear, tension and nervousness you have when meeting him. He loves to serve tea and food to his guests and he would pass by them one by one serving them salad, deserts…etc At first you would freak out or feel uncomfortable but when you sit with him and have a chat, eventually you would forget you are sitting with THE Saddam Hussein unless you remind yourself of the fact. He is very easy to talk to, he listens to you carefully and likes to give and take in a conversation, he will also ask for your opinion and why would you believe this or that, unlike what people described him.  

As for the bad aspects, when he loved someone he would not see his negative side and that’s why he was deceived by the circle around him, they took advantage of him because he loved them and trusted them and they used his name. He also was sympathetic with the Palestinians and Egyptians and other Arabs and he put them above Iraqis in everything in general. Many Palestinians and Egyptians came to the country with nothing and left as millionaires. Iraqis should have been put first in everything and all other nationalities as second, but he saw that Iraq is not only a home for Iraqis but a home for all Arabs, and he generously gave many Arabs the Iraqi nationality too.    

Does Iraq need a man like Saddam described by many as a dictator to bring a peace to it and to keep it united or democracy will find its way to the country?? 

This is Iraq it’s not the Honolulu or the Maldives. The nature of the Iraqi society calls for this type of man, a dictator in the sense of a very firm man holding the country with an iron fist not in the sense of a dictator taking his own decisions without listening to his advisors. The Iraqi society calls for such a man because the structure of the society is formed from many sects. Have Muslims in the country that are divided into sects, Sunnis and Shiites and these sects are also divided into sub-sects if you wish to call it. The Sunnis that follow Al-Qaeda that I personally identify as a criminal organization, the Sunnis that follow Saudi Arabia, the Baha’is, the Shiites that follow Iran, the Shiites that believe that Imam Ali is the son of God, the Shiites of the Sistani, the Sadr and the Hakeem and many others, we also have Christians that are Catholics, we have protestants, orthodox, kaldians, and Christians that consider themselves as Sumerians. We also have the Kurds, and the Kurds also have Muslims (both Sunni and Shiite), Christians, Yazidis (devil worshipers), Kurds that are Zoroastrians , they worship the fire. And we have the Turkmens that are from Turkish decedent, and these Turkmens also have Muslims and Christians, and we also have the Saibians. Not forgetting that many of the above sects had Persian decedent Iraqis. And many sects that have evolved and found a place after the occupation.

Surely such structure of society cannot possibly be ruled by government system like Indonesia or the Philippines or South American countries. Such society calls for a firm man because if this firm man is not available, the entire country will be segregated. You cannot possibly please every sect unless you rule them by force, identifying them as Iraqis only and nothing more than that. This type of leader will always be needed unless the Iraqis agree to live among each other without any bloodshed or religious differences.

Iraq cannot be ruled like Lebanon. Lebanon is a state that has always been having struggles because each sect has its own party. And this fact will not stabilize the country; the fact that each sect has its own party will only put the country in dilemma. The solution for Iraq, Lebanon or any other country with multiple numbers of sects in its structure is to be ruled by a single party, and that single party should include all sects among its organizational structure with the belief of the members of the party that they are Iraqis. Not Shiite, not Sunni, not Christian…but Iraqis only. 

The only thing that I very much fear is that this type of leader might be faced and forced to use the only decision that might be available to stabilize the country and that is to use ethnic cleansing. That really troubles me because I don’t want that for my country and people.          

How do you see Iraq 5 years from now?? How do you imagine the Iraqi scenario will have evolved in 5 years from now?

I believe there will be no change in Iraq In the coming 5 years, not even in the next ten years. If I were to expect a change in Iraq I personally will expect it at least 15+ years from today. but what I mostly fear is the years that Iraq will pass through after all armies have left the country, I believe it would be one of the most savage, aggressive, inhuman, barbarous civil war the earth has ever known.

Do you think that one day you will be able to return back to Iraq and live there?? 

I very much believe that one day I will be able to go back to my country but not anytime soon, not even in the next 20 years.  Because if Iraq is liberated from the occupiers, this fact is not enough for some Iraqis to go back, unless things are stabilized and there is security, these individuals including me and my family will not go back to Iraq.

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EC Interview : My Uncle Saddam “2”

This is the second part of my online interview with Al-Hussain Arshad Yassin , Saddam Hussein’s nephew. This part is dealing with privileges of Saddam family. You can check the first part of the interview here.

How do you reply that Saddam family had privileges on the expense of the Iraqi people during his rule?? Especially with the photos of the palaces across Iraq?? 

The only privilege you can take into consideration is the Ibn Sina hospital in the green zone and it wasn’t only for the family, it was also for the families of ministers and advisors, the only thing that makes it above Iraqi hospitals is the MRI device that the hospital has bought in the late 90’s, because that device was not available in Iraqi hospitals. However, ordinary Iraqis had the chance to be checked by that device upon my uncle’s orders and they have extended the hospitals building to receive Iraqi patients to be checked by the MRI. But surely there were levels inside the family, some people were rich, others lived as average Iraqis and others really lived in poor standards. You can say that there was a government inside a government inside a government, and my uncle wasn’t aware of that. He trusted the wrong people and he was deceived by the circle around him “I don’t mean his sons and wife but people that held positions around him”.

Some members of the family had the freedom to trade and make business to their liking and whatever they want, and others were only allowed to work in the agriculture field and the ice industry.  Because when my uncle issued a law in 1997 saying that members of the family can only work in agriculture and the ice industry; some people in the circle around him went behind his back and excluded their sons and cousins from this law and of course he was never informed about this because again they were the only ones that reported to him only what they wanted. But it doesn’t mean that only these members that were rich in Iraq, there are many Iraqis that are filthy rich only in the city of Baghdad and I can even name some of them such as the Khirbeet family, the Buniya family, the Ghanawi family, the Damirchi family, the Kubaisi family, the Rassam family, the Obaida family…etc these were not only rich but filthy rich only in the city of Baghdad.

Many Iraqis had the freedom to do business and trade that I and many members of the family did not have the freedom to have our own business because the law that my uncle issued in 1997 that we had to sign on including my father states that not him nor his sons are allowed to work in fields other than the stated in the document, and Iraqis even say that he wasn’t just with them, he put pressure on  his family just to please the Iraqi people. Close cousins of mine lived below Iraqi standards, below average. My car in 2002 was 10 years back. But then again I do say there were people living filthy rich and others on average, it was not like the royal families of the gulf when each and every one of them gets more than 10,000 US dollars on a monthly basis to his bank account from the day of his birth till he dies, not members of these royal families but every member of the TRIBE of that royal family. It wasn’t like that in our case.

But there were some members of the tribe that did things against the law and they were not reported to my uncle. Two far away cousins of mine one of them murdered a police officer and the other murdered an ordinary Iraqi in his girlfriend’s neighbourhood and these 2 incidents were not reported to my uncle because the fathers  of these 2 people were among the circle that surrounded my uncle and surely they won’t report their sons or cousins even. They were not imprisoned not even a minute and they were not questioned by the authorities or investigated or arrested. If my uncle had known about it, these people would be behind bars and probably executed if considered guilty by the court.  This inner circle around my uncle always went behind his orders, always excluding there family members from laws my uncle issued and no one will report them because they are the only ones that reported everything about the country to the president at the time.

As for the presidential palaces ; first of all these palaces were not under my uncle’s name, they were under the name of the Iraqi government meaning they were property of the Iraqi government when you come to read the documents. Second, he never spent a single night in these palaces because he was targeted, he used small houses scattered all over the city of Baghdad in ordinary neighbourhoods so that no one would expect the president had spent the night there, because he was targeted and the Americans could have killed him immediately if they knew of his whereabouts, he did not use these palaces but these palaces were used for guests, diplomats, presidents, kings and ministers of other countries. It’s not like the cost of these palaces would affect the budget of the Iraqi government at the time. People make it sound something weird and strange that he had palaces in his country, why not blabber on the royal families of the gulf having palaces all over Europe or the king of Morocco?

In the 1990 war when there was no water available in Baghdad for 40 days, my uncle refused to take a bath for over 3 weeks, he said until the citizens of Baghdad can use water at that time I will take a bath. Plus, he swore that he will not purchase any personal item for himself unless the embargo is over, he said that he will only be wearing military clothes, the other suites he wore on certain events are suits his sisters including my mother and his daughters bought for him. The presents he got on a yearly basis from Iraqi and other public figures he put them in a museum; he did not use them for his personal use. As for the Cuban cigars that he smoked, he did not purchase them or order them; he got them as gifts from Fidel Castro and other public figures when visiting him in the country.

Do you feel sad when you find all the criticism about your uncle in the media?? Do you think that all those people especially from the Iraq were overestimating the practices of the regime then?? 

Actually it hadn’t crossed my mind whether it makes me sad or not. No it does not make me sad not even your blog. And yes I do believe the practices of the regime were exaggerated. One of the Americans soldiers I became friends with he told me that during the video taping of many media channels about the mass graves, he told me that the American army paid each mother from the south a 100 dollars just to come and mourn and cry above these mass graves to be videotaped, and the American army literally had to include animal bones in these mass graves to make it look as human, that is what I was told by an American soldier named Johnson. The Shiite people of the south know very well what these mass graves are, who they are, where they came from and what they did.

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EC Interview : My Uncle Saddam “1”

I wrote about Al-Hussain Arshad Yassin before , it is not usual to have in the Arab world of the ex-ruling family member blogging and surely Saddam’s family is not usual ruling family in the Arab world or in the world with all the controversy surrounds it. Al-Hussain is Saddam's nephew
First of all I think most of the Egyptian Chronicles readers know that I am not a Saddam Fan at all and God knows how much I was attacked because of him in my blog and  still I could not do anything except to respect Al-Hussain for his politeness and respect. I find him less radical than those nationalists who come and trash my blog with insults I can’t even imagine because I do not agree on their political views.
You will agree or disagree with him ,you will think that he is biased because Saddam is his uncle but either ways you will respect him. The interview is quite long and thus ,I will publish it in series insh Allah :)
Of course you can debate with Al-Hussain as much as you want through comments but please let’s be civilized in our debate. I did not edit any of Al-Hussein answers by his own request or even if he has not told I won’t change anything in his answers. I tried to cover several points , of course I am not a pro-journalist to conduct a professional interview.All what I did is I changed the arrangement of the questions. This part will cover general questions concerning that project of Powerful Iraq that fail, the recognition of Israel and the invasion of Kuwait.
Why do you think the Project of powerful Iraq Saddam wanted to achieve failed for real?? Was it a conspiracy of the west or misjudgement of Saddam or both??
Definitely a conspiracy of the west with Arab countries. He always had this dream even during the embargo till he died. He educated the party and his people on this dream he had of a powerful, modern Iraq. I also believe it’s a conspiracy theory because all through 1990 - late 2002 the Iraqi intelligence and high positioned individuals had more than 13 meetings with congress men and CIA in European and Arab countries, they always had a list of 10 points, and we always approved of 9 out of 10 and refused the 1st point and that is to recognize Israel, all negotiations failed because we refused that very point. The Baath party at the time could not possibly recognize Israel because the very purpose of the formation of the Baath party was an answer back to the Zionist regime; the Baath party was based on the concept of wiping out the Zionist regime. 
Regarding the point of recognizing Israel officially, it puzzles me because most of the Arab countries for instance like the Gulf States except for Qatar do not recognize Israel officially and still did not suffer like Iraq??
It should not puzzle you or anybody else, because as I said before, the formation of the Baath party is based on the concept of the liberation of Palestine. Other countries whether with a party governing system or a monarchy did not suffer because the formation of these governments has nothing to do with the liberation of Palestine, plus they were not a threat to Israel. Iraq was a serious threat to Israel more than Syria, the Syrians managed to manoeuvre politically avoiding any war. Because Syria is on the Israeli borders and Damascus is only 40 km from Israel, it is very easy for the Israelis to hit the capital and hurt it deeply by just using the canons from Jabil al sheikh (the sheikh mountain) that is shared between Syria and Israel. Plus the Israeli army is much stronger than the Syrian army, with high technology. it is a very good political stabilization he Syrians managed all these years avoiding any war with Israel. 
We were a serious threat to Israel because we have threatened them always, and hitting Israel with 39 Scud missiles is a serious threat. Even if there are Arab countries do not officially recognize Israel they had stayed in power and did not suffer like Iraq because they had secret relations with Israel. Why should they suffer? their relation with Israeli highly positioned people is more like a family relation, they meet on a yearly basis in Europe officially and non-officially, and even Israeli have been visiting Arab countries since the early 60's non-officially...why should they suffer? They know very well if they threatened Israel they won’t stay in power...so why should they threat and open a door of fire they don't need?   
Do you think that Saddam should have adopted more democratic system and abandoned the police state system??
We had announced in 1995 that we will welcome any defector to establish his own party in Iraq under the condition that this defector was not a spy to the west and has not participated in activities against Iraq. But we had not received only one defector Mr. Jabbar Al-Kubaisi, he was in France as a defector for 35 years, he came to Iraq and he stayed in Iraq but he was arrested by the Americans and they wanted him to take part in the so called new Iraq but he refused, at the time when he came he had met my uncle and the cabinet too. At the beginning when the Baathis ruled, there were a couple of Iraqi parties including Kurdish and the Iraqi communist parties had participated in the government, we also had Kurdish ministers and ministers from the Iraqi communist party.  
Do You think that Saddam thought about the consequences of the invasion of Kuwait?? Do you think it was correct one??
whether he reflected or not, either way he was convinced with the decision of invading Kuwait, not because of oil or money, Iraq has enough oil but because the Kuwaiti authorities had insulted the Iraqi women in public meetings and negotiations saying that they had sex with Iraqi women for 10 Kuwaiti dinars as a way to tell us that Iraqi women are cheap, and they also threatened to do that if we will not quit the negotiations. I think the only unwise thing about the invasion of Kuwait was the timing, but I am not against the invasion, he could have invaded Kuwait some time later in the 90’s but not in 1990 when we just left a war that took 8 years. Kuwait is Iraqi soil, Kuwait was given independence by British orders to the Iraqi royal family, and this is not justified to me because the Brits were colonizers and the Royal family although I am fond of them very much but they were more like British puppets. When we first invaded Kuwait, it was not our objective at first to make it the 19th province of Iraq but when members of the Kuwait royal family that were in Iraq at the time refused to take their cousin’s place to rule Kuwait, we considered it the 19th province. 
But do not you agree that the invasion of Kuwait caused in the death of innocent civilians was much worse than the insult of some Kuwaiti officials?? Why did Saddam suddenly remember that Kuwait was part of Iraq during that time?? is not this way Iran has the right to claim Bahrain in the same way or the Emirati isles "which it has been already occupying since the time of the Shah”??
Every war or invasion has its casualties of innocent and non-innocent people, it’s not like he all of a sudden remembered that Kuwait is Iraqi soil but because several Royal family members  refused to rule the country as an Emir and that is Sheikh Abdullah Al-Subah the husband of the famous Kuwaiti Poetess Mrs. Suad Al-Subah, he refused for health reasons, he had family differences with his relatives back in Kuwait and decided to live in Iraq for some time, so he refused my Uncle's offer to rule the country as Emir because he said he was ill, his health is in a very bad situation and he is a very old man not capable or ruling the country. I was never exposed to such a question but I think (my personal opinion) that after the refusal of Sheikh Abdullah; obviously the country cannot be left without a government so perhaps my uncle decided to consider it an Iraqi province returning it to its origin. and when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the invasion came with the help of Kuwaiti Bedouin tribes living at the borders, many of them have not been granted the Kuwaiti nationality nor passport and are left with no identity they call them the (Bidoon) meaning (without), many of them also consider themselves Iraqis and not Kuwaitis.
The Baath party when it came to power never ever claimed Kuwait back, it was the party before that had claimed Kuwait and that is Prime Minister Kassim, as for Bahrain...History states that 7000 years ago Bahrain was a Babylonian cemetery where they buried there Kings and royal family members. If the Shah gave up Bahrain to the Saudis and took the 3 isles...why do the Iranians claim Bahrain now? Or more exactly they hint in newspaper articles that Bahrain is Iranian soil, does it mean that whenever a person takes over power, all the agreements and laws issued by the person before him are cancelled? If it’s this way...people of the land will be confused and there will always be political struggles that are more likely to erupt a war. Don’t get me wrong, I do not dislike the Iranians...they have a very rich history, culture and customs I am very fond of, I only dislike the government.

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An EC interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery.

Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery is a retired Egyptian Ambassador since 1995 who took the stand to sue the Egyptian government and the ministry of petroleum for exporting the natural gas to Israel.Ambassador Youssery joined the foreign ministry since 1957.I made a quick online interview with him. I asked him about several issues not only the exportation of gas to Israel and he kindly answered them despite his time. I tried to cover several important current issues in Egypt as I found we could have benefit from his long legal expertise. For your information Ambassador Ibrahim headed the Egyptian Government committee for the revision of bilateral and multilateral treaties from 1987 to 1990 and he was the Deputy chief of the Egyptian delegation in the negotiation concerning the execution of the Taba award. He got several books in politics and international laws and appeared in several TV channels and newspapers inside and outside Egypt.
The issues that I covered in the Egyptian Chronicles interview are : The exportation of natural as to Israel, The POWs Case, The Salam 98 Ferry case and The Um Rashrash case.

• The exportation of natural gas to Israel

Some of you may have known that Egypt started this year to export natural gas to Israel in very low prices despite the public refusal through a company owned by famous business man and former pilot Hussein Salam.Salam is said to be a close friend to Mubarak SR.
EC:  Ambassador Ibrahim you took the stand against the Egyptian government for exporting our natural gas to Israel, why?? The western reader may not understand all that anger??
IY: Exporting gas in general is detrimental to our economy and a betrayal to the next generations, simply because we do not have that much to export, and our gas reserve is going to dry in 15 years.
If we are talking about a matter of vital importance to the people of Egypt, there will be no place to care about the anger of the west especially because they are stealing our petrol and gas with an economic price for decades.
EC : Is not exporting the natural gas without the people’ permission and approval through the Parliament considered illegal??
IY : Sure, exporting the natural gas without the people’s permission and approval through the Parliament is absolutely illegal.
EC: As a law expert can we stop the exportation of natural gas to Israel through the law??
IY : Legally we can stop that through the court, but with two ifs, if the court is faire, and if the government accepts the verdict. We have no other way because the government rejected all interventions in the parliament.
EC :This is a government that does not respect any court’s orders and the example is many, how can we make it respect the court’s order if it was in our side??
IY: As I told you, we have no alternative, and it would be very bad if we remained silent. Yes we can make them respect the verdict by popular pressure.

• The POWs Case

The Egyptian POWs case is one of the most neglected and also most important cases in Egypt from the regime’s side despite the fact the international laws are all in our side.
EC : The Egyptian POWs case is from the most important neglected cases in Egypt, as international law expert; can we go to the IJC or the ICC to sue Israel as citizens not as a state??
IY: We can peruse this matter by bringing it to international courts. There are some technical difficulties to engage the ICC, but the IJC has no jurisdiction here. I agree fully that the Egyptian POWs case is one of the most important neglected cases in Egypt. But we can always engage the Israeli criminals before any court (Pinochet , Mengistu, Sharon cases)
EC : Do we need the approval of the Egyptian state??
IY : We do not need the approval of the Egyptian state.
EC : Can the ICC investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State??
IY : Yes the ICC can investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State
EC: If we go there, are the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai are enough to support our case and open an international investigation for War crimes, especially that there are some Israelis who confirmed our stories??
IY : Yes, the court can accept the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai
EC: Why do you think the Egyptian government refuse to take it seriously despite it is a win case??
IY : The Egyptian government refuses to take it seriously despite it is a win case, because they don’t care a bit about people and they can not stand any American pressure.

• The Salam Ferry Case

After the disappointing shocking verdict last week Egyptians are thinking of suing Mamdouh Ismail abroad.
EC: Can the victims of Salam Ferry 98 sue Mamdouh Ismail in London??
IY : Yes the victims of Salam Ferry 98 sue Mamdouh Ismail in London before British courts. The House of Lords had confirmed that in the Pinochet case.

• The Um Rashrash Case:

Um Rashrash , this is little village between Egypt and Israel is still causing a lot of buzz whether it is an Egyptian or not and whether we can have it back or not
EC : Your Excellency, you were from the members of Egyptian law panel during the Taba issue and I was wondering about the legal situation of Um El-Rashrash, the occupied land since 1949, some say that it was Egyptian, some say that there was under the Egyptian Rule than the Othman Rule and so we do not have any right in it, so do we have a right in claiming it??
IY: The legal situation of Um El-Rashrash, Is that it is an Egyptian land taken by aggression during the truce period, but we did not fight for it. We can claim it only by force not by law, and so we can we have it back after all those years only by force.
This is my quick interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery ,I really thank him for giving me such time to answer my so many question in so many things.

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